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CHAPTER25

FUGITIVES

The explosion rockedthe back of the van, making the metal and glass vibrate even though they were already out of sight of the long, white, Archangel building.

Nick turned to look.

He blinked and stared at the sight, slightly in awe at the fire and smoke he could see through the tinted windows at the back of the van. He frowned as a series of rolling explosions lit up the night sky after that first hard blast. The sheer size of the fire made his jaw tighten as the watched it rise. But it was the pure methodicalness that struck him the most, the rhythmicwhump… whump… whump… whumpof the obviously-timed series of booms.

Deep black smoke billowed upwards, followed by red and green fingers of a massive chemical fire. The glass on their van continued to vibrate and blur Nick’s view as he watched that bright line along the horizon grow and change colors.

They all knew from Kit and Wynter now, that Brick and Zoe’s vampires had been busy––much busier than Nick had realized while he’d been downstairs. Kit told them all about it while Morley screeched out of the Archangel parking lot, his foot flooring the accelerator about two seconds after Nick loaded Jordan and himself onto the van and shut the doors.

Zoe and Brick had definitely been more busy than any of them had known while they’d been planning this shit-show back at that monastery in the Cauldron.

The result of all of that busyness had been twofold.

One, they’d clearly set up a number of explosive charges all throughout the Archangel facility, including on the lowest floors. Two, and more significantly, it hadn’t only been Jordan who’d been freed from the facility that night.

While Nick and his people had been busy downstairs, Brick had brought in that whole other army of White Death soldiers to go through the entire building, floor by floor, cell by cell, to get out everyone they could.

Kit said she should have expected it, really, and Forrest Walker agreed.

They’d done something very similar at the prison facility on Madagascar.

They’d blown up every building they could find there, too.

It was turning out that this offensive by the vampires––ordefensive,maybe, depending on your perspective––was something that had been in the works for some time. Zoe had clearly decided it was a fight she would continue well after Brick’s death.

Both of them seemed to believe it was a fight they could and should win.

“So it was Brick who killed those Yi fanatics by the Cauldron, after all,” Nick muttered, his eyes still tracing the details of the fire.

He glanced back at the others, and saw Morley shake his head.

“No,” the senior detective said somberly. “No, I don’t think so, Nick.” The older black man met Nick’s gaze, his expression grave. “Brick was pretty adamant itwasn’tthem,” he added. “And honestly, I don’t know why he’d lie, when none of us would’ve been overly upset if ithadbeen him. He really seemed to think the H.R.A. had done it. Said it was part of a broader strategy by the human racial authorities to turn public opinion against vampires.”

Nick thought about that.

It made a twisted kind of sense.

If the H.R.A., the I.S.F., the various regional military complexes, and the wealthiest humans across the globe had gotten it into their heads to enslave and/or eliminate all seers, hybrids, and vampires, once and for all, then it made sense they’d design some kind of rationale or justification for that. They’d want the public on their side.

They’d want to seem like they were doing it “for the right reasons.”

After all, they’d spent years trying to convince those same humans the races could live together in peace and harmony, so long as humans were in control.

“What changed?” Nick muttered, looking back out over the fires.

A silence fell over the back of the van.

No one answered him, but Nick didn’t know if that’s because they didn’t know, or if it was because they didn’t want to say what they thought out loud.

* * *

Jordan sleptfor roughly six hours.

They cuffed him to the side of the van anyway, just in case.