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“Wait for me. I will finish this later.”

With that promise, he left her in search of his irritating King.

Chapter Fifteen

What’sthesituation?Julian asked Marek and Alistair. He tracked Alistair’s power to the tenth floor operations room. He needed things to take his mind off the beautiful woman he’d left behind.

An explosion at the outermost Tower in Quadrant Four just minutes ago.Marek’s usual jovial tone was absent.We suspect the Hunters.

They were finally making their move then. Anger boiled in his veins. He wanted to punch something. How the fuck had the Hunters eluded his people?

Without the Tower, that part of the city won’t have shields, Marek continued.We’ll have to find accommodation for the vampires living in that area.

Julian mentally cataloged the broken Tower’s shield coverage and the number of vampires affected. It wasn’t too many that they couldn’t handle the situation.

He reached the balcony, pulled off his shirt, and spread his wings before leaping over the edge.

Contact everyone that’s been affected and find them a place to stay.How many dead?

We don’t know yet. The rescue team just arrived.Marek sounded distracted as he coordinated the response.Based on the building’s security records, there were fifteen vampires and ten humans in the building.

Twenty-five lives.

Too many. It helped little that at this late hour, the majority of the building’s inhabitants had gone out, reducing the casualty.

This was his fault. The influx of humans and vampires had distracted him. Who was he kidding? It was Leah. He should’ve spent more time patrolling the city instead of with her or thinking about her.

Have we checked the other Towers?Julian landed on the tenth floor and made a beeline for Marek and Alistair as fast as vampirically possible. The atmosphere in the building had changed. Vampires crowded the lobby as Marek mobilized their forces to deal with the emergency.

Julian expanded his power to double-check that their human guests remained in the ballroom enjoying the Gala. Good. Keeping the humans in the dark would reduce questions and allow Marek and Julian the freedom to do whatever was necessary.

I’ve sent teams to scan the others. So far, nothing.

Julian wished this was all the Hunters had planned, but his people were stretched too thin. They may not find another bomb before it detonates. However, if the Hunters had installed more than one, there was no reason they hadn’t timed them to detonate alongside the first, especially with the risk Julian’s people might discover them after the first blast and remove them.

The operations room was a flurry of activity when he walked in. The screen on the main wall showed smoke billowing into the night sky from the bombed Tower. Someone had turned off the sound, but Julian saw the flashing lights of the fire trucks and streams of water as the fire fighters fought to vanquish the raging flames.

This was the worst disaster in Vegas since the Riots when he’d cordoned off the streets as humans marched into the city and burned down two-thirds of it. Rivers of blood had tainted the streets.

Did the Hunters want them to descend back into that violent and chaotic period?

Marek stood behind a desk with Alistair. A screen before Marek flashed the map of Quadrant Four, then changed to show the assignment of teams across the city.

“How’s it looking?” Julian asked, scanning the screen. It would be at least two more hours before they could clear all the Towers.

“Slow, but the fire is manageable.” Marek’s tight expression mirrored the rage threatening to boil over inside Julian.

“Have them keep searching. I want every corner of every Tower covered. Make the ones with the human diplomats a priority.”

Marek nodded. If anything happened to their human guests, a Tower explosion would be the least of their problems.

Turning to Alistair, Julian growled at the King’s nonchalant posture. “I told you this was a bad idea.”

The Vampire King didn’t look the least bit disturbed. It was rare for anything to ruffle Alistair’s implacable exterior. “This was expected. You can’t imagine the Hunters would let such a prime opportunity go to waste.”

“Expected, huh?” Was this all part of Alistair’s plan somehow? “Some warning would’ve been fucking great.”

“I did not know any details of their plan. I could not have warned you of anything.”