Page 130 of New Nebraska Heat

The bodyguard picked up something dull and black the waiter had dropped. I focused my vamp vision, realizing what it was justas Dagger confirmed it out loud. “Fucker had a .44 peeking under the tray. Everyone, we’re leaving. Right now.”

A .44 magnum revolver could blow a giant hole through anyone, human or paranormal. The waiter—the vamp—had been carrying it under his tray. Only an eagle could have picked that out.

Or a jaguar.

Hunter ripped his shirt off, ratting buttons across the booth. “Someone had a birthday gift lined up for us. We don’t know if the surprise is over yet.”

“Start the car,” one of the security guys radioed into a walkie while the other waved us forward, saying, “Go now! We have a clean—”

A harrowing cry of agony from the stairs cut him off. We all looked down at the main section in time to see another vamp tear his fangs out of the third security guy’s gushing neck.

Oh fuck. Definitely not over. Ohfuck.

The vamp dropped the lifeless guard and took up a skin-crawling chant that was growing steadily louder. It hissed from countless lips as the lights were turned up and the other so-called diners rose.

Pana la moarte. Pana la moarte. Pana la moarte.

At least ninety, maybe a hundred vamps, glowered at us with crocodile grins. Spewing malice, cursing and spitting as they surged down the stairs into the lobby, with their eyes and fangs drenched in bloodlust. I couldn’t see any more guns, but that was little comfort. Because their slimy hands were gripped on knives, swords and hatchets!

Pana la moarte. Pana la moarte. Pana la moarte.

We formed a protective semi-circle around Serenity. Bryce stripped, ripping and kicking the fancy threads off until he was naked. His skin erupted into flames that flitted between blood red and ice blue. The radiant light somehow chapped and chilled my skin by turns. Hunter, whose face and body were now wisped inyellow and black jaguar fur, followed Bryce’s example, tearing his remaining clothes off with razor claws.

We were getting ambushed, and everyone was desperate to get naked. The absurdity wasn’t lost on me, but fuck it, I didn’t want my shirt pulled over my head in the chaos to come. I popped the buttons Superman style and tossed it, clenching my fists. My biceps and knuckles hardened like they’d been dipped in liquid brass. All the swordsmanship and battle techniques I’d ever learned popped into my mind, the images fierce, certain.

Pana la moarte! Pana la moarte! Pana la moarte!

Dagger looked ready to redecorate the place in red. His jaguar tat glowed like miniature car headlights, searing my retinas when I stared too long. He’d stripped off his T-shirt and vest and stood with his Colt aimed square at the coven, as they slithered toward us like one giant, putrid snake, blocking the elevators and emergency exit, filling the area. “I’m guessing that’s not Happy Birthday they’re singing.”

Shaking my head, I tried not to let adrenaline mush my words. “It—it’s Romanian, actually. It means…‘To the death.’”

“They got that right,” Hunter snarled, glaring at the mob below. His fur grew in thickening patches over his chest, up his neck, and down his arms. The animal rose within, changing his face, bulking out his already huge frame, and growing his claws to the size of carving knives.

A series ofbangskickstarted my heart.

A few vamps had reached our stairs, and the security guys had squeezed off a few rounds from the balcony railing, dropping one vamp in a heap and staggering two more.

Dagger thrust a small pistol under my nose, and I almost yelled, adrenaline firing through my head. “Aim anywhere between their balls and brains. You got fifteen shots. Make ‘em count.”

Holy shit. A gun. A real gun. The cold steel against my palm, I trained the barrel on the closest vamp at the bottom of the stairs,sweat streaming from my temples. I didn’t want to kill. But fifteen careful shots meant fifteen fewer scumbags who could hurt Serenity.

Except, after the security team’s deadly warning, they weren’t attacking. They just lurked at the bottom of the stairs, hissing and cursing at us, their creepy chant now raised to near shouting.

Pana la moarte! Pana la moarte! Pana la moarte!

Bryce’s breath billowed blue and red as he retorted loudly but calmly, “If you came here for the human, it’ll be your death before ours.”

Serenity clasped my free hand from behind, her voice trembling. “I’m scared.”

“Me too. But I’m not letting anyone take you. We—”

All three of the elevators pinged, their yellow flashing triangles signaling new arrivals. Shit.

The doors rolled open and at least two dozen more vamps spilled out, joining the horde below. We were in deep shit.

There are steak knives on that table, I told Serenity in my head. Grab one and go for the throat or the eyes.

Way ahead of you.She held up a serrated blade.I’m not going back to that hell hole, Seb. I’d rather d—Her thought cut off with an external gasp.