Page 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Vlad swooped beneath a knife, slammed his shoulder into his attacker’s chest, and sent the man flying into a wall. He raised his gun and shot him point-blank in the chest. The man slumped to the ground.

Sweat stung his eyes as he and the Black Devils fought their way through the warehouse, his muscles burning from exertion and his breaths coming hard and fast. Tarang was a white blur beside him, the tiger’s fangs and claws finding flesh and bone as he took down anyone who stood in their path.

It felt wrong fighting without their powers. Even through their muted bond, Vlad could tell Tarang was experiencing the same frustrating feeling.

It was like trying to breathe with only one lung.

Gunfire erupted up ahead. Vlad dove behind a stack of crates with his men. Tarang darted inside the gap between two containers.

Vlad cursed as bullets pinged off metal and concrete around them.

One caught a Black Devils guard in the flank. The man grunted as the shot crumpled and slid to the ground. Even though the nanorobot vests protected their vital organs, they did not completely shield them from the impact of any bullets they took.

Vlad signaled to his men. They shifted position around the crates and returned fire, forcing the figures shooting at them to take cover. It was all the time Tarang needed to leap from the boxes he’d silently scaled.

Vlad reloaded his gun while the enemies’ terrified screams rent the air.

“Status?!” he barked into his comm.

“North block secured,” one of his men replied tersely. “Moving to support Team Two.”

“We’ve got eyes on Isaacs!” Cortes’s voice crackled in Vlad’s earpiece. “Second floor office. He’s— shit !”

Popo squawked in the background.

The connection cut out at the same time a detonation shook the building.

Vlad’s stomach dropped, his gaze swiveling in the direction of the east block. “Cortes?!”

The only answer he got was a bunch of static. Movement to his left had him twisting sharply and bringing his gun up. He relaxed fractionally when he recognized three of his men.

“The Colombian needs backup,” he told them urgently. “Get to the east block. Take a team with you.”

They nodded and moved out.

Vlad scanned the warehouse, his jaw tight. Something was interfering with their comms. More worryingly, he hadn’t heard from Delphine in over ten minutes.

Tarang made a soft sound as he returned to his side and bumped his leg. Vlad touched the tiger’s head briefly.

“I know. Let’s go find her.” He turned to the Black Devils men with him. “Keep them occupied. I’m going to check out the west block.”

The guards exchanged wary glances.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, boss,” one of them said. “We promised Ilya and Milo nothing would happen to you.”

“I’ll be fine. Tarang’s with me.”

Vlad didn’t wait for their answer.

They watched uneasily as he and Tarang melted into the shadows.

The sound of gunfire faded as Vlad crossed the warehouse toward the location of the storage area, Tarang a silent shape by his side. They’d just passed the halfway point when movement ahead made him freeze.

The hairs lifted on the back of his neck.

Tarang stopped and growled.

A masked figure emerged from the gloom, moonlight gleaming off the weapon in his hand.

Vlad’s pulse quickened. It was a saber. One he recognized.

“Well, well.” The man’s amused voice carried across the space between them, his accent telling. “If it isn’t the Black Devils ’ powerless heir.”

Vlad’s fingers whitened on his gun. The suspicion he’d had since meeting Navarro solidified into certainty.

“Santana Isaacs, I presume?”

The man ignored his deadly tone, his stance relaxed as he approached. “I’m surprised you made the connection so fast.” He reached up and removed his mask.

Vlad’s stomach churned with rage when he finally saw the face of the man who’d had him cursed.

“What did you do to Cortes?!”

Santana smirked. “Oh, your sorcerer friend? I buried him and your men under a pile of rubble. Pretty sure I killed his annoying parrot too.”

Air shifted beside Vlad. Tarang leapt with a furious roar.

Alarm choked his breath. “ No! ”

He reached for the tiger, his fingers closing on empty space.

Santana crushed an object in his hand.

Tarang dropped mid-leap, a grunt of pain leaving him. His body landed on the concrete floor with a sickening thud.

Vlad rushed over to his familiar, his heart slamming against his ribs. He dropped to his knees and touched the tiger’s neck with a trembling hand.

Relief made him weak.

Tarang’s pulse thrummed rapidly beneath his fingers. The tiger opened an eye and gave him a glazed look, his rib cage moving with a shuddering motion.

Rage replaced fear. Vlad twisted around and glared at Santana.

“What the hell did you do to him, asshole?!”

Santana moved with a speed that belied his lithe frame. Vlad barely managed to dodge the saber as it whistled past his face. He stumbled back, raised his gun, and fired.

The crime lord twisted in a motion that should not have been humanly possible, avoiding the shots. His blade found Vlad’s weapon and sent it flying, the edge slicing a deep cut in Vlad’s palm.

“You’re not the only one with special abilities.” Santana’s eyes shone with an unholy light as he circled him. “My uncle’s magic has granted me a few tricks of my own.” He lunged.

Vlad covered Tarang with his body and blocked the next strike with his back. The nanorobot vest absorbed most of the impact. His heel found Santana’s shin. The crime lord cursed and fell back.

Tarang’s labored breathing filled Vlad’s ears, each one weaker than the last. Fear clawed at his insides. He could feel their muted connection growing fainter.

He climbed to his feet and turned to face Santana.

“Tell me what you did to him!” Vlad snarled.

Santana’s smile was pure evil. “The same thing I’m about to do to you.”

He reached inside his pocket and removed a second object.

Vlad’s stomach plummeted when he finally discerned their shapes.

They were crude voodoo dolls, no bigger than his thumb. The one Santana had crushed resembled a tiger. The other was human-shaped.

“My uncle made these for me.” Santana held up the tiger doll. “An insurance policy, in case the ones we had Delroy carry failed.” His fingers tightened on it. “I must say, watching your familiar suffer is quite entertaining.”

Tarang whimpered.

Fury and terror churned Vlad’s gut. He charged Santana with a roar.

The crime lord danced out of reach, his laughter ringing mockingly in Vlad’s ears as he avoided his strikes with unnatural grace.

“You’re good. But not good enough without your powers!”

His fist found Vlad’s jaw. Stars exploded across Vlad’s vision. He hit the ground hard and rolled on instinct, avoiding the saber by a hairbreadth as it stabbed into the concrete where his head had been.

“I was going to let the curse do its work.” A mad gleam brightened Santana’s gaze. “But killing you might serve my purpose better!”

He crushed the human-shaped doll’s chest.

Agony exploded inside Vlad’s body. He screamed, his back arching off the floor, white-hot pain squeezing his ribcage and causing black dots to swarm his vision. He gasped for air in vain, his lungs refusing to work.

Santana’s face appeared above him, the crime lord’s expression distorted in a savage grin.

“I hear Hell is nice this time of year,” he said gleefully.

The saber rose, moonlight dancing along its deadly edge as it descended toward Vlad’s neck.

A knife flashed through the air and impaled Santana’s hand.

Santana cursed and jerked away, blood spraying from the wound. His weapon clattered to the floor. The dolls fell from his grip as he clutched his bleeding limb and whirled around.

“How about you get away from him?” Delphine’s voice was pure steel as she stepped into a patch of moonlight.

* * *

Delphine slipped a second blade from the sheath on her thigh while Santana hastily retrieved his saber. Her gaze darted to Vlad where he’d rolled onto his front and was hugging the ground. The incubus raised his head, his face ashen.

“Glad to see you’re okay,” he mumbled with a weak smile.

“You look terrible.”

Vlad laughed. “I’ve been better.” A violent coughing fit racked his body and made him groan.

Delphine clocked the bloodied, miniature voodoo dolls next to the incubus and glanced at Tarang’s shuddering form. An emotion she rarely felt and always managed to control swept through her like a storm then, breaking the dam of her iron self-control.

For once, she did not fight it.

Heat flushed through her, her fury focusing her every sense.

Santana’s face contorted with rage at the sight of his injured uncle lying on the ground behind Delphine.

“You’ll pay for that!” the crime lord snarled.

His blade flashed as he charged her, his speed and agility boosted by whatever magic his sorcerer uncle had weaved.

Delphine tracked the trajectory of his strike before he’d completed the motion. She twisted smoothly out of the way and danced lightly past his guard. The heel of her palm found his solar plexus at the same time she slashed a cut across his left temple.

Santana grunted and stumbled, blood streaming freely down the side of his face.

Delphine swooped in to attack. The saber sang past her skull.

She leaned back sharply, the edge missing her head by millimeters.

Delphine narrowed her eyes. “So, your uncle’s magic doesn’t just improve your fighting skills. It increases your pain threshold.”

Santana bared his teeth and came at her with a furious sound. His next attack took the form of a flurry of strikes that would have overwhelmed a normal opponent.

It was no match for the Immortal DNA and nanorobots flowing through her veins.

Delphine blocked and parried with her knife, her movements fluid and precise as she matched him blow for blow.

Fury and confusion warred in Santana’s eyes as he failed to land a single blow. He retreated a couple of steps and licked his lips.

“Who the hell are you?!”

A savage half-smile curved Delphine’s mouth. “Me?” She jerked her head toward Vlad. “I’m just his bodyguard.”

She feinted left, ducked under Santana’s guard, and rammed her knee into his gut. The crime lord doubled over with a wheeze. Her uppercut caught him in the jaw and sent him staggering back.

Delphine’s hand found her utility belt. She grabbed the dolls she’d taken from Manuel and the lighter she always carried.

“Vlad! Catch!” she barked as she tossed them over.

The incubus looked up where he was slowly rising from the ground. His pupils flared.

Santana’s eyes widened. “No!”

He lunged for the items.

Her roundhouse kick caught him in the chest and sent him flying.

Vlad’s trembling fingers closed around the dolls and the lighter. He reached for the bloodied miniature dolls.

Santana climbed back to his feet and charged at the incubus with an enraged scream, his saber a silver arc as it carved the air.

Delphine blocked his attack.

The click of the lighter when it came sounded unnaturally loud in the gloom of the warehouse.

The scent of burning cloth and hair filled her nostrils.

Santana screamed.

The ground trembled as a violent force detonated across the warehouse, its power warming her flesh on a crimson haze.