The second was Cahal’s shout joining Antonio’s, right before his eyes closed, out cold.
The air choked out of me, Cahal falling on top of Antonio and making me take on both of their weight. Oh Jesus, no. My knees hit the ground, even as I trained my gun on the door Vivian had gone through, and I heard Ezra roar. As in, his Vampire actually fucking roared, rocking the tiles under my knees. The next second he blurred, people still moving outside. I lost track of him, but I did see the back door fly open, then swing shut, where I had my gun aimed.
There could have been only one reason for someone as powerful as Cahal to have suddenly passed out in pain, the evidence dark. I breathed heavily through my nose, trying not to get emotional right now, concentrating on the task at hand, carefully lowering Antonio’s body, which was slowly beginning to stop convulsing, and Cahal’s slack form, to the ground. I barely had them there when I heard a man screaming from behind the door as if the hounds of hell were after him.
Ezra’s Vampire roared again.
My hands trembled on my gun, this being a first for me, hearing that terrifying sound from him. Or any other Vampire, for that matter. It wasn’t a sound I wanted to hear again, and I prayed that the man would scream just a little louder so the roar wasn’t so earth-shattering. I stumbled to my feet and quickly closed the door behind the last person to leave, all of them still under Ezra’s mind hold as they got into their cars and drove away. Slowly, I made my way into the back room, even as the man’s screams stopped, my ears ringing from Ezra’s Vampire and feeling like they would soon start to bleed from the pressure.
“Ezra!” I shouted loudly, scanning an area full of refrigerators but not a soul.
The roar stopped echoing, and a furious growl sounded to my right.
Alright, I think that was an answer.
Carefully, I moved in that direction. There was a door that was slightly ajar. Moving past a stainless steel table, I saw…my gun trembled even more…Vivian’s leg keeping the door open, stuck between the doorframe and the door. Slowly, it began gliding back into the other room while Ezra’s Vampire growled in a long soulful tune behind the door.
Oh, God.
Keep it together.
Keep it fucking together.
I shook my head, catching the door as it began to close, the scents of Mystical blood, silver, and a shitload of Com blood filling my nostrils. “Ezra, baby. It’s me. I’m coming inside.” I bit my lip, blinking tears back when I heard his Vampire’s growl sputter on a whimper. “It’s only me, baby.”
I gently pushed the door open, my eyes taking in everything all at once.
There was one Com male, maybe nineteen years old, lying right inside the room with his throat sliced open, blood pooling around his head, and a gun not too far from his slack hand. I gulped, keeping from puking when I saw another Com male lying on his back over an office desk, his age indeterminable because his face was smashed in, his head sitting crookedly on his neck. His shirt was vivid red because his stomach was sliced open, his entrails hanging over the desk’s edge and to the floor, another gun lying on the ground where his arm — that was still attached — hung, while his other arm…who knew where the fuck it was.
Ezra was kneeling on the ground, rocking back and forth while clutching Vivian’s dead body close to his chest, the back of her head missing, blood covering his face and hands.
I swallowed again, breathing through my mouth. “Ezra, baby, can you look at me?”
No response, his rocking and growling not cutting off.
“Ezra, I need you to look at me,” I stated more firmly, putting a little of my power behind my command. I instantly jerked, feeling a backlash of his power. He apparently didn’t like that so much. “Alright. No more of that.”
Carefully, I walked through the room, heading for the video surveillance that I saw in the corner. Through the monitors I could still see Antonio and Cahal lying on the floor, and I quickly shut the computer down. There was a panic button on the wall, bloody fingerprints lining it, which probably meant the authorities were on their way. It was time to go.
Now.
I took all the CDs from the machine recording the footage, stuffing them in my pockets, and then tried one more time. “Ezra, we need to leave.” I carefully edged toward him. “You need to get up.”