Luther's Return (Scanguards Vampires Book 10)

That’s crazy, she cursed herself silently, when Luther suddenly stopped and looked at his watch. She cast him a curious look then assessed her surroundings. There were three doors on one side of the corridor, and one on the opposite side. REC-1 was stenciled in black letters next to the door, right above a keypad.

Katie exchanged a look with Luther, who now turned away from the door and opened the middle door of the three on the opposite wall. He pulled her with him, stepping into the dark room, then pulled the door toward him, leaving it slightly open. In the dim light of the room, which, from the little she could tell, was some sort of storage area, she noticed him looking at his watch again.

She was about to ask him what he was waiting for, when she heard a door opening. She peered past Luther to try to glance through the tiny sliver between door and frame and saw a man, clad in heavy Kevlar gear, emerge from the room opposite, REC-1.

A recreation room? It didn’t appear so. The vampire wasn’t dressed as if he’d just come from a gym.

As soon as the vampire disappeared Luther sprang into action. He flung the door open, charged toward the door with the keypad and typed in a six-digit number. When a click sounded, he pushed the door open and marched inside, waving Katie to follow him.

The door shut behind her.

“We have about four minutes until he’ll be back,” Luther said.

“How do you know?”

Luther rounded the large desk and plopped down into the office chair. “I know everybody’s routine. When you spend twenty years in this joint, you find all kinds of things to pass the time.”

Katie looked around. This wasn’t a recreation room. The room was packed with filing cabinets, computers, and servers. A records room, yes, that’s what this was.

“And the code to the door?”

Luther was already typing away on the computer and clicking with the mouse. He didn’t even look up when he answered, “I have exceptional hearing and a musical brain. Every number on that keypad makes a slightly different sound. I can recognize the numbers by their sounds.”

“But the guy who left, he didn’t punch in any numbers.”

Luther looked up briefly, smirking. “The code is changed only weekly. I was on the detail to clean these corridors for the last three years. I can rattle off the code for each and every week that I was here.”

Katie blew out a breath. She had to admit she was impressed. Exceptional hearing, a musical brain, an extraordinary memory. What else did Luther have up his sleeve?

“Got it!”

Katie rounded the desk and stared into the monitor just as Luther clicked on the print icon.

“Cliff Forrester?” she read on the electronic file.

“Do you know the name?”

She shook her head. “No. And the letters weren’t signed.”

The printer on a cabinet along the wall started humming.

“Let’s grab this and get out of here,” Luther said and stood up.

Katie turned to the printer and snatched the sheet from its tray the moment the printer spat it out. She folded it and shoved it in the front pocket of her jeans.

“Let’s go!”

A blaring signal nearly deafened her. The eardrum-piercing high-pitched sound lasted for several seconds.

“Shit!” Luther cursed.





20


“What is that?” Katie stared at him, panic in her eyes.

“Intruder alert.” What that entailed, Luther had neither the inclination, nor the time to explain. The shit was gonna hit the fan any moment. “How about some witchcraft now? Otherwise, I’m afraid we’re gonna be in trouble.”

“Witchcraft?” she choked out, her head moving from left to right and back. “I don’t know any witchcraft.”

“What?” He ground out the word, making an involuntary step toward her.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any powers. I was born a witch, but I don’t know any spells.”

Luther clenched his fist. “Oh that’s just peachy, isn’t it? I have to fall for the tricks of a witch, and then she isn’t even a real witch! Perfect, that’s just perfect!” His ears perked up. “Fuck! He’s coming back!”

His eyes darted around the room, looking for a weapon.

“I know what to do,” Katie claimed and pointed to the wall next to the door. “Stay there behind the door. I’ll distract him.”

Luther would have laughed, had the situation not been so hopeless. “What the fuck with?”

“Acting.” Katie peeled herself out of her cardigan, then pulled her T-shirt over her head and tossed it on the desk. She was wearing a black lace bra that presented her boobs as if on a silver platter.

“What the—” His sensitive hearing picked up the sound of the code being entered in the keypad outside the door. Shit. He jumped next to a tall filing cabinet just as the door was swung open. As long as the guard entering looked only at the desk where Katie was standing, he wouldn’t detect Luther.

“What’re you doing in here? This is a classified area.”

The guard—Luther recognized him immediately as Bauer—stepped into the room, hand on his hip where his UV gun was holstered, while the door fell shut behind him.

“Hi!” Katie batted her eyelashes at him, strutting out her enticing female assets, while running her hands over her torso.