The Haven was in chaos.
“I want a full patrol team on apartment two twenty-one at Cypress Grove,” Faith ordered into her com. “Make sure Miss Grey is secure before anything else happens. Lindsay, don’t you move a muscle. Do you copy?”
She met David at the now-empty guest suite in time to hear him yell a string of obscenities and burst back out of the room, gesturing to the gathered lieutenants to follow.
“What’s the patrol team’s ETA?” he demanded.
“Eleven minutes,” Faith replied. “Where are Bethany’s guards?”
“Unconscious in the room. She’s smart—she knew killing them would interrupt their com signals. She can’t possibly know about the fail-safe, but she knows I know if someone dies. God fucking damn it.” He shot Faith a look. “And if you say, ‘I told you so,’ I’ll stake you right here and now.”
“Wasn’t planning on it, Sire. What now?”
“I run a network trace and see if we can find her. Meanwhile—” He turned, midstride, to the lieutenants and walked backward. “Double patrols through the metropolitan area. Send the word out through the entire territory that she’s on the run and likely going to ground with the survivors of her gang. If you see so much as two vampires in one place, I don’t care if they’re playing Twister, you bring them in.”
He dismissed the others and took Faith with him down the stairs to the server room. “What’s that in your hand?” he asked Faith as he took his chair.
“Auren’s journal,” she said, handing it to him. “That’s how I knew something was wrong. Look at the pictures in the back.”
When he saw what she’d seen, his face lost all expression and he went pale. “God.”
He dropped the book on the table and went back to the computer, bringing up the citywide sensor grid. With his free hand, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Faith. “Keep trying Miranda,” he said. “I want to know she’s safe.”
Faith called, but there was no answer, only the ghostly sound of Miranda’s voice mail greeting. “Nothing.” She hit her com again. “Elite Eighty-Six. Lindsay, has the backup team arrived yet?”
No answer.
“Fuck—Sire, can you access Lindsay’s com from here?”
“Of course.” He clicked on something and brought up another grid, this one showing the locations of every com. She saw four dots representing the backup team closing in on Miranda’s apartment complex, and there in its usual spot was Elite 86’s signal.
“She hasn’t moved,” David noted. “But she’s not answering—she could be unconscious like the others. Elite Fifty-Seven, what’s your status?”
“We’re having trouble getting to the building, Sire. There’s something going on.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are fire trucks and ambulances everywhere. They pulled in just as we reached the street. I sent Elite Twenty in for a closer look, but there’s so much smoke that it’s making visual confirmation impossible.”
David met Faith’s eyes, and she saw what he was thinking. Her own insides went to ice.
He reached out with one hand and switched windows to the sensor grid. Every life form with a lower body temperature than a human’s and a body mass over a certain size registered on the network.
He overlaid the two grids.
There were three vampires leaving the location of Miranda’s apartment as four more approached it from the opposite direction. The approaching four were Elite. The other three were not.
“Oh my God, she’s there,” Faith gasped.
But when she looked up, he was gone.