chapter 26
It took only ten minutes of waiting at their designated posts within the mansion before all hell broke loose.
The sirens of a fire engine alerted Quinn that something was about to happen. He cursed. It figured that some concerned neighbor had called 911 after the ruckus the teens out on the street were producing. The fire danger their actions represented had clearly worried the concerned homeowners. Quinn couldn’t blame them, but going out there and stopping them himself wasn’t an option. It would only give Keegan another front on which to attack. After all, he had most likely instigated the entire incident.
“I’ll check on the fire engine,” Rose whispered next to him.
Before he could stop her, she was gone. “Don’t—”
Ah, hell, why did he bother? Rose had her own mind and would do what she wanted anyway. There was no way of holding her back. And maybe it was better to let her do what she wanted. Maybe if he let her feel that he wouldn’t be the kind of overpowering husband he might have turned into two hundred years ago—had they ever had the chance to live as husband and wife—then maybe she would finally learn to trust him.
Besides, he loved that she was strong and independent. The new Rose was even more exciting than the old one.
Quinn sighed, and the smell of smoke suddenly tickled his nose. It was odd that it was getting stronger now that the fire department had arrived to put an end to the fireworks on the street. He had no time to investigate it any further.
A loud banging on the front door coupled with an insistent male voice echoed through the hallway. “San Francisco Fire Department, open the door!”
Torn between wanting to stay at his post and knowing somebody had to deal with the authorities, Quinn threw a cautious look out the small window next to the tradesmen entrance. Everything looked quiet. He tested the door knob. The door was locked and bolted.
“Open the door!” the voice insisted, now louder.
In vampire speed, he reached the front door a second later. Looking through the spy hole, he recognized the uniform of a fireman.
“Coming!” he called out. Quickly he pulled his shirt from his pants, letting it fall over the gun he’d tucked into his waistband. With some luck everybody would be too busy with their own work to notice the weapon.
He opened the door a few inches. “Officer, what—?” But he didn’t get any further.
“You have a fire on your roof. You need to evacuate the building. Now.”
The uniformed fireman pushed the door open wider, making Quinn suddenly aware of the flail that was sticking out from his back pocket. He reached behind him, using the door as a cover and pulled it from his pocket, dropping it into the only thing he could reach without moving: an empty vase on the sideboard.
The fireman motioned to the other men in uniform who came up the steps, wearing oxygen masks, carrying axes and oxygen tanks on their backs.
“We need access to the roof.”
“What’s going on?” Amaury called out from the kitchen area where he’d been guarding the back entrance.
Quinn lifted his head toward the stairs, sniffing. He smelled the faint smell of smoldering wood more intensely now. When turning back to the fireman, he realized that the man was right. The smell of smoke he’d perceived earlier hadn’t come from outside. It was coming from upstairs.
“Shit!”
“How many people are staying here?” the fire captain asked while he waved his colleagues into the house and pointed to the stairs leading up.
Quinn counted in his head. “Nine including me. But nobody is upstairs. We’re all on the first floor. I’m sure it’s not necessary to evacuate.”
Was this what Keegan had planned—to set fire to the place so they had to leave the house, thinking once they were out in the open, he could easily snatch Blake? Good thing that Blake was safe at Thomas’s house.
“It’s for your own safety. Everybody has to leave. Now!” Then he raised his voice. “Evacuate the building! All occupants, evacuate now!”
More firemen rushed past them and headed upstairs.
Looking out the door, Quinn noticed how the ladder of the fire engine was being raised, a fireman holding the fire hose being lifted with it. Neighbors had started to gather to watch the proceedings. Typical! Everybody liked a good spectacle.
Quinn had no choice. There were too many witnesses to deal with if he refused the fire captain’s orders. But maybe that same fact would help them in the end: there were too many witnesses gathering for Keegan to really do any damage.
“Everybody, evacuate,” Quinn called into the house, letting his colleagues know that the fireman’s orders were to be followed.
When Zane appeared in the hallway, his colleague’s warning glare landed on him. “Is that necessary?” he asked from between clenched teeth.
Where on his lean body he’d hidden the silver knife, the throwing stars and the stake he liked to fight with was anybody’s guess. Even knowing Zane was armed didn’t help Quinn figure out where he might have hidden the weapons.
Quinn approached his friend and whispered back, “Too many people out there. If I use mind control on him, we’ll draw too much suspicion on us from the other firefighters and all the gawkers. There are already too many witnesses watching what’s going on. And besides, there’s nothing Keegan can do out there without drawing attention to himself. In a few minutes we’ll have news teams breathing down own necks.”
“I wish I knew what he looked like,” Zane griped.
“We’ll catch him.” His eyes followed the humans who stormed upstairs.
One by one, his colleagues reached the foyer, each of them clearly reluctant to leave the house. Luckily, they all had either tucked their weapons away inside their clothing or hidden them in the house. It would be hard to explain why they were sitting around in a dark house in the middle of the night armed to the teeth.
“All civilians evacuate the building,” the fire captain repeated and pointed to the door.
Quinn exchanged a look with Amaury and Zane, instilling caution in them as they exited. When he stepped out into the night, the lights of the fire engine illuminated the front yard with another one pointed at the roof. His eyes quickly adjusted and scanned the assembled crowd. He used his vampire senses to ascertain if any vampire had infiltrated the crowd and was biding his time to attack should the occasion arise. He noticed how his friends did the same.
The police had arrived in the meantime and were taking the three youths into custody. As he’d suspected, they were human and from their stunned looks on their faces they appeared unaware of what they had been doing. Quinn made a mental note to talk to Samson so he could use his influence with the mayor, a vampire hybrid, to smooth things over for those kids.
Turning back to the mansion while his friends continued to keep an eye on the crowd, he glanced up at the roof. The fire was contained to a small area, flames working their way through the shingles. The engine’s ladder was already at a sufficient height to attack the fire. When the water started to shoot from the fire hose, Quinn lowered his head and looked back at his friends. They had spread out, each of them positioning themselves at strategic locations from which to counterattack should Keegan make a move.
Nina stayed close to Amaury, Rose was backing up Wesley, while Zane and Amaury stood battle-ready at the periphery. Relieved he turned his head back toward the entrance, when realization hit him.
Shit! Oliver and Cain were missing.
He scanned the crowd once more, his eyes racing from one face to the next, but Oliver and Cain were nowhere to be seen.
Something was wrong. Concern for his prodigy and his colleague made him spring into action. He walked up the steps to the front door. One fireman stood guard, blocking the entrance.
“Step back, sir, you can’t go in there.”
But this time Quinn wasn’t going to obey any commands. He allowed his power to flow and sent his thoughts into the man’s mind, until he stepped aside and let him enter.
The foyer and staircase were illuminated, but nobody had switched on any lights in any of the other rooms. Quinn used his night vision and sense of smell to guide him through the house. The two had to be somewhere in there. Rounding another corner, he picked up the scent of vampire. He followed it down the corridor, cautiously looking around him, walking softly so he couldn’t be heard.
Not that any human would have heard him over the din in the house that the firemen were producing. But he was still aware that Keegan had to have caused all this and therefore couldn’t be far away.
Before he reached the kitchen, he heard a noise coming from the laundry room. Quinn slid along the wall, then tested the door. It was ajar. Heavy breathing originated from inside the small room. He filled his lungs with the scent and let out a sigh of relief.
Pushing the door open, he entered.
“What’s wrong?”
The glaring red color in Oliver’s eyes was impossible to miss, as were the claws that were holding him back from charging out the door: Cain had slung his arms around him, immobilizing him.
“He wants their blood,” Cain pressed out. “The humans out there . . . the scent is too much for him.”
Oliver looked like a wild animal, his fangs protruding from his mouth. Sharp claws were where his fingers had been, and his eyes glared with aggression.
“Shit!”
As he rushed to help Cain, Quinn felt guilt blast through him. He hadn’t spent much time with his prodigy to help him through the change. He should have been by his side, leading him outside and staying with him to help him control his urges.
“Oliver, I’m so sorry. It’ll be okay. You’ll get through this.”
He grabbed Oliver’s arms and held him in a vice grip, then motioned to Cain. “Get bottled blood from the panty. He has to feed right now.”
Cain nodded. “You got it.” He rushed out the door.
Quinn looked into Oliver’s eyes, hoping to connect with him, to get his attention. But it appeared that his prodigy didn’t even see him.
“Oliver, talk to me. It’s me, Quinn, your sire.”
He shook him lightly, then harder. No reaction. He felt the strength with which the kid was fighting him to get out of his hold, but as an older vampire, Quinn was stronger.
“Everything will be good in a minute. Trust me. You’ll feel better in a little while. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you.”
The door burst open and Cain rushed in, two bottles of blood in his hands. Setting one on the washer, he unscrewed the other.
“Feed him,” Quinn ordered.
Cain led the bottle to Oliver’s lips and started pouring the red liquid into his mouth. At the first swallow, Quinn felt the tension in his body release.
It took only seconds for Oliver to down the bottle.
“Give him the second one too. We’ve gotta be sure that he’s sated.” Considering how wild Oliver had looked, Quinn wondered if a third bottle might be needed to subdue the kid’s lust for human blood.
Slowly, he felt Oliver’s muscles relax under his grip. He stopped fighting. Quinn watched as his claws turned back into fingers and the red glare in his eyes dissipated.
“He looks better already,” Cain remarked and removed the second empty bottle from Oliver’s lips.
Suddenly, Oliver seemed to realize where he was and what had happened. A rueful look crossed his face.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t . . . I couldn’t . . . I wanted . . .” He broke off and dropped his lids, clearly ashamed of his actions.
Quinn released his arms and pulled him into an embrace, patting his head. “It’s happened to all of us before. I should have been there for you. I should have known that the crowd of humans outside the front door would create too strong a scent for you to resist. It’s not your fault.”
Oliver lifted his head. “I disappointed you.”
“What happened is natural. And it will continue to happen until we’ve got it under control. But I know you’re strong. Stronger than those urges. You can do it.”
“I hope so,” Oliver mused then turned his head to Cain. “Thanks for helping me.”
Cain shrugged. “Hey, whatever it takes.”
Quinn released his prodigy from his arms. “Let’s get you upstairs.”
“But I thought we had to evacuate,” Oliver protested.
“Screw that. The fire is pretty much under control from what I saw. You’re staying inside. We’ll smuggle you past the firemen to your room, and if they see us, we’ll wipe their memories.”
Cain peeked out the door into the corridor. “All clear.”
They quietly snuck out of the laundry room and rounded the next corner. Quinn arrested his movement and pulled back, stretching his arm to the back to stop his friends from going any farther.
A fireman came down the stairs, but instead of heading out the door, he turned a corner, going in the opposite direction. Unlike the other firemen Quinn had seen earlier, this one wasn’t wearing an oxygen tank on this back.
Just as he turned toward the door to the basement and garage, Quinn caught a glimpse of him. He read the nametag on his uniform. Cheng it said. His eyes shot up to the guy’s face. The man was clearly Caucasian, not Asian as the name would suggest. Within a split second he noticed something else: the man’s aura. It wasn’t human, nor was his scent, which now drifted toward Quinn. The man was a vampire.
And there was only one reason a strange vampire would be in this house: he had to be one of Keegan’s men. Quinn was pretty sure that it wasn’t Keegan himself since Rose had mentioned that he had dark hair and this man’s hair, sticking out from beneath his helmet, was clearly blond. He briefly wondered how the vampire had been able to infiltrate into the group of firefighters, but figured that he would have had to employ mind control for them not to realize that he wasn’t Cheng.
Quinn turned to his friends and put his finger on his lips, then made a motion for them to remain where they were. As soon as the intruder had opened the door to the basement and disappeared, Quinn stalked after him.
Quietly, he opened the door and set a foot on the stairs leading to the basement. It was dark, but he needed no light to know where the other vampire was heading. Even Quinn could smell it now: the scent of human sweat. Blake had worked out down here in the last twenty-four hours, and his scent still clung to the area. It appeared that the intruder was following the human scent to find if Blake was hidden down here.
Quinn made sure to avoid the stair that creaked and reached the bottom of the stairs without being noticed. Despite the commotion in the rest of the house, it was quiet in the garage. Barely a sound drifted to him as he followed Keegan’s man toward the door to the gym. He kept back behind a wall and readied himself to attack.
Automatically his hand went to his back pocket to reach for the flail he’d placed there earlier in the evening and realized too late that he’d gotten rid of it when the fire captain had entered the home.
Quinn suppressed a curse. He couldn’t use his gun with the silver bullets to bring down the enemy vampire. First, the shot could possibly attract some of the firemen, and secondly, he didn’t want to kill the guy. He wanted him alive so he could be questioned. He wasn’t as good a shot as Thomas, and the danger of hitting a vital organ or major artery and having him bleed out quickly or, worse, combust instantly was too great.
Which only left him with one weapon: the throwing stars he carried in his jacket pocket. Before he could pull them out, the vampire opened the door to the gym and disappeared inside.
Shit! Throwing stars were useless in close combat, and now there was no other choice but to enter the gym, which was no larger than fifteen by fifteen feet, and engage the bastard in a fist fight. Not something he was particularly looking forward to.
He placed his hand on the doorknob and inhaled. The scent of vampire and a sound from behind him assaulted him at once, and he whirled around. His heart came to a standstill, and his fist, which had been ready to strike, stopped in mid movement.
Rose, he mouthed.
She leaned toward him, whispering into his ear, “Thought you might need some help.”
He rolled his eyes. “You shouldn’t have followed me,” he murmured into her ear. “One of Keegan’s men is in there.”
She moved away from him, pulling a long chain from her jacket pocket and grinned.
Let’s get him. Her lips moved, but no words came out.
Quinn nodded and took the chain from her, wrapping one end over each gloved hand. When he heard steps in the gym, he knew the guy was moving toward the door, having searched the gym and found nothing.
He heard the sound of numbers being punched into a phone, then the vampire’s low voice. “He’s gone ... No, I’m sure he was here ... Yes, sir.”
The person on the other end could only be Keegan. Maybe the fact that this vampire was reporting back to him that Blake was nowhere to be found would turn out to be a good thing.
Quinn motioned Rose to step behind the door while he took the other side when he heard their enemy move again. When the door opened and the vampire came out, Quinn pounced. The vampire’s fire helmet fell to the floor as Quinn slung the chain around his neck from behind. He forced him to the ground by kicking his knee into the guy’s back, wrapping the silver tighter around his exposed neck.
“Welcome to the Pacific Heights B&B,” Quinn hissed. “I hope you’ll enjoy your stay.”