Just remains of a fire. She tried to tell herself this as she wiped the ashes off her clothing the best she could, but it didn’t work. Lifting her head, she met the awed gazes of those surrounding her.
“Burn like the sun the life from anyone she touches.” Vern’s gaze was focused on the ashes at her feet while he muttered this line from the prophecy. “It really is her.”
“Did you doubt it?” Julian demanded.
Vern lifted his head to gaze at him. “I was never one for prophecies.”
Quinn looked to Julian, who set his jaw and glared at everyone before them. “Neither was I, but she is different, and she has brought us all together here. We have to finish this, now.”
“Quinn just took out two of them,” Luther said. “The rest of The Commission and their lackeys retreated into the building while we were following your path through the minefield. The vampires still on the field and road are too far away from the path you created to follow it. I told them to remain where they are for now.”
Quinn stared at the field as the smoke drifting across it began to clear. The coppery scent of blood from the injured and dead hung heavily in the air. The muted cries of those who had been wounded filled the night as some of the other vamps moved cautiously toward them, seeking some way to get them off the field and to safety.
Through the smoke, she saw the vampires they had split off from and left with the vehicles as an insurance policy approaching the fence. They had come forward as Julian instructed when trouble arose. There would be no hiding their numbers from The Commission anymore now that those vampires had revealed themselves.
Quinn turned her attention back to the building. The metal front door was closed and most likely bolted shut. The thick bars on the windows were a good five inches in diameter. She had a feeling everything in this building had been specifically designed to withstand Hunters and vampires.
“One of the ones I just killed was a Hunter,” she said. “But the other one was entirely human, probably a member of The Commission or a Guardian.”
The vampires all gave her an admiring look. She’d hated killing those men, but she’d earned the vampire’s seal of approval by doing so, and most likely a little bit more of their loyalty. She’d proven to them what they’d been saying all along; they would be allowed to defend themselves against those seeking to kill them, even a Hunter or Guardian, with no punishment in return.
“What are we going to do?” she asked Julian.
“We’re going in,” Julian replied.
“How?”
The grin he gave her made her blood run colder than it had when she’d had a stake driven into her chest. “I’ll tear it down with my bare hands if I have to. They never could have prepared for me, and they have no idea who they’re fucking with.”
CHAPTER 23
Julian stood to the side as Vern rested his meaty hands on the steel door and leaned forward to press his ear against it. He moved his hands up and down until they stopped at chest height. “One bolt here,” he murmured.
“They would know about telekinesis,” Dani said, “and be prepared for it.”
“I know,” Julian replied.
“I can’t slip it free. There’s some mechanism keeping it in place, and without being able to see it, I don’t know how to work it,” Vern said. He moved his hands further down the door until they were almost at his knees. “There’s another bolt here. I can hear the bars moving and shifting in their holds when I try to move them, but that’s all they’re doing.”
Julian stepped away from the door, and his head tilted back as he stared at the roof eight feet above him. He almost backed up and ran for the roof, but if he did that Quinn would be infuriated and most likely follow him.
The two of us working together from now on, he reminded himself.
Turning to Quinn, he tried to ignore the sight of the hole in her shirt and the blood coating it. If he focused on how close she’d come to death now, he’d unravel, and he needed to stay rational. “Will you stay here?” he asked her.
She glanced nervously at him and the building. “What do you intend to do?”
“Scope things out from above. I’ll be right back.”
“Be careful.”
“Always.”
He kissed her forehead before taking a few steps back. He ran forward and launched himself at the side of the building. His hands gripped the edge of the roof, and he swung himself easily up to the top.
“Julian!” Quinn called from below.