“Let’s go.” Edgel started down the hall, but I resisted the Asian’s pull.
“I’m not going anywhere without him.” I pointed at Keene.
Edgel turned. “Don’t you think your people will get to him faster if we leave?”
I wasn’t sure of that. After all, they hadn’t arrived yet. Secret Service must have the place locked down even tighter than we’d thought. Without my earbud, I had no way of knowing if they were close or if they’d run into trouble of their own.
I tried another approach. “He’s Tihalt’s son. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
Edgel was back at my side in an instant, his movement a blur. He brought his face close to mine. “He’s mortal and a traitor. The only reason I don’t bring his head to Tihalt myself to collect the reward is because he never once lied to me. He can keep his head. For now.”
“And if he dies?”
“If he dies, it will go a tiny bit toward avenging my daughter’s death.”
“I told you that wasn’t our fault!”
Edgel’s big hand wrapped around my left arm just below the knife wound, uncaring of the blood running down my arm, and squeezed hard. “Shut up and move!”
I could hardly breathe through the agony. “Over. My. Dead. Body.” It wasn’t so much that I was brave, but I felt him coming: Ritter. I’d always been able to feel glimpses of his emotions, but since Mexico I had become more aware of him than ever. He was close. Very close. Anger preceded him, a burning for revenge.
I needed a distraction so the others would be caught completely off balance at his arrival. Arching my body forward, I slammed my head into Edgel’s with a satisfying crack. The Asian pulled back his fist, readying for a blow that would probably knock me unconscious, but abruptly his face went slack and he pitched forward to the carpet, his raised fist thudding against the wall. A kitchen knife sprouted from his back.
Edgel whirled to face Ritter who had appeared behind him, breathing hard, his black hair falling forward on his face. He looked big and strong and sexy and completely in control—or would have if he hadn’t been wearing a silly burgundy hotel uniform that was obviously two sizes too small. I reached for his mind and found it without barriers, a dangerous thing with Emporium agents nearby, but I knew he’d left it that way for me.
Channeling Ritter’s speed, I ran toward him. Edgel anticipated the move and lunged, probably hoping to use me as a shield, but I evaded him. Then Ritter was between us and they began exchanging blows, both of them beauty in motion. Strange how such a deadly ability could also be so magnificent.
Keene groaned from his place on the ground, and I knelt next to him. I had nothing to stem the blood, so I picked up one of the fallen knives and began cutting off his jacket, balling the material and placing it under his hands. His eyes flickered as I pushed down, adding pressure. His life force still seemed strong, but I wasn’t sure how long that would last.
A loud crash scattered my thoughts. I glanced up to see a hotel worker near the bend in the hallway, standing next to an overturned room service cart. A scream wrenched from her throat as she turned and fled.
Ritter and Edgel fell motionless, staring for several long seconds at each other. Then Edgel leaned over, pulled the Asian over his shoulder, and sprinted down the hall.
Ritter came toward me, his anger dying away as he knelt on the carpet. “You okay?” His eyes went to the blood on my arm.
I nodded. “Yeah.” My wound looked worse than it was and would stop bleeding in a few moments. By morning it would be only a memory—one to add with all the others I tried not to recall. “Thanks for coming.” My eyes fell down his outfit. “But I really hope this isn’t when you confess you have some kinky fantasy about hotels.”
A laugh rumbled in his throat. “Not hardly. Long story, but it got me to you.” He put his cheek next to mine, breathing deeply. I knew how he felt. We were alive and okay. If we’d been anywhere else, we wouldn’t be doing any talking at all.
“We have to get Keene out of here,” I said after what seemed like less than a heartbeat.
Nodding, Ritter felt for his pulse. “It’s holding steady, but there’s too much blood.” Red still oozed from under the scrap of black jacket, staining Keene’s white shirt with gore. If he’d been conscious a minute earlier, he wasn’t now.
As Ritter leaned over to scoop up Keene, footsteps thundered down the hall. Three hotel employees appeared, accompanied by half a dozen armed police officers and four Secret Service agents. Ritter and I stood up to meet them.
“What happened, Miss?” an officer asked me.
“My friend and I were attacked.” I indicated Edgel’s two fallen men. “By those guys and two others who ran away.” Their security cameras would actually reveal that I’d thrown the first knife. But wasn’t that understandable when Edgel and his men were so obviously threatening? The bigger issue would be their reaction to how fast we moved. “Fortunately, this man saved us.” I sagged against Ritter in mock distress. “But I’ve got to get my friend to the hospital.” I gestured to where Keene lay on the carpet.
“Looks like you both need to go.” The officer began speaking into his radio, while two of his companions came forward to look at Keene. One of them appeared to have advanced medical training. The other officers and Secret Service personnel began checking Edgel’s men.
“We have to get Keene to Dimitri,” I whispered to Ritter. I’d been checking out avenues of escape, but neither end of the hallway looked promising, not with so many people around.
He nodded and spoke into the hand containing a mic ring similar to Keene’s. “You got that, Cort? They’re sending an ambulance. Probably several.”
I ordered myself to relax. We weren’t through this yet, but as long as the Emporium didn’t have agents among these officers, we might not have to fight our way out. Our people would put an alternate plan into play. I just needed to be patient and trust them, in spite of my worry for Keene.
“This one doesn’t seem to be breathing,” said an officer squatting by the big blond Emporium agent. “Weird thing is, he still has a heartbeat.” Several of his buddies hurried over to verify his findings.
After sending hotel security for a copy of the video feed, the first police officer, who seemed to be in charge, continued to question us. Minutes ticked by as I worried about Keene. A pair of soft slippers appeared on my bare feet and a blanket around my shoulders, but I didn’t remember who gave them to me. More blankets covered the unconscious men. Around the time someone put a bottle of water in my hand, my anxiety began to crank up, in part because I was sure the hotel manager had pegged Ritter as an imposter. Surely in a hotel this size, he couldn’t know every employee. Then again, they’d probably reordered background checks on everyone in light of the vice president’s visit.
We heard the ambulance gurney before it rounded the corner from the direction of the exit we’d been trying to reach, and I almost exclaimed as Dimitri Sidorov came into view. The Russian was a short, broad man with a narrow nose, wide brown eyes, and a trim mustache. His brown hair was swept back from his face, and he exuded a sureness that came from living over a thousand years. I’d known him only three months, but I trusted him with my life, and not because he was also my biological father.
Tears pricked my eyes. Keene was going to be okay—or at least had a fighting chance. A certified medical doctor, Dimitri was also our healer, and his touch could keep even a fatally wounded mortal alive.
Pushing the back of the gurney was Jace, his short blond hair slightly spiked in the front, his eyes glinting with excitement as he assessed the officers. With Jace and Dimitri here, our chance of escaping through sheer force became a serious possibility, despite the two additional Secret Service agents who accompanied our people. Still, it would be difficult with Keene, and we really didn’t want to injure anyone not connected with the Emporium. That meant we needed to follow protocol. I gritted my teeth against my impatience.
Dimitri went directly to Keene, placing one hand on his chest, the other checking his eyes with a light Jace shined into them. “We need to get him into surgery now,” Dimitri announced to no one in particular.
“He does look bad,” said the officer in charge.
Jace stored the light in his blue uniform and helped Dimitri load Keene onto the gurney. Then, with a glance at Dimitri, Jace crossed the few steps to me and Ritter. “You look ready to pass out,” he told Ritter, who appeared as healthy as ever. “Were you hit repeatedly?” When Ritter nodded, he said, “That’s what I thought. You may have internal bleeding. You’d better come with us, too. No telling how long before the other ambulances arrive.”
The officer in charge shook his head. “We have questions for him first.”
“You can ask them at the hospital.” Dimitri’s tone brooked no argument. His gaze drifted to me. “Miss, you’ll definitely need stitches for that cut. Come along, and we’ll get you taken care of.”
The police officer opened his mouth but apparently thought the better of objecting when Dimitri’s bushy eyebrows furrowed in his direction. Jace put his arm around Ritter, who leaned on him, nearly pushing him to the ground with his bulk. Ritter’s mouth twitched, but he managed not to grin. I bit the inside of my lip to keep my own expression suitably upset.
“What about an IV?” The officer with medical training pointed to Keene. “He shouldn’t be moved without an IV.” His eyes slid to Ritter. “And if that man has internal bleeding, he shouldn’t be walking.”
“Do you want him to bleed out while he waits for another ambulance?” Jace said, feigning offense. “Let us do our job, man.”
Dimitri was already pushing Keene down the hall, trailed by the two Secret Servicemen who’d arrived with him.
“What about these other men?” asked the officer in charge.
“The other ambulances will be here soon,” Dimitri said over his shoulder, apparently unconcerned at how his words contradicted Jace’s. “We can’t help them all at once. This is my patient, and I have to do what’s best for him. He needs surgery now.”
The officer nodded. “Okay, but one of my men will go with you to the hospital. Until we clear up exactly what happened here, we need to make sure we have contact information from everyone.”
Dimitri shrugged and continued walking. We followed him around the corner and halfway down the hall where two more Secret Service officers stood guard. They held the door open for us as we left.
“Nice playacting,” Jace murmured under his breath to Ritter. “But can you stop leaning on me so hard?”
“Why? You think you might puke?” Ritter teased.
Jace scowled. “Man, are you guys ever going to forget that?” It was in large part my fault that no one let it rest. Jace seemed to be on a permanent high since his Change and I’d found that reminding him of his reaction to the first deaths he’d seen at Emporium hands was a good damper.
All four agents walked outside with us. Ava O’Hare, the leader of our group of Renegades, and also my fourth great-grandmother, jumped lithely from the driver’s seat, her chin-length blond hair pulled back from her unlined face in a short ponytail, one hand inside her long jacket. I knew it wasn’t a simple pistol she gripped there—and a good thing because I sensed at least a dozen life forces in the dark, just out of sight. All of them dimmed with their mental shields in place. Emporium agents.
“They’re here,” I said softly to Jace and Ritter. “A lot of them.” Ritter stepped away from Jace and went to my other side, forgetting he was supposed to be ill. I saw the dull gleam of our nanotech knives in his hand. Jace looked around intently, his hand going to his own weapon hidden in his pocket. But what good were knives against so many guns?
Dimitri and three of the agents carried the gurney down the few steps to the sidewalk and over to the ambulance. Were our enemies willing to risk a shootout with the Secret Service here in the street? Was capturing us that important?
Apparently not today. I breathed a sigh of relief as the ambulance doors closed with all of us inside, except the police officer and Ava, who sat in the front. As Ava drove through the dark streets, Dimitri kept his hand on Keene’s chest. “I wasn’t joking about the surgery,” he said. “We need to get him to the safe house immediately.”
“Keene’s mortal,” I said. “Wouldn’t the hospital be better?”
He shook his head. “I don’t have operating privileges at any of the hospitals here, and I can’t leave him alone right now, or he won’t make it. I pulled in a few favors to borrow this ambulance, but that’s pretty much the extent of my influence.”
Ritter nodded and spoke into his ring. “Cort, are you still there?”
I couldn’t hear the response, but Ritter looked outside the back windows. “Good, I see you. As soon as we’re sure we’ve shaken our tail, we’re going to pull into a street and make the switch. Ava, try to keep our friend occupied while I get him a sedative.” As he spoke, he peeled off the tight hotel uniform, revealing a blue V-necked T-shirt that hugged his muscles like a second skin.
Jace shook his head. “I should have been the one to go with you,” he said to me in an undertone. His eyes were troubled, almost resentful, and that worried me. Especially when I still kept secrets from him. Secrets that ate at my conscience.
“Maybe.” I didn’t know anymore. Jace’s hot head might have gotten us into trouble, but the switch would have prevented Keene’s injury. Seeing Keene lying on the gurney gave me the oddest feeling, a numbness with a sharp edge that felt like a razor blade. He was mortal. I’d come to think of him as permanent, like the other Unbounded Renegades, but no matter how well he fought, he would age and die and leave us all behind. I didn’t know exactly how I felt about that, but it wasn’t good.
“How’s your arm?” Ritter asked me.
“Fine.” I lifted my eyes, hoping he couldn’t see the turmoil there. A shock ran through my body as our gazes connected. Emotion threatened to drown me, to overcome who I was and destroy the independence I’d worked for. It was as scary as hell. And more enticing than a needle full of curequick. My emotions and his swirled together. I wanted him and he wanted me and eventually we’d have to do something about it.