Passion Ignited (33 page)

It was a stark contrast to what it had been
outside. Just on the other side of those sliding glass doors, there
were people milling about frantically, sirens blazing, choppers
chopping, and, honest to gods, there’d been some crazies singing
songs of hope, praying for the children.

On the inside, there was pure silence. Not a
sound echoed through the halls. She reached out again for Raider,
sensing his nearness. He was here, but he wasn’t on this floor.
Nitro walked forward slowly, scoping the place. She needed to
search, and she needed to do it quickly. Her heels clapped loudly
on the tile as she rounded the corner and started down the long
corridor. Kaira spotted something on the floor up ahead and, on all
fours, ran toward it. Nitro watched as she bent down and picked up
a pink flowery hair clip. Kaira inspected it thoughtfully, turning
it this way and that as Nitro kept walking the hall toward her.
Using one of her claws, she undid the clasp and snapped it onto the
black mane on the top of her head. She looked up at Nitro, her big
turquoise eyes asking if it was alright. She smiled and gestured
they should keep going. Kaira’s answering smile warmed her heart
slightly, which was surprising since her vampire was in
trouble.

Spying a staircase entry, she shouldered her
way through and ran up the flight of stairs. Together, Nitro and
Kaira stepped out onto another floor that was eerily quiet. Raider
was closer, she could feel it. She took off down the hallway,
reaching out with every sense she could get a handle on, searching
for her male.

As it turned out, she found no one on this
floor that was actually alive. She doubled back for the stairwell
when an overwhelming desire slammed into her. Her heels squeaked as
she slid to a stop. She looked up at the ceiling as the need grew.
Although she couldn’t see it, she could sense it. There was a
beating heart just above her on the next floor. A familiar
one.

Raider.

Running through the stairwell entrance again,
she scurried up another flight of stairs. Pulling a repeat, she
spilled out onto the third floor and immediately started searching.
She ran, checking each and every door she passed, until she didn’t
have to look anymore.

Raider’s blood. She could smell it. Pretty
soon she was able to sense his pulse, and her desire became
overwhelming. She rushed forward, flashing now, drawn to the pulse
and the scent of her warrior’s blood. Five Dracs were all over him,
fighting over him like he was a prized piece of meat. The sight
sickened her and she crashed into them, tearing them from her man’s
body. The children screeched and hissed as they slammed into the
walls, the bigger one growling low, warning her to avoid his
prey.

But there was one problem there. Raider wasn’t
his prey. Raider was hers.

She crouched low with her heels shoulder-width
apart. Her fingernails morphed, growing into sharpened claws; her
teeth extended, fangs protruding from her mouth. Her back was to
Raider, and she’d remain that way if it killed her. No one was
allowed to feed from her male.

No one but her.

The other Drac growled at her yet again, his
crouch mimicking her own. He careened toward her, but she saw his
move coming. She met him halfway and took him down. The children
became quiet, and Nitro remembered she had multiple demons to keep
away from her vampire. She crawled off the bigger Drac just as one
of the smaller ones made a play for Raider. She grabbed the girl’s
leg, her claws digging into the tender flesh of her calf, and
wrenched her backwards. The girl crashed into the bigger Drac and
they both fell back to the floor.

Nitro sent a quick fireball toward the floor,
causing a wall of fire to grow between her and the Dracs. They
wailed again, inching away from the fire as Nitro turned toward
Raider. He was out like a light. She touched his cheek, feeling
just how cold he was. A wave of panic rushed through her as she
remembered what happened when vampires didn’t have enough
blood.

That was one of the ways to actually kill one
off.

She bit into her wrist, letting the blood run
freely. She placed it to his lips, forcing him to drink from her as
he’d done so many times for her. He roused immediately, latching
onto her arm like a baby suckling his mother. She kept her wrist to
his mouth as he took the nourishment he needed.

Kaira screeched loudly just as claws sliced
into Nitro’s shoulders. She was thrown into a wall, and her head
crashed through sheetrock, sending a chalky cloud into the hall.
She pulled herself free and faced off against the Dracs yet again.
She spied Raider lying on the floor in the same place he’d been
just a second ago, only between them now were not just five Dracs.
There were a lot more, and they were all focused on her.

Chapter
Thirty-Three

“Floors two and four checked out,” Draven
said.

“Same with the basement and this one,” Blaze
said, clapping Draven and Ethan on the backs.

Ethan and Draven had just completed their
clean sweep of the second and fourth floors, and went to the top
floor to reconvene and come up with a clean-up strategy.

Ferox stepped through the stairwell door and
stalked toward them. His eyes narrowed angrily as soon as he saw
Thrash. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I was invited as part of official Guardian
business,” Thrash smiled.

Draven stepped between them, facing his
father. “How did your floors check out?”

“They were clear,” Ferox replied. “We thought
we heard something, but it was a false alarm.”

Ethan got the feeling that every one of his
brothers were thinking the same thing he was. The Dracs had been in
here, they’d been on the cameras, and there were dead humans lying
everywhere. If they weren’t in the hospital, then where the hell
were they?

“Are we sure we hit every floor?” Draven
asked, looking around at the all of them. “There are six floors,
including the basement. Are there any exits any of you
saw?”

They all shook their heads.

“Where’s Raider?” he asked then, turning back
toward his father.

“He went back down after we checked the third
floor. Said he wanted to check on the security cameras.”

“Let’s hit the floors again. Do another sweep
of each of the rooms—”

“No.”

Draven stammered as he looked at
Ferox.

“It’s a waste of time. The Dracs escaped
somehow. We need to track them.”

“Which is exactly my plan,” Draven said. “If
we do another search of the floors, maybe we can find where they’re
hiding.”

“And I say that we need to get out of the
hospital, scrub the humans and search somewhere else.”

Ethan agreed with Draven, but he wasn’t about
to pull rank. He could see Draven’s jaw clenched, but he conceded
to his father. Not only was Ferox the Guardians’ in-house leader,
but he was also the vampire king. Even Draven knew not to cross
him. He nodded silently.

As one, the Guardians and the Valkyries made
their way to the elevator. It took two elevators to fit them all
in. While the others waited for their ride, Draven punched the
button for the ground floor and he, his father, and the Valkyries
rode down together.

The second elevator door opened and the others
shuffled inside. Following suit, they hit the button and started
riding down in silence.

Ash visibly stiffened, and each of the
Guardians tensed. His hand shot forward and hit the third floor
button just before the elevator reached the floor. The elevator
came to a stop and he bolted into the hall. Blaze, Thrash, and
Ethan spilled out as well, all four of them hearing the commotion
down the hall.

Their boots clapped loudly against the tile as
they hauled ass toward the chaos, and that was exactly what greeted
them as they turned the corner by the nurse’s station. Raider was
slumped against dead bodies, his coloring paler than Ethan had ever
seen, and Nitro was fighting for her life against a horde of
Dracs.

Where the hell had they all come
from?

Ash kicked into gear as three Dracs fell on
his sister. Ethan bolted for his uncle, pulling Raider into his
arms. He was cold—dangerously cold—for his kind, and he needed
nourishment, like, yesterday. He laid Raider back down on the
ground, making sure he looked comfortable. Standing up, he ran for
the elevator as Thrash, Blaze, Ash, and Nitro fought the
demons.

The sounds of the battle grew more distant as
he neared the elevator, and once the doors closed, they disappeared
altogether.

He ran the halls of the main floor, bypassing
and sidestepping countless bodies as he went. He knew exactly where
he was headed. He’d been here plenty of times to supply the
infirmary.

Draven rounded the corner up ahead, and his
stride stopped as he saw Ethan. “What’s wrong?”

“Raider. Third floor. I think he’s
dying.”

Draven’s eyes widened in shock and he fell
into step, running side-by-side with his brother. “What
happened?”

“Dracs. He’s cold, Draven. He needs
blood.”

They reached the mother lode of vampire
banquets, shouldering their way into the cold, tiled room. It was
filled with wall-to-wall refrigerators and freezers that contained
hundreds of bags of blood. Ethan dumped out a duffel bag—likely one
of the now-dead humans’—and held it open as Draven pilfered a
fridge.

“Dad said there weren’t any Dracs on the third
floor,” Ethan said.

“He lied. That’s why he didn’t want us to
search the floors again.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened at the thought. Why
would their father lie when Raider could be hurt, or even killed?
“Where is he?”

“He’s ‘
searching’
for Dracs,” Draven
growled.

They continued shoving blood bags into the
duffel, both lost in a whirlwind of thought as they worked
together. Sixteen bags had been thrown in before Ethan spoke up.
“That’s enough. We need to get back before we’re too
late.”

Draven made eye contact with his brother, the
anger he felt palpable as he gave Ethan a single, tight
nod.

Ethan gripped the duffel’s handles and threw
it over his shoulder. In a matter of seconds they were heading for
the door.

****

Ash pulled Nitro to her feet, and together
they faced off against the melee of Dracs that had surrounded them.
Blaze and Thrash approached as well, flanking the twins.

“Can you tell us what in the gods’ names is
going on?” Blaze asked her. “Last I heard there were five of these
wannabes. Now look.”

She turned to Ash and Thrash, then over at
Blaze. “You need to get out of here. I’m the only one already
infected. There’s not much more they can do to me.”

“Umm, not going to happen,” Ash replied.
“Despite your impressive fighting skills, you weren’t in that great
of shape going it alone.”

She shook her head. He was right, not that
she’d ever admit it to him. Some of the closest Dracs inched
forward, their fangs extending from the smell of the warriors’
blood. Nitro stepped forward herself, crouching in an attack
stance. She hissed, causing the frontline to recoil
slightly.

Movement caught her attention, and her eyes
riveted to where Raider lay against the wall. One of the nurses,
who’d been dead only moments ago, sat straight up; another did the
same. Both women spotted Raider lying on the ground, bleeding out.
They surged forward, fighting over their prey. Nitro flashed to
them and pulled them off her man. Flinging them against the
opposite wall, she faced off against the Dracs yet
again.

They fell on her as one, working as a team to
destroy both her and Raider. She cried out as one of their fangs
slid into her arm. Wrenching it free, she shoved the little bitch
as hard as she could. The woman stumbled backward, unable to catch
herself as she crashed into the wall, knocking bits of plaster off
the walls and ceiling. Kaira jumped up and down excitedly before
launching herself toward the woman. A quick twist of the head broke
her neck; another quick jolt and Kaira had pulled her head clean
off.

Nitro was attacked again as she watched the
short showdown between her little beastie and the Drac female. She
couldn’t get a break; the second she’d fend off one demon, another
replaced it. Thrash, Blaze, and Ash were fighting the Dracs as
well. She’d instructed them to avoid their fangs and claws, so the
males had opted for weapons. The three warriors drove through the
crowd of demons, slicing and dicing as they went. She remained by
Raider, blocking any Dracs who dared try to pass her. Kaira was all
over, defending Nitro as best as she could. But the demons wouldn’t
stop trying. They rushed toward her, and she found herself
wondering where they all came from.

****

“Jesus Christ
,” Ethan
breathed.

Looking back at the last few seconds, what was
happening now made too much godsdamned sense. The bodies—the dead
humans—that he’d walked around on the way to the blood storage room
were gone now. He hadn’t realized it right away, being so focused
on getting blood to Raider, but the absence of their bodies finally
hit him.