“Most of the rest of his guys are vampires. Only a few have been up here, but I’m catching hints of about twenty scents.”
“Isn’t that just perfect? Even the guys outside the building outnumber us three to one. I’m not looking forward to whatever we find inside, when we manage to catch up to the fucking bastard.”
The fire escape door opened as we watched, closing just as quickly. Hopefully we were the only ones watching. “By my guess, there’s about ten guards still lurking around.”
“Ten?” Shan asked, unbelieving. “He has ten guards on a place where he isn’t even fucking present?”
“They’re fresh enough scents to have been patrolling during the day today. It’s possible he has something else in this building he’s protecting.”
“Or it’s possible he’s as fucking paranoid as Nolan says, and he spends out the ass on security for every building he ever sets foot close to.”
We fell silent as I tried to puzzle out the scents. As we perched there, a vampire strolled by at street level, glancing warily around for any threats. Five minutes later, another vamp jumped from rooftop to rooftop, crouched down to avoid detection by the Nulls. He skipped our rooftop, but if Nolan’s group came out while he was up there, they would be spotted. Pulling a silent burner phone out of my pocket, I called him.
“Updates?” Nolan asked when he answered.
“Looks like we’ve got two rounds of guards. One goes at street level, one goes on rooftops. Five minutes apart so far, and the rooftop one can definitely see the door you slipped into. Street level might too, but I’m not down there so I can’t tell.”
“Less than I anticipated.”
“There might be more. Are there guards inside?”
“We incapacitated one just inside the door, but there are none in the unit. Kylan likes to keep his private space private. I don’t see why considering he doesn’t have a single thing in here that gives us any hint about what his plan is.”
“At least we’re getting information on how many guards he employs. A metric fuck ton, apparently.”
Nolan snorted a laugh. I watched the guard go by at street level again. They’d been inside for fifteen minutes. If they incapacitated a guard, they should probably get going soon. “Rooftop guard will be around in five minutes. I’ll call you again when he passes.”
“Five minutes, wonderful,” Nolan said.
He didn’t sound especially wonderful, hanging up to get back to searching.
They had to find something in there. Otherwise, we’d be playing a waiting game. Shan and Freya hated waiting, and I worried they would do something rash even with the rest of us around to keep them in check. One tiny clue was all it could take to find Kylan’s next destination before he left it.
“They’ve got a guard on the roof of the building now, too,” Shan murmured, angling his head toward the penthouse.
A lone guard circled the edge, peering over onto the fire escape. He found nothing amiss and went back to the interior door he’d arrived from, disappearing inside. “Hopefully he doesn’t come back for another fifteen to twenty minutes.”
We’d gone into this too rashly, not watching the guard schedules. Every piece of training we’d had over the years tended to go out the window when threats to Freya’s safety were involved. Plus, I got the feeling we were all eager for a fight, our insistence on this being a covert mission be damned. Taking out a couple of Kylan’s men would be immensely satisfying if we ignored the fact he could pay a hundred more.
My body was tense as we watched for the vampire to come across the rooftops again. I tried to split my focus between my surroundings and the bond with Freya, but it wasn’t working. All I thought of was her. Every hint of emotion had me on high alert, wondering if they were being attacked. Would she react if they were? She’d probably be thrilled by the fight, and that wouldn’t give me much of an indication of whether she was alright.
The next time I inhaled, I bit back a curse.
We weren’t the only ones on this roof, and I’d been too wrapped up in Freya to pay attention. Silently I tapped Shan’s shoulder, putting a finger to my lips. His expression hardened and he nodded, keeping the veil of light tightly around us. The problem was that it didn’t block sound or scents.
Whoever was here was already too close.
I turned to look behind us at the vast expanse of roof, not spotting anyone at first. Then I saw a hint of blond hair and a man turning a corner, a gun in his hands.
I fucking hated guns.
Yes, they’d become a necessary evil on Earth, but people were too quick to draw one. They didn’t require the same years of training that a sword or other weapon did. Sure, there was an art to aiming and maintaining the weapons, but they made violence far too attainable.
Shan silently drew his own weapon, a handgun. He hated them too, but didn’t refuse to use them like I did.
The blond man came closer and closer, curiously looking around as he held his weapon at the ready. He knew someone was out here. Would he find us, or was he a contract hand who didn’t actually give a fuck about protecting the property he was paid to protect?
He crept closer until he was almost on top of us.
