Page 73 of Bound

“Grenade!”

12

Topher

I LUNGED FOR THE GRENADE, HURLING IT AS FAR AS I COULD down into the black recesses of the tunnel as the others hugged the nearest wall for cover. The second it left my fingers, West was gripping the front of my tactical vest, dragging me down beside him. A heartbeat later there was a blinding explosion followed by a deafening bang. Smoke and debris whipped through the tunnel. I kept my head down, shielding West’s body with mine as bits of white-hot shrapnel tore through my vest. I began to cough violently, choking on hot ash.

“Wolfsbane and silver,” West shouted in my ear as he dragged me up, and I saw that his forehead was bleeding. “Get your mask on.”

But before I could secure it, a second grenade launched through the open door. West and I dove for it in unison. Before our fingers could make contact, another hand snatched it up.

Rowan.

Closing her eyes, she vanished without a trace.

Vlad cursed.

“Shit,” August whispered. “Where did she—”

“I don’t know.”

“No time,” River barked, coughing. “Form up. We have to move. Someone will have heard the door blow for sure. We’ve got six… seven minutes at the outside to clear this end of the compound before law enforcement is gonna be on top of us. Brody, sit rep.”

“We’re in. Heavy resistance. Cal and London are clearing the cell blocks now. Nothing but fang-heads so far.”

I grabbed Vlad by the front of his tactical vest, slamming him up against the wall. “If this was all a ruse to bring us here to free your own political prisoners—”

With a gasp, Rowan reappeared, collapsing on the floor in a heap. Jori and Naomi rushed to help her up.

Vlad bared his fangs. “I trust my people on the ground.”

“Shut up, both of you,” Naomi snapped, knocking the male vampire in the shoulder on her way by. “This isn’t helping. You heard River. We’re moving out.”

Twisted hunks of concrete and rebar lay scattered across the ground where the door to the prison had been blown free. Thick dust choked the air, swirling in a haze of red emergency lights. Gunshots from inside the complex pinged off the walls, ricocheting wildly. Cursing, I took cover behind a concrete support beam.

“We’re at one minute.” August had on a headset and was typing on a small laptop. “Police scanner has multiple calls into dispatch. The explosion got called in as a gas leak, and now there are unconfirmed reports of a possible shooter. Students are being told to shelter in place.”

“That should buy us time.” West knelt beside me, scanning for movement beyond the blown door.

“Maybe,” I said. “Police will have to secure the area first before fire can go in to shut off the gas lines. As soon as they check the cameras, realize someone has been down in the tunnels, they’re going to know it wasn’t a leak.”

Sofia knelt by the door, her face a mask of concentration. The gunfire abruptly stopped. She got to her feet. “Let’s go. There’ll be more of them.”

Inside the compound, dark green military-issue crates lay toppled across the floor. I checked the first two. Guns. Ammo. Exposed wires sparked overhead. I kept my head low.

“Two minutes,” Rowan called from where she and August were bent over a control panel. “It uses a biometric reader and is calibrated only to respond to scans that fall within normal vampire ranges. We not only need their access codes, but someone with their precise skin temperature and PH or we’ll be locked out.”

“Can you hack it?” I asked.

“Sure. How long have we got?”

“Will your palmprint work?” August asked.

“No. It’ll have to be one of the full-blooded vampires.”

“Wait.” West strode over to where Phoenix and Karl were checking two unconscious undeads. “We need some of them alive. Mom—”

Wordlessly, Sofia tilted her head. One of the vampires jerked upright, immediately going for the knife strapped to her chest. Despite West’s reluctance to share details, August wasn’t nearly so squeamish. Sofia was a skilled projectionist, able to temporarily overwrite her target’s reality with images she implanted into their heads. She could put someone to sleep or make them believe they were drowning. Torture them again and again with their own deaths while physically they remained unharmed. Not everyone came out of it mentally intact. And right now, I didn’t care. She was our only way into the prison block. We were close. So close now. Kieran was here. I could feel it.