* * *
“SEE, EVERYTHING IS GOING ACCORDING to plan,” Jack whispered, his breath brushing warmth past her ear.
Sam shuddered and blinked away the sweat rolling into her eyes. The elevator jerked to a halt, and the doors opened. A dozen armed State Police office
rs were waiting for them.
“One move, one wrong word, and they all die,” Jack murmured. “Eddie has another shiny toy in his pocket.”
“Then we’ll all die. Your precious clone included.”
Jack’s smile sent shivers through her soul. “See that man to the right? His name’s Barter. His wife has just had a little boy. Should we make her a widow right here and now?”
“You’re a bastard,” she muttered. He knew her too well. Knew she wouldn’t take the risk.
“And a good one at that.” He jerked her forward. “Barter, take the PM to the car and get him out of here. I’m taking Ryan to the medics.”
“The attackers?”
“Upstairs, but be careful. They’re well armed.”
Barter and several Feds whisked the clone away. The rest of security headed for the stairs. Jack and his remaining three men walked back into the shuttle port. They were stopped several times, and each time they were allowed to move on. They had the right uniforms and the right ID. No one bothered to look any closer.
She tried to study where they were going, but he was pushing her so fast she was almost running. Everything was blurred—or was it her eyes? It very quickly became obvious they were not headed for the medical center, but rather outside. A clock chimed into the silence. Four o’clock.
Time to move. She clenched her fingers round the laser in her pocket. Jack pushed her on. They approached the shuttle port’s main entrance. The doors slid open. Outside, there was little activity. The shuttle port had been closed down tight—a fact that was now working in Jack’s favor. He marched her through the doors, then stopped, cursing fluently.
“Where the hell is Suzy?”
“Maybe she developed some sense and ran like mad,” she muttered.
Jack growled and threw her against the wall. “You stay! Eddie, go get us some transportation.”
She slid down the wall, battling for breath as a red haze danced before her eyes. Overhead, she saw a brown hawk wheel and dive for the rooftop. It landed awkwardly, as if it were injured.
Relief coursed through her. Gabriel. It had to be. She slipped her hand from her pocket. Her fingers were still wrapped around the laser, concealing it. Timing was everything, Jack had once told her. She waited patiently, watching him pace, her shoulder almost as numb as her mind.
A red Ford sedan roared up. Eddie climbed out. Time, a warm voice whispered into her mind. Gabriel, she thought again, and wondered whether his voice was real or simply her imagination.
She raised the laser and fired at the car, splitting it open from front to back. Doing the same to Eddie. At the same time, two more red-blue flashes lit the air, and Jack’s other men were little more than headless corpses lying prone on the concrete.
“What the fuck?” Panic filled Jack’s voice as he swung around. His gaze widened as it settled on the weapon in her hand. “Where the hell did that come from?”
“Magic,” she said softly. “Hands up, Jack.”
He slowly raised his hands. But however much his human half might fear her, his vampire half still had control. It was evident in the calculating coldness of his eyes. “It’s against the law to kill me. You know the rules. You’ve lived with them all your life, and you can’t abandon them now.”
She smiled sadly. She had lived within the rules all her life. She might not have always followed orders, but she had stayed within the letter of the law, even when Jack had tried to convince her to do otherwise.
Look what it had gained her—a phony friendship, a shattered apartment and goddamn loneliness.
“What was that phrase you always used to say?”
A frown flitted across his features. She saw him tense, knew he was ready to leap.
“Oh yeah,” she said softly. “Fuck the damn rules.” He sprang. She fired. Once. Twice. The laser caught him in the head and the chest and disintegrated both. She closed her eyes and heard the soft thump as his remains hit the concrete. She had her ending. It was over.
So why did she feel so empty, so cold?