Crimson Warrior (Onyx Assassins 3)

“We upgraded to biometrics,” the duchess said with a wink as she passed by us, disappearing on the other side of the vault with Katya.

“The vault used to be spelled to the Sorokin women,” Olivia explained, leading me up the two marble steps to the steel door she’d chosen. “They went through a whole tech remodel about a decade ago, but there are still four doors. There are six of us now, so four have to be present to enter. After it’s been opened, it only takes one of us to seal it from the outside as a safety protocol.”

“Your dad doesn’t count?” Sorokin women. That’s why her mother was so hell-bent on her daughters mating. Carrying on the line was the only way to ensure this chamber could be opened. She might have played the old-fashioned card, but the women held the power here.

“Oh, come on, you know how indecisive and emotional men can be.” She rolled her eyes.

I scoffed and stood at her side, studying the black biometric panel at the side of the heavy door. It was an older model of the same panel I’d installed at the bunker back at the estate. “I’m impressed.”

“Glad to see it meets your standard,” she teased.

I didn’t tell her that I could think of about fourteen ways to hack that particular model without putting much effort into it. That’s what made me the tactician I was—once you knew something’s weakness, it’s easy to exploit it.

“Hands up,” the duchess called out.

Olivia lifted her hand to the panel.

“Press,” her mother ordered.

Olivia touched the panel.

The sounds of pistons firing filled the chamber, and the door swung open. The thing was thicker than I was.

I followed Olivia inside the vault, half expecting to see the mummified bodies of the Hunters lined up against the walls.

“Wow,” I muttered, taking it all in.

The Sorokin women had all entered through their doors, the duke following the duchess inside through the one directly across from us.

Lights flickered to life, illuminating a chamber even the Starship Enterprise would have envied. High tech medical equipment rested against the wall of each bay, clean and shiny, just waiting to take vitals of males who had never seen electricity or television. Bags of synthetic blood hung with the precision of vending machine snacks in six glass-doored refrigerators that sat equally spaced around the chamber, and there were even flat-screen televisions mounted on the walls. But what made my stomach drop were the six marble coffins that consumed the center of the room, laid out like spokes on a wheel.

“Hello, boys.” The duchess traced the carved details on the top of one of the stasis chambers. “I’m afraid your rest is over. We have need of you.”

The duke opened the cooler Katya had brought down and threw out bags of blood to his daughters.

Olivia caught hers with one hand.

I caught the next one that came flying.

“I brought an extra bag just for you,” Katya told me with a grin. “My sister says you’re a picky eater.”

“I prefer my blood like my females,” I countered. “Real.”

Olivia scoffed and elbowed me in the ribs. “You take that one.” She motioned to the sarcophagus closest to hers. “Up by the head.”

“How can you tell which end is the head?” My mouth watered at the scent of the blood in my hands, but this wasn’t snack time.

“Their names,” Olivia walked past me and formed a circle with her family. Each of them stood at the head of a coffin, leaving one space for me.

I walked along my assigned Hunter, noting the dips and curls in the carving that made up his name. Saint. A chill raced down my spine. This was the Hunter who would make or break us. If he arose from stasis with the same blood madness that had driven him into this very chamber, we were doomed. He would bring a plague…and I would have to kill him.

There was a small plastic tube rising from a hole in the marble, somewhere in the vicinity of where his mouth should be. “Plastic?” I asked Olivia.

“Part of the upgrade. They did some laparoscopic setup so we wouldn’t just drop the blood down the hole and hope for the best.” She extended a pole that was based at the head of her coffin—Samuel, and I followed her lead.

“Hook them up and wait,” her mother ordered, already setting up her tube.

I positioned my pole, hooked the blood on, and then attached it to the plastic IV tubing, starting the drip at the same time the others did.

“Now we feast!” The duke pulled his wife into his arms and smacked a kiss on her lips.

“I need to dress.” The duchess laced her fingers with her husband’s and walked out of the chamber, followed by Katya, who threw the promised blood bag at me, and Zasha, leaving me alone with Olivia.