Part 34 (1/2)
CHAPTER Thirty-three
A volatile mix of adrenaline, rage, and absolute, marrow-chilling fear vaulted Lucan to the roof of the old asylum. The helicopter had barely touched down on its landing rails as he thundered toward it from the edge of the building. Lucan was vibrating with fury, more explosive and unstable than a tractor trailer packed with C4. He fully intended to rip the limbs off of whomever was holding Gabrielle.
He approached from behind the helicopter, careful not to be seen as he rolled under its tail, then came around to the pa.s.senger side of the c.o.c.kpit, gun drawn.
He glimpsed her inside. She was in the backseat next to a big male dressed in black and wearing dark gla.s.ses. She looked so small, so terrified. Her scent swamped him. Her fear tore at his heart.
Lucan yanked open the c.o.c.kpit door, shoved his weapon into the face of Gabrielle's captor, and made a grab for her with his free hand. She was jerked back before he could latch onto her.
”Lucan?” Gabrielle gasped, her eyes wide with surprise. ”Oh, my G.o.d, Lucan!”
He did a quick visual a.s.sessment of the situation, noting the Minion pilot and another mind-slave human next to him in the front.
The Minion in the front pa.s.senger seat spun around to knock away Lucan's arm, and got a bullet in his head instead.
When Lucan looked back to Gabrielle not even an instant later, the calm one with her had put a savage -looking blade to her throat. Peeking out from the sleeve of his long black trenchcoat were the dermaglyphs Lucan had seen in the surveillance photos from the West Coast.
”Let her go,” he told the Gen One leader of the Rogues.
”My, my, this is a faster response than I could have imagined, even for a blood-bonded warrior. What are you up to? Why are you here?”
The low, arrogant voice took him aback.
Did he know this b.a.s.t.a.r.d?
”Let her go,” Lucan said, ”and I'll show you why I'm here.”
”I think not.” The Gen One smiled broadly, baring his teeth.
No fangs. A vampire, but not a Rogue at all.
What the h.e.l.l?
”She's lovely, Lucan. I rather expected she was yours.”
Christ, he knew that voice. It came from somewhere buried deep in his memory.
Deep in his past. A name cut through his mind, as sharp as a blade.
No. It couldn't be him.
Impossible...
He shook off the momentary confusion, but the slip in focus cost him dearly. Creeping up on him from the side, a Rogue had come up on the roof from within the asylum. With a snarl, it seized the helicopter door and slammed the edge of it into Lucan 's skull.
”Lucan!” Gabrielle screamed. ”No!”
He staggered, one knee sinking beneath him. His gun was kicked out of his grasp. It skittered across the rough surface of the roof, several yards out of reach.
The Rogue punched him, a ma.s.sive fist connecting with his jaw. A second later, a brutal kick smashed into his ribs. Lucan went down, but he swung out with his booted foot and collapsed his attacker 's leg. He leaped on the Rogue, one hand going for the blade sheathed at his torso.
A few feet away, the helicopter's rotors began a high-pitched whine. They were speeding up. The pilot was preparing to take off again.
He couldn't let that happen.
If he let Gabrielle off this roof, he had no hope that he would see her alive again.
”Get us out of here,” Gabrielle's captor ordered his pilot, as the chopper's blades whirred faster and faster.
Outside, scrabbling on the roof, Lucan fought the Rogue who'd attacked him. Through the dark, Gabrielle spotted another one coming up from a hatch in the roof.
”Oh, no,” she breathed, hardly able to speak for the cutting edge of steel that was biting into the skin at her throat.
The big male leaned past her to see what was happening on the roof. Lucan had returned to his feet. He sliced the first Rogue who had jumped him, lacing open the big vampire 's gut. The Rogue's scream was audible even over the loud drone of the helicopter's rotors. Its body started convulsing, spasming... melting.
Lucan's head pivoted around to the helicopter. Fury blazed out of his eyes, glowing like twin embers lit by h.e.l.l -fire. He lunged forward, roaring, shoulders bunched. Coming at the vehicle like a freight train.
”Get us out of here now!” shouted the male beside Gabrielle, the first true trace of worry she'd heard in him. ”Now, G.o.dd.a.m.n it!”
The helicopter started lifting.
Gabrielle tried to shrink away from the bite of the blade by pressing her spine into the back of the small rear seat. If she could just find a way to knock his arm away, she might be able to reach the c.o.c.kpit door- There was a sudden lurch of the helicopter, as if they had snagged on some part of the building. The engine whined, straining.
Her captor was fuming now. ”Take off, you idiot!” ”I'm trying, sire!” said the Minion at the controls. He pulled a lever and the engine protested with a terrible groan.
There was another lurch, a sharp downward tug that rattled everything inside the helicopter. The c.o.c.kpit rolled forward.
Gabrielle's captor lost his grounding on the seat, a momentary inattention.
The blade left her throat.
With a burst of sheer determination, she threw herself backward and kicked out with both legs, shoving him into the back of the pilot's seat. The vehicle pitched sharply forward. She scrambled for the latch on the c.o.c.kpit door.
It swung open wildly, flapping on its hinges as the whole compartment shook and wobbled. Her captor was righting himself, about to grab for her again. His sungla.s.ses had fallen off in the chaos. He glared at her with icy gray eyes, full of malice.
”Tell Lucan this is far from over,” the leader of the Rogues ordered her, hissing the words through an evil smile.
”Go to h.e.l.l,” Gabrielle shot back at him. In that same instant, she lunged for the open s.p.a.ce of the door and dropped the several feet down onto the roof.