Chapter 31: Chapter 31

Fear quickly replaced my relief at seeing my friends when Nick told me he was leaving us with Garrett and Irina. He said little, yet the tension in his face made me dread his leaving. He was about to do something dangerous. And when his kiss felt like goodbye, I almost didn’t let him go. But I held myself in check. I shouldn’t make this more difficult than it already was. I couldn’t have stopped him even if I tried. This was part of his job, part of who he was. And I had to accept it, just like I did the rest. I kissed him back with everything I had and put on a brave face.

“Be careful, okay?” I said, smiling up at him despite the furious pounding of my heart.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Irina and Garrett will look after you. Please stay here so they can keep you safe,” Nick said, kissing me again before walking away.

“Nick, wait!” I said, running after him.

He stopped outside the door and turned to face me. I ran into his arms and pulled him down for one last kiss. “I love you, Nick,” I said, whispering against his lips.

He pulled away and said, “I love you, too, my sweet.”

That was six hours ago. A lot of things happened since then.

Barely an hour after Nick and his men left, Garrett received a report from one of the lobby guards. Irina, Garrett, and I were sitting around Nick's elegant dining table waiting for news from him when Garrett's walkie-talkie crackled to life. The guard said that he spotted three women acting suspiciously around the building entrance. I had a pretty good idea who one of those women was. But I needed confirmation. I asked Garrett if he could access the CCTV cameras from here. And he said he could if he had a computer. Nick had one in his study, but it was more secure than Fort Knox. Only he could turn it on. So, I grabbed my laptop from my room and made Garrett pull up the CCTV footage.

It did not surprise me to see Kris pacing nervously in front of the building entrance. What shocked me was her appearance. She looked more zombie-like than when I last saw her. Vampirism didn’t seem to suit her. I didn’t recognize the two women with her, but they appeared calmer and less concerned at gaining entrance. In fact, they looked like they were laughing behind Kris’s back. Whatever they were to each other, Kris’s companions didn’t like her one bit.

Mel’s mumbled curse made me glance away from the screen. They had apparently followed me out when I took the laptop. Jan gasped when she saw Kris.

“Oh, my god! That’s the girl who came to our condo, isn’t it?” Jan said.

“Yeah, that’s her alright,” Mel said with another mumbled bad word.

“Why can’t they come in? The lobby is a public area, isn’t?” I asked Irina, who was watching the screen with a knowing smile on her face.

“You forget that Nick owns this place, so the whole thing is basically his home. And he doesn’t appreciate having unwelcome vampires roaming around his property. Before they placed the foundations of this building, he had Tanner perform Celtic rituals around the perimeter. Tanner came from a long line of Celtic shamans and knew a lot of spells, both protective and offensive. Only those vampires who Nick invited in may pass through. You are all quite safe from those hunting you,” Irina explained.

“But what about uninvited humans? Or those invited by the other human residents here?” I said, an unpleasant thought crossing my mind.

“I believe the spells warded off unwanted vampires, not humans,” Irina said.

“But aren’t there humans who work for vampires? What if they force one of them to do their bidding? They can get through then, can’t they?” Mel said, catching my eye.

Mel said exactly what I was thinking, and she didn’t seem to like the implication, either.

“Hmm. I guess Nick forgot about that,” Irina said, looking uncomfortable herself.

“Has Marcel ever been here?” I said, hoping that he hadn’t.

“Did Marcel ever visit Nick at home?” Irina said, turning to Garrett.

“No, I don’t think so. I’m not sure, but I never saw Marcel around here,” Garrett replied.

“Can Kris override the spell if a resident invites her in?” Mel said, her eyes glued to the laptop. Jan looked like she was going to burst into tears.

One look at the screen told me what got her so upset. Kris was walking up to a man who was about to enter the building. At this late hour, he was most likely a resident instead of a mere visitor. For some strange reason, Kris got him to listen to her. And based on his facial expression, it would appear that Kris was using some sob story to gain his sympathy. She even held onto his arm, crying crocodile tears. As she told her story, she also kept on gesturing back and forth to the other girls behind her.

“Oh, my god! He’s letting her in,” Jan cried when the man led Kris and her companions to the door.

“Goddammit!” Garrett said, grabbing the walkie-talkie. “Gomez, three women are coming your way. Don’t let them in. Tell Reyes to hold them. Gomez? Gomez? Bloody hell.”

While Garrett continued attempting to reach his lobby guards, we watched with growing horror as Kris's companions slashed the guards’ throats, together with the well-meaning resident with lightning speed. Only a highly trained assassin could do what they just did.

“I guess that answers my question,” Mel said.

Irina growled and spat a lot of Russian words. The fire in her eyes told me she just colorfully cursed in her native tongue. Hearing Irina, Garrett's eyes snapped back to the screen. He immediately sprang into action when he saw his fallen men. Dashing to the front door, he bolted it tight, then grabbed something from his coat. When he came back, he had a mean-looking ax and a mini-crossbow in his hands. After which, he herded Mel, Jan, and me back to my room.

“Wait! Are you just going to lock us up here?” I said, not liking it one bit.

“Hey, we can help,” Mel said, taking out several deadly-looking wooden stakes from her backpack. Jan, brushing off the tears in her eyes, followed her sister’s example and came back with her own arsenal.

Garrett raised a brow at them. “I’m impressed,” he said, shaking his head. “But I can’t let you risk your lives. You’ll be safer in here.”

“They can’t enter Nick’s house without an invitation, can they?” I said, remembering what Nick once told me. “Nick made sure that his own home is the most protected of all.”

“She’s right,” Irina said from the doorway. “Even I couldn’t enter it the first time I came here. Nick had to invite me in himself before I could. But Garrett also has a point. We can’t take any chances. Marcel had trained his ladies well.”

I was about to protest when two explosions coming from the foyer interrupted us. Garrett and Irina ran outside to see what happened. When we heard the report from a shotgun, Mel, Jan, and I froze. But it was when everything went quiet that we rushed after them. In situations like this, silence wasn’t always a good sign. What we found next was so unexpected we almost didn't believe it. Irina was lying unconscious on the floor, blood oozing from several bullet wounds in her stomach and chest. She was barely breathing. Garrett sat slumped against the wall, behind one of the tall marble plant boxes I nagged Nick into buying. Nick’s knight was still conscious, but breathing erratically. He also had bullet wounds on his neck and torso. Seeing us coming out of the room, he urged us to get back. But our desire to help them far outweighed our concern for ourselves. Mel, Jan, and I dropped to the floor and crawled on our bellies toward our wounded guardians.

As soon as Jan grabbed Irina’s hand, Kris and her friend began shooting at her. This forced her to back away. Taking advantage of the distraction, I made my way to Garrett.

“Bloody hell, Mira. I’m so sorry. They took us by surprise. I took out one of them, but the other two opened fire. I almost didn’t make it back inside,” Garrett said, coughing blood. “Irina tried to help, but they also got her with that damned shotgun.”

“It’s okay, Garrett. This was really their plan. They were waiting for you to take the bait. Just hang on, we’ll get out of here. No more talking. Save your energy,” I said, patting Garrett’s bloody hand. I pulled him down to the floor and chanced a quick peek over the plant box.

Kris’s friend was pacing outside the door, looking murderous and frustrated. They could not walk past Nick’s invisible barrier. I glimpsed the bloody mess Garrett left outside and gulped. This was no TV show. This was for real. Too real. I shook my head to clear it. No use getting upset over trash. Garrett did what he had to do. You can’t afford to panic, Mira. Focus on helping Irina and Garrett, I told myself. Taking a deep breath, I worked at pulling the barely conscious Garrett away from the battle zone. But then a familiar voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Mira? Are you there? Please help me, Mira!”

Jenny? What was she doing here?

I crawled back to the plant box and slowly rose to my feet. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Jenny standing beside Kris's friend, her knife pointed at Jenny's throat.

“Jenny? What are you doing here?”

"Kris took me. Please, save me, Mira," Jenny pleaded.

Something smelled fishy. If Jenny was already here when Kris and friends came, why didn’t I see her in the lobby, too?

"Please, Mira. Let me in!" Jenny said, crying.

Her words removed all the doubts in my mind. This wasn’t Jenny. Nick told me about vampire abilities. One of them was impersonating other people through illusions.

"Nice try, Kris. I know you're not Jenny."

After a beat, Kris laughed. The illusion slowly faded away, revealing her true face. "You always were too smart for your own good, Almira."

"Go away, Kris. I might hate you right now, but I still don't want you to die. And Nick will surely kill you when he finds you here."

Kris's giggles sent chills down my spine.

"Your precious Nick isn't coming. Marcel set a trap for him. He might even be dead now. So, I’m afraid you're stuck here with us. No one's coming to save you. Not this time, Almira."

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, to run to Kris and claw her eyes out. I wanted to kill her and her ugly friend, to bash their heads against the marble until their brains leaked out. There were a lot of things I wanted to do, but I did none of them. Because if I did, I would play right into her hands. And I would rather die starving than give in to her twisted plans.

“Psst, Mira!” I heard Jan call out to me.

Glancing back, I saw half a dozen Molotov cocktails sitting in front of them. I grinned and scrambled back to where they were.

Now we’re talking.