Dianne Duvall: Darkness Rises

As Seth swung his katanas with deadly precision, he heard David laugh on the other side of the building.

Seth smiled wryly, confusing his opponents. I think we may have a new problem on our hands.

It would seem so.

Have you been hit with a dart yet?

No. Strike that. Yes.

Do you need me?

No. It’s a great deal stronger than the darts used against us in the past. I had to use the antidote.

Two doses?

No. One sufficed for me. The young ones must be more susceptible.

The closer Seth came to the back of the building, the thicker the soldiers grew. They were definitely protecting something.

Or someone.

A dart hit him in the chest.

Seth yanked it out.

Another hit him in the neck.

Again he yanked it out and cursed the damned hallway that allowed so little maneuvering. All the humans had to do was fire blindly in his direction and sooner or later they’d hit him.

He worried anew about David.

I’m fine.

Warn me if you need to use another dose of the antidote. If it juiced David up as it had Krysta and Étienne . . .

Hell, with his power, there was no telling what havoc he could wreak.

David laughed. Don’t worry. I won’t risk it. And shouldn’t have to. I’ve nearly eliminated all of the soldiers over here.

Any sign of the commander?

No. And the soldiers’ minds are too chaotic and plentiful to read.

I suspect I’m on his trail.

Bullets continually peppered Seth’s large form.

The soldiers’ panic multiplied as they watched with wide eyes as every bullet that pierced him, within seconds, reemerged from his body and fell to the floor at his feet.

“What the hell are you?” one shouted.

The childish “wouldn’t you like to know” taunt floated through his head, wringing another smile from him.

A smile that seemed to terrify the soldiers even more.

A mercenary ducked out of a doorway farther down and aimed a shoulder-fire missile at him. “Fire in the hole!”

The remaining soldiers all hit the ground as fire and smoke accompanied the missile’s launch.

Seth waved a hand, directed the missile up through the ceiling, the roof, and detonated it in the night sky.

The soldier gaped.

Seth arched a brow. “Care to try again?”

The soldier swallowed as his comrades regained their feet.

“That’s what I thought. Now why don’t you show me what—or whom—you’re hiding?”

Weapons raised and resumed fire.

Through the hole in the roof, Seth saw Chris’s Black Hawk helicopters swoop past. A rumbling sound, wafting through the gaping maw he and David had left in the front of the building, told him the armored personnel carriers and Humvees full of network guards had also arrived.

Enough. He needed to end this, if he could, before the humans fully entered the fray.

Ignoring the injuries constantly opening on his flesh, he cut down the remaining soldiers and eyed the door they had been defending.

Waving a hand, he slid the bodies away from it and took a step toward it.

Wait, David said.

Seth paused.

David streaked up the hallway and stopped beside him. “The building’s clear. Roland, Sarah, Marcus, and Lisette took out everyone in the basement levels and are outside lending aid wherever it’s needed, so whoever is behind this door is all that’s left.”

There was an electronic palm pad with keys requiring a code to open the door. Seth waved a hand. Sparks shot from the gadget and a loud clunk sounded. He pushed the door inward.

Automatic gunfire resounded as bullets bombarded him.

Three men, wielding the weapons, backed away to the far side of the room.

Seth recognized two of them.

Donald and Nelson, David said, yanking the weapons from their hands with a thought and flinging them out of reach.

Nelson drew a grenade from his pocket, pulled the pin, and threw it.

David again used telekinesis to send it out into the hallway and up through the hole in the roof Seth had created with the missile.

Show-off, Seth remonstrated as it exploded. Hold them still while I find out what we missed .

The men froze, the only movements David allowed them the rising and falling of their chests and the blinking of their eyes.

Seth delved into their minds. Was it a hard drive? A laptop? A hidden backup server? An e-mail? What had they missed? How had Donald and Nelson rediscovered vampires and immortals and begun the hunt anew?

When Seth found the answer, shock seized him.

“What is it?” David asked, brow crinkling with concern.

“It isn’t possible,” he whispered.

“What isn’t?”

Seth met his gaze. “Their memories have been restored.”

David stared at him, the same disbelief Seth felt writing itself upon his face. “That’s not possible.”

“It shouldn’t be. We buried them ourselves.” So deeply the memories could never have surfaced again on their own. Nor with drugs. Nor with hypnosis. Not even manifested in dreams.

“Humans lack the ability to accomplish such a task on their own,” David said.

“Yes.” Rage began to simmer within him.

“Such could only be accomplished . . .”

“With the help of an immortal,” Seth finished for him, speaking the unimaginable.

Had one of their own turned against them?

David looked at the mercenaries in question. “Can you see who did it?”

The mercenaries’ faces contorted with pain as Seth ruthlessly tore through their memories.

“No.”

“We can’t let them live.”

Seth agreed. They had only let the mercenaries live before because their PMC was elite enough that Chris had feared the deaths of both men might draw too much scrutiny. But they had no choice now. No human with any memory of this operation could be allowed to live.

Seth stopped the men’s hearts.

David let them fall to the floor.

An immortal had aided the enemy.

The building around them began to tremble as Seth’s control slipped, succumbing to the fury and, yes, hurt, swelling within him.

A clap of thunder split the night. Then another. Cracks opened in the walls. Sheetrock fell from the ceiling.

David reached out and rested a hand on Seth’s shoulder.

They stared at each other.

Calm seeped into him from David’s touch, dampening some of the fury.

Seth took several deep breaths.

The building stilled.

Utter silence reigned outside for several long minutes.

Gradually, work and conversation resumed.

David shook his head. How could any immortal betray you like this?

Betray us, Seth corrected, feeling sick. Whoever it is has betrayed us all, put us all in danger.

After you helped him adjust to his new way of life and did a thousand other things to improve his existence and foster happiness and contentment.

Or her.

David looked as ill as Seth felt.

Boots struck linoleum, carrying someone up the hallway toward them.

They faced the doorway just as Chris stopped in it, garbed in black and carrying an automatic weapon. “Everything okay?” he asked tentatively. Only he would have the balls to approach them now.

Seth nodded as David dropped his hand.

Wise man that he was, Chris said nothing of the thunder and tremors that had resulted from Seth’s slip. “All is secure. The compound is ours and we’ve already begun the cleanup.” As his gaze strayed to the three dead men, he swore. “So it was them. How the hell did they regain the information? What did we miss?”