Oliver's Hunger (Scanguards Vampires #7) (31 page)

For a second, Corbin stopped in his movements. “Nice try.”

“You assumed I came alone.”

A shot rang out. Corbin’s right arm, holding the gun, dropped as he cried out in pain, blood seeping from his shoulder. Ursula wrenched free of him, falling forward in the struggle. Corbin’s face distorted into a grimace, but it appeared that the bullet had exited his shoulder and was therefore doing no further damage.

Aided by his left hand, Corbin raised his gun arm again, aiming at Ursula as she tried to crawl to safety.

“You’ll never get her or the other girls.”

Oliver lunged and barreled into Corbin, knocking him to the ground. As Corbin hit the floor with his injured shoulder, he lost the gun. It skidded underneath the bed, out of reach of either one of them. Oliver was on him in an instant. They struggled, exchanging blows and punches too fast for the human eye to follow.

Oliver repeatedly pounded into Corbin’s wound, but the bastard was strong, and his left hook whipped Oliver’s head to the side. Using the momentum he had, Corbin rolled, and Oliver suddenly found himself underneath him, being pounded by the evil vampire’s fists.

Oliver kicked his leg up and managed to drive his knee into Corbin’s thigh, making him pull back for a moment. It was enough to get out from underneath him and roll to the side.

Corbin’s next blow missed, and Oliver knew his enemy’s strength was waning. Corbin knew it too. Oliver pinned him down with one arm against Corbin’s throat. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a stake. Corbin’s hand moved, jerking something from his pocket. From the corner of his eye, Oliver saw what it was: not a weapon, but a cell phone. Corbin’s arm pulled back like a pitcher, even though his range was limited.

“You’ll never find them!” he vowed and tried to smash the phone against the wall.

But Oliver slammed the stake into his heart and whipped around in vampire speed, catching the phone in mid-flight before it could hit the wall and smash to pieces. Beneath him Corbin disintegrated into dust.

Breathing heavily, Oliver clutched the iPhone tightly and stared back to where Corbin’s dust settled. “Maybe I should have mentioned that I was the catcher for my baseball team, asshole.”

Cain burst into the room, still holding his gun. “Guess I’m a worse shot than I thought.”

“Should have waited for me,” Thomas admonished on rushing into the room behind him.

“What took you guys so long?” Oliver growled at his colleagues, but didn’t wait for an answer and instead rushed to Ursula. “Ursula, baby. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

She reached for him, and he pulled her into an embrace. “I’m okay,” she whispered. Then her hands fisted in his shirt. “There’ll be a dozen vampires waiting for you at the warehouse in Oakland.”

“We’ve got it under control.”

She took a few deep breaths. “The girls. He said he’s taking them away. They were being loaded up somewhere. But he didn’t say where.”

Oliver raised his hand that held Corbin’s cell phone, then turned to face his colleagues.

“Thomas, can you crack the password on Corbin’s phone and see if you can find a trail? He wanted to destroy it, which makes me think there’s information on it as to the girls’ whereabouts.” Oliver ran his hand over Ursula’s hair.

Thomas took the phone. “No problem. Give me a few minutes.” He sat down on the bed and pulled out a small electronic device from his leather jacket, then plugged the attached cable into Corbin’s iPhone.

Ursula wrapped her arms around Oliver’s neck. “You saved me.”

Oliver smiled and motioned to Cain. “Technically, Cain helped me, but if you want to kiss me instead, I’m game.”

He had barely finished his last word, when Ursula pressed her lips on his and seared them with a kiss. Had Cain not been standing there, watching them, Oliver would have allowed himself to indulge in more than just a kiss. But the situation wasn’t over yet, and there were still innocents that needed saving.

As he looked to the hallway, he noticed several of Vera’s girls approach. “Shit, they must have heard the gunshot. Cain, I think you’ll have some cleaning up to do.”

Cain nodded when all of a sudden Vera burst into the room. Her gaze darted from Oliver and Ursula to Cain and Thomas then back to Oliver. “I found Ophelia dead in one of the rooms,” she murmured, shutting the door behind her. “A broken neck.”

Oliver closed his eyes. “Oh, shit. Corbin must have killed her.”

“Corbin? The new client you referred?” Vera asked.

“So that’s how he got in.”

Cain lifted his hand. “I’ll fill you in shortly, Vera. But first you and I will need to clean up.” He motioned to the door behind which Vera’s girls were still hovering. Oliver could hear their concerned voices through the door.

Cain ushered Vera out of the room, following her.

Oliver looked at Thomas who stared at his gadget, deep in concentration. Knowing he shouldn’t disturb him, he pulled Ursula aside.

“How did you know that Corbin would come for me?” she asked quietly.

“When I found Corbin had moved everything out of his house, I was close to going insane. I knew then that he’d set up the trap to get two birds with one stone: get me and Scanguards off his back, while snatching you to take you and the girls away.”

“I never suspected him being the boss,” Ursula admitted. “He was just like any other leech. He didn’t stand out.”

“I guess that was the point. He wanted to blend in so that he could keep an eye on things. I’m just wondering how he could hide the fact that he was an addict. I saw no signs in him.” Oliver couldn’t believe that he’d been so blind.

“Maybe he wasn’t an addict.”

“But how?”

“What if he never drank much of our blood?”

“Go on,” Oliver said with interest.

She lowered her voice even more, obviously not wanting to by overheard by Thomas, even though Oliver knew that his colleague could hear her if he was inclined to listen. “Remember when you used mind control to make me think you bit me?”

He nodded. How could he forget? “But mind control doesn’t work on vampires. The guards would have noticed.”

“He could simply have dug his fangs in on that side of the neck that was turned away from the guard, but never sucked on the vein. The guard would have smelled the blood because he punctured our skin, but we would have never known that he didn’t drink from us because he used mind control to make us think we sensed him sucking on our vein.”

“My god, you might be right. How else could he have maintained control?” He smiled at her. “You’re very smart.”

She returned his smile then turned serious again. “Will we find them?”

Instead of an answer, he turned to look at Thomas, who looked up from the phone at the same moment, a triumphant grin on his face.

“Got it!”

37

The truck stop along the freeway was busy. More than two dozen large trucks, most of them eighteen-wheelers, were parked in neat rows, many of them presumably resting there for the night. Some of the drivers were most likely already sleeping in their cabs, others still sat in the diner eating a late dinner.

Oliver pulled the minivan into the parking lot and turned off the engine. Next to him, Thomas peered out toward the trucks. Gabriel, along with Amaury, who’d come back from Oakland a short while earlier, having left a contingent of their staff watching the warehouse, sat on the back bench.

Ursula sat between the two large vampires, still not entirely comfortable with them, but she knew she would eventually get used to them. Oliver’s presence made her feel safe. He turned his head, as did Thomas.

“I’m afraid we have no information on what the truck looks like, but the email we found on Corbin’s phone said that somebody would deliver Ursula to this spot. Guess Corbin was still trying to protect his identity, because his note refers to a new guard bringing her in,” Oliver said.

“In that case,” Gabriel answered. “Why not give them what they expect? It’ll draw them out.”

Oliver nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.” He looked at her. “You’ll be perfectly safe. My colleagues will be ready to jump as soon as the guards reveal themselves. They’ll never even get close to you.”

Ursula nodded, having come to the same conclusion. “I agree.”

“Good. I’ll take Ursula out and walk toward the diner, crossing in front of the trucks and—”

“No!” she interrupted him.

A confused look crossed Oliver’s face. “I thought you agreed.”

“I want Gabriel to take me.”

When Oliver tried to protest, she held up her hand. “Hear me out. Corbin followed you, which means most likely he saw where Scanguards operates from. What if he’s seen your colleagues too? And what if he snapped pictures to give them to his staff so they can be on the lookout?” She pointed to Gabriel. “You told me that Gabriel came back from New York only a few hours ago, when Corbin was most likely already planning to snatch me from Vera’s place. He wouldn’t have seen Gabriel.”

Then she gave Gabriel a sideways glance and smiled at him. “No offense, but you look like you could be working for Corbin.” Her eyes wandered to the large scar on his face.

After a moment, Gabriel looked at Oliver. “She’s right. On both counts: Corbin wouldn’t have seen me, and I guess I do look a bit like a thug.”

Grudgingly Oliver conceded and stared at Gabriel. “Fine. But if anything happens to her, I’m coming after you.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes and reached for the door. He slid it open.

“Wait,” Oliver said and reached in his pocket, pulling out a stake. He handed it to her. “Just in case.” With one last smile at him, Ursula followed Gabriel out of the car. She stuffed the stake into her jacket pocket.

“I think you should grab my arm and pull me along,” she murmured under her breath. “Corbin’s guards weren’t exactly friendly.”

Gabriel took her arm and gave her a gentle shove forward. They rounded a few cars and came into view of the trucks. Slowly and deliberately, Gabriel led her between the two rows of parked trucks. From the corner of her eyes, she scanned the trucks for any movement as they continued walking. The headlights of one truck blinked on, then were extinguished again.

“This must be it,” Gabriel said under his breath and pulled her toward it as she pretended to move reluctantly. Despite the knowledge that she was safe and that the other men from Scanguards weren’t far, her heartbeat accelerated, and her palms became damp. With every step they took toward the truck that had flashed its lights, her pulse raced faster.

Suddenly the cab of the truck opened, and a man stepped down from it. When he hit the ground and walked forward, Ursula recognized him as one of the guards. Instantly, she froze. The guard, whose name she remembered as Marcus, flashed a nasty grin, having recognized her too. Then his eyes wandered to her companion, looking Gabriel up and down.

The click of a gun cut through the silence. Before she could react, a familiar voice addressed them from behind. “Ursula, my favorite of all.”

“Dirk,” she choked out before turning.

He stood several feet away from them, and was just emerging from between two parked trucks.

Dirk waved his gun in Gabriel’s direction. Ursula noticed that a silencer was attached to its nozzle. “And who’s this?”

“Must be the new guard the boss was mentioning,” the other guard replied.

“No, he’s not,” Dirk claimed.

Ursula’s heart stopped. Behind Dirk another man emerged from the shadows. Dirk motioned his head toward the man. “That’s the new guard. When the boss didn’t show up to hand Ursula over to him he followed his orders and alerted me.”

Marcus pulled his gun, pointing it at Gabriel who hadn’t moved. Now Gabriel spoke for the first time. “What makes you think that that guy is the new guard? Way I see it, I brought the girl, he didn’t.”

Marcus, clearly confused, moved his gun, pointing it at the stranger who’d sidled up to Dirk.

Dirk tilted his head to the vampire next to him. “Give my colleague the code word.”

“Emperors’ blood,” the stranger said.

“Fuck!” Marcus hissed and aimed his gun back at Gabriel, ready to shoot.

Faster than her eyes could follow, Gabriel lunged at Marcus, kicking the gun from his hand as a scuffle ensued. Fists went flying in such rapid pace that it almost made her dizzy. Their movements were a blur to her eyes.

To her left she saw two men barreling toward them: Oliver and Amaury. Thomas was nowhere to be seen. Seeing them too, Dirk dove for her, his intent clear: he wanted to use her as a human shield. He slammed his body against hers, temporarily robbing her of her breath.

Shots rang out, and with horror she saw that the new guard was firing in Oliver’s and Amaury’s direction. Her heart stopped.

“No!” she screamed, praying that none of the bullets would hit Oliver.

Dirk whipped her around, dragging her toward the truck, preventing her from seeing what was happening to her rescuers. She struggled against him, kicking her foot into his shin, but it appeared that it made no difference to her attacker.

“Ursula, no!!!” she heard Oliver yell behind her just as another shot was fired.

“Fuck!” Dirk hissed under his breath, but continued dragging her toward the door of the truck. “We’re leaving, bitch!”

She turned her head as much as she could and saw Gabriel still fight with Marcus. The new guard was engaging Amaury in a fist fight, and Oliver was nowhere to be seen.

“No!” she wailed, anger and pain surging within her. Where was Oliver? She couldn’t allow her mind to continue her next thought. Instead, she acted on pure instinct.

When Dirk slammed her against the door of the truck and released her for a second to reach for the handle, she slipped her hand into her jacket pocket. She turned, glaring at him. “Of all the guards I hate you most!”

When he grinned, mocking her, she spit in this face.

Her action distracted him for a tiny moment, but it was all she needed: she rammed the stake into his chest. With satisfaction, she watched as he turned into dust before her eyes.

Behind him, Oliver emerged out of nowhere, gun drawn. He froze in his movement, jerking the gun to the side, away from her. He’d been about to shoot Dirk in the back.