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Voices rumbled above AShe also couldn’t call for help telepathically and worried that no one would hear her even if she could Seth and David were in Ecuador, most likely unreachable Étienne and Lisette, the only other telepathic immortals in the vicinity, had both been incapacitated by the drug Or worse
Don’t think like that The immortals aren’t dead Marcus isn’t dead You just can’t sense hi
A door slammed upstairs Had the vampire left?
Ami hurried to the closest table and searched the various tools upon it for sorabbed a pencil--it would do in a pinch--but kept foraging Moving on to some drawers, she slid them open as quietly as she could
Score! Scalpels With one in each hand, she tiptoed to the lab’s entrance and peered down the hallway It was just long and wide enough to fit a washer, dryer, and folding table, confir her belief that she was in the basement of a house The ce and open door
Alued to the doorway
Wood creaked above her as footsteps crossed the ceiling, acco
One by one, she scaled the steps, glad they weren’t wood so no squeaking would give her away Her heart pounded heavily in her chest, feeling twice its normal size This was her only chance The house--or whatever this was--sounded e how long it would reht send some of his flunkies over to keep an eye on her
As treulfed her Foul nausea assailed her Gritting her teeth, she leaned against the wall for ahand across her dao, she ordered herself
Straightening, Ami took a step forward
A shadow filled the doorway
Montrose Keegan’s eyes widened behind his glasses "Oh, shit!"
A the revolver he raised too late A report pierced her ears Fire burst into life in her sto over in agony, Ami stues slammed into her back, her head, her hip as she tumbled down the stairs A bone in her left forearh the skin just before she rolled across the base machine
Tears streamed from her eyes as she curled into a ball and drew her broken ar, but she couldn’tHer breath ca into the bullet wound in her abdoaze, she looked around
Montrose, pale as un in a death grip
Ami had lost the scalpels on the way down, but could see one resting on the last step Her broken arm pressed to her stomach, she scrarabbed the weapon Montrose hurried doard her As she rose, more loud reports sounded One, two, three, four
More pain exploded in her torso like concussion grenades detonating Her breath left her lungs as she staggered backward, struggling to reony
A metallic taste filled herin and out Six shots, she thought di to her knees, she fell backward to the floor and clung tenaciously to the scalpel
Montrose approached her warily as she choked and coughed and tried to draw a breath "What are you?" he asked in a high, agitated voice
Ami strained to speak "H-h-human"
He shook his head "No human could withstand this No huun at her, either too rattled to realize he had no bullets left or hoping to bluff her into thinking he did "Are you immortal?"
She shook her head, unable to form another word
He leaned over her, reached for the scalpel
When his hand was only inches froed upward and buried the scalpel in his stoer convulsively, producing a series of clicks as the hammer fell on one eering back, he stared in horror at thefrom his paunch
Ami moaned and rolled to her side, then drew her knees up under her and retrieved the gun
"Helphysteria
With the aid of the stairs, Aain her feet Dizziness heaved the room around her up and down, side to side While Montrose pleaded for her aid, she tottered forward and slaainst his temple
The scientist dropped like a stone
Ami tumbled after hih her, nuled to breathe, to find the will to rise again, one word sounded in her ain
Marcus Marcus Marcus
Voices
Taut Frustrated Angry Concerned
Marcus struggled toward the in a sea of viscous tar He could sense the surface soh hands held his ankles, preventing hi it
A name teased his ears and pierced the blackness