Night Shadow (13 page)

“Shit. Kiersted and Ginsberg?”

“In unit one eight six. Stil puking their guts out while sitting on some little

old lady’s circa 1970 Naugahyde sofa. In the dark. With no heat.”

“Poor delicate little flowers,” Alex said unsympathetically. “You sick, too?”

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Night Shadow

“Hel n—Yeah,” Daklin admitted. “Big time. Had me on my knees wishing

for death for about ten minutes.”

“Fuck.”

Lexi’s shiver had little to do with the cold. She shot a glance down the row

of identical blue-doored storage units to what she could see of a cement

building some three hundred yards away, at the end of the driveway/alley.

The narrow slice of the warehouse she could see was blank. No door, no

windows.

“Same as the warehouse in Rio?”

“Yeah,” Alex said, clearly thinking. “There was only the one door. Probably

same goes here.”

“Didn’t see even that,” Daklin said shuddering. “How the hel did you even

know the place was here?”

“The guy Lexi tangled with in the surf last night had a tattoo on his left

wrist. Lexi drew it out for me. Photographic memory, ya know? Didn’t

make sense until I slept on it.”

“We got that it was a bar code,” she told the other man. “But I don’t get

what that—God. The
numbers
! I only remembered part of them—35 53 28

106 17 5—Ah.” The lightbulb went off.“That’s the longitude and latitude of

Los Alamos, isn’t it?”

“Enough of it to make an educated guess. Yeah.”

She fel against the back of her seat. “Wow. You
are
good.”

His grin was sexy as hel . “Intel is looking at the footage of all the

bombings in the last six-month period. Checking to see if all the tangos

are about the same age, left-handed, and have tattoos on their wrists.”

Lexi’s heartbeat sped up with excitement. “Bet they do.”

“I’l take that bet and raise you a thousand bucks,” Asher Daklin said

grimly. “But what does that give us?”

“A mystery wrapped inside an enigma.” Alex opened his door. Iced wind

howled straight through Lexi’s clothing, but that wasn’t what made her

shudder. There was no T-FLAC training, no simulations, for what they

were up against.

“Come on, children, let’s go find ourselves a powerful wizard and whip his

ass.” Glock in hand, Alex waited for Lexi and Daklin to join him.

“This is total y insane, you know,” Lexi told him, shrugging into a jacket

made from LockOut and keeping up with his long strides in the crisp snow.

Her lungs burned and her eyes smarted, but her blood pumped hard and

fast in an excited race. “I do
not
want to be down on my knees puking up

wizard doodoo.”

“Suck it up, Stone,” Alex told her, picking up his pace. “This is what us

macho operatives do.”

“Give me a number to call when it flattens you on your ass and stops your

heart.” She said it half joking, but Lexi didn’t find this situation at all

amusing. Exciting. Scary. Not funny.

“Call Mason Knight. His number’s on speed dial on my sat phone. He can

call my sister if necessary.”

Lexi grabbed Alex’s forearm. His skin was warm although he wore only a

T-shirt over his LockOut. She was so cold her teeth were chattering, and

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Night Shadow

her body felt tense enough to shatter as her muscles locked against the

cold. “Don’t joke about this. Whatever is held in that warehouse can kil

you. Us. Let’s call in reinforcements.”

She wasn’t a coward, nor was she stupid. And not being afraid of this

situation would be damn stupid. And risky. And utterly against the

freaking rules.

Assess. Plan. Execute
—basic as it got. Going in without backup when

whatever it was had already taken down three operatives was insane.

She walked between the two men. Al three had their weapons drawn, and

plenty of room between them should they need to maneuver. Training

manual page three hundred and eight. Not that a freaking bul et was

going to do anything against a force, a power, none of them could damn

wel
see.

For all intents and purposes Alex was her superior officer. She had to

fol ow his command. Even if she thought he was out of his mind for going

anywhere near the building.

What stunned and pleased Lexi was that Alex was treating her no

differently than he treated any one of the team. He hadn’t said go back

and wait in the car. Or stay right here until I check to make sure you’l be

safe, little lady.

He didn’t slow down, just kept walking. It was sort of like three cowboys,

guns drawn, walking down Main Street and the Big Shoot-out. Lexi,

instead of being one of the saloon girls, was one of the big, brave cowboys

about to whup the outlaws’ butts.

Felt good. Made her walk tal er.

“I don’t feel anything.” Daklin frowned.

“Nothing here now,” Alex agreed. “The power grid’s gone.”

“Does that mean the bad guys are inviting us inside?”

“Looks like.” Alex indicated a blue, garage-style door ahead that was up a

few inches. Daklin nodded. Alex raised his voice. “You girls in there doing

your makeup? Wanna go to a party?”

The door magically opened, and Ginsberg and Kiersted emerged. Other

than his scarlet nose Ginsberg was dead white, his eyes watering with the

cold. Kiersted’s white-blond hair was tipped with ice and his skin was a

pale, sickly green. They both looked terrible, and Lexi felt a surge of

sympathy, which she quickly squashed. They were working. Shit

happened.

“Think we need to call in the Wizard Council on this one,” Ginsberg said

flatly, hunching his shoulders against the bite of the wind howling down

between the low buildings.

“Think Duncan Edge should come in and save our butts?” Alex asked

mildly as his eyes tracked the area around them.

God, he was good. Lexi wanted to be just like him. A fantastic operative,

fearless, assertive. A leader his team would follow anywhere, anytime.

Kiersted nodded. “Council has to be brought up to speed on this thing.”

“Agreed,” Alex said softly. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with here first.”

He took in the group. “Feel anything? Anyone?”

Cold? Scared? Excited?

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Night Shadow

Lexi wanted to experience the strength of the force field. Not the hurling

part of the program, but she wanted a
sense
of menace. There was

nothing other than the marrow-gnawing cold, and a few swirling

snowflakes as the clouds rolled in and started lowering to dump several

inches of snow on them.

They all agreed there wasn’t a damn thing
to
feel.

“Let’s go in,” Alex told them, and they approached the building. “Headset

and lip mics.”

Lexi suspected they all expected to be struck down at any second. Alex

touched her arm. Just a slight brush of his fingers near her elbow. Lexi

paused to see what he wanted. “Stay by me, rookie,” he said for her ears

only. His green eyes looked translucent in the false dusk of the

approaching storm. “Don’t go off halfcocked.” His mouth was a tight, grim

line. “Understand?”

Of course she did. But then Alex knew that. He was worried about her.

The “rookie” was to remind both of them that this was her first op. The

“stay by me” was because he wanted to protect her.

Lexi’s heart swel ed. Appreciation for who Alex was tangled with what had

started as hero worship and was rapidly becoming something a lot less

manageable.

She held his gaze, the adrenaline drip starting to make her senses more

acute.
This is not a dril . Repeat. This. Is. Not. A. Dril .
Her heartbeat

started to race, and her skin felt sensitized even though Alex touched her

through her LockOut gear.

“I’l fol ow your lead.” There was more she wanted to say. A lot more. But

even if this were the time and place, Lexi wasn’t sure how she’d say it, or

the actual words required to do what she felt justice. “I trust you,” she

told him just as quietly.

He touched his ear to activate the mic. “Let’s crack this nut and find the

weevils inside. Daklin, Kiersted, Ginsberg stay together. Take east. Both

Stones west. Meet you in the middle. Go.” He motioned her to hug the

wall and keep moving.

Lexi hesitated. “Don’t you want one of the others with you as backup?”

“I have you,” he told her calmly. “That’s all the backup I need. Keep

moving, Stone, I’m not getting any younger.”

Eight

It started snowing in earnest. Big, heavy flakes that stuck to the dirty,

windblown mounds piled against the side of the building. There was a

door—
somewhere.
The single-story structure was as big as a city block.

Alex didn’t sense the presence of any wizards or Halfs. But
that
didn’t

mean anything. He and his team were cloaked. Any bad-guy wizards in

the area would do the same thing.

The arctic breeze sliced through the cotton of his T-shirt. Lexi walked

directly behind him, her light footfal s crunching in the snow. Alex liked

hearing her even, steady breathing in his ear. He’d purposely left her

channel open. Her respiration was up a little, just enough to keep her

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Night Shadow

sharp and focused. She was turning into a good operative. He had no

right, but he felt a ridiculous surge of pride in her.

She was bright and funny, and sharp. On her toes and wil ing to listen and

learn. Dammit to hel —he
liked
her.

He’d been in love once. That sure as hel hadn’t panned out, but then, he

hadn’t expected it to, right from the start. He’d enjoyed the heightened

awareness, he’d enjoyed the heat he and Kresley had generated in each

other. They’d been good together. In bed. Out of it . . . not so much.

A trial attorney, she’d been an intel igent, beautiful brunette, as

aggressive in the bedroom as in the courtroom. They’d seen each other

for two years. Alex couldn’t even remember why they’d stopped seeing

each other. The relationship had just petered out without fanfare.

He’d been in lust plenty over the years, but
like
? He considered it as he

visual y scanned the seamless wall of the building for ingress.

Using the tetrabyte image-capture feature on his headset, he transmitted

pictures directly to Montana for analysis. Not that there was much to see.

White snow, gray concrete wall. But those techs could find a gnat’s ass in

an image when push came to shove.

He mentally blocked the cold. Lexi wore a LockOut jacket. She’d be warm.

At least from the thighs up.

Looney-bird.
His lips twitched. Jesus.

Had he ever been in like with a woman he lusted after?

No.
This was a novel experience.

Preternaturally aware of Lexi directly behind him, Alex heard her foot slip

on the ice and shot his hand back to grab her arm before she fel . He

didn’t turn and only waited a couple of beats before he released her.

“Okay?” he asked only loudly enough to be picked up by the mic near his

mouth.

“Terrific.”

No argument there.

His heart kicked up. Suddenly a door appeared in the wall ten feet in front

of him. A door that hadn’t been there seconds before.

But there it was.

Come on in, said the spider to the fly.

Slowing his pace, Alex touched the control on the headset to include the

others. “Single door. West wal , midpoint. Teleport fifteen feet north of my

coordinate.”

Less than two seconds later the other three men joined them beside the

titanium door. Lexi came up next to Alex, her weapon held steady in her

black-gloved hand. White epaulets of snow decorated her black jacket,

and splotches of white dotted the LockOut cap she’d pulled over her bright

hair and down to her eyebrows.

Her gray eyes were huge and filled with banked excitement as she gave

him a half smile.

The urge to kiss her chil -reddened lips was ridiculously strong. Alex

resisted and turned back to inspect the door.

The titanium steel vault door—twelve inches thick and reinforced to

withstand the assault of a tank, or a more powerful wizard—stood ajar.

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Night Shadow

There was no door handle, and he couldn’t see any hinges. The sucker

was rock solid and unless one knew how to get in, impenetrable.

Whoever had instal ed it had been determined to keep everyone out.

Now, apparently, they were being invited in. The hair on the back of his

neck rose.

Fuck.

With abbreviated hand gestures, Alex indicated where he wanted

everyone to be positioned. He wanted Lexi back in Rio, but assigned her a