The Burning City (30 page)

The desk.

June approached it, stepping over the toppled desk chair. Everything on top had been pushed to the floor, including the computer, the monitor lying broken against the wall.

“Underneath,” Rose whispered.

June’s skin prickled. She bent over.

“Where?” June peered beneath the desk. “I don’t see anything….”

June dutifully searched under the desk, running her fingers across the carpet. She tugged at it, testing to see if a piece was loose and could be pulled back, but it stayed in place.

“You have to tell me where,” June said.

Rose remained silent.

June attempted to push the desk across the floor in hopes of revealing something. She pushed it a few feet but found nothing. She got down on her knees and felt around on the carpet again.

“Underneath,” Rose whispered again.

June’s heart thudded in her ears, her breath quick from the exertion of pushing the desk.

She pulled out one of the side drawers. Papers fell out. She flipped the drawer over. Nothing.

She did the same with the one below it and pulled out the middle drawer beneath the desk. Pens and paperclips scattered on the carpet. Laughter erupted from the doorway.

June jerked her head up. The vampire who had been graffiti-ing the wall. She breezed past Rose.

“That’s the spirit!” the vampire called. “Destroy the lies!” She moved on down the hallway.

June looked down at the broad, flat drawer in her hands.

Something was taped to the bottom of it—a large manila envelope.

June stood and plunked the drawer on the desk.

“You put this here?” She scrabbled at the edge of the tape and started peeling it back. “You wanted me to find this?”

Rose continued staring, that same forlorn expression on her face.

June removed the envelope. The flap was tucked but not sealed. She opened it.

Inside was a half-size spiral notebook and a USB stick. June held them up. Rose was no longer staring at the desk but at the objects in June’s hands.

“This is yours?” June asked.

For the first time, Rose eased out of her corpse-like posture. She sagged, including her face, as though melting in relief.

“Micha,” Rose whispered, her voice filled with anguish. Her eyelids drooped.

Then, she faded—she didn’t vanish all at once, but lifted onto the air like a puff of smoke and was gone.

June stared at the blank spot where she’d stood, quietly amazed.

“You’re welcome.”

“Bit of an odd time for reading, isn’t it?” Occam said from the doorway.

June looked up. She sat Indian-style in the middle of the trashed office, the notebook open in her lap. Her eyes burned with unshed tears.

Occam leaned in the doorway, arms folded. Belle and Sam stood behind him. The commotion from the rest of the floor had dwindled. Maybe they were running out of things to destroy.

“She was set up.” June’s voice was thick. “The Institute, they tricked Rose.”

“Imagine that,” Occam said.

“She didn’t feed Micha to them. She was trying to do the right thing, but they had her cornered.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

“What is that?” Sam asked.

June touched the notebook. “She was keeping a record. She wanted to find someone to expose the Institute. She knew about the serum. They came to her and wanted her to work on the project, but she refused. So they threatened her.”

Sam moved into the room. He stepped over the mess, and she held the notebook out to him. He took it.

“They told her if she didn’t cooperate, they would give Micha the vampire vi—” She stopped short of saying “virus.” Occam was staring at her. “They would make Micha a vampire. After what happened to her sister, it must have terrified her.”

Sam flipped through the pages.

“One of the higher-ups came to her,” June said. “Her name was Lena Burke. She told Rose she wasn’t willing to work on the serum, either, and she would help expose them. She gave Rose the powder with the receptors in it. She told her it was a secret project they were working on that would block vampirism, and she should give it to Micha to protect him.”

Occam barked out a laugh. “There’s no such thing.”

“We know that.” June climbed to her feet. “Rose didn’t know that. She was frightened and desperate. She started giving it to him, but then she got suspicious.” She held up the USB stick. “She began testing the powder.”

Sam eyed the stick. “I take it those are the results of her tests? It could tell us a lot about that serum. The FBI would take a keen interest in it.”

“They knew she was a liability.” June squeezed the stick in her palm. “They knew she could expose them. That’s why they killed her. That night in the parking garage, they weren’t trying to kill me or Jason. When they saw she was helping us, they probably ordered the security guards to take her out. It solved their problem.”

Sam closed the notebook and held it out to her. “This clears her name, then.”

June took the notebook. “She doesn’t care if anyone in authority knows the truth.” She clutched the notebook to her chest. “Micha has to see this. He has to know his wife wasn’t using him as a guinea pig. She was trying to protect him.”

“This is all very touching,” Occam said. “However, there’s a man upstairs who’s very happy to see his brother and very distracted as a result. What would you like to do with him?”

June jammed the notebook into the back pocket of her jeans. She pushed the stick into a front pocket. No time for being emotional, like she’d told Sam. Focus on the enormous obstacle in front of them.

“He has a blueprint of the explosives,” Occam said. “I peeked. They’re on the desk in the office where he’s camped out. Sorry I couldn’t snatch them. That would have looked a bit funny.”

Sam turned to Occam. “Take me up to him.”

June stepped forward. “No, Sam.”

“I have to. I’ll go up and take my best shot. Maybe it’ll work.”

“We’re here to stop him from setting off those charges.” June gripped his arm. “We can’t kill him.”

“We have to kill him.” He looked into her eyes. “We can’t stop this place from blowing up without killing him. It’s not going to happen.”

“Then let Occam turn me now. As a vampire, I can take him on. Maybe.”

“No.” Sam pushed her hand off his arm. “I want you to get the hell out of here. You’ve done your part.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind? Do you think I’m going to walk out of here and let him kill you? We have to stop the bombs!”

“I can’t defuse a goddamn bomb.” He gripped her shoulders. “Certainly not as many as he’s probably got set up. The only way to stop this is to stop him, and then we can get people in here who know what they’re doing. I promise you, though, if he takes me out, he’s coming with me.”

“No.” She shook her head wildly. “No, Sam! That’s not how this works.”

“I have to stop him.” His voice cracked. “I let him kill my brother. I let him kill Muse. I let him kill my followers. I didn’t see what he was doing, for years. I was blind while he worked against me. I have to stop this, here and now.” The unshed tears in his eyes spilled over, slipping down his cheeks. “I can’t let him destroy anything else I care about.”

Tears fell from her eyes as well. “Then I’m coming with you. We do this together.”

Occam flung his head back, as though exasperated, and looked at Belle.

“We do this together,” she repeated, trembling. “Like we’ve done everything. If you go down, so do I.”

Sam pulled her against him. She wrapped her arms around him. His heart pounded against her chest, matching the rhythm of her own.

“Maybe one of us can survive him,” she said, muffled against his shoulder. “But if not, he won’t survive both of us.”

Occam sighed and stepped away from the door. He wouldn’t let June die, but maybe he wouldn’t let Sam die, either, if she begged him.

Sam drew back. He wiped his eyes and looked at Occam. “Take us to Robbie.”

Occam gestured dramatically into the hallway. “Right this way, fearless heroes.”

June felt like anything but.

Occam led them through the vampire floor, Belle at his side. June clung to Sam’s hand. She had faced certain death before and come out on top. She could do it again.

The vampires watched them pass. Logan smirked at them, standing in the doorway of the lab.

Occam led them to the elevator they’d come up in. They filed inside the car and the doors slid shut.

“Here we are again,” June said softly. “Part of me wishes we could let this place crumble.”

Occam stared at the numbers above the door. “Robbie will know you’re approaching as soon as we step out. I would strongly suggest you not go running at him with guns blazing. He’s certainly going to know your intentions.”

Sam wrapped an arm around June’s shoulders. “I don’t suppose we can disguise our thoughts from him? He’s too powerful for that.”

“You’re not powerful enough for that.” Occam huffed. “Let me do the talking, all right? It’ll at least keep him from immediately crushing you like a bug.”

June stared at the doors. A creeping sensation washed over her, like she could feel Robbie’s mind reaching out and gripping her.

The doors opened to a darkened hallway. Occam stepped out.

“His office is here.” He looked back at them. “Come on, you’re so eager to die.”

They followed him out of the elevator. June’s vision and hearing sharpened with the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Despite Occam’s suggestion, she drew her gun. Even if she was being bludgeoned to death by a telekinetically levitating chair, she would do her damndest to crack off a few shots at him.

They strode down the hallway, she and Sam holding hands again. Occam and Belle walked in front of them.

Someone stepped out of a doorway and June jumped. Not Robbie, a man she didn’t recognize. He fumbled for a gun on his hip.

“What are you doing in here?” the man demanded. One of Robbie’s two remaining lackeys.

Before he could pull his gun, Occam whipped one of the blades from his pocket and flung it at him. Like in the parking garage, it embedded in the man’s throat. He scrabbled at it, choking and stumbling backward.

June made a mental note: if she survived this, she was going to learn how to use a blade.

Occam walked up to the man and yanked the razor out of his throat. The man crumpled to the floor. Occam turned to Belle, giving the blade a quick swipe with his tongue.

“Go find the other one,” he told her. “Make him regret his life choices.”

Belle rushed down the hallway.

Occam motioned with the blade. “Come on. We’re expected.”

They continued down the hallway, stepping around the gurgling, shuddering man on the floor.

Occam led them to a set of wooden double doors and stopped. “Ready to make an entrance?”

Sam let go of June’s hand and gripped her arm. He pulled her toward him and kissed her, hard. She clutched his hair and kissed him with equal intensity, squeezing her eyes shut. Heroes had to sacrifice.

Occam made a disgusted sound. “Maybe you can just repulse him to death.”

They broke the kiss and June stepped back, taking Sam’s hand again. “I doubt Robbie is repulsed by much. That’s the advantage of being the most repulsive thing in the city. Let’s make sure he doesn’t offend anyone else.”

Sam smiled. “You did it.”

“Did what?”

“You said you always wanted to say something cool and inspiring. There you go.”

She grinned.

Occam pushed the doors open.

The room beyond looked like the office of some high-ranking official in some fancy government mansion. An enormous room, with bookshelves lining the walls and swanky furniture. Windows looked out on the nighttime city. Gigantic paintings hung around the room—one depicted Eric Greerson, another the man they’d met at the beach, Michael Paulson.

Robbie was certainly expecting them.

He stood in the middle of the room, facing the doors. His presence filled the air like pulsing radiation.

He was dressed startlingly normal: a pair of black pants and a white dress shirt. This made June’s brain short out. She expected something more—armor, spikes, a dragon’s spines, something. Not business casual.

The dark, ragged scar traversed his pale face. His eyes were as white as his shirt.

Anthony sat on a couch behind him, clutching the cushions. His eyes flickered like a strobe light.

“What are you doing here?” Robbie demanded as Occam strolled toward him. “How the hell are you here?”

Occam spread his arms. “Vampires, Robbie.”

Robbie jerked his head toward a huge desk sitting across from the couch. Papers were scattered across it. A phone sat there.

“No use calling your lackeys,” Occam said. “We already made snacks out of them.”

Robbie jerked his head back around to face Occam and gritted his teeth. He then stepped sharply to the side, looking at the two of them.

“You.” His voice was venomous.

Sam let go of her hand. “Me, Robbie.”

The doors slammed shut behind them, and June jumped. She fought the urge to lift her gun, because if she did, Robbie might rip it away. Not that he couldn’t take it from her side, but it was less a focus down there.

“What is this?” Robbie demanded of Occam. “Haven’t you tormented me enough? I don’t want anything to do with your precious siren.”

“She wants to do with you, though. I brought you your brother.” Occam gestured to Anthony. “Aren’t you grateful? It’s a family reunion.”

Robbie whipped his head around to look at Anthony, like a snake sensing prey. Anthony scooted across the couch.

“Did you know about this?” Robbie asked him.

Anthony shook his head, but then suddenly, began to choke. He gripped his throat, his eyes popping wide.

“Robbie,” Occam said. “Come now, let’s not be hasty. I’m not here to mess with you. I have a proposal. Hear me out before you strangle anyone.”

Robbie turned back to Occam. Anthony sagged against the couch, drawing heaving breaths.

“I completely understand.” Occam held up his hands. “You could kill all the humans in this room with a thought. You could tear their skulls from their faces. You could throw them out the window. I get it. Hell, I even appreciate it. Now me, you’d have to wrestle with a bit.” He smiled knowingly. “You couldn’t take me out so easily. Maybe not at all.”