The left feed focused on an image of an industrial-sized, reinforced steel door. The door looked battered and scarred with scorch marks. Two people knelt on the floor on either side of the door, using blowtorches along the edges. Others surrounded them, facing outward with weapons poised.

The middle feed showed the giant underground parking lot, but instead of peaceful rows of parked vehicles, Vampyres fought and shot at each other. A few cars burned. Billows of black smoke made it difficult to see details, and when she could, several of the Vampyres moved so fast, they were blurs.

The third feed focused on a wide stone stairwell and more fighting. She caught sight of a few Light Fae guards, along with Julian’s salt-and-pepper hair and distinctive, powerful form in the middle of the undulating wave of people.

“These aren’t all the same place, are they?” She clenched her hands into fists. “That stairwell is the one that leads into the parking garage, right?”

“Yes,” Xavier said. He sounded as tense as she felt.

Someone took hold of her shoulder in a hard, steady grip. She jumped violently and whirled, but it was only Shane. His gaze was sober, even compassionate.

He said, “With your permission, I’ll put together a small team to send after councilman Leopold. Annis hasn’t left yet. Maybe she’ll agree to go with the team to convince Leopold it’s safe. Then they can evacuate together. You don’t need to be involved.”

“Good thinking. Thank you.”

She had already turned back to the battle scenes before his hand left her shoulder.

Xavier told her, “There are several layers of barriers that were built into the lower levels. The first set of locked doors is at the head of the stairwell, where Julian and his team are fighting right now.” He pointed to the feed on the battered door. “This is the munitions area. There’s a door on the other side of the garage that leads down a hallway to this place. Both of those doors are made of reinforced steel.”

“If this is a visual of the second door, you’re saying they’ve already broken through the first,” she said.

“Yes. Rocket launchers and other distance weapons are kept in there. If they break through and get into the munitions area, Julian will have no choice. He’ll have to retreat.”

Gavin leaned forward, until his worried face looked distorted in the feed, his forehead large and domelike. “Yolanthe and her group are just outside our doors. They were trapped, but now Julian’s attacking from the rear. Justine and Dominic have to deal with a fight on two sides now.”

Melly began to make sense of the feeds. Searching each scene, she muttered, “Where are they?”

Xavier knew exactly who she meant. He pointed to the top middle feed, showing the parking garage. “There’s Dominic.”

Despite the chaos of the battle, Dominic’s tall, athletic form, scarred features and blond hair were unmistakable. He wielded two swords with terrifying expertise. As Melly’s attention focused on him, he staked one Vampyre in the chest and slashed at another.

Xavier asked Tess, “Can we get sound on this feed?”

Tess leaned forward to tap on the keyboard. The tumultuous sounds of battle blared over the speakers, and quickly she adjusted the volume.

Melly barely noticed Shane’s return, even when he laid a hand on her shoulder again. Tension strung her muscles tight until her neck and shoulders ached.

An eddy of fast movement swirled through the battle. Suddenly Julian appeared, leaping over the heads of a cluster of fighters, sword in hand. While the feed was black and white, his fangs glinted long and wicked, and Melly knew his eyes would have turned hot red.

Landing, Julian moved toward Dominic, who focused on him and strode forward to engage.

Oh gods. Uselessly, she reached out to the screen. The blond Vampyre looked confident and lethal, while Julian was a juggernaut.

As they neared one another, Julian roared at him, “KNEEL!”

Even despite the physical distance and the all the noise from the rest of the battle, the savage Power in the command rocketed out of the speakers with such force, Xavier groaned and staggered.

All around Julian, every Vampyre fighter who heard the command reacted. Those visible in the feed slammed down onto his knees.

Except for Dominic.

He didn’t kneel.

But his forward momentum hitched for a critical moment.

Julian lunged into a blur and struck. Dominic’s blond head flew spinning from his shoulders, while his body froze in a posture of immense surprise before it vanished forever as it collapsed into dust.

Eighteen

U

sing the Power of the blood oaths he had taken as Nightkind King was Julian’s modern-day version of throwing sand in the face.

The Power command only bought him a few moments, and he doubted it would work again. He had felt the Power shoot out of him like a verbal bullet. It would take a while before he could pull that much together again.

Also, once Vampyres heard a Power command from someone who was not their sire, they instinctively fought to throw it off and were more resistant to hearing it a second time. The older and stronger a Vampyre was, the less effective Power commands were, until they worked only minimally or not at all, which was why Dominic had been able to resist kneeling, yet he had not been able to contain his reaction.

Julian didn’t pause to savor his victory over Dominic or wait for the Vampyres around him to recover. Instead, he spun to behead as many opponents as he could while they were still reeling and vulnerable.

He killed six before the command wore off. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the Light Fae guards who had joined his team were doing the same.

It turned the tide of the fight. As the other Vampyres recovered, they scattered.

Quickly he scanned the scene. If any of his direct progeny had heard the command, they would remain on their knees until he released them.

Julian didn’t personally turn many Vampyres. He didn’t like to carry the responsibility for them. Aside from Xavier and Yolanthe, he had only four other surviving progeny. They were all in the Nightkind guard, but none of them had been close enough to hear him.

He beckoned to his team, and they gathered around him, facing outward, weapons ready. As they did so, he noticed how Xavier’s humans and the Light Fae soldiers coughed. A few had tied cloths around their lower faces.

Rubbing his face with the back of one hand, he looked around. The air in the garage was hazy with black smoke from the burning vehicles. The quality of air, or lack of it, didn’t matter to him or to any of the other Vampyres, but it did to the rest of his team.