Page 76 of Don't Bite the Director
Bianca was considerably younger than Saiden, but a century or two made little difference after a certain point. If he made the slightest sound, she would hear him coming. His only option was to silently neutralize the human thralls before they could raise an alarm. A minor challenge for someone like Saiden. He wasn’t the West Coast enforcer because he had the stealth of a hippo. No one saw or heardhimcoming.
Saiden forced himself to hold still while he analyzed the movements of the thralls. One was headed closer to his position, so he blurred forward and dropped into a baseball slide beneath a parked semi-trailer. Emerging on the other side, his extended foot slammed into the back of the human’s ankle. Saiden caught the falling man and rolled to muffle the impact while he snaked an arm around their throat.
Thirty seconds later they were unconscious, hands zip-tied and mouth gagged with their own sock, and Saiden tucked them deep into the shadows under the semi.
Leaping straight up, his feet gently alighted on the roof of the trailer. Three quick skipping jumps took him from semi, to forklift, to stack of wooden pallets, then finally dropping down atop his next target. Saiden winced at the soft cracking of bone as he unintentionally snapped the human’s clavicle, but it wasn’t anything six weeks of rest and PT couldn’t fix. Though Saiden quickly clamped a hand over the thrall’s mouth when they fell, his knockout shot to the temple didn’t land before a muffled cry of pain escaped out into the once silent morning.
Shit! Sloppy, Saiden. Sloppy as hell.
He trussed up the second thrall while he cursed his lack of control.I’m better than this, he thought, gently lowering the man into a nearby dumpster.
A dozen tingling daggers of ice suddenly plunged into his lower back.
In a flash, Saiden leapt up, kicking off the lip of the dumpster to flip backward through the air. His hands snapped out as he tumbled end over end, snatching a Mossberg pump action shotgun from the hands of the shocked human who had the weapon poised to fire.
Gripping the barrel with one hand, Saiden slammed the butt of the gun into the base of the man’s skull and grabbed their collar with his free hand, quickly easing them to the ground.
The three pawns were off the board which meant Saiden could hunt the queen bitch next.
If he was smart, he wouldn’t even confront Bianca. He’d take her out from a distance before she even had a chance to run. But this wasn’t a cold, calculated execution. This was personal. Bianca stole his mate’s mortal life and sentenced him to death. He was going to look her in the eyes when he killed her, and if that meant he burned too, then so be it.
Climbing atop a two-trailer semi, Saiden leapt from the massive truck onto the roof of the Hydra Warehouse. With all the agility of a ninja-trained jungle cat, he landed in a soundless crouch.
Holding his position, he switched his focus and allowed the noises inside the warehouse to filter up from below.
Well, shit.
Bianca wasn’t even trying to be quiet. In fact, she was singing.
Saiden felt the enchantment in her song reaching for him, whispering sweet promises, but he slapped the side of his face, and the siren call slid right off him. He knew then just how easily she could have gotten to Donna. Bianca’s voice was so powerful that most vampires aside from the oldest would fall at her feet, slaves to her bidding.
It didn’t forgive anything Donna had done, though. The bitternesshe’d heard in the older woman was all her own. Bianca just took advantage of it.
He let his ears focus on the words of the gentle lullaby she was currently crooning. The lyrics sent a chill down his spine.
He clearly hadn’t been as stealthy as he had hoped. Bianca knew he was there.
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat,
How I wonder where you’re at.
Up above the roof so high,
Like a demon in the sky.
Saiden let the song fade from his focus while he revised his next steps. He’d been aiming for the element of surprise, but that plan went out the window along with his patience. If Bianca wanted to get this over with, fine by him.
Saiden checked the small failsafe that was secured to his chest, then zipped up the leather jacket. All pretense of stealth was abandoned when he strolled over to the nearest skylight and shattered it with one well-placed kick. As the glass rained down into the open warehouse below, Saiden tossed in a flash grenade along with it, allowing the falling shards to mask the incoming explosion.
Crouching on the roof, hands clamped tight to the side of his head, he braced himself for the deafening sound.
As soon as the ringing in his ears faded enough for his heightened senses to return, Saiden dropped into the warehouse. Landing on the concrete floor, the broken bits of glass fanned out around him. His eyes swept the darkened space but registered no movement. The place was completely vacant save for an office door at the back, rows ofempty shelves, and a dust-covered conveyor belt. Nowhere for him to hide, but nowhere for Bianca to hide either.
He maintained his position, assessing any tactical advantage to making a move. She was here somewhere. In his current position, she would have to reveal herself to attack.
“Come out, come out, and play,” he whispered, hoping to appeal to her unhinged side that saw all this as a fun little game.
He closed his eyes, directing his energy to searching the silence for any hint of her location.
