Kathryn did as he asked, closing her eyes with an impatient sigh loud enough for Lucas to hear. But inside, she was trembling, her heart racing. She squeezed herself into a tight corner of the elevator, straining to see in the dark, terrified that Lucas’s luck was going to run out, that the next collapse would be one he couldn’t survive.
* * * *
Lucas crooked a smile at Kathryn’s sigh of exasperation, He couldn’t see her from the awkward position he was in, but he could hear her muttering to herself as she moved around. And he could sense her fear for him, the fear she was trying to cover up with her grumblings.
When he was as certain as he could be that she was safe, he stretched out his power and touched Nicholas.
“Sire?” Nicholas’s thoughts were tight with worry.
“Any complications from the human authorities so far?”
“A patrol car came out. Someone heard the blast and called it in. We had a nice chat, and they went away happy.”
“Excellent. Are you coming down the elevator shaft?”
“Yes. We had to move a few tons of debris first, but we finally cleared the shaft. We can cut through—”
“No. Kathryn’s in there. I’ll come to you.”
“You’re coming up?”
“After I move this fucking heavy pile, yeah. It’s going to be . . . bad, Nick. You understand?”
“Yes, my lord. I’ve got the copter on stand-by if we need it. Are we going to the ranch or staying in St. Paul?”
Lucas wanted to go home to his ranch in South Dakota, but it made more sense to remain in the Twin Cities. The sooner he reached safety, the sooner his body could start healing itself all over again, and he needed to get his strength back quickly. Klemens would know Alex Carmichael was dead, and he would also know that Lucas was not. Clearly he had planned on Lucas perishing in Alex’s suicidal explosion, but even though he’d survived, Klemens would assume he’d been injured, leaving him weakened and perhaps vulnerable to attack. Lucas couldn’t afford to be weak. Not unless he was prepared to surrender his people and territory to Klemens. That would never happen.
The ranch in South Dakota was his true lair, but the penthouse across the river in St. Paul would have to do. More than anything, he needed a safe place to rest while the vampire symbiote fixed what was wrong with his body.
“Make it the penthouse, Nick. As fast as possible.”
“Understood, my lord.”
“See you in a few.”
“Good luck, Sire.”
Lucas closed his eyes, picturing the crushing mass of I-beams, concrete and rebar that he’d seen in the light from Kathryn’s flashlight. And then he added in the distance between his current location and the nearest wall where the destruction was the least pronounced. He steeled himself against the inevitable pain. He’d told Kathryn his broken bones hurt like hell, but running on them the way they’d been healed was going to be so much worse.
“Close your eyes, Kathryn,” he called again, giving her a heads-up.
And then he moved.
A blast of pure power lifted the mass of wreckage above him with the groan of tortured metal and shattered rock. It was only a foot or two, and for only a few seconds, but it was enough for Lucas to spin face down and scramble on all fours out from under, reaching the relative safety of the wall with no more than a breath to spare as the massive weight came crashing down once again. The walls shook, and the ground shuddered under the tremendous impact. Everything shifted as the pile of debris settled into its new configuration, dirt and bits of concrete raining down on him like lethal snow.
“Kathryn!” he bellowed over the noise.
“I’m okay,” she called back. “Where are you?”
“Don’t come out!” he yelled quickly. “I’ll come to you.”
“Are you sure, I can—”
“Damn it, Kathryn. Stay there.”
Lucas crouched near the wall, knees tucked up against his chest, face buried in the protection of his arms until everything stopped moving. He lifted his head again. The air with still thick with particles of who knew what sort of garbage, but they had to get out of here. The pile hadn’t been all that stable to begin with, and he feared he’d only made it worse.
He forced himself to his feet, closing his eyes against the agony of bones that had healed bent and out of alignment. If he had to guess, he’d say every bone in his right leg had been broken, plus at least the femur in his left. And his pelvis felt like ground glass every time he moved. That was the bad news. The good news was that the damage to vital organs had been minimal and was already healing. His lungs ached, but that was probably due as much to the thick air as anything else. And his heart was sound. Otherwise, he’d be dead alongside old Alex Carmichael. He wondered if Kathryn had realized yet that Alex’s remains were part of the dust she was breathing in. He decided not to share that particular fact.
It took him only a few minutes, inching down the wall, finding his way around the few smaller piles of mostly concrete and crushed furniture that barred his way. There were some electrical wires tangled up in all the mess, but they were dead. Nick had probably cut the main line as a precaution. As Lucas edged into the open front of the elevator, he straightened as much as possible. He didn’t want Kathryn thinking too much about his physical condition. Didn’t want her paying too much attention to the state of his legs in particular. She didn’t need to know how bad it was.
She was sitting against the back wall of the elevator, head buried in her arms, her usually tidy ponytail hanging loose and disheveled. He smelled fresh blood and frowned. The wound on her arm was still leaking blood, and a nasty-looking gash marked her calf. It was the arm that troubled him the most. Even without a bandage, it should have clotted by now.
“Kathryn,” he said softly.
Her head came up, and he saw in her eyes what she’d refused to tell him when he was still trapped. A beautiful smile split her face, and she laughed as she jumped up and came into his arms.
“I can’t believe it!” she said, hugging him so tightly it hurt, but he held on anyway. “Does anything hurt?” she asked, moving out of his arms too quickly as she stepped back to survey his aching body.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” he replied truthfully enough. “We need to get out of here, a cuisle. I’m worried about this place.”
“Right,” she said, then looked at the crumpled elevator ceiling. “Um. You have a plan?”
Lucas grinned and grabbed a quick kiss that turned into a long kiss before he tore himself away. That damn chemistry again. Here they were buried in a hole of unstable rubble, and he still wanted her like he wanted his next breath. And judging from the high color on her previously pale face and the racing of her heart, she was feeling it, too.
“Escape first,” he said, dropping his hand to the swell of her perfect ass. “Sex later.”
Kathryn met his gaze, her chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. She licked her lips. “Right,” she said, never breaking eye contact. They leaned toward each other like two magnets, before seeming to recognize at the same time what they were doing and pulling away.
“Nick’s waiting,” he murmured, twisting a finger in her tangled hair.
“Okay,” she agreed, but neither one of them moved.
Lucas smiled slowly, the smile becoming a grin. “There’s a helicopter.”
“Even better,” she breathed.
“I’ve got to punch a hole in this damn elevator.”
“Sounds dangerous.”
“It is. A kiss will make it better.”
She gave him a lopsided grin of her own. “You think a kiss makes everything better.”
“Doesn’t it?”
Kathryn cupped his cheek and touched her lips to his. She opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted when Nicholas chose that moment to yell down the shaft.
“Lucas!”
Lucas rolled his eyes in disgust, but called back. “You ready, Nick?”
“Ready!”
“That’s my cue.” Lucas looked around for a likely tool and found a five-foot-long piece of heavy steel bracing that was ragged and torn at the ends. “Stand back, and cover your eyes.” He studied the enclosed space with a frown. “Better yet, stand just outside so you’re not underneath whatever decides to come crashing down when I do this.”
“What are you going to do?” Kathryn asked as she moved to comply.
“This,” he said, and rammed the piece of metal up through the top of the elevator, cutting through the damaged ceiling, shoving aside electrical wires and opening a hole. More junk immediately tumbled down into the elevator, concrete mostly, along with snaking lengths of thick, twisted cable that he assumed had once guided the elevator up and down.
But in addition to all of that came fresh air and, high above, the welcome sight of the night sky and Nicholas staring down at him with a worried look on his face.
“My lord!” Nicholas called, his voice full of relief.
“Send us a rope, Nick.”
“I’ll do one better, my lord,” Nick said and gestured to the side. Mason appeared overhead wearing a climbing harness with a heavy rope trailing behind him. He tugged the rope once, nodded to whoever was securing the lifeline, then slipped over the edge, falling freely for the first ten feet before the rope went taut, and he began to ease himself down toward the top of the elevator. Lucas appreciated the thought, but he wouldn’t be ascending in Mason’s strong arms, no matter how much his aching bones wanted to. But Kathryn would.
“Up you go, Katie mine,” he said, gesturing to Kathryn. “Your rescuer awaits.”
Kathryn eyed the big vampire doubtfully. “Can’t I just scale the side? You know, like a wall?”
Lucas shook his head. “Too dangerous. Too many hazards sticking out, live wires and such,” he added, lying just a little.
She frowned, but allowed him to boost her up and through the hole in the roof, where Mason waited. He had to grit his teeth as she went into the other vampire’s arms. It shouldn’t have bothered him that much, but it did. And the fact that it did told him she mattered more to him than he admitted.
