"No theatrics," Saint growled, a command more than a warning and I growled right back at him like the animal I was.
"Stick to the research part of this plan," I muttered. "And leave the heavy lifting to the career criminal."
"There's a delivery truck approaching the rear entrance," Monroe interrupted us and I could practically see his stern teacher face as his jaw ticked over our bickering.
I tuned them out as the others kept watch on the building, all of them moving towards the emergency escape as they waited for me.
I didn't have to take the vents very far, pausing at the first grate which looked down into one of the white corridors inside the building. The lights were low due to the late hour, but the place wouldn't be entirely deserted even in the dead of night. They had workers here around the clock, desperately trying to create the vaccine the world was waiting for. And we had a damn good idea on what - or rather who - they were using to create it.
But fuck that. Fuck the world if the price of saving it was her. She was worth more than every other fucker on this miserable planet and I wasn't ever going to apologise for believing that. She was it for me. It might have been selfish and greedy, but I didn't care because my love for her was those things and more. If the creation of this vaccine required a sacrifice, then let it be anyone at all besides her. Let it be everyone besides her. Because without her, as far as I was concerned there was no world. At least not one I had any desire to exist in.
I yanked the grate covering the vent free and dropped down into the darkened corridor as silent as a wraith.
There was a distant bleeping which continued in a repetitive tone from somewhere further down the corridor, but aside from that this floor seemed silent.
A CCTV camera looked down at me from the far end of the hallway but I ignored it - Saint had already taken care of the surveillance systems for us and I was concealed all in black anyway.
My fingers twitched with the desire to start hunting the rooms on this level of the building for any sign of my girl and I gritted my jaw against my need to do that. I had to stick to the plan. I blew out a frustrated breath as I forced myself to turn away and headed for the door that led to the emergency escape stairs at the rear of the building.
I slipped inside the darkened stairway, the dim, red lighting just letting me see the stone steps as I headed down them at a fast pace.
My footsteps were silent as I descended, my breathing controlled, just the way Niall had taught me. Even with my girl's life on the line, I wasn't going to get sloppy. Especially with her life on the line. The skills I'd earned in blood and bone were worth every moment of suffering on my part if they equalled her life now and I wouldn't let her down.
The acrid scent of cigarette smoke twisted into my nostrils as I made it to the top of the final flight of stairs and I fell still as I noticed a faint blue light mixing with the red coming from somewhere below me.
A half-hearted snort of laugher came next and my pulse leapt as I realised there was someone down there, taking a smoke break and checking out their TikTok feed if I had to guess.
The smart choice would have been for me to hold my ground, wait for him to finish up and fuck off.
But I never had been praised for making smart choices.
My blood was pumping with heat and the desire for violence and I was helpless to resist its call.
With a shiver of anticipation, I continued down the stairs.
I moved silently, my back to the wall and my bulk hidden in the shadows as I closed in on my prey.
When I finally spotted them standing at the foot of the stairs right by the emergency exit, my heart leapt. Not one asshole. Two.
All the better to feed the demon in me.
A grim smile captured my lips as I thought of my girl being held here by these thugs and before I could even consider second guessing my choice, I pounced.
My fist collided with the closest guy's face hard enough to send his skull crashing into the wall beside him and he crumpled to the ground with a cry of pain, the cigarette and cell phone falling to the floor.
The second guard had time to wrench his pistol from his waistband, but my hand closed around his on the butt of the gun before he could even aim it my way.
I used my momentum to slam the gun into his face, locking his fingers in place so he couldn't reach the trigger and spilling blood which made him yell as something most definitely cracked. But before he could get another sound out, I was whirling him around, wrenching the gun from his grip and throwing him face first into the wall.
He staggered away from it, his back to me for the briefest moment, giving me the opportunity I needed to throw an arm around his neck and lock it in place by grasping my wrist in my other hand and exerting enough pressure to cut off his airway.
The guy kicked and flailed, clawing at my arm as he struggled for a breath I wouldn't allow him to take and I just smiled as I thought of my girl, of laying his body at her feet and showing her what depths I'd fall to just to ensure she was safe.
Movement in the shadows to my left drew my attention to the asshole I'd first hit as he scrambled for the radio at his belt and I grunted a curse as I dragged the guy I was strangling towards him and threw a boot into the side of his head.
He fell still just as the fucker I was holding gave in to oblivion too and I dropped his unconscious body on top of his friend, panting with exertion and smiling like a demon.
I wanted more. Wanted to spill their blood across the ground and paint myself in it. But I forced my attention back to the door instead, ignoring Saint's demands to know what was going on as he hissed them through my earpiece and I pushed it open.
Blake slipped inside first, his features fully concealed by a ski mask too, and he had the addition of a military grade gas mask as well, but I knew my brothers by aura alone. There was something tangible about this connection between the four of us and I didn't need to ask to know which of them was close to me at any given moment.
"Shit," he murmured, looking down at the two guys I'd taken out as Monroe and finally Saint moved inside too, closing the door behind them.
"Are they dead?" Monroe asked, the lack of emotion in his voice saying he didn't much care either way.
"Not yet," I replied just as Saint threw a solid punch into my gut and got up in my face.
He really did look like a devil with nothing but his eyes on show beneath that mask, the red emergency lighting glowing in his pupils as he glared at me.
"What did I tell you about keeping a low profile?" he snarled.
"I didn't cut their throats," I pointed out. "I didn't fill them with holes like I ached to. So maybe you should stop freaking out over a few pricks getting their asses handed to them and focus on what's important."
Saint scoffed angrily then dropped down without another word, pulling a coil of fine, black rope from his pocket and quickly hog tying the two of them before slapping a piece of black tape over their mouths in case they came to.
“Where the fuck is your gas mask?” he growled at me.
“Must have forgotten it in the truck.” I shrugged, watching the way his eyes flared with rage and kinda hoping he’d punch me again. The beast in me was desperate for blood and pain tonight and that little tussle with the unconscious men at our feet hadn’t even whetted my appetite.
Saint took a moment to decide whether or not he wanted to have this argument. We’d had it every single time we’d come out hunting for our girl and he hadn’t won yet, so he had to know it was a waste of time. I’d already caught the Hades Virus and survived; it might have fucking sucked and made me as sick as a dog, but it came with the perk of me being immune now. Though Saint liked to get his panties in a twist over the possibility of my immunity not being all that great. But like I’d told him – I didn’t give a shit and I wasn’t wearing that fucking mask. It reminded me too much of the skull mask I’d had to wear at Royaume D’élite and the things I’d done there. Now that we’d had to put our vendetta against them to one side, I had no desire to live in those memories.