“Radu?” I cocked my head, because that particular brand of shrill entitlement belonged to only one guy.
“OF COURSE IT’S ME! Who else has been screaming for help for the last twenty minutes? Where the hell have you been?”
“Twenty minutes?” I repeated, in disbelief. Because whatever else could be said about the Senate, it reacted smartly in a crisis. “Who did you call?”
“Anybody! Everybody! What, do you think I’m going to be picky when I’m facing THAT?”
And suddenly I was getting not just sounds in my head but visuals, too. There was a stomach-churning second of disorientation as my head stayed completely still and yet also whipped around, and then I was staring at a glass wall in what looked like a lab. And on the other side—
“What the hell are those?” I demanded, staring through Radu’s eyes at a bunch of…well, they were vampires. I knew this because I’d seen them less than two hours ago, frozen on top of a building. Which was why it was a little odd to find them currently up and mobile and scratching at the glass, including one still half encased in ice—
“WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?”
I knew what they looked like, but that wasn’t possible, that was just crazy, because vampires didn’t—
Something dropped onto my back and I screamed and wrenched my jacket off, throwing it as far as I could and blasting the shit out of it at the same time. I stood there, panting, my eyes flicking around the room for the next target, and decided that maybe I could cut Radu a little slack. Because vampires didn’t form themselves into fleshy grenades and fly around, eith—
I stopped, having caught sight of the bag I’d dropped when the arm of doom grabbed me. It had somehow remained intact, maybe because most of the parts with the muscle were in the other one. But the face was still pressed against the plastic, and the staring blue eye was now…
Staring at me.
Son of a bitch.
“Hello? Hello? What’s happening? Why aren’t you talking? Are you coming to get me OUT?”
“Give me a sec,” I said, trying to line up a shot through a cracked windshield. It would have been easy—except that the air in front of me was suddenly full of flying flesh. It looked like a hurricane had hit a butcher shop, which freaked me out less than the fact that it knew.
“I DON’T HAVE A SEC!”
“Where are you?” I asked, waiting for an opening while a hail of bloody rain pitted the car.
“Where else? The morgue in the basement.”
“And that is how far from the carriage house?”
“I don’t know! I never come in that way!”
“Then look it up,” I gritted out, as something sizzled against the wall behind me.
“My computer is outside. Just ask one of your crew!”
I didn’t say anything.
“You…you do have a crew…don’t you?”
“Not exactly.”
“Not exactly? NOT EXACTLY? What do you mean, not—”
The rest of his diatribe was lost in the sound of a .45 obliterating an eyeball. And as soon as it did, all the little things fell to the ground, twitching aimlessly. And then finally went still.
Okay, I thought. All right. It looked like all those video games had had the goods, after all.
So, yeah. Easy.
I swallowed. “Radu. Tell me what level you’re on.”
“I don’t…It’s…it’s the next to lowest. I think…Yes, it should be fourteen on the elevator.” An ominous crack echoed through whatever crazy connection he’d been able to make. “Dory.” His voice had suddenly gotten very small. “Hurry.”