Maybe he’d seen a squirrel.
“Listen,” Apex whispered. “I need you to focus.”
When the male just blinked, Apex grabbed the head by the puss and thanked God they were downwind of the guard who was getting out from behind the van’s wheel.
Slapping a hold on the side of Kane’s neck, he jerked him close.
Staying quiet, he tried to communicate with his eyes: Now. Do what you did,now.
There was a sudden flash of recognition, as if something within the guy responded to exactly the demand that Apex was attempting to send through the thin air between their faces.
After which Kane’s expression changed, a dark intent coming over him.
The male rose up and turned away, moving in total silence around the back of the SUV. The sounds of what happened next were music to the ear: Gasp. Grunt. Another flop onto the pavement.
The scent of fresh vampire blood blooming in the air.
Apex left Kane to it, and leaned over the guard. The weapons strip took seconds because he just transferred the belt holster onto his own waist. Then he looked over his shoulder at the rear of the hospital.
The exit he’d evac’d Kane out of was locked with a keypad combination that Mayhem knew, but Apex had never bothered asking for. No way to infiltrate there. There was another opening, however.
Apex glanced back down at the guard. “And I do have a knife. Thanks to you.”
Taking the blade out, he shifted his position to the male’s right arm.Moving down to the wrist, he yanked up the uniform sleeve, flattened the palm, and placed the knife directly over the wrist joint. Putting his shoulder into it, the cut went quick, the crack reminding him of a whip’s call.
He picked up the hand and turned it wound side up so the leaking wasn’t that bad.
At that moment, Kane came around the back of the SUV. There was blood on his chin and another head hanging from his grip. He didn’t look surprised, though. He seemed pretty damn satisfied with himself.
“What did you do with the body?” Apex asked.
“Stripped the weapons and rolled it under the van.”
Apex blinked and rose to his full height. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I love you.”
Kane nodded to what Apex was holding. “If you needed an extra hand, you could have just asked for help.”
“Funny. Very funny.”
With a grunt, Apex rolled the body of the first dead guard under the SUV. Then he threw the head in there with it, a basketball that bounced against something and clanged into the undercarriage.
“We’re going that way.” Apex pointed to the woods on the far side of the parking area. “And no, I don’t want to debate it. That’s how we’re getting in.”
Leaving Kane in the dust, he figured the guy was welcome to beat his head against the entrance to those private quarters, or to try to get in through the first floor they’d been on, but the guy wasn’t going to get far. The underground levels of the building were as secure as a bank vault.
And daylight was coming fast.
Just as Apex came up to the tree line, he heard approaching cars, and a quick glance over his shoulder informed him that not only had Kane decided to follow-the-leader, but the wolven had showed up again—andthe male had easily four times the number of weapons he’d brought with him.
Guess he’d been busy taking out threats Apex hadn’t sensed and certainly hadn’t seen.
Turning away, Apex disappeared himself into the trees, and the other two were tight on his heels as a pair of vehicles came around to the rear of the building. Looking back again, he was glad they were downwind and therefore their position was somewhat secure because the shit was going to hit the fan. Vampire noses were so precise, it was easy to tell the difference between fresh blood, as in minutes or moments old, and anything that had been spilled an hour or two or five ago. This new set of guards was going to know that the killings had just happened, and conclude that either someone else had escaped or somebody was trying to get in.
“We’re almost there,” Apex muttered as he pressed on through the trees and scrub brush.
It took no distance at all to start the decline, and as the terrain took on a steep angle, the foliage got thicker. Shoving branches out of the way, Apex ducked and weaved, and when his boots skidded, he used the tree limbs and trunks to catch himself. The scents of earth and greenery irritated his nose, reminding him that for all his singular focus, there were always things getting in the way. Always things in his fucking path. Always obstacles.
Eventually, the slope poured itself into a flat plane.