Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [607]
“I guess beggars can’t be choosy,” she muttered, stuffing the weapon into the waistband of her jeans.
She went back to Nikolai and started unlocking his restraints. When she freed his hand, she was stunned to feel it clamp down around her own.
“Leave,” he snarled viciously.
“Yeah, that’s what we’re working on here,” Renata replied. “Let go so I can unlock the rest of these damned things.”
He sucked in a breath, a low hiss that made the hairs at her nape prickle to attention. “You… leave … not me.”
“What?” Frowning, she pulled her hand free and leaned over him to loosen the other restraint. “Don’t try to talk. We don’t have much time.”
He gripped her so hard she thought her wrist would snap. “Leave. Me. Here.”
“I can’t do that. I need your help.”
Those wild amber eyes seemed to stare right through her, hot and deadly. But his punishing grasp eased. He fell back onto the bed as another convulsion racked him.
“Almost done,” Renata assured him, working quickly to unlock the last of his bonds. “Gome on. I’ll help you up.”
She had to pull him to his feet, and even then he didn’t seem steady enough to stay upright, let alone make the hard dash their escape was going to call for. Renata gave him her shoulder. “Lean, Nikolai,” she ordered him. “I’ll do most of the work. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
He growled something indecipherable as she wedged herself under his bulk and started walking. Renata rushed for the stairwell. The steps were difficult for Nikolai, but they managed to make it down them all with only a few falters.
“Stay here,” she told him when they reached the bottom.
She sat him down on the last step and dashed out to clear their path to the shipping and receiving bay. The office at the end of the hall was still empty. Beyond the access door, however, the driver was still talking with the guard on duty, both of them anxious due to the bleat of fire alarms pealing all around them.
Renata strolled out with the tranquilizer gun drawn. The vampire saw her coming. Faster than she could react, he had drawn his pistol and fired off a shot. Renata hit him with a mental blast, but not before she felt a ripping heat slam into her left shoulder. She smelled blood, felt the hot trickle of it leaking down her arm.
Damn it—she was hit.
Okay now she was really pissed off. Renata blasted the vampire again and he staggered to one knee, dropping his weapon. The human driver screamed and dove behind the truck for cover as Renata strode forward and shot the vampire with two tranq rounds. He went down with barely a whimper. Renata walked around to find the driver cowering by the wheel.
“Oh, Jesus!” he cried as she came to stand before him. He put his hands up, face slack with fear. “Oh, Jesus! Please don’t kill me!”
“I won’t,” Renata answered, then shot him in the thigh with the tranq.
With both males down, she ran back to get Nikolai. Ignoring the screaming pain in her shoulder, she hurried him into the receiving bay and shoved him into the back of the supply truck where he’d be safe from daylight outside.
“Find something to hold onto,” she told him. “Things are going to get bumpy now.”
She didn’t give him a chance to say anything. Working quickly, she slammed the doors and threw the latch, sealing him inside. Then she jumped into the idling cab and threw the vehicle into gear.
As she crashed the truck through the receiving bay’s door and sped up the drive toward escape, she had to wonder if she’d just saved Nikolai’s life or condemned them both.
CHAPTER
Sixteen
His head was beating like a drum. The constant, rhythmic pounding filled his ears, so deafening it dragged him toward consciousness after what seemed like an endless, fitful sleep. His body ached. Was he lying on the floor somewhere? He felt cold metal underneath his naked body, the heavy bulk of cardboard shipping crates jabbing into his spine and shoulder. A sheet of plastic