Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [703]
“Enforcement Agents,” she whispered. “Wilhelm said he would arrange for a unit to come in at sundown to work everything out with you.”
Andreas backed off her with a dark chuckle. “A death squad.”
“No,” she said. Dear God, she hoped not. “Nothing’s going to happen to you. I won’t let it. Andre—”
He wasn’t listening to her now. In fluid motion, he loped to the stairwell and started climbing the steps two at a time. “Get out of the house, Claire. Do it now.”
Like hell she would. She hissed a curse and ran after him instead.
He ducked into a second-floor bedroom at the front of the house, heading straight for the window. He tore off the UV-blocking shutters and peered through the mangled metal at the grounds below, swearing something nasty. Claire came up behind him just in time to see the black shapes of several armed agents scrambling in stealth formation toward the house.
Andreas wheeled around, the tips of his fangs gleaming behind his upper lip. Accusation glinted hard in his eyes. “Do they look like they’ve come to negotiate with me?”
Claire didn’t have a chance to answer.
Downstairs, there was a crash of breaking glass, followed by the heavy pound of boots hitting polished marble. The agents were pouring inside.
“What will you do?” she asked him in a tight whisper, feeling the energy in the room begin to heat up already. It was Andreas generating the strange crackle in the air. His fury was growing, bringing with it the terrible power of his pyrokinesis. “Andre, listen to me … you can’t continue like this. Please. I’m begging you—”
His face was fierce, eyes blazing. “Wilhelm Roth is the one who should be begging me. Not you.”
The thunder of footsteps continued on the first floor as the agents split up to search the house. Someone called for Claire, advising her to make her position known to the invading unit.
“Go on,” Andreas said. “Let them take you to safety outside.”
She knew she should. God help her, she knew with every scrap of logic in her mind that the smartest, most reasonable thing for her to do would be to let Wilhelm’s men escort her out of the house while they tried to convince Andreas to give himself up peacefully.
Her mind knew all of that.
It was her heart that hesitated.
“Goddamn it, Claire.” Andreas stalked over to her and seized her arms in a bruising grasp. He gave her a brisk shake. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
A shattering clap of sound exploded from behind her. Heat arrowed past her right ear, blowing strands of her loose hair into her face. She felt the sudden impact of the bullet as it missed her by a scant inch and slammed into the upper left side of Andreas’s chest.
“Nooo!” she screamed, horrified.
He staggered back on his heels, but the shot didn’t take him down. The mingled scents of gunpowder and blood filled Claire’s head.
They’d shot him.
Oh, Christ…no.
Blocking Andreas with her own body, she spun around to face the Enforcement Agent who stood in the open doorway of the bedroom. His huge black rifle was still aimed at Andreas, his finger hovering dangerously at the trigger.
“Are you all right, Frau Roth?”
For a long moment, she had no breath to speak. Her heart was jackhammering in her chest, her knees almost jelly beneath her. The agent spoke to her, but his focus was centered wholly on Andreas, who loomed behind her, throwing off heat like a furnace.
“It’s okay,” said the agent. “I’ve got him covered. He won’t hurt you anymore.”
The agent stepped farther into the room, cautious progress that brought him to within arm’s length of Claire. His weapon remained locked on target. As he neared, Andreas let loose with a feral-sounding growl. The heat that Claire felt coming off him before was getting stronger now, making the fine hairs at the back of her neck stand on end.
“Please,” she finally managed to croak. “You don’t have any idea what you’re doing. Put down your weapon.