“I never miss an opportunity like that. When I realized that Sergio wasn’t going to play ball, I called a few of my followers so they could watch and learn.” Kasper leaned closer, dropping his voice. “From time to time, you’ll have to do similar things to show them who’s the master. If they don’t fear you, they’ll start to think they’re more powerful than you. You never want that to happen.”

Bile rose in Thomas’s stomach. He forced a few words over his lips to continue buying Eddie and his colleagues more time. “Just like you killed Wu, your attorney.”

“He deserved it. Greedy bastard. And what a sniveling little weasel. He found out that I had a twin brother, and he was going to tell Xander and the others. It would have undermined my authority.”

“I understand. And Keegan, when he came to San Francisco, you followed him.”

The smile was evident in Kasper’s voice when he answered, “As I told you before, that’s how I found you. At first, I wanted to help my brother, but when I realized who he was fighting against, I had to make a choice. I chose not to intervene. I couldn’t very well let you die. Besides, I was growing sick of sharing the throne with him. His antics were getting on my nerves. Brother or not, he had to go. Between you and me, Scanguards did me a favor by getting rid of him. And as an added bonus, they also killed the men who were with him. There were no other witnesses, and when I returned to my followers, they weren’t the wiser. Nobody knew of Keegan’s death, because to them there’d never been a Keegan.”

“So it worked out perfectly for you,” Thomas concluded.

“I couldn’t have planned it any better. Now you and I are reunited.” Kasper’s hand came up to cup Thomas’s chin, and he pulled his face back to him. He lowered his lips and Thomas felt an ice-cold shiver run down his spine.

A rumbling sound came from the outside, and Kasper suddenly pulled back. “What the fuck is that?” he called out to the hallway.

“The elevator!” Xander shouted. “It’s moving!”

“Shit!” Kasper cursed, then looked back at Thomas. “Make it stop!” he commanded.

Thomas used both his hands to catapult Kasper away from him, slamming him against a desk. “No!”

Kasper’s eyes widened, recognition illuminating them. “You betrayed me!”

“And now I’m going to destroy you!” Thomas promised and focused all his mental power on his maker, just as he heard the ping of the elevator announcing that it had reached the basement.

“Go to hell, Kasper, where you belong!”

42

Eddie nodded to Samson, giving him the signal to open the door. As it swung open, Eddie and Amaury rushed into the basement corridor, their semi-automatic guns pointed straight ahead while unleashing a barrage of silver bullets toward the unsuspecting vampires who were shooting into the empty elevator as its doors opened.

Several of their opponents fell instantly, disintegrating slowly as the silver bullets burned them from the inside, until their forms were mere ash. The others sought shelter in the offices lining the hallway.

“Did you leave me any?” Zane shouted as he charged into the hallway.

Eddie motioned to one of the open doors one of the vampires had disappeared into. “Be my guest.”

As Zane approached the room, covered by Samson, Eddie locked eyes with Amaury and pointed to another room. Amaury nodded.

Eddie pressed himself along the wall next to the door, then took a deep breath, steeling himself for the assault. In vampire speed, he whirled around, stepping into the doorframe, his eyes spotting his enemy instantly. His gun was pointed at its target, but before he could pull the trigger, a flash of energy pierced through his head as if somebody had stuck a knife into it.

Instinct told him that the vampire was attacking him with mind control, even though he’d never experienced firsthand what it felt like.

The pain that shot through him was something he’d never felt before. His knees buckled and his hand holding the gun lowered. At the same time, his own mind tried to ward off the attack.

But he wasn’t prepared.

Shit!

The vampire gave him a nasty grin, then he lifted his gun and aimed at Eddie. Frozen by the mind control the vampire exerted on him, Eddie couldn’t move. Fuck, he would die here without having had a chance to feel Thomas’s arms around him once more.

The sound of a bullet tore past him, and suddenly, the invisible chains that had held him in place loosened, and the pain in his head ceased. Stunned, he stared at his attacker and saw blood running from a wound in his forehead. The vampire’s eyes looked at him with a blank stare and then his face started crumbling from the inside, ash flaking off his skin, before he collapsed in a heap of dust.