Double Deception by Lovelace Merline

Author:Lovelace, Merline [Lovelace, Merline]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin Romantic Suspense
Published: 2011-08-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Once the cloud of bats whirred off, Rebel felt brave enough to pry off a few more boards. Not brave enough to climb through the window, however, until Blade returned. Maybe not even then.

She fished out her comm device, switched on its high-powered laser, and aimed the beam around the interior. The light barely penetrated the gloom. After several futile minutes, she switched off the beam.

Hopefully, Blade would find traces of rail tracks buried in the weeds at the rear of the building. They wouldn’t prove anything, of course. Just raise the interesting possibility that the curators of the heavily bombed Königsberg Castle could have trundled the priceless Amber Room panels out here to the Yantarny Mine for safekeeping.

“Find anything?” she asked when he reappeared.

“No railroad tracks, but something almost as interesting.” He eyed the gaping hole in the window. “How about you?”

“Winged creatures.” She couldn’t quite repress a shudder. “Lots of them. They burst out in swarms.”

“Which begs the question,” he said thoughtfully, “of how they got in. I’ll take a look.”

She was tempted to let him swing a leg over the sill and go it alone. The idea he might disturb another screeching, flapping dark cloud seriously creeped her out. She could almost feel nasty little claws tangling in her hair. All those sharp, rabies-carrying fangs sinking into her skin. Wondering why in the world devotees of vampire novels thought those bloodsuckers were sexy, she edged to the window and gave herself a muttered pep talk.

“You can do this. You scared them worse than they scared you. They’re gone. Not coming back.”

Besides, she couldn’t let her partner go in without backup. Or worse, let him see this girly side of her. Not that Blade would hold her bat-o-phobia over her. Or maybe he would. She wouldn’t put it past him to exploit this tiny chink in her armor.

The memory of their subtle and not-so subtle clashes over the years got her through the window. But the reassuring sight of his broad-shouldered figure fired a rush of more recent memories. Most notably those moments tangled in the sheets back in the St. Petersburg hotel and the lingering aftershocks of their kiss on the beach a little while ago. Ricocheting back and forth between her feelings toward the old and the new Blade, she followed him into a dark, dank cavern as long as a football field.

The stink was stronger inside. Sulfur, Rebel thought, her nose twitching, overlaid with damp and years of rot. Barely enough light came through the window to illuminate the layers of gray dust coating the entire interior. Blade switched on his beam, Rebel did hers, and still they could make out only dim shapes and shadow. The building had obviously been stripped of all usable or recyclable equipment, but they spotted what looked like the remains of a conveyor system toppled over onto its side. Above it was a series of rusted metal vats, some with crooked spouts hanging from them.

“This must have been a processing area,” Blade guessed.

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