My name is Darian. Please don't leave me. You must live through this.
Sofia began to scream as her nerve endings sizzled from the inside out. She strained and bucked against the bindings, her body seizing. Darkness lingered at the edges of her mind but refused to take her. Instead, the agony grew, tearing her apart, cell by cell, while Jilian's laughter echoed in her mind.
*****
The alarm sounded the second Damian materialized into the compound. He expected it to; he sensed Czerno as well as the Black God sensed him. He snatched Jake as a knife sliced through the air where the newbie appeared. Damian whirled, whipping out the sword at his back. He sliced through two vamps before shooting the other two in the small courtyard. Bullets rained down on them.
"C'mon!" He yelled and dragged Jake against the building and loosed part of his power to locate Czerno's position in the compound. Jake shot off a burst of rounds as several vamps raced across the courtyard, their red eyes glowing and growls loud.
"You okay?" Dusty's voice came across his earpiece.
"Great," Damian grunted. "You got the schematics on this place?"
"Here," Jake said, whipping out a PDA. He ducked into a doorway while Damian shot two more vamps and reappeared, the blueprints on the screen.
"Guide me in," Damian ordered.
"Tell me when you're ready for us," Dusty said.
"Will do. D out."
Jake led him into the Gregorian mansion, whose stone walls resembled an old school fortress. Czerno's affinity for castles meant they couldn't simply blow the place up and hope she survived an avalanche of stone. He had to find her fast.
Damian located the enemy ahead of them, shooting intersections clear as they reached them. Jake led him into a dark wine cellar, and they paused to reload. Czerno was moving somewhere behind the walls.
"There's another basement," Damian said, pacing the room in search of a door.
"It's not on the schematics," Jake confirmed. "You see a door?"
They heard a sound that made them freeze and look at each other. It was the scream of a soul dying.
"Sofia!" Jake breathed, guilt and anger crossing his face.
"Stand back," Damian ordered. "Cover the door."
He traced Czerno's path to locate the hallway behind the wall then placed his hands on the stones. They exploded into pebbles and dust. Light from the hidden hall filled the wine cellar. Jilian and a few other vamps were down the hall and turned as the stone wall caved. Sofia's anguished scream was still muffled.
"Sofia!" Jake shouted.
"D, watch out for Jilian. Czerno brought in fifty of his goons. Jilian's-" Dusty called.