Sixty Seconds Earlier

Gena gradually regained her senses as she tried to remember what happened. She knew that she’d made it into the Tower, but before she made it far, she’d felt a hand wrap around her jaw. She prevented herself from grimacing as she realized that her neck had been snapped.

This was now her third time coming back from the dead. If she kept getting murdered at this pace, she was going to lose track. However, instead of focusing on the future, she needed to get out of her present situation.

She tried to gather as much information as possible without opening her eyes. First and foremost, she was being touched by at least one large man, who propped her up against a wall with a loose grip on each shoulder.

Her fingers subtly twitched and she felt the bag and sphere still in her grasp. At least she still had her leverage. She could hear the sounds of the party in the background, but she didn’t hear anyone too close to her. The man or men holding her were eerily silent. She didn’t even hear him breathe.

There were no more helpful clues she could gather through only sound and touch, so she took the chance and creaked open one eye until she could just see through her eyelashes. She noticed two men were in front of her, but neither seemed to be paying her much attention. Their sole purpose of standing near her seemed to be to hide her dead body from the guests’ eyes. Directly in front of her was the beautiful glass elevator Marcus had shown her just days before.

Her heart ached at the memory of her and Marcus, but she pushed the hurt aside. She had a job to do, and she’d damn well finish it.

The sound of the elevator doors brought her attention back. A woman in a body-clinging dress walked out of the open elevator doors. Gena saw her chance and took it without hesitation.

She ducked low and bolted for the elevator. Sure, vampires were fast, but they could be caught by surprise just like anyone else, and who wouldn’t be surprised by a woman coming back from the dead?

She let her momentum throw her full force into the glass elevator and slammed against the back wall. She turned just as the doors closed and heard the loud bang of a vampire slamming against the closed doors.

Her hand shot out as she hit the highest number she could find, wanting as much time to brace herself as possible. She caught her breath as she looked out over the Tower’s guests. Reality hit her hard when she saw that they looked right back at her.

In the back edges of the room, she saw the blurred figures that she knew were vampires running at top speed to get to her. With no time to waste, she reached into her bag and removed the glowing sphere. The soft orange light filled the elevator but was mostly diluted by the fluorescent overhead fixtures.

The elevator came to a soft halt at floor twenty-three, and she realized that security must’ve stopped the elevator from rising any higher. Gena held the sphere in front of her as her only defense and hoped for the best as the doors slid open.

She’d need all the luck she could get. There were a good dozen vampires on the other side of the door, all looking rather pissed. In the front of all of them was a stunning blonde woman with her hair tightly pulled back; her flowing black dress had a high slit up the thigh. A gun holster poked out of the slit, but she had a feeling the holster was empty because the blonde held a nasty-looking pistol, pointed directly at Gena.

“Slowly walk toward me,” said the blonde menacingly.

Gena complied and gradually walked out of the elevator, but stopped just after her feet crossed the threshold. She held the sphere up a bit higher in front of her. “Back off.”

The blonde looked curiously at the sphere. “What the hell is that?”

Before Gena could say anything, a man’s voice said, “Give that to me.”

Obviously the blonde was no rebel. This man was. Gena looked him over and realized that she recognized him. He’d been on guard duty when Marcus and she had visited the Tower. She recognized him by the hint of tattoos that poked out of his collar.

Now that she had seen the numerous tattoos on the other rebels, she realized they must mean something, though she had no idea what.

The man started to approach her and Gena lifted the sphere higher in the air. “One step closer and I’ll break it,” she threatened.

He snarled at her, but did stop in his tracks.

“What are you doing, John?” The blonde stared cautiously between the two of them.

“You have no idea what we are dealing with,” he warned.

The blonde gave Gena another once-over before she turned her gun on John. “Why don’t you explain it to me?” She cocked the weapon.

He didn’t seem worried, and in seconds it was apparent why. Eight of the other men reached into their tuxedo jackets and pulled out guns of their own. The other two men positioned themselves behind the blonde and drew their own weapons.

Though the blonde and her men didn’t seem fazed in the slightest, they were grossly outnumbered. “Get the fucking gun out of my face,” she said. “I’m not sure if you know much about me, but I do not tolerate fools, and trust me when I say that you’re being a damn fool right now.”

With those fierce words, Gena realized that she was dealing with the Ironheart woman that Marcus had talked about. Though she sure acted the part of a fierce warrior, she looked like a seventeen-year-old model. Her thin body and delicate face were not threatening, but her scowl and loaded gun went a long way to protect her badass legend.

Gena backed up toward the railing that faced the atrium of the building as the standoff continued.

John didn’t seem intimidated by her tough words. “I’m the fool? You are the one who is about to go up in flames and smoke with everyone else in this building.”

Gena’s back hit the railing that came up to her waist. She looked down at the twenty-three-story drop and gulped at the height. She couldn’t afford a gunfight right now. She needed them to pay attention to her and honor her demands.

She glanced once more at the thick, four-inch railing. A fall from this height probably wouldn’t kill her for good. Probably.

With that not so comforting thought, Gena just went for it and quickly lifted herself to stand precariously balanced on the top of the banister.

While she kept herself from looking down, she called out, “Hey! Let’s focus here.”

John looked as if he had a small heart attack as he noticed her balancing the sphere carefully in her hands, hundreds of feet from the tile floor in the lobby.

The blonde just raised a cool eyebrow. Gena had the strange feeling that she’d just won the woman’s respect. She could use a few allies at this point.

“Get off there!” shouted John.

“Let’s get a few things straight,” said Gena. “I’m the one holding your precious glass ball, and my core strength is not good enough to keep me up here for long, so I would start giving me what I want, if I were you.”

“Glass ball?” he repeated, outraged. “You don’t even know what you have, do you?”

Gena studied the sphere. “I know you want it,” she countered. “I also know that it probably won’t survive a twenty-three-story fall.”

“I broke your neck once before. Don’t think I won’t do it again,” he threatened.

“Obviously it worked so well for you the first time,” she pointed out. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but if anything slightly hostile attacks this building, I will probably lose my balance, and you can kiss your little night-light good-bye.”

She could practically feel the rage pour off him. “You’re bluffing. You would risk your life just to destroy the key?”

That was the second time the sphere had been called a key. What did it open? “I think you’re a little thick in the head. I. Don’t. Die. That. Easily. Now call off your attack and bring me Marcus.”

John’s eyes turned an inky, jet black as he stared her down. With a curse, he pulled a phone out and spoke to someone in a language that Gena had never heard before.

She gripped the sphere tighter as a new man entered through the stairwell entrance and handed John a briefcase. John walked closer to Gena and cautiously opened the briefcase.

She craned her neck while she made sure she had a good position on the banister. She saw what looked like some sort of computer inside the briefcase. John gently set the briefcase on the floor and gave it a soft kick with his foot to push it to Gena.

“We have a series of explosives hidden throughout the tower. This is the detonator. Without it, we have no way of setting off all the bombs,” said John.

Gena had no way of knowing whether he was telling the truth. Sure, that could be a detonator, but what assurance did she have that there was no backup?

“And Marcus?” she asked. No matter if there were multiple ways to destroy the building, she still needed Marcus with her.

“He wasn’t being held near here,” said John. “It will take longer than you can stand up there for him to be delivered. Come down and give me the key.”

How stupid did he think she was? “The only way I’m getting off this ledge is if I’m falling twenty-three stories or if Marcus is lifting me off. Your choice.”

John walked aggressively toward her and she held the sphere as high as she could in the air as her balance started to slip. He stopped as he saw her struggle, but she could tell he was close to snapping.

At Ironheart’s questioning look, Gena shook her head, denying the need for help. Gena could see Ironheart and her men were still in fighting position but were clearly letting Gena lead this confrontation.

“Marcus escaped half an hour ago,” shouted John in desperation as Gena steadied herself. She still held the sphere as high as her reach would allow to keep it far away from him and the other rebels.

There was a good chance Vlad’s men had reached Marcus and freed him by now, but she wasn’t taking anyone’s word without proof. “How can I trust anything you say?” she asked.

John’s eyes shifted from the ceiling back to the sphere. “Put down the key!” he shouted.

“Give me Marcus,” she shot back, confounded that he’d still be giving her orders when she so clearly had the upper hand.

Suddenly, the atmosphere around her changed. Some sort of electricity seemed to fill the entire building. A soft wind brushed the hairs that framed her face as she saw Ironheart and John look to the ceiling in unison. Gena’s gaze followed as she looked up to where the glass ceiling had been just minutes earlier.

There was no ceiling anymore. A swirling black vortex hovered fifty feet above her head, and the swirling seemed to be picking up speed the longer she stared.

“You need to give me the key!” shouted John just feet from her.

She was finally able to put it together. This was what the key opened. Whatever and wherever the vortex led to, Gena could not allow the rebels to get to it.

As the swirling grew faster and faster, it also appeared to inch closer to her. Her body felt lighter as she saw small pieces of paper around her being sucked into the swirling storm. Her heart sunk as she realized that there was no time to wait for Marcus. The key needed to be destroyed before the black hole above her swallowed her completely.

Gena tensed her arm to throw the key down twenty-three stories. Time seemed to slow down and everything appeared to happen at once. “Gena!” she heard a familiar voice shout from below her.

She looked down and the sight of Marcus looking up at her caused her heart to leap in her throat as relief flooded her. He was okay. Before she could fully form a smile, a blur rushed toward her.

The multitude of distractions proved too much for her balance as her weight shifted to the back. All thoughts of trying to remain balanced left her as the blur, that she now placed as John, approached her. Instead of fighting it, she let herself fall backward as the key left her hands and fell alongside her.

She saw John in the air above her with the same pissed-off expression he’d worn for the past twenty minutes, but even more intriguing was the quick glimpse inside the vortex as she fell.

She couldn’t be certain, but it looked like a bright purple sky peeked through the hole at the center of the storm.

Before she had time to look closer, what felt like two steel bars slammed into her back and behind her thighs before she was gently lowered to the ground. As soon as her feet were holding her on their own, Marcus’s wrapped his arms around her and crushed her close to his chest. She inhaled the familiar scent of him and held him as tight as she could.

She pulled back to look more closely at his face and was dismayed at the sight. His skin was bruised, and blood covered his clothing from wounds that had probably mostly healed. “You look horrible!”

Marcus laughed softly. “Not the reaction I was expecting after rescuing you from a very big fall.”

A corner of Gena’s mouth lifted. “Well, I didn’t expect my knight in shining armor catching me in midair to hurt so much.”

“That gravity is a bitch,” he muttered.

Gena was unable to hold herself back as she reached up and passionately kissed him, releasing all of the fear and sadness that had consumed her ever since she’d seen him dragged away from her.

“You do realize you’re in a room full of people,” came the amused voice of Ironheart from behind them.

Gena glanced over her shoulder and was shocked to see the beautiful blonde standing over a dead John with a sword sticking out of his chest. Next to him were the broken shards of the key, and above them, the ceiling was back to normal. Except for the mess caused by the forceful winds, there was no sign the portal had ever been there.

“What happened to him?” Gena motioned to John’s lifeless body.

“Well, while you two were making out over there, this little bastard got a little upset when he saw his toy was broken. But, really, one way or another he was going to end up on my sword tonight. He just got himself impaled before I had a chance to interrogate him. Hopefully my men can catch some of his allies. They all went running as everything started turning to shit up there.”

Gena felt Marcus stiffen against her back. “We still don’t know who any of them are,” he said.

“You wouldn’t,” said Gena. Everyone looked at her curiously as she reminded herself that she was a semi-human in a room full of vampires, though at least right now most of them liked her.

“Why wouldn’t we?” asked a striking sandy-haired man in a tux that probably cost more than half of Gena’s yearly salary.

“They called that glowing glass thing I had a key. Keys open doors. I think that the key opened a doorway into wherever these rebels came from.”

A few people around her scoffed at the idea, but the secure feeling of Marcus’s arms wrapped around her gave her courage. “Laugh all you want, but I spent the bulk of my night with an angel who has been around longer than any of you. Vampires were never supposed to exist in this world. When they came over, the impact was so great that everyone’s destiny was changed.

“So where exactly did you come from?” asked Gena. Silence was her only answer. She continued, “I think that you and these attackers are from the same place. A doorway was opened thousands of years ago and vampires spilled into this plane. You all call these vampires rebels, but this is no civil war that you are facing. This is an invasion.”

“Your girlfriend is crazy, Marcus,” said Ironheart. “But I kind of like her.”

“You’re right about the crazy part,” came a voice from the crowd gathered around them.

“Said the vampire to the half angel,” muttered Gena. Ironheart’s face broke out in a grin.

The sandy-haired man stopped any further bickering by saying, “No matter how crazy this all sounds, no one can deny what they saw. Marcus, I would like to have a word with you and your human. Everyone else, please remember that the night is still young and this was supposed to be a celebration.”

“I am not human,” said Gena, reminding everyone listening that she was no mere mortal.

The man looked her up and down quickly. “I noticed.” He motioned them forward with his hand as he led the way down the hallway to a plush lounge.

Ironheart also followed them in and shut the door behind her.

“Does anyone want to let me know what the fuck is going on?” asked the man in a quietly pissed-off voice.

Gena looked questioningly to Marcus but kept her mouth shut.

“Obviously none of this was supposed to happen, Aleksander.”

“You had the time to tell me that I should hire extra security, but no way to tell me why or that I should be on the lookout for bombs and non-humans who don’t die?”

Marcus protectively stepped in front of Gena, which didn’t go unnoticed by Aleksander. “Things escalated much more quickly than I anticipated. We both underestimated the skill and numbers of our enemy.”

“You mean the ones from the other dimension,” he said, disbelievingly.

Gena couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “How can you be so skeptical, knowing what you know and being what you are?”

“Maybe I don’t rejoice in the idea of an otherworldly invasion!” shouted Aleksander. A threatening growl came from Marcus's throat. Ironheart didn’t move, but Gena saw her cautiously eying the situation.

“No one wants this,” said Ironheart in a calm voice. “But now that we know, we can prepare ourselves. As troubling as the events of this evening have been, we can count tonight as a win. You should celebrate with your guests.”

Aleksander took a calming breath. “You’re right. We did save a lot of people tonight.” His gaze found Gena. “Thanks to you,” he added.

Gena found Marcus’s hand and intertwined her fingers with his. “Don’t mention it,” she muttered, her adrenaline-fueled courage fading away as it finally sunk in that she was in a room with the vampire king and a famous vampire mercenary.

Aleksander looked to Marcus. “Can I assume that we will be seeing more of her?”

“It’s a safe bet,” he responded, reassuringly squeezing Gena’s hand.

Aleksander nodded in approval. “I hope to see you back at the compound on Monday. Apparently the Council has a lot of work ahead of them. You, too, Marie,” he said to Ironheart.

“I am no Council member,” protested Ironheart.

“Nonetheless, I hope we can count on your experiences to help us in our time of need.” He calmly left the room to go back to the party, making it clear he was not issuing an order, but a request.

Ironheart rolled her eyes at his retreating back. “Fucking royalty,” she muttered as she followed him out, leaving Marcus and Gena.

“That was, um, intense,” said Gena once she and Marcus were alone.

For a moment, he just stared at her, and Gena was suddenly self-conscious. Was he upset that she’d “come out” to his people? “It makes sense, you know? They said they had an army and you couldn’t figure out where they came from. Now we know.”

He tightened his grip on her hand before he pulled her in close. In one swift move, Marcus’s mouth covered hers. His free hand cupped the back of her neck as she kissed him back, the stress of the night all exploding into one fierce embrace.

But before she could push him up against the nearest wall and take things further, he pulled back. “I need to go to the compound,” he said breathlessly. “If they truly do have an army, I need to help Aleksander mobilize our forces.”

She nodded. Gena understood why he needed to go, but there was one lingering question she couldn’t bear to not ask. “If you’re going back with Aleksander, where does that leave me?” asked Gena, afraid to hear the answer. Or rather, where did it leave us?

He blinked down at her as though confused by the question. “You’re coming with me.” The rush of relief that filled her was cut off a second later when he continued, “Considering your mother, you have access to priceless information about these rebels.”

“Oh.” He was right. She might just end up being an asset in this, and for the first time, that didn’t freak her out. She’d looked all those vampires in the eye and held them off. She’d saved the entire building and countless humans and vampires alike. It was rather refreshing to not feel useless for the first time since Ryan had killed her.

“One more thing,” said Marcus.

Gena’s heart kicked up a notch as she met his gaze. “Yes?”

“I love you.”

She stared up at him, practically in awe that he’d said the words. “Really?”

He frowned. “Yes, really. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”

Warmth seemed to spread from her heart to all her limbs as she tried to convince herself she wasn’t imagining things. “You love me, right? Not Mary.”

“Mary isn’t the one I just caught while taking a swan dive trying to save my people. Mary isn’t the one I almost tore my hands off to get to. And Mary isn’t the one who has been haunting me ever since the moment you walked into my life. Same person or different, I love you, Gena. Please come with me. Let me keep you safe.”

Gena supposed a more experienced, sophisticated woman would make him sweat a few seconds, but she didn’t even think twice before pulled him down for a kiss. When she finally came up for air, she smiled up at him. “And I can keep you safe too,” she reminded him.

“We’ll keep each other safe,” he amended. “You, me, and Lady, right?”

She was suddenly reminded of the other stray she’d picked up along the way. “You, me, Lady...and Ryan.” Before the shock could wipe away his happiness, Gena kissed him once more. “I’ll tell you all about it on the way to Canada,” she promised. “It’s a long story.”

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~~~THE END~~~

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