Julian stood to the side as Vern rested his meaty hands on the steel door and leaned forward to press his ear against it. He moved his hands up and down until they stopped at chest height. “One bolt here,” he murmured.

“They would know about telekinesis,” Dani said, “and be prepared for it.”

“I know,” Julian replied.

“I can’t slip it free. There’s some mechanism keeping it in place, and without being able to see it, I don’t know how to work it,” Vern said. He moved his hands further down the door until they were almost at his knees. “There’s another bolt here. I can hear the bars moving and shifting in their holds when I try to move them, but that’s all they’re doing.”

Julian stepped away from the door, and his head tilted back as he stared at the roof eight feet above him. He almost backed up and ran for the roof, but if he did that Quinn would be infuriated and most likely follow him.

The two of us working together from now on, he reminded himself.

Turning to Quinn, he tried to ignore the sight of the hole in her shirt and the blood coating it. If he focused on how close she’d come to death now, he’d unravel, and he needed to stay rational. “Will you stay here?” he asked her.

She glanced nervously at him and the building. “What do you intend to do?”

“Scope things out from above. I’ll be right back.”

“Be careful.”

“Always.”

He kissed her forehead before taking a few steps back. He ran forward and launched himself at the side of the building. His hands gripped the edge of the roof, and he swung himself easily up to the top.

“Julian!” Quinn called from below.

Rising to his feet, he peered over the edge to look down at her. Dirt and blood streaked her pretty features. Her pants had become shorts that hung in tattered and burnt ruins, exposing the flesh that had been ripped apart by her bones when they’d torn through her skin. One of her boots no longer had a sole and he could see the tips of her toes through the other one.

If she had been anyone else, she would be dead right now. Instead, she’d used the life of the man trying to kill her to save her own. He could see the results of those deaths on her, and not in the vitality of her skin or her rapidly healing wounds. No, it was in the shadows lining her haunted, honey eyes. Their deaths had been necessary, he knew she realized this, but she would forever bear the stain of them on her soul.

He would make those within this building pay dearly for that.

“I’ll be right back,” he assured her before turning to examine the flat, concrete roof. Because of its location in the center of the clearing, no leaves or pine needles littered the solar panels lining the roof. The sleek panels shone in the moonlight as he made his way around them, exploring every inch of the roof.

He had no doubt The Commission had fortified this thing to be stronger than Fort Knox, but they had no idea the shitstorm they’d stepped into on the day they’d captured him.

As he walked, he became aware that he could still feel the ebb and flow of Quinn’s ability within his body. He wondered if Quinn knew she was still attached to him in such a way, or if she didn’t realize her ability could still hold onto someone when she was apart from them.

Draining those two men had probably caused her power to strengthen with the influx of life and her continued use of her ability. If her power had grown to the point where she didn’t have to be in contact with someone to drain them, she could be nearly indestructible. He smiled at the possibility as he reached the other side of the building.

Standing at the edge of the roof, he peered down the back of it. Completely void of anything, even windows, it was nothing but a concrete wall. He stared down at the wall before lifting his head to take in the mountains surrounding them. Their craggy peaks stretched high into the night sky in a natural wall encompassing the land and fence surrounding the building.

His gaze searched over the clearing around him as he picked up pinpoints of light and details about the night no human ever would. Turning, he studied the fence to his left and the mountains looming above it. He saw nothing out of the ordinary there; he detected no movement within the forests. Even the animals knew this was a place of evil and stayed far away from it.

Moving back to where he’d left the others, he slid down the front of the building and dropped onto the ground beside Quinn.

“Anything?” she asked.

He took hold of her hand, pulling her closer to him. He’d discuss this new development in her ability with her later, when they were alone.

“This is the only door I can see,” Julian replied.

“We have to find the other ways in and out,” Luther said.

“We will,” Julian said.

***

It was almost two hours before Dani, Luther, Hadie, Prue, and Carla returned. Julian had sent them with a dozen more vampires to search for another exit. When they returned, everyone met in the middle of the minefield. While the group had been gone, the rest of them had worked to locate and set off more of the mines. They’d cleared a pathway across the earth and removed the injured vampires from the field.

The Commission could already be looking to flee from one of their other exits, but Julian had stayed here in the hopes his presence would keep the bastards focused on him. However, he suspected that after what they’d seen Quinn do, they would be far more interested in her than him. They wouldn’t evacuate here until they were certain they were going to lose, and right now they had no reason to think they would.

Dani wiped away the sweat on her forehead when she stopped before him. “We found one.”

“It’s about two miles from here,” Luther said. “And the door appears to be as fortified as this one. We couldn’t get it open. It’s not in the middle of a mine field, or at least none of us blew up trying to get to it.”

Julian tipped his head back to peer at the night sky. Dawn was still a few hours away; they had enough time to launch an attack. “It’s their panic route. They won’t risk accidentally blowing themselves up if they’re fleeing in a hurry,” he said.

Luther lifted his glasses and rubbed at the bridge of his nose before settling them back into place. “They probably have more than two exits.”

“Most likely,” Julian agreed.

“So what do we do now?” Dani asked.

“We’ll send a group to start trying to get at them from the exit you found. It will cause them to divide their forces inside and weaken them.”

“Or we could drive them out another exit,” Melissa said.

“We still have the group we sent out to find a back road. Hopefully, they’ve found it by now. We could search this place and these mountains for the next month and possibly never find all of their exits. The longer we wait, the more time we give them to prepare for us. They’ll also have a better chance of getting away from us during the day. The five of you can’t watch everything when the sun is up, and the people in this building most likely outnumber you.”

“True,” Melissa agreed.

“I’ll go with the group we send,” Luther said. “Show them where the other exit is.”

“I’ll return with him,” Dani offered.

“Hadie and I will go back too,” Prue said.

“We’ll all go with them again,” Carla said, and the other vampires who had gone searching with them nodded their agreement.

“Good,” Julian said.

“What are you going to do here?” Luther asked.

Julian grinned as he gazed at the barricaded door again. “I have a plan to get inside.”

“I hate your plans,” Quinn muttered.

He refrained from telling her that she would probably really hate this one.

Luther lifted an eyebrow at him. “Care to fill us in on it?”

“Let’s just say it’s going to take a lot of group effort,” Julian replied. “You’ll know if we get inside.”

“I’m sure we will,” Luther said.

“How much time will it take you to reach the other entrance again?”

“Twenty minutes give or take.”

“We’ll wait a half an hour before launching an attack on the building.”

“Plenty of time,” Luther replied. “Let’s go,” he said to the others.

Quinn took hold of Julian’s hand as the group turned and made their way back toward the woods. “They’ll be fine,” he assured her, pulling her close to kiss her temple.

“Yes, they will.”

“Come on, let’s get more of this field cleared while we wait.”

Over the next half an hour, they worked side by side, tossing hundred pound rocks onto the field to set off more mines. All of them seemed to be concentrated across the middle of the field. They found none within the first fifty feet of the gate or within thirty feet of the building. He didn’t trust The Commission not to throw one or two surprises in, so he continued to have vampires working to clear those areas too. If they had to retreat, they would need as clear of a pathway as they could get.

Quinn didn’t speak as she watched the vampires around them. Most of whom were watching her even more.

“What’s the matter, Dewdrop?” he asked.

“Some of them keep looking at me as if I’m the messiah.”

“Some of them may see you as such.”

She shivered and ran her hands over her arms before turning away from him. Gripping her elbow, he pulled her back to him and wrapped his arms around her. Her head fell to his shoulder; she kissed the hollow of his neck. A sense of peace descended over him as all around them explosions and smoke filled the air.

“Almost lost you,” he murmured as he stroked her nape.

“I want these bastards dead, and then I just want to sit somewhere for a while and not think about anything.”

He smiled as he smoothed back her chocolate-colored hair and tucked it behind her ears. Her eyes glistened with love when she lifted her head to look at him. “A beach somewhere,” he suggested.

“Yes, a beach sounds great, but I’m thinking maybe Canada. There are some kids I’d like to meet.”

Bending, he cupped her face tenderly within his grasp and claimed her lips in a slow kiss. Her mouth opened to his, the heady feel of her tongue dancing with his filled his senses as he tasted her. Breaking the kiss, he pulled her flush against his chest.

“Then meet them you shall,” he promised her. “Your ability is growing. I could feel you still connected to me when I was on the roof.”

“Maybe it’s not growing, maybe it’s only you that I stay connected to.”

“Maybe,” he agreed.

“Or maybe it’s because I killed two men and their life is fueling me more than normal.”

“They deserved it.”

“I wouldn’t change it. When I thought he was going to drive that stake through my heart, I was so afraid… for you.” Her ragged admission tore at his heart.

“I felt the same way about you when Zach staked me.”

“Julian,” Chris said as he appeared beside them. “It’s time.”

Chris’s features were haggard and his shaggy blond hair hung in tangled disarray as he looked between the two of them. Julian reluctantly stepped away from Quinn, but he kept one of his arms locked around her waist.

“Are you sure we’re going to be able to get in there?” Chris asked him as they made their way toward the door.

“I think so,” Julian replied.

“How?” Quinn asked.

“You’re going to fuel me,” he said.

“What?” she and Chris demanded at the same time.

“We can all beat and tear at this door all night, but we wouldn’t get in. They’ve planned and fortified against vampires. Besides, we’d only be able to have three or four of us pushing against the door at once. Due to the fact they’ve surrounded themselves with mines, I’m sure they’re fortified against explosives too, so trying to blow the door open would probably be a waste.”

“True,” Quinn said slowly, her eyes distrustful as she watched him.

“But they never planned for one vamp and an Elder to be stronger than they ever anticipated,” he said. “We’ll take volunteers. You’ll pull from them and flood their life into me, fueling my strength.”

The color drained from her face as she stopped walking. “I’ve never done anything like that before. I’m not sure I can control it.”

“You can.”

“I’ve been injured—”

“That’s an understatement,” Chris muttered, earning scathing looks from Quinn and him. Chris shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, it is. You were nearly a dead vamp. For a second there, I actually believed you were dead when I saw the stake go in. Then those guys just became dust in the wind.”

“I scare you now,” Quinn said, and the crestfallen look on her face had Julian fighting the impulse to punch Chris in the face.

“No,” Chris said, resting his hand on her shoulder. “Okay, maybe a little, but it’s not that I believe you’ll hurt me, or any of us. I wouldn’t be touching you if I thought that. It’s more that there is a lot of power in you, and I’m not sure we know all you’re capable of. We may never know, which is fine, but it’s still pretty freaking weird.”

Quinn’s shoulders relaxed beneath his touch. “Yeah.”

“So, if she’s going to fuel you to get in there, what about Luther and the others?” Chris asked Julian. “They probably won’t be able to get in.”

“They don’t have to get in,” Julian replied. “As long as they’re causing chaos on the other side, then that should be enough to keep The Commission distracted at least a little.”

“I’m really not sure about this,” Quinn said. “I’m still not completely healed from my injuries and my ability is harder to control when I’m hurt. I could kill someone. I could kill you.”

“That will never happen,” he replied.

She planted her hands on her hips. “You’re not invincible, and you’re not Superman.”

“Superman has nothing on me.” He ran a finger over the tip of her nose in the hopes of coaxing a smile from her; her scowl only deepened.

“You’re not cute.”

“Now we both know that is a lie.”

Her eyes narrowed, but he saw the telltale upward twitch of her lips. “Julian—”

“Listen to me. This will work, and I have complete faith in you. You’ve taken from me and others plenty of times, and you’ve given it back without killing us.”

“You could bust down the door and something could happen to break my concentration and the flow. What then?”

“We could all die tonight. Life is a crapshoot. We’re going to have to roll with this one, and I’m betting on you.”

“That was the corniest line you’ve ever uttered,” she muttered.

“Some of my lines landed you.”

“Believe me, it wasn’t the lines.”

“I always knew you couldn’t resist my extremely good looks.”

“I’m not normally attracted to arrogant, hotheaded blonds with a Superman complex.”

“Not Superman, God complex.”

“You’re an ass.”

“That too.” Resting his hands on her hips, he gave them a playful wiggle. “It may have been corny, but I meant what I said. I believe in you. I know you can do this.”

Groaning, she stepped away from him.

“I don’t like to admit it, and fortunately it’s not often that I have to, but he’s right. You can do this,” Chris said to her.

“See,” Julian said. “I’m right.”

“I doubt you’ll get many volunteers for this,” Quinn replied. “They all saw what I did to those two men.”

“You’ve got me,” Chris said.

“You said never again after I took from you when we first met with the vamps in Arizona,” Quinn reminded him.

“I was wrong. It happens once in a while.”

“Chris—”

“It’s fine.”

Julian rested his hand on her arm. “I meant what I said. I have complete faith in you, but I won’t push you into this if you truly feel you can’t handle it. We will find another way in.”

Quinn glanced between him and all the others gathered around them. Many of them were watching her, though they were far enough away that they most likely hadn’t heard their conversation.

“Some of them died on those mines,” Quinn whispered. “All of them are scared, but they’re all still here, willing to fight and willing to work together because they believe we can make it better.”

“They are,” Julian agreed.

Quinn’s eyes came back to his, and he saw the determination in their golden depths. “No matter how much I hate this idea, I won’t turn away from that.”