Nik met up with Robin, Glory, and Archer at the second-floor bar of the Marriott. Nik had stopped at the concierge desk and picked up some brochures showing the wonders of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History and its forest.

He spread out one of the brochures on a low table surrounded by fashionably uncomfortable ottomans and pointed at a small map printed on back. “Here’s where we need to go.” He shifted his finger. “Here is the main atrium that Mirren thinks Greisser will use, because the museum rents it out for nighttime events. There’s a lot of glass, which could give us good visibility from the outside.”

“They also can see out,” Robin said. “I need to get going since Greisser’s already there, or at least his phone is there. We still want to nab him before the event gets started, right?”

“The earlier the better.” Nik looked up. “You got your own phone?”

She grinned. “In my leg pouch, along with some poisoned blood, a long t-shirt, and the tiniest little gun you’ve ever seen.”

“Ditto here, except I have a bigger gun than any of you.” Archer raised his eyebrows. “Wish I could fly.”

“Glad I’m not a pussycat.” With that, Robin blended into the crowded bar and disappeared.

Nik refolded the brochure. “Okay, let’s go. We’ll figure out a plan on the way.”

They waited in silence for the van to be brought around. Nik had already begun testing different strategies in his head, and imagined Archer was doing the same. Glory was their wild card. She didn’t carry a gun, but she had spent the last three days honing her telekinetic skills. She had plenty of experience uprooting trees. and the museum had a forest full of them, although Nik hoped they didn’t need her. Mirren had not been happy about sending his mate on this mission. With Will’s mobility impaired, Cage’s injury, and Aidan’s continued physical weakness, he hadn’t had much choice.

Glory finally broke the silence. “Think there’s any chance Robin will be able to grab Greisser before we get there?”

“I hope she doesn’t get a chance,” Nik said. “She’s impulsive and won’t hesitate to try and take him down alone. And Aidan doesn’t want him hurt. Well, hurt is okay, but Aidan doesn’t want him dead.”

“Why save the asshole?” Archer glanced over from the passenger seat. “If he’s dead, won’t the Tribunal effort fall apart?”

“For a while.” Nik had been able to talk with Aidan at length about the subject, and he’d finally come to agree with his logic. “But there are regional leaders—Simon Landry’s probably not in charge of New Orleans anymore, but that woman, Marianne, is a strong vampire. I’m sure there are others like her. Someone would eventually fill the void in leadership. The longer we keep Greisser, the more they’ll focus on saving him instead of forming new plans.”

“But won’t that bring them right to our doorstep?” Glory leaned forward from the backseat. “If they’re trying to rescue ole Frank, we’ll never get rid of them.”

“One step at a time.” Aidan thought that he and Greisser, given time, could reach an agreement. Nik had his doubts, but it was worth a try. Penton wouldn’t survive another all-out battle. Whoever didn’t die would leave, and Aidan’s grand social experiment of vampires and humans living in symbiotic harmony would fail. Predators and traffickers would rule.

They wound their way past the Emory campus and turned onto the road that led to the museum. It was a densely populated area, with blocks of businesses and mixed-use areas interspersed with carefully tended green spaces. It was the night after Christmas, but holiday lights still shone everywhere, brightening the streets and casting light into shadows. “We should park after the next intersection,” Archer said, studying the map. “That gives us less than a block to walk.”

Nik circled the block twice before finding an end space that would enable an easy exit if needed, which was good. The streetlight overhead? Not so good.

“Glory, can you get rid of that light? We need as much darkness as possible.”

“Sure, but let’s not be standing underneath it in case I get carried away.”

Nik held his breath waiting to see if the whole light pole would come down on top of their van, but she stared at it and focused just enough to make the bulb spark and go black. She gave them a triumphant grin, and they started walking.

Nik called Robin as they headed toward the museum grounds. “Where are you?”

“Sitting in a tree, freezing my tailfeathers off,” she said. “Greisser is here, and Mirren was right. He’s in the atrium/great hall area with the biggest freaking dinosaur skeletons you’ve ever seen. On the back is a terrace that opens into the room. Lots of soft lights and shadows, but somebody shut off the Christmas lights. Beyond that is nothing but forest. So tell Archer to go round back and shift. Plenty of spots for him to prowl around.”

“How many people are with Greisser?”

“Two that I can see. The guy is purely muscle, I’d say. And our old friend Marianne has her nose so far up Greisser’s ass her nostrils have probably turned brown.”

“Nice image. Anything else?”

“There are about thirty chairs set up around tables in the dino skeleton area; it’s a big meeting space with a three-story ceiling and tons of glass. The sooner we can hit, the better. There are a lot of places for people to hide—ours and theirs.”

“Sounds good. I’ll update Mirren and see where he and Randa are. Once we get things started, you’ll know it. Don’t be a cowgirl and try to do it alone.”

She hung up on him.

Mirren and Randa were only a half-hour out, give or take a few traffic lights, so Nik quickly formed a plan. “Archer, you’re the first distraction. If we can draw Greisser outside, with or without his goons, let’s take him. I’ll get Greisser, you take the muscle. With any luck, we can get Greisser around the building and toss him in Mirren’s van so they can head straight back to Penton.”

“What about me?” Glory propped her hands on her hips. “Should I bat my eyes and look pretty?”

“Well you could, but Greisser might know what you look like.” Nik grinned at her. He didn’t remember the last time he’d felt so alive, his muscles ready to move, his mind firing off scenarios and contingency plans. “But I’d rather you try to move a dinosaur or two or three. Try not to damage them.”

“To paraphrase my mate, screw you, Zorba.” Glory grinned back at him.

When they reached a shadowy service entrance on the edge of the property, Archer shifted. The big black jaguar stretched his front and back legs, gave Nik and Glory a bright-eyed look, and disappeared around a corner toward the woods.

Like Glory, Nik wore all black, and he’d pulled his hair back in a short tail to keep it out of his way. As soon as they entered the museum grounds, he motioned to Glory and crouched behind a stand of shrubbery, spreading out the brochure that had a schematic of the museum. The area they needed was to the left of the main museum entrance, so they headed that way, careful to stay hidden from the building.

Using the scenting techniques Cage had taught him, Nik stopped every few feet to check for vampires or humans. When they rounded the corner near the café, just before reaching the terrace, he stopped Glory and jerked his head toward the open lawn ahead of them.

A man he’d never seen strolled toward the area where they were hidden. The guy carried a pistol in his right hand, but his focus was aimed toward the museum, not behind him where the grounds gave way to the woods. Focusing on the blood scent, Nik identified the spicy overtones that signified a vampire in the area; humans had an undercurrent of iron and copper.

He signaled Glory to stay put, waited for the guy to reach an even line with the tree, and moved fast. The guy hit the ground with a broken neck before he could possibly have sent out a mental S.O.S., and Nik dragged the body quickly behind cover.

“He’s not dead,” Glory whispered.

“No point in killing him; it’ll take him hours to heal. He’ll be lucky if he straightens out enough to find shelter before daysleep.” Mirren would say he was soft, but at heart Nik was still a Ranger. You led, you did what was necessary, but you didn’t kill just to kill.

“Come on.” He led Glory around the perimeter of the property in as much shadow as he could find, and finally spotted Frank Greisser. Tall and blond and well-coiffed, the Tribunal director stood just inside the terrace with Marianne. His dark tailored suit contrasted with her flaming red leather pants and bustier. The woman must be freezing.

There was no sign of the other guy Robin had seen. Had he been put out of commission, or was he farther inside the building? No way to tell.

“There’s Archer,” Glory whispered. “Once he has their attention, I’m going to try to get closer to the dinosaurs. Don’t go back to Penton without me.”

Mirren would be here any minute, so there was little worry about that.

Archer was a black, shadowy blur on the dark lawn, but he prowled into the glow of the soft outdoor lighting and sat on the terrace, looking at Frank and Marianne. She saw him first and pointed.

Archer licked his left paw twice then waved his right paw in the air. He bled back into the shadows as Marianne pulled a pistol tucked in her cleavage and fired in one smooth move. They didn’t need to underestimate her, but then again Nik knew that from the clinic bombing in Atlanta. The city was probably her territory.

The paw licks had been Archer’s signal. Two more vampires to Frank’s left, but none visible to his right.

Nik crept to the right so he could see the other vampires. He had clear views of them, both guys in casual gear: security. He sent a quick text to the other team members, unsure who’d have their phones out, but texting had been their only option. Vampire hearing was too sharp to use headsets, and he hadn’t been turned vampire long enough to communicate mentally. Of tonight’s team, only Glory could do that with her mate, and Mirren should be in range by now.

Nik spotted Archer crouched on a low-hanging limb a few feet from the terrace door. He’d texted him to take Marianne. Nik would take out the muscle. Within seconds, he got a thumbs up reply.

He stepped from behind the tree and took two quick shots over Frank Greisser’s left shoulder, aiming for the security guys. The Penton team had agreed not to put silencers on their pistols—gunshots would bring attention and chaos. Tonight, chaos worked to their advantage.

Frank pulled his gun and turned to fire as Marianne hit the ground beneath a solid 300-plus-pound mass of black fur and claws and teeth. He took a shot before they rolled out of Nik’s vision. Frank spun to see his men lying still on the floor, perfect round bullet holes in their heads. Not enough to kill them, but they wouldn’t be back on duty tonight. There was no way to tell if Frank’s shot had hit Archer.

Frank disappeared inside the building, so Nik gave Glory the “Go” text. She moved from behind a pillar at the edge of the terrace and crouched beneath a table that sat near the window.

She dropped her head, and Nik waited to see what happened. A slight movement to his left caught his attention and he whirled, ready to shoot. He pulled the gun up at the sight of Mirren and Randa.

The cavalry had arrived. Nik raised 1 finger—the signal for Glory—and pointed toward the edge of the terrace. Mirren spotted her, and his shoulders relaxed. He nodded.

Two fingers—Archer—and Nik pointed inside the building.

Three fingers—Robin—and he pointed at the sky.

“Greisser’s mine,” Mirren said softly. “You guys watch the perimeter and make sure Glory gets out.” He looked hard at Nik. “Make. Sure.”

Nik nodded.

An explosion of glass sounded from the museum, and they froze as the head of a pterosaur skull, a flying reptile the size of a small plane, came into view, followed by massive skeletal wings. Inside the great hall, an enormous dinosaur Nik couldn’t begin to identify swung its skeletal head from side to side before lumbering toward the opening.

It was taller than the one-story door, so it took out the glass of the second and third floors as well.

“Damn, Glory—you go, girl.” Randa’s voice was filled with awe. “She could’ve done this job by herself.”

Nik had forgotten Randa was even standing beside him until she spoke. It still took all he could do to not stand still and watch the show, especially as the bronze dinosaur statues on the lawn began moving around with metallic clanks.

“Watch the lawn,” he whispered. “I’m going to see if I can spot the shifters and make sure Mirren gets Greisser out of there. I’ll pull Glory out when it’s safe. As soon as you see me go back into the woods, come to the closest van.” Glory might have the powers they needed tonight but she was as easy to kill as any normal human.

Nik ran in a low crouch around the perimeter of the lawn beneath the dark edge of the raised terrace. Another series of shots came from inside the building, then a human Nik hadn’t spotted ran past him from behind the building, aiming skyward.

Randa fired from the edge of the treeline, but the vampire got off his shot first. Something large and dark fell from the sky behind him with a flutter and a high-pitched hiss. Damn it, Robin. Nik’s gut wrenched. He wanted to look for her, get her to safety, but he couldn’t.

He did make sure Randa’s second shot rang true. The shooter lay on the ground, still.

A lot of Tribunal fangs and fams were going to have very bad days tomorrow if they survived sunrise. Which they might not; sirens already had begun to sound in the distance. They had to get out of here ASAP.

Randa fired again, and from his peripheral vision, Nik saw two more bodies fall. Greisser’s reinforcements were arriving.

The enormous dinosaur skeleton, which Nik recalled belonged to the largest species of dino on record, made another lurching step that took it out of the building and onto the lawn. It stopped and swung its massive head from side to side when the world’s largest kitty-cat—or at least the largest one at the Museum of Natural History—jumped on its back, dragging something large in its jaws.

With one side of his black coat matted and wet, Archer ran down the slope of the dinosaur’s back and tail, passed Nik, and raced into the woods, dragging along a ragdoll dressed in red leather. Whether Marianne was still alive, Nik couldn’t tell.

He took a shot at a vampire approaching from the back side of the museum and ducked for cover alongside Glory. She ignored him, her focus still on the enormous skeleton, the length of four school buses and two stories tall, who stepped on two more vamps coming from the small parking area with a stomp of one bony foot.

Things were quiet for a few seconds, until Mirren and Frank Greisser came crashing through one of the few unbroken parts of the front window, locked in a fight. Mirren was bigger, but Frank was older and more powerful. Glory opened her eyes and froze at the sound of Mirren’s voice, roaring when Frank sank his fangs into Mirren’s shoulder and tore off a chunk of skin and muscle the size of a grapefruit. Without Glory’s power, all the dinosaurs came to a halt. Stopped in mid-stride, the biggest skeleton collapsed on its side into a mountain of bones and wire.

Damn it. Nik edged into the open, took aim with his .45, waited for a clear shot, and pulled the trigger. A bloom of pink blood sprouted on Greisser’s neck, but he didn’t fall. He did hesitate, however, giving Mirren time to head-butt Greisser, then twist his neck. It broke with an audible crack.

Nik ran alongside them and pulled Glory with him. “Take him to your van. Glory, go with them. Randa will back you up. I’ll find the shifters.”

Mirren’s blood flowed freely from his shoulder wound, and Nik thought he saw exposed bone. That didn’t stop the big guy from throwing Greisser over his other shoulder. “Come on, Glory.” His voice rasped. “Run to the treeline and we’ll follow it around.”

Nik motioned for Randa to follow them, then he ran for the woods himself, following the direction where he’d seen Robin fall. He hoped Archer’s wet coat was blood from Marianne and that he, too, hadn’t been hurt.

About a hundred feet into the woods, a flash of movement to the right drew Nik’s attention. He’d been traveling quietly on the forest floor, avoiding the paved walkways and worn trails, but now he veered toward the movement. Archer had shifted and pulled on a pair of lightweight black cargo pants from his traveling pack. He was using his t-shirt as a bandage, trying to stanch the bleeding in his upper right arm.

“Damn it, you did get shot.” Nik knelt beside him and looked at the wound, then glanced around him. “Where’s Marianne?”

“Got away,” Archer whispered. “She’s got a broken arm and a bullet in her neck but she came to while I was shifting and she took off. I should have secured her first.”

“Mirren got Greisser, so we’ll find her later.” Nik ripped the shirt and looked at Archer’s wound, then bound it with half of the shirt. “Bullet went straight through. You’re lucky.”

“It’ll heal. Where’s Robin?”

Nik shook his head. “This way, I think.”

He led Archer over a footbridge that spanned a narrow stream, and they split up, searching the area where Nik thought Robin had fallen.

Two quick shots in a row sounded to their left, and both Nik and Archer ran through the heavy brush to find the source. Robin lay curled on her side, naked, a pistol so tiny it looked like a toy in her right hand. Marianne lay next to her, part of her lower jaw blown away.

“That bitch won’t be running any more, I guess.” Archer nudged Marianne with his toe. “How’s Robin?”

Nik wasn’t sure. He’d dropped to his knees and leaned over her. “Robin? Can you hear me?”

“Hey, Niko.” Her voice was little more than a whisper. “You’re kind of fuzzy.”

“Where were you hit?”

“Stomach, I think. Damn, it hurts.”

He rolled her onto her back and hoped he was able to keep the dismay off his face. It was a bad wound. In a human, she could bleed out before they were able to get help. A shifter might heal it eventually, but even shifters could bleed to death.

“How bad is it Niko? Honest Abe.”

He nodded. “The bullet missed the intestines. From the amount of blood, I’d say it got the liver. He stripped off his own shirt and began packing the wound as best he could. “Archer, how close can you get the van?”

“Probably the end of that parking lot that runs alongside the museum, but the cops are either here or close. There’s no parking on that main street that runs in front of the Museum.

“No, but by the time you get there, I’ll be waiting with Robin by the end of that sidewalk where we came in. Just pull over, we’ll get in fast, and you can keep going.”

Archer nudged Marianne’s leg with his toe. “What about her?”

Nik had helped Robin pull on the long t-shirt she’d carried in her pack and laid her back on the ground. She’d lost consciousness, which was probably a blessing. The blood had already soaked through the t-shirt. This was bad.

He looked down at Marianne. She’d be the one most likely to cause trouble in Greisser’s absence. But, right now, she wasn’t Nik’s priority, plus she was unconscious.

“Leave her.”

Nik tossed Archer the van keys, and the big shifter took off at a lope, heading for the area where they’d parked what seemed like days ago. It had been less than two hours.

From Robin’s ankle, he unfastened the Velcro’d pouch and shook out her cell phone. He stuck it in the pocket with his. The only other things in there were an eagle necklace Cage had given her and the syringe of vaccinated blood.

Nik pocketed the necklace and looked at the syringe. The safety cap had come off the needle, so he decided to empty it on the ground where no one—

Nik’s legs were jerked from beneath him, and he hit the ground hard, his head landing on a tree root that protruded from the soil. Damn Marianne. He rolled toward her but not fast enough.

She gave him a gruesome smile from her ruined face as her hand flashed toward his neck. He barely had a chance to think needle before the effects of the vaccinated blood began turning his world gray, then black.