“I can’t do anything in our IT system anymore.”

“But you just logged in!” Gabriel protested.

Eddie clenched his teeth. “And now somebody’s thrown me out.”

“Who?”

Eddie turned to look over his shoulder, staring straight at Gabriel. “Thomas.” More beeps made him look back at the screen. More windows popped up, all saying ‘access denied.’

“He’s revoking everybody’s access. Gabriel, he’s shutting us down.”

“Oh, fuck!” Gabriel cursed. “What is he planning?”

Before Eddie could answer, a deafening alarm bell started to ring. It was accompanied by strobe lights in the hallway. He knew instantly what it meant.

“He’s locking us in.”

“Stop him!” Gabriel yelled.

Eddie jumped up. “I’ve gotta get to the servers in the basement.” As he ran into the corridor, others came running from their offices.

Samson charged out of his office. “Who’s doing this?”

“Thomas. He’s shutting us down!” Eddie replied as he ran past him and pushed the door to the stairs open.

He knew the elevator would already be disabled. His heart stopped for a moment. Had Nina made it down in time and exited the building? Concern for his sister made him run faster. The server room was the only place where he could get into the system via a backdoor and immobilize Thomas.

Eddie reached the basement and grabbed the handle of the door that led to the hallway, but was flung back against the wall instantly. An electric shock had catapulted him back. The door was electrified.

“Fuck!”

He labored to regain his breath and lifted himself up on shaky legs, bracing himself with his hands on his thighs for a moment. Things were worse than he’d expected. Thomas was using all weapons at his disposal.

Eddie rushed up the stairs again, reaching the executive floor a few moments later. Gabriel, Samson, Zane, and several others congregated in the hallway. They turned their heads to him as he charged in, their eyes full of questions.

“Thomas is in the building!”

“Did you see him?” Samson asked.

Eddie shook his head. “He sealed off the basement. The access door is electrified. He must be in the server room.”

Curses bounced against the walls of the hallway.

“He’s got us by the throat,” Samson said, his mouth set in a grim line.

Suddenly loud banging could be heard from the direction of the elevator, coupled with a faint voice. “Help! Help me!”

A bolt of panic shot through Eddie as he ran toward the elevator, just as Amaury came running from the other side.

“Nina!” Eddie called out, but his voice was drowned out by Amaury’s.

“Nina! Chérie! We’ll get you out!”

40

Thomas looked over his shoulder, watching as Kasper instructed his men to sweep all rooms in the basement and guard the electrified door leading to the stairs. Xander stood close, waiting.

With all of Kasper’s disciples assembled in such close proximity, Thomas sensed their powers more intensely now. In fact, he could almost isolate which strand of power belonged to which vampire as if they were colored ribbons hanging around a maypole. The power flowing from Kasper was by far the strongest, and his own power was drawn to it as to a magnet.

Thomas had used his keycard to gain access to the building via the parking garage, making sure, by remotely logging into Scanguards’ intranet, that his access had not been restricted. Not that he would have had to worry about that: there was nobody in the entire company who would have been able to shut him out. Nobody had a higher IT clearance than he. Besides, he’d surprised them by attacking where they thought they were safest. They hadn’t seen this coming.

Kasper had planted the idea in him that a clean takeover would be best for all involved.

“It’s time to issue our demands,” Kasper said now, turning to him. “Everything is in place, isn’t it?”

Thomas nodded slowly, looking back at the surveillance monitors in front of him. He checked all entrance points and verified that they were locked. Nobody would be able to enter or exit the building without his permission.

“Everything is set. Nobody moves without me knowing about it.”

“Then let’s get this show on the road.”

Thomas typed a command into the keyboard in front of him, then pulled the microphone close to his mouth.

“Will Samson hear you no matter where he is?” Kasper asked.

“The intercom broadcasts into every room in this building. Everybody will hear what I’ve got to say.”