Forever As One by Jackie Ivie Page A

before answering. “Spanish
conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon discovered the state in 1513. He
thought he’d found another island. The crown knighted him and
granted him governorship of the entire peninsula.
If
he
could hold it. Building a fortress like this one could hold
it.”
    “Oh…come on. That’s pure speculation. Karakov
Enterprises probably had that chunk of stone designed, and
constructed, and purposely aged. For the effect on visitors.”
    “Nope. But it’s been updated.”
    “Oh, I guarantee it’s updated. You hear that
hum? That’s electricity. Early twentieth century invention. And he
says I don’t know my history.”
    “Nineteenth.”
    Len rolled the curse through his lips. “It’d
be easier to take you seriously if you looked old enough to
drink…Babyface.”
    “I’m twenty-four. Maybe twenty-five.”
    “Maybe? How do you lose count of your
age?”
    Dane looked over at the man. “You ever work a
Viking long-ship?”
    “Not recently.”
    “Trust me. Every day’s the same and they’re
all shit. Easy to lose track of all kinds of things. Land. Food.
Sleep. Time.”
    “Sorry I asked.”
    Dane looked back to the fortress wall. “You
know how many?”
    “How many what? Years? Conquistadors?
Long-ships?”
    “Targets.” Dane said it through clenched
teeth. He had to remind himself that Len was good. That’s why
anybody put up with him. The man was more than good. He had
perfectly honed skills.
    “The board of directors is an eight member
unit. All Karakov relatives. They keep it in the family, and still
don’t trust each other. Hmm. Whatever happened to family
values?”
    “We have eight targets?”
    “Once you get us over that fourteen foot span
of rock, there’s an electrified fence. That’s the humming noise,
remember? They’ve got 25,000 volts running through it. I don’t know
about you, but that’s enough to fry my ass. So, you’ll just have to
get me over it, too. Then we’ll probably face real humans. With
real guns. They’re not very friendly, either. They probably shoot
pizza delivery guys. That’s why I’m pretty much dressed head-to-toe
in Kevlar.”
    “Sixteen.”
    “What?”
    “The walls are sixteen feet.”
    “Right. Vampires. Got to love them. I’m
telling you, one of you needs to develop a sense of humor. And
before I turn thirty.”
    “You’re thirty-two.”
    “No kidding? Well…I’m not getting any younger
while you sit out here shooting the breeze. You ready yet?”
    Dane grabbed Len’s shoulders and jumped,
easily leaping the barbed-wire topped wall, landing in
thigh-sucking liquid Len forgot to describe, before launching them
right over the fence that sparked and sizzled with every drop of
swamp muck they dripped on it. Nothing like a grand entrance. Dane
landed in a crouch and shoved Len to the ground where the man
rolled from bullets that sounded like puffs of air.
    He’d forgotten to add in that they had
silencers.
    A blink later, Dane was behind the first man
on the left, ripping through his thorax with a blow. Second man got
a crushed vertebra and severed spine. Third one received a
compressed skull as his brains separated from his head. The fourth
one went down with a bullet hole between his eyes. A glance showed
Len already taking down the fifth shooter, as well. Dane nodded at
his partner. The guy might talk a lot, but he was a damn good
shot.
    The ground about Len started spurting dirt as
bullets riddled the area again. Dane tagged the shooter from above
him, and with a jump went right through the stone walkway. That
fellow got his head severed from his shoulders for his trouble.
Fresh blood gushed from the neck cavity as he fell, soaking stone
and the lower half of Dane’s trousers, while the scent triggered
impulses he had to restrain. Every muscle in his frame tightened,
his canines elongated, while his mouth and throat itched with
thirst.
    Not yet.
    Len was huffing for breath as he reached him,
jogging the steps to catch