Shit! They’d made some modifications to the original design. Well, it didn’t matter. He’d just have to improvise.

From the other side of the door, Luther heard sounds. Something breaking. Fuck! They’d managed to break down the door whose card reader Luther had trashed.

“In here!” Patterson screamed, alerting his colleagues. “He’s in here!”

Luther flipped two switches on the console, then hit a button. A buzzing sound came from the door to the outside.

With Katie in his arms, he ran toward it, snatched a semi-automatic gun from the rack on the wall and rushed through the opening door.

Before the door could close behind him, he spun around and emptied the entire clip into the center of the console, where the motherboard was located. Sparks flew and the computer hissed just as the other door to the control room burst open and guards rushed into the room.

The door snapped shut, and the sounds of the guards were immediately muffled.

Luther prayed that the backup lockdown mechanism still worked the same way he’d originally designed it, and that by disabling the computer, the backup would immediately kick in, assess the threat, and lock down the facility.

Luther rushed to the last door, Katie clutched to his chest. He swiped Bauer’s access card, and the door to freedom opened. He barreled outside into the open air. The moment the door closed behind him, he heard the sound of a foghorn: lockdown. Relief flooded him. Not even the guards could get out now. It would take at least half an hour for even the best IT expert to override the system and unlock the doors.

Time enough to get away.

“You’re safe, Katie. Just hold on for a little while longer,” he demanded.

The pickup truck he found in the parking lot was perfect. He carefully laid Katie on the front bench, shucked the heavy Kevlar vest and gloves and hotwired the car. Once the engine started, he pulled Katie’s head onto his lap and drove off.

His eyes searched the rearview mirror, but there was no movement, no cars following them as he put miles between them and the prison. For the first time in minutes, he took a conscious breath.

Keeping his left hand on the steering wheel, he reached for Katie with his right. “I’m gonna check your wound. I won’t hurt you.”

She moaned when he touched her left flank. The dress shirt was soaked in blood, and the smell, now that they were in a confined space, filled his nostrils and made hunger surge inside him. He forced it back down.

As gently as he could, he peeled back the ripped cloth and exposed the wound.

“Shit!”

Her eyes shot open and met his. “Is it bad?” she choked out.

“Just a flesh wound. You’ll be all right,” he deflected, choosing not to tell her the truth. “But we’ve gotta stop the bleeding.”

Katie pressed her hand onto the wound. “No hospital, right?” she guessed.

He gave her a faint smile. She was smart. He couldn’t bring her to a hospital. Not only would it delay their escape, the council that ran the vampire prison had spies everywhere. They would know quickly where to find him. By now they would have identified him from the camera feeds inside the prison.

“I’m so sorry,” she murmured, a gurgle in her voice now. “It’s all my fault. They’ll lock you up again.”

“They’ll have to find me first. So let me worry about that later.” There was something more important to think of right now, because judging by the gurgling sound in Katie’s voice, her lung had been punctured. If he didn’t act immediately, her lungs would fill with blood and she’d drown in her own fluids.

He lifted his wrist to his mouth, willing his fangs to extend. Then he caught Katie’s gaze.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“You need to heal.” He bit into his own wrist, puncturing his vein, making blood drip from it. He brought the bleeding wound to Katie’s mouth. “Drink.”

He sensed her hesitate and felt anger well up in him. No vampire offered his blood lightly. This was a gift, one he didn’t easily bestow on anybody. “It won’t turn you into a—”

“I know that,” she interrupted, her voice even weaker than before.

“Then drink, damn it!”

Slender fingers pulled his wrist down to her lips. A warm mouth made contact with his skin. A gentle breath caressed his flesh.

If he hadn’t been driving, he would have leaned his head against the headrest and closed his eyes to enjoy the sensation of Katie suckling from him. It had been so long since a woman had done this, since a woman had taken his blood into her body, and accepted him and all he had to offer.