A hard palm cuffed the side of his skull. "You in there, warrior? I got something for you. Time to wake up."
Eyes closed to conceal their change from blue to amber, Nikolai let his head loll bonelessly with the blow. But inside of him, fury was beginning to kindle in his belly. He had to hold it at bay. Couldn't let Kiril or the others see the change in his dermaglyphs and risk telegraphing the fact that he was very much awake and aware and totally pissed off.
"Wake up," Kiril growled.
He started to lift Niko's chin, but then a noise outside the lodge drew his attention away. Gravel spraying and crunching underneath the tires of approaching vehicles. A fleet of them, by the sound of it.
"The Agency is here," one of the other guards announced.
Kiril backed away from Nikolai, but he took his time disarming the pistol. Outside, the vehicles were slowing down, coming to a halt. Doors opened. Boots hit the gravel drive as the Darkhavens' policing agents poured out. Nikolai counted more than half a dozen pairs of feet moving toward the lodge.
Shit.
If he didn't get himself out of this disaster pretty damn quick, he was going to wake up in the hands of the Enforcement Agency. And for a member of the Order, a group the Agency had long wished extinct, arrest by them would make Lex and his guards' treatment seem like a trip to a spa. If he fell into the Agency's hands now - particularly as an accused killer of a Gen One - Niko knew without question he was as good as dead.
Lex greeted the new arrivals like he was holding court for visiting dignitaries. "This way," he called from somewhere outside the lodge. "I have the bastard contained and waiting for you in the hall."
"He has the bastard contained," Kiril muttered sourly. "I doubt Lex could contain his own ass if he was using both hands." The other guards chuckled cautiously.
"Come on," Kiril said. "Let's get the warrior on his feet so the Agency can take him out of here."
Hope surged in Niko's chest. If they freed him of the restraints, he might have a slim chance of escaping. Very slim, considering the approaching pound of boots and firepower headed in his direction from outside the lodge, but slim was a hell of a lot better than none.
He kept up his lifeless slump in the chair, even as Kiril squatted in front of him and unlocked the chains around his ankles. Impatience gnawed at him. Nikolai's every impulse was to bring his knee up and crack the guard under the jaw.
He had to clamp his molars down onto his tongue to keep himself unmoving, breathing as shallowly as he could, waiting for the better opportunity when the guard then went around the back of him and picked up the lock binding the chains on his torso and wrists. A twist of the key. A crisp clack of carbide steel as the lock fell open.
Nikolai flexed his fingers, took a deep, unconstricted breath.
He opened his eyes. Grinned at Kiril's comrades the instant before he brought his arms up and around and grabbed onto Kiril's big head in both hands.
In fluid motion, he gave a violent twist and vaulted up off the chair. The chains fell away and Nikolai was on his feet with the loud snap of Kiril's breaking neck.
"Holy Christ!" shouted one of the remaining guards.
Someone fired a wild shot. The other two scrabbled for their weapons.
Niko yanked Kiril's gun out of its holster and returned fire, dropping one guard with a bullet to the head.
The commotion brought shouts of alarm from the hallway outside. Boots started pounding. A small army of Enforcement Agents storming in to take control of the situation.
Damn it.
Not much time left to make a break for it before he would be staring down the barrels of no less than half a dozen guns - a few seconds at most.
Nikolai hauled the dead bulk of Kiril's body around in front of him and held it there like a shield. The corpse took a couple of quick hits as Niko started moving backward, toward the window on the other side of the long room.
In the open doorway now, a crowd of black-clad Agents in SWAT gear, all of them bristling with some fairly serious-looking semiauto firepower.
"Freeze, asshole!"
Niko shot a look over his shoulder at the window a few feet behind him. It was his best, only option. Surrendering now and going out peacefully with his Agency executioners was an alternative he refused to consider.
With a roar, Niko grabbed two fistfuls of Kiril's dead-weight and swung the body into the glass. He held on as the window shattered around him, using the forward momentum of the vampire's corpse to carry him off his feet and through the makeshift hole. He heard a shouted command behind him - an order for one of the Agents to open fire.
He felt cool night air on his face, in his sweat-dampened hair.
Then, before he could so much as register the smallest taste of freedom - Pow ! Pow! Pow!