Free The Sacred Blood by Michael Byrnes Page A

divert his eyes to the corridor, where two technicians were just coming off the elevator. They were attired like Charlotte—spotless white lab coats covering business-casual clothing. But the taller man’s coat wasn’t buttoned because his broad shoulders pulled at it too tightly.
    Donovan’s eyes went wide when he spotted the fellow’s companion— an ordinary, forgettable man. It took only a split second before the man made the connection too. “Jesus save us!” Donovan yelled, jumping up from the chair.
    The shorter man snarled as he went for the door and began fussing with the lock.
    A second later, the elevator doors parted and Evan emerged with a to-go cup clutched in each hand.
    “Oh no!” Charlotte cried. “Evan!” But her scream was subdued by the glass partition. She watched in horror as Evan stopped in his tracks, his confused gaze bouncing from the two lab techs to Donovan, who was frantically waving his arms, shouting for Evan to move away. But Evan failed to grasp the gravity of it all.
    Instead of retreating, Evan stepped up to the tall man and scrutinized the tiny photo on the security badge dangling over his chest. When he surmised that the two lab techs were imposters, his temper flared. While trying to urge the short one away from the door, Evan attempted to sidestep the tall man. But the giant blocked his advance so that Evan’s face collided with his chest. Some verbal sparring ensued, all inaudible on the other side of the glass.
    “We’ll have to let him handle it,” Donovan implored her. “We’ve got to leave right now.” But Charlotte was frozen. “Let’s go!” Donovan yanked her up from the chair.
    “We can’t just—”
    “Get moving!” He pulled her arm even harder.
    Overwhelmed, Charlotte couldn’t take her eyes off the scene as the large man planted a huge hand on Evan’s chest and thrust his arm like a piston, sending Evan stumbling backward. By the time Evan regained his footing, the giant had reached beneath his lab coat, produced a gun, and raised it to Evan’s face. Horrified at the dire turn of events, Evan threw the two cups at the man and tried to run for the fire exit. The gunman barely reacted as the scalding coffee hit his chest and splashed up under his chin, steam swirling into his face.
    With unwavering aim, he snapped off a shot that drilled a red circle through the back of Evan’s head and ripped open bone and skin in a red spray as it exited his face. Evan’s body catapulted forward onto the tiles.
    It wasn’t the crack of the gunshot that caught the assistant’s attention; it was Charlotte’s bloodcurdling scream. When through the glass partition she spotted the two men near the elevator and Evan’s body sprawled in a pool of blood, she panicked and darted for the metal security door leading to the labs. She fumbled for the employee ID card clipped to her suit jacket and slid it through a reader on the lock.
    Donovan swung open a second glass door leading into the assistant’s cubicle, dragging Charlotte behind him.
    “Wait!” Charlotte protested. “Evan!” she cried.
    “Stay down!”
    An instant later, the door leading to the elevator let out a loud clack as cracks webbed out from a single hole blown through the center of its tempered glass. The round thwacked into the windowpane behind Charlotte’s head, making her snap into action.
    The assistant was just making her way through the metal door, and Donovan muscled Charlotte through right behind her. He stole a glimpse of the large gunman, who was throwing his shoulder against the fractured glass. A third attempt brought the door down in a thousand pieces, the man stumbling forward into the office.
    “Come on! ” Donovan screamed. He ducked into the doorway, Charlotte at his heels. He yanked the safety door shut just as another round thudded close to the handle. “How do we get out of here?” he panted.
    “Follow her,” Charlotte replied, her tone full of dread. She pointed to her