Authors: Dean Murray
I
whispered in an attempt to make sure that the rest of the vampires
wouldn't be able to hear me, which meant that I didn't know if her
lack of response was because my earpiece hadn't been sensitive enough
to pick up the order, or if she'd just muted herself before turning
to talk to Tristan.
I
pointed at the transmitter one last time, hoping that she would see
it on the live feed if she hadn't heard me, dropped the vampire's
bloody sword, and then turned and crept out of the room.
There
were only four other heartbeats in the building. Three to one odds
was almost to the realm of survivable, and behind the dispassionate
corner of my mind that was busy analyzing tactics and odds, an ember
of hope started to burn just a little brighter.
"What
the hell was that? You guys are supposed to be watching the front."
I
tried to pitch my voice higher and I spoke into my arm in an attempt
to muffle the words, but I knew I didn't have the talent that I would
have needed to pull off a convincing impression of the vampire I'd
just killed.
"Crush
just fell out of his chair. I think he's been drinking."
Someone
from the room ahead swore as they started toward me, and I realized I
was smiling again as I waited next to the doorway. The third vampire
was already turning in my direction as he came out of the room, but
he didn't have time to react to my presence before I grabbed him and
put my left hand through his ribs.
I
could just feel his transmitter underneath the heavy leather of his
coat, but I took half a second too long deciding between covering his
mouth or disabling the transmitter. His scream brought the last two
vampires out of their chairs, and this time I didn't waste any time
debating on the right course of action.
I
charged into the room and managed to cover the first twenty feet
before my feet suddenly refused to function. It was as if between one
step and the next I'd had shackles snapped around my ankles. There
wasn't a single thing that I could have done to stop myself from
falling, but the same invisible force that had ahold of my ankles had
also wrapped itself around my arms and chest, so I didn't just fall,
I slammed face-first into the unyielding concrete floor.
I
blacked out for a split second, that or maybe the pain and the stars
spinning around my head just made it feel like I lost some time. I
looked up and both vampires were closer than I expected them to be.
The
vampire on the left was a woman, tall and slender to the point of
being almost revolting, while the individual on the right was a man
who was so nondescript that I could have passed him a thousand times
and not remembered ever seeing him.
"Ajax,
go check on the others. They're probably dead, but we'd better make
sure. Watch out for more of them, this one might not be alone."
The
man already had a pair of small hand axes out. He flipped one end for
end in the air as he nodded and then disappeared out of my field of
vision as he headed towards the door.
"I'm
impressed. You took out three of my men and would have possibly been
able to beat me as well if I'd been a thousand years younger."
My
mind was still reeling. Adri's detective friend had warned us that we
were going up against something dangerous, but the general consensus
had been that as a human she would have a different definition of
danger than us. I'd expected to maybe come up against an older
vampire, but I'd been thinking along the lines of someone a few
hundred years old, someone who I might have had a chance of beating
in an even fight.
I
hadn't been prepared for something like this. This was only the
second time that I'd ever been completely helpless and it wasn't
getting any easier with practice. My beast was going crazy inside the
back of my mind, and I could feel metaphysical power lashing out from
my body in crackling waves, but it wasn't making any difference.
I
wanted to rage at my beast for losing control and flailing around,
but I couldn't really blame him for being true to his nature. He'd
never been meant to live in a cage. Besides, in my own way I wasn't
doing any better.
Rather
than flying into a snarling rage like my wolf had done, I seemed to
be disassociating from everything around me. I was trying to stay
present—I managed to continue to flex in an effort to rip free
of my telekinetic bonds—but my mind kept focusing on the most
trivial aspects of my situation.
I
could see Cindi and she was bruised and crying. I realized that my
beast's current behavior was especially shocking because he'd been
unusually quiet lately, only I'd been so preoccupied with everything
else that I hadn't noticed.
There
was something else that I was supposed to be thinking about though,
something important, but my eyes kept drifting back to the narrow
sword that the vampire was passing back and forth from hand to hand.
She
looked away from me and suddenly the haze lifted enough that I
realized what her presence meant.
"Brindi,
the telekinetic…"
Before
I even managed to finish up the third word my headset was ripped away
by an invisible hand. It flew across the room impossibly fast and
shattered into hundreds of pieces after colliding with a set of heavy
metal shelves that ran almost all the way up to the ceiling.
My
captor shook her head at me and then spoke into her wrist. "Master,
one of the creatures we were warned about attacked our position. I
have him captive, but I think there must be another group."
Whatever
response she received was obviously good news. It made her smile as
she turned back to me. She used her telekinetic gift to pull me
across the cool concrete floor until I was only inches from her feet.
Somehow
the flat of her sword had ended up resting on the side of my neck
without me realizing it, and I started to shake. I was realizing just
how badly I'd underestimated my desire to live.
I'd
thought that I was ready to die if that was what it took, but then
I'd taken out the first three vampires in such quick succession that
I'd allowed myself to believe that I might survive rescuing Cindi. On
some level I'd decided once again that I was going to live, only to
now find myself trussed up and completely in the power of a merciless
vampire.
There
was only one possible way out of this and I reached for it with all
of the passion of my beast and iron determination of my human half as
the vampire smiled at me.
"I
was worried that I was going to be ordered to keep you alive and
torture you for information, but the master says that you're of no
use to us. Goodbye, odd creature."
She
pulled her sword away from my neck and brought her arm back
preparatory to a stab that I knew would end my life. I pulled even
harder, trying to open back up the rift that had saved me the last
time that I'd been this helpless, but all of the urgency and
determination in the world couldn't help without at least some idea
of how to activate my ability again.
Time
slowed down as it sometimes did in situations of extreme stress, and
I saw the tip of her sword reverse directions as she lunged forward,
sword headed directly at my heart. My beast sent out another surge of
power at the same time that I opened my mouth and roared at her.
It
was too late, all of my scrabbling at the rift hadn't made any
difference. The only thing left was to wait for the tip of her sword
to end my life. Despite every intention of meeting my death looking
my killer in the eye, my lids closed in an involuntary attempt to
deny what was happening.
The pain in my chest was as sudden as it was excruciating.
Adriana Paige
Primary Target Site
Cloquet, Minnesota
The trip to meet up with Heath went as smoothly as could be expected
considering that I had a combination microphone and speaker in my
ear. The first few seconds after I put it in were disorienting simply
because most of us didn't understand the concept of radio discipline.
The
cacophony of voices was nearly enough to make me rip the device back
out of my ear, but then Isaac's voice cut through the clutter.
"Taggart
and I have talked and agree that I'll be calling the shots on this
one, so don't speak unless you've got a really pressing question or
you see something that needs to be brought to everyone else's
attention."
After
that things got a lot better, and it was actually quite nice being
able to talk back and forth across three different vehicles without
having to hold onto a phone. The vehicles slowed as we got nearly
within sight of the warehouse in question, and then Heath
materialized out of thin air and flagged us down.
Isaac
was the first one out of his van and he handed Heath one of our last
two earbuds as soon as his feet hit the ground. "We have to take
turns talking with these things in our ears, but go ahead and bring
everyone up to speed."
"They've
got two people up on the top of the building. They're dressed in dark
colors and they aren't moving around much so they stand out a lot
less than you would think, but they are up there. I can get a group
this size inside the building without them seeing us, so they are
only a minor problem, but everyone needs to stay behind the corner of
that building or they'll see you."
"Okay,
any idea how soon before Dom will be here?"
Everyone
looked around at each other for a second and then Tristan's voice was
suddenly inside my ear.
"Alec
just arrived at her location. She's in his car headed your direction
right now. My best guess would be that you'll see her within the next
couple of minutes."
Isaac
nodded. "Thanks, Tristan. I guess we should be grateful that
they didn't decide to move Cindi very far away or we would have had
to go in without Dom."
Dominic
arrived right on schedule and soon had her earbud in place. Most
earbuds were designed with the goal of being hard to detect, but that
wasn't the case with these. There was no telling what the actual
engineers on the project had thought about the design, but according
to Jenners these particular earbuds, which extended quite a ways
outside of the ear, were both long and fat enough that they wouldn't
fall down into the larger ear canal of a hybrid.
Dom
looked a little worried that nobody had apparently ever thought to
test the earbuds on a jaguar, but in the end she just jammed it into
her ear and mustered up a brave smile for me.
"Okay,
everyone. We're going in with the hybrids in the lead, but once we
get far enough inside to hit that big open space that the plans for
the building show, you can all spread out and put down any targets of
opportunity. Taggart and I will try to go directly to Adri's parents,
but most of you know what they smell like so if the scent trail
inside there is too confused for us to sort it out immediately and
you happen to end up next to them then call out or howl for help.
"Remember
that as long as you're inside of Heath's field of vision you'll be
invisible, but that's not the same thing as being invulnerable and as
soon as we start spreading out that will go by the wayside, so be
careful not to get cocky. By the same measure, we're going to be
outnumbered by a pretty good margin so it's vital that we take out a
lot of vampires early on while we still have the advantage of
surprise and they haven't had a chance to form up into a larger
group."
I
raised my hand and Isaac nodded for me to go ahead. "Don't
forget that the leader is a telekinetic. Presumably she's the most
powerful one in the group, but we aren't positive just how powerful
she is, so there may be a couple of other vampires in there who have
an ability that is strong enough to actually be useful during a
fight."
Once
everyone had been given a chance to ask any last questions, we all
gathered into a loose group directly in front of Heath and then
waited for his ability to take effect. One second everyone looked
just like normal, a little edgy and nervous in some instances, but
other than that no different than they'd looked on the drive over.
A
second later we all took on a misty, semi-translucent look and now
that we were safe from observation by any humans in the area everyone
started shedding clothes and shifting shapes. Despite the fact that
I'd been living in close proximity to everyone but Jenners for the
last week or two, I still wasn't super comfortable with the casual
nudity that seemed to be a pretty major part of being a shape
shifter.
Taggart
had adopted the use of something very like the stretchy ha'bit that
I'd seen on the Sanctuary wolves and hybrids, and Isaac had never
gotten out of the practice of wearing one, but most everyone else
stripped down to nothing more than bare skin before shifting forms.
Luckily
the entire process only took a few seconds and then everyone but me
was safely furry and we were headed towards the building with
Tristan's count slowly winding down in our ears.
"Fifteen
seconds, you can probably open the door at any time."
Isaac
was in the lead. He had his hand on the door, but he didn't open it.
"No, we go in exactly on count, I don't want to make things any
more difficult for Alec than we have to."
Something
about that statement seemed off to me. Alec's gift basically sounded
like a giant 'I win' button. If that was the case it shouldn't matter
whether or not he got the drop on the vampires in the other building.
I nearly opened my mouth to ask Isaac what he meant, but then Taggart
slapped him on the shoulder and he opened up the door and followed
Taggart into the near darkness.
Even
with my augmented time sense it was still all I could do to keep up
with the explosion of movement that followed over the next second or
two. Jenners and Heath were the next two. The former streaked out of
sight in pursuit of Taggart and Isaac, while the latter took up
station just inside of the door, angled so he could still mostly see
both the people who were inside and the ones still standing outside
with me.