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He then counted approximately two hundred and forty of Medved’s people in the parking lot, eleven of whom had a weak blood bond to Gavin, and two with a strong one. He killed the two with a strong bond first. He’d wait until he was closer to kill the other eleven, so it wouldn’t take so much of his psychic power. He’d overfed and he was strong, but he needed to conserve what he could in case this came down to a showdown between powers, which these things inevitably did.
He peeked into the wolf alpha’s head to make certain there wasn’t a double-cross, and then he picked five wolves at random and looked into their minds. Satisfied the wolves wanted the devil they knew rather than the one they didn’t, he looked into Nick’s mind.
Nick was young, but he was smart, and he’d learned about loyalty. No matter how hurt and angry he was, the Rex was going to give all he had to the battle. He’d pledged his loyalty and he hadn’t even considered a double-cross. Gavin looked into seven of the minds with Nick — mostly Gavin’s people who’d been in the theaters when fighting broke out, and saw no hint of an insurrection.
He’d touched on the minds of everyone with him while on the journey, so he already knew those at his back were loyal.
Satisfied there’d be no surprises from his people, he telepathed everyone blood-bonded to him except those he’d catalogued on the other side.
Move in, but stay in the cover of the trees. Fire at will as soon as you have a shot — use whatever weapons you have at your disposal, whether psychic or handheld.
Gavin took to the air and was at the edge of the parking lot in seconds. The other vampires who could fly did the same, many of them bringing someone up with them, with everyone else running up the stairs and through the woods at shapeshifter speed.
Everyone with a firearm had been reminded that with the parking lot surrounded, stray bullets could become friendly fire if they missed their target. No wild shots, and if possible, shoot from up in a tree so the angle meant any projectile would go into the ground if it missed the intended recipient.
Gavin felt another mind trying to grab his, and he grabbed onto it before the asshole could get his claws in. It wasn’t Medved — or at least, it didn’t taste of bear. It was a strong vampire who was an unknown, but Gavin was stronger, and within four minutes, the vampire was down. Not true-dead, but if someone didn’t drip blood into him before the dawn, what was left of him likely would not rise again.
Two minds hit him at once, and he scented bear on one of them. Scented wasn’t the right word. Psychically tasted, maybe.
Gavin held them off while taking stock of the battle. His people were picking off Medved’s people, but the other side was picking off too many of his. Medved had placed cannon fodder around his inner circle, with the strongest at the center using their minds to take out the snipers in the trees.
It was time to stop this. He rarely used this particular talent because he preferred to keep it in his bag of tricks that no one knew about. When he’d used it in the past, he’d made certain every witness was dead, but he wasn’t going to have the luxury of killing everyone who’d see him do it this time.
The vampire now known as Zander had taught him about loyalty all those millennia before, but he’d never been able to teach him about love and friendship. Before Gavin’s time in the nightmare, he’d have killed all of the enemy and most of his own people when the battle was over, keeping only those he could make forget.
But his time living in the nightmare had changed him, so that was no longer an option. He’d still erase the memories of those who were malleable, but he’d have to trust the rest.
And so, Gavin drew in the energy of those blood bonded to him and used the power to overwhelm everyone in a half-mile radius without a tie to him. Once that was set up, he focused on those blood-bonded to him on his enemy’s side, and drained them of their power before melting everything in their brains except their autonomous functions. Their heart and lungs still worked, but they were otherwise brain dead. Those who turned on him didn’t get the gift of death.
All of this took about a second and a half, and then he sent out a wave that would kill anyone without a blood tie to him. It took him a handful of seconds to push the wave out to every sentient being not connected to him, and as the wave progressed, his foes fell almost as if they were dominoes, until the vast majority of those in the twenty-plus acre parking lot lay on the ground, dead. Shapeshifters and vampires littered the pavement while Gavin’s people stared all around them, trying to fathom what might’ve just happened.
He immediately sent a scan, looking for anyone alive who wasn’t one of his, because his ability wouldn’t kill the strongest vampires. During this sweep, he counted only two brains still sentient — Medved and the unknown vampire.
Medved, weakened from Gavin’s purge, drank in the energy of his sole remaining vampire, and Gavin rose above the trees to meet his foe one-on-one.
Medved stood in the circle of dead shapeshifters and vampires and held his own, but Gavin knew he could take the younger vampire. Medved was strong, but not even close to strong enough to be a serious contender in a fight to the death. It was a shame to kill a vampire who was also a shapeshifter, and Gavin was playing around with the idea of debilitating the other vampire and caging him. It might take a dozen or more years to properly brainwash the man, but it might be worth it.
And then Medved’s head exploded in a gory wash of brains and blood, and Gavin looked to just below the treeline, where Kirsten stood on a tree branch.
I had him.
So did I. You blood-bonded me again before we started, since I’d managed to cut the ties from before. Legally speaking, in the supernatural world, that makes me one of yours even if we didn’t have Lauren tying us together. My kill is the same as your kill. You seemed to be struggling to take him out, and it was easy enough for me to do.
Rather than show his annoyance and explain why he was taking a few seconds to decide what to do, he merely told her,Thank you. Lauren is overwhelmed. If you can help her, I need to handle damage control. Nearby residents alerted the human authorities to gunfire.
Of course. I’ll take her back into the sinkhole. We’ll be close. Come to her when you can.
He telepathed those with medical experience to help the wounded, and then focused on the human minds in the vicinity. People in this general area were used to hearing shots fired, but this had been too much to ignore, and the police were on the way.
The wolves had been in charge of bringing the spent firecrackers, and he directed them to the entrance, just off the main road. They’d scatter them around and put some seemingly drunk young men with them, so the police would assume those who’d called in had heard fireworks. He sent along a vampire tohelpthe responding officers come to this conclusion, and also to see the young men as kids who just needed a warning, rather than an arrest.
And then came the problem of what to do with the bodies. Everyone present who wasn’t injured or taking care of the injured would need to carry three bodies out, and that wasn’t feasible, so he’d need to bring trucks in to drive them out. He already had pressure washers on the way, so they could properly clean the asphalt, and he had a vampire who could sense metals, so they could make sure to remove any bullets — those embedded in the asphalt as well as those still on the surface.
He sent a mass telepathic message out.Please pick up any spent shell casings you find. We’ll do a sweep for them later, but collect all you can. Most from our side were loaded while gloved, but we don’t want to take chances.
Gavin could most likely keep the police from thinking there was something to investigate, but a random human with too many questions and access to the fingerprint databases might be a wildcard, and it was better to be safe than sorry. If you don’t leave evidence, none can be found.
With all immediate tasks needing attention delegated, and with both hisSecundoand Queenie to oversee things on his behalf, he flew to Lauren while keeping track of the minds in the vicinity.
