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As I rush to come up behind Alec, keeping to his left, he lifts his hands and gestures in the air. The doors are torn off their hinges and crash hard on the cement as he nears them. It’s eerily quiet. Not at all what I expected. There’s a noticeable lack of gunshots or screaming. Nothing. I don’t trust it. My heart hammers in my chest. I slow my pace, planting one foot in front of the other and stand to the right of the opening as Vince and Veronica come up from behind me.
“I’ll go in first, follow behind. Don’t get blocked in, Vince. If I go down, run. Don’t look back.”
“Fuck off, Dev. That shit’s not happening.” I growl at his response, but quietly make my way through the doors. I sweep the room, aiming my gun to the right and left, quickly taking in my surroundings.
There are too many people in this space for me to feel anything close to comfortable. On the left half of the room are two witches, both female and both with pissed-off expressions and clearly irritated. I don’t recognize either of them, but their green eyes and wild red hair suggest they’re related.
In the center of the room are three humans bound and gagged, tied to chairs with silver rope. The acrid smell of their urine makes me cringe as they audibly struggle, their eyes wide with fear.
I walk in a slow line across the room, keeping my left shoulder pointed at the witches and my gun trained on the center of the room. Alec stands before the humans, but his eyes are on the eleven vampires off to the right. Behind them are two more sorcerers and a shifter, that fucker, Remy. Carol is also among them. If my math’s right, that makes eleven vampires and one shifter against three sorcerers, three witches, and the three of us. The numbers aren’t in our favor. But with our strength and the magic on our side, we should come out the victors, with little to no casualties. If they’re smart, they’ll surrender. But then again, if they were smart, they wouldn’t have crossed Alec.
Natalia stands in front of Alec, waiting for him to speak. She appears confident and strong before him, but the miasma of fear surrounds her. “We got here just before you. Luckily they were easy to round up.”
“Humans?” His question is laced with disbelief.
“We found two dead vampires in a silver cage in the back.” She gestures at them, then faces Alec and stares into his eyes as she faintly laughs. “These humans tried to outrun us.”
Heat engulfs me as the tension swells.
“Humans!” The room shakes with his anger as he roars the word. The witches to my left spread their arms wide as thunder explodes above us; the doors and windows of the warehouse suddenly close in on themselves, crumpling the steel and brick in an unnatural way, caging all of us in and cutting out all light save for the three large dome lights above us.
Fuck. My pulse hammers and I stay steady, prepared but on edge. Waiting and praying I don’t react too slowly.
Natalia shudders at the witches’ display of power. The vampires behind her shift slightly on their feet. Marcus and Theo slip their pointer fingers onto the trigger of the guns Alec gave them. They may be fast, but with nowhere to run, their speed will be irrelevant. Adrenaline spikes through me. A sweat breaks out along my skin and I welcome it. I crave to let my beast out, but I wait. Alec will give me a sign when it’s time. My body begs to shift, I remember the gun and fight the need to shift even harder.
“Stay behind me.” I hear Vince’s command come from my right, but my eyes stay forward, focused on the scene in front of me.
“You thought I’d fall for this?” Alec sneers at Natalia.
“Fall for what? You think I’d betray you?” Her eyes flash with anxiety, but her voice is level.
“I know you would.” Alec speaks his words slowly as Natalia’s anger gets the best of her. Waves of fear drift from the line of vampires. I watch Remy as he slowly retreats from the crowd. He has no escape now that the witches have closed everything off.
Natalia’s shoulders rise and fall as she slowly backs away from Alec. Her gaze stays glued to him as she nears the line of vampires behind her. She’s a caged animal with wild, desperate eyes. The realization that she’s trapped and Alec knows what she’s done hits both her and the rogue vampires in unison.
I steady my breathing and concentrate on the location of each vampire. Remy is the only other enemy to watch for. But he’ll be slow enough to see coming. Just as I clench my fist, all hell breaks loose. The quiet is shattered with shrieks of pain and growls of rage.
I’m not sure who to take down first, but as I block a vicious attack from one vampire, I witness Theo and Marcus aim their guns at Alec and pull the trigger. In a split second, everything seems to slow. A shock of white shoots through both Theo and Marcus, forcing them to the ground as their bodies shake uncontrollably. Their limbs continue to twitch, rendering them useless.
Gritting my teeth, I keep an internal count. Two down, ten to go. Alec was smart enough to level the playing field immediately by sabotaging their weapons. I growl in triumph that we were the first to take the numbers down.
The vampires spread out in a blur behind them and attack in pairs. The two sorcerers and Carol are instantly surrounded. A beam of blue sends two vampires flying in the air and slamming against the wall behind me; it won’t kill them, but at least it gives us time to get to the other side.
With every muscle wound tight, I run forward trying to reach Carol as two vampires attack her in unison. One behind her and one in front. Both of them bite into her neck and pin her to the ground. Witches have power, but their strength and speed are poor. She’s knocked down to the ground as they drain her of her blood, weakening her. As soon as I reach her petite body, I jerk the nearest vampire off of her. His fangs rip her flesh, spraying blood in front of me as I grab his chin in my right hand and hold his body still with my left arm. He frantically pulls against me, trying to gain freedom, but I strain my muscles against his struggle and twist his neck, shattering his spine. His bones crack and I drop his limp body, knowing that’s another one gone.
I lunge for the other vampire, prepared to fight him off of Carol, but he’s convulsing on the ground with blood that’s nearly black spewing from his mouth. My eyes find Carol on the ground, barely moving. Her wounds are seeping and I bend to cover them with my hand and stop the flow until she can heal herself. She coughs blood from her cherry lips and smiles at me.
“Silver doesn’t hurt us, even in our blood.” Her eyes twinkle with trickery as she pushes my hands away. They’re soaked with her blood and I realize she knew about Alec’s plan. Who else knew?
Adopting a protective stance over her weak body, I take in what remains of the chaos as she hums and slowly heals her wounds. It’s taking far too long, but I can’t leave her alone and vulnerable. I stand guard and scan the room, searching out Vince and Veronica. Veronica’s going head to head with Natalia, and Vince is fighting off Remy. He’s not fully committed to this battle, his gaze darting to his mate with distress far too often. A snarl rips up my throat from my chest. Alec is fighting off two vampires at once, and the other two sorcerers and two witches are facing off with a vampire each. We’re on the verge of losing this battle. My blood heats and pumps through me, urging me to fight.
A roar leaves me as I allow the anger to take over. The pure rage and animosity. The need to return to my mate and end this battle just as quickly as it began.
Carol slowly rises to her feet. She’s still weak and in no condition to be left alone, though. If a vampire attacks her, she won’t make it. Even so, I can’t just stand back and watch them die; Alec is being slashed repeatedly as the vampires break through his defense and get in small hits each time. Blood sprays from his wounds as knives slit his flesh.
“Go.” Her weakly spoken word is all I need to run to Alec. I push my back against his, giving him support as I wait for the inevitable blows. With our backs protected, the vampires can only attack us head-on, giving us a better chance at defending ourselves. In a blink, a gash is slashed across my face. Another blur and a gush of wind whip in front of my face. My arm reaches in front of me, but I catch nothing. The fucker is too fast. My wolf roars in anger.
Thump, thump, my blood pounds.
