Chapter 441
Around 2:00, I started to get a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. I could tell my sister felt it, too, because I saw her sit up a little straighter on the bed. I was back in the chair, just perusing social media, looking at old pictures of Brandon and me. But once that stirring started, I put my phone away, inside one of the secret pockets in my jacket where it was less likely to fall out or get busted. Tonight could get ugly.
I closed my eyes and tried to relax for a moment, feeling out into the night. They were definitely coming, and there were more of them than I had expected. I thought we’d knocked out most of the Vampires in the area during our raids. The deeper I probed, the more I realized most of these were newbies, created recently for just such an event. I guess a Vampire’s a little bit like a cockroach. You can do your best to squish them, but if you leave one or two around, soon enough, you’ll find yourself infested again.
My best estimate was between thirty and fifty, which isn’t very specific, but it was hard to tell with new Vampires because I didn’t have much to go off of, except for what the other Vampires I could sense were thinking about or looking at. I thought we had enough LIGHTS and Independents on the ground to handle it, but this wasn’t going to be easy.
I could feel them approaching outside. My eyes flew open. “You ready?”
“I was born ready.”
A chuckle escaped my lips at my sister’s attempt to sound like a tough guy. I sent a signal to Ash that she needed to come over just as my sister asked if we should go get her. “Got it,” I assured her, and I stood up and made sure my Glocks were loaded for the twenty-seventh time.
“Should we go ahead and move to the vehicle?” Ashley asked as she came flying through the door, Glock in hand. “They’ve gotta be close.” I imagined she was feeling it, too.
“No, we’ll engage first,” Cadence replied as we heard noises on the roof. That wasn’t Santa Claus....
“What if they’ve tampered with the SUV, or they’re blocking it in?” Ashley seemed worried, and I guess I couldn’t blame her. We had no Guardians with us at the moment—and no Healer.
“It’ll be fine.” Cadence seemed confident, though I wasn’t sure why. She checked her Glock and made sure the after-market safety was off and her silencer was on correctly, not that it would matter much once the fighting began. She opened her mouth to say something else to Ashley when a body collided with the bedroom window, hard.
The guy hung there like a bat, probably more startled to see us awake than we were to see him. Cadence shot, shattering the glass and sending ash spewing out of his chest. He slid off the window to the ground.
I knew one bullet wasn’t going to do it, though. I could either try to put up a shield to stop Holland from influencing them and making them harder to kill or fight, or I could join the battle. For now, I chose to engage. I didn’t think I could do both at the same time.
Cadence ran over to the window and looked down, so I followed. She fired again but it wasn’t enough. I checked that I had my knife in my pocket and was relieved it was there. I was probably going to need it.
By the time the guy had gotten back to the window, Cadence was thinking the same way and plunged a silver dagger into the hole left from her gunshot wound. That was enough to do him in. A cloud of ash fell to the ground below. He wasn’t alone though; two more Vampires were making their way up a tree, and they looked just as vicious as the one Cadence had just ended.
“Okay, time to head for the SUV,” my sister said as one of the Vampires leapt from the tree to the window. Cadence took a shot at her, knocking her to the ground, but we knew that wouldn’t end her.
“This’ll be fun.” Ashley flew through the door first with me right on her heels and Cadence following. As we streaked down the stairs, the front door burst open. Five Vampires poured in, their fangs bared. I could tell immediately that Holland was strengthening them, and they’d just come face to face with their targets.
Ashley opened fire as I heard Job say, “A few got through,” in my head.
Cadence answered, “I noticed,” but I think she wanted it that way. We needed them to follow us, and they couldn’t do that if they didn’t watch where we went. We’d have to get through these five unscathed in order to make that happen. I wasn’t scared, but at the same time, I think my sister may have been underestimating their strength and the fact that we had no safety net. If we died here, we wouldn’t regenerate somewhere else, and there wasn’t a Guardian anywhere to be seen.
I squeezed between the railing on the stairs and the ceiling, landing lightly with my knife drawn, my Glock at the ready in my other hand. One of the Vampires caught up with Ashley as she hit the landing, catching her shoulder. She screeched, and I would’ve gone to her aid, but I was suddenly busy. The roundhouse she delivered to the guy’s head told me she must be okay.
I had two of them. Luckily for me, they were stupid and came at me one at a time. I don’t have a lot of kills, but I was looking to change that. I made short work of the woman who lunged at me first, going straight for her throat with my knife. Surprisingly, I cut right through it quickly and saw the fear in the eyes of the man behind her. I don’t think he had chosen to be there. Too bad he’d be a pile of ash on the oriental rug in a moment.
