Charlotte took off her top revealing her bare breasts after wearing no bra. Becoming a wolf meant extra clothing was just an extra waste of time before the change. She kissed him on the lips pulling at his shirt. “We have some time before I need to change,” the pretty brunette said between passionate kisses. “I feel a bit bad for Nicola though. You two need to figure out more ways to get alone now that Sami’s around.
“At least this is one night I know that I can get you to myself for awhile.”
Nick let her remove the shirt and they tossed both into the car. Quickly putting down the back seats and throwing the hatch up to get in from the back, the couple soon had the rest of their clothing off and were lying inside of the Escape. It wasn’t a necessary act as it had been for the last moon so after a little more than an hour Charlotte left him to transform without any problems in her change.
Baying into the air, three howls echoed her sending the wolf off in the direction of her small pack.
Nick shook his head. His life was anything but ordinary he thought as the voran prepared to get a little sleep. It had also been over a week since his last rest, so after putting on his jeans; the voran drifted off to nap.
The rains over the past couple weeks had led to frustration for the kasha and vampire search teams. Shedu had been surprised at how quickly he had come to appreciate Marek’s coven. A supposed enemy at first, the hunters had come to realize that these vampires were a valuable set of allies thanks to Nick and his blood. Their spirits were clean of the evil that killing humans brought on most of their kind.
Still Alad didn’t approve, but even he had to admit that these vampires were different from the others. More resigned than happy, the other man proceeded to get along and Shedu had a feeling that he only did so figuring that they could always betray their allies in the end. It wasn’t Shedu’s decision in that regard. Only Barong could make that call and for now, the kasha team leader refused to call him to be told otherwise.
“There,” Alad pointed to a figure moving across the rooftops. Even for a kasha, running across the roofs was difficult and a bit frightening at the best of times, and there was still water setting in puddles on many of them where they could get their feet wet causing one to slip while running and jumping.
The tiger led the way. Their masks didn’t hide what they were, but a reaper was unlikely to know what they were for sure. They also used the breezes to try and keep their scent from carrying to the vampire.
Their quarry paused and the three of them hunched down behind vents and the edge of the wall to avoid being spotted.
Once the vampire was on the move again, the kasha followed trying to cut into its lead. While he didn’t seem to be hurrying to a particular destination, the vampire kept up his speed only stopping on occasion to look around him for trouble before glancing to the streets below. It was on the prowl for its next meal, Shedu thought of the creature’s perceived intent.
As they waited for the vampire to make a move, Shedu caught more movement in the distance and pointed.
Lam asked quietly, “Marek’s people?”
“I don’t know, but they’re closing on him fast.”
Alad stated, “He hasn’t spotted them yet.”
With the wind blowing from the lake conflicting with a natural flow from the west, being south of their quarry was the only safe place to avoid their scent being caught or his sight spotting them as he seemed most intent on heading north. The trio of movement came from west of their position and that of the vampire. They were moving fast and seemed to assume speed would overcome any reaction from their quarry. It wasn’t the usual attack of the more cautious coven, and when a whiff of the strange mix of blood and undead came to them on the air Shedu picked up his cell phone to call Marek.
Having traded numbers through Nick originally, the different factions had begun coordinating efforts to catch these reapers, a larger threat than normal vampires. Now it came in handy as he said, “Marek, we’ve found a trio of reapers, we’re... just north of Randolf and east of Ogden. There’s a vampire we were following that seems to be their target.”
“On our way, Jake and I are a mile west of you.”
Even with vampire speed, it would take a few minutes trying to cover that kind of ground. Not every block would have straight access to their position. They had chosen the area partly for the lower heights of the buildings in the area and partly because there were several restaurants and bars in the neighborhood.
The sound of a train coming on the elevated tracks over Lake Street presented another problem.
The first vampire spotted the movement of the three vampires rushing his position. Understanding that he was outnumbered and that such aggression was unlikely to be good for the single vampire, he ran to the north and the rail system. Undeterred, the reapers managed to increase their staggering pace attempting to catch up to the man.
Shedu waited until the pursuers had their backs to his team before leaving their concealment. As they watched the four vampires racing down the train tracks, the temptation to follow was great. When there was too much of a gap between buildings, the kasha would leap onto the straight path and jump back to the roofs. Using the little concealment they could find, the hunters hoped to catch the reapers when they were paying attention to their quarry.
Trying to press redial on his phone as they ran, Shedu gasped into the phone as Marek answered, “Heading east on Lake’s train tracks, fast.”
If the reapers didn’t catch the vampire quickly, he would make it to the closest train stop. Shedu wondered how many people might be using the train at this point in the evening. It was only around 10 PM and the area often saw visitors to the restaurants and clubs. While it was only a Tuesday and would avoid the bigger weekend crowds, there was still likely to be humans around.
Perhaps the vampire thought the same thing as he bailed from the tracks trying to head north before the station. Shedu was wrong about the vampire’s intended destination, however, and had to hold his people back as he watched the three chasing the vampire give pause on the last roof top facing a large structure. Looming around one hundred feet high, the building was much taller than those around it. It nearly spanned the entire square between the streets surrounding it. It was a massive building that was under construction, though it looked like progress had been halted in the economic slowdown.
Whether the vampire was just hiding in the massive open building or trying to use to confuse his pursuers, it seemed to work in either case.
Peering around a roof air conditioner, Shedu watched to see what the three vampires would do.
“I can’t catch enough of a scent from here to know if there are more vampires hidden in that monstrosity,” Alad said as he hunkered down behind a brick chimney. “If I had to guess, this seems similar to the trap we walked into in the alley.”
Shedu nodded feeling the same and glad that he didn’t have to make the choice that these reapers had to now. If they gave up, his team could return in the day light and scope out the place. It was much too large to assume that it was empty of other vampires.
Noting one of the pursuers on a cell phone, Shedu wished that he knew what they spoke of and to whom. They knew that there were more than three reapers and if this was indeed a nest of vampires, the reapers might call in their own reinforcements. Splitting up, two of the reapers moved off to either side. They would check to make sure that their quarry didn’t simply escape through the building.
Alad started to move, but Shedu put up his hand halting him.
“He’s alone now,”Alad complained. “We can take him.”
“If I were him, I would call in the other reapers from wherever they might be now. They cleared out the last nest and that building was a fraction of the size of this building. If they used eight or nine there, then I certainly don’t think that they’ll just rush into this massive site with just three.”
Lam nodded as she watched the only vampire they could see.
She
du added pointing towards the reaper who was on a building to their left. He was in sight of the closest remaining man. “That one maintains line of site with the center, so will the other even if we can’t see him from our position. This group is using solid tactics and won’t just run in blindly until they have better numbers.”
He pulled out his phone to warn Marek. This night was turning out to be more hazardous than he had originally thought when they had picked up the trail of the first vampire.
Nick’s cell phone rang waking the voran. If his body had been forced to sleep because of exhaustion, even the ringer on full blast in his ear wouldn’t wake him, but he was early in his window for resting. Checking the time as he picked up the phone as well as seeing Marek’s name, the voran took a deep breath wondering what had happened. The vampire knew that he was with the werewolves for the full moon tonight.
“What’s up, Marek?” he questioned without the preliminary pleasantries.
“The kasha stumbled across the reapers and a probable huge nest of vampires. Shedu thinks the three reapers they found have called in their numbers and I am doing the same. I know this is the full moon, but we may need you. Lenora’s group is in the city and not much of a fighting unit anyway; so we are short handed even with the kasha, if things get out of hand, Nick.”
Taking a breath, the voran replied, “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Where is it?”
Marek and his team of Jake and Audrey moved in behind the kasha, though the latter had spotted them coming from Lake Street as they swung south avoiding a direct approach that might give them away to the reapers. The vampires wore basic surgical masks over their mouths and noses to prevent sneezing accidentally as they crouched near the kasha.
“Have the other reapers arrived yet or have they moved on the nest at all?” Marek asked Shedu.
The black panther’s eyes looked at the vampire and spoke amazingly clear English. “You can see the center reaper on the roof across from the large, unfinished building. His compatriots are on either side keeping watch for the first vampire’s escape, but apparently he hasn’t run either.”
Wishing he had Nick’s radar like ability to pick out vampires, an ability that he knew the voran must possess, though his friend had never disclosed how it actually worked; Marek tried to sense the air. It whirled and carried confusing scents. There was that of the reaper and vampire, but he couldn’t tell if it came from their trail or ahead of him.
“I called Nick and he’s coming, plus I have five more of my people on the way,” Marek informed the kasha. The numbers sounded miniscule if these reapers were as powerful as they feared. His one hope was that the nest would be fighting them first and could kill a few.
Shedu nodded and waited. Alad eventually tapped his shoulder pointing towards the west. Movement across the roofs told the kasha leader that support was coming, but from that direction it wasn’t theirs. They counted seven new figures. Three split off to stand on the street to the north of the structure. On the north side, there was bared earth looking like a rough parking lot. Surrounding chain link with plywood attached painted green prevented an easy view from the street. The roofs were certainly easier to keep watch from, but the reapers chose the street choosing to let those on the roofs warn them if they needed it to be closer to an attack.
Two stayed on the west roof while the remaining two joined on the south and east. With only ten, it might not seem like a strong containment perimeter, but Shedu could guess that nothing would escape before the fight could begin.
Marek was on his phone and after the call went through, he warned his second team, “Use Lake and come up Carpenter just half a block until I tell you. They’ve come from the west and I don’t want you getting caught from behind if there are more of them.”
Derek’s voice replied, “Yes, sir.”
Marek explained to Shedu, “We’ll wait for the reapers to attack the nest. Hopefully they’ll take each other out and we’ll just mop up what’s left. They’ll do our work for us for once.”
Even Alad had to smile at the logic. While the tiger kasha enjoyed killing vampires and setting their spirits free, there was definitely something enjoyable about letting one’s enemies do the dirty work for them.
Once the reapers were in position, it didn’t take long for them to move in and they were fast. With a building with so many floors and a vampire’s ability to leap from as high as even the hundred foot tall roof, the reapers didn’t send everyone at once. Leaving one to cover each point of the compass, the remaining six attacked on command and as one.
The two reapers on the north side had no advantage of a building to leap from for the higher floors and they took the first two floors. It showed confidence since there was a likelihood of more enemies staying closer to the ground, if their former human nature held anyway. From the west, two more reapers took the third and fourth floors, while east jumped high catching the fourth floor before jumping up the exterior in a couple bounds to check the sixth floor leaving the fifth for the one to the south.
It didn’t take long to hear the first scream on the air. Inside the building, the nest was ready to fight, but they weren’t ready for what they fought. Speed and strength were a vampire’s assets, but the reapers were stronger and faster. The upper floors were lightly populated. The top had been their scouts watching for trouble and, even alerted, the fifth and sixth floor were cleared of the few holding their ground. Cowards occupied the upper levels and they were cowards because they could hardly fight. These were the ones who had joined the nest or been co-opted into it by the strength of numbers.
When the two reapers on the fifth and sixth ran into a mere handful between the two floors, they were mowed down as the expendable creatures they were to the nest. The reapers killed and drained the cowards taking more time. Whether they were cowards or brave fighters, they tasted the same. Since reapers didn’t care over how strong an opponent was but just the taste of their blood and heart, these would be the beginnings of a larger feast.
Those observing from the south watched as minutes after the beginning of the attack, those two were either using the outside stair on the west side of the building or just leaping up to the next floor looking for their next kills. The fourth floor had been sparse and that reaper joined his comrade on the third floor. That was where the first real resistance began. Gunshots could be heard coming from the lower floors and more screams.
The lower floors had the brave vampires and the fighters. With weapons, both ranged and those for close fighting in hand, these vampires fought the predators like the gangs of the city. Some had even been smart enough to spray their weapons with silver nitrate. Others had beaten silver trinkets flat and wrapped the thin sheets around clubs. These weapons helped even out the fights and even managed to take a toll on the reapers.
A flash of fire from the second floor brought two delayed bursts as a reaper met his fate through silver to the heart, but these weren’t knowledgeable vampires wise in the way of their kind. No one had been warned that a powerful vampire’s death by silver and his dying created flames. Two of the lesser vampires were consumed in fire by remaining too close as they thought to celebrate the reaper’s death. They burned up as smaller pyres with the first blast.
The third floor was a mass of activity as the first reaper on the floor was held at bay by a handful of men and women. The one from the fourth in his haste missed a single vampire hidden there. While perhaps a coward being too afraid to take the reaper on by herself, the vampire followed the reaper down the stairs. With its back to her, the girl proved to at least be a good shot as her bullet, tipped with silver nitrate, passed through his head. The fire started at the top burning down through the reaper’s body like a match burning down to the ground.
With surprise at his comrade’s sudden death behind him, the first reaper on the floor made a hasty retreat to a safer place. Back up was soon there as the reaper coming from the fifth floor took out the assassin in a way she had used first. Leaping
down onto the stairway crashing into the girl causing her to fire the gun in reaction, knocked her to the ground as the reaper tore her gun from her hand breaking her fingers and hand in the process. The pain from her broken hand was like nothing as the reaper tore into her flesh draining her blood into him like a glutton.
Those who had waited for the initial push now moved to reinforce their attack. North and south converged on the second floor before the vampires could cheer their success despite the loss of those caught in the fire. Caught from both sides, the firearms weren’t enough to make up for the surprise. They had let their guard down and the remaining five were dead before they knew it.
Defense of the first floor had been the strongest and the first reaper there had been able to do little more than try to stay out of the line of fire of their guns. East and west converged to help. A battle commenced as some of the best fighters did their best against the predatory reapers.
Nick came in from behind those watching the assault. Pushing his senses, the voran felt each death as the phantom auras simply winked from his mind.
“Welcome, Nick,” Marek greeted first.
The voran nodded concentrating on the battle taking place in the massive building. He had arrived on the roof just as the second wave of reapers attacked the building. They had apparently never caught a whiff of those watching the defense of the fortress the vampires had picked out for themselves.
Extending his senses out as far as he could, Nick could only pick up those here and in the building. Across the street to the west, five more of Marek’s vampires, including Nicola, added to the numbers; but there were no more within a quarter mile of him, perhaps even a little farther. As he had driven close and run across the rooftops for the remainder of the trip, the voran had kept his mind open. The only vampire activity was centered on the massive building.
Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) Page 36