by Jenna Kernan
The world blurred as Johnny ran. She caught glimpses of Mac beside them. There, then gone. A door slid open and they rushed inside a building. Mac drew the door shut.
Johnny set her on her feet, and she saw Mac throw off his two shirts as he shifted into his silver werewolf form. Instantly she felt sick. A glance around told her why. They’d retreated to the stamp mill. All about her, rusting iron machinery seemed to pulse with lethal energy. She stared at the lattice of iron cam shafts and tappets, power wheels that once spun, driving the iron stamp shoes down to crush stone to dust. She swayed.
“Too much metal,” she whispered.
Mac glanced back at her, pointed to the long rows of metal pistons and then to the door.
She understood. Mac had chosen the one place they might have an advantage over their attackers. All the iron that affected her would also affect them. That did make sense. Her stomach pitched. Johnny slid the door back a crack and peeked out.
“He can’t see anything,” she said. “Because they move too fast for you to see. I should be lookout.”
Both werewolves exchanged a glance.
“They’re coming,” she whispered. “I feel them. God, I hope the metal weakens them the way it weakens me.”
Johnny left the door to stand back to back with his squad leader. She saw the vampires rush through the door but Mac and Johnny did not. They still turned their heads from side to side, searching for the invisible.
The fear poured through Bri like an exploding geyser as she left them to charge the first vampire. This one she knew. This was the same thing that had nearly caught her at her apartment. But since that day she had learned how to run and how to fight. Thanks to Mac.
She was past her guardians before they could move. As she charged she felt herself changing. Not just speeding up but preparing for battle in a way that was new. Her teeth grew in an instant so they jutted past her gums. Her fingers stretched into claws, horrible talons as she assumed her second form, the one she had taken only once and never even tried to show Mac, for if he saw her like this could he ever love her? And despite her knowledge that she could never have a life with Mac, she still wanted his love.
Bri slashed at the first vampire, taking him by surprise. Her blow cut across his neck and blood sprayed her face. Was it the blood he had just stolen from those poor people? He fell to the ground and Johnny grabbed him, clamping on to his neck like a pit bull as he used his strong arms to twist. The snapping of the creature’s spine sent a shudder through Bri. Johnny jerked his neck, leaving a raw tear over the jugular and blood vessels of its neck. Two vampires grabbed her but Mac was there. He didn’t stare at her in horror or shrink from the sight of her. Instead, he latched on to the closest creature and tore open its throat with his jaws. Bri’s stomach heaved and she fell to her knees, only to be lifted by her hair by a third attacker. Two held her now and dragged her toward the exit. The remaining two vampires engaged Mac and Johnny, staying clear of their jaws and long reach while delaying them.
Bri twisted and snapped her fearsome teeth but could not break free. She clawed at their arms, tearing flesh to ribbons. Johnny lunged at the legs of his opponent and managed to grab hold. A swipe of his claws opened the vampire’s chest. A moment later the creature was airborne as Johnny tossed him into the stamping mill. At the contact with the iron mortar box the vampire screamed, writhed and twisted, trying to escape the wide stretch of metal even as his flesh seared, sizzling like meat in a hot skillet. He bled from his wounds, growing weaker with each passing moment. He fell still as Mac managed to get hold of his attacker. Bri’s captors dragged her toward the door as she heard the screams behind her. Was that his opponent or Mac?
Chapter 20
Mac gutted the vampire and then used his claws to tear something vital away. Johnny’s opponent struggled weakly on the top of the stamp press. The two remaining vampires dragged Bri toward the exit as he and Johnny bounded after them.
The vampires released Bri to face them. It was a mistake. She bit the shoulder of the closest one, lacerating the thing’s muscle and exposing the blue pulsing blood vessels that threaded beneath its stark white collarbone.
The creature howled and slapped her, sending her to the ground. Johnny leaped and landed on the vampire’s chest. There was no escaping Johnny’s jaws that latched hold of its throat and held on as its blood drained away.
Mac charged the remaining vampire, but before he could reach it, the male vanished. Mac turned in a circle expecting it to come at him from behind but the seconds ticked by and nothing happened.
Bri rose to her feet, a large welt now marring her perfect skin. The creature she had been had vanished, the gaping jaws receding to the straight white teeth that brightened her smile.
For a moment there she had looked like the males except her skin had never turned to that bruised mottled color. Had she known she had a second form?
“It’s gone,” she said looking out toward the door and pointing at the air.
He glanced at the empty space beyond to the horizon and then fixed his gaze on her. He used his index finger to circle his face and then pointed at her lifting his hands into claws. He was sure she understood his question because she glanced away and her pretty face flushed clear down to her neck.
“I don’t know. It only happened once before. We had a break-in and...I don’t really know how I do it. It just sort of is. When I’m really, really angry I can feel it coming. When I saw it attacking you, I...”
Mac squeezed her shoulder and nodded his understanding. Then he and Johnny checked the other five vampires. Their wounds did not heal. Methodically Mac moved from one corpse to the next to be certain they had all bled out. In death their skin turned an even more hideous plum color, and their cloudy eyes turned opaque and white as marble.
Johnny climbed up on the stamping press to check the last body and Mac saw it move. Johnny growled and lifted his claws.
Bri felt something cold touch her neck. A heartbeat later it began to burn. She turned and found herself captured against a hard male body. One hand grasped her hair, the other held the long silver blade to her throat.
She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came.
“Hold tight,” came the whispered order from behind her captor.
Bri recognized the voice. It was Lewis.
Her gaze darted to Mac and then Johnny, but they were watching the stamp press where a vampire, who was still alive, held their attention. From the change in his posture, Mac seemed to sense disaster first.
Johnny and Mac turned in unison as the Marines poured into the large open room of the stamp mill like ants, their boot heels drumming on the thick wood planking.
And here it was, Bri realized, Mac’s decision coming to him in the worst possible way. To rescue her, he would have to attack his fellow Marines.
“One move and I slit her throat,” said Lewis to Mac. “It’s iron, Sergeant. Just a twist and the wound stays open.”
Mac held his position as his gaze flicked from one Marine to the next. His breathing showed his upset and the locking of his long dangerous jaws. Finally his gaze swung back to Lewis.
“Get down from there,” the colonel barked.
Both Johnny and Mac eased off the large iron block. Behind them smoke rose from the vampire’s burning body.
“Check them,” said Lewis. “See if any are still alive.”
Several of the Marines fanned out, moving from one vampire to the next and then dragging them into a line at Lewis’s order. Two of the men climbed up to check the final vampire still on the mortar box.
Johnny shook his head. Lewis saw the gesture and smiled.
“Missed one, did you? I hope so. I need a male and female to ensure the next generation. Be stronger if both parents are vampire. You both did well in your second engagement. I knew you could do it. Been
at each other for centuries, according to MI.” Lewis stepped forward. Mac and Johnny followed him with their eyes. “I wonder how long sperm lives after the body dies.” Lewis turned to the assistant flanking him. “Call Dr. Sarr. Get him up here in a chopper, ASAP. And bring body bags and ice. Lots of ice.”
The metal touching Bri’s throat seared her skin and she set her jaw to keep from whimpering. She was scared down to her toes, but she couldn’t call her second form. Why did it only come when she was angry? Now, when she needed to change, it eluded her.
“Captain,” barked Lewis. “Check the bodies.”
The Marine moved down the line performing some ghastly version of an inspection of dead vampires. He stepped from one body to the next, nudging them with his foot.
Lewis watched his progress. “Look at those wounds. Spectacular.”
One of the Marines on the pressing mill called out, “This one’s still breathing.”
“Breathing?” said Lewis’s aide. “I thought vampires didn’t breathe.”
Lewis gave him a suffering look. “Breathe, fart, working kidneys. They even die of old age. That undead crap is bullshit. These things aren’t human, but they are alive.” He snapped an order. “Drag him down.”
The two men on the press handed down the limp, smoking form of the living vampire to another Marine, who dragged him before the colonel.
Mac growled and the colonel glanced his way, the grin of supremacy broadening on his face. “Got one.”
Mac shook his head. Lewis held his gaze and that was why he did not notice that the vampire’s body no longer smoked. The wound that Johnny had given him bled, but his burns healed fast.
Lewis squatted before the inert form as he spoke to his aide. “Bring in the steel cage and lock up my wolves. No more liberty for you two.”
The aide spun away barking orders. Bri leaned against the man behind her trying to put some distance between her neck and the burning blade. But the soldier just pressed harder.
“It burns,” she whispered.
“Hold still,” he growled.
She breathed in short little pants against the pain, dropping her gaze to the ground. That was when she saw the vampire’s eyes pop open, meeting hers. For what seemed an eternity he held her gaze, those cloudy, dead eyes on hers. Then, in a move so fast that she was certain only she could see it, the vampire was on his feet and behind Lewis. It took one vicious bite from the side of the colonel’s throat. Bri heard the vampire’s teeth click shut. Blood sprayed from Lewis’s neck as he dropped to his knees. Men moved in slow motion now as the vampire charged her. He knocked the blade from the Marine holding her and kicked him backward. Bri imagined the Marine must look to the others as if he was suddenly flying. The vampire grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the stamp mill. He ran her past the Humvees and jeeps, dashing up the road with her in tow.
He was taking her to the others. She knew it, and she knew Mac could not stop him. If she was to escape, it would be her fight.
Bri wound up and punched the vampire in the stomach as hard as she could and heard a satisfying oooff sound as the air left his lungs. Her feet touched the ground and she hit him again, this time in the face with the heel of her hand. He staggered, recovered and reached for her again.
“You don’t belong with them. You’re one of us.”
She hit him in his bleeding shoulder.
He covered the wound with his opposite hand and glared at her.
“We’ll come back.” His words were not threat, but promise.
“And I won’t be here.”
Her grandmother had evaded them for years. She could, too. But for how long now that they knew of her existence?
“We will find you.”
When she spoke her words were not threat or bravado, but also a promise. “And when you do, I’ll kill you.”
She meant it. Mac had been correct. Given the right circumstances, anyone could kill.
The vampire stepped back and then back again before turning to race away. She watched him crest the hilltop an instant later and then disappear. Behind her came the sounds of gunfire.
She turned to see Marines fleeing the stamp mill as yellow smoke poured from the interior. The men outside quickly donned their gas masks.
But Johnny and Mac were still inside.
* * *
Mac and Johnny hit the floor the instant the first canister went off. The gas did not smell like the caustic smoke designed to send men fleeing from buildings and right into enemy fire.
The gray smoke billowed out and Mac knew that it was something to either kill them or render them unconscious.
Mac’s lungs burned. He could not hold his breath much longer. Through the haze Johnny motioned toward the back. They both knew they had no choice. The Marines outside would fight, and he and Johnny would defend themselves. My God, Mac thought, how many will we have to kill to escape?
He had to get out and find Brianna before that thing took her where he’d never find her. He recognized then that he would make any sacrifice to have her. He would even give his life for hers. He had to survive this, had to live to save her so he could tell her that what he wanted most in this life was her.
Something moved before him. Who was stupid enough to enter a building consumed with gas?
Then he saw her. Brianna crouched, low feeling her way through the swirling smoke—a gas mask fixed on her head—as she swept the ground for them. She’d come back for him. He was elated and furious in equal measures.
“Mac!” Her words were muffled by the plastic shield that covered her face.
He grabbed her ankle and she gave a yip of fright then sank to her knees offering two masks. They didn’t fit over their faces.
Mac forced his change, writhing on the floor as his bones and tendons collapsed into his human form. The moment he went still, Bri slapped the mask over his face. Ten seconds later he was holding the mask on Johnny, who had fallen to his back.
“I’ll get one of those Hummer thingies.” Bri pointed and disappeared before his eyes.
Mac tore the breathing tube from the mask and shoved it into Johnny’s mouth then pinched his nostrils shut. Johnny roused slowly, his eyes tearing as he blinked up at him and shook his head as if fighting off the lethargy that stalked him.
The crash brought Mac to his feet. Bri had taken out the closed barn door. Red lights glowed in the toxic mist as Mac lifted Johnny and ran with him to the backseat of the Humvee and then tore the wooden door from the grill. Bri shoved over as he climbed into the driver’s seat, naked, the vinyl hot on his bare butt cheeks.
“Go, Bri. We’ll be right behind you.”
She hesitated a moment, pressing her lips together. Then she nodded and vanished an instant later.
He decided to break out through the side of the stamp mill, hoping the plants were as dry-rotted and weak as they appeared. He knew that once he tore free, he’d have only seconds to avoid whatever obstacles lay beyond.
The side of the stamp mill exploded in splintering wood as they crashed through. Mac turned hard left before he saw the circle of jeeps that ringed the buildings. He aimed between the closest two and floored it. The Humvee swept the two smaller jeeps aside with a crash and the screech of twisting metal. Then they were bumping over rough ground. He’d gotten out without killing anyone. It was a miracle.
At least he didn’t have to worry about IEDs out here. He steered for the town and fishtailed onto the wide dirt road, roaring past the Marines who guarded the entry by veering around their portable plastic roadblock. Next he passed the abandoned van surrounded by the dead tourists scattered in dark pools upon the ground.
His rearview mirror told him two things. The Marines were on his ass, and Johnny was still out.
Mac tore off his mask at the same time Bri reappeared in the pa
ssenger seat. Mac startled and gripped the wheel.
“Holy shit. You can jump into a moving car?”
“It moves slower than I do,” she said and swung the door closed.
Mac motioned to the rear seat. “Check him.”
Bri scrambled into the back and hoisted Johnny’s massive head onto her lap and began patting his slack cheek as she called his name. Mac focused on gaining top speed in their vehicle. If they could stay ahead of pursuit until Johnny regained consciousness, maybe he wouldn’t have to kill anyone.
“How did you get away?” Mac asked.
“I used what you taught me and punched him in the stomach.” She slapped the heel of her right hand and grinned.
“That’s my girl.”
He focused on the road and getting Bri and Johnny to safety. Johnny needed to be able to run. The Marines were good, but they’d never be able to track a vampire and two werewolves once they got to cover.
In the backseat Johnny groaned and pulled the breathing tube from his mouth. He coughed and choked while Bri rubbed his hairy back and murmured encouragement.
“Careful. He wakes up hard.”
“No, he’s fine. Aren’t you, John.”
When Johnny straightened, he hit his head on the roof. Mac caught his eyes in the mirror.
“You guys ready to run?”
Johnny nodded and Bri’s eyes went wide before she gave a nervous series of nods.
They descended from the high deserted plains with the Marines following close behind. Once below the tree line Mac knew they were in territory where the humans could not follow. He swerved from the road and zigzagged through the sage and tufts of yellow grass. Even the Humvee couldn’t climb the incline of rock that stretched before them. But he and Johnny could.
“Can you climb this?” he asked Bri.