by Jan Stryvant
With that Sean turned and left the room, the girls moving out behind him as they quickly left the building.
"Why'd you shoot him, Rox?" Sean asked as they got back into the van. He'd forgotten that she was a lot harder than he was when it came to killing.
"He was trying to rally the others. You know the rule: Never let the bad guys dialogue!"
Sean shook his head and chuckled weakly, "You would have made a hell of a gamer you know."
Roxy smiled and reached back from the front seat to pat him on the arm.
"How are you holding up?"
"I'll survive," Sean sighed. "At least we're at the halfway point."
As Roxy directed Daelyn to the next place, Sean called Ted and told him to redistribute everyone equally to the next three places.
"I think it's going to get ugly," Sean sighed.
"I heard you took two more heads, I thought it was already ugly," Ted replied.
"Just be ready to have your people take over any place that looks like it's about to do something drastic. Word is getting out, and I'm not sure any of these people are sane."
"Will do."
They pulled up in front of the 'Circus of the Moon' next. It was famous for its trapeze and high wire acts. Ted had hit them just last month, but apparently, they'd already restocked their headliner acts. Surprisingly Ted's actions had been having an effect, as they were down to only ten lycans there. Sean discovered that because they were all lined up by the front doors when he arrived.
"Take them, take them and go!" The woman at the door yelled.
"We still have to search the buildings, to be sure we have all of them," Sean said, looking at her. He noticed her eyes were riveted on the box he was carrying in his left hand.
"Fine! Fine! But be quick about it! But you tell your people I don't want to ever catch one of them setting foot in here again! Or we'll put silver in their food and drink!"
"I'll be sure to tell everyone to stay away," Sean said as the acrobats were led off and one of the smaller teams ran into the building to search it.
Five minutes later they came out and gave him a thumbs up, and they got into their cars and drove off.
"Four down, two left," Sean sighed.
Roxy's radio came to life suddenly, "This is Blue team! They're flushing out the patrons and starting to seal the doors!"
"The Mata-Hari is starting to close up!" Roxy said looking back at Sean.
"Great," Sean sighed, "Tell everyone to go in, we're headed there next!"
"Blue team! Get inside, now!" Roxy called on the radio, "Gold team is on the way to the Mata-Hari!"
Daelyn floored it, and they all held on as she drove them across the strip to the other side of town where the Mata-Hari was. Sean wondered if the owner thought he could get away with this because he was on the other side of town from the other five casinos.
They had considered this back when they were planning because the Mata-Hari was placed so far from the others they had planned to hit it last, even though it wasn't the smallest.
Picking up his phone, Sean called Ted.
"Where are you?" Ted asked.
"On our way to the Mata-Hari. Send everyone into the Basque and tell whoever is in charge of the group to give them our terms and if they don't accept, to torch the place. I suspect it's going to be a while before I can get over there."
"Already on top of it," Ted told him. "They seem to be rolling over without a fight, but the reports I'm getting from Mata-Hari aren't good."
"Well, we're here, I gotta go."
"Already?" Ted said, surprised.
"You haven't seen Daelyn drive," Sean chuckled and hanging up he dropped his phone on the seat. If things were going to get really nasty, the last thing he wanted was to ruin another one.
"Okay, Rox, Peg, you're going in with me. Rob, Jo, provide magical cover from out here. Dae and Cali, cover them and keep an eye out for any counterattacks. And all of you be careful.
"Now, let's go."
Sean ran for the front door with Roxy and Peg on his heels, shifting into his hybrid form the moment they went in through the front doors. It was late, almost three, and all of the excitement on the other side of town at the big fire had cut the number of onlookers to zero.
As soon as Sean came in through the doors, he ran into his first body. It was a lycan, and they were obviously dead of silver poisoning.
"I think that's one of ours," Roxy whispered as they took cover behind a couple of columns.
"I thought we told everyone without silver tags to stay outside?" Sean growled.
"Apparently they didn't listen," Roxy sighed, and then pointed, "That's Johnson, he's one of ours."
Sean looked and saw a guy taking cover behind an overturned roulette wheel.
"Well, let's find out just what the hell is going on," Sean growled and ducking down he dashed over to where Johnson was taking cover. He passed several dead bodies along the way; all but one of them looked to be dead from silver poisoning.
Most of them appeared to be wearing the casino's livery.
Sean got shot at as he ran, from someone perched up in some sort of observation area about twenty feet above the main floor. Sean cast a fireball at them and the sudden scream when it hit told him that they weren't wearing any magical protection against fire.
"Johnson, right?" Sean said as he slid up against the table.
"Man, am I glad you're here!" Johnson said.
"What happened?"
"They flushed everyone out of the building, all of the paying customers, and I guess all of the mundane employees. Then they started popping pellets."
Sean stopped and looked at Johnson; he could feel the blood draining from his face.
"What?"
"They started to kill all their lycans. Those of us inside, we got our collars and tags off and started saving who we could. Someone shot Todd over there while he was helping some gal."
"So you lost your collar and tag then?" Sean asked, noticing that Johnson wasn't wearing one.
"The gal I had it on panicked and ran, so I took cover here."
Roxy slid up next to them then, another sniper popping up and taking shots at her while she did. Sean hit him with a paralyze spell, which didn't work. Obviously, that one had protection.
"Did you hear all that?" Sean asked her, almost having trouble saying it. Even the councils hadn't been this cold-blooded. Oh, the Ascendance had threatened to do something like this, but they never actually did it.
These people had.
Roxy nodded, Sean's voice had dropped in tone almost an octave, and his voice was starting to sound pretty growly.
"Yeah, I got it. Now what?"
"Tell the folks outside to guard the doors and kill anyone coming out who isn't a lycan or one of ours, no mercy. And get the firebombs ready, got that?"
Roxy started to repeat his instructions over the radio as Sean pulled out his pistol and jumping over the table he started walking towards the sniper who had shot at Roxy.
The man popped up, and he shot Sean just as Sean shot him. Sean felt his shield go up, the bullet was obviously silver, and it hit him in the center of his chest, causing him to drop to his knees.
Fortunately for Sean, he was a werelion, so a second later he stood right back up.
The man he shot, however, wasn't so lucky, and his brains were now splattered all over the wall behind him.
Someone else took a shot at him, then, but Roxy and Peg were both on it, and then suddenly there was a loud boom from the front doors. Cali was in cover behind one of the columns with a rifle, which he knew came from the van. She quickly took four more shots, and then smiled and waved.
"Clear!" Cali called.
"Johnson, get out of here," Sean growled back to him. "Are there any more of our people inside?"
"Yeah, Charlie is in there with his crew. I can't get through to him; I think they're jamming him or something."
Sean nodded and made for the door to the back of the room t
hat Johnson had motioned to, ducking and dodging as he did, with Roxy coming up behind him and Peg following after that. Sure he couldn't be killed by most gunshots, but it still hurt like a bastard when you got hit. But no more shots came, so he guessed that Cali had gotten them all.
Kicking open the door to the back, Sean pulled back into cover around the corner. He hadn't seen anything, so peeking around a second time; he could see a corridor with various doorways and openings to other hallways that ended in a closed door.
"Charlie! You down there!" Sean yelled.
"Yeah! Look out at that first intersection; they got a nasty ass magic user down there with some potent shit!"
Sean nodded and checked his mana levels and his frameworks.
"Let me go first," he whispered to Roxy and Peg, who both nodded.
Sean started to creep down the hallway, stopping at the two doorways as he came to each of them and taking a quick look inside. The first one was empty; the second had a dead lycan in it. Sean swore when he saw the dead lycan. Just how many did they have here? Ted had thought they had twenty, but Sean had seen a dozen dead ones so far. His left hand clenched and unclenched as he thought about just what he'd like to do to the owners when he finally got his hands on them.
Looking down the hall to the opening where the other hallway started, he grabbed the body and dragged it towards the opening. Picking it up by the waist, he carefully poked the head around the corner, as if he was taking a peek.
The head was instantly shredded by a series of ice shards. They were cast fast enough that Sean suspected that there was a magic item involved. Moving back a few steps, Sean looked at the back wall of the room the body had been in; it was a typical plaster wall. Punching a hole in it, he could see that it was just a typical interior wall, metal stringers with plasterboard attached to it on either side.
Going back out into the hallway and looking down it, Sean could see someone at the other end poking their head out of the closed door, he recognized the guy, so it was probably Charlie.
"What's down that hallway?" Sean called and motioned to the opening that the magic user was defending.
"That's where all those bastards are holed up! From what I'm hearing, there's only one way in and one way out, and that's it!"
Sean nodded, "What about you? Can you find another way out?"
"Probably, but I got my three teammates and five staff in here who don't have collars, three of the staff look like they're in a coma, so I'm not up for taking chances."
"Okay, sit tight. It's gonna get a bit noisy in here though."
Sean turned and motioned to Peg and Roxy to join him.
"What's the plan?" Peg asked.
Sean lowered his voice, "I need you both to make a lot of noise, I'm going to try and break through the wall and come up around behind whoever is down there. So keep their attention. Okay?"
Peg and Roxy nodded, and Peg started to cast something as Roxy stuck just the tip of her gun barrel around the corner and started to take potshots.
Sean moved quickly into the first room, and whatever Peg had been doing, suddenly it got really loud in the hallway, so Sean kicked and punched a hole in the wall, quickly tearing through it with his hands and feet. After a minute he found himself behind a set of shelves in another room. Picking up one of the shelves, he moved it forward carefully, as the noise had suddenly abated. He heard two more shots by Roxy, and then suddenly there was that loud noise again.
But this time, when it abated, he could hear swearing coming from the other side of the door that led out of the room he was now in.
"What the hell are they doing down there?" One voice whispered.
"Some sort of sonic attack I think. Just stay behind the barricade, that should deflect it."
Sean put his pistol up by the doorframe and carefully opened the door an inch. There were two people there, with a literal box full of magic wands. They were kneeling behind a thin portable wall that screamed 'magic' to him.
Just then, whatever Peg was doing went off again, so Sean shot them each in the head, splattering their brains on the wall behind them. Opening the door all of the way, he didn't hear any cries of alarm when Peg stopped her spell, so he grabbed the box of wands, and turning back towards the hole he made, he motioned to Roxy, who was looking at him while she reloaded.
Both girls joined him shortly after that, Peg taking the box full of wands and looking at it surprised.
"Your radio still working?" Sean asked Roxy.
"No, it's being jammed as well."
"Okay, Peg, go tell Charlie it's safe to leave, then go grab Jo, Cal, and Dae and see if you can't clear out the cashier's room. Tell the folks outside to start hosing the place down with gasoline, we'll be lighting it up in a couple of minutes."
"Got it."
"What are we going to do?" Roxy asked.
Sean smiled evilly, "We're going to pick up that magical shield of theirs, and use it to advance on the room they've holed themselves up in."
Looking out the doorway, there was a short hallway that ended in a heavy door. There was also a camera.
"Well, unless Peg did something permanent to that camera, they're going to see us coming," Sean rumbled. "Let's get moving."
Popping out of the room, they quickly grabbed the shield and turned to face it down towards the heavy door, just as it opened up and a barrage of magical spells started to fly down the hallway. All of which were easily reflected by the shield.
"I don't think they thought that one through," Roxy chuckled softly.
"Thankfully, no," Sean growled as they marched down the hallway towards the now open door, which had several bodies lying just inside of it now. Apparently, the barricades reflection effect was an efficient one.
Someone dodged forward from out of sight to try and close the door as they drew near, but they fell to the floor as Roxy quickly drew her pistol and shot them. When Sean and Roxy finally got to the door, there were six people backed up against the far wall, who then started to cast every spell that they could think of.
Sean just stared at them and started to consider just what he was going to do to them once they ran out of mana. There were those six, the three down by the door, and the one Roxy had shot, though he might be dead, as he wasn't moving.
Roxy had one eye on the magic users who were casting magic like their lives depended on it, which of course they now did, because the steady low growl coming out of Sean's chest, who she had her other eye on, made it clear that none of them were getting out of this room alive.
Two more of the magic users fell before they all ran out of mana, but the other four must have been more careful with the spells they were casting, as nothing that rebounded seemed to hurt them. So Sean simply waited until they were out of mana, then leaving Roxy behind the shield, he walked around it and up to the last four, three men and one woman. Apparently, two of them had something left and hit him with sleep and paralyzation spells, that is until he bitch-slapped the two of them to the floor, dazing them.
After that, it was a simple process of tying them all up and gagging them. He even got the three by the door and made sure to wake them up after they were secured. The one Roxy had shot had gotten off easy, Sean felt, being that he was now dead.
"What are you going to do with them?" Roxy asked after Sean had them all sitting on the floor, tied up and awake. She was starting to get a little worried about Sean; because the expression on his face was possibly the most vicious she'd ever seen on it.
'Let me do it,' the First suddenly said in Sean's mind.
'Why?' Sean asked, 'I stopped them, it's my kill!'
'Don't you think you've killed enough tonight?'
'This from the lion who's killed thousands!'
'Tens of thousands, but I'm not counting,' The First told him. 'Look, Sean, Son, you're not the cold-blooded bastard killer that I am. To me, this is nothing. They are nothing. But to you? Trust me, this will hurt. I speak from experience, Son. Let me handle this for you, pl
ease, you've taken enough burdens tonight, you've held enough anger.'
Sean felt it then; the First was inside him, stronger than he'd been before. Sean could tell that the First also wanted to kill these scum who had executed their people solely because they could. He could feel that the First was trying to cool Sean's own anger, his pain, his desires to just slowly rip these people to shreds with his own claws as they died screaming.
And suddenly, Sean had had enough.
'Fine, you do it,' Sean sighed and relinquished control, and with it, a large amount of the rage he was feeling fled as well.
Roxy noticed that Sean had suddenly stopped; he was just standing there, growling. He wasn't looking at anything, he was just staring blindly ahead as his hands clenched and unclenched, then he just stopped.
"Sean?" Roxy asked.
"I'm going to deal with them for him, Roxy." Sean's voice was different enough that she knew it was the First talking now. "I think Sean's done enough bad things for today."
Roxy blinked but nodded as she watched Sean, as he walked over to the bound and gagged magic users, as they all looked up at him. Some of them were glaring, some of them were trembling, obviously terrified of what was going to come next.
"Do you know what it's like to die of silver poisoning?" the First, using Sean's voice asked them. "I'm sure you heard their screams, saw their writhing bodies as they fell to the ground, clawed at their skull, cried out in pain. I'm sure that you saw the horror in their eyes when you killed them, killed them for no more reason than that you couldn't bear the thought of them being free."
Several of the mages started to struggle, a few even sounded like they were trying to talk.
"No, save it for someone who cares. I don't care. Well, not about you, anyway. I care about those that you have killed, killed wrongfully, killed painfully, killed cowardly. I am here to pass judgment, and my judgment is that you are all guilty. The punishment for all of you is suffering, pain, and a hideously long and painful death."
And with that, the First bit each of them on the shoulder, driving his fangs deep into their skin. When he had finished, he relinquished control back to Sean who staggered a moment, and then looked down at the nine magic users who were now starting to convulse on the floor.