Too late. The idiot vampires took the moment of distraction and used it to their benefit. Everything happened quickly. The first vampire reached out and grabbed the barrel of Drew’s left gun, pulling him forward and then punching him in the face.
“Son of a bi…” Drew’s curse was cut off by scream of the vampire when Anthony pulled the trigger and shot him in the heart. The vampire released Drew’s weapon, letting it fall to the cement with a dull clatter.
The female vampire screeched and bared her pearly white fangs at us. She was promptly rewarded for this with one of Christina’s knives in her chest. Her screech was cut short when the large blade buried to the hilt in her heart. Only a gurgling sound released as she choked on her own blood. A few crimson drops slid out of her mouth and over her lips. She fell to her knees, her red eyes wide, clutching the handle of the knife with her right hand. Her left hand tried to move up and join the right one, but she didn’t have the strength left.
The other male turned to run, knowing that he was out numbered. His back was a big, easy target. I took the shot at him. He crumpled to his knees and then fell forward onto the filthy pavement of the alleyway. The UV light began to eat at his undead flesh, the glow filtering slowly through his body.
I held my guns at the ready and stood stock still, breathing hard. My adrenaline was pumping so hard at the moment that I couldn’t force myself to put my weapons down.
Drew was at my side, “It’s over,” he whispered.
I released a long breath, trying to calm myself. “For now it is,” I answered. We were in the heart of New Orleans in the middle of the Vampire Apocalypse, this was far from over by any standard.
“Let’s go,” Anthony waved us on.
I moved back to my previous position at the back of the pack where I could hear anything coming at us from behind while Anthony continued to lead us through the French Quarter.
“Over here.” Anthony beckoned us all toward him where we crowded around to hear him whisper. He crouched down and pointed at a building across the street. “That is it, right there.”
The building wasn’t what I’d expected. It a lot plainer than I would have imagined a haunted mansion to be. The gray, three story mansion was set on a corner lot. The gallery, situated on the middle floor, wrapped around the length of the building. Windows … there were a lot of windows. I don’t know how the survivors of the resistance would be able to keep anything a secret in that house with all the stinking windows. This didn’t seem like a very good place for a hideout.
We all crouched down in the shadows and watched the place for a little while. Looking for any signs of life and for the first time I wondered how we were going to approach these people, especially with a vampire in tow.
We sat there in the darkness for over an hour before Zander finally nudged me. “The roof,” he whispered.
Our eyesight was better than the eyesight of a full blooded human, so Zander, Anthony and I could see better in the dark than everyone else. I focused to the roof and saw what he was talking about. A slight movement where the house rounded the corner caught my attention. Yup, there was a sniper up there. Once I was able to really focus on the movement I could see the shadow of a person up there, although I couldn’t tell if they were male or female. What I could see was the length of a rifle held out in front of them and aimed right at us.
It was a wonder they hadn’t shot at us already.
“They know we’re out here,” I whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.
Drew cocked his head to the side. “We should probably let them know we have spotted them, a surrender, so to speak.”
“Yes,” Luke nodded, “that would be best.”
“Well, who’s going to do it?” Zander asked. The risk of the situation was crystal clear in his voice.
“I will,” Gavin volunteered, already holstering his gun.
“No,” I told him. “One of us would be better off since we can see what’s going on up there.” Really, I just didn’t want to see him get shot. “I’ll do it.”
“No,” Drew shook his head, “not you.”
I rolled my eyes. Here we go. I sighed and then explained. “I heal fast. If I get shot I can withstand it better than any of you.” Meaning, I probably wouldn’t die.
“Chloe…” Drew and Gavin both muttered in unison
“Guys, I can do it.”
Anthony adjusted his position. “I would volunteer, however, I imagine I would be most likely to be shot.”
I nodded. “We know that, Anthony. I’m going.”
“Chloe,” Gavin set his hand on my shoulder. “You are a better shot than any of us, plus your eye sight is better. That is why you can’t do it, you need to keep your eyes on the guy up there so that if he is going to shoot me, maybe you can get him first.”
I didn’t like this. “I don’t know.”
Finally Christina opened her mouth. “For crying out loud, this is so dumb. I hate it when everyone gets all ‘Ohhhh, we can’t put Chloe at risk’ on us. Someone get your ass out there or I’ll do it. I’m not scared of those idiots. I mean, they are hiding out in plain sight in a freaking haunted mansion. Who does that?” She raised her eyebrows at her own question.
Gavin stood and stripped off his holster, then took off his white tee shirt. I bit my lip when the shirt went over his head. I’d forgotten just how sexy those abs were.
Focus, Chloe, focus!
He shoved his guns into the back of his jeans and twisted the tee shirt around his fist. Then, without a second look back at the rest of us, he strode out into the street.
Immediately, I focused on the rooftop. The shadow trained his weapon onto Gavin the instant he stepped off the sidewalk. I didn’t think my pistol would have the range that the sniper’s rifle would have, so I removed my bow from my shoulders and slid an arrow from the quiver on my back. Still keeping my eyes on the guy, I fit the arrow in place and took aim.
Gavin had made it to the middle center of the street, where he stopped and then spread his arms wide, the signal of ‘look I’m unarmed.’ He gripped the tee shirt in his right hand and waved it around, hoping that whoever was watching would get the idea of what we were doing.
The guy on the roof followed Gavin’s every move and I kept my arrow trained on him.
“Shit,” Zander muttered under his breath from beside me.
“What?” Drew whispered, annoyance thick in his voice.
“There is more than one guy up there.”
I didn’t want to take my aim off the one who had Gavin in his sights. “How many?”
“I can see two more, but I can’t say for sure.”
Anthony rose from his crouched position that we had all assumed. “We are not alone.”
Dammit. We just needed them to know that we were not a threat. I resigned and then also stood. “Let them come. It’s what we wanted.”
“That would be a good decision,” a female voice, with a thick southern accent, called from the darkness. “We have you surrounded, so put your weapons away or on the ground.”
Luke shot a worried glance at Anthony. “Do as she says,” he ordered the rest of us.
I slid the arrow back into my quiver and the bow went back over my shoulder. Didn’t bother me any, I had my fire power. My gaze went to Alice and she nodded, understanding what she needed to do. The shimmer of the protective bubble slid down around us. The only one not within the circumference of the bubble was Gavin, who was now pretty much stuck in the street. He still had his hands spread wide. I guess he thought it safer not to put them down.
From all sides of us, people emerged, creating a circle that got smaller and smaller as they advanced. They all had on dark clothing and carried either rifles or handguns.
It did not make me feel good at all that they were able to trap us this way. One look at Drew and his furrowed brow told me that he thought the same thing. This should not have been able to happen. We screwed up somewhere.
The same woman who had
told us to put down our weapons stepped forward, closer to us than the rest of the people who circled us. She raised her rifle and trained it on Anthony. “None of you have the dragon tattoo, yet you travel with this monster?”
Anthony slowly moved his hands upward to show he wasn’t a threat. “I mean you no harm.”
“Right,” she scoffed. “That’s what the Vampire Council says too. But, then they allow their followers to kill or turn anyone they want.”
The woman was very tall and muscular. She wore black cargo pants with a black men’s tank that accentuated the muscles in her back and arms. Her dark brown hair was pulled into a pony tail at the back of her head, but unlike the brown eyes that most people with dark hair had, hers were a bright blue.
Luke, also with his hands slightly raised, spoke for the group. “We are here to help you. It was actually Anthony,” he nodded in our vampire’s direction, “who told us of your whereabouts. If you let us explain, you will not be sorry. We are Vampire Hunters, born and bred for killing the demons who are taking over the world.”
She did not make any move to lower her weapon, but I could tell her curiosity was peaked. “Everyone is a Vampire Hunter now, it’s the freaking Vampire Apocalypse, or didn’t you notice.”
“You misunderstand,” Luke continued. “We have been trained all our lives for this, as our ancestors were before us.”
I could tell that she wanted to know more about us now, but she still would not take her aim off of Anthony. I stepped forward just a tad. “This vampire is with us. It is our life mission … and our instinct to kill the vampires. Trust me, if he wasn’t worth having around, he wouldn’t be here with us. We have vital information about how to bring down an entire bloodline of vampires, but we can’t do it alone, we need your help.”
“Sarah,” one of the guys circling us, whispered. “We have to get out of the street before the patrols come along.”
An expression of sheer annoyance came over her and she lifted the rifle, resting it on her shoulder. “Fine. Come with us, but any of you make a wrong move and I guarantee that you will take a bullet to the head.”
Luke rested his hands at his side. “You have nothing to worry about. We are only here to help.”
She jerked her head toward the house. “We’ll see about that. Come on.”
***
Inside the house was just creepy. I don’t know if it was because Anthony told us all that crap about the history of the house and I was just being paranoid, or if it was actually haunted and I could feel the spirits around me.
Sarah and her buddies, still holding us at gunpoint, led us to some rooms in the house that couldn’t be seen through the windows, which were heavily curtained by the way.
We ended up in a parlor room that housed a large rectangular table. The heavy dark wood of the table top was covered with maps and other papers that appeared to be lists of some sort. “Have a seat.” She indicated the matching chairs. She pulled out the seat at the head of the table and sat down, her rifle still resting on her shoulder.
Once we were all seated, she crossed her legs and propped them up on the surface of the table. “Now, tell me about yourselves, Vampire Hunters.” She directed her question at Luke.
“My name is Lucas Kallistrate, most people call me Luke. This, is my granddaughter, Chloe and the blond one beside her is Drew.” He introduced everyone by name and then leaned forward so he could look her in the eye. “This story may have once been hard to believe, but remember, if there are vampires than surely other beings exist as well.”
She nodded. “Uh huh. Gotcha.”
Luke ignored her sass, which I would be put in my place for immediately if it had been me speaking to him that way. “Many, many generations ago, when the vampires were ravaging the earth. A Warrior Angel was sent down to eradicate the demons which were called vampires. This Warrior Angel met a woman, a beautiful but ruthless woman who was also a warrior. She was more than a fighter though. She was the descendant of a goddess, making her a demi-god. Like the Warrior Angel, her mission was also to dispense the world of the chaos the vampires were creating. These two warriors fell in love and fought the vampires together.
From their union, the blood of angels and gods, a new breed of warrior was born … the Vampire Hunter.”
Sarah was examining her fingernails with an incredulous expression on her face. “You really expect me to believe this?”
Luke shrugged. “How hard can it be, you obviously believe in vampires. Before all this happened, vampires were just a mythological creature, now weren’t they?”
“So, you are descendants of angels and gods?”
“That is correct.” Luke nodded.
“You’re also crazy.” She told him, setting her feet on the floor.
I knew Luke didn’t want to say anything to her about me, but she simply did not want to believe what was right before her eyes and we were going to have to show her.
He continued to explain about the Hunters. “A large majority of the Hunters born into our race are gifted with the ability to access the elements.”
Again her eyebrow lifted, “elements?”
“Show her, Chloe?”
I knew this was coming before he asked so I had already decided what I was going to do. I locked eyes with her when she focused on me and turned my hand so that my palm was up. The fire flowed through me, the heat swirling and building, then suddenly a flick of flame appeared, sitting on my palm as if it were the wick of a candle.
She actually didn’t appear to be phased at all. “I am from New Orleans, I know lots of people who can do tricks like that.
I glanced at Gavin and closed my fist, squeezing the flame until it extinguished. He nodded, knowing instantly what I wanted to do.
My gaze went back to her. This time I pointed my palm at the papers in front of her and threw a tiny fire ball at them. The papers immediately went up in flames.
“Holy crap, my maps!” she shouted and shot to her feet, looking to find something to put out the fire.
“I’ve got it,” Gavin told her in an even voice. His hand went up in the same manner mine had. He focused his eyes on the glass in the center of the table that was about three quarters full of water.
The liquid rose from the glass and sailed over the top of the table until it hovered over the small fire. The beads and droplets merged together and dropped down onto the flames, efficiently putting it out and leaving her map in a charred heap of wet ashes.
“Oh. My. God.” She flopped back into her chair and held her hand to her forehead.
“Believe us now?” I asked her and then cast a smile over to Gavin as a thank you for helping out with the demonstration.
She didn’t answer right away, but after a few seconds she looked up at Luke. “All right, let’s say I do believe you. None of it explains why you are with that.” She pointed at Anthony, who sat near Luke and had wisely kept his mouth shut so far. “As a matter of fact, you being with him tells me completely the opposite of what you are trying to convince me of.”
Drew finally decided to give Luke a break from explaining. “Anthony, is very old and he knows of a way to take out an entire vampire bloodline.” Drew leaned toward Sarah and smiled. Boy, he was laying on the charm pretty thick. “Do you remember those old tales about how if you kill the vampire then all those he created will die too? Well, those are true. And it was Anthony who found the sire of one of the three remaining lines. She is here in New Orleans as we speak.”
Sarah shook her head. “What? Three … where are the, um … sires, of the other bloodlines?”
His eyes didn’t waver from hers as the lie rolled over his lips. “We don’t know where the other two are, only the one. But, taking out even one bloodline can destroy a large quantity of the vampires out there.”
He wasn’t trying to protect Anthony, he was trying to protect me. Since apparently, Trevor was of Anthony’s line, that would make me a decedent of Anthony’s and therefore at risk if Anthony were
to die.
If he were to tell the resistance about Anthony being one of the Sires, Sarah would shoot him on site and we couldn’t have that. Nope, not a good idea.
Sarah chewed on her lower lip as she thought about all we had told her. “All right. I don’t see any problem with us helping each other out with a common goal. I suppose, since you told us all about your little organization that we should fill you in on what we are about.”
I could practically feel the tension in the room dissolve as Sarah announced her decision about us.
“But first, I’m putting this right out on the table. I don’t like it at all that he is here.” She pointed at Anthony. Well, at least she didn’t call him it, like she did before. “If he screws up at all, he’s dead, got that?”
Anthony nodded, “I understand. You have nothing to worry about, I am truly here to help.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Sarah mumbled. She shifted a few papers around on the table before beginning her story. “Our group is much larger than who you see here.” She spread her hands to indicate the others who stood around the room. “Our goal is to become large enough and strong enough to fight the vampires and take our city back. Once we are able to do that, we will move on, taking our people to other cities and helping them to fight.”
I nodded. These were the kind of people I admired. The kind who fought for their lives. This group didn’t just cower in a corner, they didn’t pledge themselves to the vampire council ... they wanted to live and live free. “Well, we’re going to help you. Our first mission is to find Korina.”
Sarah’s eyes flicked between me and Drew and Luke, “I’m sorry, who is Korina?”
“She is the head of the vampire line, the one we are searching for.” I had forgotten that we hadn’t mentioned any names when Drew was explaining before.
“Oh, yes of course.” Sarah nodded. “Anyhow. You are a welcome addition, we are growing, but it is taking time to get the numbers up. A lot of people from the city have already pledged themselves or they are just too afraid to fight. The bastards would rather just hole up and hide from the bloodsuckers.”
Blood Warrior (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #4) Page 4