Page 47 of The Vampire and the Case of the Perilous Poltergeist

‘We go in, but we do it smart,’ Connor said. ‘Bunny and I will go first. Sidnee, wait three minutes before you and the others come in. Are any of you shifters beside Sidnee?’ he asked. Harry and George nodded. ‘Predators?’

Harry shook his head. ‘Caribou.’

‘All right. That’s not very discreet, so stay on two. And you?’ he asked George.

‘Wolverine.’

‘Great! Shift before you come in. Fluffy will stay with you.’

Fluffy whined and gave me puppy-dog eyes. ‘Sorry, boy,’ I told him. ‘We need you to help Sidnee and the others.’ His tail dropped and he looked at Shadow.

‘I should put Shadow in the cab first,’ I said to Connor, but the second I tried to pick him up my lynx went wild, flipping and jumping to try to escape me. I sighed. ‘He won’t go.’

‘He has a mind of his own.’ Connor’s tone was dry. My curiosity was piqued again about this ‘whole story’ he hadn’t yet told me, but now was not the time.

I handed Shadow’s lead to Sidnee and he stood quietly next to Fluffy as Connor and I approached the door. Connor gestured for me to get behind him. In the weak light from the streetlamps, I could see that his fangs were down and I wished mine were smarter and would also drop. I had more control over them than I’d had before but they still didn’t always appear when I wanted them too.Now, you stupid teeth. Now,I thought. Nothing.

Connor counted down on his fingers, one, two, three, then twisted the doorknob. It opened.

The warehouse was brightly lit and we blinked as our eyes adjusted to the brightness. Danny was sprawled on the ground. I started to rush forward but Connor caught my arm. ‘Wait,’ he hissed.

I looked up. Oops. We were surrounded by five men dressed in fatigues and holding rifles and sidearms. We’d startled them but they quickly levelled their guns at us.

‘Who are you and what are you doing in here?’ the tall red-headed man on the left demanded.

Connor and I looked at each other and then, as though we’d planned it, he went left and I went right, both of us travelling at full vamp speed. Connor had his knife out and slit two throats before I hit my first guy. I didn’t have a weapon but I ripped away his rifle and hit him over the head. Connor knocked out athird soldier and I took down the last one with the butt of the gun.

I stared at the blood then up at Connor; he looked like an avenging god. His hair was dishevelled and his fangs were in full view as he snarled.

I didn’t know who these men were or if they’d deserved to die, but it felt like they did.Set aside your personal feelings, Bunny,Gunnar’s voice echoed from my memory. He was right – he was always right. These guys were doing their job, and right now their job was war on me and mine. They knew the risks.

Now wasn’t the time for a treatise on morality. I wanted Connor, my friends, my pets and myself to live more than the kidnappers and I was ready to do anything to make that happen, to get us all out alive.

Just as the last guy fell, Sidnee and the others ran in. ‘Check the rest of the warehouse,’ I bellowed and we spread out. There were two more men in a back room with a speaker blasting rap tunes. Sidnee sneaked up on them, banged their heads together and they went down. In wolverine form, George streaked past us to an open door and I heard a shout from inside.

George had the man down. He slashed his legs then worked his way up the man’s body until he was nothing but bloody pulp. Now I understood more about wolverines – cute, my ass!

‘Bunny!’ I heard Connor yell, panic in his voice.

My heart gave a firm thump and I ran out to the main room of the warehouse.

Chapter 34

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked as I raced to his side. Connor was staring down at a case, though he wasn’t getting too close to it. I swore loudly: it was full of small plastic bags full of hot-pink crystals. ‘Fisheye.’

‘A shit tonne of fisheye.’ He backed away from the deadly drugs and ran his hands through his unruly curls.

I raced to Danny’s side. If he’d been given fisheye, we needed to get him to healer or a hospital – now. In a pinch, maybe Eben could help – he was a shaman – but I wasn’t sure if all shamans could heal like Anissa? By all accounts she was extraordinarily powerful; that was why I’d met her in the first place.

I calmed myself andthought.‘The liquid in the syringe was blue. Danny probably wasn’t dosed with fisheye.’

‘Blue?’ Connor frowned. ‘What colour was the other drug? The one that made you forget?’

‘Amneiac? It was purple.’

He relaxed visibly. ‘Good. That means they didn’t wipe Danny’s memory. He might have something helpful to say when he comes around. His heart is beating strongly so I don’t think he’s in immediate danger. Let’s round up the living soldiers and subdue them, then we’ll see if we can wake him up.’

Connor picked up two of the men and dropped them in the middle of the floor. Sidnee and George, who was back in his human form, brought out two more and Harry brought out the rest. The caribou shifter was hella strong.

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