Page 71 of The Vampire and the Case of the Hellacious Hag

‘Hey, I’m Bunny. Who are you?’ I asked gently while Gunnar backed up so as not to intimidate her. She shrugged but didn’t answer. ‘Are you the air witch that did the ward?’ I asked.

Her eyes flew open wide. ‘Yes!’

‘I thought so.’ I smiled. ‘You feel the same. We’re supernats. We’ll get you out of here.’

She shook her head miserably. ‘If you do anything, this collar will blow my head off.’

I looked at it. ‘Can I come closer to examine it?’ I asked. She nodded and I padded forward. Lifting her lank, greasy hair, I saw that the collar was thick, presumably because of the explosives, and it had a thumbprint lock. It was a nasty piece of work.

‘We’ll figure out a way,’ I promised rashly. ‘I’ll close the door for now so we don’t give away our presence, but we’re going to clear out this place and come back for you. Any idea of their numbers?’

‘Sorry, no. I only see the same asshole.’ She sighed wearily and leaned her head back against the wall.

‘Okay, thanks. What’s your name?’

‘Emma.’

‘We’ll be back, Emma,’ I said as we backed out and shut the door behind us. Once on the other side of it, I closed my eyes. ‘Those fucking bastards,’ I whispered.

‘Discard your rage,’ Gunnar instructed crisply. ‘It has no place here and it’ll get you killed. Be angry later.’

I nodded stiffly and we moved forward to check the next three doors. Either there weren’t many people here full time or they were all concentrated in one area, because we found nothing but equipment and humming machines. We didn’t stay long enough to identify what they were doing; we could circle back later when the area was clear and we’d rescued the poor witch.

We hit the jackpot in the fourth room. Gunnar peered inside before lifting his finger to his lips to indicate silence. We lined up behind him, weapons ready, then he stepped inside, his shotgun raised.

I joined him and Connor followed. We’d stepped into some kind of control room. One wall was covered with computer screens linked to video feeds from the mine and tailings area. The cameras must have been tiny and very well hidden.

Three men were monitoring the screens and four more were sitting at tables assembling devices. Surprised, they looked up when we entered. They were dressed in camo fatigues and each man had a handgun at their hip. They all reached for them.

Seven guns swung towards us. Gunnar shot one man and the noise blasted our ears. Connor was already behind another with his knife, swiping it across the man’s throat.

I felt something slam into my vest that hurt like a motherfucker, but it woke me up and I fired, striking my opponent in the head. He went down instantly. Thomas took out three more in rapid succession, and Connor shot the last one.

When it ended we were standing in a bloodbath, but thinking of Emma locked in that room with explosives around her neck made it hard to feel sorry.

We couldn’t stop there, though; we had to clear the rest of the building. If we didn’t get out of the room fast, we’d be as pinned down as the group we’d just removed had been.

Thomas was ex-MIB – and probably ex-military – so he had the most experience of this type of thing. He charged down the hall and cleared the next room, which was empty, then moved forward, paused outside the last door and held up a hand to stop us. He pressed his earagainst the door then mouthed, ‘In here,’ – just as the door slammed open and armed men poured out, firing as they came.

Thomas dropped to his knees and started firing back.

Gunnar, Thomas and I were the only ones with clear shots; the corridor was too narrow for Sidnee to join in and we had no idea where Matilda was, unless she was still enjoying the food in the storage area. However, the enemy had the same problem of being in a confined space and our return fire stopped them getting organized.

Thomas was precise and deadly, and his every shot brought down another combatant. Since Gunnar was using a shotgun, he had similar luck. I just kept firing to keep the enemy from having time to aim. I took several shots to my vest and one to my arm; Gunnar grunted as he took fire as well.

We had no cover. Eventually one of the MIB would get in a lucky shot that didn’t hit our vests, so we did something that went against all my instincts: we charged.

We needed to stop the enemy from aiming at us, so I drew up the anger that had roared through me at their treatment of Emma, their bombing of the mine and the three murders. With that rage as the catalyst, I raised my other hand and threw a huge, rolling fireball.

Our opponents were disoriented and they turned to run back into the room they’d flooded out of. I counted thirteen dead before we followed. I tried not to notice how many I had burned. Only three were still alive.

Being the most invulnerable, Connor rushed in and took down the last two. The third cowered in a corner, his gun gone, and Connor used him like a blood donor to heal his wounds. He told me to drink to heal my arm and I grimaced; the only time I’d felt bloodlust was when I’d been poisoned with fisheye and then I had nearly drained one of the MIB’s creepy generals dry.

But my arm hurt and I could feel blood pouring down it. I didn’t know how many more of them there were and I couldn’t be incapacitated. I couldn’t be a liability to my team, not when it might mean the difference between all of us living or dying.

I knelt down next to my mate. For once my lazy fangs responded appropriately and I drank until my arm stopped aching. When I’d had enough, Connor finished off the soldier by twisting his neck. I grimaced.

Knowing that these fuckers were going to kill us and do evil things to our town, I could let the killing go. I thought of the abused witch, rigged to die in the other room, and I thought about Juan Torres who’d died because fisheyesimply touched his skin. All my regrets and guilt about killing went away. These monsters had it coming.

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