Page 30 of The Wayward Sons & The Vampires of Fortune
What the fuck?
Before I could say a word, she followed his lead, just yanking her shirt off and tossing it aside. As she did, he opened the briefcase and tossed something at her—a jacket maybe?
“This might be the weirdest place we’ve done this shit,” he commented.
“Halloween—”
“The haunted house,” he said over her. “We scarred someone that day.”
“We saved their asses that day,” she retorted.
“Who the hell are you people?” I demanded, but they ignored me. And so I idiotically stood there as the two of them got undressed in the elevator like I wasn’t even there. I didn’t have a clue what was happening as they pulled on clothes that were damn near armor-esque—black with color accents, thick, layered, and covering damn near every inch of their body. Boots, gloves, high necks, belts with weapons.
Jesus fucking Christ. It was like something straight out of one of Gray’s superhero movies.
The elevator dinged, and I tensed as the doors opened. A man in full tactical gear with a mask covered face stood on the other side. The heavy artillery he carried would’ve been intimidating enough if it weren’t for the skull on his mask. He strode rightpast the other two—they let him through—and grabbed a fistful of my shirt, pinning me hard against the wall.
I tried to push back, but he barely budged.
“If you want to get out of here alive, you listen to me, you hear me?” he snapped, his accent thick enough to rival Gray’s. “Not them. Me. Got it?”
“Yeah.” That depended entirely on what he said.
“Good.” Stepping back slightly, he handed me a small Bluetooth piece. “Put this in—don’t fuckin’ argue with me. Just do it.”
I did.
“Take this,” he continued and removed a gun from his belt.
“Guns won’t kill a vampire,” I said. If I was explaining this, we’d already fucking lost.
“Vampire-killin’ bullets will,” he retorted.Well, that got my attention.“That right there has got thirteen bullets and one in the chamber. You go through that and you’re dead, you hear me?”
“Yeah…” My brain was mostly caught on the vampire-killing bullets thing. It couldn’t be that easy to just shoot and kill a vampire.
“Now, I don’t want Ryder fuckin’ Collins, you hear me?” he kept talking. “I want Sergeant Josiah Hartford.”
My gaze flicked up at the name, my heart lurching into my throat.
“I want the man with damn near perfect marksmanship. The man the Army touted around until they didn’t need him no more,” he told me. My body tensed as he cited bits of my military history. “These things? They don’t kill easily. You got one shot… right here, dead center. You miss, you die. And those bullets ain’t easy to come by, so if you can’t make the shot, you don’t fuckin’ take it.”
“Okay.” That was a hell of a shot to make, even under good circumstances. Fighting for my life against a vampire wasn’t an ideal circumstance when it came to hitting a perfect shot.
“They’re fast, they’re ugly, and they ain’t goin’ to wait around for you to get the shot in,” he continued.Yeah, already knew that.I glanced over his shoulder at the other two, and he snapped his fingers in my face. “Eyes on me, not on them. They’re the tanks. You and me? We’re the snipers. We ain’t goin’ with them. They’re just makin’ a path for us, got it?”
“Yeah.”No, no, I did not.None of this made any sense.
And neither did the shit going on behind him as Andrea tapped her earpiece quickly. A mask phased over her face—something straight out of a goddamn superhero movie. Bright red in color, it molded to the shape of her face while the eyes were left an unsettling white color. Next to her, my so-called lawyer did the same and ended up with a blue mask.
“Who the fuck are you people?” I demanded.
“Just hunters with damn good resources,” the masked man replied. He reached for my face, and my hand flew up on instinct. He caught it with ease to stop me and touched the Bluetooth in my ear. Something uncomfortable moved over my face—something inexplicable and probably the same kind of mask they were wearing.
I was so far out of my league.
“Crimson online,” Andrea said.
“Cobalt online,” the lawyer chimed in. He gave a full body shake and murmured, “Fuck, it feels good to be back.”
