“I guess it’s going to be a fight to the death after all,” I said, glancing behind us. We had no choice but to slow.
The delay gave the group to our rear time to catch up.
We were surrounded.
Liam moved to put his back against mine as the hunters slowly advanced, their guns trained on us. But not firing.
“Why aren’t they shooting?” I asked softly.
Out in the open like this we were easy pickings. Even with vampire speed, it would be almost impossible to avoid that many bullets. Especially as injured as Liam was.
So why not end us while they still had the upper hand?
The answer came a second later.
“Our benefactor wants them alive,” a woman cautioned as they closed the circle around us. “Only shoot if you have to.”
A hunter near the back squinted at the gun in my hand. “What kind of vampire uses a Sig?”
No one answered as the woman in charge lifted her voice. “Fire the nets!”
Liam left my side, charging the group in front of him.
I started firing, noting in my peripheral vision when someone lifted a contraption like a modified rocket launcher to their shoulder.
There was no time to dodge as a soft whoosh came. A net shot out, barely missing me.
I jumped to the side in shock. Since when did hunters come equipped with rocket launchers and silver nets? And where could I get something like that?
My amazement was the reason a second net was able to take me by surprise. It wrapped around me before I could react, the silver burning my flesh as I toppled to the ground.
I swallowed my scream, knowing it would distract Liam.
They thought a measly net like this was going to keep me down? They were sadly mistaken. Nets had holes. The perfect medium to shoot through without ricochet.
Ha. Take that, hunters. Who was using a pea shooter now?
I wiggled to find a better position, firing often enough through the net to deter the hunters’ approach.
Sadly, because of my limited field of vision, this method wasn’t as infallible as I’d hope. The woman from before stomped on my extended arms, putting a stop to my shooting spree.
She pointed her shotgun at my head. “On second thought—maybe we only need one of you.”
My gaze fixed on the night above her head and the figure dropping from the sky.
Natalia wasn’t wearing boots. It was an odd thing to focus on given the situation. But not as odd as the realization that Natalia’s bird-like feet were tipped in metal blades. And extended in front of her as if already anticipating the kill.
Her expression was merciless as she struck the back of the hunter’s neck, severing her spine instantly.
Screams came from several around us as more harpies dropped. Unlike Natalia, her sisters weren’t so quick to dispatch their prey. A few of them picked up the humans, lifting them into the sky, from where they dropped them.
The humans plummeted to their death.
Another harpy disemboweled one in midair. Her maniacal cackles floated to me on the breeze.
To the other side of the battle field, Liam was a machine, slaughtering any hunter within reach. Every now and then, he would delay the killing, grabbing them and bringing them to his mouth where he would then drain them before moving onto the next.
Natalia bent to help me unravel the net. “When I said come find me, I didn’t mean bring an army of hunters.”
