No one argued. Koun stumbled. Vamps didn’t stumble.
I sprinted ahead and across the threshold. The death magics crackled across me and were sucked into the Glob. Traces of death magic and the prison’s dying null energies fell across me like waves of scalding water and splashed at my feet. I slowed. My limbs felt heavy, clumsy, leaden. I moved to the left of the door. Out of the way. The sensation passed.
Eli took the right. Glanced at me. Pointed down.
The house was dark, but Beast’s night vision was nearly as good as Eli’s tech-augmented vision. There was a woman on the floor at his feet. A witch. Throat torn out. Dead. Vamps had killed sentient beings in my city. I was fully justified inanyresponse.
“Witches are down,” I growled into my mic. “Death energies are down. Null energies are still in place. Use caution. No mercy to the vamps or their humans.”
Eli said, “Koppa team, lethal response required against all enemy fangheads.”
I stepped over her, my combat boots grinding on the broken window glass. Grunts and the sound of breaking wood came from the back of the house.
Eli entered, moving right, away from the doorway.
Koun stepped in, moving slower than normal, to the left, in front of me. He staggered again at the null energies, regrouped, and slid into the left hallway.
Eli gestured for me to follow Koun. I moved through the lower floor.
I had been here before, but I’d had light then. Nothing looked familiar.
I stepped over another dead witch, into a hallway. A vamp appeared just ahead. Koun materialized out of the dark and took his head. Arterial blood spurted across the wall. My Enforcer slipped into the blackness again. The vamp-body fell.
Two shots rang out. I reached for Eli’s mind. He was ahead and to my right. Firing. In danger. His heart beat, hard thumps I could feel.
Knees bent, ready to fire, I moved forward, along the dark hallway. Movement to my right. I fired before I even knew I needed to. A vamp slid down the wall, gasping silently, trying to breathe. Left-handed, I drew my vamp-killer and took his head. A human stepped from the dark. She fired.
I felt the punch of the shot in my left arm. Nerveless, I dropped the vamp-killer. I fired my Benelli again. The human fell back. She landed in an open doorway, on top of Koun’s legs. He was sprawled, faceup, his armor out of place, his abdomen exposed. A wood stake protruded from his belly. Even if Koun had been fighting vertigo, it had to have taken at least two people to get the drop on him and find belly flesh. I yanked the stake out and dropped it beside him. If there weren’t other injuries, he’d make it.
I looked at my arm. Close range, even armor was useless against some gunfire, and no armor had full Kevlar on the sleeves or legs because that stuff didn’t bend well. I worked my hand into a fist. It was numb but it didn’t hurt and there was no blood, so... Go Kevlar.
Pain. Not mine. My heart rate sped. Adrenaline shocked through me.
Eli’s in danger.
I pumped my fist, shook my open hand, willing the nerve back into working order. The stench of battle filled my lungs. Nitrocellulose. Vomit. The contents of bowels. Vamp blood. I fought off a sneeze.
Gunfire sounded. Crazy, ammo-eating, fully automatic weapons fire. That was a lot of firepower and damage for such a small team in such a small space. They had planned and practiced this scenario. Beneath the automatic gunfire was the specific three-shot, pause, three-shot, pause, employed by Eli.
Another barrage of automatic gunfire, churning through walls. I dropped low.
Eli. Pain in his thigh. Intense. Wounded.
My hearing was damaged. I had no directional hearing to sense the danger, but I had Eli-sense. Ahead. There.Reinjured. Same thigh.
I tried to lift my left arm. Saw a trickle of blood, but not bleeding bad. Mostly numb from the impact on my armor. Useless.
I was down two rounds in the Benelli, but I had nine-mils if needed. Moving on down the hallway, I stepped toward what looked like a T-intersection of another hallway. The null working grew stronger. Walking was like trying to walk underwater, pushing against a current. I must be near the most heavily warded cells. Ignoring the pain in my left arm and the blood now dripping down my fingers, I snugged the Benelli against my body, my knobby finger on the trigger.
Reaching the end of the hallway, I squatted. Peeked around the opening, left, then fast back into protection. That way was empty, closed doors on both sides. Three housecats, eyes gleaming in the dark, were crouched up high, on carpeted shelves that ran along the walls above the doors. I peeked right, ducked back into protection. Right was also doorways, several open. One doorway had a group of what looked like three humans holding a battering ram. I leaned out again for a final quick look. The humans reared back and swung the ram against the door. Beyond them was a vampire. I stood and swung around, partly into the hallway. Fired. Fired. Fired.
The booms were deafening. Humans fell or raced or crawled across one another, trying to get away. The vamp was gone. The ram lay in front of the splintered door.
I moved into the narrow hallway. One human on the floor fell over, dead or out cold. With the side of my foot,I slid her weapons out of easy reach. Ahead, the gunfire stopped. Eli was...there. Just ahead. The next room. The door was open. I positioned the Benelli on its strap and tapped my mic. “Alex, we need vamp healers and human medics. And whatever law enforcement you think. The Dark Queen’s defenders injured or killed a bunch of armed, attacking humans and at least two enemy vamps inside the null prison. We have injured of our own. They get first priority.”
“Roger that,” Alex said. “On the way.”
I tapped the Clan Yellowrock channel and said, “Eli. I’m coming in.”
