The slow-moving water of the Thames came into sight as the rearmost SUV slammed on their brakes, kicking up loose chunks of the pavement as the vehicle slid to a stop sideways on the narrow road, completely blocking the way ahead. Damien’s vehicle kept going, racing for the river’s edge.
Harley immediately slammed on the brakes, and Jake tensed, waiting for impact when Caleb smashed into their rear bumper. Thankfully, that didn’t happen because Caleb was able to stop in time.
Jake jumped out of the car along with Harley to confront the three men who’d taken up defensive positions behind their SUV. His nose told him all three of them were creatures like Darby and Damien, their muddled scent heavily camouflaged by the acrid stench of smokeless powder from all the shooting they’d done.
The automatic weapon fire from their guns shredded the Audi’s exterior like it was tissue paper. Jake rolled to the left, finding cover behind a heavy-duty Dumpster full of construction debris, while the men—creatures—continued to rip both the Audi and Caleb’s SUV to pieces. Out of the corner of his eye, Jake saw Harley scramble away to safety. He prayed Jes and Caleb found something to hide behind as well.
As he, Jes, Harley, and Caleb returned fire, Jake quickly realized the men with the submachine guns were going out of their way to make a mess out of the two rental vehicles while doing little more than making him and the rest of his team duck and cover.
A sinking feeling in his gut, Jake risked standing up behind the Dumpster, peeking around the back side to get a view of the river. What he saw confirmed his worst fears.
“Dammit,” he growled. Now, he knew why the a-holes had been willing to drive down a dead-end street. “Damien had a boat waiting for him. They’re getting away!”
Moving out from behind the safety of the Dumpster, Jake ran toward the SUV, ignoring the hail of bullets that came his way. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Harley and Caleb sprinting to catch up to him. Hopefully, Jes wasn’t foolish—or brave—enough to follow. He didn’t want her anywhere near those effing creatures.
A round tagged Jake in the left calf, then the right thigh, and then another one sliced through his left upper arm. He ignored all of them, running faster, then throwing himself down and into a slide across the broken asphalt in front of the SUV.
The move momentarily took him out of the line of fire of the three creatures on the other side of the vehicle, and before his slide had even come to a stop, Jake fired under the vehicle, aiming for the only part of the three creatures he could see—their lower legs and ankles. The screams of pain told him he’d hit what he was aiming for.
Jake was up and running a split second later, slipping around the back of the SUV as Harley and Caleb went over the top of it. He slowed only long enough to put a couple rounds in the gut of the nearest creature, then he hauled ass for the river, leaving the creatures for his teammates. He heard the rapid thump of lighter shoes behind him and knew without looking it was Jes. She was ignoring the risk of the creatures putting a bullet in her back so she could chase after him. He let out a growl, fighting the urge to spin around and tell her she needed to be more careful. But there wasn’t time for that. Not that she’d listen to him if he tried.
Jake heard the dull thrum of boat engines before he reached the dock and the abandoned SUV parked there. There were several larger, commercial-looking vessels lined up at the concrete pier, so it took him several seconds to find the one Damien had taken.
It was a fancy yacht, all gleaming white and chrome, already in the middle of the river. A good seventy-five or hundred feet out, it was moving upstream quickly. The three hostages were lined up on their knees in the back of the boat, a creature behind each of them, claws digging deep into the men’s necks. Damien stood to the side, a smirk on his face that Jake could see all the way from the dock.
One by one, the creatures jerked the black bags off their captives’ heads. The men blinked rapidly in the sudden bright sunlight, pain etched on each of their faces. A dark-skinned man with a heavy black beard, a white man with gray-flecked hair and a matching beard, and a dark-haired man with olive skin, they all shook their heads as if to clear them.
As Jes came to a stop beside Jake, he raised his weapon to get a shot lined up on Damien, but then hesitated. At this distance, aiming at a moving boat, he’d be just as likely to hit the hostages as that bastard. And unfortunately, getting out to that yacht wasn’t an option. None of the commercial vessels were going to have keys in them, and trying to race along the shore to keep up with the boat as it moved upstream would be impossible with all the buildings and fences along the river. And while he was a damn good swimmer, he wasn’t nearly fast enough to catch up to a boat.
“Jake, look,” Jes said softly, pointing.
He turned his attention back to the yacht to see Darby step out from the cabin. As if knowing Jake and Jes were there, he looked their way for a long moment, then walked up to stand behind the three men kneeling on the deck. Taking a handgun from inside his jacket, Darby shot each hostage in the back of the head in quick succession, then turned and walked back into the cabin without a backward glance.
“Shit,” Jake muttered.
Lifting his weapon, Jake pulled the trigger while Jes did the same. They hit the rear of the craft several times but didn’t do any damage, and all either of them could do was stand and watch the vessel disappear from sight around the next bend in the river.
“Why the hell did he go to all that trouble to kidnap them and drag them halfway across the city only to effing shoot them after he got away?” Jake growled, fangs and claws extending in frustration as much as anger. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Jes rested a gentle hand on his arm. “I don’t know why he did it, but at least we saved all of those poor kids he kidnapped as well as the other members of the Bilderberg Society and countless other people at the hotel. That has to count for something.”
As Jake stared at the dark blue water of the Thames, listening to the drone of Darby’s yacht fading away, he wasn’t sure he believed that. They’d lost the three men Darby had grabbed and some people at the hotel, too. On top of that, there was the insane number of crashed vehicles as a result of their chase through the city. It would be stupid to think no one had gotten hurt—or worse—during all that mayhem.
He doubted anyone would call this a win.
“Jake. Jes,” Harley called from behind them. “I think you two are going to want to see this.”
He clenched his jaw. What the hell else could go wrong today?
Sirens filled the air as he and Jes headed back to where Harley and Caleb were standing, staring down at something on the ground by the bad guys’ SUV. Luckily, the police hadn’t realized they’d come down this side street, but sooner or later, the cops would figure it out. Somebody had heard the gunshots for sure.
Jake stopped cold when he saw what Harley and Caleb were looking at. Although, he wasn’t exactly sure what the hell hewaslooking at.
What the…?
He thought they were the bodies of the three men Harley and Caleb had tussled with and killed, but they didn’t look like men. In fact, they didn’t look human. Which made sense, since they were supernatural creatures.
They reminded him of mannequins you’d find in a department store. Pale, almost translucent skin was stretched tightly over androgynous, nearly featureless faces. The mouths were evident and filled with what had to be a hundred tiny, needlelike teeth, but beyond that, there was almost nothing else recognizable. A vertical ridge divided the top portion of their faces in place of a nose, and two sunken patches of skin were where eyes should be. The things had no ears or hair of any kind.
