“You’ve got two choices,” Marilee told them, her voice conversational as if she was giving them directions to the Space Needle. “Leave and live, or stay and find out how useless those guns are.”
I was still standing behind her, but I could tell by the way their eyes widened that she was shifting.
“What the hell is wrong with her teeth?” one of the men mumbled in Italian.
“Lei è una vampira,” I called out in their language, letting them know they were messing with a vampire.
“Don’t forget to tell them about the bear,” Marilee urged.
“Did she say bear?” one of the goons asked, still in Italian.
“Sì, orso,”I confirmed.
“Bullshit,” the leader scoffed. “We’re done fucking around. Grab the girl and let’s get out of here.”
He took a menacing step towards us, then froze as a loud growl echoed through the space. Every head swung in Boris’s direction, except he was no longer Boris.
“Orso!”
Marilee
Boris surged forward and for a split second I thought the guy in front of me was going to piss his pants. Then he remembered that he had a gun. He lifted it towards Boris and I dove for him, driving my shoulder right into his solar plexus. The air whooshed out of him, and we fell to the ground.
That’s when all hell broke loose. Allie was already vamped out, but Martha shifted into her… creature. It was the only way to describe the bizarre wolf vampire combination that her inner animal was. Deep inside me, my vamp and wolf were fighting for control. My vamp won. Barely. I drew up to my full height, making myself big and scratching my claws at anyone who came too close.
The humans were shooting wildly, starting to panic as we attacked them. One guy feinted to one side, then went the other way, escaping the fray and heading for my mate.
He grabbed her left wrist, tugging her towards him, but before I could get there she punched him in the face. My mate had a solid right hook. He reared back, clearly not expecting her to resist him. She followed the guy, grabbing his arms for leverage as she brought her knee up and nailed him right in the nuts. He dropped with an inhuman groan of pain.
After that it was over quickly. My coworkers and I had all six men subdued and zip-tied in moments. We heard sirens, and then the cops were flooding the area. Boris and Martha shifted back to their human forms, their clothes in shreds on the floor. If the cops were surprised to see naked people on the scene, they didn’t show it.
“Everyone freeze! Hands where we can see ‘em!” one of the cops called.
It was the second time men had ordered us to freeze today, and I wasn’t happy about it. They were still trying to sort things out when Lois marched in, Bella, Angie, and Wanda fanned out behind her. The temperature in the space immediately dropped.
“Pierce.” She approached the lead cop, a glare on her face that made every supernatural in the room want to cower. “This is my operation.”
“We need to figure out what’s going on here, Lois. We received multiple panicked nine-one-one calls reporting gunmen and wild animals up here.”
“You’ll have a full report within two hours,” she said dismissively. “My team caught the bad guys for you, how about you lock them up and I’ll deal directly with your captain.”
He wanted to tell her off, we could all see it, but it only took about twenty seconds of alpha eye contact from Lois before he lowered his gaze, anger flushing his face.
“Fine, but don’t make us wait for that report.”
“We wouldn’t dream of it,” Lois said with exaggerated sweetness.
She waited for the local cops to drag the guys out before turning her attention to the rest of us. “Get cleaned up and report to the office in an hour.”
“Yes ma’am,” we said in unison.
Boris and Martha dipped into the ballroom to grab some tablecloths, wrapping themselves up sarong style so they could move through the lobby. To avoid attention – or maybe because they were still freaked out about being trapped in the elevator last night – my two coworkers headed into the stairwell.
Taking Hazel’s hand, I threaded my fingers through hers and pulled her over to the elevators. No sense schlepping up those stairs again.
I knew something was wrong the minute we got to our hotel room. I could smell humans, two of them, and their scent was familiar. Kicking the door open, I moved into the room with Hazel behind me.
Colm and Elizabeth sat on our love seat, having helped themselves to drinks from our minibar. They looked completely casual.
