Blood Warrior(13)

The guy on the roof followed Gavin’s every move and I kept my arrow trained on him.

“Shit,” Zander muttered under his breath from beside me.

“What?” Drew whispered, annoyance thick in his voice.

“There is more than one guy up there.”

I didn’t want to take my aim off the one who had Gavin in his sights. “How many?”

“I can see two more, but I can’t say for sure.”

Anthony rose from his crouched position that we had all assumed. “We are not alone.”

Dammit. We just needed them to know that we were not a threat. I resigned and then also stood. “Let them come. It’s what we wanted.”

“That would be a good decision,” a female voice, with a thick southern accent, called from the darkness. “We have you surrounded, so put your weapons away or on the ground.”

Luke shot a worried glance at Anthony. “Do as she says,” he ordered the rest of us.

I slid the arrow back into my quiver and the bow went back over my shoulder. Didn’t bother me any, I had my fire power. My gaze went to Alice and she nodded, understanding what she needed to do. The shimmer of the protective bubble slid down around us. The only one not within the circumference of the bubble was Gavin, who was now pretty much stuck in the street. He still had his hands spread wide. I guess he thought it safer not to put them down.

From all sides of us, people emerged, creating a circle that got smaller and smaller as they advanced. They all had on dark clothing and carried either rifles or handguns.

It did not make me feel good at all that they were able to trap us this way. One look at Drew and his furrowed brow told me that he thought the same thing. This should not have been able to happen. We screwed up somewhere.

The same woman who had told us to put down our weapons stepped forward, closer to us than the rest of the people who circled us. She raised her rifle and trained it on Anthony. “None of you have the dragon tattoo, yet you travel with this monster?”

Anthony slowly moved his hands upward to show he wasn’t a threat. “I mean you no harm.”

“Right,” she scoffed. “That’s what the Vampire Council says too. But, then they allow their followers to kill or turn anyone they want.”

The woman was very tall and muscular. She wore black cargo pants with a black men’s tank that accentuated the muscles in her back and arms. Her dark brown hair was pulled into a pony tail at the back of her head, but unlike the brown eyes that most people with dark hair had, hers were a bright blue.

Luke, also with his hands slightly raised, spoke for the group. “We are here to help you. It was actually Anthony,” he nodded in our vampire’s direction, “who told us of your whereabouts. If you let us explain, you will not be sorry. We are Vampire Hunters, born and bred for killing the demons who are taking over the world.”

She did not make any move to lower her weapon, but I could tell her curiosity was peaked. “Everyone is a Vampire Hunter now, it’s the freaking Vampire Apocalypse, or didn’t you notice.”

“You misunderstand,” Luke continued. “We have been trained all our lives for this, as our ancestors were before us.”

I could tell that she wanted to know more about us now, but she still would not take her aim off of Anthony. I stepped forward just a tad. “This vampire is with us. It is our life mission … and our instinct to kill the vampires. Trust me, if he wasn’t worth having around, he wouldn’t be here with us. We have vital information about how to bring down an entire bloodline of vampires, but we can’t do it alone, we need your help.”

“Sarah,” one of the guys circling us, whispered. “We have to get out of the street before the patrols come along.”

An expression of sheer annoyance came over her and she lifted the rifle, resting it on her shoulder. “Fine. Come with us, but any of you make a wrong move and I guarantee that you will take a bullet to the head.”

Luke rested his hands at his side. “You have nothing to worry about. We are only here to help.”

She jerked her head toward the house. “We’ll see about that. Come on.”

***

Inside the house was just creepy. I don’t know if it was because Anthony told us all that crap about the history of the house and I was just being paranoid, or if it was actually haunted and I could feel the spirits around me.

Sarah and her buddies, still holding us at gunpoint, led us to some rooms in the house that couldn’t be seen through the windows, which were heavily curtained by the way.

We ended up in a parlor room that housed a large rectangular table. The heavy dark wood of the table top was covered with maps and other papers that appeared to be lists of some sort. “Have a seat.” She indicated the matching chairs. She pulled out the seat at the head of the table and sat down, her rifle still resting on her shoulder.