Blood Warrior(20)

I picked up speed, determined to catch them before they got too far away. I heard the sound of more boots hitting the pavement behind me and I knew a few of the others had followed. It didn’t take long for me to catch them. I was not quite vampire fast, but faster than a full blooded human.

I rammed into one of the soldiers backs at full force. His gun flew out of his grip and his knees went out from underneath him, taking us both down to the ground. Mid-fall, I swung the gun in my left hand up and over. Honestly, I didn’t think it would work, but I managed to nail the other guy in the back of the neck.

By the time we hit the ground, someone had already shot the soldier I’d hit with my gun. The one beneath me grabbed hold of my arm and rolled me over until he was on top of me. The rough pavement scraped against my skin and I dropped the gun in my right hand.

The soldier grunted as he easily pinned me beneath him. One of his hands pushed down into my left bicep and the other slid up to the base of my throat and squeezed.

I looked into the man’s eyes as he choked me and saw that he was enjoying it. Below his eye, his dragon tattoo stretched as a smile spread across his face. This just pissed me off even more.

I wasn’t scared. That’s the thing with knowing you have your own back up. I let the heat swirl inside of me and then pushed it outward. I couldn’t wait to see this jerk off go up in flames. If it wasn’t me who he killed, it would have been someone else that he got his murderous jollies from. This wasn’t a guy who was forced into what he was doing, he did it because he wanted to.

Whoosh.

Not just my hand, but my whole body erupted. The soldier screamed, practically flying backward as he tried to get away from me. He stumbled on a chunk of raised cement, landing on his back.

Whoever was behind me in the alley now had a clear shot and took it. The bullet hit him in the head and he dropped the rest of the way to the ground, a splatter of blood following him down.

I closed my eyes and extinguished myself.

“What in the hell was that?” Travis stood about six feet away, mouth open and eyes wide with shock.

Drew, Gavin and Christina stood beside him and the others from the group were lingering at the opening of the alley.

I turned away, leaving him to stare at me with his mouth hanging open, and snatched my gun up from the alley floor. “I can light myself on fire,” I told him. “Thanks for that.” I indicated the dead soldiers and then dusted off my jeans. “Let’s move, these can’t be the only ones waiting for us.”

Travis shut his mouth, but followed along after me. He probably didn’t even know how to start that conversation and I didn’t offer any more explanation for him.

Within two hours, we had three more incidents involving soldiers and two fights with vampires. Luckily, we didn’t lose anyone else.

Sarah had decided to leave the guy who died earlier where he was. She was going to come back later in the daytime with a crew and then give him a burial. “We are going to take him out to the swamp. It’s where he’s from and where he would like to be laid to rest,” she explained. “I feel bad leaving him, but we can’t stop a mission every time we lose someone.”

I understood that. This was war and casualties were a part of war. At least she was going to come back and get him. I admired her for wanting to give him what he wanted in death, while trying to give life to the rest of the world.

Before I knew it, we were hunched over across the street from the Le Pavillon Hotel. The Vampire Council had set up shop in the historical building which sat on the outskirts of the French Quarter.

The hotel was well lit and had plenty of traffic. Vampires, soldiers and the pledged could all be seen entering and exiting the building.

I sat crouched against the shadows, holding both my guns, ready to fire if I had to, when suddenly a shiny black limousine pulled up to the front entrance. I turned to Drew who was directly to my right and made a face that clearly said “what the heck?’

He shrugged that he didn’t know and faced the hotel again to see who in the world would be arriving at the Vampire Council headquarters in a freaking limo.

The driver slid out from behind the wheel. When he turned toward us, I saw his dragon tattoo clearly illuminated in the light of the gas torches. He rounded the car to the side facing the hotel and leaned down to open the door. He rose, grasping the delicate hand of a pale blonde woman, who was dressed in a pin-up style pencil dress.

I’d know that pasty skin and shimmering mane anywhere. Dahlia.

Her hair fell over her bare shoulder, the tendrils standing out against the black of her dress. The driver released her hand and she wiped it on her skirt as if he had a severe case of cooties and she didn’t want to catch it.