Blood Warrior(24)

Korina didn’t turn around, she still faced us and even though she had two knives sticking out of her back, she smiled. “Missed the vital organs, honey. You are going to have to do much better than that, if you want to kill me.” And then, without warning, she lifted Zander into the air and jumped over the side of the deck with him wrapped in her arms.

We all ran forward as we heard the splash. Everyone leaned over the railing, searching for any sign of them. I held my gun out, wanting to fire, but not wanting to hit Zander in the process.

Everyone in my group had the same thoughts as me, but Sarah, now that was a different story. She didn’t know Zander and her only mission was to stop this freaking apocalypse.

“Screw this,” she growled and then fired her rifle into the water. The rest of her group followed suit and began peppering the river below us with bullets.

Oh, please God, let him be all right.

“Let’s go!” Christina screamed, running down the deck, toward the dock. “We have to find him.”

I stayed where I was for a moment, trying to get a focus on the water. Anthony stayed with me while everyone else followed Christina. Nothing. The water was still moving from the spray of ammunition so it was hard to tell if there was any movement underneath.

“There,” Anthony whispered, pointing at the bank of the river, a good distance away from us. The shadowy form of a woman was dragging Zanders limp body from the confines of the Mississippi. I couldn’t tell how far it was, but she definitely had a good head start.

I fired a couple of shots in their general direction, but it was too dark, even for my eyes, since I couldn’t really judge the distance. I was also still afraid of hitting Zander.

“Let’s go. We have to tell the others.” I bolted down the deck and then jumped over as soon as I got close enough to the dock. Anthony followed right behind me. Man, it was actually nice having someone around who could keep up with me.

We caught up with the group in no time at all. “This way,” I called as Anthony and I plowed our way through the mass of people. “They went this way.”

The others picked up their speed and followed us back into the city, toward the French Quarter, once again.

Korina had lifted Zander into her arms and sped off. She knew we were not far behind her, but even carrying Zander, she was really freaking fast. She rounded into an alleyway at the same time I heard several guns go off at once.

The gunshots came from behind us and I didn’t know if they were from our group or from soldiers. Then shouting, followed the gunshots, and more firing.

Oh, my God, someone was being massacred, I just didn’t know if it was our guys or the bad guys. Oh, my God.

I looked over at Anthony as we rounded the same corner that Korina had. He shook his head slightly and I knew that finding Korina was the priority. Killing her would help end this. But, I wanted to know everyone was all right.

This was indeed, a war, and there were going to be casualties. I just didn’t want them to be any of the people I loved.

With shouting and gunshots firing in the distance, we found Korina had cornered herself into the alleyway. There was no way out of this one, the buildings surrounding us were two stories high, too far for her to jump it.

Her hair was damp and dangling into her face and her eyes were wide, since she knew she had made a mistake. She had dropped Zander to the ground where he lay unconscious. Her stance was that of attack, arms slightly raised, fingers spread like they were claws and her legs bent at the knee.

“It’s time to go, Korina.” Anthony aimed his gun at her. But, like me, he hesitated and she took advantage. With a sudden burst of speed, she bolted forward and knocked him to the ground. Anthony grunted and rolled so that he was on top. Which was stupid because with him on top I was unable to get a shot at her without hitting him.

I threw a glance over at Zander, he still hadn’t moved or made a sound. Dammit. I wish he would wake up.

Anthony and Korina continued to roll around on the filthy cement, trying to choke each other. Both of them were doing whatever they could to take out the other one. Outside the alley I heard footsteps thundering toward us … a lot of footsteps.

Crap.

Vampire Council soldiers thundered into the alley with their guns raised. I just knew they were going to fire before assessing the surroundings. So I pulled all the energy inside of me and forced it outward.

Flames burst forth from my arms. I swirled them in the shape of a rainbow and then pushed even more, forcing the fire outward, toward the soldiers. Their screams were ear piercing. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them screaming in pain as the fire scorched their skin and burned away their clothing. Some of them involuntarily fired their weapons and miraculously they somehow missed me.