by Amie Gibbons
“Carvi, no,” I gasped.
“Sex, passion, emotion, feeds magic,” he whispered, grinding into me harder.
He pinned my hands down so fast I couldn’t react.
I cried out, jerkin’ my hips up into him.
He grunted. “Oh God yes. Feel that, ride it, and open your mind. I sense danger. It just got here in the last few minutes. You should thank it for shortening the negotiations. I need your energy up to see it.”
I imagined the roof opening like a box above us as I let go of myself more, gave in to him more.
We stood in the woods, dressed again but pressed together.
Carvi let me go, walkin’ above the forest floor.
“Carvi?” I asked.
“Shush,” he said. “Focus. Someone’s coming. I feel danger.”
“Maybe it’s Grant’s backup?” I said. “He probably-”
The scene changed to the office and Carvi cursed.
It was my parents at the FBI again, but a different time, tonight maybe?
“We don’t need a contingent to fetch an agent,” the director said. “Go get her, everyone else is on Truck.”
“This bastard isn’t giving her up!” Grant shouted, getting in her face.
“Come on, Ariana!” Carvi said, grabbin’ my arm. “This isn’t what we need to see.”
The circle of my parents and team were still arguing with the director but I couldn’t hear it.
Then, outta nowhere, Mama stepped up and punched the director straight in the face.
Carvi burst out laughing as agents took Mama’s arms and handcuffed her.
“Okay, that was funny,” Carvi said as Daddy got up in one of the agent’s faces and a moment later was handcuffed too.
“What the?” I said, jaw dropping.
My boss’s boss just had my parents arrested?
The director got up, holding her eye.
Mama’s got a good punch for a woman nearin’ sixty. She does martial arts to keep active and in shape.
“As funny as this is,” Carvi said, “it’s not relevant.”
“I was wondering if we had reinforcements comin’,” I said. “We don’t. And at least now I know why my parents didn’t come with the guys. Arrest is what it’d take. Mama’s kinda got a temper.”
“I think your parents and I would get along well,” Carvi said. “But come on.”
The forest blinked back on, too light for how dark it really was out there.
The house shined just beyond the trees, a beacon of civilization on the edge of the woods.
The small woman was in all black and watched the others in the woods through infrared.
The one in the tree got down, his rifle held like a professional.
Army, if she had to guess. He met the shorter man and they walked inside.
The woman registering ten degrees colder than normal body temperature zoomed up to them, making the guys jump and half lift weapons.
They walked inside after a moment.
Huh, the vampire had no troubles going inside the house. Interesting.
She switched her binoculars to normal since infrared would be near useless through windows and insulated walls, and zoomed in on the windows. There could be others out of sight, but she was pretty sure there were only the two humans and two vampires in there.
She made sure the RPG was ready to go and left it rigged up and pointed at the house. She had strict orders not to take out the entire house, though it’d be far easier, until Truck could get the psychic. Soon as he did, one thought from her would set the anti-tank weapon off and blow the house up from the inside.
Getting the girl first meant this had to be done delicately. An extraction. Far less efficient.
It’d be easier if they could get the target outside but Truck shot down all her plans to try that, saying the others would go out before the girl would, and picking them off would just put the others inside on alert.
She didn’t like it, but it was his money.
She checked her watch and pulled out a glowing orb from the bag next to her feet.
“You here yet?” she whispered into the orb.
“Parking now,” Truck’s voice answered. “How do we do this?”
“Basic extraction?” she said. “I throw in a stun spell, you get in and get the girl fast, and I have the rocket launcher ready once you’re out. We do this fast and tight, Truck. No funny business.”
“You’re sure the spell will get me in and out?”
She sniffed, nostrils flaring as her lips pulled back off her teeth.
Nobody questioned her spells.
But, she was a professional.
“Positive,” she said. “Take the potion, pop into the living room while they’re down, grab the girl, and think of where you want to be outside. Don’t let your concentration waver, or you could end up in a tree.”
“Any complications?”
“Three vampires,” she said. “The stun spell will work on them, but they recover fast and move faster. If you take more than a few seconds to find the girl, they could grab you first.”
“I’ll focus on her,” he said. “That should make me appear next to her, right?”
“Should. Think of next to her, not her, or you could end up inside her.”
“And not in the fun way,” Truck said.
She glared at the orb.
She hated when clients insisted on doing the dirty work themselves.
They were never professional.
“I think we got enough,” Carvi said. “Did you see the time?”
“Where?” I asked.
Could she hear us like this?
“On the watch on her wrist,” Carvi said. “This is in about four minutes.”
“Four minutes until we’re under attack,” I said. “We need to get back out there.”
I opened my eyes in the real world before I finished talkin’ and Carvi broke away.
“We have a problem,” he said before I could. “You don’t need to track your serial killer. He tracked us. And he has a damn good witch for backup. In about five minutes, we’re going to be under siege.”
Chapter twenty
“What?” Quil asked.
“Carvi used the kiss to amp up my powers, did a little mind walk,” I said, walking over to him. “It’s gonna be a party in about five minutes. Carvi, where’s the gun I had? I mean guns?”
Carvi held up a finger and zoomed into the kitchen, bringing back the two guns and handing them to me.
The forty-four was too big for my hands comfortably but it was better than nothin’. And my tiny backup thirty-two didn’t have any ammo.
Grant was already on the phone, callin’ the guys in, and Quil wasn’t far behind, callin’ in Stephanie.
“What do we have here?” Grant asked. “I have three guns, two knives and a grenade.”
Carvi eyed him. “Nice!”
“Jet and Dan are armed,” I said. “And we have this gun. And Stephanie has to have some explosives knowin’ her.”
I shook as I checked my phone. We were runnin’ outta time!
The door opened and I near jumped outta my skin as the guys and Stephanie came in.
Carvi and I hurry said what we’d seen.
“Infrared,” Grant said. “And an RPG. And fucking magic.”
“We should run,” Stephanie said. “Get a better position.”
“No,” I said, “the witch was thinking it’d be easier if we went outside. That’s what she wants. And we know where and how they’re gonna hit in a minute. Can’t guarantee we’ll have time for another vision like that. We just have to know how to counter it. Does anyone know any spells?”
Grant grunted. “I’ve been practicing.”
Oh yeah! Grant had done that shield last month to keep us all from gettin’ hurt by the grenade.
“I can do basic spells,” Quil said. “But I have no supplies and almost no natural affinity for magic.”
“Basement,” Carvi said.
/> “No!” Grant, Jet and Dan said at once.
“You don’t put your back against a wall,” Grant said.
“This isn’t fight until you can run,” Carvi said. “This is hunker down and defend the position. They won’t try any explosives until they get Ariana out. They won’t be able to see in to know where to cast a spell, and the gun safe and some magical supplies are down there.”
“How many guns and what kind?” Grant asked.
“At least twenty, half are shotguns and rifles, with a few suppressors and ammo too.”
Grant’s eyes lit up, you could see the wheels turnin’ in his head. “Move out.”
Modern houses aren't built to stand up to a siege, but guts and guns go a long way in a battle.
We thundered downstairs.
“This means they’ll know we’re onto them,” I said as we passed a nice den and hit the next round of stairs down into the basement.
“Not necessarily,” Carvi said. “They don’t know we’re not moving for something.”
“But all of us?” Jet asked. “All at once?”
“Good point,” Carvi said as we entered the basement. “Everyone here know how to shoot?”
We all nodded.
Carvi dialed the safe’s code in and I looked around.
The basement was obviously the size of the whole house and had a few zigzagging loadbearing walls around. Possible defense if we needed them.
Bullets don’t get through six inches of concrete.
There were windows on the side of the giant room but a quick peek told me they were the underground ones with holes dug in front of them and the metal things lining the holes (what were those called again?), so the underground basement could still get some light.
It was freezing down here, everything concrete and bare. Shelves of canned goods lined one side of the room, enough food for a person to live on for a year probably, and stacks of bottled water rested next to them.
Grant called one of the teams heading out to rejoin the search in the Smokies and filled him in. He hung up as Carvi started pulling out guns.
“Huxley’s headed here,” he said. “ETA, twenty minutes. He’s informing everyone else. The FBI will be here in force soon.”
Carvi nodded. “We dig in then. Only entry points are those windows, not great ones due to being underground, and the door.”
He nodded to Quil and Stephanie and grabbed the side of one of the empty shelves. “Help me get these in front of the windows.”
The vamps hopped to, moving the giant metal things to cover the windows as us FBI went for the toys.
I grabbed the shotgun, searching for shells.
“Here,” Grant handed a box of shells over.
My hands shook so bad the shells clattered together.
Jet looked for something a little more close quarters battle than his long-range rifle and came up with a carbine with a suppressor. He grabbed ammo and slung his rifle on his back.
If worst came to worst, we’d use our weapons, but stuff that wouldn’t give us permanent hearing damage in the concrete room would be first line of defense.
“Everyone stay on one side,” Grant ordered. “I don’t want anyone getting shot by friendly fire. Carvi, in here, ricochets are a certainty with normal ammo. Do they have any frangible bullets?”
“Shit!” Jet said, putting down the carbine. “I should’ve thought of that.”
Yeah, I should’ve too.
With all this concrete, one shot outta anything but a shotgun, unless it was frangible ammo, pretty much guaranteed a bullet bouncing off the walls.
Carvi shook his head as he scooched his side of the heavy lookin’ shelf. “I don’t know.”
Grant shifted through the guns leaned up against the side and handed a shotgun to Dan and Stephanie. He kept one for himself and I got down next to him as he pulled boxes of ammo out and started sorting out the shotgun slugs.
“It’s time,” Grant said, checking his watch.
“They should be able to tell we’re not in the living room,” I said. “And can probably guess where we went, but now that we’re barricaded, I don’t know what they’re gonna do.”
Grant pulled two fat suppressors outta the safe.
Shotgun suppressors?
These guys were awesome!
Like he read my mind, or my face, Carvi grinned at me. “I pick my tenants well.”
“Yeah, you do.” Dan clapped him on the back before screwing the suppressor onto his shotgun.
Grant took my shotgun and screwed the other suppressor onto it.
“We need you focusing on getting visions,” he said.
“Right.” I nodded.
“Dan and I are first line,” Grant said. “Non-suppressed in here will kill our ears. Nobody fires any rounds that aren’t shotgun shells unless you must. And then, only high powered rifle rounds straight on. Do not scatter, it’d be far too easy to miss the target and shoot past it to your friends. Stephanie, anything that could be useful?”
“In here?” she asked, shaking her head. “Any explosives I have would at best just knock us out from the concussion.”
“You’re on loading duty. Anything comes in, Dan and I will alternate shots, you hand up ammo to the one that’s not on. Something gets close to us, I want you on hand to hand. You have any knives?”
“No,” she said.
Grant took one from his boot and handed it to her. “Now you do.”
She grinned. “You’re alright for a human.”
Grant pulled his other knife off his belt and handed the knife in its sheath to me.
He met my eyes.
I could almost hear him thinkin’, “Just in case.”
Just in case Truck managed to grab me. Just in case the others fell.
I didn’t like the just in cases.
“Jet, you have frangibles in the rifle?” Grant asked.
“Yes, sir,” Jet said.
“You’re second line. It’s not ideal for close range, and will kill our ears, but at least they won’t ricochet.”
Jet looked over the line of guns. “They might have a suppressor that’d fit my rifle.”
Grant moved to the side. “Look.”
Jet walked over, thumbing over the lined-up guns and found one.
Quil and Carvi finished moving the second shelf to the other window and came over.
“Quil,” Grant said, “magic?”
“I can try,” Quil said. “But my first priority is protecting Ariana.”
“Agreed,” Grant said. “Carvi, you and Ariana in back, focus on the enemy’s position, tell us what you can.”
Neither of the alpha male vamps said anything about Grant taking charge.
Not even a joke.
That scared me.
“If they get Ariana and get her out of here, run like hell,” Grant said. “There will be nothing to stop them from bombing us then.”
Quil zoomed to the shelves, shuffling through them.
“Quil?” I asked.
“Looking for magic supplies,” he said. “They have some herbs and a few bowls we could mix in, but…”
“They were supposed to have some actual supplies,” Carvi said.
Stephanie ran over to look too at a nod from Quil.
She ran through the shelves and shook her head. “No alcohol either.”
“Huh?” I asked.
She wanted to get toasted right now?
“For you,” she said. “To help with the whole psychic thing.”
“Ohhhhh. Good idea,” I said.
“What kind of preppers don’t have alcohol?” she asked. “There’s nothing I could use for Molotov’s if we need them either. They have to have alcohol down here somewhere.”
“No,” Carvi said. “They don’t drink.”
“What?” she asked.
“I’m with her,” Dan said. “All good preppers have a supply of booze.”
I couldn’t tell if he was jokin’ or not.
“They’r
e Mormon,” Carvi said.
“Fuck.” Dan shook his head. “I don’t want to go down sober.”
Oh yeah, he was jokin’.
Grant smacked him upside the head. “None of us are going down, you got that?”
Grant was not.
“Yes, sir,” Dan said.
“Ariana, Carvi, get us some intel,” Grant said.
I sat down, leaning against the safe’s open door and Carvi sat next to me, takin’ my hand.
The lights went out.
I slammed a hand over my mouth to stifle my scream.
“They cut power,” Jet said, voice grim. “They’re onto us.”
“You’re storming a house and the suspects have gone to ground,” Grant said. “What do you do next?”
“If you can’t blow it to hell?” Dan asked.
He and Jet said together, “Smoke them out.”
“Add magic,” Grant said, voice cold enough to make me shake.
Or maybe that was the fear.
I slipped the sheath’s clip onto my waistband.
Just in case.
“Get in and grab the target,” Jet said. “Make sure others are incapacitated or distracted so they can’t stop me.”
Quil’s shape moved through the dim light towards us. “That’s exactly what they’ll do,” he said, sitting on my other side. “No matter what, Carvi and I keep hands on Ariana.”
“I like this plan,” Carvi said.
I squeezed their hands. “Okay, help me get a vision.”
Carvi’s mind met mine, but nothing appeared.
“Fuck!” Carvi said after a moment. “Gris-gris. It’s got your hair 0r something in it, we’ll get nothing.”
“Of course, he took something offa me,” I snapped, standin’ up, blood boilin’.
Mad was good. Mad was so much better than scared.
A lantern turned on in the corner and Stephanie walked over holding it.
I searched the floor in the dim light. Didn’t I see something…
There!
I grabbed the suppressed nine mil near the edge of the tossed out handguns and pulled the lantern closer to look for ammo.
“Ariana,” Grant said.
“If the shot is through the windows, it won’t ricochet back, sir,” I said.
“Not worth the risk, and you are not that good of a shot,” Grant said, taking the gun from my hands.
