Somehow, I found myself next to him, catching him before he could hit the floor. "Tanner! Nail that bastard."
Even through the earplugs, the report of Tanner's gun drove daggers into my ears in the confines of the stairwell. I lowered James to the floor. Tanner came down the steps and slipped past me. James drew in several shuddering breaths before letting his hands fall to his side. He looked up at me and smiled.
"Dragon's Breath," he said.
"What?" I shook my head.
"I remembered what you said about fire, so I took a chance. Dragon's Breath rounds in the shotgun. Useless gimmick for the most part but I thought..."
I chuckled. "You thought right." I stood and held out a hand. "You okay?"
Ware took the hand and let me pull him to his feet. I stooped and scooped up the shotgun. I held it out to Ware. "Up to kicking some ass?"
James stumbled a bit as he took the shotgun, then straightened and nodded. "Looking forward to it."
I kept a covert eye on James as we raced down the stairs with Tanner close behind. Breaking Push like that always was always a shock, leaving the victim drained but he seemed to be okay. Either James was stronger than I had ever imagined, or he was fueled by adrenaline.
We reached the first floor with me in the lead. I heard the first screams before I could open the stairwell door.
I hit the door fast.
Outside, in the glare of spotlights, I saw someone, one of the vampires, lifting a portly man overhead. The vampire hurled the man away as though he were a doll.
Gunfire erupted, starring the glass doors and glass windows.
Tanner shoved at my back, but I was already diving for the floor. At my side James also dropped.
The vampire didn't even slow down, just reached out and grabbed another person, a woman this time, and drew her in front of him. The firing ceased.
I sprang to my feet. Ware rose almost in step with me. Side by side, we sprinted for the door.
We split up as we neared the door, both avoiding the revolving door. Ware went to the standard swing door to the left, I went to the right.
The door burst open under the impact of my body. I squinted against the glare of the spotlights, but I turned back toward where the vampire had been holding the woman. I could see him as a silhouette, the woman in front of him. My vision started to clear as I focused on the vampire. I saw his hand coming up to the woman's throat. Of course, he had no reason to use her as a shield. She was to be another demonstration of violence and gore.
Beyond the vampire, but off my line of fire I saw Ware raising his shotgun. He could not fire. He would catch the woman in the flame. It was up to me.
My gun came up. Sight picture. Squeeze. Ride the recoil and bring the gun back down. Sight picture again. The vampire's head is already jerking to the side. Its legs already folding. Squeeze again. The gun roared once more.
Something hit me from behind. I slammed into the concrete, my cheekbone hitting with bruising force. The gun skittered out of my hand and rattled down the steps. My lips pushed back into my teeth. I spat blood and tried to twist. The arms grappling at me were strong, but human strong. Not a vampire then.
I got my arms between me and my attacker. With a twist and shove, I tossed him from me. As he went I felt the strap on my duffle snap. He had taken it with him.
I continued the twist and rolled to my feet. No stakes. No gun. I drew the dagger.
Almost absently, I noted the uniform of the man I had hurled away from me. Cop. Great.
Tanner burst out of the door behind me, her gun at the ready as she looked for targets.
A spout of orange to my left showed where Ware was using the shotgun on another of the vampires. Below me, a vampire grabbed a young man and very dramatically turned to face the nearest of the news cameras. He pulled the man's head back and leaned in.
I leaped, drawing the dagger while in mid-arc. I landed behind the vampire and drove it into the vampire's kidney. The vampire screamed.
I drew back and, with a twist of my body, swung the knife, angled to get best use of the edge. I struck the side of the vampire's neck and sliced deep. As luck would have it, I hit between the vertebrae, cutting less bone and more cartilage. The head flew off the vampire's shoulders. Blood shot up and fell, drenching me once again.
I stepped forward, looking for my next target.
Cameras everywhere I looked. Cameras and lights. And they all pointed at me. Shouts, some from spectators, some from police, battered at my ears. I did not have time to try to make sense of them.
Too slow. I was too slow. Too many bodies as the vampires continued their killing spree.
Tanner's gun roared and one of the vampires dropped.
"Stakes!" I shouted at Tanner and dove for another vampire. She was the only one who still had any.
Before I could reach my target vampire, he grabbed someone—a man in his forties—and hurled him at me. We collided and fell to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.
It took me only seconds to extricate myself from the flailing man. Once clear I rolled backward, coming to my feet. I glanced left and right, trying to assess the situation. Ware had been busy. Three vampires were on the ground screaming, with burns across their faces and upper bodies. I saw Tanner drop a magazine and slap another into her gun. Where had all these vampires come from?
A vampire, one Tanner had shot before, was rising.
"Behind you!" I pointed past Tanner.
Tanner started to pivot, and I turned back to the front, trusting her to deal with the threat.
One of the vampires stalked toward a news crew, his mouth pulled into a mirthless grin, exposing his fangs for live news. Police poured fire into the vampire without effect. Lead and copper. Utterly harmless to vampires.
I sprinted. Part of me gibbered that I was running straight into the police fire and I was not immune to bullets, even lead ones. But I had to stop that vampire. We had to keep these things contained.
Something alerted the vampire. It turned toward me, reaching, hands curled into claws.
Cold fire burned through my right hip, freezing a track from just behind the protrusion of my hip angling back and across my butt. I stumbled as pain exploded outward from my hip. My right leg folded. I managed somehow to catch myself with my left foot before collapsing entirely. I shoved off in a single-legged jump toward the vampire. The vampire reached for me. I knocked one of his arms aside with my left hand but his other closed on my throat, cutting off my wind. I felt my feet leave the ground as the vampire lifted. It tightened its grip, fingertips digging furrows into my flesh. My vision dimmed.
Blinded, I swept a circle in front of me with the dagger. The edge caught the vampire's arm and bit deep. The vampire screamed and released me. I landed, right leg first. My leg buckled and I tumbled to the ground. I grabbed, catching the vampire's wounded arm on the way down and pulling him to the ground with me.
I scrabbled with the vampire on the ground. Somehow, I found myself on top of him. He pulled me toward him, but I pushed away with my left arm. The vampire jerked at the elbow with his good arm, causing my arm to bend. He sank his fangs into my forearm. I started stabbing.
Flesh in my arm tore as the vampire jerked its head.
I did not know where my dagger was hitting as I continued to strike. Stabbing again and again. One of the stabs caused the vampire to release its bite. I dragged my mauled arm away from its mouth and continued stabbing. The vampire's struggles weakened. It went limp.
Someone tackled me, knocking me off the inert form of the vampire. Only human strong, so I started to push my attacker away. Before I could do so, another joined it, then another.
I could barely see. My vision dimmed further. I could feel my limbs weakening. Blood loss. The thought was faint in my head.
"Stand down, Dani."
The voice came from far away. I thought I should recognize it, but my mind did not seem to want to work.
"Stand down." James. It was James.
"Stand down. It's over."
I do not know if I responded to James' words or if my body just gave up. Everything went black.
CHAPTER THIRTY
I woke up bound face-down on a stretcher. Something secured my left arm straight. The pulse of colored light and the sound of a siren completed the picture. I was again in an ambulance. I remained still, keeping my body as relaxed as possible. I did not want to talk to the ambulance attendants anyway.
My whole body hurt. My right hip and left arm hurt more than the rest, but everything hurt. The bite in the arm and the gunshot wound in my hip appeared to be my worst injuries. It hurt to swallow but I did not think the vampire had done any serious damage to my throat. I could breathe at least.
It took me a moment to realize what I did not feel, the presence of vampires nearby.
"Are you awake, Ms. Herzeg?"
I turned my head at the familiar voice. "It would seem so. Detective Ware. Am I under arrest?"
James sat next to my stretcher. One of the ambulance attendants sat back in the corner, giving us a bit of space. He talked softly into a microphone, whether on the radio or into a recording device, I did not know.
"Held for questioning," James said. "You were seen to assault at least one police officer, but circumstances were confusing so we're waiting before deciding whether to prefer charges."
"I see," I said. "Should you be telling me this?"
James smiled. "My own status is...complicated. No one is entirely sure how to deal with people under the influence of vampire mind control, 'Push' as you call it. As things stand, I have been placed on suspension until we figure it out." He opened his jacket showing his empty holster.
"Aren't we a pair," I said.
"Are we?" James asked.
"Are we what?"
"A pair?"
I twisted my neck enough to be able to look up into his eyes. "Would you like to be?"
James reached out a hand as though to brush my cheek. He stopped before he could make contact. "You're going to be black and blue, you know that?"
"It's okay," I said. "I heal fast."
I froze. James must have seen my expression change because he froze, too.
"What is it?"
The buzzing in the back of my head was back. "Vampire."
"What the hell are you talking about?" The ambulance attendant set down his microphone. "Vampires?"
I looked at James and smiled. "I guess he didn't watch the show?"
The attendant leaned into the opening into the front of the ambulance. "Hey, Jake, nobody told me we were taking psych patients."
Silence.
"Jake?"
"Check your phone. Look at the news."
The attendant scowled and pulled a phone from his waist clip.
I cast one final glance at the attendant, then dismissed him from my mind. I turned my attention to James. "Do you have anything we can use?"
"They took my service pistol," James said. But..."
"Bless you, you have a holdout?"
He smiled.
"Watch it, asshole!" The shout came from the front of the ambulance.
The ambulance swerved, slamming the stretcher against the wall. Tires squealed. The ambulance swerved the other way and the stretcher tipped.
A moment later and there was a crunching crash. The stretcher slammed forward, hitting the front wall of the ambulance. Ware flew past me to carom off the edge of the opening to the front before he spilled into it.
The ambulance rocked back and was still.
"James?" My shout brought no response.
I tugged against the straps holding me. They were designed to restrain a human. I thought I'd be able to...
The straps held. Given time, I thought I could work my way free, but I did not think I had time. I pulled again, adrenaline driving pain and fatigue away.
The straps still held. I heard a groan from the front of the ambulance and ignored it. I continued to struggle.
What a way to die, I thought, trussed up like a turkey.
The door at the back of the ambulance jiggled. With a groan of rending metal, it jerked open leaving a vampire silhouetted in streetlight in the doorway.
This vampire appeared to be a young woman, barely out of her teens. She put one foot up onto the deck of the ambulance and leaned forward.
A gunshot echoed through the interior of the ambulance, nearly deafening me. The vampire staggered back. Another report and the vampire sank to its knees. Another and it fell out of my sight.
James staggered out of the front of the ambulance. His right arm hung limp at his side. In his left hand he held a small pistol. As I watched, he winced and dropped to one knee.
"That won't...keep it for long." James set his pistol on the edge of the stretcher and began fumbling one-handed at the straps securing me.
As soon as my right arm was free, I began helping James with the straps. He was right. Even struck with silver bullets, the vampire would be up in seconds, and not many of those.
As the second strap came free, I pushed James' hand away.
"Keep watch. I've got it."
James nodded. "One more thing." He reached under his jacket and drew out a dagger. No. My dagger.
"Tampering with evidence. I can lose my job." James picked up his pistol. He pointed it out the back of the ambulance. "Just the one?"
"Doesn't work that way." I continued releasing straps. A thick board—it looked like oak—held my left arm straight. I didn't have time to deal with it.
The gun roared again, three times.
"Just two more before I'm out," James said.
I did not reply. I was able to move the fingers of my left hand, barely. Muscle damage but at least the tendons were intact. It would heal in time. In time. Time that I did not have.
Once the last strap was free I swung my feet to the floor. I tried my right leg. The gunshot wound had torn up my hip but enough remained to support my weight, barely. I stood. I grabbed my dagger.
James' gun fired twice more. "That's it."
Before I could move, the vampire lunged into the compartment and grabbed James. He screamed as she jerked him out through the back door of the ambulance.
My heart pounded as I found myself leaping after James, landing in a low crouch on the pavement behind the ambulance.
The vampire held James aloft with one hand. Blood poured from the two most recent bullet wounds in her side. She opened her mouth and growled up at James.
"Put...him...down." I rose to my fight. I held my right arm at my side with the dagger reversed, its blade hidden along the back of my forearm.
Beyond the vampire, I could see traffic diverting around us. Other cars stopping, people getting out of their cars to gawk. A part of me deep inside giggled. After years of fighting these monsters in secret, now it seemed all I had was audiences.
"You care for this one, little dhampyre?" She snarled at me.
"Your fight's with me," I said.
"Kill this bitch, Dani." Despite the bravado, I could hear the agony in James' voice.
"Silence, you." The vampire shook James. His face blanched as the motion caused his broken arm to bend where it wasn't supposed to.
I charged. I did not know how I made my torn right hip function, but I did. The vampire tossed James aside and turned to face me.
I slammed my left foot into the pavement ahead of me, bringing myself to a stop. I dropped and swung with my right arm, flexing my wrist so that the dagger edge raked across the outside of the vampire's left knee.
The vampire shrieked and leaped high in the air, coming down with both feet aimed at me.
I rolled to the side, pain exploding through my abused limbs. Before I could regain my feet, the vampire was on me, her weight compressing my chest. I could not breathe. She slammed a hand into my forehead, driving my head back into the pavement. I saw stars. Knowing what was coming, I snapped my left arm, still fastened to the board, between us and shoved. I felt something grip the board. T
he wood splintered. The edges of my vision grayed. I stabbed upward.
The weight vanished from my chest and I drew in great gulps of air as my vision cleared. I staggered to my feet. A moment's looking around let me spot the vampire. She knelt on the ground, both hands pressed to her side. Black blood leaked out between her fingers.
I took a stumbling step in her direction. The board that had immobilized my left arm hung in shards.
The vampire looked up at me. I reversed the dagger in my grip. The vampire snarled and reached for me with bloody hands. I slashed down with the dagger, raking it along one of its arms, then slashed back, slicing into its throat. The dagger hit bone and stuck. The vampire's head lolled back and its body slumped to the ground, jerking the dagger from my hand.
I grasped one of the shards of the board hanging taped to my left arm and jerked it free. I dropped to my knees and, with my last strength, drove the broad pointed shard into the vampire's chest to its heart.
That done, I let blackness take me.
I faded in and out several times without awareness of my surroundings. Sometime later I woke up in a hospital room.
Straps secured my left arm to a board again. That arm also had an IV hooked up to it. I moved my right arm a few inches. Nothing restrained its movement. I was strangely free of pain.
"Welcome back."
I turned in the direction of the voice. James sat in a chair next to my bed. He wore an immobilizer over his right arm.
I found myself smiling. "You're okay?"
"Well, I can never go through a metal detector again, but yeah, mostly." He tilted his arm in the direction of the immobilizer. "Pins and plates all over the place. I'm on a desk until I can get medically cleared."
"You're alive. That's what counts."
"So are you," James said. "And the vampire's dead."
"So," I lifted my free hand. "Am I not under arrest?"
"We sorted things out while you were unconscious. You're not under arrest. In fact, you're the hero of the day."
Something in James' voice inspired me to look at him more closely. His face bore fresh lines of pain and fatigue.
The Unmasking (Dhampyre the Hunter Book 1) Page 23
