by Bianca D’Arc
Marlon was waiting for her, and he followed as she went to join Jeff by the door to the suite. Hiram was closing and bolting the safe room door behind him, but that only took a moment. He was with them before Maya had stopped moving. She’d almost forgotten vampires could move faster than the eye could see if they put their minds to it. She’d never hunted beside a bloodletter before. This ought to be an educational experience. She would take mental notes to pass on to her brother. Johnny was always interested in that sort of information.
“Kinkaid’s suite is next to mine. I think we should check on him,” Hiram said quietly as he paused by the door.
“If we can clear this floor, I’d like to do it, then do the same on the way down so we know no one’s coming in behind us,” Marlon said in equally low tones.
“Unless they can fly,” Hiram pointed out.
“You think they might repel down from the roof?” Marlon looked as if he was giving the idea serious consideration.
“There’s no one on the roof at the moment,” Hiram told them, waving Marlon’s words away. “I would know.”
Maya put one hand on Marlon’s forearm when he seemed to want to ask questions, and he subsided. Instead, he signaled to Jeff, and the other man stepped away from his guard position by the door to mirror Marlon’s stance on Maya’s other side.
“I’m going out first,” Hiram told them, reaching for the doorknob. “I’ll be heading right at high speed. Follow with Maya. I may have need of her nose.”
With little more than that, the man was gone, the door still on the out-swing as he blurred into motion. Maya was impressed, but she knew they had work to do. She couldn’t allow herself to get sidetracked.
She started forward, but Marlon forestalled her, signaling Jeff to go first. Then, only after Jeff had given a hand signal, Marlon allowed her to set foot into the hallway. She would have to do something about their caution, but they didn’t know the full story about her, yet. If they knew she could smell people a long way off, they might have been a little less uptight about this maneuver, but there was no time to explain it to them now.
When they arrived at the next suite, the door was already open, and Hiram was speaking in low tones with a clearly upset Sam Kinkaid. He was wearing an even more subtle version of the masks Maya and the boys were wearing. Even she couldn’t hear much, but she could see Sam was very upset. Hiram turned to them and filled them in.
“Sam’s cousin, Kaitlyn, isn’t in the suite. He’s already searched. She’s probably downstairs somewhere,” Hiram said in his cultured tones.
“I have to find her,” Sam put in, his tone gruff with the edge of his lion half. If he didn’t shift tonight, it would be a minor miracle. When the beast was on the hunt, the urge to shift was strong. Maya was fighting it herself, already.
“We will find her,” she told the Alpha lion shifter. “With a team like this, our enemies don’t stand a chance.”
Sam spared her a nod and a thankful glance but didn’t say anything. They all reversed and headed back to the hall where they found Nick Balam and Mark Pepard just arriving, their mates in tow, all wearing masks. Hiram stepped forward to speak with them, Sam at his side. Maya went into the wide hall with Marlon and Jeff, acting as guards while the others talked in low, urgent tones.
Nick joined them after a moment, leaving the others behind. He was armed in a similar fashion to Marlon and Jeff, and they seemed to speak the same language when they started exchanging information in short, terse sentences. Just like Johnny and his guys. Military, through and through.
“We’ve got to clear the upper floors and find Kaitlyn,” Nick said finally. “I’ll get the others moving.” He went back to the small group formed by Shelly, Sullivan, Hiram and Sam, gesturing and getting them to take action.
Within moments, they were moving swiftly over the rest of the floor, clearing rooms, one by one. Every single member of the group was working toward the common goal—even the ladies who weren’t shifters. Magic users, Maya confirmed with her nose for magic. They were good. Using shielding and warding with an expert touch, both of them. They would be of great help to this group if they came under magical fire, though again, there was no way to tell Marlon or Jeff about it.
Still, the boys were holding up well. They were acting as guards while the others searched and cleared the rooms in quick succession. Before she knew it, they were heading down to the next floor, and then, the next and the next, until they got to the function rooms. The card room where the games had been played earlier, and then lower still to the vendor rooms and the dining room.
It was there, on the first floor, where they encountered the enemy. They hadn’t found anybody else awake. At least, nobody on their side. The rest of the mansion was dark and in a drugged sleep, but downstairs, men in black with night vision goggles moved with stealthy steps.
One other benefit of there not being any power was that all the surveillance was dead, as well. There would be no visual or auditory record of whatever happened next.
As they moved, Maya ended up next to Sam with Marlon and Jeff on either side, going room to room. She scented the blood only a moment before Sam. He stiffened and cursed under his breath.
“That’s Katy’s blood,” he said a moment before his lion tore out of him, and he landed on four giant paws, already on the move.
Jeff’s eyes just about bugged out of his head, but he kept his weapon aimed outward, away from Sam. Marlon started to swing around, but Maya stopped him.
“It’s all right. Just keep an open mind and remember he’s one of the good guys,” she whispered as they followed after Sam. “Don’t shoot him—or any other big cats or bears you might see.”
She’d said something like that before, but Jeff had written it off as momentary hysteria. Only… One of the world’s wealthiest men had just turned into a freaking lion. A giant freaking white-as-a-ghost lion.
“What the fuck?” Jeff sent to Marlon, totally nonplussed.
“I know,” Marlon replied in the same tone of voice. This had obviously caught both of them by surprise. “But think. Remember those weird rumors about Big John and some of his guys?”
“Holy shit. You don’t think Maya…?” Jeff couldn’t even finished the thought. It was just too bizarre. Yet, Kinkaid was now a five-hundred-pound lion, stalking the carpeted halls.
“Stay sharp,” Marlon warned him as a roar of that very big lion was heard in the next room. Marlon peered into the dark interior of the room and then backed his head out quick. “The lion is fighting three targets in camo,” he reported to Jeff silently.
“We have to help him,” Maya whispered, though she hadn’t heard Marlon’s sit rep. She looked about ready to wade in herself, but Jeff put up his hand.
“Let us do our thing. Stay here. Be safe,” he said, hoping she would listen. “Guard our backs.” Maybe that would make her stay put.
A moment later, Marlon and Jeff burst into action. They flanked the lion in the middle of the big room and took careful aim. It was hard to shoot with the lion moving unpredictably, but Marlon got off one successful shot that winged one of the guys. Marlon closed in to take him hand-to-hand.
They were all operating in stealth mode, their guns equipped with state-of-the-art silencers. The bad guys had similar equipment, Jeff wasn’t all that surprised to see. He took his time and waited for an opening, then took it, putting another of the assailants down with a shot between the eyes.
The lion that was Kinkaid took out the final guy, the lion’s claws and teeth making short work of the man’s throat. That one wouldn’t be talking to anyone, ever again.
“You done with yours?” Jeff asked, unable to take his eyes off the pacing lion.
“He was good with a knife,” Marlon replied, “but I was better.” He moved around toward the doorway where they’d left Maya, wiping his blade before putting it away.
The lion whirled and stalked off, out of the room, leaving the three bodies behind. He went straight past Maya wi
thout even looking at her, thankfully.
“Does he look like he’s following a scent trail to you?” Jeff asked his partner.
“He’s a cat, not a dog, but I guess you could be right,” Marlon offered. “We should follow him.”
CHAPTER TEN
Jeff kept the lion in sight as he went out the nearest exit, which just happened to be the door at one end of the outdoor pool. Oddly enough, Admiral Morrow was already there, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs.
“He’s pretty ripped for an old guy,” Marlon observed even as they crept into position.
“He must’ve been sleeping. He doesn’t even have any weapons,” Jeff said, even as he took in the situation.
Morrow was protecting Kaitlyn, who was bleeding from a gash on her arm. She was dressed all in gray. Some kind of loose fitting track suit with a hood.
“Did you see all the bodies?” Marlon interrupted Jeff’s perusal of the woman. “If Morrow did that, he doesn’t need any weapons. He is a weapon.”
That’s when Jeff finally noticed the trail of bodies leading to Morrow’s current position at the other end of the pool. The old man was facing a new opponent, but Jeff knew Morrow wouldn’t have to take down this one on his own. Marlon and Jeff—not to mention Kinkaid the freaking lion—were there to help.
“Kaitlyn, get in the pool,” Morrow called out, speaking in a loud tone as six more bad guys came out of the darkness to surround him.
The woman followed his direction without discussion, tossing her jacket onto a chair as she passed and kicking off her shoes. She dove into the water and stayed mostly submerged, using the wall of the pool for cover, while things played out above.
“Where the hell did they come from?” Marlon wanted to know.
“Must’ve been on the grounds, waiting for the right moment. For whatever reason, they either want the girl or the admiral,” Jeff surmised.
“Let’s make sure they don’t get either one.”
“Roger that, partner.”
Jeff and Marlon had worked together for years. They didn’t even need to discuss their approach, they simply waded in and started fighting. The lion worked with them, cutting out one bad guy for himself while Jeff and Marlon each took one.
Then there was a rumbling growl, and a massive grizzly bear suddenly appeared between them, selecting its own opponent out of the pack. That left Morrow surrounded by only three men. Better odds, but still not great.
“Something’s got to give,” Marlon communicated. “These guys are too good.”
Like his partner, Jeff was holding his own with his fight but not really making much progress. The men were well trained and on par with their own abilities. The lion seemed to be doing better, and the bear was using its sheer size to chase its guy down the length of the pool, away from the action.
Jeff put his opponent on the deck with a horrible, crunching thud, and the man just smiled and popped right back up again, to fight some more. That just wasn’t normal. Jeff wasn’t holding anything back, and these guys didn’t seem to even feel the damage that was being inflicted on their bodies.
“This isn’t right,” Jeff sent to his partner. “They’re not feeling the pain.”
“Maybe they’re high on something?” Marlon offered.
“They seem competent and clear-eyed. Maybe it’s some kind of nerve block?” Jeff theorized. “But I’ve never heard of anything like this.”
“Me neither,” Marlon agreed.
Maya didn’t have time to worry about the guys. The battle was in full swing, and if her opponent would just stop running long enough for her to get her paws on him, she’d be happy to take him down and make him stay down. But the idiot wouldn’t stop running away. He took her the entire length of the pool and then around it, heading back towards the house.
As she took a quick look into the house, she realized that wasn’t such a bad thing. She could see Hiram there, with Shelly and Sullivan. Shit was about to get real. The master vampire was out for blood.
Maya was happy to herd her prey into the waiting maw of the vampire, but Hiram surprised her by standing back and letting the ladies take care of her opponent. Shelly and Sullivan created some kind of binding around the man that held him tight and made him drop his weapons.
Hiram sucked in a breath as a silver dagger clattered to the tile under their feet. Maya moved closer and sniffed. It smelled of old blood…and evil.
“My friends, be wary,” Hiram called out in a strong voice that carried. “We fight Venifucus this night.”
“Are you sure?” Sullivan asked, not seeming fazed at all by the announcement, just curious.
Hiram nodded to Shelly. “Light him up, if you please,” he said formally, bowing slightly in her direction. Shelly made a few graceful moves with her fingers, and suddenly, the man’s face started to glow. Strange patterns appeared like swirling, energy tattoos in a deep crimson fire.
“Venifucus confirmed,” Hiram said, nodding once. “Hold this one, if you please. We need at least one for questioning. Perhaps you could stay here to guard the ladies,” he said to Maya. She nodded her grizzly head, and even before she had finished her movement, he was gone.
She searched the area with her gaze, finding Hiram at the other end of the pool, next to Admiral Morrow. Nick and Mark, in their jaguar forms, had come in from either side to whittle the number of opponents around Morrow to one each. It looked like they were pulling ahead, but then, a new person stepped out from behind the stone fence and joined the party by the pool.
“Shit,” Shelly said, looking at the newcomer with dread in her expression. “A blood path sorceress. She’s fueling these bastards.”
That’s all Maya needed to hear. She took off running, hoping to use her grizzly resistance to magic to shield as many of the good guys as she could. The shifters could mostly take care of themselves, but she knew Marlon and Jeff had no natural protection against magic. She wasn’t too sure about Admiral Morrow or Hiram, for that matter. And all the men were being kept quite busy with their individual fights. Some of them might not even be aware of the newcomer, and that could prove deadly.
It was up to Maya to do what she could to mitigate this new development. She hadn’t even gotten her claws bloody yet. That idiot had kept her running and didn’t let her get in close to get more than a few swipes at him. She’d hit him—hard—but she hadn’t drawn blood. Her bear wanted blood, and she was going to get it. One way or another.
“Are you sure we’re not compromised by serious hallucinogens?” Jeff asked Marlon after the big cats showed up and their opponents’ faces started glowing with weird red designs.
“I don’t think so, though my mask broke a few minutes ago, and I tossed it,” Marlon told his partner. “It wasn’t rated for this kind of activity.”
“Yeah, mine broke, too,” Jeff reported. “That’s why I was wondering if we’d been dosed with something.”
“Just concentrate on fighting. These fuckers all seem to have wicked knife skills.”
Jeff was silent a moment as the battle continued, but then, he spoke again. “Do you think that bear…is Maya?”
“You know the rumors about her brother,” Marlon reminded his partner.
“I always thought it was just wild talk. Ghost stories. You know?” Jeff insisted.
The grizzly bear that had to be Maya—somehow—growled as it pounded its paws, running the length of the pool, back toward the fighting. That deep rumbling made Marlon take a look around, and he realized another woman had appeared near Morrow and Hiram at the farthest end of the pool. A woman he did not recognize as being a guest.
And Maya the bear was making a beeline for her.
Suddenly, the woman raised her hand, and a half dozen pool chairs lifted into the air, becoming missiles, heading straight for the running bear.
“Shit!” was all Marlon had time to say before instinct took over.
He reached out with his mind, and the chairs just…stopped. They stopped mid-
air, in defiance of every law of physics and momentum, then dropped harmlessly to the ground. A second later, a scream of feminine outrage could be heard above the animal growls.
“Did we do that?” Jeff said into his mind a moment later.
“Maybe,” Marlon replied, but his opponent had moved in for a slash at his arm, and the moment of inattention had counted against Marlon. He shoved the pain to another part of his mind to consider later. Right now, he had a war to win.
Maya didn’t know who or what had stopped those chairs, but she made a note to thank them later as she sped down the length of the pool in her bear form. If she could just get between the sorceress and whoever she targeted next, Maya could provide some protection. Bears were naturally immune to a wide range of magic. It tended to just roll off her sleek fur, and she could use that innate ability to protect others…as she had in the past.
The attack with the chairs, though, that had been inspired. If Maya got hit with enough physical objects, she could be hurt, and that would make her less effective, overall. Though magic had been behind their launch, the chairs were inert objects with no magic of their own. They would not have been deflected by her bear’s natural resistance to magical attack.
Maya moved as fast as she could, dodging other combatants as she made her way closer to the mage. She was almost there when the woman turned on Hiram and raised her hands. This was going to be close…
Maya leapt and intercepted a blast of raw energy from the woman’s hands that had been meant for Hiram. She wasn’t sure what kind of protections the ancient vampire had, but whoever this evil mage was, she packed a punch. Maya landed on her feet, shrugging off the residue of the blood magic that had been sent her way and faced the woman.
Hiram came to her side, resting one of his hands on her shoulder. “My thanks, Mistress Maya, but I can take it from here.”
Hiram held one hand in front of him like a shield, and whatever the sorceress threw at him bounced back. She grew increasingly frustrated, but she held her ground as Hiram advanced. Out of the corner of her eye, Maya noticed the admiral had fought free of his attacker and was now coming up on her other side.
