“If something happens to you, it will most likely happen to me as well. So don’t worry.” Kat slung the bag around her shoulder.
We both walked to the window where she quietly opened it and put the fire ladder in place. I looked out and couldn’t see any of our wolfy friends so I started climbing down. Kat followed.
“Okay, now what?” I whispered as we scanned the surrounding area.
“Now we head off to the cemetery.” Kat took the lead and we left heading in the direction of the Greenwood Cemetery.
***
“Kat, that’s it, straight ahead. Are you sure you want to do this? We can go back now before anyone knows we left. Or before vampires find us.” I bit my lower lip. It’s not that I’m a scaredy cat. Well, maybe I am.
In front of us was the entrance to the Greenwood Cemetery. The walls here were the backsides of tombs. Too high for us to climb over, but the gate was wrought iron. It might be tough, but it was climbable. All of the fancy curves and juts made for great footholds and handholds.
“You ready?” Kat asked as she tightened the straps on her messenger bag.
“Yup. I’m gonna throw my pack over. Don’t want it getting caught on the iron work.” I took off my pack and threw it, hoping the holy water bottles didn’t break.
“Uh, looks like you’ve got a wet backpack now.” Kat pointed to where the bag landed, and there was a small puddle already starting.
“Great, I was afraid of that. Okay, I’ll go over, and then you can hand me your bag. So we don’t break anymore.” I gritted my teeth and began to climb.
When, not if, we got through this I was signing up for some self-defense classes. I was also getting back into yoga. If I was honest with myself, I had let my body go a bit. These past few months had been difficult, and I stopped my daily yoga and meditation. Tomorrow, I was getting back on track. Two months ago, this wouldn’t have been tough to climb.
“Ow!” I grazed my hand on a rough patch of the fence. Guess they didn’t keep these things smooth. It would have been very helpful if they buffed and sanded the iron, you know, so people could break in easier.
I plopped down on feet once I made it over, and a shock reverberated up my leg from my foot. Guess I jumped down from too high a spot on the fence.
“Kat, don’t jump down as soon as you clear the top, climb a bit first.” I was hopping on one foot as I rotated my sore ankle, trying to get the pain worked out.
Kat laughed, “Yeah, I gathered as much. Here take my bag.” She handed it to me through the fence. She had taken some stuff out and set it down on the ground on my side of the fence, then pushed the skinnier bag through.
“Now why didn’t I think of that sooner?” I shook my head and grabbed her bag. Bending down, I began to put her stuff back inside.
“Show-off.” She landed perfectly after shimmying down a bit before jumping the rest of the way down.
“Let’s head to the left, it looked like Lukas had come that way with Acadia.” Kat took the lead and I followed, my head craning around every which way trying to see if there was anyone near us.
“Do you have a flashlight? I can’t see much around us.” I looked through my pack to see if there was anything useful. Just a few broken vials after all. Most were still intact.
“No, it would make us stand out. Now be quiet.” Kat kept moving.
It was strange, I had been through all of our local cemeteries too many times to count. They never frightened me, but tonight, the hair on my arms stood on end. Something in the air was screaming to my subconscious to run away.
We made our way to where the biggest of the monuments and tombs were located. Not really sure how what the vamps did in this graveyard after dark. Maybe it was their version of a coffee shop? Hang out with their acolytes and share necks as they sipped their favorite blood type and gabbed about their day, or in this case, night?
How did they get around those special guards? I know this is one of the cemeteries they patrolled. “Kat, do you think those special guards Rico talked about are acolytes? He would have known if they were a vampire, right?”
“Shh, and yes, he would know.” Kat stopped in her tracks. “Wait, why would vampires hang out here if the place was being monitored? Huh? Maybe they just came through here for some weird reason, and this really isn’t a lead.”
“Can we go back now?” I was tired, and something certainly felt off here.
“No, we should continue to search this out. Who knows what we might find.” Kat moved forward, and I followed her.
I felt more than saw, her arm shoot out to stop me when we were only a few plots from the end of the lane. “What?”
“A black car, like the ones the security guards drive, is down the next lane.” Kat put a hand to her lips and motioned for me to stay where I was.
Her head inched its way around the end of the tomb and stayed there for a few heartbeats. “Ahh! Hocky Puck!”
That was way too loud. They had to have heard her.
“Run, Indie! Run!” Kat turned around and pushed me in front of her. I stumbled from the push, but she helped stabilize me, and we moved. Faster than I can remember running in quite some time.
“What?” I panted.
“They saw me. I don’t know if we’ll make it, but we have to try.” She was already panting as well. “Four vamps, one guard.”
“Crap-tastic!” What else could I say?
We made it only two blocks when two vamps pushed us down. Kat pulled a stake out of her belt and turned around as one jumped on top of her. Either she got really lucky, or she had great aim, not really sure which one. Her vamp slumped on top of her. She pushed him aside.
My vamp had me pinned. “Mmm, looks like I get a nice meal and dessert. Too bad for Ricky.” The vamp sneered and went for my neck.
“Aaahhh!” I screamed. He had my arms pinned to my sides, and he was sitting on my stomach. I couldn’t move him no matter how much I squirmed.
I felt a trickle of water, great. Just what we needed, rain.
The vamp above me laughed and sat back up. “Really? Let me guess, holy water? Lady, those books and TV shows don’t know what’s really going on.”
He let go of my left arm and reached up to grab Kat’s neck. “Don’t worry, you’ll get your turn. I just happen to prefer little Buffy here, first.” My heart pounded overtime when he looked down at me. Those red eyes and extended fangs sent me into kill or be killed mode.
I grabbed a knife off of Kat’s belt and stabbed at what I thought was his heart. He screamed and let Kat go as he jumped off me. I missed. While he scrambled to get the knife out of his chest, we ran.
We made it to the gate, and Kat threw her bag through the iron like before, but it still had too much inside so it was stuck.
“Let it go.” I panted. “I’ve got my backpack”
I jumped up and began climbing over the gate about two seconds before Kat did. We weren’t going to take turns this time.
“Head down Canal Street. We can zigzag through all of the smaller streets and alleyways, and maybe we can lose him.” Kat jumped to the ground before I did.
My pack caught on one of the finials of the fence and ripped the strap over my left shoulder. There wasn’t time to get it unstuck so I pulled my right arm out of the strap as I climbed down.
After last time, I climbed down halfway before jumping down and crouching. I looked through the fence and saw the vampire stalking toward us. Why wasn’t he running?
“Move! Don’t look back! Just go!” Kat took off running, and I followed, leaving my pack and the extra supplies on the fence.
I couldn’t remember running this fast, ever. Houses and trees flew by in a collage of greens, blues, and browns as we ran across yards and streets without even looking where we were going.
Thankfully, Kat knew the city like the back of her hand.
Chapter 16
Rico
Not bothering to even growl, I ran to Lukas. He was the vamp in the lead. The thre
e behind him looked to be grunts, maybe even newbies. I doubted they were trained very well.
Close combat in such tight quarters wasn’t easy, especially with four bloodsuckers and a giant wolf. So I felt I could take them down without too much difficulty. The only one who had me worried was Lukas.
Thanks to the illumination from the room above, there was just enough sliver of light to see faces and color. A normal human wouldn’t see much, but a wolf with natural night vision, could see quite well.
Lukas sneered. “What a mangy mutt. Your pack’s in trouble. You might want to do your duty and go up and help them.”
Not like I could answer in this form, so I growled, “Grrrrrr.” I knew he was just trying to get rid of me. My pack was tearing them to shreds. I could hear it.
He lunged at me before I could attack him. Leaning down low to the ground, I chomped onto his right leg and pulled, causing him to fall back. I dragged him back to the larger room where Acadia was lying.
She was going to have to watch this. Fighting in the tunnel was almost impossible. The vamps were practically standing shoulder to shoulder, two across, touching the walls.
My bite was tight, but his hits to my head were hard. His leg was just about ready to come off in my maw when he got a good hit and caused me to open my jaws enough to let his leg go.
“Stupid dog! He kicked toward my muzzle, but I moved it in time to escape his foot.
I reached up with my paw, claws fully extended and slashed the length of this leg. The three other vamps came out of the tunnel and ran at me. I jumped onto the front of one and got my jaw tightly around its neck. It took one try, and I had its neck almost all the way off its shoulders. He dropped in a heap.
Keeping my claws extended on my front paws I swiped at the ginger in front of me. He scooted back, but not soon enough. Blackish blood oozed from his chest. He stumbled back.
Lukas made a mad dash for the girl. I leapt sideways to get in his way. His left hand came at me hard, and I went flying against the wall. Getting up, I growled my distaste for the demon. He had the girl in his arms with his back to me. I jumped on his back, and one of his minions tried to yank me off.
I had dug my claws into the shoulder of Lukas and put my rear claws into the back of his calves. The ginger I had swiped at joined the dirty blonde. It took the both of them to pull me off Lukas’ back. In the scuffle, Lukas dropped the girl and she rolled all the way up to the side of the wall.
Lukas turned back toward me and bared his fangs. “You can’t have her! She’s my acolyte! I bound her to me. The law states she’s mine.”
The girl’s narrowed eyes and shaking head told me he forced her to be bound to him. He broke the law, and I was here to administer justice.
I heard another body jump down into the cellar. The magical sensation of a wolf changing reached my senses before I could even turn my head. One of my brothers had joined me.
Before he was fully formed, he jumped out at the ginger. He was the closest vamp to my second in command. No one else in the pack could lunge while still in the process of changing, at least not that fast.
The ginger had turned toward the sound of my brother’s feet hitting the soft earth. He moved, maybe one step, toward the man before it was a wolf grabbing for the vamp’s neck.
While everyone had their eyes on a shifting wolf, I lunged at the bloodsucker in the black shirt. He moved faster than the last guy but not fast enough to keep my teeth off his shoulder. His left shoulder was in my mouth, and I pulled it out of its socket.
His scream was so shrill, it sounded like a girl in one of those slasher movies screaming when the bad guy jumps out at her.
His left arm was dangling from my maw. Revolting! Vampire blood was acidic and tasted more like sewer than the coppery blood of humans. I think they felt our blood tasted just as putrid. Fine by me.
Lukas bent to grab the girl while I finished off the dirty blonde. Knowing there were only two possible exits from this point, I positioned myself in front of the tunnel while I worked on tearing off the head of the blonde. It didn’t take long. He had lost a great deal of blood and only had one arm to defend himself.
Damien, my second in command, had no problem ripping the neck off his vamp. Lukas was stuck between the both of us.
“I’ll kill her if you don’t let me go.” Lukas had Acadia standing up, her head was tilted, and his fangs just above her carotid artery.
Normally, they didn’t feed from that vein, unless they planned to drain their prey dry. It was too difficult the staunch the blood flow otherwise.
I shifted back to my human form so I could talk with the vamp. “If you kill her, you’re dead. Simple as that. Let the girl go, and we can discuss your surrender. I’ll hand you over to your queen.”
“No deal. She’ll kill me just for surrendering to you.” His fangs inched closer to Acadia’s neck.
“Stop right now! You put one fang in her neck, and I will kill you before you can even swallow.” I inched closer to them just in case I could get to her before he bit.
“I’ll let her go if you let me leave unharmed.” Lukas smiled showing off his fangs as he grazed them against her neck.
Acadia for her part was holding up much better than I expected. Until he ran his fangs against her neck. She cringed and tears ran down her face. Poor girl.
I looked to my second, and he blinked. Damien had my back.
“Deal.” I hated doing this.
The bloodsucker lifted his head from her neck. “She was getting boring anyway. All she’s done the past day is cringe and cry. She stopped fighting. I always love it when they fight back.”
He made my stomach churn.
“Put her down slowly. Don’t drop her. Show some class, for a change.” My nose flared as I saw his eyes flash red.
He dropped her on her butt.
Damien hadn’t taken his eyes off the bloodsucker. The second he let go of the girl, Damien charged. I backed off to get out of the way.
The wolf and the vampire were rolling on the ground. Damien’s teeth kept chomping close to Lukas’ neck. The vampire continued to wrestle with the wolf, and I went to the girl.
“Are you alright?” I pulled the gag off her mouth and began to untie the ropes around her arms.
“Nnnoo…who are you?” She asked between sniffles.
“I’m here to save you. Your sisters and the Voodoo Dolls hired me and my pack to find you. Don’t worry, you’re safe with me.” I continued untying her ropes while a vampire and a wolf danced along the dirty floor.
After she was untied, I put her behind my back as we made our way to the trap door I’d come through. “Damien, stop playing with your prey and kill him already.” I shook my head. Sometimes, wolves had too much fun.
Damien responded with a growl and latched onto the demon spawn’s neck. Lukas tried to give a good scream, but it came out more garbled than anything. His throat was gone, and his body went limp.
My wolf pushed the vamp off him and moved away to give himself room to change back to his human form. “Man, they taste rotten.” He spit out some of what must have been the vampire’s neck and blood. He ran his arm across his mouth.
Acadia’s eyes were bugged out, and her heart rate had increased too much too fast. I turned around just in time to catch her when she passed out. I couldn’t blame her. The scene was pretty gory and to watch wolves change into humans can be really frightening.
Although, the Dolls all handled it quite well. Indie really enjoyed it when I shifted for her the first time.
“Damien, a little help?” I nodded to the limp girl in my arms.
“Sure thing, boss. You want me to go up first so you can hand her to me?” Damien ambled to my side and looked up through the hole in the ground.
“Yes, make sure the room is clear first.” The last thing I needed were more vampires at the top when we brought up Acadia.
Damien jumped up through the opening and grabbed the sides, pulling himself up and into the
room. I heard him clunking about up there before he came back and leaned into the cellar. “All clear. Hand me the girl.”
“Here.” I gently lifted her, head first to my second in command. He took hold under her arms and pulled her up.
Once the opening was cleared, I jumped up and exited the basement similar to how Damien did.
I took Acadia in my arms and walked out front with Damien on my heals. “Call Joshua and let him know we got the girl. We’re gonna need to get a clean-up crew to this place.”
I walked around the side of the house and found vampire bodies and parts strewn all over the place. Two of my wolves looked to be dead as well. “Damien, can you check on them? I need to get her out of here before more vamps show up.”
“Yes, Rico.” Damien sighed and walked to the first wolf body on the ground. He bent down and felt for a pulse. When his head dipped, I knew the answer.
“I’ll call Joshua once I’m in the car. You see if there are any wolves who need help. Call me when you get the pack home. I’m going to stay the rest of the night with the girls. Once the queen hears about the massacre, she’ll most likely want to retaliate.” I waited for Damien to nod, and then I walked to my car with Acadia in my arms.
Chapter 17
Jenna
“So, who was it? Rico or Joshua?” I sure hoped it was good news.
“Joshua. Rico has Acadia, and they should be here any minute. We better get back inside before Rico finds you out here. He won’t be happy. It’s going to get really dangerous now.” Jose picked up his pace, and I followed him.
“You can let me down now. I promise I’m going back inside to wait for my sister.” Adalaide pounded Jose’s back.
“Nope, I don’t trust you.” Jose squeezed her waist and winked at me.
Oh, brother. If this is his form of flirting, please stop it now. The caveman act isn’t going to fly with Adalaide, or any of us.
“Why is it going to get dangerous?” I asked.
“Because, Rico and the pack killed a whole lot of vamps tonight rescuing that girl. The vampire queen will most likely come after you all tonight.” Jose climbed the steps three at a time while carrying Adelaide.
New Orleans Magic: Urban Fantasy Series (The Voodoo Dolls Book 1) Page 10
