Three seconds was the length of time it would take someone to realize an enemy was in their midst, figure out how to shoot without worry of killing someone on their side, and then aim and fire.
Cora sighed. “Two and a half seconds, to be safe.” She didn’t like it, but she couldn’t argue with the logic.
I stopped taking clothes off when I got to the innermost layer, and I ran my hands over it to make sure nothing protruded. “I’ll stop on the way back, so I can be sure I’m extinguished and won’t smell of smoke. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
She nodded, and I stepped into the nothingness before I could think about it too much. I took four breaths and figured she’d had enough time to call a cease-fire from inside, and then I put myself on fire and stepped into the middle of the bad guys.
I hadn’t been able to do this for the longest, because I had to create my own little universe in the nothingness, with an atmosphere to support the flames. It hadn’t been easy, but I’d managed it, and here I was, in the middle of our enemy, dashing around almost-touching people as fast as possible. Close enough to set them on fire without burning myself.
I counted to three in my head and stepped back into the nothingness — the actual nothingness this time, without an atmosphere. The flames died out, and I held my breath and counted to fifteen to make sure they were gone before I stepped back to the roof.
We were hidden by a three-foot-tall wall, so I figured Abbott had talked Isaac through how to make sure his club could be useful in just such a situation. I ducked below the wall and looked through a small grate, along with Cora and the unknown man. Cora’s nose told me he was a Strigorii.
The people inside TBR were now shooting non-stop into the confused bad guys outside. I’d injured at least seven or eight of them, and some had changed to heal, while others seemed to be trying to shoot with their injuries. Our people were trying to take advantage of their confused state. Good.
“Twenty-one bad guys,” Cora said. “Three times seven.”
The Strigorii spoke with a British accent. “All TBC bartenders and most of the wait staff have been trained to handle weapons. Isaac is on site, so he’s in charge. Customers have been moved to a safe space inside the building. The staff are well-armed, but I don’t think they have twenty-one people.”
“The building is secure, though,” said Cora. “Bullets aren’t going to penetrate.” She sighed. “Except they’ll have to open and close the portals to shoot through. The loopholes are behind bushes, which helps when fighting humans, but these aren’t humans.”
“Do we know what they are?” I had two layers of bulletproof clothing back on by this time — the inner layer would stop claws and knives to an extent, and would keep most slower bullets from penetrating, but they’d still do a lot of damage. The outer layer would stop even some high caliber bullets. With my clothes back on, I strapped my weapons on while we talked.
“Reptiles, from the smell of it,” Cora answered. I have access to what she’s smelling, but without her scent memory, I can’t recognize everything I smell.
Another volley of gunfire came from inside the building, and one of the men gave a scream that sounded like something from a dinosaur movie.
And then a huge-assed reptile-slash-dinosaur was standing in the parking lot.
“Fuck me, it’s an imperator.” Cora sounded awed and afraid. “I’ve seen drawings and fuzzy pictures, but never one in person before.”
“A what?”
“Imperator crocodile in warrior form,” said the man.
It looked more like a dinosaur than a crocodile, but I didn't ask again. I’d been about to resituate my shotgun onto my back, but I handed it to the man instead. “You need a weapon. The shells are loaded heavy, plus they have some silver shavings.”
He shook his head. “I do not believe in guns.”
“Oh, they’re very real. Trust me. Also, point and shoot. Literally. You need a weapon.”
“He’s a Strigorii,” Cora said without taking her eyes from the huge dinosaur in the parking lot. “I assume the vampire can take care of himself. Keep your shotgun. Imperators are over thirty feet long when in crocodile form, and, as you can see, as big as a dinosaur in warrior form. I’ve never fought one, though now that I smell this one…” She shook her head. “I suppose it explains a lot.”
She pulled her phone out and looked relieved. “Someone’s taken the cellular network down. No one’s going to be able to do a live feed, or even post pics to social media.”
I looked at the vampire. “Is Abbott okay? And Spence?”
“Abbott is fine, as is Spence. He’ll be pleased you asked. Five members of his flock weren’t home, but the rest are lost.”
I was relieved Abbott and Spence hadn’t been killed, but I grieved for the humans who’d lost their lives. I didn’t know them well, but I’d met several of them.
“Is Bran okay?” I hadn’t heard anything about him one way or another. He has good security, but so does everyone else.
“I have heard nothing.”
I heard Ranger in Cora’s head.
We’ve arrived with reinforcements. I’m aware you have someone with you who’s in contact with the people inside?
We do.
Have him tell Isaac he’s going to have to handle the imperator so we can take the rest out. He’s probably hoping someone else can do it, but the Drake control room is telling us not to engage him directly.
Cora told the vampire, who nodded and — I assumed — relayed the message.
“Isaac wishes for Kirsten to take the three of us into the main room of TBC. He’d like to have Cora in charge of the battle once he changes, and he said Kirsten should go into the safe area with the other humans.”
“What’s your name?” The vampire hadn’t introduced himself, and it felt important I know his name before I carted him through the nothingness.
“Byron.”
I nodded. “Since we don’t know how you’ll handle it, I’ll take you and then come back for Cora. I’ll make it fast. Close your eyes and hold your breath, and the next thing you know, we’ll be inside.”
I stepped behind him and wrapped my arms around him. He was a good bit taller than me, and my cheek touched his shoulder blade. I squeezed him to me and stepped into the nothingness and then into TBC.
He’d been telepathing with one of the bartenders, so we were expected. I nodded to Isaac and went back for Cora. I only needed to grab her arm, and a second later, we were inside too.
“I’ll stay out here and fight,” I told Isaac.
He shook his head. “Humans in the safe areas. Abbott will never forgive me if you’re hurt.”
“We don’t have time to argue over it,” Cora said. “Nathan and Ranger are both leading a team, both coming in from the right to cut down on friendly fire, but different angles. They need you outside, and if you’re what I think you are, that’s the right call — but only if you can handle yourself. Do you have control?”
“I do.”
She nodded and motioned towards the front door. “You put me in charge, which means I get to decide where best to utilize Kirsten’s talents, and she needs to be behind a loophole, blowing up people’s heads.” She took a breath. “How magical are imperators?”
“I have more power than Striker did, but not all of us do. Why?”
“Information we might need. Go.”
Everyone was shooed away from the front door, and Cora had people with fully automatic weapons man the loopholes. We laid down fire, and Isaac walked out of the front door, fully clothed. Shapeshifters nearly always undress before changing, but Isaac must not have cared about his clothes.
TBC has a little portico area, so cars can drive up and drop people off, protected from the elements. Isaac changed before he was fully out from under it, and he ripped the top of it off. His clothes disintegrated.
He was at least twenty-five feet tall, and looked like some kind of crocodile/dinosaur monster.
Exac
tly like the other one, but bigger.
Much bigger.
I could hear Cora’s awe in her mental voice. I can’t believe they kept that a secret.
Will he be okay? I asked. He’s bigger than the other one, but does he know how to fight them?
I assume he does. So far, the others who’ve changed are just regular crocodile monsters. Can you blow some of their heads up?
I used to think the crocodiles were the worst of the shifters to fight, then I’d learned of the velociraptor and been bitten by a honey badger, and I changed my mind.
But then I saw two imperator crocodiles fighting in warrior form, and I was terrified. The bigger one, Isaac, lifted a car from the parking lot and threw it at the other, who ducked out from under it, but barely. Isaac yanked a tree from the ground and beat the other imperator with it. I was supposed to be blowing up heads, but I couldn’t stop watching the two giants fight.
How in the hell had I not known what Isaac was? Cora hadn’t, either, but it seemed Nathan had. I heard Cora barking orders behind me, but they were for other people. I was supposed to be blowing heads up. I focused on someone near the front, shooting an automatic weapon at Isaac’s leg. Isaac didn’t seem to mind, but I figured if they did it long enough, it might eventually hurt him. A few seconds later, the guy’s head exploded. I moved to the next. And the next. And the next.
I was managing about one every twenty to forty seconds. I’d taken my energy level down to practically nothing an hour or two earlier while giving Cora energy to send Randall. I’d replenished a lot of it, but I wasn’t at one hundred percent.
Meanwhile, the two Drake teams came in with guns-a-blazing, and suddenly it was sixty-something good guys to not many bad guys, and two minutes later, the only bad guy left standing was the giant monster Isaac was fighting.
Now I could give the fight my undivided attention, and I focused on the specifics, in case I ended up face-to-face with one of these creatures.
They bit at each other, they punched, and they clawed. Their warrior forms had full arms and legs, with the heads coming out at an angle, more perpendicular than vertical, which made sense because their eyes were still on top of their head in this form.
Still, I got the feeling Isaac didn’t want to kill the other crocodile.
Finally, Nathan stepped under the other one and shot straight up. Isaac kept the monster engaged so he couldn’t reach down and stop the lion shooting into his belly and chest from below. My legs went weak, just watching. I was terrified for Nathan. The monster could easily grab him and bite him in half, but Isaac kept his opponent engaged.
Blood poured down on Nathan, but he kept shooting, and only moved when the monster started falling. The earth moved when the huge body smashed onto the parking lot, crushing a few more cars. I wondered if it showed up on the nearby seismographs.
Nathan was covered in blood when he stepped near me, still outside the building. “Can you blow his head up, Kirsten? I put silver in his heart, but if you can get rid of the head…”
I’d tried earlier without luck, but I tried again. When it didn’t work, I told him. “Sorry. No luck. You need a shower.”
He practically erupted into lion form, and then immediately morphed back into a human. A naked human.
“Now I’m clean.”
Isaac shifted from warrior form to the biggest crocodile I’ve ever seen, and then to human. He and Nathan were both naked. I kept my eyes up.
“Ya’ll are going to need food.”
“Already taken care of.” Jayce unbarred, unlocked, and finally opened the front door. “Gentlemen? Steaks are out and waiting for you.”
Both men walked inside and started eating. Still naked.
What the everloving fuck? I asked Cora.
Based on the energy, I think that was the Imperator King. If Isaac had killed him, he’d be king. Nathan took him out to keep Isaac from having to be king. He’s clearly bigger. I’m guessing there’s a whole lot to this that we don’t know.
Chapter 3
Ranger took over outside, and Cora directed different people to the loopholes to keep watch from inside. She and Ranger talked via telepathy, and I monitored their conversation while making a circuit inside and then outside, to be sure everything was okay. Cora sent Byron with me to patrol the grounds, though as far as I could tell, he wouldn’t be much help.
Still, I had questions, and I figured I may as well ask them. “I assume one of ya’ll are holding onto all the brains close enough to hear or see the fighting, otherwise we’d be dealing with first responders and law enforcement.”
“One of the bartenders is handling it. Jayce, whom most everyone here calls Ace. He’s old and powerful, he just chooses not to use it.”
“Why don’t you believe in guns? And what does that even mean?” I asked when we’d finished two circuits of the property outside and were on our way back inside. The cleanup crew arrived, and I really didn’t want to know what they were going to do with twenty normal-sized bodies and a two- or three-ton body.
Byron chose not to answer my last questions, so I didn’t ask anything else. When we returned to the main room, I looked up imperator crocodiles on my phone. They’re extinct, but they once existed and are also known as super-crocs.
I sat with Nathan and Isaac, who were both still eating, and it’d been twenty minutes.
“A giant crocodile?” I asked Isaac. “Why didn’t you help with Striker?”
Isaac shook his head. “Frisco knows, because we were friends when I first changed at puberty, and my foster dad needed him to know. However, Cassie and Cam don’t know, and I don’t want them to.” He shrugged. “My foster dad took me to Africa as a teen, and had the regular crocodiles teach me about control. It wasn’t until later that we discovered I’m so much bigger than the king. There are only about a hundred of us left, so being king isn’t that big of a deal, but…” He shrugged. “I never wanted it. Nathan tried to help me out by killing him for me, but I feel the power all around me. I may not have a choice about taking it.”
“Griffin’s animal is the crocodile, right? Are you in danger of him taking you over?”
Isaac shrugged. “No idea. Do you think he brought the king in? It felt like I was being tested.”
“I didn’t feel Griffin, and I didn’t sense anyone manipulating my thoughts. I don’t know.”
Jayce came back inside and sat at the table with us. “The humans with cars unaffected by the fighting are on their way home. Many will need new cars, and it seems easier for TBC to purchase them a car instead of having to get law enforcement and insurance companies involved. They’re all being driven home, and a rental car will be delivered to each in a few hours. We’ll figure out how much the damaged cars were worth, and then begin the process of looking for new cars for them.”
“I’m glad you were here to handle the mental stuff,” Isaac told him. “We still have, what, three hours until dawn?”
“A little less, but I’d like to get a full report on all local fights before the dawn takes me.” He sighed. “I’ll send Sergei to one of Abbott’s shelters, but I doubt Cole or Moira will go.”
I telepathed Cora. Should we bring pack and family to the castle?
Already working on it. I set up a texting thing, so I can send everyone a message at once, or groups of them. We seriously need to recruit a geek who can automate more for us. I’d like to have an app like Drake and the RTMC, too.
I’d thought the same thing, but we couldn’t do anything about it now. I looked to Nathan. “Five of the twenty-one were half-demons. The rest were Celrau and shapeshifters. I skipped trying to blow up the half-demons’ heads. I’d have tried after I killed everyone else, but it seemed safer to take out the sure things first. Ya’ll came in like the cavalry, so I didn’t have to deal with them.”
Nathan nodded to me and looked across the room to Cora, who was still peering through a loophole, making sure no one else hostile arrived. “As many times as I’ve been here, I had no
idea there were loopholes under the brass stripe on the wall. Abbott is still full of surprises.”
It occurred to me that Nathan had honored Aaron’s mutual aid pact with Abbott, but it probably wouldn’t be good to point that out. Instead, I asked, “Have you checked in with RaeLynn?”
“She called the pride in and moved them to a safe zone. We have extra guards watching Drake, and I’ll be living there for the foreseeable future.” He looked to Isaac. “I don’t know how you’ll keep your family in the dark. We can house them safely, but only if they know more secrets than you probably want them to know.”
Isaac shook his head. “It’s been handled. Abbott and I put plans in motion long ago. They’re safe and happy.”
“I know Aaron got his family to safety,” I said, “and Byron assured me Abbott and Spence are safe. Was Bran attacked?”
“Bran’s people captured seven half-demons trying to infiltrate before they made it fifteen yards onto his property,” said Nathan. “We still haven’t heard from Randall or Duke for a full sitrep.”
I texted Dawg.
You okay?
Yes. You?
Yes. Nathan needs to hear from Duke, please
I’ll pass it on. We’re still making sure everyone’s in and safe. It’ll probably be a few hours
I looked up. “Duke’s busy bringing everyone in. It’ll probably be a few hours before he contacts you.”
Nathan pulled his phone out and placed a call. He settled it on the table on speakerphone, so I wouldn’t be the only person who didn’t hear both sides of the conversation.
Brain answered, and Nathan said, “I know you’re busy, but I need some numbers and some specifics.”
“I’ll call you back.”
“Thanks.”
Three minutes later, Brain called on the encrypted app. “Half-demons and Celrau attacked the bike shop, the restaurant, and the gun store. They attempted to go through the woods of the Battlefield to reach our houses, but we have heavy monitoring, and enough people were home, we easily killed them. We’re about two hours from having all of our people to safety. Homewood is taking in some of our working girls, and we have a couple of their people. Randall’s people are being spread throughout the rest of the city, since his primary saferoom’s entrance was destroyed. Duke still hasn’t spoken with his brother, but his people assure him their alpha is okay.”
Unhuman Acts Page 2
