Page 22 of The Vampire and the Tattooist (The Vampire and Series Book 4)

The rescue party arrived at the warehouse trading estate and parked well away from the one they wanted.

“Gabe, can you detect any witch traps from here?” Kevin asked him.

Gabe closed his eyes and sent his magic out to have a look. “Yes, there are several bombs on some doors and windows and something else. My magic is saying there is demon magic in the warehouse.”

“Can you undo all the magic?” Seth asked.

“The witch, yes; the demon magic… I guess we’ll find out,” Gabe said, sending out his magic to disable the witch bombs. “Huh. It didn’t work.”

“Why not?” Seth asked, sounding confused.

“They are tied to the demon magic. We can’t get in via any doors or windows, I think the only way in or out is via portal.”

“Any witch portal or a specific one?” Mathis asked.

“From the feel of things, any witch portal. I’ve also found out that there are twenty children in there, plus three shifters — two bears and a lion — and two vampires,” Gabe said, opening his eyes.

“Can you create separate witch portals at the same time at different ends of the warehouse?” Gio asked.

“There might be a few seconds delay between them, but I can do that, yes.”

Kevin looked at those gathered. “Same rules apply. Stick to your groups, don’t get dead, and see you on the inside.”

“Everyone ready?” Gabe asked. “Seth, you and your team go in first. As soon as the last of you are through, the portal will close. We’ll use the second portal.” With that, Gabriel swirled his hands and the first portal opened, followed seconds later by the second one. The two teams entered with the portals closing behind them.

Seth and his team walked out at the back of the warehouse where numerous crates were stacked up two and three high in front of them.

Seth pointed to Cairo and, using hand signals, told Cairo to take some of the group and look on the right while he and the others would look on the left.

Cairo nodded, tapped Troy and Jessamy on the arm, and motioned others to follow him.

Seth motioned for the wolf shifters with them to spread out and keep watch. He then signalled for the others to follow him.

They quietly moved around the boxes. He looked into one of the crates and saw it had bars on the front and a child curled up, watching.

The child looked at Seth, who motioned for the child to keep quiet. The boy, and Seth was pretty sure it was a young boy, nodded and moved closer to the crate bars. He then pointed to the upstairs of the warehouse and pretended to hiss.

Seth smiled at him and gave him two thumbs up and carried on moving forward, checking the other crates. A few were empty, but the majority held children of all different ages.

Suddenly they heard fighting coming from the front of the warehouse.

“Protect the merchandise,” he heard someone call out.

He heard a roar and realised the lion was headed their way. Before he could say anything, he saw Troy shift, and he and some wolves went to stop the lion.

“Get the children out of the crates,” Seth said, ignoring the fighting.

He, Gio, Bailey, and Raz started opening the crates and releasing the children. Each child they released they carried to some of the wolf shifters who were now in their wolf form and formed a protective ring around them.

From above, they heard a screech.

“Bailey and I will deal with him. You stay with the children,” Gio said, drawing his sword as Bailey drew his and ran off.

“There are only fifteen children here. I thought Gabe said there were twenty,” Raz said, doing a quick head count.

Seth looked at the children and saw the first child stood in front of the others, watching. Seth walked over to him. “Do you know where the missing children are?”

He nodded. “They took them to a room over there,” he said, pointing to a door off to the side.

“Do you know what’s in there?” Raz asked.

The boy shook his head. “I’ve never been in there. But they need saving, as well.”

Seth nodded. “We’ll save them.”

* * *

Kevinand his team were fighting with some of the guards. The lion had shifted and ran off towards the back of the warehouse.

The two guards they found were easily dealt with, killing them before they could shift. Kevin’s team had started to search the rooms around their part of the warehouse when more guards appeared. They’d just killed those guards when even more arrived.

“Where the chuff are they coming from?” Ian asked.

“That room,” Creed said, pointing to an open door where more guards were running through.

“They must have a portal in there and sent a message for help. I’ll go and close it,” Gabe said, quickly running that way.

Mathis and Ian joined him and fought their way into the room where they saw the open portal.

Gabriel grabbed his wand and threw his magic at the portal. They heard a scream from the inside, and though the portal didn’t close, no more guards came through. “I’ve managed to stop anyone else from coming through, but demon magic was used to create this portal. It will take me a while to close it.”

“Ian, do you want to go back and help the others and I’ll stay with Gabe?” Mathis said.

“Will do. Stay safe,” Ian replied, running out of the room.

Gabe raised his other hand and pushed more magic into the portal, but whomever was on the other side of the portal pushed back. The battle to close the portal was on.