Chapter Twenty-Nine
Anton
P haeron lowered his binoculars. “I hear at least thirty-five people walking around inside, plus the ten guards around the building and four on the roof. But I’m picking up another group clustered together in the far left corner. They’re too close together to get an accurate number, but I’m guessing thirty-three of them. I’m thinking those are our trafficking victims since they haven’t moved at all, yet many of their heartbeats keep racing.”
Without taking my eyes off the building, I nodded in agreement. “I concur with those numbers.” It could be difficult to differentiate that many people’s hearts from this distance, but my eldest children and I have had plenty of practice over the years.
“So do I,” Kat said, still looking through her own binoculars.
“Samesies,” Jed added, shooting me a grin. He knew I was upset and angry, and the poor boy had been trying to cheer me up since we left the tower. It wasn’t working very well—nothing would until I took care of this threat to my family—but I appreciated him trying all the same.
Beshiro nodded. “Yep. Sounds right to me.”
”That’s not an insignificant number of people, especially if those thirty-three people aren’t victims,” Keryth said.
Phaeron didn’t look away from the building as he spoke. “Not a single one of them has moved for six hours. They’re our victims.” He sounded positive, and I had a feeling he was.
Through our bond, I said to Keryth, “Sometimes Phaeron has certain feelings about things. Sort of like intuition, only he’s never wrong. If he says they’re the victims with absolute certainty like that, then they’re the victims.”
“Good to know. At least that’s one less worry.”
“Agreed.”
Keryth gave Tan a nod, and the witch gave one back.
“Alright,” Tan said. “We need a plan. I think Gar and I should circle around to the back entrance. You guys attack from the loading dock side and try to draw them back. Hopefully some of them will flee, and we can capture them.”
Kat said, “There’s a door on the right side of the building, so we need someone to cover that as well.”
Garrick cleared his throat. “I have some guards on the way over. We’ll have enough people here to surround the entire building.” He looked at his viramore. “I’d rather attack going in through that back door than simply wait. Attacking from both sides will cause more confusion, and hopefully, they’ll make more mistakes.”
Tan nodded his head in agreement, then looked at me. “I’m good with that. What about you, Anton?”
“I’m going in, and I’m not going to hold back. My children and viramore need to stay close by. We fight well together, and having the two of you come in from the other side will work in our favor.”
Garrick and Tan nodded, then Tan surprised me by handing out earpieces to everyone. “Here. Use these so we can communicate and help each other if need be.”
“Thank you, Tan.” Keryth smiled at his friend as he put his earpiece in.
Everyone got themselves ready and spoke in whispers as we waited for Garrick’s guards to get there.
Once they arrived, Beshiro said, “Let’s do this.”
Everyone agreed, so Garrick and Tan pulled back to meet with their guards and take their positions. It took a good twenty minutes before Tan said through the earpiece, “Everyone’s in position. Anton, is your group ready?”
I glanced around to make sure my family was prepared to infiltrate, and everyone gave me a nod before I told Tan, “We’re ready.”
“Roger.” There was a brief pause. “Snipers, on my mark. Three, two, one. Go.”
We all watched with bated breath as the guards on the roof were shot. Each one fell to the ground on the roof, and one guy yelled out in pain and surprise, alerting the rest of the guards that there was a problem.
Tan’s voice said, “Alright, everyone. Go, go, go!”
I charged forward and didn’t hesitate to grab the first hunter I came across and ripped their throat out. I was quick enough they didn’t have time to call out to the others, so I ran to the next hunter and went for her throat.
My children were just as fast—although Phaeron had stayed behind with Keryth to watch his back since Ker was so much slower than the rest of us. We took out seven of them before Keryth and Phaeron caught up to us.
Since there weren’t more of them outside, I rushed back to Keryth so we could enter the building together. I refused to put too much distance between us, even with Phaeron staying with him.
Tan’s voice said, “West side clear.”
Another voice said, “East side clear.”
Beshiro said, “North is clear.”
And the last voice said, “South is clear.”
Tan said, “Roger. Everyone, get in position.”
We all did, and another round of confirmations went around before Tan said, “Infiltrate in three… two… one. Go!”
We stormed the warehouse, and I used my vampire speed to my advantage, as did my other children. I rushed to the first human hunter I saw, ripped their gun out of their hand, and shot them point blank with my tranq gun.
Tan and Garrick had provided us with tranq guns and real guns, and they’d asked us to tranq first so they could potentially get more information out of them later.
Luckily for us, we were using spelled tranq darts, so they took effect within a few seconds, rather than close to a minute.
My hunter fell to the ground, and I let them. I could’ve stopped them from falling, but my pent-up anger appreciated his pain. That was a horrible way of thinking, but it couldn’t be helped at the moment.
I had to keep these people from hurting my viramore and my children ever again. No one was going to touch them.
I rushed back to Keryth’s side to check on him, but he was calling on his magic and making fake duplicates of several of us to confuse the enemy, making our force look bigger and, therefore, more dangerous, and making them waste time and energy going after apparitions. It was a solid plan, and clearly, my viramore didn’t need my help.
He nodded at me. “Go. I’m fine. I have plenty of shield spells in my pocket if I need them.” Tan had given everyone a bunch of spelled objects that did a variety of things, but I’d seen him give Keryth at least ten different shield spells, so I knew that was true.
Still, I hesitated.
Ker rolled his eyes. “Go, Annie. Kill some bad guys, then meet me back here.”
A hiss came out of me at the thought of moving more than three feet from him, but I didn’t want to hit him with my sword, and I knew I’d need it. So when a hunter ran at me, I decided to listen to my viramore. And then come right back to his side as soon as I took out the man trying to kill my fledgling.
Rushing forward, I pulled my sword from its scabbard on my hip, and when a hunter aimed his gun right at Jed’s head, I swiped my sword across his throat before he had the chance to pull the trigger. Blood sprayed out, splashing my body and face, but I ignored it and moved to my next target.
This one already had his sword out and was prepared to fight me. I went in on her right, but she parried and knocked my sword back with more force than I was expecting. So I stepped back for one second, then drove my sword back in. She blocked me again, and since she was concentrating so much on my sword, I pulled my tranq gun back out with my left hand, aimed it, and pulled the trigger.
The dart hit her right in the neck, and her look of surprise was the last thing I saw before she fell over, knocked out.
Glancing around, I checked on my family. Jed was sword-fighting a hunter, Kat had just taken one down, Beshiro was rushing toward another hunter, and Phaeron was fighting off two.
And Keryth, he looked like some kind of nature god. Vines surrounded him, shooting out to grab, smack, and trip anyone nearby, following his every command. It was like something out of a fantasy book I’d love to read.
One of the hunters lifted his gun, aiming it at Phaeron, and Keryth’s eyes narrowed. Two vines shot right at the man. One wrapped around his ankle, the other around his wrist, holding the gun. Keryth’s vines yanked his feet out from under him and pulled the gun hand up so it was pointed at the ceiling. As the hunter fell on his ass, the vine grabbed the gun out of his hand, leaving him groaning on the ground with a vine slowly wrapping its way around his entire body.
It was impressive.
I’d been nervous about having him here, but he could clearly hold his own.
Turning back to the hunters closest to me, I rushed over and attacked with my sword and tranq gun. I took out two more before a talented hunter made his way over to me and attacked with two swords.
He was fast. So fast I almost would’ve thought he was a vampire. I parried a strike, then I had to use my gun to block his other sword. He shifted his feet to the left, and I followed him, but quicker than expected, he switched to the right and swung his blade right at my neck.
I managed to deflect that hit, but when his other arm came swinging at me, I had to duck my head before I wound up with it chopped off. His right arm came at me again, and I twisted just in time, but his left hand hit my gun again, and I lost my grip.
My gun went flying, and I hissed in anger as I stepped back to avoid another hit. Now I would have no choice but to kill him.
But there were enough left alive already that it shouldn’t matter.
And… I wanted him dead anyway.
The thought made me smile as the hunter rushed me, making me back away from Keryth. I hadn’t wanted to get so far away from him, but I didn’t have much of a choice when I couldn’t seem to take this hunter out.
We parried, me with my one sword, him with two. Back and forth and back and forth, and I couldn’t believe how good this guy was.
I wasn’t going to get the upper hand unless I did something surprising. Something he wouldn’t expect.
It only took me a few seconds to decide what to do. First, I transferred my sword to my left hand—I could fight equally as well with both hands, thanks to hundreds of years of training. Then I pushed his sword to the side with my own as I pulled my right arm back. And then I punched him right in the chest.
It knocked him backward a few steps, knocking the wind out of him, but I could tell he wasn’t done. He was going to keep coming after me until one of us killed the other, and I didn’t plan on meeting my second death today.
So I stepped forward, pulling my arm back again, and swung, right for the same spot. The moment my momentum took my arm through his chest cavity, his eyes met mine in surprise even as I grimaced in disgust.
But I needed to make sure this bastard didn’t get back up. So I wrapped my hand around the hunter’s heart and yanked on it. Bile filled my mouth, but I needed to see this through. I wanted zero chance of him being turned into a vampire, not that I thought any vampire would actually try it, but better to be safe than sorry.
As I pulled my hand out of the hunter’s chest, bringing his heart out within my fist, I turned to check on my viramore.
He was using vines to strike three hunters around him and Phaeron while my son fought two more hunters with swords. They looked like they had it well in hand, but movement to my right caught my eye.
I had just enough time to realize a hunter hiding behind a large crate had a gun in his hand, and that gun was aimed right for my viramore.
I reacted without a thought.
My body somehow knew it was too late to rush the hunter and stop him because he was already pulling the trigger and was too far away. Even with my vampire speed, I’d never make it.
So instead, I turned to mist, raced over to my viramore, and solidified in front of him, using my body as a shield.
The bullet hit me right in the center of my back. It was a spelled bullet, so it went straight through my Kevlar vest and into my spine. No vest could protect against a spelled bullet, so the thing dug in rather deep. It only twinged, though, so at first, I didn’t think it was that bad. But when I tried to take a step, the pain was fierce, sharp, and strong, fiery agony shooting up my back and down my hip and leg.
I tried to take a step again so Keryth could see what he was doing with his vines, but my leg wouldn’t work, and I stumbled. When I caught myself with my other leg, sharp pain made me cry out.
A hiss came from my lips as I fell to my knees a moment later. There was a sound behind me, but I couldn’t get my body to move.
“Anton!” Keryth cried out. The horror and fear in his voice shot through my heart.
Pain pierced my back again, lava pouring through my insides. And I watched in keen horror as a sword punched its way through my chest. I glanced down at the blade that was sticking out of me, and I tried to grab it, but all that did was cut my hands up.
Keryth was there, right in front of me, grabbing my hands to stop me as he stared at me, looking petrified. His mouth moved, but I couldn’t understand his words.
I coughed, and blood sprayed all over the front of Keryth’s shirt. I wanted to apologize, but my mouth wouldn’t work.
“Anton. Anton, it’s gonna be okay, okay? You just need to be still so we can help you.”
I grunted, but that only made things hurt more.
Darkness enveloped me, and I thought I was going to pass out before I realized it was a shield made of vines blocking out the light. Keryth was protecting us.
He reached for me, holding onto my arms as he stared at me, very clearly trying to hide his panic and doing a terrible job of it.
The lava sensation spread through my chest and into my veins, making it feel like the blade had been poisoned. But that couldn’t be right. A poison shouldn’t hurt me. At least not this badly.
My chest felt weird. Like the lava sensation was coming straight from it. No, straight from my heart. My heart was sending out pain alarms like nobody’s business, and I coughed up more blood.
The coughing only made it hurt more, and I could tell things were getting worse, not better.
Why wasn’t I healing?
What in the world was going on?
I blinked. There was only one reason why my body wouldn’t be healing this injury.
The blade… it nicked my heart.
There were two surefire ways to kill a vampire. Tear off his head or destroy the heart.
That hunter had good aim, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to heal from this.
A cough made its way out of my mouth, and I heard Keryth screaming as if he was the one who was hurt instead of me.
Something trickled out of my mouth, my vision blackening, and I knew I only had a few more moments left.
“K-Ker?”