Page 182 of Vampire so Virtuous

“Then get out of there.”He checked the GPS and grinned.“I’m going to come at them from behind.”

“Happy hunting.”

Two minutes later, he swung into the parking lot that bordered Hammond Pond.

It was a simple matter to walk off into the trees—out of sight of the chattel shuffling through their shopping routines—to gather his shadows and disappear. Then he leaped over the lake and was off through the park, heading swiftly for Tom.

“Update?”

“Waiting in the trees across the railway tracks. Open fields of fire.”

“Pull back. I’m here.”

There was a sense of reluctance through the bond, then a curt,“Acknowledged.”

Antoine took a look through Tom’s eyes, sensing his movement and the blur of trees. Joseph was near him, running smoothly as he leaped small bushes, jinking as he ran.

Antoine had already crossed the pond, landing lightly in a treetop on the far side. The branches forced him to shorten his leaps. He ran swiftly from one tree to the next, grimacing as his mind pointed out the squirrel similarities.

But it paid when he found the first of Matteo’s thralls. The woman sensed nothing. Antoine dropped on her, twisted her neck with a sharp crack, and was gone before the others noticed. He wedged her sightless body in the vee between trunk and branch, and paused to listen.

Two more to his left. Both froze, weapons raised, scanning for the source of the noise.

Antoine dropped down between them, twisting the first one’s head with a crunch. The second was fast, raising his silenced machine gun—but Antoine was faster, vanishing behind him just as it went off. He snapped the thrall’s neck. The weapon kicked, bullets thudding into the trees with a muffled, sharp,thump-thump-thump.

Three.

“Behind us!”

“Group up—now!”

The shouts came swiftly, then another voice—calm, quiet, touched with an Italian lilt. “Is that you, Antoine?”

Matteo.

As far as Antoine knew, the other vampire was about his age, and should’ve been close to his power. But that was before he’d fed on Minh… and Cally.

Still, armed thralls couldn’t be ignored. He wasn’t bulletproof. He’d heal—eventually—but the damage could be debilitating. Likely what Matteo was counting on.

Antoine swept up the dropped machine gun, regarding it with distaste. Yet it could help level the field. Then he noticed the grenade clipped to the dead thrall’s belt, like a dark green apple with a raised, thick stem, and ‘M67’ stenciled on the side.

Once more, he leaped into the trees, trusting to the elevation and his shadows to keep him obscured. Even trained thralls rarely checked above them.

It was easy to find those who were left. A group of six, fanning out around Matteo who stood in their center, weapons aimed outwards. Flattering, really. And almost too easy.

It had been decades since he’d thrown a grenade, but muscle memory—and Hollywood—would do the trick. Pull the pin, flick his wrist.

The lever sprung free with its distinctiveplink. Matteo’s head snapped up. The grenade was already airborne. Antoine brought the machine gun to his shoulder, but the other vampire had already moved. He let loose a spray of bullets, cutting through the thralls, not trying to kill but only to distract long enough for the grenade to arrive.

An instant later, the weapon was yanked from his hand, Matteo beside him in the tree.

Antoine let it go, bracing himself as his branch swayed. “Shouldn’t you be keeping my domain tranquil?”

As if to punctuate his question, the grenade exploded with concussive force in the center of the grouped thralls, shredding them with shrapnel. Two screamed in pain, the others silent, but neither vampire spared them a glance.

Matteo bared his fangs in a snarl. “The Curia should’ve let us clean house long ago. No one will miss you, Outcast.”

Hmm. Minh’s ally indeed.