Safe haven, Hunter murmured inside his own mind as they pushed a jeep into the black water of the swamp. Great Spirit open up a shadow that will swallow me whole.
Sasha’s cell phone ringing made everyone stare at her. Then her face burned as both Shogun’s and Hunter’s eyes followed the sound to her ass. She quickly extracted the device from her back jeans’ pocket, listening to Clarissa’s distraught message as well as trying to judge the location of the distant sirens.
“They were attacked by Vampires,” Sasha said, sending her gaze around the group of assembled warriors. “Two females went after Winters.”
Angry glares met hers as Woods stepped forward.
“Is the kid all right?” Woods smoothed a palm over his scalp. “Jesus… tell me he’s alive.”
“Yeah, he made it,” Sasha said quickly, landing a hand on Woods’s shoulder and watching him visibly relax.
“But we don’t have to put him down or anything, do we?” Fisher asked in a nervous tone. “He’s… just a kid, man.”
“He didn’t get nicked…” Sasha looked off into the distance and then addressed the question to Clarissa. “Right, ’Rissa-Winters didn’t get nicked.” It was said as a statement, a hope, a prayer, not delivered as a question. The confirmation that her fears had been misplaced made her shoulders relax by two inches.
Sasha turned back to the group. “He wasn’t bitten, just shaken up. The house is secure. Bradley and ’Rissa surrounded it with holy water and brick dust, and Doc and Silver Hawk held down the fort with artillery.”
“Then they’ve gotta get out of there,” Hunter said flatly. He nodded toward the sound of the sirens. “By tomorrow morning, if not tonight, this is going to be on the news-if we’re lucky-as a big drug raid that ended in the loss of the lives of six NOPD officers. Any other gunfire heard in a residential or commercial area is going to be followed up with significant force. If that happens, the only way out of it will be for Sasha to go to her general and start the process of a Paranormal Containment Unit cover-up… which always opens Pandora’s box.”
Fisher let out a hard breath and rubbed the back of his sweaty neck. “The man speaks the truth. The only reason they probably haven’t gotten to the B &B yet is because NOPD’s forces are still seriously thin and a full show of force is being diverted to this catastrophe out here. But it won’t be long.”
“Hold on, ’Rissa,” Sasha said. She placed the cell phone against her chest as she listened to the post-battle report and tried to think of where she could get her team to safety on the fly.
“They had drugs in the house, for sure,” Seung Kwon said. “You name it, they had it, plus a white-lightning still. Best moonshine in the area, Werewolf headbanger.”
Chin-Hwa nodded. “When they find the nude bodies, they’ll say it was a raid… The officers walked in on some sort of untoward entertainment, then were attacked-there are shotgun shells littering the ground that show a firefight… Any animal attacks can be blamed on guard dogs that fled into the bayou… so humans will claim that the human officers gave their lives in the line of duty.”
“They did,” Dak-Ho said quietly. “And they should not have… This was not a human fight.”
Shogun nodded and looked away, his expression pained. “No, this was not a human fight. They should not have died so that we could live.”
“Humans do that all the time-I am so fucking tired of hearing about the way of the wolf! So the next time you guys start talking shit about what humans are or are not, remember that,” Woods said, spitting on the ground, and motioning back toward the carnage behind them. “I’ve about had it with the familiar bullshit. You saw pure grade-A 100 percent US-military-issue soldier from me, Fish, and Sasha back there. That,” he added, motioning over his shoulder with his thumb, “is what we do. It’s what me and my platoon used to do… God rest Rod Butler’s soul.”
Sasha nodded. “God rest Rod Butler’s soul.” Then she moved toward her man, who was clearly reeling from the gunflght and the residual effects of dark magick. “But stand down, soldier,” she said quietly, laying a hand on his shoulder. “The moon is high and so are emotions, and you’re standing in the middle of a pack of post-battle-hyped wolves.” Her eyes met Woods’s. “I’m telling you because I love you like a brother,” she said in an even quieter voice as the two alpha males behind them slowly began to snarl.
Woods let out a hard breath and relaxed. “It’s just a crying shame what happened to those officers back there… One was no older than Winters. That’s what fucks me up.”
Hunter nodded and relaxed. “Humans are honorable. It hurts when you lose any member of your pack, or an innocent.” His gaze went around the group. “No more low remarks cast against humans in our families-no aspersions made against those with more human blood than wolf in their veins. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Crow Shadow said, gaining nods all around.
“Agreed,” Shogun said, staring at Hunter and then offering Woods a slight bow.
Sasha picked up the cell phone. “ ’Rissa… I don’t know how, but you guys have to get out of there. Gunshots were fired, and… What?”
Silence surrounded Sasha, save the hum of bullfrogs and crickets. Background sirens dulled as her mind exploded. “Hold on a sec.” She pressed the cell phone to her chest again and stared at Woods. “Two civilian girls are in the B &B in tears-no, make that hysterics-because they saw creatures they cannot explain, are waaaay freaked out, and saw Doc unload a silver, hallowed-earth-packed hollow-tip to explode one… Oh, did I mention that Bradley and Doc had to duct-tape them to a chair for their own safety so they wouldn’t run out screaming into the streets to get bitten? Wanna talk to me, soldier?”
“Oh, shit…” Woods ran his palms over his hair while Fisher began to walk in a tight circle.
“Jesus frickin’ Christ,” Fisher said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. “I forgot about the girls!”
“Yo, Cap, we just jumped up, went into battle mode, you know… hit the steps locked and loaded… hit the jeep, ready to roll… Holy shit!” Woods paced back and forth.
“Clarissa,” Sasha said calmly. “Ask Doc if he has some Valium on hand.” She waited a beat. “You’re sure?” Sasha shook her head and looked at Woods and Fisher as the rest of the men swallowed smirks. “Doc doesn’t happen to have any meds on him.”
“What about in the ambulance, Sasha?” Hunter offered in an amused tone.
For a second she just looked at him and then let out a long breath. She turned her attention to the cell phone again. “Much as I hate to do this to a person… maybe if they can get to the ambulance, find something in there to knock them out without hurting them… Drive the ambulance to the hospital and bring them in as maybe having gotten something spiked in their drink at the bar… When they wake up in the morning, it can all be played off as a bad dream. I don’t know if we can get to you soon enough to provide you with a security escort, though… That’s the only thing. We’re pinned down in the swamp.”
Sasha let her breath out hard again. “I know drugging them is bogus and manipulative and screwed up-but it’s either that or have those poor women mentally jacked up for life. Also, if you guys go to the hospital, which, with all the local heat on things now, puts you out of suspicion’s eye… It also puts you guys somewhere the Vamps aren’t likely to go after you again tonight; at least you’ll be somewhere kinda safe.
“I know, I know, we’ll be there as soon as we can,” Sasha said in a weary tone as Clarissa’s voice became shrill. “Call in our markers at Tulane with Doctors Williams, Lutz, and Sanders from before. At least they’re cool and know the supernatural drill. And when those girls wake up-tell Doc to be there with Silver Hawk as the older men who found them and helped them get to the hospital unmolested,” she added, giving Woods and Fisher the evil eye, “with you, Bradley, and Winters. Maybe they’ll wake up like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.”