Sirens immediately sounded; the local law enforcement agencies were on high alert. Sasha ran like the wind, her hair lifting off her shoulders as she and Hunter closed in on the scent. Fae archers were on lampposts and telephone wires, fleet-footed agility keeping them aloft as they went after their invisible prey.
Hunter ducked out of the way of a fireball that hit a tavern and set it ablaze. In an instant he was inside the inferno, ushering out humans that would have been trapped. Then a Fae archer turned to put out the fire and paid for the service to mankind with his life. A blue ice bolt came out of nowhere and speared the gallant archer in the chest.
Seelie archers yelled a war cry; arrows were cast down; wands came out; the battle had clearly changed to Fae against Fae.
Innocent people were in harm’s way; Sasha and Hunter turned from the battle, doubling back to help civilians out of burning cars and collapsing buildings. Collateral damage was mounting and there was seemingly no way to stop it.
White lightning and colorful sparks streaked the sky, hit rooftops like fireworks, and turned eaves into tinder. New Orleans was burning. Sheets of ice covered rooftops, making it difficult for Seelie Fae archers to stay aloft. But they zapped the roofs dry, put out flames, and went in hot pursuit of the aggressors.
On the ground, wolves become a single pack, following the undead scent. A blue-lipped Fae crashed to the ground right at Sasha’s feet, stopping traffic as he clutched his narrow chest, holding on to an arrow lodged in it. But something invisible and deadly whirred past her that had an animal scent that she’d never encountered.
Human pedestrians gaped and screamed; one woman got blown off the corner by a swirling gust of snow as Unseelie fighters raged past her. Hail came down like bullets, crashing through windows, damaging roofs, and bringing downtown traffic to a complete standstill.
Police vehicles couldn’t get through. SWAT choppers beat overhead. Three Unseelie warriors materialized in the middle of the street; Shogun leaped, becoming wolf before the viewing public to collide midair and rip out a throat.
Humans shrieked, not knowing which way to run first. Cars drove into buildings, disoriented drivers slammed into other motorists. A blue Gnome dropped down behind Sasha and she spun, kicked him in the face, and sent him into Hunter’s powerful grip.
Machine-gun reports echoed in the distance. Aurelia’s had to be under siege, and that meant her men were, along with all others in the establishment. Her men would be trapped. Police helicopters took stationary positions so that the NOPD could take aim at the only thing they could, wolves attacking what they clearly thought were people on the ground, not realizing the wolves were savaging Unseelies.
Assault rifles squeezed off rounds. Shogun and his men dodged bullets by seeking the alleys. Then suddenly the choppers’ blades ceased whirling; ice covered them, the outer skin of the choppers froze over, and men plummeted to the ground.
The results were horrific; the explosion catastrophic. They had to get the fight out of the city limits. Law enforcement vehicles were everywhere and they were sitting ducks.
“Let Kiagehul go!” a female Unseelie screeched as she materialized for a second and pointed at Sasha. “Your humans die if he dies. Fair exchange is no robbery!”
Sasha and Hunter looked at each other. Vamps were obviously in this now, after the lair bust earlier in the day.
“The blood clubs!” Sasha shouted. Dodging traffic, she mounted a roof through a shadow and grabbed a Fae archer’s arm. “They want the prisoner and are using humans as hostages. Fall back and take it to the blood clubs. That ought to get the Vampires to force the Unseelie to come to court and bring a cease-fire. Since they want to play hard-ball, let’s do the same damned thing!”
Hunter ran ahead of the pack as Sasha doubled back for her men.
“Listen to me, Woods,” she said, ducking down behind a Dumpster in back of the building. “I want you and Fisher out of this hot zone now!”
“But-”
“No buts,” she said, eyeing him and Fisher hard. “You’ve done your part. I want you to guard ’Rissa and Doc. This is gonna get uglier before it gets better, and you hear all those sirens out there? NOPD and all types of authorities are gonna be crawling all over this place… Westford already got a call from state police.”
“Oh, shit,” Woods said, leaning back against the building.
“Yeah, oh, shit. That’s why I want you guys to have plausible deniability, if this doesn’t end up right.”
“But we’re not big on leaving your ass out in a firestorm, Cap,” Fisher said.
“I love you guys, too-but right now, cover your asses and make sure the rest of the team at Tulane doesn’t come under attack. Use the iron shells and the rowan as well as silver. Vamps and Unseelie could be working as a unit… plus there’s something else out there that I can’t see.”
She didn’t have time to argue with them, it was a direct order. Fall back. “Where’s the grenade launcher?”
Fisher and Woods gave her wide smiles.
“In the van we came in, across the street,” Fisher said, seeming much improved.
Sasha was in and out. The Dumpsters cast a shadow; there was nothing but shadows inside the van. Full metal jacket-she was locked and loaded. So the Vampires wanted to allow their Unseelie buddies to use innocent humans as hostages, huh? She came out of the darkness in front of the baron’s Blood Oasis, aimed, and fired.
“Kill another innocent on my watch and it’s your ass! I, Sasha Trudeau, declare war!”
She slid into another shadow, but not before she saw Shogun in her peripheral vision. He and his men were decimating fleeing Vampires that came out of the inferno like rats jumping off a sinking ship.
Insanity had her in its grip; she walked in the front door of the baron’s casino, a semiautomatic in each hand, hit anything with fangs point-blank, and was out. Wolves came in right behind her, savaging anything that dared to move.
Overturning crypts, she sent a message that the next time it would be daylight. She, Hunter, and Shogun came together at the edge of the swamp with Fae archers. Sir Rodney’s men had captured eight Unseelie and one Vampire.
“Dead or alive?” Sir Rodney asked his men.
“Dead,” his captain of the guards said, taking Sasha’s gun out of her hand and pulling the trigger hard twice toward the Vampire prisoner’s head. His men let go as embers exploded. “In the morning, we torch all their graves.”
“Truce!” a disembodied voice called out. “This is a matter for the courts to decide!”
“Good, you bloody bastards!” Sir Rodney shouted. “Court is in less than an hour!”
This was a very different session than she’d attended before. This time there were no neutral parties. Order of the Dragon security forces were clearly vexed with the Vampires and Unseelie; Fae archers had hair-trigger tempers, having just lost a man. Wolves were united, except for the very small minority faction that still had allegiances to the Buchanan clan. Mythics and Flame of the Phoenix members were so traumatized by the carnage that even they wanted blood. Then there were the Vampires-who were flanked by the Unseelie Fae.
Yeah, this time was wild. Sasha looked around at the tense groups waiting for the UCE’s pillared hall to rise out of the swamp and for the emergency session to be called to order. Everything was out of control. She had no way to know how many innocent human and Fae civilians had been hurt or killed as collateral damage. If something went wrong here, there was no neutral party to intervene and to restore order. It was as though all of the superpowers in the region had their fingers on the nuclear buttons, and everyone was so riled up that they really didn’t give a damn if they left a smoking black hole-even if they’d go up with it. The entire issue of principle seemed to be the core of the debate. Screw the greater good, the helpless, and the meek. The entities coming into this hall wanted a pound of flesh.