Covington spoke. “Now it’s time for you all to” He cut himself off…most likely because a gasp flew out of me and my spine locked.
The humming under my skin became more of a pulsating sensation. Then a cold draft suddenly shot through the room…just like last time. I almost smiled as a familiar silvery-blue wind built around me, swirling and swirling. About fucking time. Eloise wisely backed away, moving so fast that she fell on her arse. Faster and faster the wind of energy swirled, and then bang. The energy seemed to explode outwards, knocking everything down in its path and sending it zooming away. Some of the vampires collided hard into the walls while Covington, Eloise, Dana, and – shit – Antonio went crashing through the windows.
Jumping to my feet, I dashed over to the balcony with Jared at my heels and looked down. The four vampires were getting to their feet, confused. Antonio looked at his vampires that were still surrounded by Covington’s men and yelled, “Attack!”
Once again, all hell broke loose.
Chapter Sixteen
(Sam)
Most of Covington’s vampires that were below us flew back and hit the ground hard. I suspected that was thanks to Harvey’s gift. Animals burst onto the scene out of absolutely nowhere – a jaguar, spider monkeys, apes, and tropical birds. No doubt Alora had summoned them. They leaped into the fray without hesitation, which was a really good thing because many of the enemies were trying to get to Antonio. To my relief, he was holding his own.
I turned to Sebastian and Luther, who were covered in pink jelly since their bubble had burst after it crashed into the wall. “You need to get down to Antonio. He’s their number one target.” Sebastian opened his mouth – no doubt to reprimand me for the risk I had been prepared to take – but then shook his head. Yes, there would be time to talk later. He took Luther’s arm and teleported them both out of there.
“Get back here, you bastard!” a feminine voice screeched. Swerving, I saw that Paige and Imani were chasing after a retreating Langley. Covington’s other vampires were scraping themselves off the floor, but Jared took each of them out with an electric bolt.
He tangled his hand in my hair and gave me a hard kiss filled with anger yet also relief. “We’ll talk about the fact that you risked yourself again later. Right now, we fight.”
I couldn’t have agreed more, so I said nothing as he teleported us outside. The bottom fell out of my stomach as I took in my surroundings. The once beautiful community was such a mess that it looked more like our tactical training field. But I didn’t have time to mourn that. Not now.
Instead, I held out my palms and sucked in the surrounding energy, recharging my gift until it was at full strength and I was spilling hybrid energy once more. God, it felt good. I then conjured my whip, enjoying the familiar feeling of it buzzing against my skin.
“We stay together,” insisted Jared.
A quick glance at Antonio showed me that most of the mansion’s guards were staying close to him, helping Sebastian and Luther protect him. But I wasn’t sure he needed their help. Antonio was demonstrating just how strong an old vampire could be as he eliminated everything that came at him. A big help was that one of the guards had some kind of liquid shield in place that weirdly absorbed every bullet and weapon aimed at them.
Sure that Antonio didn’t need my assistance, I sought out my squad. They were grouped together near a restaurant at the other side of The Hollow, taking cover behind what was left of the building…almost as if defending it. I had to wonder if that meant there were people inside the restaurant who needed protecting.
A whizzing sound in the air was the only warning I got. Jared and I both ducked. If I hadn’t had Pagori speed, I wouldn’t have managed to dodge the bullet. Instantly, I formed a large boulder in front of us. More bullets came our way, but they simply became embedded in the solid mound of earth.
Jared briefly peeked around it, moving back swiftly enough to avoid another bullet. “The bastard’s lying on his stomach on the sand.”
His exact location was all I needed to act. Remoulding my whip into an energy ball, I swiftly peeked around the left of the boulder and slung it at the sniper. His ashes joined the rest of those that were scattered around the sand.
“Good shot, baby,” praised Jared. “Keep moving.”
“Aim for the armed ones.” While a large number of the vampires were engaged in combat, snipers were positioned around the place, picking people off while they were distracted during the battle. Most of them were on the rooftops while others were on the sand or stooping behind heaps of rubble. “We need them gone.”
He nodded. “Then we’ll teleport to the squad.” They were our responsibility and it was up to us to lead them. But for now, we had to trust that they could do what they had been trained to do without us.
We proceeded to use the boulder as cover as we attacked as many of Covington’s vampires as we could reach. Jared targeted them with lightning bolts while I threw energy balls, energy beams, and used my whip to snatch snipers from the roof and slam them into the ground. Knowing better than to remain in one position too long, we moved from cover to cover as we worked – heading left and going past the mansion, and then past the Guest House. I felt sick each time I came near a dead human or a badly injured vampire. Luckily, some of the guards who had the ability to teleport were appearing to take the injured to safety.
I froze when I saw that Evan, Alora, Paige, and Imani were in the middle of what had become a battlefield, trying their hardest to break through some sort of protective circle. There was a similar circle further along, but that one was much larger. I had to wonder if the smaller one was protecting Langley and the larger one was protecting Covington. In any case, I didn’t like the sight of the four of them in the thick of things. “We need to help them,” I told Jared. “They’re trying to get to Langley.”
He followed my gaze and stiffened. But then he shook his head. “This is their fight, baby. It’s personal for them. Langley killed Bran, who Alora adored and who Evan automatically respected for protecting her all this time. To add to that, Langley hurt Paige and he tried to use Imani. They want him dead, just like I want Covington dead and you want the Feeder and Eloise dead. Besides, all the animals are helping to protect them. And Paige is pretty ruthless.”
It was true; her gift might heal, but it was clear right then that it was indeed a weapon – she stole people’s injuries and attacked others with them, and reversed any wound she was given back onto whoever had harmed her. The animals were also quite merciless in their efforts to protect. And that would have to be enough, because Jared was right – this was personal for them. No one could talk me out of going after the Feeder or Eloise or Covington. I’d be wasting my time trying to pull them away from Langley, and I’d probably also endanger them by distracting them. Plus, I had to get to the squad.
So Jared and I continued targeting the armed vampires. Our combined efforts eliminated the majority of them, but a large number of the snipers that were remaining had noticed us and been smart enough to try to quickly take us out. A worrying amount of bullets rained on the large mound of rubble that we were currently squatting behind. Some of it had crumbled on top of us, grazing our skin.
“Shit,” muttered Jared. Just because we healed quickly didn’t mean we felt the pain any less. He signalled for me to follow him as he slipped into the building behind us, which was the Residence Hall used by the humans.