Once I helped free Mara from underneath the onslaught we finally were able to turn the tide back in our favor. Exhausted and covered in enemy remains we dispatched the few remaining vampires leaving Nyx alone to protect the facility from our interference. He looked around the room, seeing he was the last, and stopped. Lisa charged trying to capitalize on his distraction but he blocked and turned her attack away without even glancing at her. Had he been playing with her all that time?

“I’m sorry, Luv, but this stage in the game has drawn to a close. Perhaps I misjudged your strengths Hunter, you and your Hunteretts have done well in this battle. If we hadn’t already pumped our gift to the city through the pipes I might be worried you could have stopped us.” His form began to become indistinct as the shadows gathered around him. “I do so hope we have the chance to finish this when I’m not under orders… til then…”

Sirens outside the building marked the arrival of the police. This had no chance of looking positive for us, the three of us with so many dead bodies and a contaminated water supply heading for the city would guarantee our arrest if not worse. We had limited options and even fewer ways out of the facility without drawing attention.

“Holly! How long till that junk reaches the main population?”

“The pipeline is gravity driven so it takes well over two hours… calculating from when we first saw anyone enter the building…at least another hour.”

“I can pull rank with the officers outside and make it back to the city in thirty minutes.”

“No, getting involved with this will almost certainly lose you your job. You both find out how they put the virus into the pipes and turn it off and then do your best to disappear. Holly can lead me to a place ahead of the water easier than either of you and then I just have to figure out how to stop it.”

“Freeze it.” Lisa held a gem in her hand out to me. “It’s a fire agate, the ice of eternity, get this into the water and it will freeze solid for weeks. We can figure everything out later.”

“Hunter, I found a place where you can get access to the pipeline but it’s not going to be easy and we can’t waste any more time.”

“Got it. Be careful you two.” I took the agate from Lisa’s hand and turned to the door. I walked out and found the sun had finished setting while we were inside but you could hardly tell for all the lights from the multitude of police cars that had gathered outside. At a quick glance, I could see at least twenty officers pointing their service weapons at me. I could only imagine how I must look to their eyes but they were just doing their jobs so I put my hands up and flashed my friendliest smile.

“Lovely evening tonight, isn’t it fellas?”

“You are under arrest!” One of the officers shouted through a bullhorn. “You have the right to remain silent!”

“I know, I know… but they put poison in the water pipes. If we don’t stop it thousands of people could die before morning. I’m sure you all have family in the city, we don’t want that to happen to them.”

“How dare you threaten my family! If he makes a move, kill him!” This was going the very opposite of how I wanted. I had to at least try to make them understand.

“It’s not me, but I think I can stop what’s happening.”

“Fine, then let’s all go down to the station and we can get all this straightened out.” I shook my head, by that time it would be too late to help anyone and every second we stood here that were-juice was getting closer to the city. A few of the closer officers took a few steps closer to me, waiting for me to make the wrong move.

“Holly, I’m going to need any kind of distraction you can whip up here.” There was a long drawn-out moment of tenseness as Holly worked her magic. All at once the radios of all the quad cars gathered let out a piercing squeal of feedback, sirens, and lights throwing the area into chaos. The officers clapped their hands to their ears, some falling to the ground from the high-pitched whine. I charged the closest cop laying him out with one punch to the jaw and grabbed his keys. I apologized quickly to the fallen officer and hopped into the driver’s seat of his cruiser, second later I was driving over the grass in the quickest way to the road. I pushed down the gas pedal like I wanted my foot to go through the floor, the race was on.

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Sixteen minutes, that was how long Holly estimated the drive from the reservoir to the water cut-off point. I got a full three-minute head start before the fleet of angry policemen pulled into my rearview mirror, of course, that was a second before some Yahoo decided to destroy it. The radio crackled to life as the officers behind me called for backup, the list of charges seemed ludicrous, they blamed me for the accident on the freeway, chemical terrorism… and cop killing. That would explain the gunshots being sent my way, killing one of their own has always been the quickest way to find out what a bad idea it is to piss off a cop.

The cruisers behind me spread out to try and box me in, they were trying to limit my movements. I had to make my way out of the trap before they steered me into whatever they had planned. I nudged them left and right trying to get my breathing room back but they were ready, whomever made driving an official course at the police academy was going to receive a very sternly worded letter after this was over.

Four minutes out from the target I saw the spike strip lying across the road. I let out a string of curses as I tried to maneuver out from the oncoming tragedy. I tried to get out of the containment maneuver they were using on me but the police had vanished as I ran full speed over the strip. A loud cry from the car screamed into the night as all four tires went flat, dropping the car a few inches instantly. Sparks flew out from behind the car as the rims that were all that were left of the tires carved their way into the road.

One of the cruisers rammed the back end of the car sending me into a spin; I fell back into my own training. At ARC they had sent us through training that many Secret Service agents would be jealous of. I kept the car from flipping, which was the first goal as I came out of the spin, but didn’t completely gain full control of the car. The car got increasingly difficult to control and jerked itself sideways into a building. The airbag went off in my face, slamming me back into the seat with a painful twist to my neck.

I grappled blindly for something to burst the bag but only came up with what must have been the owner’s spare piece. I could hardly believe how sloppy it was for an officer to leave a weapon so easily accessible in his vehicle. I picked up the gun and pressed it against the airbag and pulled the trigger. My ears ringing with how close to my head the gun went off I stumbled out of the cruiser, a dozen other cars screeching to a stop nearby. I fired back at the cops getting out of their cars just to get a slight head start, I fired high in the air hoping they would stay in their cars as I ran.

“How far Holly?”

“One hundred and seventy yards, top of the hill in front of you there’s a parking lot. Northwest quadrant the pipeline comes close enough you should be able to access it.” I hauled my ass full speed down the hill trying to dodge the volley of bullets coming from behind. Breaking out from cover into the parking lot I ran as fast as my aching body could handle, every ache from the last days reminding me of their presence as I did. I dropped into a roll when I reached the area Holly indicated and palmed a slap bang onto the ground before ducking behind a dumpster twenty feet further on.

The officers came up to the parking lot advancing on my small hiding place as the explosion went off, sending a powerful gout of water high into the air. The pressure from the water escaping collapsed a portion of the parking lot around the broken pipe but nowhere near enough debris to actually stop the water flow. I peeked out from behind the dumpster to see more uniforms than I could believe arrived just for me. Their angry shouts and faces showed they had definitely moved on from apprehend to stop at all costs but there was no one else. Bullets hit the dumpster forcing me back under cover, they seemed more wary after the bomb went off but they had me trapped and knew they could wait for me… or even SWAT.

“Holly, if this goes south you have to make sure to tell my daughter I love her. She is going to have an amazing future ahead of her and I’ve put money aside to help her realize it.”

“Hunter don’t…”

I didn’t hear the rest of what she said since I stood, firing the rest of the bullets in the gun blindly in the officer’s direction as I ran towards the waterspout. Fifteen feet the first bullet ripped its way through my shoulder, at ten I took two more in the stomach… the pain ripping through me told me the people I was saving couldn’t be worth this pain but I kept moving. Five feet away one of the officers put a bullet through my kneecap, shattering it and bringing me crashing to the ground. The fire agate Lisa gave me spilled out of my hand as the cops ran towards me.

I’ve heard many people describe what they believed was going to be their last moments on this earth, they see bright lights, a tunnel, loved ones, and maybe even their own life flashing before them. All I could see was that damned waterspout just out of reach. I lurched up to grab the stone where it had rolled away, I could feel impacts from other bullets as I crawled forward toppling near the geyser, and reached the rock into the stream of liquid.

As soon as my hand met the water it went completely numb, I thought a bullet had finally killed me until the ice crystals formed around my fist. The ice spread quickly engulfing the water and bringing the flow of the water to a halt. The cold spread up my arm, numbing the pain as I bled out in some little-known parking lot. I rolled over and looked at the now pillar of ice towering over me and smiled. We had done it…

That was the last thought in my head as all the strength ebbed from my body as I gently drifted down into the darkness that consumed my mind. It was then, that Derek Hunter died.