Her dead body was slack and heavy; her eyes were glass, her tongue rolled out of her slack jaw. He said a silent prayer for her then yelled out, “Keva! Take that machine gun and keep the pressure on those vampires!”
The reddish brown werewolf glanced back at the commander and nodded quickly. She slung her assault rifle on her back and crawled on her belly to take up the abandoned crew serve weapon. She had to yank the dead body off the weapon and away from her. She took the trigger and squeezed off a few rounds, getting a feel for the new position and weapon.
Efraim slid back behind the firing line and grabbed the dead carcass. He tossed in front of the line. Some of the younger Shape shifters looked back at him with horror.
Efraim answered the shocked stares with one of cold steel. “We don’t have much cover up here. She won’t do any of us any good now. But her body can still absorb bullets. In death, she may help save one of your lives.”
No one on that rooftop was going to argue with the senior Shape shafter. But some of them did look more ready to puke that to kill the vampires that were shooting at them.
Efraim glanced up and began shooting more rapidly, taking as little time as he could before shooting. They were making progress but there were still a good number of vampires over there, not to mention the ones in the alley down below.
On the street level, William heard the gunfire explode into the alley and he saw the ricochet bullets bouncing across the street. The alleyway disgorged about six vampires led by a very solid looking blonde woman. She was pushing them out of the alley back into the city.
William immediately opened fire and slowly began to move forward around the barricade.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t go too fast, William. If you can’t see where they are, they could be anywhere.” It was Lethe, Billy’s and Efraim’s pack Alpha.
“Thanks,” William muttered. He shuffled back behind the cover of the barricades and maintained his position there.
The Alpha looked down the street, “Ryan, you and I will go forward with Aceso and William. Billy, you and the rest of the two packs cover us from here. Fall back if you receive fire.” The two nodded and followed behind Aceso and William. They split up, moving into two groups, covering both sides of the street.
Billy raised his rifle and shot a few rounds down the center of the street, “Keep up your alternating fire, Nicolas and Katherine.” Billy said strongly, “We want to make them keep their heads down. The only way to do that is keep them afraid of bullets flying their way.”
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He looked down the alleyway with concern. The gunfire overhead was still heavy and constant. Meanwhile he was down here dealing with a good number of vampires on his own. Aceso’s pack was good, a little raw, but pretty disciplined as Shape shifters their age went. But he really wanted to be up there, where it seemed the true fighting was going on. He shook his head. His job down here was just as important, when he took out the hostiles in his lane, then he could move up to the real threat. One thing at a time.
Back on the rooftop, Efraim rolled to his side and popped up firing a perfect shot that imbedded a round right in the center of a vampire’s forehead. He fell to the rooftop face first. Efraim smiled.
The newest of the Shape shifters with him were young but they were learning. He would love if the vampires wanted to play this game of attrition all day. They had to be limited on ammo and the waiting game played to his advantage. He fired a few more shots and ducked down again, as a few answering rounds flew overhead.
Something was nagging at him in the back of his mind. It was at once familiar, like he should know what it was, but when he tried concentrating on it, it danced out of his mental grasp. It was more of a feeling than any solid thought or memory. Like his instincts were trying to tell him something.
“KEVA! Get that machine gun pointed south! We need more fire power behind us!” he bellowed loudly, his voice thundering even over the gun fire.
She looked over at the Enforcer. She didn’t move right away.
Efraim swung around to face south. A group of fifteen vampires was flowing toward them from the inner city. They opened fire. Efraim ducked down and tried to push Keva into the right direction to give them added cover.
The Shape shifters pointed to the south opened answering fire. There was less cover for them on that side of the rooftop. The new group of fifteen vampires did not stop shooting. They ran perpendicular to their position, strafing the Shape shifters on the roof moving at vampire speeds.
Even Efraim found it impossible to lead them with any kind of accuracy. The vampires shot as they moved, allowing their gunfire to have an organic feel as bullets ripped down their southern line.
The new Shape shifters were too slow. He heard the sickening thump of bullets hitting flesh. Glancing behind him he saw three Shapes shifters, shift back to their human and wolf forms as they died quickly.
This group wasn’t interested in playing attrition, or using cover and fire tactics. If the Shape shifters couldn’t pin them down, then they were outmatched. A few more bullets hit their mark. More guns fell silent.
His mind shut down and his body acted on instinct. He grabbed the two nearest kneeling werewolves and threw them down off the roof. His legs pushed him forward and he tackled three more as more gun fire erupted from behind them. “GET OFF THE ROOF!!” He bellowed, his voice being mostly drowned out by noise.
He moved on his stomach, moving the younger werewolves toward the edges of the rooftop and pushing them off into the safety of the quiet street. Charles caught one and set him down as he looked up toward the suddenly unsafe rooftop.