Efraim dropped down onto the ramp from the rooftop. He reached back up and starting pulling a young male werewolf towards him. Charles saw sheer terror in the male’s eyes, then suddenly a gasping scream he couldn’t hear, then nothing. His eyes were glassy and vacant and his body reverted back to that of a human. Efraim pulled the body down from the rooftop and laid him down inside the empty apartment on the third floor. Charles said a prayer for the dead, and appreciated the act of caring for the body by the veteran soldier.

The remainder of the werewolves from the rooftops had joined Charles and Billy’s pack behind their barricade. There were a lot of Shape shifters didn’t make it down off the roof with Efraim. Charles shook his head and tried looking down the street and up above all at one time. Aceso and William hadn’t come back from their scouting pursuit of the small group of vampires that they had chased down the street.

Efraim jumped down behind the barricade, his snout turned down in a grim expression, “We have to move back from this position. They have the rooftops now. We have a group coming up from the south. The best thing for us to do is to fall back to the north and try to retake the high ground, forcing them back down onto the streets.” He looked around him, “We also need to get these vampires in one group in front of us. If we can do that, we have a chance.”

Billy and Charles nodded their accent. Suddenly there was a crash from next to their barricade. Nicolas popped his head up and saw a werewolf with a bullet wound in his legs trying to get back around the barricade to safety, it was Lethe. His light brown fur along his leg was now almost black as blood flowed freely from the wound there.

Without thinking Nicolas jumped over the barricade and grabbed the werewolf. He yanked him up onto his shoulders and jumped back over the barricade, barely clearing the obstacle just as gunfire rang out behind him, whizzing past his ears.

“That’s just great!” Nicolas said kneeling behind the barricade, “Who’s idea was it to send away both healers at once!”

“Hysminai can heal him just as well as Aceso can, Nicolas” Keva said kneeling down next to the inured Scout. She nodded to the younger healer.

He was small for a werewolf, under six and a half feet tall. He had brown and black striped fur going along his entire body. He kneeled and sniffed deeply at Lethe’s wound. He bit down hard on his leg just above the wound.

The rest of the group had taken up firing positions along the barricade and had begun to return fire when they could.

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Lethe’s bleeding stopped and Hysminai, hunched over, made his way to where Efraim and Keva were shooting. “I’ve healed him, but he lost a lot of blood. He can move but he needs to eat. If he can stay conscious for a few hours I’d be very impressed.”

Gun fire suddenly erupted from the rooftops. “Get back into the buildings!” Efraim called pushing a few Shape shifters back toward the building they had just got off of. There were some vampires on the street now, approaching from the south.

“Efraim!” called a familiar voice from the north.

“Alexiares! Where are you?” Efraim called back.

“I thought you could use a little help. Get your people over here!”

Efraim didn’t hesitate, “Move! Over the barricade go, go!” He yelled and started physically moving the Shape shifters around him. He hunched down and grabbed Lethe as Charles, Nicolas, and Keva were returning fire as best they could from the other side of the barricade facing inward toward the center of the city, giving him much needed cover as he moved the wounded Shape shifter.

Efraim took a round, grazing his arm leaving a small trail of blood dripping on Lethe as he helped support the Scout.

Using cover fire from Alexiares and the rest of the group, they were able to pull back from the death trap into the northern outskirts of the city.

When they stopped getting shot at, they set Lethe down and reorganized. Efraim saw that Alexiares was not alone on his timely rescue.

“Elder’s,” Efraim said to both Alexiares and Jacob, “Thank you, I am grateful for your timely intervention. But what are you doing here?”

Alexiares answered, “Are we not responsible for the welfare of the city and its citizens, Efraim? Where else should we be? Jacob and I were sent to oversee and help the northern effort. After we learned of Mr. Davis’s plan, the Elder’s split up as well. We swung around to the north to flank the incoming vampires. As we came in toward the center of the city, toward all the shooting, we met with Aceso and dealt with a few of your vampires.” His face darkened, “A few managed to get away however. That trick of ours won’t work twice.”

Efraim nodded, “Yes but we have bought ourselves some time. I need a head count.” He turned to Keva and Aceso, “I need to know how many of us are left.” The two females nodded and started counting heads.

Efrain turned back to the Elder Enforcer, “By my count there was about forty of them give or take. They were split up into three groups. If almost one whole group of them was taken out, and I know I dropped at least three in another plus a few more than we are looking at anywhere from twenty to thirty vampires left in this sector.” He shot a look back over his shoulder, “provided that they’re not reinforced by more from another one of those groups either to the south east or the west.” The two Elders nodded gravely.

“Efraim,” Aceso began, “with Lethe being unable to fight for a while, and the addition of the Elders we have thirty-three Shape shifters able to fight.”

Efraim nodded slowly, “Well, not as bad as it could have been,” he said slowly. Shaking his head, like he was fighting off a daze, he refocused his attention on the gathered group. “We still have work to do. Resupply each other with the ammo that we have.”

He turned to the Elder’s, “I would be grateful for any ideas that you may have.”