Then another pair of Shape shifters did the same thing. Mary could see where this was going and she decided to act. From behind the larger group, she opened fire with her assault rifle. She downed a few vampires before the large group turned and returned fire at her position from the roof.
The diversion worked, and the pair also made it safely across the street into the alley. The vampires jumped to the roof and were engaging her with multiple firearms and machine guns. Mary dove for the nearest cover and screamed against the sudden noise of death that ripped above her. A bullet ripped through her shoulder and she screamed in pain.
She knew that they would come for her. She was only one Shape shifter. She shouldn’t have given away her position, but she had saved two other lives. Two for one was a pretty good exchange, right? She didn’t want to die, not here, not like this.
The bullets slowed and she heard voices over the noise, she didn’t understand what they were saying. The voices grew louder and closer. If she was going to die, she would take at least one with her. She eased her rifle to her chest and hugged it, rested her finger in the trigger well.
There was about a dozen, by the sound of their voices, all jabbering to each other in some kind of Asian language that she didn’t recognize. She didn’t care what they were saying.
Suddenly she heard a high pitch whine. It was sudden and immediate. Then yells of pain as the whine became a scream and bullets ripped in off from the side somewhere. Vampires screamed and died. She kept her head down. She was too scared to move.
The whine died down and went silent. She could here shouts and people running. A gout of gun fire in the distance. She didn’t know what was going on. She raised her head cautiously. What had that whine been? What just happened?
Walking toward her with a massive multi barrel gun slung over his shoulder was Ares, walking toward her with Huan Li and Eustace covering him. The massive eight-foot-tall brown furred Enforcer reached down and hauled her to her feet.
“How did you…know where to find me?” Mary’s voice shook.
Ares looked down on the Scout, “A lucky guess, that and we have better noses than vampires do.” He looked over toward where the shooting was coming from. “Can you move? The rest of your pack needs us.”
Mary nodded but asked, “What was… is that?” she asked pointing to the massive gun on his shoulder.
Ares nodded, “This is a mini gun, from our weapon smith Billy. He said something about it being painless or some such. Sometimes I don’t understand your human sense of humor even after all these years of being around your kind.”
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Mary smiled broadly and hugged him fiercely with tears streaming down her face, “Thank you Ares, thank you so much.” She sobbed deeply against him.
The Enforcer nodded and patted her head and shoulder, “We still have work to do, Mary.” Ares gently disengaged the smaller female from him and ran off towards the gunshots in the distance. Mary watched him go, holding the mini gun like she did her assault rifle, with one claw.
“We should go see about the rest of your pack. Don’t you agree Mary?” Eustace asked gently guiding the shaken Scout in the direction where Ares had just run off to.
Mary let herself be guided. She didn’t want to think about how close she had come to dying. She would have fought; she would have killed at least one. Wouldn’t she have?
But she couldn’t be sure of herself, she had locked up. In all her times being in the Whyte Plain she had never felt terror like what she had felt on this rooftop moments ago. She had felt so helpless, like a rodent trapped in a maze being stalked by some unseen predator or gas. She set her jaw in place and moved forward with the Elders back into the fray.
* * * * *
The smoke was getting worse. It was getting harder and harder for Efraim to see clearly through the haze. His forces were coughing more and more. His eyes were watering. This is what the vampires wanted. He could have kicked himself for not seeing it sooner. The fires and the smoke filling the cavern would choke them out before they could defeat the vampires. He couldn’t afford to wait any longer.
“Billy, Alexiares,” He yelled down into the street. “We need to move now. Are you ready?”
About as ready as we’ll ever be, Billy thought. He replied instead, “Whenever you are.”
“Alexiares, go!” Efraim signaled.
Alexiares and the force that he now commanded poured into the street from the building they were hiding in. Howling mercilessly even amidst the fits of couching that could be heard, the seventeen Shape shifters with him speed forward away from the fire behind them and into the mass of vampires that were waiting for them deeper inside the city.
“Billy, go!” Efraim yelled.
The seventeen of them on the roof moved forward. Efraim was running with them. They jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Keeping pace and distance from Alexiares’ group. The two groups knew where the vampires would be.
Efraim was proud to know that his people had taken care of themselves, but also their weapons. They had lost very little in their retreat. Even in the chaos of the sudden flanking of the vampires when he ordered his people down from the roof, they had remembered their weapons. These young Shape shifters may not be seasoned in war like himself or Jacob, but they had made him proud to stand with them.
He heard gun fire and Alexiares’ forces split, disappearing in front of a group of vampires down alley ways and streets off to either the left or right. Billy slowed his force on the roof.
Efraim watched. The vampires seemed to be hesitant to follow the two groups that had turned to vapor in their grasp. Their advance was slow and become more cautious.
Efraim kept a sharp eye from his vantage point. He couldn’t see any enemies from where he was but he knew that they would have oversight on the group down in the street.
Off to his right, Efraim heard gun fire. It was intense and immediate. He gave two quick barks. Billy took six werewolves with him to investigate what was going on over there. Efraim moved back and around to see for himself what was going on.
Before he could move, gunfire whizzed past him and he was forced to dive for cover. “Get down!” he yelled to no one in particular. A bullet grazed his shoulder and another caught him in the leg. Stifling the cry of pain that wanted to escape his lips he pulled himself to better cover.