The pale tailed reddish furred Shape shifter suddenly looked very uncomfortable. “Elder, I…I’m not afraid of dying. But I don’t want my death to go for nothing. The city is lost.”
Her words hung on the air like a gunshot. Everyone there was thinking it but no one had, up to this point, the will to put those thoughts into words. Keva had.
“We have to get the wolves and the wolf cubs out,” Jacob said. “Keva,” he said turning to her. “Take you pack to the nursery and guide the wolves out of here.” Keva nodded.
Turning toward the Elder Enforcer he said, “Alexiares, get what people together that you can we need to get…” he never got a chance to finish the statement.
Suddenly gunfire erupted from the outer sentries on the eastside. Jacob grabbed Aceso, “Get your pack over there and see if you can flank around them!” The Healer nodded. William and Nicolas were running even before he consciously knew what was going on. He found himself and his pack mates following Aceso off to the right to flank the attackers.
“Alexiares,” Jacob yelled. “We need to get over watch positions on the tower with the machine guns.” Alexiares was moving even before Jacob had stopped speaking.
The hail of gunfire did not lighten at all. At this point, he didn’t care who they were, he wanted them dead. “Ansuya, I’d love to hear about everything you’ve been through but you don’t even have a weapon. Go with Keva and get those cubs and wolves out of the city.” The Elder Tracker met the steel gaze of Jacob’s eyes. “Don’t question me on this, Ansuya. I’ve been through hell and back for you. Of all of the Shape shifters here in this city you are the most precious and the most valuable.”
“I’m not made of glass, Jacob. Haven’t I proven that time and again?” Ansuya asked.
Jacob smiled, “Yes you have. And you being here is proof enough of that.”
Suddenly more gun fire sounded from the west. Jacob looked back and forth listening to the gun fire exchange from both sides. He smiled at the Tracker. “We all know where to rendezvous. I’ll meet you there shortly.” His smile turned into grim determination. “Now go!”
Ansuya moved off to the right following after Aceso and her pack. She melted into the side streets and tried to breathe through the smoke that was rapidly filling the space around them. Even with her substantially developed sense of Tracker smell, even she couldn’t distinguish between smoke, Shape shifter, and the more distant odor of attacking vampires. It was maddening. She moved up to Aceso and William and Nicolas as the Scout was descending down from the rooftops.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
There’s a group of about twenty to thirty of them coming this way. They’re moving really casually, like they know they aren’t going to run into any of us.”
“We need to change their minds. Charles and I will pop up here and try to slow them down. Aceso take Katherine and Nic and hit them from the sides.”
“With me here,” Ansuya spoke up, “we could hit them from three sides instead of just two.”
Aceso considered her options. She nodded towards the Elder, “Elder, would you take Katherine and hit them from the left side, while Nicolas and I hit them from the right. William, I’m trusting you to contain them when we start shooting. With any luck we can take all of them before they realize what’s happening.”
William nodded, he looked in Ansuya’s eyes as he said, “I won’t let this opportunity go to waste. I’ll give you guys two minutes, then Charles and I open fire. Don’t stick your necks out to far or too long. We’re not going to single handedly save the city, we just need to give Keva and everyone else time to get out.”
The groups nodded and moved off silently to their positions. William and Charles looked at each other, and silently started counting down the two minutes.
“Did you ever think it would come to this?” Charles asked quietly.
“I had been searching for this place to call my home, and you guys as my pack to call a family for a long time.” Charles nodded. “I knew I had found something worth fighting for when Aceso brought me here. And now I get to put my money where my mouth is and prove it.”
Charles nodded, “Knowing you will fight for something and actually fighting for something are sometimes very different things.” Charles offered his claw to William, “It’s been an honor knowing you and I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d feel more grateful to stand with in my final moments.”
William looked down at the claw of his friend and grasped it firmly, “Thank you for being here with me. But these aren’t my final moments, and they aren’t yours either. Lets show these invaders just who the fuck they decided to mess with.”
With that William scaled up to the rooftops and taking a covered position started unloading rounds at the group of vampires coming towards them.
William and Charles seemed to catch the vampires off guard as they immediately scattered to their left and right. And just as they broke to either side, gunfire erupted to either side of them. William howled in triumph as the vampires moved back even as a number of them fell. Within seconds the vampires were no where to be seen and the deadlay strewn about on the rooftops.
When Charles and William took the rooftops they count only a dozen or so. If Nicolas had been right, then over half of them were able to get away. William glanced at Charles and even though he wanted nothing more than to chase after them, he knew that once their element of surprise was gone, chasing after them would probably only get them killed.
“Aceso, Ansuya? Is everyone alright?”
“Oh yeah, we’re fine, Setford,” Nicolas scoffed, “I never had any idea how you actually felt.”
William ignored him and nodded to where the vampires had retreated. “Aceso, we drove them back, but they have probably swung around and are on their way to the Tower. Let’s get moving and hope we can’t catch them and harass their flanks, maybe take a few more of them down before they get to the Tower.”