Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (49 page)

The soldiers recovered even as Nicola moved to Nick’s side opposite the flame.

Shedu and Lam joined Alad and the vampires as another dangerous battle was underway. Marek and Audrey fought one reaper while Alad and Jake fought another.

The two kasha moved to the aide of their own as they drew out the silver chains with the spikes designed to catch vampires and hold them until the kasha could remove their evil spirits. Jake seeing the silver moved to help Marek and Audrey as the reaper took a step back as he took in the new danger.

“We have your back, Alad,” Shedu growled and threw his spiked chain at the reaper. It was too fast for the first, but Lam’s follow up clipped the creature’s leg tearing a sliver in the cloth. A little smoke showing the first burn of the silver’s passing meant it wasn’t unscathed.

Wishing they could employ the silver grenades to further debilitate the vampire, Shedu nearly smiled as the first sneezes from the kasha’s fur came from the reaper. They were as affected as any vampires by their enemy’s first line of protection and assault.

They worked as a team slowly spreading and making the reaper need to watch more directions. Alad took the middle countering the reaper’s attacks, while Shedu and Lamassu tried to snare the creature over and over again distracting it from the tiger in the center. Claws cut at the tiger, but Alad cut across its chest drawing out some of his essence. The pain of the kasha’s claws went deeper than just the flesh as each strike attempted to loosen the spirit inside.

Shedu and Lam began to swirl the chains going for legs and arms both driving the reaper back. It couldn’t dare catch the chains or it would burn. If the chains or spikes clipped his skin, it burned. Brazen and immune to fear once, the creature looked worried and Shedu wondered if it would run. If it did, it would expose its back and the spikes would attempt to pierce its flesh so the kasha could pull him into Alad’s attack.

Getting lucky, Shedu caught the right arm just long enough to distract the reaper, Lam’s spike pierced his thigh bringing a scream even as it used the left arm to try and fend off Alad. A forearm struck merely left flesh for the tiger’s claws to scratch and pull at his spirit again.

Moving as one, the kasha tried to finish the reaper off. Lamassu lashed the length of her chain around his left arm and tried to sink her claws into the creature, while Alad went for its throat to knock it over. Shedu used the wrapped chain to pull it down as well. The combined weight of the kasha was used to twist and pull the reaper backward.

When pain from his chest suddenly manifested as they crashed to the ground, Shedu looked down in surprise to see the reaper’s left hand jammed just below the bones of his ribcage.

“You might take me, but at least one of you is coming with me,” the black eyed beast said from purple lips.

The clawed hand pushed even as Alad and Lamassu tried to pull the vampire’s arm away from Shedu. Both of their leader’s hands clawed the forearm as his breath disappeared. Spirit was drawn
into the three kasha, and soon even the strong, black eyed reaper succumbed to the power of the hunters.

“Shedu?”
Alad asked as he felt the last of the creature’s spirit dissolve in his hands.

Lam’s eyes had tears in her blue eyes, the eyes of a gray and black striped cat. “Shedu?” she added her voice in query of the panther man slumped to his knees with the reaper’s claws in his chest.

The panther’s head sagged against his chest as his body was held up only by the arm of the dead reaper.

“
Nooo!” Alad roared in anger.

Lamassu slapped the side of his head and cautioned, “Not now, Alad! We must finish our work before we can mourn.”

The sounds of fighting continued around them as the reapers refused to die easily.

Nick felt Shedu’s passing and even distracted by a fight with another reaper, he knew the kasha was dead before the roar of Alad. Worse, as much as he understood the feeling, the roar would carry for blocks alerting the humans. The fight had just gotten more desperate, because they all needed to disappear and clean up as much evidence as they could before police and other spectators decided to arrive.

Marek’s group nearly had their opponent, when
the two kasha grabbed him from behind clawing the spirit out of him before he could do much. The vampires managed not to run their swords through him causing the explosion of flame until they were through, then Audrey used her sword to turn the drained creature to ash. She would tend to the other one still holding Shedu upright a few feet away as well.

Their numbers dwindling to just two healthy reapers, they left the remaining wounded reaper to face his death and ran.

Putting up his hand to those who would give chase, Nick cautioned, “Let them run and we’ll track them. Alad, Lamassu and I can collect them during the day. We can make sure that there are no more of them this way.”

Derek and Sophia were their best trackers, but Nick had his special sense. The three would follow them after they had a lead.

With all the reapers dealt with in the building, Alad and Lamassu were ready to finish off the remainder of the vampires that they could smell below ground. It was still before midnight, but they could hear sirens in the distance. “We need to use silver to burn the evidence as quickly as we can. Alad, you and Lamassu get Shedu’s body out of here so we can take care of him properly.”

His words didn’t seem to sink into the tiger’s mind. “We can return during the day and clean the nest out as well. Now go!”

Lam pulled at the man and the two kasha moved to pick up the lifeless panther from the ground and ash of the dead reaper.

The vampires and Nick moved to clear the evidence as quickly as they could. Derek and Sophia had already cleansed the upper part of the building as they descended to the first floor. There were too many bodies on the second and third floor to do quickly, so they had jumped down only to see the reapers running away.

By the time the first squad car arrived, they had fled leaving only Marek, Jake and Tony to watch over the scene from a roof top, just in case the hidden vampires decided to attack the police investigating the disturbance. Nick followed Derek as the three, including Sophia, followed the trail of the two reapers. After half a mile, the scent seemed to disappear on the street. Nick cursed his decision and knew that Alad and Lamassu would be upset with him. They had been defeated by the simple use of a car.

He cursed again and try as they might the trackers couldn’t follow the lingering scents of the two reapers in a vehicle. Retreating to their own vehicles where they had parked closer to Fulton, the three soon parted ways. He picked up the cell and called Nicola, “We lost them. I have to head back to the forest preserve, but don’t have to be there before dawn.”

Nicola replied, “I need to pick up Sami, unless you planned a sleep over for her with Marek’s people.”

He sighed, and said disappointedly, “Marek won’t be back at the Lair for awhile. Why don’t you pick up Sami and we’ll meet up at the apartment for awhile before I have to go get Charlotte and the others?”

“Sounds like a plan,” the woman he loved replied. “I could detour to the apartment first, if you want instead?”

He was disappointed in the way things had gone and as tempting as a little time with Nicola was, the voran wasn’t ready to celebrate when Shedu had just been killed. “My heart wouldn’t be in it. We lost Shedu and the last two reapers after all.”

“I don’t need your heart,” she laughed, but it sounded forced, “but I understand. Rain check.”

“Rain check,” he agreed.

The morning came, but not the sunlight. Rain came down steadily. It had begun a few hours before dawn and refused to end. When the werewolves wandered into the clearing in human form, they looked miserable. While their wolf forms could deal with the cold rain, their human bodies didn’t deal with it nearly as well. Only their above human temperatures made it a bit more bearable.

Nick stepped out of the car to greet Charlotte. There must have been a look in his eyes, because she asked worriedly, “Is something wrong, Nick?”

Hugging her naked body to him and kissing her lips with surprising passion for a greeting, Charlotte melted into his warmth. He was nearly dry and she longed to be with him even when she wasn’t wet and cold.

“We ran into the reapers. Two got away, but Shedu was killed during the mission,” he said briefly.

Moving to the car, Charlotte put on her shorts and short sleeve shirt. The woman didn’t even bother with her sandals as Logan and Kate joined them similarly. The rain was too steady to waste time getting their clothing wet outside the vehicle.

Raina waved to them and the two vehicles backed down the access road. They stopped at a diner to eat breakfast as they were all famished after the run and of course the weather made them burn more calories to stay warm.

As they sat talking, Charlotte began to pale a bit.

“Are you alright?” Nick asked noticing her eyes. Her blue eyes, which he was still not completely used to, after first knowing her with brown eyes, revealed that something wasn’t quite right in the woman.

Trapped within the booth, the brunette shook her head waving for him to move out for her to pass. “My stomach’s been getting queasy since we got into the car.”

She hurried back to the restroom leaving the others to worry over her.

Logan said curiously, “I don’t even remember her having a headache since becoming a were-... Well, you know. Until last month when she and Kate had the same issue, I don’t remember any of the houses really needing a doctor except after some fighting.”

“Your people don’t really get sick either?” Nick asked realizing that as a voran it was much the same and of course vampires were undead and beyond basic diseases.

Shaking his blonde head, the big werewolf’s blue eyes looked slightly perplexed. Noting his eyes, Nick thought that he and Charlotte had always looked like night and day; but now their eyes matched for whatever crazy reason. The change from the full moon while ending her heat condition had somehow changed her eyes. Now the woman was suffering from a queasy stomach, a rarity among werewolves, and that made him worry more than it would for a normal human being.

“Did you find something to eat during the night?” Nick asked being vague in case other ears were listening. The morning crowd brought the diner to about three quarters full so the noise of others talking created white noise to avoid easy detection; but sometimes key words were noted by others to make them suddenly listen.

Logan shook his head and said, “We trailed some deer, but never really hunted. The chase is most of the fun. Even wolves don’t just kill for the sake of killing.” The big blonde haired werewolf didn’t actually say they were wolves for anyone paying attention around them. They were all used to hiding the secrets of the supernatural creatures.

His eyes looked up noticing Charlotte’s return and the woman had Nick move into the booth just in case she had to return.

“Sorry, that was weird. I was just nauseous, but I feel better now,” she assured them quickly.

Raina was new to the group, but she asked Logan, “So I can say goodbye to most colds and flu then? How about allergies? I haven’t even thought about them since that night in the preserve.”

Charlotte shook her head answering this one, “I used to have several allergies and never notice them now.”

“Well, that will be nice,” the dark haired forest ranger replied. With a job that meant being outdoors, curing allergies was a big help. “Spring used to be very miserable depending on what was blooming. I guess I picked a great profession to have allergies,” she finished with a chuckle echoed by the others.

When the food came to the table, Charlotte went white and hurried back to the restroom. Something was definitely wrong with her and that worried everyone especially her brother the doctor. “If she doesn’t get over it quickly, bring her in to the clinic, Nick. I can do tests now and hide the results easily enough that I can bring in more unusual clients, if we need to do that. It’s another perk of working for a struggling clinic. As long as nothing illegal is done, I can make sure that a lost blood test isn’t a problem if I have to.”

“Don’t get yourself into trouble, especially legal trouble, since that will bring you under a microscope in a hurry,” the voran warned him. Too often people believed that they could get away with things and then found out that other eyes were watching them close enough that they were wrong. The courts were full of such cases. Logan was smart enough to hide his trail well, but it was still worth avoiding such actions if possible.

Nodding, Logan replied, “We’re still pretty understaffed. Even without trying to hide things, some of the tests get lost and we have to run them again. It isn’t the best organized place, though we do help a lot of people.”

“The stress isn’t getting to you?” Nick questioned one of the worries the werewolf had that originally made him quit.

Logan shook his head and his eyes spotted Charlotte returning once more. “No, I’ve had enough time to get a handle on that. I also understand what I am more than I did back then, plus I have had time to get over our parents’ deaths even if I don’t forget.”

Kate’s hand went over his looking guilty, but no one said anything of their past.