The Vampire's Bat (16 page)

Dultyn
growled low, and his look was thunderous. A smile tugged at Seamus’s lips.
Dultyn
believed all females were special, but he had formed
a bond with the precocious Abby.

“The zombie must be staying in that one run down shack
that’s near that clearing about another
three
hundred
meters from here,” Seamus guessed.

“Zombie?” asked
Alphy
.

Seamus gave him a look like it should be obvious.
“Yes, walking dead man.”

Everyone gave an evil grin and agreed.

“Bring on the apocalypse.”
Kace
smiled widely and wiggled his brows.

Alphy
gave out orders. “He more than likely put traps all around the house.
Kace
and Marley, I want you two to circle around east.
Slate and Marek, you two west.
Circle all the way around
until you meet each other and then move in and wait until I signal you. Seamus,
Dultyn
, and I will continue straight on.”

The guys split up, and Seamus fought his inner turmoil
as they moved forward, slowly. He wanted to just run to the shack, but he
couldn’t help anyone if he himself became a victim of one of the hidden traps.
Thanks to their heightened senses, they were able to spot them all, but only if
they were paying attention.

Seamus could finally see the shack, but he didn’t let
down his guard. Some of the traps were loud, and others silent, as they set
them off. He could hear others being set off as the other teams made their way
around.
Just how many did this guy set?

“After we kill him, we’ll have to send teams out to
try to spot any more that he might have set.”
Alphy’s
low quiet voice held anger and annoyance.

Dultyn
looked up and around. “Just how many could he have made? Some of them, like the
pit, would have taken some time.”

Alphy
crouched and gave a calculating look. “There’s no telling
,
but I don’t want to take any chances. The fact that
he had any at all near the farm shows me where our weaknesses are. We’ll grow
stronger because of this.”

“I want him,
Alphy
,
” Seamus whispered
.

“I know you do
.
We all do. We just need to
be careful. This isn’t someone sane, Sea, he’s sick, and we don’t know how much
he knows about us. I think once he saw she had reached out to us, he used that
time to create more traps.”

“And how he deliberately took a trail that had several
traps set in it shows he thought of evening the field when he knew we were
going to come after him,”
Dultyn
added.

Alphy
nodded silently, and the two set their sights on the house. Seamus looked for
possible traps or dangers around the shack. With all the traps placed around,
he had to have more around the shack, but Seamus couldn’t spot any.

Alphy
pointed to the shack and whispered roughly. “He rigged the shack’s roof to
catch fire, but I can’t see where the trigger is. If we bust in there, it might
be what triggers it.”

“How do you know?” Seamus couldn’t help but ask. He
knew it was dumb to ask.
Alphy
had been in the
military for years, and he didn’t spend that time at a desk.
Alphy
liked being out in the field the best. He had far
more experience at these sorts of things, and a better nose.

“I can scent the sulfur, and I can see a few spots
where it looks like he manipulated parts of the roof,”
Alphy
answered
.

Dultyn
growled. “Now what?” he asked. “Time is running out.”

Seamus was so tense, he felt like he would snap. He
knew the blood that dripped all the way here was
Maysa’s
.
She may be a shifter, but she could still bleed out.

“Most likely, he’s rigged traps on all the exits. Give
me a second. I know time is ticking, but we don’t want to endanger them any
more than we need to, and he still has Abby. That’s two hostages.”

Dultyn
let another deep growl, but this one reverberated in the air around them. “I’ll
focus on Abby.”

“Good. I’ll have the others focus on trying to disarm
the other traps rigged to the shack. Sea…”

Seamus interrupted. “I’ll take out the zombie. I’m not
sitting on the sidelines with this one,
Alphy
. I want
to go to my mate, but I know I can trust you to help her until I burn off my
bloodlust. It’s starting to take over, and I have to be the one to kill him. I
need this,
Alphy
. This is my right.”

Alphy
considered him for a moment then gave a stiff nod of his head. “We need a
distraction so we can get time to look at and disarm those traps, if possible.”

Seamus placed his bag on the ground. “I can approach
the front, get him talking. He’ll be completely intent on me.”

“That might work, if he doesn’t just outright shoot
you first.”
Alphy
growled low but accepted the plan.
As they approached,
Alphy
signaled with his hands
where he wanted them to go, then catching the sight of the others, signaled
them as well.

Seamus closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. He
didn’t want Scott to see what he was if he didn’t already know. He flexed his
clawed hands, loosening them from the grip he had tensely held throughout the
trek here, and willed his claws to recede. Once he was sure his eyes weren’t
blood red, he opened them and let them roam over the perimeter before focusing
on the door. He was careful with his footing as he approached the rundown old
shack. Above the smell of blood, he could smell the rotting and decay, mold and
mildew that permeated from this place.

“That’s close enough, freak!” A gruff and grating
voice bellowed from inside the decaying structure. “I
gotta
shotty
pointin
’ at you an’
a pistol on the
li’l
girl. Any closer an’ I start
pullin
’ triggers.”

Seamus could hear Abby crying, and it enraged him.
“Come out here and fight me, coward.” He let his words spit out but was careful
to hide his fangs. A plan formed in his head at that moment. If he could get
Scott to think he wasn’t a shifter, he might be able to convince him, if he
wasn’t too much of a coward to come out and face him in a fight.

“An’ have
ya
go
all furry on me? I
ain’t
stupid.”

Seamus huffed out a snort.
Obviously he is
. “I’m not a shifter, you asshole, I’m just mated to
one. Come out here and fight me as is my right.”

Seamus didn’t let his eyes drift to
Alphy
or the others or he’d give them away, but he could
sense their amusement and shock.

“Right?
What right is that? You don’t have
no
rights. You’re a
freak. Tell the others to back off, I booby-trapped the house.”

Seamus hid his internal cringe at the double negative
and all around poor grammar. “I assure you, I’m not, and I can promise you if
you come out to fight me, no one else will touch you. It will be just you and
me.
Man to man.”

“Your promises are shit. Animals don’t keep
no
promises.”

“Again, you idiot, I am
not
a shifter, and any promise
I
make,
I
keep, and I
promise
I’m not a shifter
,
and I
promise
no one else will touch you. It will be just you, and me,
I promise
,” Seamus growled out through his teeth.

“How do I know you
ain’t
lying?”

“First, you are the one with the guns, and second, I.
Don’t. Lie.” Seamus really wished Scott could scent at that point. This was one
of those times when he really appreciated the ability to scent lies.

“Everyone lies.” The man was belligerent.

Seamus chose his words carefully. He knew what he
wanted to say, but didn’t want the guy to think he was incriminating himself as
a shifter. “Shifters, and those who live in the shifter communities, don’t lie,
because shifters can scent lies.”

“And if I kill
ya
in a fight?”

Seamus’s heart sped up a little as hope surged. “If
you beat or kill me, no one will retaliate from your victory over me.” Seamus
tried not to hold his breath. He was strongly hoping Scott wouldn’t catch on to
his play on words. This human wasn’t going to win, and the others would kill
him even if he did win, but it would be because of the many other infractions
he’d committed that warranted his death. No matter what, this human was
breathing his final breaths.

After a few moments, the door opened a crack, then
slowly more. A slightly heavier, shorter man, easily less than six feet,
stepped out. Greasy short dark hair topped his head and several weeks’ worth of
unkempt reddish hair grew on his dirt and grime smudged face. There was blood
smudged on one side, and Seamus knew without a doubt, it was
Maysa’s
. In each hand, he held a large bowie knife. One
knife had brass knuckles on the handle, and the other was
a
tactical
knife
.

“What, no bone handles?” Seamus sneered. He wanted to
be as belligerent as possible to increase the chances Scott would make a
mistake, and he also wanted to keep his attentions on him, not on the others.
He was relieved he got the guy out in the open, and he was ecstatic he was
about to bathe in his blood.

Scott looked on edge as he shifted from foot to foot,
eyeing him. “You promise you
ain’t
one of them
shifter freaks?”

“I promise,” Seamus replied. He kept his eyes zeroed
in on Scott’s.

Scott threw his tactical knife fast and with
impressive accuracy. But with his vampire speed, Seamus saw it coming and
twisted his upper body in time so that the knife didn’t plunge into his chest,
but it grazed a long path across and down as it flew past, sinking into a stump
behind him. It was
sideways,
set to enter a chest
cavity without getting caught on ribs.

Seamus twisted back and ducked and rolled to the side
as Scott slashed out with the other knife while he reached around and grabbed
another knife, this one with a bone handle, from the back of his pants.

Not waiting around, Seamus ducked again and did a leg
sweep. Scott’s legs swept up, but he rolled away and was back up on his feet
with surprising speed. Seamus let Scott swipe and lunge at him and only fought
back just enough to keep Scott’s attention until the others got the girls out of
the shack.

“You can dodge me all day if
ya
like, but
I’ma
gonna
kill
ya
eventually.” The man puffed out in his exertion.

As soon as Seamus saw, in his peripheral vision,
Dultyn
and
Alphy
speed out of the
shack with forms curled in their arms, he focused more energy on Scott.
Now it’s time to end this.

Seamus let his eyes turn blood red and his claws grow.
The man stopped and gave him an accusatory look. “You said you
ain’t
a shifter!”

“I’m not a shifter
.
I’m a vampire.” Seamus
hissed and bared his fangs. The stupid man paled and fought, but Seamus had a
plan of death for him in mind. He positioned himself
,
and as soon as the frantic man opened himself up,
Seamus grabbed one of the man’s hands and squeezed. He could hear the bones
cracking and felt them crushing under his grip. Seamus used his claws on his
other hand to slice deep through the man’s upper stomach as he plunged forward.
Keeping his claws directed to continue to cut a path to his destination, Seamus
pushed his hand up, grabbed a hold of his prize and ripped it from Scott’s
body. Blood poured down his upheld hand that clutched the quivering heart of
the now dead assailant. As he dropped the corpse at his feet in a growing pool
of blood, he threw his head back and screamed in victory as he squeezed the
heart in his hand, enjoying the feeling of the organ squishing through his
fingers.

“
Hey
Tarzan, leave
the corpse and come on,”
Kace
yelled out. “
Alphy
and
Dultyn
are running at
full speed back to the house. Your mate is going to need you. She’s hurt bad.”

Seamus grabbed his bag as he ran swiftly behind
Kace
, with Marley behind him. They stayed to the path that
was already cleared. Seamus pushed himself as fast as he could, ignoring the
pain in his chest. He didn’t let his mind think on how much blood he had lost
and that he couldn’t take any from his beloved. He just focused on getting to
her.

Seamus began to get lightheaded and tripped.
Kace
yanked him up by his arm and pulled him through the
forest. He winced at the pain but tried to push himself further, but with his
strength failing and being pulled along, he couldn’t keep his footing.
Kace
stopped and slammed his shoulder into his stomach,
bending him over his back, then wrapped an arm around his legs, turned and
continued running through the forest with Seamus draped indignantly over his
shoulder. His bag hit the ground, and Marley picked it up.