Circle of the Moon (Soulwood #4)

“Where are you?” I asked. I took a breath and forced myself to calm. Took another. I began to steady. Began to ease. This was my job. I could do this.

“Over the garage,” Yummy said. “Low-ceilinged crawl space. It’s set for a secure sniper hide, but there’s no protection for me from inside, once the defensive team is down and the house is penetrated.”

We passed by the spot Margot wanted for a staging area. It was occupied by two vans, lights off, when there should have been nothing there but an empty lot. My heart thumped hard. Fanghead vans? I said, “Southern potential staging area is a no-go. Two twelve-person-sized panel vans are parked there. Nothing visible on low-light or IR. Kent, when you drive by, see if you can spot anything.”

“Roger that,” Lainie said.

“I see the clan home property,” I said. “What I can make out from the street looks peaceful. No visible bodies on low-light or IR. However, the security lights are out and the grounds are dark.”

“I smell blood,” Occam said. “Vamp and human. A lot of it.”

Rick said, “SWAT will take out the panel vans first. Set up staging area at the northern site.”

“Northern site. Copy that,” Occam said.

“Body!” I said, pointing. “Two o’clock.” It was lying on the side of the road, in tall, decorative grass, and it wasn’t showing much on IR. “Pull over and put the car between the house and me. I’ll examine it.”

Occam braked and backed up, cutting his lights. “Make it fast.”

I opened the door and slid from the car, weapon in hand, a silver-lead round in the chamber. I switched on my tiny penlight and took in the body. “Female. Throat torn out.” I bent closer and opened her mouth, looking for vamp fangs on their retractable hinges. “Human. Deceased. She’s wearing pajamas, so she might be a local. Cool enough to have been here a while.” I was proud that my words made sense and my voice was steady. Strangely, seeing the body had smothered my panic.

“They probably took over a house near Ming’s and drained the inhabitants,” Rick said.

I slid back into the car and closed the door. Buckled up. Occam looked at me, his lips asking silently, You okay?

I nodded. Lying. I wasn’t panicky now, but I wasn’t okay. Occam had to be able to smell my sweat but didn’t say anything as he progressed along the road, one hand on the wheel. His weapon was on the edge of the open window, ready to fire with his maimed left hand. It would be an awkward shot, but better than nothing. “Northern staging area just ahead. Slowing,” Occam said. “No sign of vehicles. Turning in. Tell SWAT we have an acceptable staging area, but there are three occupied homes between us and the target.”

“Copy,” Rick said.

Yummy whispered, “I hear footsteps. Too soft to be human. I count two Mithrans coming up the stairs.”

“We can’t wait,” I said.

“Ingram and Occam. Stay put,” FireWind said.

I wanted to scream. “Respectfully, sir, we just found a dead body,” I said, hearing the fury and disagreement and fear in my words, “indicating imminent danger to human inhabitants.” A thought hit me. “Send a unit by with lights and sirens. Maybe it’ll startle them away.”

“Negative,” Rick said to me. “I will not endanger my team. Or the local LEOs.”

“No time,” Yummy whispered. I heard the cell placed down with a soft clatter. “Passing the southern perimeter,” T. Laine said. “No live or undead bodies at the panel vans per seeing working, but psy-meter shows presence of Mithran energies. Permission to disable the vans?”

“Arcane or mundane means?” FireWind asked.

“Either.”

“Come on, come on, come on,” I whispered to the night and to Yummy.

“If you can disable the vehicles without danger to yourselves, yes,” Rick said.

“Okay, boss. Going in,” Lainie said.

Over my cell I heard two shots fired, close up. The particular but distant ululation of a vamp dying. Thumping sounds. Shots fired from farther away. Then a final shot, Yummy’s last round. Then nothing. I wanted to scream or throw things. We were right here. We could have done something.

A full minute later, her voice rasping from physical activity, T. Laine said, “Vans can still drive, but they won’t track properly with multiple tires slashed in the sidewalls.” Her car door closed softly in the background. “Drive,” she finished.

Over the cell came a peculiar sound like a titter of drunken laughter. “Day-am. I’m a better shot than I thought,” Yummy whispered.

Relief shook me like a child’s rattle. Tears filled my eyes. Thank you, I mouthed to the night and to God. I was pretty sure I had been praying—for a vampire, of all the strange things in my life.

Yummy said, “I took their weapons and the last of their blood. I now have a total of six rounds and a measure of healing, but it’s not enough. I’m leaking and we have more troubles coming. Humans on the way. And they are not friendlies.” I heard shots in the distance over the cell, staccato. And the sound of voices pleading, barely heard. “They have our humans hostage. I’m going in.”

Rick said, “Tell her no. SWAT is nearly there.”

“I heard,” Yummy whispered. “Rick LaFleur, if you can hear me, I’m not one of yours, but you can call this fanghead recon. I’m at the top of the stairs. I count ten human heartbeats and smell two enemy fangheads. Can’t get any closer without them catching my scent or sound. Backing back to my sniper hole.”

Rick cursed softly. Occam’s hands tightened on the wheel. This passivity was probably making his cat crazy.

“Can you get out?” I asked. Occam’s headlights illuminated a raccoon waddling in front of the car. Three juveniles gamboled behind the mother. They all disappeared.

“Not without walking through the hostages.”

“Can you punch your way through the floor into the garage?” I asked.

There was a sharp silence on the cell. Then, “That, Maggot, is brilliant. It’ll ruin my manicure, though.”

“We all make sacrifices,” I said. My sarcasm seemed to help because Yummy laughed.

Two cars and a SWAT van sped in behind us. Over the cell came the sounds of splintering wood. Shots fired as Yummy laid down cover fire. Then more splintering wood.

“I’m in the garage,” she whispered. “I have two rounds left. Ming will kill me, but I’m taking her Mercedes limo. The armor will let me punch through the garage door. Tell your people I’m heading out.”

“Copy that,” Rick said over the earbud. “One nonhostile escaping.” He gave details.

I heard a half dozen shots. Yummy grunted in pain. An engine roared to life, followed by a crash. And the sound of Yummy’s laughter, a little more crazy than I might have hoped. “Hey, Maggot,” she shouted. “I need blood. I got a couple more holes in me than just a minute past. Feed me, woman!”

“I’ll stake you first,” I said.

Yummy kept laughing. Her limo whipped into the small partially empty lot and up to Occam’s car. “Hello, cat. Maggot,” she said through her open window. There was blood on her clothing and in her pale hair, visible in the low glow created by multiple sets of headlights. Her skin was paper white and bloodless and she was vamped out. “I’m dying of thirst, but you can offer to be my hero later. What’ll it take to get SWAT to breach now?”

“They would have to be killing the human hostages,” Rick said into my earbud.

“I smelled dead and wounded humans,” Yummy said. Vampire hearing had let her overhear Occam’s and my comms. I’d have to remember that. “Two shot dead that I can account for. A lot … of human … blood,” she added. She was breathing fast and sounded a little crazy. Or a lot hungry.

Rick said, over the para frequency, “Gonzales. We have reliable inside intel that the attacking vampires and their humans are killing the local humans. Do we have a go?”

“We have a go,” FireWind said. Yummy laughed, a sound so far from human amusement that it made my hair stand up.

Gonzales said, “Douglas and Montgomery, take the back. Josephs and Avery, in through the garage door. I understand there’s a car-sized hole in it now. Smith and Flint, you have perimeter. Matthews and I have the front. On my mark.”

Yummy opened the limo door. Swiveled her body around until her feet were able to drop to the ground. Her blood splattered the earth only inches from Occam’s car. Only inches from me. The soil soaked up the vampire blood. Bloodlust stirred. I forced my shoulders down and breathed through my nose, watching the blood trickle down Yummy’s legs onto the ground, crimson in the headlights. “Hungry,” she whispered, echoing the need of my land.

Seconds later I heard each of the teams report they were in position. Then the SWAT leader said, “On go. One. Two. Three. Gogogogogogo.”

My heart leaped into my throat.