Even though the car was full, no one said a word. The air was heavy, and I could practically taste the nervous energy on my tongue. The weight of the crossbow helped calm my nerves. Had I not learned how to use it, I may not have come.
We had only been driving for ten minutes, when the car came to a stop in a run-down part of the city. Many of the small homes looked abandoned with their windows boarded up and grass as high as my knees. I was glad it was daytime.
“Everyone out,” Kelley said. “Cut through a couple of back yards to your right until you reach a home with olive green siding. When you get the go-ahead, swarm the place like its frat house on homecoming night. And remember, we’re trying to take at least one of them alive.”
Kelley jumped from the SUV, followed by the others. I was the last one out. Charlie was already scampering across the backyard of the vacant home in front me. I was pretty sure he would be upset if he knew I was here, but he’d said once that he wanted me to choose which side to fight on. This was me doing just that.
I waded through tall grass then ducked through a broken fence like everyone else. The house we were descending upon looked worse than the neighborhood. Overgrown trees and shrubs had grown all around the warped structure, breaking even the back porch and a few of the windows. Little daylight touched the partially collapsed roof. Vampires must love it here. From what Boaz had told me, most vampires didn’t live a life of luxury like him. They chose to exist in the shadows, hidden from both mankind and other supernaturals where they felt it was safer. But Boaz never feared others. I know now it was because he could use magic where other vamps couldn’t.
Kelley signaled with her hand for us to stop. I froze, partially blocked behind a shed. Charlie turned to me just then, but I quickly lowered my face and waited several seconds before I looked up again. Charlie was facing the house, seemingly unaware of my presence. I exhaled the breath I’d been holding.
“Get ready,” Kelley whispered.
I unhooked an arrow from the quiver on my hip and loaded it into the crossbow, careful to keep my finger off the trigger. A few men closer to the home pulled down what looked like binoculars over their eyes. My guess was they were night vision goggles.
A moment later, Charlie motioned for these men to go into the house first. They carefully stepped around the broken steps and onto the porch where one of them attempted to open the back door, but it was closed tight. Had I wanted to use magic, I could’ve easily opened it, but fear clenched my heart at the very thought.
Charlie made a motion with his hand I didn’t understand. The lead man near the door shoved his shoulder into the door, knocking it down and making me jump. Kelley gave me a funny look, but I ignored her and tried to calm my racing pulse.
As soon as the men with the night goggles had gone inside, Charlie went in after them, indicating with a small nod that the rest of us should follow. When it was my turn to go inside, I hesitated for the briefest of moments when faced with the darkness within the home. Maybe I should’ve waited. Without my magic, I was only as good as the aim of my arrow, which wouldn’t be that great without light.
Kelley nudged me forward, so I stepped inside. The air was unusually cold, but then I heard the gentle hum of an air conditioner coming from somewhere within. Behind me, Kelley turned on a flashlight. Its beam lit up small sections of the room. There was a yellow couch covered in dust and crumpled up potato chip wrappers. A TV had fallen over on its side onto what I thought was brown carpet, but other parts of the floor were more gray in color. To my left was a narrow kitchen. I turned on the small light attached to the top of my crossbow, illuminating the space. Dishes were piled high in the sink. By the looks of them, they hadn’t been used in years. Vampires had no need of them.
A series of popping sounds made the other three in the room with me freeze. It wasn’t like a gun going off, but more like someone cracking their knuckles…only louder. I couldn’t see Charlie or the others as they had already moved farther into the home. Kelley was standing to my side, shining her light into a hallway. I raised my bow in that direction, my finger hovering over the trigger.
In a split second, everything changed. Kelley reacted much quicker than I did. She spun away just as someone, or something, attacked her. I wasn’t as lucky spotting the lightning-fast, inhuman movement, so when it slammed into me I flew back into the wall. I didn’t mean to cry out, but it had been so long since I had experienced any kind of physical pain that I couldn’t hold back the surprise.
I gritted my teeth and slid up the wall, back into a standing position, readjusting my bow to face forward. My small beam of light caught flashes of movement: an elbow to a cheek, a knee to a stomach, a splatter of blood across the wall. A gun went off. Kelley’s peacekeeper.
Do something!