We were the only two moving in slow motion. As we stared into one another, our companions were locked in combat. A blur of white-blonde was all I could see of Shaz as he took down an agent waving a gun. A shot was fired, hitting the lights over the dance floor. A shower of sparks cascaded down around us.
Kale was throwing off FPA agents like they were children. Using both physical strength and metaphysical power, he had little problem fending them off. For now. Eventually, someone was going to get hurt.
“I’m not going to be treated like a criminal by an agency that would use my own sister against me. Think about what you’re doing, Juliet.”
She flipped a long curl out of her face and clenched the stake tightly. “I’m doing my job.”
Talking it out like long lost family made whole again just wasn’t going to happen. I spared a glance at Kale, finding him overrun with agents. Where were they coming from? I let loose the blast of energy I’d been holding. It slammed into the agents, taking several of them down.
I nodded to Juliet. “Fair enough.”
For a split second, there was only us, my sister and me, and the memories of the night everything had changed for us. And, then time resumed its regular pace, shattering the dark cloud of nostalgia. We were never going to get that back. Those young girls we’d both been, they had died that night. We weren’t the same anymore. That was painfully clear when I blocked Juliet’s first hit.
She was a good fighter. Gone were her days of scratches and hair pulling. She knew how to throw her body around, how to take a hit and to throw one, but after so many years on the mean streets at night, so did I.
I knocked the stake from her hand with a kick. She used the opportunity to grab my ankle and twist. I went down hard on the floor, twisting along with her to avoid a broken ankle. Jerking my foot from her grasp, I threw a psi ball at her to gain the seconds needed to get to my feet. Another shot went off, and an agent dropped, holding his leg and screaming.
Juliet was ready for me with a fist that I narrowly dodged. We danced then, a back and forth game of hits and blocks, trying to catch the other off guard. She was spry and light on her feet. More than once, she caught me by surprise. I wasn’t above using metaphysical assistance to push her back and knock her feet out from under her.
I kept expecting her to come to her senses and call a stop to this madness. What drove her wasn’t simply a desire to do her job. It was having me in front of her after so long, and finally being able to unleash her anger over what Raoul did to us. She wanted me to pay for being his lover.
Seeing fangs on my sister was unnerving. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I wasn’t giving in either. Shots went off, and this time one of my vampires fell, injured but not dead. I couldn’t allow anything to happen to Kale or Shaz. I was going to be forced into admitting defeat.
Juliet rushed me again, and this time she had claws. No deal; I wasn’t willing to kill her, so this had to stop now. I rounded on her with a high kick. It hit her square in the forehead, and she went down. I got on top of her, pinning her with my weight and a push of power.
“Tell them to stop!” I demanded. “Now.”
She stared up at me with angry wolf eyes. I could feel her hesitance. With a hand on her throat, I gave her a shake. “Dammit, Juliet. Can’t you see that our people are going to die over a dead woman who was a goddamn traitor? Stop them.”
Rationale battled passionate, righteous fury behind Juliet’s dark eyes. “Enough!” She shouted, and like magic, every agent took a defensive stance but obeyed her command.
Shaz and the few vampires who had come to our aid dropped back, watching me for direction. Kale wiped blood from the corner of his lip. A dead agent lay at his feet. Well, that was really going to help our case, wasn’t it?
I groaned inwardly before standing up and pulling Juliet to her feet. “You want to watch me suffer. I get that. Really, I do. So you win. Let’s go.”
Juliet pulled away from me, her eyes downcast. “It’s not like that. I have a job to do.”
“Let me save you the family drama.” Kale stepped forward with a confident swagger. Every agent’s gun was trained on him, but he paid them no mind. “You don’t want Alexa. You want me. And, I’ll go with you right now without any further trouble if you leave her out of this.”
Agent Asshole practically threw himself at Juliet in protest. He clutched his broken arm to his chest. A sheen of sweat glistened on his brow and his breath came fast. “Hell no. She was at the murder scene.”
Kale set his sights on the agent, and the power just oozed from him. “I acted alone. I killed Abigail Irving, and I loved every damn moment. You only want me.”
The heady allure of vampire power was so strong that I almost believed him. A human like Agent Asshole didn’t stand a chance under that kind of persuasion. He nodded, dumbfounded and silent. Juliet appeared uncertain. I wanted to protest what Kale was doing, but I couldn’t form the words.