“Thank you, Mitchell,” Warren smiled grimly. He moved to do just that, sliding the door shut without allowing the locks to catch. Mitchell turned to the woman in the corner, pulling his revolver. Talon unlatched the final cuff on Alex’s legs. He pulled the young man into an upright sitting position by the collar of his shirt. Talon then let Alex go to see if he would stay upright. The young man swayed, but didn’t fall.
“Yes,” Talon confirmed, glancing over his shoulder to Warren. “He’ll have to be carried.”
Opportunity presented itself. Alex didn’t think twice. He hardly thought at all; he just moved. Alex snatched the gladius from Talon’s belt with his right hand while his left grabbed Talon’s wrist. The vampire turned his attention to it just in time to see Alex swing the short sword down with everything he had. The blade went clean through Talon’s arm at the elbow.
Talon screamed. He swatted at Alex with his left hand but Alex ducked it it, sat up again and slashed deeply through Talon’s throat. He swung once more, back in the other direction, like a man who’d wielded a gladius in years of combat. He hit with enough precision and torque to go clean through the rest of Talon’s neck.
Mitchell twisted around to see what happened. The woman chained at his feet had just enough slack in her bonds to reach him. Her teeth clamped down on Mitchell’s wrist. The gunslinger shrieked as she pulled him back.
Warren’s eyes went wide in surprise and horror. Before Talon’s head hit the floor, Alex flung the gladius straight into Warren’s neck. It landed with a sickening sound; the sorcerer stumbled, clutching at the blood-spurting wound. As he fell back, thrashing for support, Warren pushed the door the rest of the way shut.
Already crumbling, Talon’s body fell forward onto the table. Alex snatched up the pistol in Talon’s underarm holster. By the time Mitchell wrenched his arm free of the captive woman, Alex had twisted around with the.45 in his hands.
In any other circumstance, Mitchell would have been the much faster draw. As it happened, though, he took two bullets in the chest before his gun was up. Mitchell staggered back into the reach of the woman behind him again, who tugged at his duster and brought him down to the ground. His body swiftly turned to ash. The six-shooter fell away with a clatter.
Alex scrambled off the table. His eyes were red from weeping, with the tracks of his tears still plainly visible on his face. To the contrary of Talon’s assessment, Alex wasn’t tired at all; not after a succubus had teased his body for so long, leaving him electrified-unwelcome though it may have been-and not with someone he loved in such danger. He pulled the gun belt from Mitchell’s remains.
“You must free me, Carlisle,” the woman growled.
“Lady, everything I’ve seen here tonight is something horrible and fucked up, and I don’t even know who you are,” Alex told her. His callousness surprised him, but then he suddenly felt surprised at being surprised. Since when was he so naïve? “For all I know you’re something even worse than these guys.”
“The enemy of your enemy is your friend,” she said.
“Wow, did you totally flunk US History? That line’s the biggest crock of shit in the world, right there.” He threw the gun belt around his waist. It was a little high for his taste, so he fought to adjust it. Then he blinked. He’d never worn a gun belt before. Had he?
“I am a hostage of the vampires. Would you leave me here with them?”
Of course he couldn’t do that. But still… “How do I know you aren’t one of them?”
“Do I look like one of them? I aided you. They have me chained here. What more do you need to know?”
“You aided yourself,” Alex said. He picked up the revolver and checked the load. “What’s with these bullets? I thought vampires were supposed to be bulletproof.”
“They have no need for their internal organs,” the woman explained, “but they are vulnerable to certain elements. The tips of the bullets are made with a mixture of silver and…other things. The greatest threats to vampires are usually other vampires. Why would they carry weapons that would not harm their own kind?”
Alex stopped and looked at the woman. She might have been pretty, but for the complete lack of a shower or a toothbrush or a comb for who knew how long.
“Your Rachel is not dead,” the woman said. “The blonde woman lied to you.”
“How do you know?” he gasped.
“She wears human flesh. She is not truly human…yet that is a human form. The body betrays itself with certain clues when one lies. My senses are sharp. Carlisle, please,” the woman implored him, holding up her chained wrists.
Alex thought it over. His compassionate nature fought with memories of a dozen harsh lessons learned by other men in other times. It was all a jumble. He didn’t have those memories before tonight and wasn’t even sure were his. Grumbling, he pulled the latches on her manacles. As they fell away, he noticed gleaming silver strips inside them.
“You are no ordinary college student,” the woman said.
“Yeah, actually, I am.”
“When did you learn to fight like that?”
Alex blinked. He hadn’t paused to process it. “A long time ago, I guess,” he murmured to himself. Tears began to well up in his eyes, but he blinked them away. There wasn’t time for that. He had to hold it together. Alex pushed away his cacophony of memories of Halla and Katherine and those last minutes in the bush that threatened to pull him down into despair again.
The woman grabbed his shoulder. “I am Diana, daughter of Caleb,” she told him with a fierce pride. “My people are the eternal enemies of the vampires.”
“Um. That’s great. I’m Alex.”
Diana took his hand at the wrist, like a warrior. “Gather weapons. I am ready.”
Alex did as she suggested. He went over to Talon’s dusty remains to grab his pistol harness and the sheath for his gladius before pulling the bloody blade from Warren. Alex checked the weapons with a quickness and familiarity that surprised him. It was only then, looking at the blood on the blade and the dead body at his feet, that it hit him. He had just killed a man. Three, if one counted the vampires…but regardless of their states of life or unlife, he just killed Warren.
He couldn’t sort out if this was the first time or if it was nothing new at all.
“The door,” Diana said.
Alex tried it. “Locked,” he grunted.
“I know. Move,” she said. Alex then noticed that she had removed practically all her clothes. Diana lurched forward, literally expanding and growing a prodigious amount of body hair with each quick step. It all quickly became fur. Her head lengthened into a snout. Her hands turned into claws. She growled with an animal fury that sent Alex scrambling back.
Her claws plunged into the metal. She dug into it, forcing an ear-splitting noise from the door that almost sounded like a scream as she wrenched it from its reinforced hinges. The wolf-monster that had been Diana fell backward as she tore the door out of Alex’s way.
He spotted Jack in the hallway, rushing up with his Thompson at the ready. Alex had his six-shooter out in a flash, fanning the hammer and putting three of his six bullets into Jack’s guts. The vampire got off a burst, but only a short one. Bullets went wild, ricocheting off of the concrete walls of the hallway. Jack crumpled to the ground.
Alex glanced down at Diana, who was now entirely human and naked on the floor. “You okay?” he asked.
“I’ll manage,” she grunted. Alex offered his hand, which she took as she rose from of the concrete. “This building is still warded. We won’t escape without breaching the ward somehow.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Alex said.
“I’ll explain,” Diana shrugged. She looked at him intently. “Get me out of here and I will make you my mate for life.”
“Woah! Um. I’m good,” Alex said, his eyes going wide and his hands spread out before him in a big “stop” motion. “I’ve got that covered. I’m totally good. Just gotta go rescue my girlfriend from some bad guys and I’m all good.”