It was a family of Werewolves and they were a mess. They were dressed loudly and sloppy. The kids were smacking each other and had remnants of popsicle and chocolate all over them. The husband appeared bored and was trying to pretend he wasn't part of the motley crew. He stood slightly off to the left and stared at his fingernails.
The overly made-up and exhausted woman sniffed the air and sighed with relief.
"I knew it," she sang out and slapped two of the more unruly kids in the head. "I knew there were Wolves here. We're visiting from out of town and we got our credit cards stolen. Do you have any money we could borrow for a taxi back to our hotel and possibly a little extra for a bottle of Jack?"
"Is she for real?" Hank asked.
"Um… I think so. Do I give her money?"
"Normally I'd say no, but we need her and her brood to leave. Give her a hundred."
"Those kids are damn big," I mumbled as I reached into my pocket and pulled out a wad of cash.
As the woman reached greedily for the money, my instincts kicked in and a horrid feeling of dread shot up my spine.
"That's because they're not kids." Hank yelled as he pulled his weapons.
It happened so fast I was unsure if I was seeing it correctly. All hell had broken loose as the ragtag little family from out of town drew baseball bats and knives and syringes. What the hell?
"Duck," I hissed at Dima and Angela as I took aim and prepared to fire.
Dima was close enough to pull behind me, but Angela got swallowed up in the melee.
I had expected trouble from the Dragon or my boss, not from a group of garishly dressed Werewolves from out of town. We couldn't catch a break lately if it bit us in the ass.
"Do you know these freaks?" Dima hissed as she grabbed one of her knives and planted it in the head of a Wolf that was beating on Angela with a bat.
"Hell to the no," I snapped as I picked off two who were running at us with syringes held high.
Syringes? Who were these people? And what in the hell was in the syringes?
Hank used his fists. Dima hurled knives and I vacillated between throwing stars and daggers. A gun would draw entirely too much attention. I was shocked and grateful we hadn't attracted an audience.
As fast as it started it was over. In all the confusion and screaming not one of us realized several of the children had come up behind us. I felt a horrific burning as a large needle pierced my spine. My knees buckled and I saw Hank falling forward as the poison entered his system. Turning my head with inhuman effort, I realized Hank and I might have gotten off easy. The sound of the bat connecting to Dima's head was something I would have a difficult time forgetting. It caved the back of her skull in and she dropped to the ground like lead. Thankfully the blow wouldn't kill her, but it was awful to see. Bright red blood saturated her red locks and her eyes remained open. She looked dead.
"What's happening?" I whispered Hank as I tried to move.
"They injected us with something that paralyzed us," he grunted. "I think the Vampyre blood is the only reason we're not completely knocked out."
Dwayne comes through again…
"Who in the hell are they?"
"Don't know. Essie, even if you can move, stay still. The Vamp blood might negate the crap they shot us up with. We don't want them to know," Hank instructed.
I did as told and searched the thinning crowd for Angela. Had she been injected? Was she dead?
"Hank, I can't move at all. Can you?"
"Nope, not yet."
The family backed away and formed a circle around us effectively blocking out anyone who passed by. Angela lay on the far side and was a bloody mess. My gut clenched in disgust with myself. I never should have taken her weapons. She looked half dead. She could have killed a couple of the bastards if she'd been armed. What the hell had I been thinking?
"Essie, do not second guess yourself," Hank reprimanded harshly.
"How did you know I was?" I asked, surprised. Son of a bitch, could he read my mind too?
"I know how you think," he said. "Angela will live. A beating will not kill her."
"Well, at least we know she's not the bad guy."
Nope, she was not the bad guy and the family was only the hors d'oeuvre for the bad guy. The bad guys had finally arrived. There were four of them and they were huge.
"God damn it," Hank growled. "I should have known."
"It's some of the Council, isn't it?"
"Yep. It's the top guards for the Council members themselves," he said as he watched them closely. "Can you move yet?"
"No."
Ignoring us completely, the guards went directly to Angela and continued the beating—her body flailed about like a rag doll. My stomach roiled and my heart was beating so hard I was certain it would burst from my chest. Was she being punished for communicating with us off the grid? Did the Council not know about Dima? Were they planning on killing her in front of us? Were we next?
"I need to move," I grunted as I tried desperately to make my useless muscles work. "I have to kill them. They can't do that to her. It's my fault she's unarmed. I have to protect her."
Hank's fury and frustration flowed off of him in waves. The utter insanity of what we were watching made no sense. How was this happening?
"Little bro bro? Essie?" Junior's voice boomed through our heads. "I'm in the zoo. Where in hell and tarnation are you?"