Cat's Choice (28 page)

Not realizing he was stalling for time for the innocent to be made safe and the Enforcers to arrive, one of the Vampire s spoke, “Old man, one gulp of your blood, and I’ll have all your power, and you’ll be dead. A new age is coming, and your kind is going to be put down. We don’t want your laws; we’ll make our own laws and take what we want. He’s the one our master wants dead. Kill him!” And they all rushed forward.

Foolish boys,
thought Attilio, as he quickly shifted from the form of a squirrel and dodged beneath their feet to get behind them. They didn’t have time to go after him as their forward rush brought them into the store where they were confronted with Romy, Larkin, and Tey, all holding lances. Two of the Vampire s were killed immediately. That left t hree Vampire s and two wolves. Attilio shifted back and struck down a third Vampire . The fifth, the leader, had broken away from the main fight and raced towards Sofia with his sword held high.

Isabella jumped in front of her with a stake in her hand. As she plunged the stake through his ribs pushing towards his heart, he swung his sword down into her back. She screamed at the pain but didn’t stop pushing the stake, holding on to him with her other arm. He locked her within his embrace and grabbed the end of his sword in his other hand and slowly began pulling it through her body to cut her in half. She could feel that she had pierced one chamber and his aorta and was trying to find the strength to push through the last inch and kill him. Her strength was failing. He bent his head and piled more pain upon her by taking her blood, even as it poured from her body. She could feel the sword severing her spine. Once he got through the bone, he would have no further resistance.

Suddenly, Sofia was there at her side. Using her strength, she grasped Isabella’s elbow and shoved the stake the rest of the way in. The Vampire was dead, though his jaw was locked on Isabella’s neck and his arms around her. The sword had penetrated an inch and was now being held by her own body.

The fighting had spilled onto the street, and ten additional Vampire s had joined in the attack. The Vampire Enforcer team had arrived to fight while Romy, Larkin, Tey, and Attilio kept the entrance secure.

Sofia called out and Bama and the others came out of the office where Trace, Shane, and the other men had quickly shoved them when the lights went out. Sofia and Isabella had been in the dressing room, and were still in the store when the attack hit. Attilio, hearing his wife’s distress, came also. He made short work of disentangling Isabella from the dead Vampire . Then he removed the sword, and the ladies swooped in to help the now unconscious Isabella . Trace and Shane stood ready in case any others came in as Bama grabbed clothes from the racks to apply pressure to the wounds. She wasn’t dead; her heartbeat and breathing had slowed to lessen the amount of blood flow.

“Attilio, she stepped right in front of me. It happened so fast!” she cried.

“It will be all right, her heart wasn’t damaged; she will heal. For now, we need to keep everyone’s safe until these Rogue s are defeated. Let me remove this trash.” And he picked up the arm of the dead Vampire to drag him outside. As he approached the entrance and called out for the others to make way, they spun around. Romy, Larkin, and Tey, when they saw Attilio , rushed into the store. In the midst of the fight, they hadn’t seen the Vampire breakaway. They wanted to check on their mates, and were appalled at the sight that met their eyes. Blood was everywhere; they couldn’t understand how Isabella could still be alive.

Meanwhile, Attilio stepped onto the sidewalk still pulling the dead Vampire . A Rogue wolf, spotting him, broke off from the fighting and ran full out to attack him. At the last minute, he flung the Vampire ‘s dead body, knocking over the wolf. Then leaned over and broke its neck.

Within a few moments, the fighting stopped, the attack defeated. Cleanup of the scene began immediately. The Vampire /Enforcer team went back into the store to escort the Chosen, and the wounded back to the compound. Just then, Cloe came running down the street. “Abaven yelled out that Isabella was injured. I got here as fast as I could. They’re still fighting over at the House of Gaming; it was winding down when I left.”

Some of the Pack members present took off to the warehouse to protect their Alphas.

***

Kira closed the lobby and computer gaming rooms. Her employees wanted to watch the final match of the laser tag tournament between the shifters and the Vampire s. Dotted around the warehouse on the second floor were observation platforms for live viewing and a part of the second floor had a lounge that had multiple viewing screens fed streaming data from cameras throughout the laser-tag arena.

In the lounge were off-duty Enforcers and several female Pack members. Jean-Paul and Charlie drove in from Denver to watch the match and cheer on their Alpha. They left their mates in Denver. Sarah and Judy thought laser-tag was silly and had stayed in Denver to visit their parents, Jean-Paul said earlier in the day, for the ears of any watchers. They increased the number of Enforcers in Milliken, using the match as an excuse. There were a lot more Enforcers than the attackers would most likely expect.

The additional Enforcers were split between the lounge and the various observation platforms. The largest of these held Cami, Cloe, Caterina, and Lacy, all of whom had mates in the match going on below, as well as Kira and her business partner, a weasel she called “Q”. In order to be quiet, the men were going barefoot. The laser vests were velcroed over bare chests, and they all wore tear—away sweat pants. They wanted to shift easily when the attack occurred.

When the power went off, it took a few moments before the emergency lighting kicked on. That’s when Diavolo, and his men attacked. They came through the two emergency exits at the back of the laser-tag arena and immediately began hunting the players.

Diavolo immediately scanned, and seeing Caterina, started working his way over to her. Enforcers in the lounge began feeding information to the players’ earpieces as they watched the vamps move around. Enforcers began pouring into the arena from the entranceways, and he could see that his followers wouldn’t be able to hold them off for long. Caterina had been pushed back into a corner with the other women standing in front of her as they held off any enemies trying to climb up to them.

Diavolo shifted into a spider and scrambled up the wall as fast as he could, staying to the deeper shadows. Soon he was hovering over the observation deck. The fighting was at its peak, when suddenly, a huge Ambrosetti warrior let out a roar and started lashing out like a berserker, slashing everything in his path. He knew then that soon the Enforcers would turn the tide.

Leaping down into the midst of the women, he grabbed Caterina and pushed two of the women over the balcony of the platform. At the women’s screams, the door behind burst open and several Enforcers came out in a rush. He jumped over the railing, down to the floor of the arena, and started to run towards the exit, calling his followers to cover his escape with the prize.

As he made his way to the emergency door, Cloe and the Enforcers reached over to pull Kira and Lacy from where they were hanging over the railing. Cami was yelling down to the guys, tracking Diavolo’s progress. “He’s almost to the door, damnit ; somebody stop him!” While down below, Abaven kept shouting, “Die now , coglione! Go to your Master, the Devil!” each time he’d swung his sword or shoved a stake in an opponent. He wasn’t trying to kill outright; he was happy to maim them for others to use their finesse to kill. He threw his lance and scooped up a battle axe, taking off arms, legs, and heads left and right. Seeing Cloe up above, he shouted, “Isabella is hurt, go to her!” A group of Enforcers followed behind and ran stakes through the Vampire s left writhing on the ground. They were newly turned and didn’t know how to deal with their wounds. Diavolo didn’t care enough about them to teach them.

Diavolo made it to the exit with a struggling and screaming Caterina in his arms. He pushed her ahead of him out the door, confident that his followers would prevent anyone coming after them, giving him time to get away. All at once, he felt Caterina being pulled away from him. As he stepped through the door with two of his followers, he was confronted with Tripp and Orfeo. Tripp was holding a lance and Orfeo a sword.

Orfeo immediately attacked, and he sent his two vamps to Orfeo while he went towards Tripp and Caterina . He saw that the lance Tripp held was made of Ash, the symbols etched down its length proving that it was magically blessed. He would have to be careful and fast. He dodged forward and could hear one of his men die. He pushed the lance to the side , reaching for the wolf’s throat when he took a punch to the face and a kick to his knee, debilitating him. He heard his second follower go down.

Diavolo could see that he wouldn’t be able to fight them both. He could hear the fighting approaching the door behind him. He knew then that he was defeated in his aim. He hoped his other team had been successful in grabbing some of the children. He pulled out his dagger and baring his teeth at Orfeo; he threw it straight at Caterina’s heart and shifted into a bat and flew away.

Orfeo, using his Vampire speed, leapt in front of Caterina and took the knife in his chest. Being taller, the knife hit him a little lower. He stood there staring after Diavolo, yanking the knife from his chest and holding a handkerchief over the wound. He didn’t want to alarm his mates, and it would take a day or so to heal without a blood donation. Pressing against the wound, he turned to where Tripp was helping Caterina to her feet. He smiled at them both and said, “A bat, how cliche. How do you feel about returning to the Pack house? We’ll call the game a draw.”

Tripp gave him a sharp look; he could scent Orfeo’s blood. For Caterina’s sake, he held silent. She was quietly weeping. “Caterina , it’s all over. Let’s go back to the Pack house and see if everyone else is okay.”

Abaven and a few others came out the back door and took in the scene. Not wanting to go back into the building, they made their way around to the front. They quickly climbed into one of the Pack vehicles in the parking lot and took off. As they reached the compound, they could see some other vehicles ahead. It took a few minutes as they were still clearing a wreck from the attack at the gates.

Caterina was huddled in the front seat while Tripp drove. Abaven and Orfeo were in the middle seat, and two Enforcers were in the back. She’d had a shock. She couldn’t believe Orfeo had stepped in front of her and Tripp like that. Even getting to know him over the last few weeks , deep down, she had still supposed him to be like Diavolo. Now she knew he was not. He was a good man; he loved her, and he happened to be a Vampire . She would work harder at overcoming her aversion to having him take her blood. She could hear Abaven and Orfeo in the back seat talking in low voices. Then Abaven said loudly, “You are as stubborn as a mule! You need blood to heal that wound properly. It was a magical blade.”

Tripp, waiting on the trucks in front of him to move, turned off the engine and got out. He immediately opened the back door and demanded to see Orfeo’s injury. “There is nothing to worry about , mio lupo. I will recover quickly.”

“You’ve taken my blood before, handsome, so no arguments.” He looked into the back. “Eric, you’ll need to drive as this will make me unfit for the next half-hour or so. Abaven, let me have your place . You might want to run ahead and find Isabella.” At that, Orfeo looked up in surprise. “Abaven, your mate is injured! Leave me, I’m in good hands, go to her! That is an order.” So Abaven jumped from the vehicle to find his Isabella.

Tripp climbed into his place; he turned and brushed the hair out of Orfeo’s eyes. “Come, my mate, I need you whole now. You will not be taking for this is my free gift to you. Drink all you need to heal yourself.” And he gathered Orfeo against his own chest and tilted his head to the side.

At first, Orfeo licked and kissed the spot to numb it, then sank his fangs deep, and drank from the flow, suckling from the opening in the skin. He knew Caterina was watching from the front seat and prayed he wasn’t scaring the daylights out of her. A minute later, he began licking Tripp’s neck to close the holes. They had already started to scab over and would be healed by morning.