Origins (A Demonkin Novel) (28 page)

I heard a rip, pop, and several squishy noises. I glanced over at Thompson, expecting to see my partner, not a seven hundred pound werelion. I guess he could feel or smell the vamps too. I nodded at him and he gave me a little growl. I just hoped the vamps didn't hear it too. I debated pulling my gun out, but my reflexes and armaments would probably be better suited for this anyway. It's hard to kill somebody quietly with a Glock 23.

We made our way to the front door. I seriously doubted it would be unlocked, but I had to try it anyway. How many times in a movie did people win the day after trudging the hard way to face off with a bad guy only to find the front door unlocked at the end of the movie. My suspicions confirmed somebody had locked it when I gave a little tug on the handle. I looked over at Thompson to see if he wanted me to rip it open. He gave a low growl and looked up.

My gaze followed his and I saw the vamp on the roof un-slinging a high powered rifle just above us.
Fuck
. If he got a shot off, everyone would come running. Thompson took care of it while I debated what to do. With a single leap he landed on top of the roof. The vampire stared in shock when Thompson swiped across his face from back to front, effectively knocking him off the roof. He gave a growl and bounded away as the vamp fell toward me. There must have been others on the roof acting as sentries. I considered letting the vamp fall to the ground, but at the last minute I stretched my arms out to break his fall. He lay in my arms as I looked down at the bloody remnants of his face and sank my teeth into his neck and tore out his throat.

The wound wouldn't kill him, but he wouldn't be rushing to Cicero's aid for quite a while. I unceremoniously dumped the body on the ground out of sight of the door and looked for a way to get up onto the roof. I had no idea how high I could jump myself, so I decided to give it a shot. I crouched low and sprang out with my legs. To say I cleared the roof would be one of the greatest understatements of my life. If the building had been three times taller, I would have still cleared it with room to spare. From my vantage point I saw Thompson winding his way around the large air-conditioning units perched upon the roof top. I finally reached the apex of the arc of my jump and gravity started working again. I could feel myself being tugged slowly downward. Then I started feeling myself being tugged faster, and faster. I realized I would make quite a large noise when my body reached terminal velocity and drove me into, and quite possibly through, the roof of the building. Things kept getting better and better.

I willed myself to slow down. I really didn't expect it to work, but son of a bitch if it didn't. I could feel the pull lessen as I slowed my descent. I didn't even make a sound as I landed gently about twenty feet from one of the other sentries looking out over the streets below. I padded as silently as I could as I closed the gap. The only problem with sneaking up behind vampires is they can hear a mouse fart from fifty feet. I crept along silent enough to impress even a ninja, but it wasn't good enough, not even a little. He must have been expecting me to be one of his comrades because he nonchalantly turned his head.

I did the only thing I could do. I sprang. I hit him at chest level and we both went over the side of the building. I latched onto him with tooth and claw and I rode him down. He landed on his back with a sickening crunch and I landed on top of him, my face buried in his neck. My face is probably what broke his neck. I'm not going to lie, it fucking hurt. At least we had landed behind the building where nobody could see or hear us, kudos to me.

Incapacitated guard number two, meant Thompson had two sentries left up on the roof. He dispatched the south sentry on his way up, and I had just landed on the north sentry. We still had east and west to take care of. I stood up for a minute and allowed my face to heal, and yes, I actually had to straighten my broken nose so it wouldn't heal at an acute angle to my cheekbone. I crouched again once it set and jumped again, this time with just enough force to keep me out of orbit. I really needed to practice this shit. This time I didn't jump hard enough and I barely reached the roof ledge with my fingers. I hung there for a few moments before I heard footsteps walking towards my perch.

I looked up and saw the muzzle of the gun come into view. The sentry must have thought he heard something down in the parking area below me and noticed the missing sentry. As the gun tip came into view it lowered down pointing itself over my back toward the ground. I gulped, reached up and grabbed the gun and yanked, hard. I almost laughed when I saw the gun and the sentry both fall from the roof to the ground. I watched as the vamp did a full summersault and land on his feet below me. Shit, I let go with my remaining hand as he turned and tried to line up his rifle to fire. I made it to the ground right before he pulled the trigger, barely.

My body took over. He had the rifle up against his cheek as he sighted down the barrel at me. Time slowed again and I saw his finger tighten on the trigger. Could I close the five feet between us before he depressed it completely? You bet your ass I did. My hand closed on the barrel of the weapon. I felt the coolness of the barrel against my palm as I jammed the crosshairs of the sight into his face. He let go and clutched his bleeding face in his hands. Before he could cry out I swung the weapon down double handed over his head, dropping him to the ground and making him forget about the bloody remnants of his eye.

I looked up and couldn't hear any fighting between Thompson and the last sentry. Either he had dispatched him or was trying to. I took a chance and jumped again. The third time's the charm I guess. I judged the distance perfectly this time and stuck my foot out and stood on the edge of the rooftop. I smiled at my accomplishment. I gave a little giggle, unable to stop myself. Thompson looked up from the red mess at his feet and gave me a sour look, which looked kind of funny plastered on a lion. He shook his head and little bits of vampire flew from his muzzle. I padded my way over to him since he stood right next to the roof access hatch.

"Ready?" I got a low rumble in his throat I took as an affirmative.

I turned the handle and lifted up on the roof hatch. I peered down through the opening to see if they had been smart enough to post a sentry at the bottom of the ladder. Lucky for us, the way seemed clear. I moved to step onto the ladder and make my way down it when Thompson jumped through the hole and dropped the ten feet down to the floor. I raised my eyebrows at how silently he landed. I guess the thick pads on the bottom of his feet weren't just for walking over rough terrain. I decided against the ladder and followed suit, my shoes making a little more noise than his lion feet. I stood from my crouch and looked around.

We stood on a landing overlooking the bottom floor of the warehouse. From our vantage point we could see rows and rows of empty metal storage racks. What use Cicero could have for such vast storage facilities we would probably never know. If everything went according to plan he would be out of business by sun up tomorrow.

We made our way to the metal banister marking the edge of the landing floor. We could see the entire warehouse from this vantage. Beyond the rows and rows of racks stood what looked to be an office built against the far wall complete with windows and a very sturdy looking door. The windows had blinds but the slats were open allowing the occupants of the office to see out on the warehouse floor. Unfortunately from the angle we had we couldn't see in, but neither could they see us.

Thompson made the first move. He leapt from the landing and onto the top of the nearest storage rack. The top shelf sat only about ten feet lower than the landing, but about thirty feet away. I knew I could leap far enough, but I wasn't comfortable enough with my control not to over jump it and bring them all crashing down like a row of giant dominoes. We had the element of surprise and I intended to keep it.

I let Thompson take the high road and I decided for the low. I opted for silence over speed and made my way down the three landings of stars to the bottom floor. I made my way over to the maze of metal storage and put my back against it, trying to see into the office. I could make out shapes but no features. I still hadn't made it close enough, even for my vampiric eyes. I looked up and saw Thompson leap from the one he had initially landed on to the next. I followed him quietly, dodging from one to another, constantly keeping my eyes on the office for signs of movement or alarm.

When we got to the last row of shelving, Thompson dropped from the top and landed with a silent whoosh next to me. I had my back to the shelf and fought not to panic. We had no idea how many vamps sat in the office with Cicero, and the angle of our location put us at a disadvantage because we couldn't even remotely see into the window overlooking the warehouse, and we had about another thirty feet until we made it to the door. Now we needed to draw them out. I had no intention of charging an office with an unknown amount of vampires in it.

I turned my head and looked at Thompson. He leaned his head and in a voice about seven octaves lower than his normal deep voice he whispered, "Push.” I didn't know what he meant until he looked up at the shelving unit towering fifteen feet above our heads. Apparently Thompson liked to play with dominoes.

I put my back against the massive rack and pushed. I heard Thompson growl under the strain as well. Both of us had supernatural strength, but even I will admit I doubted we could do it. I could feel my calf muscles shaking under the strain as I pushed up with my back and hands. Finally the edge closest to us lifted off the ground a fraction of an inch and began to tilt backward along the entire length. We kept pushing hoping to get enough leverage to where it would fall on its own. Inch by inch we fought until the weight of the thing seemed to teeter on its own, and then finally we felt it start to pull away from us. I couldn't wait to hear what this sounded like. I stood there waiting for the show to start, but Thompson had other ideas. He grabbed my wrist in his claws and ran over to the door dragging me behind him.

I expected him to start swatting vampires one by one as they ran out the door, but apparently he had another strategy in mind. He turned his head and watched the row of shelving as it began its downward sweep toward the other rack. When it had fallen to within a foot of the next, he leapt into the air above the office, so I did the same.

With a thundering boom it crashed into the next effectively muffling our landing above the office door. On cue the door swung outward and at least a dozen vampires poured out into the warehouse proper. "Cicero," Thompson grumbled at me with a mouth not designed for human speech as he leapt from the office onto the backs of the last three vampires to clamor out of the office looking for the cause of the wreckage. One by one the racks fell onto each other; the sound vaguely reminiscent of gunshots spaced a few seconds apart.

I took an unnecessary deep breath and stepped off the roof of the office, landing square in front of the doorway. I turned and saw a wide-eyed Cicero sitting behind another desk of beautiful wood and unnecessary proportions. He had his hand on the radio no doubt trying to contact the sentries stationed on the rooftop. I smiled at him and slowly started walking towards him ignoring the roars and sounds of battle behind me. I felt bad leaving Thompson to face the dozen or so vampires by himself, but he seemed to think he could handle it. I would incapacitate Cicero and then help him if he needed it.

I expected Cicero to put down the radio and leap across the desk to try to tear me apart with his bare hands, so I felt a little puzzled when he keyed up the mike on the little radio and shout the word, "Now.” He smiled at me and then he finally stood up and rounded the desk. Again I expected him to attack, but he just leaned back and planted himself on the edge of the top of the desk. He said nothing, just smiled.

I on the other hand had a sinking feeling in the pit of my useless stomach. I took my eyes off Cicero and turned toward the open doorway. I saw Thompson holding his own against the dozen vampires trying to get within striking distance without getting mauled by his four inch long claws and razor sharp teeth. I also saw several garage doors built into the wall open and a multitude of werewolves pouring through, and making their way towards the battling vampires and werelion. "We're fucked," I thought. The least I could do for Thompson would be to kill the son of a bitch in front of me and go down fighting by his side.

"You might as well give up, little girl. You can't win. If you surrender I might even let you and your friend live," Cicero taunted from his perch on his desk.

"Like you did Michaels?"

As soon as I said it, something inside me snapped. My arms came up from my sides and my wrists turned upwards. My hands contorted and my fingers arced as my thumbs seemed to lock and shake. I looked down and I saw my claws extend another inch from the tips of my fingers. My head tilted to the side as I kept shifting my eyes from my hands to the piece of shit sitting in front of me mockingly, only he didn't look as smug as he did a few seconds ago. As my head tilted I could feel the tendons in my neck become taut as the muscles around them over extended themselves and my shoulders stretched. I could feel hatred fill every cell of every muscle in my body. I didn't just want to kill Cicero, I wanted to destroy him, and I didn't mean it figuratively either.

I heard a ripping noise and I shifted my gaze down to the source of the noise. Like my fingers, the claws on my feet had grown and ripped through the leather of my shoes splitting them open like a banana skin. I stepped out of them and looked up to see something start to creep into Cicero's eyes, vaguely akin to fear. I thought I might be done changing, but I felt a blinding pain shoot outward from my forehead. I felt something trickle down my face and I wiped it away. Looking at my hand I saw blood. "What the hell," I thought as I reached up to feel my forehead. There on either side of my forehead, just below my hairline lay two tiny little bone protuberances I had a sinking feeling might be horns. Now I felt fear creep into my spine.