“How many,” he demanded as they hustled behind his den’s outcropping of boulders.
From out of nowhere, Mayhem, the twitchy one, re-formed. “A dozen or more guards in tactical gear. Guns have silencers on them. And thelast guy in the lineup is pulling an empty sled, like they expect to take live hostages with them.”
Another bullet ricocheted off some rock and thenpffted into the dirt about a foot from Callum’s head.
“Who the fuck are they shooting at?” Lucan muttered as he stationed himself next to hisshellan.
“They’re trying to draw us out,” the human female said. “Classic move. They’re banking on us not being able to hold fire, and want us to waste ammunition and show our positions. And we’re going to do neither.”
The woman was solely focused on the trail’s entry into the clearing, her eyes narrowed, her gun up and braced against a vee in the stones. She was ready to defend turf that technically wasn’t hers.
Except the enemy coming at them was personal, wasn’t it.
Shit. With that human among them, they could dematerialize and leave her to die. They had to stay and fight.
That was his last cogent thought.
Like someone hit the go-button, there were suddenly discharges coming from nearly every direction, pieces of tree trunk going flying, lead slugs hitting rocks and sparking, tufts of dirt being thrown up. As the scent of pine quadrupled in the night and he started to return fire, a bullet sizzled right past his ear.
From the opposite direction.
“They’re behind us, too,” he announced as he swung around.
The good news, if there was any, was that there was a natural trench in the landscape and they were in it, so there was some coverage from the rear. And at least everybody got the memo, half of them continuing to defend the front of their position, while he and Apex began pumping off rounds into the lineup of pines behind them—
Someone was hit. He smelled fresh blood of the vampire variety, but there was no time to worry about who and how badly. Fortunately, next to him, Apex was still shooting in a slow circle, sending bullets out into the trees—
There was a brief shout, a barking order, and then shadows moved from positions, the guards closing in. As the wind came around, Callum smelled the scent of vampires amid the acrid burn of gunpowder, the fresh dirt, and the night air.
They needed more ammo. More weapons.
And with his den’s supplies run out, there was only one way to get it all.
The hard way, that was.
From his cover in the trench, Apex could track the figures dodging from trunk to trunk, and he was not surprised to see all those familiar black uniforms. He should have known the guards would find them. Maybe there had been locators in the uniforms that no one had been aware of. Who the fuck knew—
“I’m going for more ammo in my garage.”
Cranking his head around, he glared at his wolven. “No, you’re staying here. We don’t know how many more are on the mountain, and we need—”
“Don’t get dead, predator. I have plans for you later.”
And that was that. The reckless motherfucker just disappeared into thin air.
“Are you kidding me?” Apex said into the absolutely nothing next to him.
A bullet biting his shoulder brought him back to reality, and he resumed panning rounds of gunfire into whatever was out there—
“Lucan!”
The sound of Rio’s panic turned him around. Great. Fucking wonderful. The woman’s mate had collapsed onto his side, his hands pushed into his groin, which suggested two possible injuries, both of which were fatal, just in different ways.
In one, he had his femoral artery perforated, and was bleeding out.
In the other, he’d just been castrated.
Lucan’s female shoved her weapon at Mayhem and the guy double-barreled his shooting, sending God only knew how much lead out in front. And as she tried compression to stop the bleeding, Apex also continued to pull his trigger.