The lead vehicle picked up speed, tires squealing as it made the turn and crashed through the fence. The other SUV’s stayed right behind it as it raced for the entrance. It didn’t stop, crashing through the glass doorway and into the entry. The remaining werewolves stopped outside, running into the newly-created opening with their weapons up and ready.
The second half of the vehicles veered to the right, the lead vehicle crashing through a closed garage door and into the warehouse. Two dozen vampires jumped out of the cars, moving in a blur through the opening.
I kept my eyes on the windows as the assault continued. The gunfire sounded like thunder, mixed with the whoosh of the flamethrowers. A burst of light caught my attention; a burning burst through a window on the ground floor, rolling on the rocks outside. I took three shots, putting two into the vampire’s head, and he stopped moving.
Nicholas Corcoran’s POV
When I saw that Leo had put me in the fourth of the five vehicles, I was pissed off. Vicki was MY mate, and I should be first in the door to rescue her. I made my objection known, loudly and publicly, before our mission brief. Leo then demonstrated how a mantled Alpha handles dissent.
I was on my back with his hand around my neck, defeated before I knew I was in a fight. I tried to get free, but he was strong as an ox, and his fingers were crushing my neck. I stopped struggling and bared my neck in submission. He let go of my neck, then helped me up. “There are reasons behind my decisions, Nicholas. There are ways to ask for them without questioning my judgment.” I just nodded, not wanting to get him angry again. “Each car has a purpose. The lead car does a forced entry into the building. They will fan out and eliminate any guards at the front of the building. Car two owns the warehouse entrance; they will have to hold back a hundred vampires to keep us safe. Car three owns the front stairway; they have to keep the vamps from ambushing us and clear the upstairs offices with a team coming in the back. Guess what car four does?”
“The stairway to the basement.”
“Exactly. Now, do you want to switch cars, or do you want to trust me to put you where you need to be?”
“I’ll trust you,” I said.
“Good.” I kept my mouth shut during the mission brief. Being an Aussie, I didn’t have experience with firearms like the Yanks did, and they weren’t going to trust me with one. Leo was leading Car Four, and he handed me a big pair of bolt-cutters, two small breaching charges, and a pry bar. “You open the door, we take out any vamps, then you bust the girls out,” he told me. “Turn the breaching charge on and push the button, and it blows three seconds later. Use the tools if you can, but decide quickly on how to do it. We’re sitting ducks on the stairway.”
“I’ll handle it,” I told him.
Waiting sucked; I couldn’t sit still, and I couldn’t eat. Some of the warriors recognized what was going on and talked me into a card game. It worked to distract me, and I ate some snacks while we were playing.
Once we loaded into the cars, the leaders of each group briefed their team on the plan. Leo brought Emily onto our team after discussing it with the other Masters. “We can’t use flamethrowers or firearms once we hit the stairway, or we risk harming the girls,” Leo said. “Tom, Dick, you’ll be with me to clear a path to the door and hold it. You’ll stay and secure the stairs. Nicholas opens the door, and Emily goes down first in case a guard is on the stairway. Our contact said there is another gate at the bottom, and then the door to the cell. Nicholas, you follow Emily down to get the gate, and I’ll follow you. We get through the gates, free the girls, and get out.”
Emily picked it up from there. “Our priority is to get the girls out. Once we have them, the rest of the teams will collapse around us as we head to the cars. Any vampires remaining won’t be our responsibility.”
It all made sense. As we sat in the parking lot, I used the breathing exercises I learned for diving to calm myself. When the SUV started moving, I opened my eyes and looked out. “What’s going on with the people,” I asked as I saw them standing around, staring up the road.
“Mermaids,” Leo said. “Hang on.”
The engine raced as Tom accelerated out of a hard turn. We raced into the parking lot, screeching to a halt. Emily had the door open and was out before I stopped moving; I ran out, following behind my team. Gunfire was everywhere as we ran inside, and I ignored it as I stayed behind the rest of my team.
I shoved the pry bar into the door gap just above the handle and wrenched it open. Emily rushed in with me behind her. “VICKI!”
“WATCH OUT!”
**************
Nicholas Corcoran’s POV
I felt someone grab me by the belt and haul me backward just before automatic weapons fire came up the stairway. Fiona’s warning, and Leo’s quick reaction, kept me from being turned into a casualty.
Emily launched herself down the stairs, and I heard a loud crash when she reached the bottom. The shooting stopped, and Vicki was yelling my name. “It’s safe,” Emily said.
I let Leo look down the stairs before I did. Emily was near the bottom of the stairway with a dead vampire at her feet. Leo checked it for himself before he sent me down. We could see the dead vamp’s head leaning against a gate at the bottom.
Emily had taken a half-dozen shots from the M-16 rifle the dead vamp had fired. “Are you all right,” I asked as I reached her. She was a bloody mess.
“It could have been a lot worse. I’ll heal in a few minutes,” she said. Emily removed the knife stuck in the dead vampire’s arm and looked at it before tossing it to the ground. “Great throw, and thank you. Get the door open, Nicholas. Your mate needs you.”
Hell yeah. I looked at the door and thought about blowing it. “Check the pockets, wolf boy,” Emily said without turning around as she walked up the stairs.
Yeah, that was smarter. I found a key ring and opened up the gate. The girls were waiting for me as Leo followed me into the space outside their cell. “The bars are silvered,” Vicki warned.
Leo went up to the bars, his eyes looking over the girls. “We’re getting you all out of here. Is anyone hurt?”
“Vicki’s on bedrest,” Fiona said. “The rest of us are fine.”
I found the right key and pulled the door open. The five girls didn’t rush out; instead, they waited for me to get my mate. “Hey, my love,” I said as I picked her up.
“I never lost hope you’d come for me,” she said. She buried her face in my chest as we walked out of the prison cell. “I lost our baby.”
“I know.” Leo was using the bolt-cutters to remove the silvered collars from us, and I could feel their joy as they rejoined the Pack link. When Vicki’s collar came off, her love and loss almost overwhelmed me. “Let’s get out of here,” I said.
The other girls walked ahead of us on the stairs, avoiding the corpse at the bottom. I didn’t feel her weight in my arms as I carried her up; such was my happiness at having her back. There was a cheer as the girls entered the office building, everyone clapping and welcoming them back.
“Thank you all for coming to rescue us,” Vicki said for them all. “I’ll never forget your courage and sacrifice.”
Leo had to handle some things with the vampires; after all, we’d just had a firefight, complete with grenades, flamethrowers, and automatic weapons in the middle of an industrial area. Even with the Mermaid’s help, you couldn’t hide a battle like this.
It was time to get out. The warriors who remained were tending to the wounded. As we walked towards the door, I saw people leaving their weapons in a pile for the vampires to dispose of. There was no point in trying to bring them back into the States, much less Australia. “Leo, our teams have finished clearing this building,” a man said. “The Vampires have control over the warehouse and have captured the remaining vampires. We only have a few minutes before the police arrive.”
“Thank you, Ivan. Evacuate the wounded and retrieve our dead,” Leo replied. “The vampires will take care of their kind.”
“You should know Chairman Carver didn’t make it,” Ivan said as he pointed over to the bodies near the rear door before he walked away.
I looked over to see Leland Carver’s armor-clad corpse as wolves zipped it into a body bag. Five other body bags lay next to him. Leo took one last look at the bodies, then turned back to the staircase.
There was a shriek of happiness as Fiona jumped into Joseph’s arms. He cupped her butt as she wrapped her legs around his hips and kissed the hell out of him. “We’ve got to go,” I said, and Joseph didn’t let her down as he walked outside with us. Amy, Makani, Noelani, and Carly all looked around longingly for their mates, their faces falling when they didn’t see them. “Sorry, girls,” Leo sent over the Pack link to them. “The SEALs are still training, and Michael Kanoheh is in Cancun with your Mom, Carly. You’ll be able to talk to them soon.”
The crisp mountain air felt great as we walked out to a waiting SUV. Vicki stayed in my lap, and our driver took off as soon as the doors closed. “Do you need a hospital, love?”
“No, I just need you and a few days in bed together,” Vicki said. “Sleeping.”
I snorted at this. “I’ll make sure you’re healed up first,” I promised.
Fiona touched my arm. “The vamps took two pints of blood from each of us, and we’re still recovering. A nurse gave Vicki a drug to end her ectopic pregnancy. I didn’t get the name of it, but the nurse said it was working, and she’s been getting better.”
“Are you all right, Fiona?”
She let out a breath and leaned back into Joseph’s arms. “Physically, I’m healing. I’ll never get back what those bastards took from me, and I’ll never be able to give my mate the purity I saved for decades. I can’t even get my revenge because the vampires killed them.”
“We’ll get a doctor to check you all out when we’re safe.” I didn’t say much else; I didn’t have to. My wolf and I poured our love for Vicki through the bond as I held her close. She fell asleep in my arms as I rubbed her back through the scrubs they were wearing.