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Geoffry shifted position slightly, trying not to make noise or let his companions know that he was starting to get antsy. I never expected Alexander was serious about teaming up with us, but this is two nights in a row he and his people have come hunting with us.
The big, dark-skinned vampire sat motionless in the darkness, a respectably-sized ax balanced across his knees. He appears middle-eastern in descent. I wonder what his story is, how he came to be turned, and how he's reconciled the things he's done to whatever value system he grew up with.
Next to Alexander sat Brit, which Geoffry assumed was a shortened version of her name, and not a nickname resulting from the homely blond being British. In fact if anything she hates the British. I'm not sure why. From what Alexander indicated she isn't old enough to have been around when the colonies were being oppressed. Maybe it's just because Venice sometimes comes off as being a little British. I don't even know if that's affection, or if she's letting her past tendencies slip through the new image she's built for herself.
The other vampire from Alexander's group had disappeared from sight, but Geoffry had come to expect as much from Mouse. It was becoming clear the slight vampire was probably doing so less out of a desire to set up for some dark betrayal, and more because he wasn't comfortable around so many people. Especially when he didn't know two of them very well.
Another hour passed, and Brit began to fidget. Finally looking up with challenge in her eyes, she hissed a question. “Why are we sitting here instead of hunting them down.”
Venice responded, venom dripping from her voice, before Geoffry could open his mouth. “Geoffry has more experience killing these things than anyone else in the city. If he says we wait and let them stumble onto us, then we wait.”
How much of that was because she doesn't like Brit, and how much was trying to protect my leadership, and therefore her status inside the group. She seems awfully worried about trying to establish her dominance over Brit. Is that just because Brit has looked at me with invitation in her eyes more than once over the last two days?
Alexander shot Brit a commanding look that killed her response before it made it out of her mouth, and then nodded. “Venice is right. Geoffry is the most experienced of us in this area. Not only that, it's possible his hunches are the result of things he saw in that beast's mind, but didn't consciously recognize. We'll stay here as long as he feels it necessary.”
Relieved that the building conflict had at least been momentarily diffused, Geoffry relaxed once more and sent his thoughts ranging out in an effort to find one of the alien presences that they were hunting.
Odds of finding them using mentalist powers are slim. It appears they can turn their absorption power off, that or maybe it isn't active until they change forms. Still, we know they can sense us, and both times we've encountered one, the beasts had by all indications been stalking us, not the other way around.
When the attack finally happened, it was only luck that gave the vampires any warning at all. Geoffry had just sent his mental probes out looking for werewolves, when he'd felt the alien presence he'd been waiting for suddenly appear nearby.
“Incoming!”
The vampires had all just managed to get to their feet when the werewolf was upon them. It's even bigger than the last one we fought.
The vampires spread out and tried to encircle the beast in the unsteady light, but it was so fast that they were having a hard time pinning it in one place long enough to do so. “Slow it down!” screamed Geoffry as he dived to the side to avoid a lethal swipe of the creature's claws, receiving a shallow set of gashes despite his efforts.
Rolling back to his feet Geoffry unsuccessfully tried to push his thoughts into the werewolf's mind. It's too strong, the five of us together aren't enough to overwhelm it's absorption abilities.
As Geoffry charged in to try and score a blow on the creature, Mouse suddenly appeared out of the shadows behind the creature and stabbed it with his twin short swords.
Roaring in pain, the beast backhanded the smaller vampire, knocking him into a wall with bone crushing force. Now there are only four of us, but we have it backed against the wall. Will that be enough?
The werewolf moved so fast it seemed to flicker from one place to another, not bothering to cross the intervening distance between points as it parried attack after attack from all four vampires.
Geoffry pushed himself, reaching new levels of speed in an effort to get through the creature's defenses. For four or five seconds it made no difference, and then vampires felt a slight change in the werewolf's parries, they were the tiniest fraction of a second slow, possessed of the barest feeling of being hurried. Geoffry's weapon slashed out in a lightning fast blow to the creatures arm, and amazingly enough succeeded in scoring a shallow cut.
The creature whirled around faster than Geoffry could follow, and leaped over him as it howled it's rage to the waning crescent of the moon. Geoffry had been struck in passing by one of the beast's feet, the force of which was enough to knock him to the ground. Springing to his feet, the vampire suddenly felt his blood run cold as he realized the second howl he'd heard hadn't come from the werewolf they were fighting.
There's no guarantee that the four of us could defeat this one, if a second joins up, we'll certainly be torn apart.
A brief glance at Alexander revealed that the massive vampire was fully aware of the implications of what he'd just heard, but no trace of fear clouded his face as he roared back at the werewolf and charged in swinging his heavy ax.
Maybe we can press this one hard enough to kill it before the second arrives. Maybe the second will be weak enough that the four of us can defeat it even tired and wounded.
Again and again the monster tried to disembowel one or another of the vampires, and each time its target escaped with little or no damage, but the vampires hadn't managed to score even light wounds in return.
Several seconds passed before Geoffry realized that the sound hammering away at the back of his mind was that of a police siren. Nothing can be done about that now. We'll just have to deal with them after the fight if we somehow manage to survive.
Almost drowned out by the siren, the sound of running feet made their way to Geoffry's ears just before five figures came sprinting around the corner. Vampires. Will they help or hinder?
The unvoiced question was answered as the second group surrounded the werewolf and began cutting. Geoffry had a brief second of relief, and then a heavy impact behind him caused reflexes to take over and send him diving out of the way.
The vampire knew without looking that a second werewolf had arrived, jumping down from a building, and he felt hope beginning to die again as one of the recently arrived vampires went down in a spray of blood.
The arrival of the second werewolf had completed the blackout that the first hadn't quiet had the power to accomplish. The battle progressed in inky darkness relieved only by the weak light of the moon.
In theory the eight remaining vampires should have been fairly evenly matched against the two werewolves, but the arrival of the second opponent seemed to have resulted in a greater shift than Geoffry would have predicted. It's almost like they are more comfortable fighting in this disorganized melee than we are, they take blows of opportunity while we focus on a single opponent at a time.
Dodging another slash, Geoffry slipped in a side-thrust kick to his opponent's knee, but the blow left his foot numb. Like kicking a tree.
Despair seemed to be manifesting on every vampire face to one degree or another, but none of the combatants broke and ran. Geoffry's questing thoughts picked up a sliver of intention, and he threw himself to the side, bringing up his katana to block an attack that would have killed the vampire to his left.
The force of the block knocked Geoffry to the ground, but a coordinated offensive by three of the other vampires forced the smaller werewolf back so that it couldn't take advantage of Geoffry's immobility.
Once again footsteps sounded behind Geoffry, but having forgotten about the sirens, he was surprised when a voice yelled, “Police, don't move.”
Without thinking, Geoffry reached into the two minds behind him, and nudged thoughts already headed the direction he wished, giving both officers the certainty that the two large forms before them must be stopped.
Geoffry rejoined the fight just as the first shots cracked overhead impacting the werewolves more often than not, and causing the pair to scream in pain. Hardly pausing, one of the werewolves ripped a parking meter free from the concrete it was embedded in and hurled it towards the two policemen.
A sickening thud announced that the blow had struck flesh, and the decreased volume of fire indicated that one of the officers was down or dead, but the bullets had combined with the myriad of lessor wounds that the vampires had inflicted to bleed the werewolves out, and they were slowing.
Alexander connected with a mighty blow from his ax, and the smaller of the werewolves went down momentarily stunned. The beast never got a chance to get back up as a trio of vampires swarmed over it cutting and slashing.
The larger werewolf suddenly sprang away from the battle, landing halfway up the wall of a building, where his claws were able to sink into the brickwork and find enough purchase to quickly climb up and disappear into the night.
Exhaustion robbed Geoffry's limbs of strength, but he somehow managed to remain on his feet. What do I do about these new guys?
“Nobody move!”
Geoffry had forgotten about the policeman behind him, but he quickly reached out with his thoughts to calm the man down, only to have his mind overwhelmed with incredible waves of pain as he heard a series of sharp cracks, followed by a scream.
Turning the vampire saw a figure wreathed in fire try to drop to the ground and roll to put the flames out. It's no use, the fire is just too hot.
Reeling from having been inside the man's mind when he died, Geoffry looked back at the new vampires and saw that one of them was wearing a satisfied smile and blowing on his finger as if to clear the smoke from a gun.
Rage washed through Geoffry. He never even paused to consider his actions as he walked over and backhanded the pyromancer into a nearby wall. The other vampire probably would have seen the blow coming and dodged it, but Geoffry had simultaneously attacked him with multiple blows of pure mental force.
His opponent had impressive mental shields, ones that under normal circumstances Geoffry wouldn't have contemplated trying to crack, but fueled as he was by anger, Geoffry's assault on the other vampire's mind was relentless, and in less than a second succeeded in acquiring the access his blood cried for.
Recoiling slightly from the sick satisfaction that spidered through the other vampire's thoughts at having killed the police officer, Geoffry considered his options briefly, and then started creating a construct that he thought would accomplish what he desired.
Partway through his efforts, no more than couple of seconds after he'd assaulted the other vampire, Geoffry heard motion behind him. There was no choice but to ignore it, to hope that Venice would warn him if he was about to be attacked.
The entire process took less than twenty seconds, and then Geoffry looked up to find that Alexander, Brit and Venice had all surrounded him with drawn weapons, each having squared off against one of the other vampires in an effort to protect him.
Geoffry picked up the now-unconscious pyromancer and threw him to one of his companions. Eying the dark-skinned vampire who seemed to be the nominal leader of the group, Geoffry pointed to the unconscious form. Careful now, you have to state this in terms that someone as morally dead as Imastious would understand and support. “He destroyed an asset that could have potentially been useful in the fight against those things.”
The other vampire opened his mouth to respond, but Geoffry cut him off. “The Elders declared truce solely to avoid squandering resources and men that could otherwise be used to defeat creatures that want nothing more than to rip our hearts from our chests. As far as I'm concerned that truce extends to humans that can be used to help us win this war.”
Alexander stepped up next to Geoffry and nodded. “The mentalist speaks the truth, without those humans we would have died.”
All seven remaining vampires stood poised and ready for conflict, but finally Geoffry received a nod. “You've made an enemy here tonight, but that's his business to pursue once he awakes. We've no wish to die on your blades.”
Geoffry watched the three vampires carry their unconscious companion out of sight, and then he followed Alexander the other direction as the lights came back on. Does that mean the werewolf was watching us all that time, or was the delay in the lights returning linked to some other, normal physical phenomenon?
Once the quartet was far enough away from the scene of the fight to feel safe Alexander turned to Geoffry. “You did make an enemy there, no doubt about that, but you also just demonstrated the will required to enforce this treaty, a will that most of us 'peasants' haven't been sure our masters truly possessed.”
Holding out his over-sized hand once again Alexander smiled. “You'll have to watch your back somewhat, but I think you've made a fine start to this business.”