Harley had no idea if the girl understood her, but at least she didn’t try and grab on to Harley again as she stood up.
“I’ll take the ones coming this way,” she said, moving to face the direction Sawyer had smelled the bad guys approaching from. “You keep the vampire and his crew busy.”
Sawyer gave her a nod, then pulled his MP5 off his back and darted around the corner to send a spray of bullets down the hallway they’d just escaped. Harley heard the thud of bullets impacting flesh, screams, and then the sound of boots scuffling on concrete.
“They’re charging us,” Sawyer said calmly, like he was commenting on the weather.
A moment later, four men came at Harley from the end of her side of the corridor. She barely had time to put herself between the shooters and the kids before bullets began to thud into her tactical vest…and other unprotected areas of her body. Pain tore through her and she screamed.
Not pausing to think about anything other than the need to protect Sawyer and the two children, Harley ran forward, going for head shots. She closed the distance between her and the four men, seeing their eyes grow round as she let out a growl that would have made Caleb proud. She would have loved to flash her fangs right then and really make them piss their pants, but while she could definitely feel a tingle in her gums and fingertips, that was as far as her wolf would go, even in the middle of a gun battle that had her bleeding like a stuck pig.
She shot two of the attackers in the face. The upper receiver of her Glock locked back on an empty magazine, but rather than bother with reloading, Harley dropped the weapon and reached out to grab the arm of the nearest man who was still breathing, yanking him to her body to use as a shield as she advanced on the fourth gunman.
Harley felt the man jump and twitch as the other guy shot him multiple times, but she kept charging forward until she was right on top of the last gunman. Dropping the body of the guy she was holding, she reached out to jerk the gunman’s rifle out of his hand, then used the butt to smash in his throat.
She’d ended up getting hit two more times in the short fight, once in the left thigh and the other through the muscle along the outside of her right shoulder, but the four bad guys were down, and they weren’t going to get back up.
Harley hefted the AK-47 assault rifle she’d taken from the last man and spun around. The sounds farther down the corridor told her the fighting was still going on, and she was terrified of what she’d find when she got there.
Bodies were strewn about the corridor and the two kids were wedged tightly up against the wall, the boy awake now, his stick-thin arms wrapped around the girl to protect her from all the violence around them.
Even though there were handguns and assault rifles lying on the floor, Sawyer and the vampire seemed to have no interest in them. Instead, they tore into each other with claws and punches, slashes and bruises crisscrossing both their faces. Seeing Sawyer bleeding like that broke something loose in her chest and anger rippled through her, finally making her fangs come out.
But her anger evaporated in an instant as the vampire backhanded Sawyer across the face so hard she heard bone break. Sawyer flew backward through the air, slamming into the far wall with a cracking sound, making a dent in the concrete. The vampire took a step forward, almost assuredly intending to finish Sawyer while he was stunned senseless.
Harley wouldn’t let that happen.
“Hey!” she shouted, pulling the trigger on the large caliber assault rifle even as she tried to assess the damage to Sawyer from the corner of her eye.
The bullet hit the vampire in the neck and slammed him sideways across the corridor, thick, red blood so dark it was almost black streaming from the wound. The hiss the creature let out as it turned its dead eyes toward her was enough to send shivers up and down her spine.
Harley pulled the trigger again and again, stepping closer and closer as she continued aiming for the junction of the creature’s head and shoulder. She remembered clearly what Jake had said about how to kill a vampire. Behead it or rip out its heart. Ripping out this thing’s heart didn’t seem like an option, but blowing his head off his shoulders? That seemed like a reasonable possibility.
She was three feet away from the vampire when she fired the next round straight into the center of the thing’s neck, hoping the large bullets coming out of the weapon would snap its spine. The mess it made was horrendous, but the vampire barely seemed to notice the damage.
The next round from the AK sent the thing stumbling back another few steps and tore away enough flesh from its throat, Harley could easily make out part of its cracked and chipped spine. Another couple shots and this thing would be dead. Then they’d be safe.
But when she pulled the trigger again, nothing happened.
Harley only had half a second to realize the weapon was empty before the vampire backhanded her across the corridor.
She hit the floor so hard she bounced, coming to a painful halt against the concrete a few feet away. Pain throbbed through her face and neck from the slap, through her back and head from hitting the floor, and from every part of her still dealing with the previous gunshot wounds. Her vision wavered, black specks floating in front of her, and in the few seconds it took for that to clear, she completely missed the vampire scooping up a handgun and advancing on her. By the time she was functional again, the thing was pointing the weapon at Harley. There was a smile on its face even as blood continued to pour out of its neck, deep and dark. A bullet through the head wouldn’t do a thing to a vampire, but it would kill her for sure.
Behind the vampire, Sawyer scrambled to his knees and reached for one of the AK’s lying on the ground. But his movements were clumsy and uncoordinated, and she knew he’d never get the weapon up in time.
Harley tried to push herself to her feet even as she heard the vampire’s finger tighten on the trigger. She lifted her head in time to see the little girl on the floor reaching up one lone, timid finger toward the vampire.
Crap.
Harley opened her mouth even though she had no idea what to say. She couldn’t let the little girl get involved in this. But before she could get a word out, that tiny finger touched the vampire’s left hand.
There was a thud that Harley felt more than heard, like a rumble of thunder vibrating through the air and into her chest. At the same time the nearly inaudible sound washed over her, a pulse of light filled the corridor, and Harley couldn’t help but notice that the silvery-gray light was the exact same color as the girl’s eyes.
Time seemed to stop, then the weapon fell from the vampire’s hand as the creature slowly crumpled to the floor. A second later, the little girl collapsed limply back into the boy’s arms.
Harley was up and running for the girl at the same time Sawyer staggered to the vampire’s side. She breathed a sigh of relief when she discovered the girl was still breathing and had a strong pulse. The little boy was holding her close, looking at Harley curiously.