“Not yet,” Shawn said, holding a hand toward them, then he spoke to the leader of the pack. “You don’t want to mess with us.” He raised his shirt and exposed his badge and a flash of his tight abdomen.
Yup, Della could see why Miranda had a thing for the guy.
Things went dead silent. Even the leaves didn’t move. No doubt, the rogue leader was weighing his options: cooperate, run like hell, or go forward with his threat.
“We ain’t scared of you,” said the mouthy, fast-and-hard vamp. “Are we, Marco?” he asked the leader.
Marco didn’t say anything at first. Apparently, he wasn’t quite as stupid as his friend.
“There’s just three of them,” said another of the vamps.
Marco, the caller of the shots, shifted his stance. His shoulders tensed in a defensive posture. Maybe she’d overestimated his intelligence.
His eyes glowed a bit brighter, telling her he wasn’t planning on backing down. She almost wanted to clap her hands.
Marco held out his knife. “I think we get extra points for taking out an FRU agent, don’t we, boys?”
Della saw all the vamps reach down for their own knives, and in a flash, they charged. All eight.
Chapter Twenty-six
Della went after Marco first. She snagged his knife and tossed the weapon at a tree trunk, where it sank all the way in, handle and all. Swinging up and around, she gave him a good kick in the stomach. That didn’t take him out. So she went for his balls. He landed on the ground moaning.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the fast-and-hard vamp lying facedown on the ground. Chase was now taking on one of the other vamps and looking good while doing it. She twisted her head to check on Shawn. He had two swords in his hands, and the friggin’ things glowed. They reminded Della of Kylie’s magical sword. He had some moves down, but with three of them swiping blades at him, he probably could use some help.
Della calmly walked up, tapped one on the shoulder. When he turned around, knife held out, she kicked him in the crotch. Hey … if it worked the first time, why not go for it a second?
He fell to the ground and curled up in a fetal position, moaning like his leader. She started to step in and assist Shawn with the other two, but spotted one of the other vamps making a run for it with the backpack and O-negative blood.
And that just wasn’t acceptable.
“Come back here, you coward!” Della bolted after him.
The escapee had a good stride. Probably would do well in the Olympics if he wasn’t racing with Reborns. She caught him by the scuff of his neck in less than thirty seconds.
He turned, his knife aimed forward. She dodged it. Catching his wrist, she turned it, almost to the point of breaking it, before he dropped the weapon.
He also dropped the backpack and took a swing at her with his left hand. She hadn’t expected it and he clipped her chin. It hurt like hell, but pissed her off even more.
“You’re going down!” she heard Chase scream from behind them, and the bushes rustled with his fast approach.
“No. He’s mine!” And wanting to change her tactics a bit, she fisted her hand and coldcocked the vamp. He fell to the ground in an unconscious lump.
She hadn’t finished shaking off the pain in her knuckles when Shawn’s yelp filled the darkness. From pain or anger, Della didn’t know. Didn’t take the time to consider. Both she and Chase flew back to the warlock.
The blond agent had blood oozing from his shoulder and he’d lost one of his swords. But his determined look said he hadn’t thrown in the towel yet. He moved in even, liquid steps, holding off the tallest and the last of the vamps.
Della caught Shawn’s eye. “Can I help you?”
“No,” he seethed as he came down hard and blocked the vamp from moving in to use his knife again. “I got it!” he muttered. And he did. As the vamp cut his eyes to Della and Chase, Shawn knocked the weapon from the vamp’s hand. He started to turn and run, but suddenly he froze. Not froze as in just stood extra still. But literally froze.
A few tiny icicles hung from his nose.
Della looked back at the warlock and he still had his pinkie out.
“Why didn’t you just do that to start with?” Della rubbed her chin where she’d taken the blow. It wasn’t broken, but felt swollen.
“It takes a second of calm to do it. They came on fast. I can pull up swords faster than I can curses.”
“Ahh,” Della said, not getting the whole magic thing.
“Nasty,” Chase said, moving close to see the guy’s face.
“You okay?” Della said, motioning to Shawn’s arm.
“Just a flesh wound.” He held himself proud, but having been stabbed once, she knew it had to sting like hell.
“I have some electric cuffs in the backpack if you want to start containing those guys.” He looked around for the backpack.
“Oh, one of the guys took off with it. I’ll get it,” Della said, but when she turned, Chase was already returning with the backpack in one hand, and dragging the rogue she’d coldcocked with the other.
“That was easy,” Shawn said a few minutes later as he watched her and Chase cuff all but the frozen vamp. “You two are good.”
Shawn nodded at Della and then his gaze shifted to Chase. “Burnett’s right. We need to steal you away from the Vampire Council.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Chase said.
“You do know we pay twice as much as them?”
“Not happening,” Chase said with sureness.
Why not? Della wondered, but then pushed it away to consider at a later time.
Exhaling, feeling the adrenaline lessening, she fisted her hand that felt slightly swollen from the knock-out punch, and right then her jaw started to throb. A slight noise came from the frozen guy, who must have been defrosting because saliva dripped from his mouth. She glanced at Shawn.
She tossed him the last pair of cuffs. He caught them and locked up the frosty vamp. “You didn’t do too bad, yourself,” Della told him.
“Actually…” Shawn forced the cuffed vamp onto the ground next to the others, and then stepped back and pulled out his phone. “My orders were to get info without trouble. Burnett’s not going to be happy.”
“Is he ever?” Chase mouthed off, then moved next to Della and took her chin in his hand.
“That idiot left a bruise.” He looked back at the unconscious culprit.
“It’s nothing.” Della stepped away from his touch.