Benson and his vamps must have been waiting on the side streets. Then, once they’d gotten word of Bria’s location, they’d set up here. As soon as Bria had driven her car onto the bridge, they’d roared up and blocked both exits. That was bad enough, but even worse were the three vamps on my side of the bridge, standing behind their cars, all with guns out and firing at Bria’s vehicle.
Crack!
Crack! Crack!
Crack!
I could hear the shots even above the smooth hum of the Aston’s engine. The vamps kept up a steady assault with their weapons. They’d only been firing at the sedan a minute, two tops, but they’d made it count. The front tires were flat, the windshield had been completely busted out, and the engine block was smoking from all the bullets that had ping-ping-pinged into it.
The vamps stopped to reload. I didn’t even realize that I was holding my breath until a hand holding a gun reached out the shattered passenger’s-side window of the sedan and fired back, making the vamps duck down behind their own cars.
I exhaled. Bria was alive, which meant that I still had a chance to save her and Catalina.
I was driving so fast that I couldn’t tell which side of the bridge Benson was on, but I was sure that he was here somewhere. I would have been. But it didn’t much matter. I was killing everyone who stood between Bria and Catalina and me. If I got Benson here at the bridge, all the better. But if I had to come back for him later, that was fine too.
I was fifty feet away from the bridge and closing fast.
Forty feet . . . thirty . . .
I reached up, tightening the seat belt over my chest.
Twenty feet . . . ten . . .
I grabbed hold of my Stone magic and used it to harden my body into an impenetrable shell. The crash would be brutal, and I couldn’t afford to get knocked unconscious.
Seven feet . . . five . . . three . . . two . . . one—
My car rammed into the roadblock.
The air bag exploded in my face, momentarily obscuring my vision before finally deflating. The vamps had been so focused on killing Bria and Catalina that they didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. Two of them dived out of the way, but the third man wasn’t so lucky. He rolled up and over my windshield, cracking the glass with his head, before vanishing from view. Even if he wasn’t dead, he wouldn’t be getting up from that anytime soon.
I’d built up so much speed that the force of the crash was hard and violent enough to slam the vamps’ first vehicle into the second one, forcing it up and back over a curb and then careening across the thin strip of grass, down the briar-covered bank, and into the river fifty feet below. One of the men had ducked behind that second car for cover, and a scream tore through the air as it slammed into him, knocking him out into the open air. A loud splat sounded as he belly-flopped into the surface of the river. A second later, the water grabbed hold of the car and sucked it under too.
I grinned. Well, that was one way to break up a roadblock.
But I wasn’t done yet. I threw my car into reverse, backing up about twenty feet, then shoved it into drive and rammed forward into the first car again, sending it up and over the curb too. But this impact wasn’t as hard as the initial one, so I kept my foot on the gas, engine whining, tires screeching, the acrid scents of burning rubber and exhaust flooding the air. Finally, gravity took over, and that first car started sliding down the riverbank and crashing through the tangle of briars to join the second one already in the water. This end of the bridge was now clear.
I threw my vehicle into park. Then I grabbed a couple of guns out of my bag, unsnapped my seat belt, and kicked open the driver’s-side door. I got to my feet and had started to run around the front of my car when I spotted a movement out of the corner of my eye. I pivoted in that direction—
Crack!
A bullet thunked into my chest, but my silverstone vest caught the projectile. Even if it hadn’t, I was still holding on to my Stone magic to protect myself. My gaze snapped over to the third vamp, who had somehow survived the crashes and careening cars. With one hand, he clutched the bridge railing for support. With the other, he raised his gun at me again, his finger squeezing back the trigger.
Click.
Click. Click.
Click.
He kept pulling and pulling the trigger, with the same empty result every time. I smiled, raised one of my own guns, and shot him three times in the chest. He was dead before he hit the ground.
But I was already moving, running toward the sedan in the middle of the bridge, my boots crunching through the glass, bullet casings, and smoking, twisted bits of metal that littered the asphalt.
“Bria! Catalina!” I screamed.
“Gin!” Bria yelled back. “We’re here!”
I reached the driver’s side of the sedan and glanced in through the busted-out window. Catalina was crouched on the floor of the passenger’s side of the car, with Bria draped over her, shielding the younger woman as best she could. My gaze flicked over them. Bloody cuts had sliced across their hands, arms, and faces from all the flying glass, but neither one of them seemed to be seriously injured—
Crack!
Crack! Crack!
Crack!
I ducked down beside the car as more bullets came zipping in my direction, my head snapping to the right.
The men on the far side of the bridge had gotten over their surprise, had pulled out their own guns, and were now firing at the sedan, trying to kill me, along with Bria and Catalina. I raised one of my own guns and returned fire, but I spotted at least eight men on that side of the bridge, all armed.
And Benson was there too.
The vampire kingpin stood about twenty feet behind his men, off to the left. He wore his usual white pants and sneakers, with a mint-green shirt and matching bow tie, his pen and notepad in his hands, as though he had been writing down details about the firefight. I didn’t see Silvio anywhere. I wondered if he’d known about his boss’s ambush plans. Maybe that’s what he’d been texting Catalina about, warning her not to let Bria drive onto the bridge.
Benson’s pale gaze met mine. But instead of seeming concerned that I was here, he tapped his pen against his lips before scribbling down another note.
“Gin!” Bria yelled.
“We have to get out of here!” I yelled back, pushing all thoughts of Benson’s odd quirks out of my mind. “Now! Crawl out the windshield! I’ll cover you!”
I raised my guns and fired again, as Bria slithered out the front windshield and onto the hood of the car, then reached back inside to help pull Catalina out. The two of them had just slid down in front of the hood when my guns click-click-clicked empty. Disgusted, I threw them aside.