* * *
"Shall we take our old building back, my friend, or keep this one instead?" Prylvis turned toward Viregruz.
"I think we should leave Mazareal."
"But we haven't found anything suitable," Prylvis pointed out.
"Zellar thinks this is important," Viregruz countered. "I'm inclined to listen to my wizard."
"Our people are coming to join us, Lord." Prylvis was correct—Zellar had sent everyone in the building upstairs to, in his words, view the victory.
"I did not give permission," Viregruz snapped. One of his Blood Captains stepped forward, ready to take any order from Viregruz. He would send the rabble downstairs quickly if that were Viregruz's wish. Viregruz was prepared to issue the command when pandemonium erupted.
* * *
"Stupid, spelled locks," Zellar hadn't placed the spell on this lock; one of the others had and it could take ticks to sort it out and get it opened. Eight of Viregruz's lion snake shapeshifters were inside the spelled cage. These weren't Viregruz's assassin snakes—those were upstairs now, most likely getting shouted at by Viregruz's Blood Captains. Zellar only needed a little more time. The lock fell to the floor with a thunk, bringing a surprised gasp of pleasure to Zellar.
"Farzi!" Zellar commanded, "Bring your people out. I have something for you to do."
A shapeshifter stood in the dim light. Farzi and his brothers had been caged in the warehouse basement and only allowed out if something needed to be cleaned or repaired. They were not happy with their situation, but then they'd not been happy all their lives. They were created to serve and that's what they did.
"We will come." Farzi nodded to his brothers. All of them were standing quickly. They had no desire to bear the lash of Zellar's anger. Farzi led his brothers from the cage.
Zellar motioned for them to gather closer—he needed them to be as near to him as he could get them. Zellar cringed when the noise of weapons fire sounded from the upper floors.
* * *
If Norian wanted the enemy together in order to attack all of them at once, he was getting his wish. Norian didn't have any vampires in the ASD, except for me. If we lived over this, I might have to rectify that. The two werewolves he had were trying to do battle with older, stronger vampires. Six of them. Two wizards were hurling blasts at us. I was thankful they didn't have better aim—wherever those blasts hit, holes were knocked into thick stone walls.
The noise was debilitating, too. Shouting and cursing echoed through the building—even as I watched a vampire run past me screaming, flames consuming him as he ran. I misted toward one of the older vampires, removing his head with a sweeping slash of my claws. Norian and Lendill were killing with their ranos pistols—those things were splattering anything they hit. Some of Norian's agents had gone down—two of the vampires were killing them as quickly as they could. The floor was slippery with blood already and others were losing their footing.
I went after the vampires as mist, taking heads swiftly. A large man who had many others surrounding him was hit in the head by one of Lendill's shots—the man was taller than his guards. His head exploded, sending his guards scattering like pigeons.
"Norian!" I shouted—four lion snake shapeshifters had appeared and they were viciously biting anything that came near—friend and enemy alike. Norian turned in my direction when I shouted, barely avoiding decapitation by another vampire who had appeared out of nothing—Black Mist's misters had arrived. I went after them as mist. The blackest of purple-blacks—that's how they appeared to me. Using a small amount of power, I forced them back to corporeality. The moment they were solid, they died.
Norian was firing at lion snakes. Lendill, too, had started firing at the shapeshifters. A large window in the side of the building was blown out by gunfire and three of Norian's agents were hurled through the opening. I had less than a second to react. Should I save them or keep fighting?
* * *
"I not have my tools," one of Farzi's brothers whimpered as he followed Zellar and his brothers.
"Shut up or I'll kill you," Zellar snarled. The shapeshifter hushed quickly. Zellar was leading them toward a side door that led to the street between buildings. The noise was loud enough from the upper floor that Zellar knew all the building's inhabitants were engaged. He needed to get as far away as he could—he didn't want to risk Viregruz's wrath or allow any remaining warlocks to feel his power signature when he folded the shapeshifters away. Zellar had plans, and they no longer included Black Mist or Solar Red.
* * *
My geometry classes always taught me that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Misting in a straight line would have taken too much time and Norian's agents would have died. Instead, I folded space, disappearing from point A and reappearing at point B, with barely enough time to keep three operatives from splattering against the brick streets six stories below. Capturing them as mist, I settled them onto the street.
"We're all right," one nodded, nervously lifting his weapon. I knew what that weapon was—Norian had equipped three of his people with the same. Flame throwers. They were the weapon of choice to combat vampires, and probably the reason this man had survived. Many of Norian's people had gotten decapitated before I could get to all the vampires.
"Good," I nodded at the agent's words. "Ready to go back?" I was ready to fold them back anyway when movement caught my eye. In the darkness of the smoke-filled night, most humanoids would have missed it. I was vampire and could see more than well enough in the dark.
"Get down," I hissed, pulling the man down. His two companions dropped beside us. I watched—more movement. The three agents didn't see what I did. I pulled the flamethrower away from Norian's agent. If it were vampire, it was about to be hit. What appeared instead shocked me.
A man stole through the shadows, followed by eight others. While my eyesight is good, I'm not sure I would have suspected if Norian hadn't shown me the vid-photos. These men were all shorter than the man they followed; Just as the reptanoids on Norian's vid-recordings had been. Someone was leading reptanoids away from the battle. I wondered who it might be.
"Stop there!" I shouted, rising and pointing the flamethrower. I barely had time to fire the thing before all nine disappeared before my eyes.
Shouting and cursing, I folded all three agents back to the battle. Tossing the flamethrower to the agent I'd borrowed it from, I went back to work, removing heads. Thankfully, Norian and Lendill were still alive, although there were only six of the thirty ASD agents remaining. Three of those were the ones I'd saved. I kicked things into a higher gear.