The Frenzy War (48 page)

When she reached the floor, she drew back her sword. “Which one of you wants to be first?”

Colum aimed his revolver at the woman. “Drop that sword.”

The woman looked at each human in turn. Then she dropped her Blade on the floor and raised her hands.

“Shoot her in the head,” Michael said.

Colum aimed his revolver at the woman's head. Then the door behind him burst open.

Mace kicked the door open, and Gabriel leapt out of the stairwell with his sword pulled back. Mace followed, the door
swinging shut behind him, and took in the scene: the assassin they had chased upstairs swung a revolver in their direction. Behind him, Karol stood naked with her hands raised.
What the hell?

Twenty-five feet away, three more assassins stood with their swords drawn, two men and a woman. Somewhere to his right, a shotgun exploded and the assassin holding the revolver flew off his feet, a gaping hole in his chest, and lay dead near Karol's feet.

“FBI!” Norton said as Shelly pumped his shotgun.

Seeing no way to stop a shotgun with a sword from twenty feet away, Valeria drew her tranq gun, aimed it, and squeezed its trigger. The gun made a gentle pop, and the male FBI agent clawed at his neck in surprise. Valeria holstered her tranq gun and heard Michael and Loreti draw theirs.

“I'm hit?” the bald man said in a strange tone. His female partner glanced at him, and he hit the floor hard, still holding the shotgun.

“Shelly!” The female FBI agent crouched beside her partner, but instead of checking to see if he was okay, she seized his shotgun with one hand. Rising, she holstered her Glock and aimed the shotgun, but Michael and Loreti fired their tranq guns, and their darts struck the woman's Kevlar vest. Dropping the shotgun, she pulled one dart out with ease, then struggled to jerk the other one free. It finally came out, and she stared at it before pitching forward unconscious.

“Form a triangle,” Michael said.

Valeria took up position ten feet behind him on his left, and Loreti took up a similar position on his right.

The three of them held their Blades ready for action.

“Willy's dead, Captain,” Karol said.

Mace turned numb. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Karol drop down on all fours, where he couldn't see her without taking his eyes off the assassins, and within seconds he heard a deep growl. When she rose again, Karol had turned into a Wolf that stood a full foot taller than her human form.

Oh, Jesus.
He had hoped never to see anyone in Wolf Form again.

Gabriel handed his sword to Mace and pulled off his turtleneck.

“Not you too,” Mace said.

“I told you I didn't need a gun. I don't need a sword, either.” And then he growled.

Mace looked at the Wolf to his left and the Wolf to his right. Karol reminded him of the creature Angela Domini had transformed into, and Gabriel reminded him of the more powerful Wolf that Janus Farel had been.

The leader of the assassins, a man with a bandaged nose, cocked his head in the direction of the woman. “Take the man, Valeria.”

Then he charged at Gabriel with a warrior's cry.

M
ichael swung his Blade down at a forty-five-degree angle, slicing open the male beast's torso from its left shoulder to its right hip. The beast howled in pain. Michael spun in a complete circle, slicing the beast's stomach with a horizontal slash.

Loreti charged at the female beast. Before he could swing his Blade, she sprang at him, and the impact drove him to the floor with the monster on top of him. He felt long teeth tear his throat open, and hot blood scalded his esophagus. As he struggled to force the bitch off him, her front claws dug into his chest and her hind legs shredded his thighs. Then he felt a long tongue flicking against his own tongue, deep inside his throat, which triggered a gag reflex. He glimpsed bristly black fur, then only blackness.

Mace circled the woman called Valeria. He did not know how to fight with a sword, and his bad shoulder already throbbed just from holding the heavy weapon.

Valeria, on the other hand, seemed lithe and comfortable with her Blade, which was the same size as the one he held. She lunged at him and he stepped back, lunged again, and he stepped back again. Her eyes gleamed with blood-lust, and her lips formed a half smile. He had no doubt that he faced a trained killer. She lunged a third time, driving her Blade toward his face. He swung his Blade like a baseball bat with such ferocity that Valeria almost released her weapon, and she pirouetted to regain control of it.

That's it!
He couldn't fence with her, but he could use his sword like a Louisville Slugger if she gave him half a chance.

Michael circled his beast, which snarled at him with fangs jutting out. The creature's eyes locked on his, and he sensed no fear from the monster despite the serious wounds he had inflicted on it. He feigned a blow, then another, causing the beast to flinch and reach out with his claws. Then he dropped low and spun on one ankle, slicing the beast's right thigh. The beast howled in pain, and Michael's adrenaline pumped.

Karol chewed through her assassin's neck until his head came free, then she stood straddling his corpse, which she seized with her front claws and raised above her head.
She hurled it at the floor with all her strength, shattering bones and pulverizing meat and causing blood to gush out of its neck stump. Raising her head to the high ceiling, she unleashed a defiant roar.

Valeria advanced on Mace with a flurry of swings, forcing him back. Her efforts grew more driven, more ferocious, and an overhead swing drove the tip of Mace's sword into a board on the floor. Seeing that she was seconds away from disarming him, he stomped on her Blade with his left foot and kicked her in the chest with his right. She flew back, releasing her sword, and landed on her back. Releasing his sword as well, Mace dove on top of her, but using both legs, she propelled him over her and sent him crashing to the concrete, where he grunted in pain.