Heather covered her mouth and jumped back from the army bag so fast that her back hit a wall. Jasmine's eyes had widened so quickly that even Rider had to smile.
"Go watch the sky," Marlene muttered. "If the demons don't get us, our own team will," she said, looking up from the satellite phone she was speaking into.
Both team newbies dashed through the house and ran out onto the steps, and then kept going until they were near the water.
"I thought Gabrielle said we would be safe here?" Heather wailed, holding on to Jasmine's arm.
Jasmine pushed Heather's thicket of auburn ringlets back and stared up into her gray, wondering eyes. "If what has just happened did, then Gabrielle's houses could be overrun by vampires. They'll all have to feed-and she has an outstanding debt with you know who. Gabrielle was always good to us and trying to save us, and no one has called her." Jasmine looked back at the house. "We have to get word to her, or at least get one of the others to try... I think Rider would do it, if Damali and Carlos wouldn't."
Tears rose in Jasmine's pretty, almond-shaped eyes as her petite body filled Heather's arms. Heather stroked her jet black hair and clung to her, looking up to the sky, trying not to sob.
"We never leave our own," Heather said. "We are a part of her coven, and we owe her..." But Heather's words trailed off as she tensed and stared up at a darkening sky.
Both newbie Guardians looked up, not sure what to make of the spectacle above them. The crystal clear blue sky over La Paz had been ruptured by several horizontal, dark streaking clouds that looked like the wake of an aircraft going down. It was as though minitornadoes were swirling on a sideways funnel that was headed directly toward them. Without consulting each other, both women immediately broke their hugs, pivoted, and dashed toward the hacienda, screaming.
Mike, Rider, and Shabazz were on the porch first, and they took one glance at the newbies as the others joined them and then looked up at the sky in unison.
"Incoming," Rider shouted.
Each Guardian dashed back into the house, with Dan and Bobby yanking the two newbies in with them. Safeties came off weapons, Mike took a position by a window with an RPG shoulder launcher, and the sound of clips clicking into place as each team member took a position was the only sound in the house.
The blast that hit the beach rocked the house, blowing out win�dows and sending glass shrapnel everywhere.
"Heads down, people!" Shabazz ordered, covering his position. "Get those two newbies down!"
Heather was breathing through her mouth in short pants, her cheek pressed to the floor. Perspiration rolled down the center of her back, making her tank top skin. But she saw something. Almost too scared to scream she trained her eyes on the doorway down the hall. A fast-moving shadow put her on her feet with a scream. "It's in here, in the house!"
"Stay down!" Dan shouted, gripping the back of her shirt and forcing her to the floor. "You wanna get your head blown off?"
"It's back there in the bedrooms," she said panting. "I saw it under the door when it passed through the sunlight."
"Yo, something went past sunlight, and we've got motion, two o'clock," Dan shouted.
"There's another one," Jasmine shrieked, covering her face and be�coming a tiny ball next to Bobby.
"Mike, you on it?" Shabazz hollered from his position.
"Moving fast, two o'clock, ten o'clock, eight o'clock-there's more than one."
"Then blow this sucker," Rider said. He glanced over the back of a sofa and got a nod from Shabazz.
Both team sharpshooters positioned themselves to smoke any�thing coming out of Mike's blast. Mike stood. A huge demon ap�peared in the hallway. The rocket-propelled grenade left its housing, and blew out the back wall of the house. An instant hail of bullets followed. A low growl rumbled and that demon's tail could be seen flashing away in escape before five more green-and-black-scaled en�tities with gold glowing eyes and black wings slipped through the smoke, but didn't appear hit. They moved like lightning, and the salt rings and holy water that Marlene cast in their paths didn't slow them down.
"Get that prayer barrier up, Mar," Jose shouted. "I'm doing hollow point packed with church dirt and these boys ain't stopping!"
Dan popped up, slingshot in hand, and exploded several bottles of holy water at the yawning gap in the house that was ablaze. Six more demons strode through it, seeming puzzled but not injured in the least, before dodging away from the Guardians' gunfire.
"Fall back!" Berkfield yelled, as the entities approached, slipping from protective hiding place to hiding place, and seeming to be able to take a bullet, summarily heal a tertiary wound, but keep advancing. "These boys ain't going down like they should, people!"
Mike was on his feet again, new RPG loaded, and Rider and Shabazz hadn't stopped firing, nor had the rest of the group. Jose scrambled on the floor behind furniture to the duffle bag that had crossbows, yanked it open, and began quickly loading.
"In the heart!" Jose hollered. "Dead aim is the only way!"
Bobby was out of ammo with a dead clip, and he rolled over to�ward a duffle bag but was forced back by another RPG blast. "Throw me a clip! I'm out," he shouted, panicked.
"Take a hostage," a low, demon voice rumbled through the in�ferno. "Where is the Neteru?"
Smoke and the danger of structural collapse were forcing the Guardian team into a corner. The fight would soon be on the beach as Guardians broke windows with gun butts and fell back, trying to hold their positions behind flimsy cover. But that option was sure massacre.