The PAD collectively turned purple with rage.
I backpedaled toward my office, before they decided to remember I was there and drag me into this mess.
"See? I have complete control of the unde--" Ghastek's eyes rolled back into his head. His mouth went slack. For a long second he remained upright, his body completely still, and then his legs gave. He swayed once and crashed into the dirty snow.
The vampire's eyes flared bright murderous red. It opened its mouth, revealing twin sickles of ivory fangs.
The PAD opened fire.
Chapter 2
THE GUNS ROARED.
The first bullet sliced into the vampire's chest, punched through dry muscle, and bit Ghastek's journeyman in the shoulder. He spun from the impact, and the steady stream of rounds from the M240B punctured the vampire and cut across the journeyman's spine, nearly severing him in two. Blood sprayed.
The women hit the ground.
The bullets chipped the pavement. Half a foot to the right and Ghastek's head would've exploded like a watermelon under a sledgehammer. I ped under gunfire, grabbed Ghastek's legs, and pulled him out of the line of fire, backing up to my office.
The women crawled toward me across the pavement.
The vamp twisted around, shuddering under the barrage of bullets, leaped onto the fallen man, and tore into his back, flinging blood and flesh into the air.
I dragged Ghastek's body over the doorstep and dropped him. Behind me, a woman screamed. I ran back, jumping over the dark-haired woman as she pulled herself through my doorway. In the street, the redheaded girl hugged the ground, clenching her thigh, her eyes huge as saucers. Blood stained the snow with painfully bright scarlet. Shot in the leg.
She was too far out in the street. I had to get her out of here before the vamp keyed on her or the PAD shot her again.
I dropped to the ground, crawled to her, grabbed her arm, and pulled with everything I had. She screamed, but slid a foot toward me across the pockmarked asphalt flooded with melting snow. I backed up and pulled again. Another scream, another foot to the door.
Breathe, pull, slide.
Breathe, pull, slide.
Door.
I pushed her inside, slammed the door shut, and barred it. It was a good door, metal, reinforced, with a four-inch bar. It would hold. It had to.
A wide red stain spread on the floor from the wounded woman's leg. I knelt down and sliced her pant leg open. Blood spurted out of bullet-shredded muscle. The leg was ripped wide open. Bone shards glared at me, bathed in wet redness. Femoral artery cut, great saphenous vein cut, everything cut. Femur shattered.
Shit.
We would need a tourniquet.
"You! Put pressure here!"
The dark-haired girl stared at me with shocked glassy eyes. No intelligent life there. Every second counted.
I grabbed the redhead's hand and put it over her femoral artery. "Hold or you'll bleed out."
She moaned but pressed down.
I ran to the storeroom to get the medical supplies.
Tourniquets were last resort devices. Mine was the C-A-T, military issue, but no matter how good it was, if you kept one on too long, you risked major nerve damage, loss of a limb, and death. And once it went on, it stayed on. Taking it off outside an emergency room would get you killed in a hurry.
I needed paramedics, but calling them would do nothing. Standard operating procedure said, when faced with a loose vampire, seal off the area. The ambulance wouldn't come unless the cops gave the paramedics the all-clear. It was just me, the tourniquet, and a girl who would likely bleed her life out.
I knelt by the woman and pulled the C-A-T out of the bag.