taken Rebecca because she reminds her so much of her real daughter. Besides, if she meant her harm, she wouldn’t have been able to take her in the first place. The spell we just cast ensures that.”
Pamphrock ran a hand over his face, looking exhausted. “If that really is the case, then she must have taken her to the Petrovsky Manor. I’ll send another squadron of men over there right now.” He began hitting buttons on his phone and making more calls.
About five minutes later a DOH guy was standing at the back door with a crowbar. The spell must’ve only worked from the inside because he managed to break through within seconds. We all ran out of the house and around to the front garden.
A slayer was lying unconscious by the doorstep. Emilia must have taken him down with a spell on her way out while he was standing guard.
Pamphrock jumped into one of the two DOH vans that had just arrived, ordering, “We need to get to the Petrovsky Manor as quick as we can.”
Having heard all the commotion, Noreen, Alvie, and Gabriel emerged from the RV, asking what was going on. Across the street, I spotted Ethan, Lucas, and Delilah had come out, too. It appeared Finn told Pamphrock about our vampire allies because he didn’t seem at all surprised to see them.
I walked out onto the road, glancing back and forth, but it was obvious that Emilia was long gone. Finn’s street consisted of two parallel rows of houses that went on for nearly a mile. It was dark out now, with street lamps lighting up the area. As I stared into the distance, my eyes landed on a gang of people marching our way about half a mile down the road. That was when I realised we had a much more pressing matter on our hands than chasing after Emilia.
There were about twenty of them, all walking in a straight line, filling the street from one side to the other. Vampires. They’d crossed over onto the north side of the city, marching directly towards us. Speechless, I grabbed Finn and simply pointed. “Look.”
He swore loudly.
“Vampires!” shouted one of Pamphrock’s slayers. “A crap load of them are headed this way.”
“This is an attack,” Pamphrock yelled. “Slayers! Arm yourselves.”
The dozen or so slayers present began grabbing for their weapons, a selection of stakes, knives, and guns. Finn rushed into his house, emerging moments later with his bow and arrow and a bunch of stakes that he tossed to Gabriel, Alvie, and Noreen. I pulled out my razor, smoothing my thumb over the carved handle.
“Oh crap,” I said, panic rising when I looked behind me. More vampires were approaching from the other end of the street. They had us fenced in. Pamphrock ordered half his men to line up facing one end of the street and the other half to face the other end. There weren’t enough of us though, especially going up against so many vampires. I heard a slayer speaking into a radio, calling for all active squadrons to get to Finn’s house ASAP.
I should have known this was coming, especially after Eliza sent her blood donor here to scope the place out. Now I regretted that Rita hadn’t poisoned the bastard when she had the chance. Someone came to stand behind me, and I saw it was Ethan. Both he and Lucas were armed with swords, while Delilah carried some strange projectile that appeared to be loaded up with stakes.
Ira stood next to her. I hadn’t even realised he was around. A second later, he disappeared. His clothing fell to the ground, and his animal form emerged.
The vampires were close enough for me to be able to make them out now. At the head of the group stood Whitfield and Eliza. The vampire governor was armed with a sword similar to Ethan’s. They seemed to be the weapon of choice for older vamps. I suspected because swords were what they started out fighting with.
I heard the fighting begin behind us, with Pamphrock shouting orders and the sound of guns firing. Bullets wouldn’t kill vampires, but they’d slow them down long enough for someone to stick a stake in them. I think Finn told me that once.
Whitfield and Eliza’s group stopped a small distance away from us. Eliza stepped to the forefront. “Hand over the witch and we can avoid any further fighting,” she called out, her caramel-coloured eyes landing on me with cat-like slowness. Damn,