Answering the phone while moving toward the stairs, Cole hissed, “What is it?”
“Are you all right?”
He recognized the voice immediately. Abby was a field investigator for the Midwestern Ectological Group, which meant she was normally too busy measuring electromagnetic fields and setting up video cameras to bother manning the phones. He hadn’t heard from her since their awkward attempt at a date not too long ago.
“I’m kind of busy here, Abby. What’s up?”
“We’re checking in with everyone we can. Are you hurt? Is anyone with you?”
“Rico and Prophet are here, along with some …” Although Cole couldn’t hear what the others were saying, he saw that both groups had closed enough distance to stop screaming at each other. There was little comfort to be taken in that since everyone was now in a standoff straight from the calmer moments of a gladiator movie. “We got some others here with us and I kind of need to get back to them. Why do you ask?”
“Haven’t you seen the news?”
“Why does everyone think I’ve got the time to sit around watching TV?”
“Because just about everything from your mouth is a quote from a sitcom or cartoon,” she replied.
“Okay, that’s fair. No, I haven’t been watching the news.”
“There’s been stuff happening all across the country. Bad stuff. Multiple murders, bodies being found, drive-by shootings, fires.”
“Yeah, I know all about the fires.”
“They’re all Skinners, Cole.”
“What?”
“We’ve been getting calls from Skinners everywhere and they’re under attack. We even got a few calls while the attacks were happening. It’s terrible.” Abby’s voice cracked under the strain, but she took a breath and collected herself in short order. “From what we’ve heard, all of these attacks have to do with Nymar. Something’s gotten to them and they’re all moving on you guys. I don’t know what else to do but keep trying to tell everyone. If there’s anything you need from us, just say so.”
Since her speech was gaining momentum with every word, Cole didn’t wait for an opening to cut her off. “Have you heard from Paige?”
At that moment, silence was the worst thing he could hear.
“Answer me,” he demanded. “What have you heard from Paige?”
“Nothing,” she said. “We’ve tried calling her after we got a report about a shooting in Miami.”
“What shooting? Tell me!”
Cole’s voice had become sharp enough to cut through everything else in the basement. All the others stopped what they were doing to watch and listen to him.
“There was some sort of shooting at a club in Miami,” Abby said. “It was at a strip bar.”
“Jesus.”
“Three were killed, but no names were released yet. We’ve tried getting in touch with the Skinners down there but nobody’s answering. The only reports we’ve got are what we can piece together using local news and what little we heard before the trouble started. What’s going on, Cole? Is there something happening with the Nymar?”
“Looks that way.” When Rico motioned for an update, Cole waved him off impatiently. “What was the last you heard from Paige?”
“She called to tell us she was in Miami and asked what we had on the group from Toronto. They’d been sighted in Miami as well, but we didn’t hear anything directly from them. Does all of this have something to do with Toronto?”
“That’s all you heard?”
Cole could recognize the frustration in Abby’s voice when she said, “From Miami, yes. Paige found some dead Dryads outside of one of their clubs. She said she was checking on a temple and that was it. We’re hearing plenty from all over, and if you’d check your e-mail, you’d see that we sent you updates from—”
“I can’t worry about all over,” he snapped. “There’s too much right here.”
“If we get anything about Paige, I’ll forward it to you and mark it priority. The rest will still keep coming.”
“Good. Thanks.” He hung up and stuffed the phone in his pocket while marching past Prophet and Rico to look Tobar in the eyes. “Everything’s going to shit for us, and don’t try to tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about. We’re getting hit across the country and now you guys show up from out of nowhere.” Cole reached under his coat, found the end of his spear that was angled toward his left hip and pulled the weapon free of its harness. “Either answer Rico’s questions or answer to me.”
Up close, Tobar’s features were like those on the subject of a grainy photograph. His eyes dipped down to take stock of the weapon in Cole’s hands. When the blood began to trickle between the Skinner’s fingers, he nodded solemnly and said, “The one thing you Americans have is passion. We cannot deny that. What is this you’ve done to your spear? Have you found a way to add metal to them?”
“We can swap recipes later. Right now, tell us what the fuck is going on.”
Upstairs, the floor rumbled in a way that Cole recognized as the Skipping Temple being brought to life. “Is that more of your buddies coming through?”
Tobar’s eyes narrowed. “We do not accept help from the Dryad whores.”
That didn’t make Cole feel any better about the steps that drifted down from upstairs on their way to the secret door in the dissection room. All he had time to do was glance at Rico before the new arrivals scrambled down the steps. They moved like a force of nature, and in the last several months, Cole had become all too familiar with just how terrible nature’s forces could be.
Chapter Sixteen
“Back up,” Rico said from behind his Sig Sauer.
The group that descended from the temple and workshop level were all Nymar. Their markings were thick and dark, proving that they’d recently fed and were reaping the benefits through increased speed and strength. They were also armed. The vampires snarled and bared their fangs in a show of primal force while raising the shotguns and submachine guns in their grasp. A slender man at the front of the group shouted, “They’re here! Clean ‘em out!”
Shotguns roared, pistols barked, and the automatics chattered as hot lead blazed through the air like a tidal wave that swept down the brick hallway.
Cole grabbed Prophet’s shirt and shoved him toward one of the alcoves as bullets chipped away at the bricks around him and impacted against his back, shoulders, and legs. By the time he got there, the battering his body had taken made it difficult for him to pull in a breath.
“Holy shit,” Prophet said as gunfire began flying in the opposite direction. Putting his back to a wall so he could see what was happening, he asked, “Are you hit?”
“Yeah,” Cole grunted. The effort of pushing that little bit of air from his lungs was enough to fill his torso with a dull pain. “Several times, but I think the coat held up.”
Prophet stared at a spot near Cole’s shoulder where the tanned leather was still smoking from an impact that landed less than an inch from a section of canvas. A surprised chuckle came out of him as he slapped Cole’s back gratefully. “Guess Rico’s one hell of a seamstress, huh?”
Another barrage of gunfire chipped at the edge of the alcove before Cole could put together a response. The shotguns had been silenced but were replaced by automatic fire. He had some experience on shooting ranges with fine weaponry, but he wasn’t nearly experienced enough to recognize the make and model of what he was up against. All he knew for certain about the guns was that too many of them were going off around him.
“Cole!” Rico shouted from across the hall and several alcoves down. “Get over here!” He then fired three quick shots at the stairs.
Taking a quick look at the Nymar, Cole spotted four of them pressing their backs to the wall and firing at everyone in their path. A few more peeked out from the stairway. One Nymar had a long face that was almost
