fatter than typical Nymar markings.
“You’ll never see us coming now,” he told her.
Paige’s response was to move the machete away from his throat so she could snap that elbow around in a quick chopping blow that pounded against his chin and cracked the back of his head against the shelf.
Her partners had already raced up the stairs and weren’t able to get much farther than that. She shifted the machete back into the form that would fit into its holster, gripped the .45 in her right hand and drew her backup .38, which was situated in a small holster at her hip. Hoping that the layout of the Blood Parlor hadn’t changed much since the last time she’d been there, she kept her back against the wall and hurried up the stairs.
At the top was a small waiting room that felt more like a velvety cave where couches and chairs were clustered like fallen logs covered in thick, dark purple moss. A few artificial candles flickered on the windowsills, and colored mood lighting was cast from recessed bulbs in the ceiling, but that was all wiped away by the harsher light coming from the halogen lights bolted to the ceiling. Three-ring binders containing pictures of Steph’s employees were still displayed on tables in the waiting room where customers could pick the set of fangs that would pierce their neck that evening. Those tables had been overturned and shot full of holes. One of the binders jumped from its spot, bleeding shreds of its contents after taking a direct hit with what must have been a high caliber rifle.
“Get over here, Bloodhound!” Rico shouted from his position at the entrance to a hall that ran all the way to the back of the building.
Cole stood with his back against the wall on the other side of that opening. Instead of his spear, he carried a .45 in one hand and Sid’s .38 in the other. Part of a smile drifted onto his face as he leaned out and fired both guns at once. He didn’t hit anything other than wall, but at least he scratched the itch that had been plaguing him since the first time he’d seen a John Woo movie.
Taking advantage of the distraction Cole’s wild gunfire created, Paige ran across the mouth of the hall to stand by his side. “Are all the Nymar like the ones downstairs?”
“So far,” he replied. “They’re all reacting to changes in light. Makes ‘em faster and a little stronger. Something’s weird with their claws too,” he added while firing another short volley of bullets at a door halfway down the hall that had just been opened. “It’s like the tendrils reach out through the claws or something. I’m not sure if—”
“If you’re not sure, then save it for later,” Paige snapped. “Where’s Steph?”
“Escape route out the back!” Rico shouted. “Her and a few others just headed that way. They gotta be heading down, right? Think we can go through the bar and catch up to ‘em?”
“Don’t have time to risk it!” Cole shouted over a burst of gunfire being thrown at him by a set of pale hands firing a small machine gun into the hallway from the newly opened doorway. Looking to Paige, he asked, “Do we?”
“Nope. It may be too late already. We’ll need to send a few more rats down that hole. Rico?”
“Already on it,” the big man said as he dug into his jacket for a small plastic bottle that was a little longer than a deck of cards and just about as wide. There was a narrow red nozzle at the top, which he opened and pointed at the furniture in the lobby.
Cole could smell the lighter fluid as soon as the stream was flowing. When he angled his shoulders so his coat covered him as much as possible and headed down the hall, it was to get away from the flammable sitting room and Rico’s lighter as much as to pursue the vampires that had set a match to his Chicago home.
The hall was carpeted in a thick burgundy blend that insulated sound as well as footsteps. While moving down the plush corridor, Cole drew from his previous knowledge of the place. He knew the doors on either side led to bedrooms where the Blood Parlor’s customers got whatever diverse perversities they’d purchased before Steph’s girls and boys got down to feeding. The Skinners had allowed the business to run because it was voluntary on the humans’ part and they’d been powerless to keep too tight a rein on Nymar affairs anyway. Considering the way things had turned out, Cole couldn’t help but feel his guts clench at the short-sightedness of that decision.
The more steps he took, the farther his mind wandered. Cole’s thoughts drifted to past dealings with Steph and Ace, dealings with other Nymar and even a few snippets of random conversations. It wasn’t until he pushed beyond those thoughts to examine their source that he realized what was going on.
“Get the fuck out of my head!” he shouted as he widened his arms to fire through the closed doors as well as the open ones.
Not all Nymar could manipulate human thought, but plenty could sneak into someone’s mind far enough to gum up the works. When the fire alarms started to blare and sprinklers went off in the burning sitting room, Cole’s mind snapped back into perfect focus. One of the doors at the far end of the hall burst open and a Nymar wearing a tight sweater and black leggings bolted outside. Cole fired a low shot at her, hoping to catch a leg and slow her down. His bullet hit the wall a few inches from her hip and sent a small explosion of plaster and wood chips into her flesh. It wasn’t exactly what he’d wanted, but she was slowed down.
The sound of that pained cry acted as a call to arms for every other Nymar on that floor. When they rushed from their rooms, the Skinners were there to meet them. Cole, Paige, and Rico dispatched the first few with shots fired at point-blank range or smashed the guns themselves against temples and noses. None of the rooms appeared to have more than a few Nymar in them, but the hall was cramped enough to make it seem like a flood. And at the far end, standing in front of a door that led to the Blood Parlor’s security office, was a tall, slender woman with long, dark brown hair. Her slightly rounded face was marked with Nymar tendrils that ran up along both cheeks. She was the same one Cole had seen on the webcam video of the theft beneath Lancroft’s house. When she narrowed her eyes and glared at the Skinners, the fog once more rolled into his brain.
“No,” Paige snarled as she rushed down the hall past two of the open doors. “I won’t let you get away from me. Not again!”
Cole rushed to catch up to her while Rico fired into one of the more crowded rooms. As much as he shouted at her, Cole could tell he wasn’t getting through. His own voice was barely audible through the mush being projected into his thoughts, but that wasn’t the problem. Every bit of Paige’s attention was focused on the Nymar woman. She didn’t react to light like the others, but the ones who leapt at the Skinners from the side rooms all seemed to be taking silent orders from her.
A pair of Nymar tried to flank Paige but were quickly dropped by her .45. She took aim at a third, which allowed yet another Nymar to get a clear shot at her. They’d all come so quickly and in such numbers that Cole didn’t even see their faces anymore. He couldn’t bother looking for how some black markings differed from others, so he just kept pulling his trigger. Paige took another few steps toward the woman at the end of the hall but was met by a Nymar who appeared in the doorway out of the security office and crouched in preparation to jump at her.
That’s when the lights went out.
“Fire’s spreading!” Rico shouted as he stepped out of the room he’d been clearing. “Can’t get out through the bar!”
The woman at the far end of the hall shifted her solid black eyes just enough to look past the Skinners and the vampires who swarmed them. As if acknowledging Rico’s statement, she turned and headed back into the security office.
Because of the fire, complete darkness was unable to get a grip on the Blood Parlor. Flashes of bright orange and brilliant white chewed through a thickening wall of smoke, creating a churning roar that subtly masked the muffled sirens approaching from Rush Street. In the flickering light cast by the blaze, the remaining Nymar sprouted their tiger-stripe camouflage as if their bodies were being embraced by the acrid smoke. They all flowed toward the security office, which was exactly where Paige and Rico were headed.
“Come on!” Rico said as he turned to where Cole was stooping down to get a look at one of the figures on the floor. “We’ve only got one shot at getting out of here without having to wade through a whole lotta cops!”
Suddenly, a Nymar exploded from the security office. He had the wide shoulders and barrel chest of a man who drew a salary just for being huge and could have kept the friskiest of the Blood Parlor’s customers in line. Less than half a second before Rico could react, Paige shot the Nymar in the chest and then sent him to the floor with a straight kick that landed at the guy’s belt level.
“Cole!” she shouted. “Get over here
Although he could feel the heat pressing in on him from the waiting room, Cole didn’t let it push him from his spot. “You guys should see this!”
“See what? This whole fucking place is done!” Rico bellowed.
Overhead, a piece of metal snapped and the sprinkler system started raining rusty water onto the hall. Flames licked at the other end of the hall, and the set of bedroom doors closest to the waiting room were already beginning
