“I’m sorry, what?” Chris asked, his eyes going bug wide.
Whoops.
I waved him off and focused on Vitor. “What problem?”
“Corrupted are heading this way. Far out, but closer than they should be.”
“Shit, I’m such a fucking beacon,” I growled. “Fuck, from San Antonio?”
“Um, we weren’t giving Chris the full packet yet?” Tyson reminded me.
“Yeah, we’re still not. He can have questions, but clearly he loves you and won’t risk you,” I muttered, rubbing my tired neck.
“Yes, from San Antonio,” Vitor answered. “They probably started the moment the sun was going down having scented you close enough, but they’d still be coming even if you were gone.”
“Shit, good thing we came back,” I worried. “I shouldn’t be this potent.”
“You bleed in a few days and your power is growing,” he argued, shrugging when I gave him a look that it seemed a bit much. “What are your orders?”
“Well, we can’t just bail and risk all these humans,” I said firmly. “We need reinforcements. Someone blur back and get us help. We don’t want them to all show up here, but they can cut through the herd coming here and keep out of sight.”
“Done.” He turned to Tian because, of course, it had to be Tian with us.
And, of course, he sighed when Vitor ordered him not to let me out of his sight. At least Moon and Sisay arrived with the truck too.
“We’ve got the minigun on the chopper, but we need more ammo,” I told them. “And get two more miniguns for on the ground with ammo. We can say we got them from raiding in Laredo and we were bringing them here. I want everyone who was helping cull to get a sharp weapon and thin the packs where the humans can’t see. We’ll get the rest.”
“Understood,” they both said before blurring off.
“They got a jump either moving in daylight or just as it was ending as that was hours ago,” I muttered. “But still, that’s like a two hour drive?” I glanced at Tyson. “The fastest we’ve clocked them is forty miles an hour, right? That’s four hours to get here. Shit.”
“Yeah, shit,” he agreed. “James?”
“You’re up in the air with Inez,” he ordered before looking at Chris. “You good on a mini gun?”
“Yes.”
“Good, you’re on the ground with me. We need sandbags or something to put them on.”
“Shit,” he hissed as he gave a quick look to Tyson before heading back to his people. They were not thrilled to learn corrupted were headed our way.
“You brought them here,” someone shouted at us.
“Maybe,” I accepted, ignoring the shocked looks. “I have a rare blood type and a genetic disorder that is like food in the air to a bear. This is a bit far though, so I don’t know. What I do know is we’ll handle it. We’ve got people flying to San Antonio now to help us on the rear and more.”
“We promised to clear out San Antonio, and after tonight, it mostly will be. Just a change of plan,” James added. “We were nice and raided the National Guard unit in Laredo and were bringing you some gifts. We’ll bring you others. We need them now.”
“Gear up!” Chris bellowed when people started bitching and complaining.
Kristof, Cerdic, Jaxon, and Darius switched with guys who had come on the truck, so they were close to me. They promised there were more than enough helping further down the line out of sight. If we handled the group closing in now, we were all good.
Jaxon came on the chopper with us since he knew how to load the minigun now. Darius did the same for James while Chris had a buddy to help him.
“Not one boo-boo,” I reminded my guys.
“How did they tell people to come?” someone asked, sounding like this had all been a plot or something fishy was up. Yeah, something fishy was up, but it wasn’t bad.
James answered by putting on the headset for the chopper so everyone could see it as I got strapped in. “Trisha, you got the kids?”
“Yeah, we’re good. Have fun, but not too much, or I’ll beat you for ruining Inez’s bachelorette party.”
I burst out laughing. “We’re killing corrupted for my party? Awesome. That’s just fucking awesome. Knowing her, she’s got assault vehicles lined up outside somewhere and leaving us to go nuts.”
“That does sound like my sister,” he agreed. “Not near Houston as we’ve got plans for the bachelor party.” He winked at me when my eyes went wide.
He and probably Tyson were taking Cerdic and Kristof up in fighter jets. Awesome. That was seriously awesome.
I wanted to go too. I was dying to go up but everyone kept giving me excuses. One day, I would wear them down or just be a brat and order it. For now, I knew it was better to let some of their gnawing and horrible fear settle. It was understandable to have it after all.
“We’re set,” Chris called a bit later.
“Coming over the horizon,” one of his guys bellowed. I turned and saw him standing on a watch tower behind the third line of fencing, waving binoculars at us.
“Game time,” Ty said as he jumped in the chopper and started it up. “We take out the front line and circle back, different than before. Let them feast on their own, and the ground support can cover us while we come back around. Each pass will be slower than we did last time. They can’t fire back, so this is the smarter play.”
I slid on the headset and checked it was good. “Got it. Ready.”
“Ready,” Jaxon echoed. We lifted off and Jaxon already had me loaded.
We were already green light
