Chapter 19 : THE VAMPIRE QUEEN — PART 2
Catherine's response never came.
The church doors exploded inward. One of her guards—the nervous one who'd been watching the shadows—burst through with blood streaming from a gash across his forehead.
"Hunters. Quarter mile out, approaching fast."
Catherine's composure shattered. For one instant, I saw something I hadn't expected from a two-hundred-year-old vampire: genuine fear. Not the performative concern of someone who knew they'd survive. Real terror.
"How many?" Her voice came out sharp. Clipped.
"Four. Armed for vampires. They've got dead man's blood."
[THREAT ASSESSMENT: HUNTER TEAM] [COUNT: 4 CONFIRMED] [ARMAMENT: ANTI-VAMPIRE SPECIALIZED] [THREAT LEVEL: HIGH FOR CURRENT VAMPIRE ASSETS] [OPPORTUNITY DETECTED: ALLIANCE DEMONSTRATION]
I processed the situation in the space between heartbeats. Four hunters with vampire-killing gear. Catherine's two guards, both young enough to be vulnerable. The 200-year-old master herself, who could probably survive but not without losses.
And me. With a backup team two miles out.
"My people are positioned northwest," I said. "Werewolves. They can flank the hunters while your nest engages from the front."
Catherine's dark eyes snapped to mine. Calculating even through the fear. "You'd help us? We haven't agreed to anything."
"Consider it a demonstration." I was already moving toward the side door, pulling out the burner phone that connected to Jenny's team. "If we both survive, we can finish negotiating."
She hesitated for exactly one second. Then nodded.
"Marcus, with me. David, take the eastern approach and watch for stragglers." Her commands were crisp, military. Whatever else Catherine was, she'd survived long enough to know how to fight.
I sent the signal to Jenny—three short pulses through our bond, the emergency code we'd established for exactly this kind of situation. Her response came immediately: acknowledgment, concern, readiness.
Four hunters. Flank from northwest. We're engaging from the church.
The bond carried her response: On our way.
The next three minutes were chaos distilled into violence.
I stayed back—coordinator, not combatant. My hawk form gave me aerial overview as the ambush unfolded. Jenny's wolves hit the hunter formation from the treeline, four werewolves in hybrid form smashing into the hunters' flank before they could orient toward the new threat. Catherine moved like shadow and lightning, closing the distance to the nearest hunter before he could bring his crossbow to bear.
The hunters were good. Experienced. They'd faced supernatural threats before and lived to learn from the encounters.
But they'd prepared for vampires, not vampires with werewolf support. Their formation collapsed under the multi-directional assault. One hunter managed to fire his crossbow—the bolt grazed Marcus's shoulder, drawing blood but nothing fatal. Another got a shot off with dead man's blood that went wide when Cole's claws opened his throat.
Three minutes. Four bodies.
[COMBAT COMPLETE] [CASUALTIES: 4 HUNTERS ELIMINATED] [COALITION CASUALTIES: 0] [VAMPIRE CASUALTIES: 1 MINOR INJURY] [HUNTER THREAT LEVEL: YELLOW (25) — INCREASE NOTED]
I descended from my perch as Catherine finished the last hunter—a woman who'd been crawling toward a fallen weapon. The vampire's fangs found the hunter's throat, and for a long moment the only sound was the wet gurgle of feeding.
Jenny's wolves reformed around me, hackles still raised, eyes scanning for additional threats. Cole had blood on his claws that wasn't his own. Anna—Jenny's niece—stood slightly apart, staring at the bodies with an expression I recognized from my own mirror.
First real kill, I thought. She'll remember this.
Catherine rose from her victim, blood smearing her lips and chin. In the moonlight, she looked like something from a nightmare—beautiful and terrible and utterly alien.
She caught my gaze. Waited for the disgust.
"You're not horrified," she observed.
"I've killed more humans than you have tonight." The words came out flat. Honest. "Glass houses."
Something shifted in her expression. Not quite warmth—vampires didn't do warmth—but something adjacent. Recognition, maybe. One predator acknowledging another.
"The hunters knew we were meeting here," she said. "Someone told them."
"Your nest?"
"No." She was certain. "I told no one except my two most trusted. Neither would betray me."
[INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS: LEAK SOURCE UNKNOWN] [PROBABILITY: EXTERNAL SURVEILLANCE] [RECOMMENDATION: COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE PROTOCOLS]
"Then someone's watching you." I gestured to the bodies. "These weren't random. They came prepared for vampires specifically. They knew what they were hunting."
"Yes." Catherine's voice went cold. Dangerous. "Someone has been feeding hunters information about my movements. This is the third time in two months."
Third time. That explained the fear I'd seen—not fear of these hunters specifically, but fear of a pattern she couldn't break.
"Who wants you dead?"
"I don't know." The admission cost her. Old vampires didn't confess ignorance easily. "But I intend to find out."
We stood among the bodies as the werewolves finished their sweep of the perimeter. Jenny appeared at my side, human form now, breathing hard from the sprint.
"All clear. No additional hostiles."
"Good." I turned back to Catherine. "We should finish our negotiation somewhere less exposed. My territory has secure meeting spaces."
Her guards tensed. Walking into enemy territory after what had just happened required a different kind of trust.
Catherine smiled—genuine this time, with all the predatory edge that implied.
"Non-aggression," she said. "Information sharing. And I think I'd like to learn more about your glamour services."
She extended her hand.
I took it.
"Welcome to the coalition, Catherine. Provisional membership pending formal discussion."
"Provisional." She laughed—a sound like breaking glass. "I suppose I'll have to prove myself."
"Everyone does."
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