Blood Bourbon

The Weight of Leadership

Carbry didn't like running.

He didn't run from his enemies and he certainly didn't like the fact that it was his people who were shielding him from the bullets that were screaming through the air around them. He had been engrossed in the conversation with Ryker, though his own concerns about the stillness in the air had been mounting by the time that Ryker had grabbed him.

He was about to scow at the manl when he heard the metal sound of a readying gun and had intended to pull Ryker down with him, only to find the man on top of him, covering him. Ryker had positioned himself so that the bulk of his form covered Car's head and chest area. Literally shielding Carbry's life with his own.

Then they were moving, Carbry shifting to his feet and growling when he smelled the scent of blood in the air. Ryker was hit, somewhere, possibly multiple places, but his team moved in around him and they were sprinting towards their vehicle should be coming from, pulling him along with them. Several more of Carbry's people smelled of blood, be it shifter or vampire and it was only the knowledge that he would endanger all of them that prevented him from shaking off their insistence in guarding him and going and finding whomever it was who was shooting at them.

The gunfire started again, bullets whizzing through the air and shattering glass, cutting through metal and causing the stone walls to explode around them as their SUV peeled around the corner and raced towards them.

He could hear the sound of bullets hitting armoured metal and reinforced glass and was about to object to the fact that they were guiding him inside first, when he realized that they were jumping into the back behind him. He did not put his life as worth more than there's, he should be out there shielding them, not the other way around. Though a couple of the team had begun returning fire from outside the vehicle while they worked on getting everyone in. They were aiming at what seemed to be a machine gun nest on the second floor of a large apartment building across the street from them.

"Put this on!" Bryn was strapping some form of bullet proof vest onto him, all the while doing her best to wrestle him lower in the SUV. "Sir! For fuck sakes, get down!"

Alesky snarled at her, his eyes searching the interior of the vehicle as the last of those on the street jumped inside. He quickly did the count of his people and realizing that someone was missing from the vehicle. "Where the fuck is Ryker?!"

"Being a fucking hero." Shiloh, was in the front passenger seat now, loading a magazine into a rifle and unrolling the window to take aim.

Out the front screen of the windshield, Alesky saw Ryker crouching behind the engine block of an overturned car, his body wrapped around the forms of a human mother and child. "I'm going to fucking help him."

Before he could shove off Bryn's restraining hands and force his way past Niko, a well meaning bear shifter, the machine gun fire stopped. In that instant he saw Ryker stand, carrying the woman and child into the nearest building. The SUV started backing up, until they were hit from behind by another armoured SUV that had come screaming down the street, carrying two Hunters loaded to bear in the front. The large vehicle send them careening into a nearby cement barrier, crumpling the passenger side of the SUV.

The crash and resulting damage to their vehicle forced their driver to pull into a wide u-turn as several of the team members inside started readying their weapons in anticipation to meet the Hunters in a close quarter gunbattle. Niko cursed when he reached for the door closest to him, finding it damaged from the crash and unable to open. Carbry frowned, that side of the vehicle would be the only tactical exit if they needed to leave, as the driver side was now facing the nest of machine guns. He braced, seeing his team prepare to move past him to the driver side door, preparing to provide cover for his vehicle to get away. He knew the tactics, he had seen Tim train them in them but he wasn't willing to allow them to sacrifice their safety so he could flee.
They needn't have worried, as Ryker reached the SUV before the two Hunters could get their guns out. He jumped on the hood, emptying his hand gun into them through the already damaged windscreen mercilessly before sprinting for the door that Carbry threw open as their own SUV started peeling away.

Ryker was bleeding from a variety of wounds, but still well enough to scowl as Alesky grabbed his arm and began hauling him inside, "I told you to keep him down, Bryn."

Machine gun fire opened up before Carbry could snap at him and Ryker's grip went slack, body jerking with the force of the rounds that went into him. Alesky found himself sprayed with the other man's blood, bullets slamming into Ryker's back and almost jerking him out of Carbry's grip, one of them ripping its way through Ryker's cheek and burying into Bryn's chest.

He didn't dare look to see how much damage that last bullet had caused, merely hauled the dead weight of the man inside moments before someone else slammed the door shut. The SUV echoed with yells at the driver to get moving, not that she needed any encouragement as tires screeched against pavement.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bryn nearly sprawled in Niko's lap, clutching at her chest, but he focused on Ryker, who's expression was far too blank for Carbry's liking.