Erasure and Affirmation (Hypernaturals 11)

Freeze Up

I felt safer now that I had gained the roof. I only ever scented four people, and for the moment I have a rough idea where they all are. The active dart shooter is on the skywalk and perhaps running down the stairs. No way he follows my path out of the building. That requires a gymnast or a trained Vampire. The guy is trained, but with a gun and wearing that isolation garment and probably being of the typical larger framed burley Siren body type, he will more than likely take the stairs. The other three would be out in front, near Vera and her captive.

I raced across the flat roof to the other side of the building. I suddenly snapped to the fact that if Vera has been unloading my 9 into Sirens, I would not have heard it. She may need backup down there and I'm up here!

I looked down from my roof vantage point to survey the area in the building's front. Vera is to my left on the sidewalk near the street. She is crouched down over the prone form of Sandy, aiming the 9mm with one hand back at the building. No active shooting at the moment, but she looks safe. Sandy looks contained as well. She is not moving. I assume Vera convinced her moving would be bad for her.

There is a van parked on the street that was not there before. Flipping into IR showed four forms inside it. A driver up front and presumably given where Vera has her gun pointed, a new player. There are two prone forms. Between them in the van, and a hand on each one's wound, probably to staunch the bleeding, is the guy that helped them out the door.

Vera is left-handedly using the camera on my phone to shoot pictures of the van. Multi-tasking. She glanced at the building now and then to be sure it was covered, then snapped some more shots with the camera.

Why did I break up with her again? Has she always been this awesome?

The fourth guy who had been shooting at me inside popped out from under the portico and ran toward the van. Vera was too far away up the sidewalk for effective pistol work against a moving target. On the other hand, he realized if he stopped to set up a shot at her with his dart rifle, she is going to set up on him two-handed, and tap him with a 9mm. Rounds Vera is sending his way were whizzing by him pretty closely already. Mr. Darty stepped up to a full run to make himself a harder target. The side door of the van opened, Sir Darts-a-lot diving in gun and all, and the van punched it before the door could close.

Vera emptied the gun into the fleeing van, hitting the bigger target with every shot, still with one hand. She snapped pictures of the getaway van's rear end with the other.

From the opposite direction up the street, I saw a four-door Jeep rolling up the road our way at top speed. Denise screeched to a halt next to Vera and popped out in a Vampire speed blur, gun in her hand. Nothing to shoot at anymore.

I mentally sighed. At least if the van is a rental, the owner is going to be pissed off at the damage Vera just did. Might make it easier to find.

I need to get down there.

There is enough texture in the outside wall, I scaled back down easily. Lots of finger holds for Vampire fingers.

On the ground, I headed over to the grouping. Vera and Denise standing. Sandy on the ground. Denise on her phone, looking at mine and calling in the plates on the van from one of Vera's pictures.

I looked back at the building. A low fog of the gas rolled out the front door and dissipated in the open air. Very Halloween vibe, except haunted houses are usually dark, not stark white.

"Hi." I said.

"Hi. Idiot." Denise said. She toed Sandy, who is unconscious and has an enormous bruise on the side of her face. Her lack of movement now obvious: Vera clocked her hard. "It worth all this drama to get whoever this is?"

"Her name is Sandy. Last surviving member of the first HPA event. You know. At the church up in Temple. This is the woman that raped me, and more importantly, left the scene with a semen sample from you know who. Obtained with an electric rod placed anally. A sample that we do not know where it is. Only Sandy knows."

Denise froze her expression at the mention of HPA, and when she realized who is on the ground, she said "Ok. Never mind then. Reason for drama accepted. Reason she is not dead also accepted. Bitch."

"Adrian said I have to wait to kill her until after she tells us where the sample is." Vera gestured with the empty gun at the prone body.

Denise took in the sight of Vera. Gun with locked back slide loosely held at her side. Bar vest unbuttoned.

"Angel must have been feeling amorous." Denise finally commented.

"Why do you say that?" Vera asked, confused.

"Hickeys on the nips? Big ones?" Denise offered, nodding to the evidence.

Vera looked down, realized her garment was not fastened. Shrugged. "Adrian did that."

"Wait... What?" Denise said.

"The 'show Adrian our tits' thing at 'The Firehouse' got out of hand. Leslie shoved her boobs in his face, so I did. When I did, he about sucked my boobs off my chest. It was nice." Vera said. She handed me my gun. "Needs bullets."

"OK." I said.

As Vera buttoned up her vest unselfconsciously, I dropped the clip and put in another. I jacked a fresh round into place, locked the safety, and holstered it. "I don't know what that gas it, back there. It never got near me. There are also darts all over the place, including the one that went into my lower leg. They were trying to box me is with dart-fire and sprayed the place."

"Dart. Leg." Denise furrowed her brow. "Fine. If you were trying to make me not ask about Vera's boobs in your mouth and why if you suck the hell out of hers you have never done me the favor, you succeeded. How do you feel?" Denise asked, concerned, and not a little pissed off.

"Vampires really suck." Vera commented, peeking back inside her vest to give Denise some shit. "If you want him to do this, you got to put them in his mouth. Adrian does not do subtle hints." So Vera.

Denise frowned at Vera. "Noted."

"I feel fine. I just stabbed two guys while upside-down in mid-air and did some damn fine acrobatic work through the drop-ceiling. That last guy Vera was shooting at before you got here is a pro. He hit me one time with a dart, injecting me with whatever that is in the darts. I feel nothing. It burned at first, but did not slow me down in the slightest. I assume Crew on the way here?"

"Oh, yes." Denise assured. "So many." She gave Vera some stink-eye over the tease.

"Good. They'll need gas masks. We need to collect all the spent darts. Also, we have blood to look at. DNA. Angel is working on this building's ownership, but it probably is a front of some kind. I imagine after this op, they are shoveling dirt over it so hard."

"Man. I wish I was on Crew and could think of stuff like that." Denise said sarcastically.

"Did you know about the darts and the blood and the gas before I told you? If so, why didn't you warn me?" I gave back.

"Ok. Fine. You were there." Denise allowed. She looked at me. "I am going to freeze up about a gallon of your sperm myself. You may not survive long enough to give it to me the good way."

I heard several vehicles approaching. Chief among them a hot-rodded Miata.