It turned out that we were completely surrounded by rogues. There had to be at least 50 of them, some in human form and some standing on four legs.
I had no idea how that many wolves or even people could be hidden in Central Park. Would people not notice where they were staying and report it?
Or was that the problem? People did notice their camp and were killed before they could tell anyone.
I quickly turned back to back with the two men behind me, creating a triangle of sorts. I might not have known them long, but at least I trusted them to watch my back.
Hopefully, they trusted me to watch theirs.
I raised my gun and pointed it at the nearest wolf, still in wolf form.
'Vik, if you can hear me, what are the weaknesses in these things?' I asked inside my head.
"Aim for the head or the chest. They are not immortal, a kill shot on a human will kill a werewolf. Don't bother with the throats of the wolves. They have thicker fur and fat to protect themselves," Viktor said, never taking his eyes off the man that stepped forward.
"Ha! I knew you could read my mind!" I said happily, my gun never wavering. "I don't have silver bullets. Is that going to be a problem?"
"You don't need a silver bullet to kill a wolf as long as you have a kill shot," White said, watching the movements of the rogues from his side.
Huh, you learn something new every day. I would have to ask White for a complete list later. Apparently, legends were not to be believed.
"I don't need to read your mind to figure out what you are thinking. You are a trained police officer, you are automatically going to look for weaknesses. Werewolves are unknown to you, of course, you are going to be wondering where to aim," Viktor replied, completely bursting my bubble.
'Rude,' I thought.
The stranger in tattered clothes stopped in front of Van Helsing and sniffed. "A Van Helsing, a werewolf and a human. What an interesting group we have here," he said. His voice seemed horse - like he was not used to speaking.
"And you would be?" I asked, not moving my eyes from the threat in front of me.
"Humans should be killed and not heard," came the snarled reply.
"Lovely, so I can assume that you are responsible for the two deaths that occurred here?" I knew that I shouldn't have interrupted Viktor, but this was still my case, my jurisdiction.
"You humans have such short, fragile lives. I would say that you should turn around and leave, but you have seen too much. I'm afraid we are going to have to kill you," said the stranger.
I didn't flinch, nor did I turn to look at him. "We'll see who is standing at the end of the day," I snipped.
"You have no control over us,"
"She might not, but I do," Van Helsing interrupted. "According to the laws created by the original six Houses, you Rogues have contravened Section 289, Paragraph 11, Subsection 1; revealing yourselves to humans and Section 371 Paragraph 9, Subsection 4; killing in a way that reveals a supernatural presence."
The rogue Alpha growled and the fur on the necks of the wolves around me stood straight.
"As the Van Helsing, you are hereby sentenced to death." And with that, the man that held me gently in his arms all night long to ward off a nightmare cut the alpha's head clear off his shoulders. There was no coming back for him.
Enraged, his followers attacked us all at once.
I shot as many wolves as I could, protecting my side of the triangle. White quickly stripped and shifted into his own wolf form, taking down whoever came close, ripping out their throats.
Unfortunately, even with a werewolf and Van Helsing on our side, the rogues greatly outnumbered us.
My gun only held 10 bullets, and that was not nearly enough.
A wolf jumped on me out of nowhere, taking me down to the ground and knocking the air out of my lungs. My gun flew out of my hand and skidded across the pavement.
I reached up to the wolf's head, trying to keep it from ripping out my neck, but I could do nothing to protect myself from its front claws as they raked down my front.
The pain kicked in and my ribbons took free rein. Eight went to my ribs to stitch together the torn flesh and a thicker one went through the wolf's right ear and exited through the left, completely destroying the brain in its wake.
I quickly pushed the wolf's body off of me and called the ribbons back.
My clothes were so damaged that my injuries could clearly be seen. There would be too many questions if White and Viktor saw the black stitches closing up the wounds.
I leaned down and grabbed the two Glocks out of White's holsters. I figured he was fighting with teeth and claws and probably wouldn't miss them.
I bit my bottom lip against the pain of my wounds and the discomfort of trying to hold the ribbons back.
I limped back to Viktor who was killing wolves and wolves in human bodies as easily as cutting through butter.
I once again turned my back to his and held up the two guns, taking aim at whatever came my way.
It felt like hours before the rogues had been dealt with when it was probably only minutes. Viktor was on the phone with his Knights, instructing them to come over and deal with the bodies, and White was probably on the phone giving Lucas an update.
And I stood, off to the side, my arms hanging loosely to my side, the guns still gripped firmly in my hands. I could hear my blood falling to the ground, drip by drip, but with people around, I couldn't do anything about it.
As if he could feel me looking at him, Viktor's head jerked upright and he turned around, frantically looking for me.
I must have looked like a mess because, within the blink of an eye, he was beside me, picking me up in a princess hold.
"I'm fine!" I said, giving him a smile.
"Of course you are," he replied looking down at me.
"Nope, I'm all good. Just please don't tell Momma Bear," I slurred before the darkness overtook me.