A squeal of tires followed by a deafening crash. The building shakes around you.
"Shit," you mutter, forgetting the preschooler in your arms for a moment, and race to the front door.
Your pack's howls are discordant and confused. You feel rage, pain, and panic. When you burst through the shop's front door with a tinkle of bells you find out why.
The truck with Minjo and the cubs in it is on the road, one of the vampires behind the wheel. They've driven it through a garage door.
You watch as the pack begin to spill out of the hole in the garage door, some in wolf form, some human, but all of them racing after the truck, heedless of any humans that may see. They're not letting the vampire get away with their pack. Not again. Not ever again.
But, in the end, it doesn't matter.
Next
We're here.
In a roar of engines a swarm of motorbikes flood out of a side street. You watch as they surround the truck, slashing open the tires with their claws, and howling in victory when the truck lurches to a stop.
You spot Shawnie — orange hair, denim jacket, and what looks like a sawn-off shotgun hanging from the back of her belt — leap off her bike and yank open the driver's side door. "Aw," she calls out, voice mocking. "It's kinda smoky in here. Did someone forget it's daytime?"
The vampire lunges. You see a blackened, crumbling face, a flash of fangs... But, in the end, it doesn't matter. Shawnie grabs it by the apron and drags it out onto the direct sunlight. The vampire is ash in seconds.
"Thank you," Ed calls out, stumbling forward, barely clothed, a nasty looking burn on his forearm. "Thank you so much... how did you find us?"
"Your howls haven't exactly been discreet," Shawnie says with a grin. "And speaking of discretion, do you guys want some clothes? I got some spares back—"
Vicky emerges from the building behind her brother, blood soaked and barely human. She doesn't say anything. She doesn't even howl. Instead she strides forward, a silver machete gripped tightly in one hand.
Roe's pack shy back in horror. "Hey now..." Shawnie mutters. "We can talk about this..."
You spot Roe start to move forward, claws extended and jaw set...
Vicky ignores them all, reaches the back of the truck, and hacks the lock off the door with a strike hard enough to snap the blade in two.
The doors fall open and Minjo clambers out. She's dirty, bruised, but looks okay despite it. JiAn scrambles out after her, his face wet with tears. Izzie comes last, her Rapunzel dress torn in a way that tells you she's spent at least some of the last few hours in wolf form.
Elma rushes forward and seizes her granddaughter in a bone crushing hug. "Izzie. Izzie pumpkin. Are you okay?"
"What took you so long?" Izzie says, haughty and defiant... but her relief is obvious in the way she grips her grandmother's jacket, tiny clawed fists clinging to the fabric with all their might.
Minjo sees you holding Nik and strides towards you. "Oh. Nik. Baby. Are you okay?" She pulls him out of your arms and hugs him furiously. "Thank you so much, Gideon Mercer. Thank you..."
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