The Alpha Killer
Battle of Manhattan

Randall’s POV

Outside Manhattan Office Building

Nikolai’s familiar was in contact with their security center, so I was able to keep up on the attack as we drove closer At this time of night, there wasn’t as much traffic and fewer people. With the battle taking place in the subbasements of a nearly empty office building, and that office building owned and run by the Council, there wasn’t as much chance of humans getting in the crossfire.

That didn’t mean it was easy. The number of attackers they were talking was daunting, they were outnumbered three to one. They had three Vampire Masters to defend, but they had identified Louis and two other Masters in the first wave. There might be more waiting for them.

“Where do you want me, Jarrod?”

He paused for a moment. “There are two choices. The first is you head to the subway and clear the people out of the escape tunnel. There are probably fewer of them, we only saw six before the cameras were taken out.”

I hated tunnels. They were kill zones with nowhere to hide. “They are bound to have booby-trapped the hatch by now. Even if you are successful, all we do is move this fight to another day. All the Masters are on the third sub-basement, right?”

“Yes, we haven’t seen any motion elsewhere. They are still cutting through the door, they have maybe fifteen minutes left until they can enter the stairway.”

“Any other help coming?”

“Not before they get through, no.”

Shit. “What is option two?”

“The shaft of the freight elevator. They used the fire department recall key to move it to the surface and keep it there.”

“How does that help me?”

“The lobby only shows one vampire up there. Take him out and remove the key and you can use the elevator again.”

“You want me to come get you?”

“That won’t work, as soon as they see the elevator moving they will push the button and stop you on their floor. Our control only prevents the elevator from going down, we can’t control which floor it goes to.”

I had an idea. “I can get down there if I make it to the elevator in back?”

“Yes, you’ll need the key card your driver has, but you should be able to open the door and remove the fire key, then use it.”

“Good. I’ll call you in a few.” We were only a block away now, and I saw what I was looking for. I gestured for the driver to pull up next to a shuttered-up food truck. Stepping out, I closed the manual valve on the four-foot-tall liquid propane tank and tore the copper hose from it, then pulled back on the upper part of the heavy cylinder. The chain and support snapped as I applied my hybrid strength, and I shoved it in the open back seat of the car. The whole thing took less than fifteen seconds before the door was closed and we were moving again.

“Drive by the alley first and make sure it’s clear,” I said. We didn’t see anything, so he parked in front of the loading dock. I called Jarrod as I got out with the cylinder. “I’m in place, open the door,” I said. There was a click, and I pulled it open. There was a young vampire waiting inside; he looked at me, confused with my scent, before I put a bullet in his head. The shot didn’t kill him, but using my vampire speed I was on him and ripped his head off. I tossed his body into the elevator and went back to get the cylinder.

The fire recall key was still there, and I turned it off and inserted the card. I jumped up, knocking the escape hatch aside, then dropped back down. Pressing the ‘B3’ button, the door closed then the elevator start to move. I waved at the camera, not knowing if this was brave, foolhardy or stupid.

As the elevator came to a stop, I decided the answer was ‘Yes.’

I shifted to my hybrid form, my clothes falling to the floor as I reached my full eight-foot height.

As the door opened to the surprise of the vampires, I hurled the large cylinder across the room. The impact on the concrete wall sheared the valve off the end, and the escaping gases shot it across the room like a rocket. I didn’t wait. I jumped straight up through the emergency escape hatch and pulled myself clear of the cab. A few vampires rushed in after me, and I ignored them as I scrambled up the framing of the elevator shaft. Shifting to my hybrid form, my claws scraped on the steel as I moved up.

The rapidly decompressing cylinder wreaked havoc on the vampires as it bounced around the room, at least based on the screams and bangs. It only took a few seconds before the concentration of propane in the atmosphere reached the Lower Explosive Limit, and a second after that before the flammable gas was touched off by the torch cutting through the door.

The explosion shot flames into the elevator, and I turned my back and hid my face as they raced up the shaft towards me. They receded just as quickly, and I jumped down through the open hatch. The stunned vampires in the elevator had no chance against me; my clawed hands sliced two heads off, then I lunged forward and grabbed the back of a fleeing vampire’s neck with my teeth. My razor-sharp canines plunged through his neck before he could scream. Slamming my hands on his shoulders, his head popped off like a cork.

As I stepped into the devastated rooms, I didn’t pause to let them recover from the shock of the explosion or the flames surrounding them. I started to wade through them at vampire speed, killing as many as I could before they could respond. It was a great strategy until I got to the ones who weren’t as affected by the blast.

Faced with a half-dozen enraged vampires in front of me, I turned and ran back for the elevator.

Jarrod’s POV

Vampire HQ, Fourth Sub-Basement

“He’s here,” I said as I turned to the other two Masters. “We need to be ready.”

“You really think he can pull this off?” Mistress Edith shook her head. “He’s one man, recently turned.”

Master Lukaku put his hand on her shoulder. “These hybrids are nothing like a newly turned vampire. Erica’s fight in front of us proved that, and she’s a woman with minimal training. Randall is a trained Alpha heir and FBI agent, just faster now.” He looked at me. “His distraction is our best chance. Without it, we’re trapped, and they’ll be through the door before help arrives.”

“He is right about one thing. We have to end this now before things get out of hand. We can’t let them leave this building.”

The plan was quickly put together and Master Lukaku briefed the loyal vampires we still had. When the distraction pulled their attention away from the door, we would release the locks and attack. “Leave the Masters to us. The first in, go support Randall before they overwhelm him.” The rebels hate the hybrids more than they hate the Masters.

“Focus your attacks on the lower-ranked vampires,” I said. “Stay in groups of three so you can watch each other’s backs.”

When he got in the elevator, we were all lined up in the stairwell waiting. We heard the sounds of the propane bottle banging around, then the explosion. “NOW,” I shouted back to the control room. The hydraulic rams that locked the door in place moved out of the way, and the vampires behind the door slammed it open as soon as it could move.

I was in the back third of the group, being the new guy. The other two Masters were in the middle of the column of people running into the room. They pushed forward, blazing into the room with speed before the shock of the attack was gone.When I rushed through, it was bedlam.

Master Vampires are fearsome in battle because we are stronger, faster and far more experienced than the normal vampires. The average vampire is less than fifty years post-turn, since so many die early before really learning what they are. Those vampires were already dead, our men averaged two hundred years.

We were still outnumbered. I moved to the right, slicing the head off a rebel as he was engaged with one of our men. There was no fair play or honor is this battle, they deserved no fair fight. Two more met their fates before I reached the elevator door. Randall was using the empty elevator as protection from being flanked, fighting from the doorway. The men who had gone to his aid were engaged in battle, so I helped even the odds before I spotted my adversary.

Master Louis was standing back from the fray, content to have his minions suffer and die before he would fight the weakened opponents. I was not going to give him the chance. I twisted the head off a vampire protecting him before I rushed through the lines, sliding like a baseball player until I was on my feet again.

This isn’t Hollywood, there is no “My name is xxx, you killed my father, prepare to die” in war. My talons shot forward, and he avoided them with a lightning-fast move of his head. I moved so my left side was near the wall, hoping to get my back to it to protect it. He had the same idea, so like when a regular boxer fights a southpaw, we ended up slugging it out in the corner.

Physically and in age we were evenly matched, and the fight showed it. We both landed blows, talons ripped through flesh that healed again almost as quickly. His fighting style was clinical, but unimaginative; I started mixing in the moves from other martial arts I had learned, and that gave me the advantage.

The fight had gone on for about thirty seconds, but if you slowed it down to normal human speed it would have been a three-minute round. My unpredictable moves and unfamiliar tactics were allowing me to slice more from him. He tried lunging for my neck with the talons of his right hand, and I took advantage of his overextension. Grabbing his wrist, I pulled it until his hand was back by my side as I fell backwards. I used my right foot, placing it in his stomach while I went into a backwards roll.“RANDALL!”

He turned as I continued my motion, launching Louis up and over my body before he could react. Randall’s huge hybrid wolf roared as his clawed hands pushed into his ribs and kidney, holding him upside down and facing me as Louis screamed in pain. He raised him up above his head and his jaws closed on his neck. With a shake of his head, Louis was decapitated, then his body was tossed at the men who were supposed to guard him.

The attackers were shaken by the loss of their leader and Randall’s roar, and we pressed the advantage. Side by side we waded through the room, dispatching enemy vampires without mercy. The room became quiet as we met Master Lukaku back by the stairwell. His clothes were torn, and he was slow to heal.

There was no one left to kill.

Randall tilted his head back, letting loose a powerful howl of victory. I allowed my talons and fangs to return and looked around. “Mistress Edith?”

“Gone,” Lukaku said. “So are the other two Masters.”

“Tend to the wounded,” I said. Our healing powers were not limitless; the more you were hurt, the longer it would take to recover. Men and women were helped back down the stairs to the infirmary, where flesh could be patched together until the bodies caught up.

Randall had shifted back, his nude human form covered in cuts and blood. “What about the ones in the escape tunnel?”

“We can’t get them all. With the Masters gone, they will be easy enough to track down. I have two more covens that will be here shortly, I will task them with that,” Master Lukaku replied.

“Good.” He walked back into the elevator, moving bodies aside until he found the remains of his pants. He removed his keys, wallet, badge, gun and cellphone. “I need to find out how Talia is doing. You should talk to Malcolm and Anastasia. They burned your house.”

I nodded, heading back to the stairwell. The Battle of Manhattan was over.

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