Blood Warrior (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #4) by Jennifer Malone Wright Page B

was nothing I could do now,
even though the fire seemed to be spreading quickly.
    Drew appeared at my side. “You didn’t
have to set that on fire, you know.”
    I made a face that said ‘ha ha, very
funny’ but only muttered, “Smart ass,” as a response. The soldiers
who were left had either crawled away or lay dead on the alley
floor. Anthony and Korina were still going at it too.
    I raised my gun, attempting once again
to get a bead on Korina. Vampires were fast, and I fought vampires
all the time, but two fighting vampires was like trying to watch a
movie in fast forward. I’d never seen anything like it.
    Gavin, Christina and Luke thundered
into the alley behind us. “Hey,” I turned to them, not wanting to
take my eyes off Korina and Anthony. “Is everyone all right. I
heard so many screams.”
    Luke was breathing hard and trying to
catch his breath. “The screaming was the other guy. We did lose a
few of Sarah’s people, but Alice had us protected.”
    Just then, Christina spotted Zander.
“Oh my God. No!” She ran to him and fell to her knees beside him.
“No, no, no.” She repeated over and over again, pulling his head
into her lap.
    Grunts and curses came from Anthony
and Korina. They had moved into a standing position and Anthony had
her up against a wall, holding her secure by the neck. “Stop
fighting me, Korina, you are not going to survive this, look around
you.”
    She didn’t care what he had to say,
she just kept on struggling against him as she tried to free
herself from his grasp. I realized that in the position they were
in now, I could get a clear shot, so I took aim at her chest region
and pulled the trigger.
    Nothing.
    Crap, I was out of ammo. I didn’t have
time to check my clips and reload, so I pulled the bow over my head
and nocked an arrow.
    The fire picked up momentum, spreading
from one building to the next. Great, that was all we needed was to
cause yet another fire in New Orleans that would make history by
burning the French Quarter to the ground. I glanced at the fire and
then at Gavin. “Do you think you can put this out?”
    “ No problem.” He nodded as
I drew back my arm and took aim once again.
    “ There, get them!” a loud
voice called from the opening of the alley. I abandoned my shot and
turned to see what was going on.
    A mix of soldiers and vampires
approached, held back only by what remained of our group. Oh no, we
were all trapped in here like caged mice and Alice wasn’t with us.
Christina saw what was happening and left Zander to help. She,
Luke, and Drew began firing, just as the ground beneath us shook
with the strength of an earthquake.
    Gavin sat in kneeling position, his
hands pressed against the cement, calling to his element beneath
the floor of the city. His head bowed in concentration and he was
somehow able to ignore the deadly commotion around him.
    The soldiers fired back and the
vampires surged forward. They stumbled over the shaking ground
below them as they dodged the spray of bullets coming from both
sides. Some of the soldiers who were shooting fell as their balance
was thrown off.
    And then, the cement cracked, the
pavement broke apart in crooked lines and some of the sections
raised up as tons water shot up from within them. The powerful
bursts shot high into the air, taking some of the soldiers and
vampires out with them.
    The bad guys weren’t the only ones,
Christina, who had been standing right on top of one of the cracks,
was lifted into the air and thrown to the side, into one of the
flaming walls.
    Oh God, this was so bad.
    I saw her bounce off the wall and land
on the pavement. She let out a string of curses as she crawled
across the wreckage while fumbling to find her gun. At least she
was alive.
    I turned and drew back again. This had
to end.
    Anthony had to hold Korina with both
hands, so he was unable to defend himself against her, which meant
holding her there was all he could do. It was up to me.
    I tried to filter out