CH27

Fine, fine, here you go. But I'm not sure I did you any favors.

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Hunt was on the coast of China between China and Japan just a little outside of Quingdao. On a good day he just might be able to see South Korea. He had been chasing his guy up the coast for hours after losing an entire day thanks to daylight. He had gotten his tip from a guy in Pakistan who had given up this guy, who looked like he was headed for North Korea. Which was bad. Actually all of this was bad. He wasn't Asian, he was tall, and he stood out like a sore thumb. He might as well be wearing a neon sign that said "I'm a CIA spy, please shoot my sorry ass!" Still it was his job.

Hunt felt his satellite phone vibrate and pulled it out to see he had a text updating him on the other half of his mission. "A god damn Russian is involved now? What else can go wrong on this mission?" Then he noticed that he had a voice mail. Opening it up he found it was from Katherine, which made him smile. He hadn't been gone that long yet. He had even gotten to spend about an hour with Sirene and her new…well, he didn't know what she was yet. Except for being a very pretty and reserved female human. He kind of liked Irene, even though she didn't talk much.

He pulled up his voice mail and held his phone to his ear. "House being overrun by Lycans." And the voice mail ended. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked in the direction of New York, which was a long ways away. He pulled up the time zone for New York. "Come on, come on." It was taking too long. He had maybe 15 minutes before sunrise in New York.

He jumped for Kate's bedroom and arrived just in time to see a thin, petite young woman with long black hair, who had a weapon in her hand, scream out her rage with her arms raised. "SOPHIA!" Hunt recognized her instantly.

Sophia stopped screaming and faced the new voice. It took her a moment to recognize him. "Jackson Hunt. Thought you were dead." That had been the point of the raid all those years ago.

She watched as in seconds Hunt went from looking like a human to having all his hair, including facial hair, disappear as he became not much more than skin and bones. Wings unfurled from his back. They were large and had a large spiked barb where they bent.

She was fast and raised her weapon to put a vampire killing round into his chest. Unfortunately for her, Hunt was faster. He leapt the short distance between them and forced the barbs of his wings to embed themselves into each of Sophia's shoulders. Just as he had finished pushing her across the room to slam up against the outside wall, they heard a large muffled explosion that shook the house.

Sophia actually did get a shot off however it went wide. She howled in pain from having his barbs stab her in each shoulder. "Destroying one house wasn't enough for you I see." Hunt bared his teeth and snarled at Sophia.

"Destroying one house will never be enough as long as your filth still exists," she shot back.

"My thoughts exactly." Hunt reached out and took her weapon away from her. He ejected the clip, ejected the cartridge that was in the chamber and then removed the slide and tossed everything away.

"I have the advantage Hunt, it's going to be light soon and I'll get to watch you flash fry and die," Sophia growled.

"Thanks for the reminder Sophia." He actually had forgotten that point in the heat of the moment and jumped the both of them to Fort Stevens in Oregon.

The fort was constructed in 1863-64 during the Civil War as an earthwork battery on the south shore of the mouth of the Columbia River, and was known as the Fort at Point Adams. It was later Fort Stevens in 1865, in honor of the former territorial governor of Washington, Isaac I. Stevens who had been killed in action. Fort Stevens was the primary military installation in what became the Three Fort Harbor Defense System at the mouth of the Columbia River.

On the night of 21-22 June, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced off Fort Stevens and fired 17 shells from her deck gun, making Fort Stevens the only military installation in the continental United States to come under enemy fire in World War II.

Hunt now had 3 hours of darkness to work Sophia over with and take his rage out on for what she and her vampire masters had done years ago to his coven.

He withdrew his barbs from Sophia's shoulders and backed up into the courtyard while she had her back against a concrete wall. "I didn't know Lycans were immortal, not that it matters now, since this is your last day. There is no one to help you this time Sophia. No one to do your dirty work for you," Hunt all but spat out her name.

"I don't need help to take you, scum," Sophia spat back. He watched as Sophia Turner morphed into the largest, most powerful Lycan in wolf form he had ever seen or even ever heard about. She opened her mouth to display her huge fangs and snarled at Hunt. Then she charged at him.

She was fast and shoved both her hands straight into his chest knocking the wind out of him and launching him backwards 30 feet. He landed in the grass and slid digging up the grass for another 10 feet. Sophia instantly jumped the distance with the intent of landing on him and pile driving him into the ground. Hunt, however, used the barbs on his wings to stab her in the shoulder area again, causing her to roar in pain.

He jumped up and took hold of her arms. Using her own momentum, he spun in place and let go of her, sending her flying back the way she came, crashing into the cement wall, caving it in. She crumbled to the ground, dazed for a moment.

Hunt used this moment to fly across the ground straight for her, intent on pinning her to the wall where he could start working her over with his hands. But Sophia recovered quickly and jumped straight for him. He missed her with his barbs because of that and it allowed Sophia to slam into him, causing him to fall to the ground.

Sophia went to town striking Hunt with her claws, left hand, right hand, left hand, and then lifted him up and put every ounce of her strength into slamming her hand into his chest as she roared in pure anger.

He went flying and landed in a heap some 50 to 60 feet away with several broken ribs. He stood up slowly, spat blood out of his mouth, and waited as his vampire healing repaired his broken ribs. Soon she charged at him again. This time Hunt flew across low to the ground on a tangent away from Sophia. Reaching his spot he lifted up a huge chunk of concrete floor and slammed it down on her just as he turned back to face her. He drove her down into the ground after slamming it on her head.

Hunt had no illusions that this strike would stop her. He stepped over to the other half of the broken concrete slab that used to be the floor of some old building and raised it up and slammed it down on Sophia just as she emerged from under the concrete slab that had driven her into the ground. The concrete slab broke into pieces as she emerged only to have Hunt do it to her again.

He knew it was just temporary and that she would burst up through that hunk of concrete as well, so he looked around and took off flying for the site he had spotted. Unfortunately, he underestimated how long it would take her to escape yet again when he heard the concrete breaking and Sophia roaring.

The next thing Hunt knew, he had been driven into the ground. Sophia had made a long and calculated jump to land on his back. She drove him into the ground while she ripped open his back with her claws.

He used the barbs on his wings to strike her in her arm pits, pushed up through her shoulders, and jumped up forcing his back into her chest. He did a flip, letting go of her and sending her flying back the way she had come. Hunt turned, gritting his teeth at the severe pain in his back. It almost felt like she had ripped his wings off.

He reached where he wanted to be and figured she was likely right behind him. He ripped the broken slab of concrete off of the wall and turned and threw it at her. Hunt noticed that he got both of his prayers answered. First it exposed what he was hoping for and second was that Sophia easily caught the flying slab of concrete and kept on charging right at him.

Hunt charged at her and fell to the ground just an instant before they met. He turned over onto his back and reached up and grabbed Sophia's legs. He jabbed his barbs into her thighs and used his feet to plant and anchor himself. He spun in a circle, let go of her, watched her sail across the ground, and slam into the recently exposed wall that he had taken the slab of concrete from that was still in Sophia's hands.

She howled in severe pain. Hunt flew the distance across the ground and yanked the slab of concrete from Sophia's hands and saw just what he had hoped for. His action had exposed three pieces of rebar that were now poking out the front of Sophia's body. One was at the base of her neck, one was in the middle of her chest, and one was in her abdomen. All of them were bleeding.

He dropped the slab of concrete for now and proceeded to bend the each rebar so that it was pointed back at Sophia. Then he picked up the slab of concrete and slammed the flat face of it into Sophia, forcing the bent rebar back into her body and listened to her roar in agony.

Hunt used the slab of concrete to strike her as hard as he could twice more, which literally started to dissect Sophia's body into sections. When he could no longer see any rebar, he dropped the slab of concrete, bent over, and moaned in severe pain. He could feel the blood pouring out of his back and dripping onto the ground. GOD BUT HIS BACK HURT!

He staggered backwards and stayed only long enough to watch as the wolf transformed back into a naked Sophia Turner, which told him that she was finally dead. Hunt straightened up and groaned in pain. He reached behind him to try and feel just how much damage she had done to him. "DAMN BITCH!" Hunt jumped to his secret hiding place on that end of the planet.

In that case it was a long since abandoned gold mine in Alaska. He hunted around to find at least one of the glow sticks, cracked it and shook it, before dropping it on the ground, bathing the place in a green glow. Hunt used his barbs to break the ice open on the wall to expose two frozen in place bags of whole blood and drank both of them dry after letting them warm up a little against his body. "God that was disgusting!" Hunt hated the taste of cold blood. Still he needed them.

Next he flipped himself and allowed his feet to attach to the wood ceiling supports. He wrapped his wings around himself and rested as he waited for the sun to come up and send him into sleep.

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Solomon used up 10 of his 54 seconds just staring at where his Mistress had just been and saw the countdown on the video panel. He shook his head to snap out of it. "You empty that bag and fill it with the money. You, go down to our rooms and pack a little something for each of us. You start collecting weapons and place them in still another bag." He himself grabbed a bag and started stuffing it full of Lycan killing rounds.

"30 seconds, speed it up!" he yelled and started dropping in silver bars along with the ammunition. "20 seconds. Zip your bags closed; we are done here." He zipped his bag closed and only for a moment wished he had more time. He ran for the door and opened it. "15 seconds. Let's go! Hustle, hustle, hustle." He waved his arm in a circular motion mimicking what a third base coach did telling his runner to hustle it up and head for home plate.

Solomon was the last one through and flipped the dead bolt, pushed the bar at the top into place followed by the one at the bottom and then turned and ran.

They already had the next door open and started running as soon as Solomon was through. He closed the door, flipped the dead bolt and pushed both bars into place and ran for it.

They had only gotten a little way when the explosives that were on a timer blew the basement and sealed their emergency exit forever. There was no going back now. The first floor was likely now in the basement with the basement walls all collapsing into the room.

"Move, move, just keep moving," Solomon yelled from behind all of them. That is until they reached the end. Up a set of stairs and through a floor hatch and over to a window. He looked at his watch. "15 minutes till sun up." He knew this was going to be close, like really close and dangerous.

"Follow me and don't slow down or stop for anyone," Solomon told them and plowed through the window, breaking the glass. He started running down the street, weaving in between cars, as most of them honked at him. Then through Central Park and out the other side. It was then back out onto the streets until they reached the harbor district. It was there that he wove in and out of a number of condemned buildings until he came to a stop and unlocked a door that lead down into the basement.

Once inside he flipped the dead bolt and pushed the bar up and the other bar down, locking them inside. In through yet another door that only had a dead bolt, he pulled a light stick out of his bag, cracked it and shook it, lighting up the room.

It wasn't anything to speak of. It was a good sized basement that was void of anything except 12 cots all with blankets folded up and sitting on them. Their Mistress had created this room years ago. It even had a mini fridge that was stealing power from someplace and had 20 blood bags inside it. "Okay, pick a cot and lay down. The sun will be up in… 30 seconds," Solomon informed them. He chose a cot, dropped his bag next to it, and laid down, adjusting his blanket and seconds later they all died as the sun came up.

They had other places to escape to, however this one was the closest plus it was also the only one he knew about, making it a no-brainer. What they didn't know and would never know, was that 6 hours later there were two explosions and a huge fire that started to gut the building. An arsonist had selected that building to be his next target in his attempt to clear out the urban blight that were abandoned and condemned buildings. The upper floors were fully involved when the fire department showed up.

Solomon was one of Kate's first successes at conversion to being a vampire. She picked him up during the Civil War. He was loyal and faithful till the end. But he got to see far into the future thanks to Kate. Otherwise he would have died years ago.

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Outside of the house the police that were first responders had been caught off guard. Having their cruisers explode from grenades going off under them had them securing the space for blocks around.

As had been planned when the last team, team D, exited the building they threw grenades to blow parts of it to pieces, some of which started a fire and without the fire department being allowed to get in close enough, the house was soon fully involved. It started causing damage to the building that was right next to it that was only a few floors taller than the house.

The police were beyond pissed considering the last few days. They had 8 dead at the first bank along with 2 wounded. Another 12 dead at the second bank with 4 injured. Six more dead and 4 injured at the third bank. A total of 14 people had died at the fourth bank which was the real target.

In addition they had 6 dead officers and 4 destroyed police cruisers along with another 14 dead civilians that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were another 5 injured.

Now they had another 6 dead officers along with another 4 police cruisers irreparably damaged. The worst part was that there were 22 dead civilians along with 8 injured at or near the house and they hadn't even been able to get into either the house or the building next to it. The most recent explosions only confirmed that it wasn't yet safe for any of the officers to enter the area.

It wasn't until SWAT and the State Tactical Squad showed up with their armored unit that they even attempted to enter the area.

The buildings were too close together to get helicopters into the area to land of the roof of the building next to the house, even though people on the roof could be spotted. A few took the risk and jumped and died when they hit the sidewalk.

It was nightfall when they finally entered the house and the building next door. Inside the house they eventually found 29 naked men and women dead. All of the floors were considered dangerous to be on.

Another 38 civilians died from smoke inhalation in the building next to the house. They would be searching and studying the house for days.

Of the 49 Lycans that participated in the attack on the house only 20 of them returned to the storm sewer base that they had below the street level. Their leader Sophia Turner was never seen or heard from again.

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Sirene erupted out of the hole she had been sharing with Paige and found it was dark outside as she took in a deep breath. It had been a really long time since she had tried to turn a human. Speaking of human...

She turned around and saw Paige leap out of the hole. She landed on her feet, showed her fangs, and hissed loudly. Sirene saw her sniffing the air and Paige suddenly took off at a run going as fast as she could.

"OH SHIT!" She was never going to catch up to her so she jumped in front of Paige who crashed into her and sent both of them tumbling to the ground. Sirene knew just what to do as she trapped Paige's arms behind her back as she literally sat on her to keep her from getting up. "I forgot about this part."

What Sirene needed was blood but she hadn't brought any with her since she had no time to plan. "This is going to be fun," she muttered to herself knowing that the next…she tried to look at her watch. "THREE HOURS!?" Were going to be hell and even worse for Paige.

Sirene was still sitting on a wild and thrashing Paige though she was slowing down as Sirene, too, was slowly losing her strength. She looked at her watch. "Finally." She jumped them to her living room.

"HELLO? A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!" Sirene yelled and heard the two bedroom doors upstairs fly open. A semi-naked Alexis came crashing down the stairs a little out of control as she tried too hard to skip as many steps as possible. Irene came flying out of her bedroom a little more fully clothed and scrambled down the stairs. Alexis reached Sirene first. "PAIGE!" Alexis had her hands on each of Paige's cheeks. "Paige, baby?" Alexis looked and sounded so happy.

Paige, however, renewed her struggle to get loose and showed her teeth and hissed at Alexis like she wanted to rip her neck open. "What's wrong?" Paige was obviously alive, even if she was acting weirdly.

"Blood rage, I forgot about this part," Sirene told her. "Blood what?" Alexis had never heard of it before. "I took almost all of Paige's human blood and converted it to vampire blood. I gave her almost all of my vampire blood. During all this time the blood has been converting her body into a vampire. Problem is this takes up almost all of the blood I gave her. She's literally starving to death right now."

"All she knows is that she needs to feed. Paige is in there but she is suppressed behind the all-consuming need to feed. Your blood, my blood, anyone's blood until her need is satisfied. After that we will have to work with her and teach her what it is to be vampire," Sirene said.

"Mom didn't do that with me," Alexis countered. "That's because you're different; you were not converted into a vampire using this method. You had no blood to begin with."

"Irene, my love, can you start warming up blood bags from the refrigerator and toss them to us?" Sirene asked and watched Irene hesitate as she continued to watch Paige thrash about and hiss, til finally she follows Sirene's orders.

Only minutes later Paige was sitting on the floor without being held in place and was slowly sucking on her 5th bag of blood. She wasn't paying any attention to anyone, not really.

"Where's Kate?" Sirene inquired now that things had calmed down.

"Mom bit Castle and got him to drink her blood and then she jumped them to Manhattan so she could bury them in the ground where Castle was born," Alexis explained.

Sirene's eyes opened wide and her mouth fell open. "SHE DID WHAT!?" She was beyond shocked.

"Mom is trying to save Castle," Alexis explained slowly.

Sirene sat back and all but collapsed. "OH MY GOD!" She couldn't believe Kate could be that stupid.

"Mom is trying to save Castle like you did Paige. What's the big deal?" Alexis looked for an answer while keeping an eye on Paige who just sat there staring out into space while still sucking on her blood bag.

"You don't understand! Castle has been bitten by a Lycan. His human blood was being transformed into Lycan. Even on the cellular level our two races are in combat. Lycan blood attacks vampire blood and vice versa."

"Kate bit Castle and took Lycan blood into her body which would promptly start to rip her to pieces from the inside out. Having Castle drinking her vampire blood would start to rip him to pieces from the inside out."

"When Kate did that, she killed herself and killed Castle," Sirene tried to explain. "MY GOD KITTY! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" To Sirene it meant her old love had just killed herself over the love of a human, which instantly brought tears.

"MOM?"