A/N - and thats 3 chapters in 3 weeks! Probably will take a break for a while though.
Previously:
When the light was far away, leaving an afterimage behind it, it finally crashed into the wall at the end of the tunnel, perhaps two hundred meters away. It hung there for a few seconds, the strength of the light still casting enough for them to see even this far away.
And then chaos began.
Over the Atlantic Ocean, 150 miles north of the Azores
Back on the helicarrier, a series of computer screens began to blink out their alarms, and Bruce Banner jumped from his chair to check the gamma readings from the blaring detectors.
Everything checked out, all test routines were in the green, and a sharp, clear signal was blinking over a digital map of the world. Turning some switches and dials, more detectors began to home-in on the signals location, giving them a tighter focus and higher correlation to the readings they were looking for.
When the indicators showed a 99%+ probability match - as close to a certainty as they would get - Bruce hit his call button to gather Fury and the rest of the team. Meanwhile, the digital map zoomed in further, over Germany and then further, and Bruce was confident they'd found their quarry.
When Fury arrived less than a minute later, he barked out orders for Banner to report. Not used to the man's brusque manner, Banner nevertheless managed to give a succinct update on the search, gave him the confidence numbers, and then highlighted the location for Fury on the map.
As the rest of the team arrived and while Banner was filling them in, Fury sent a signal for Potter and Brock's team to transfer immediately to Germany; clearly, London was a bust. Another few clicks, and Fury transferred the display to an overhead projector that was easily ten times the size of the small display Banner had. Another few clicks and a sharp order to the bridge crew, and all the traffic control and fixed security cameras in the immediate area of Loki's signal were displayed on side screens, until almost every screen in the lab was showing various views of a wide city square and a large building with wide steps and roman style columns. Fury looked at it sharply, different scenarios for capturing their quarry running through his head.
Unfortunately, Loki was not in an easily isolated bunker in an industrial section of England where SHIELD could send in commando teams and be reasonably sure about minimal civilian casualties. Instead, Loki was in a rather crowded building where the hijacked cameras showed rooms and exterior areas filled with civilians, all dressed rather fancily. The facial recognition routines were already running, though none had picked up either Barton or Loki yet, but if they were there - and confidence was at 99%+ that at least the scepter was - they would eventually show up in front of a camera.
Fury looked again at the camera screens, and noticed some sort of gala was being held there if the many tuxedos and fancy dresses was any indicator. He spent a few moments looking at the tactical situation when he noticed that someone had gotten the address of the building; with that, the name of the building came next, and a lot of other information. Finally, a notice of an evening awards presentation gala was listed, along with the list of guests invited to the event.
Despite Fury's face remaining impassive and showing no emotion, his palms began to sweat.
The guest list was not a concern for Fury; rather, it was where the gala was being held that held his attention: the Max Planck Institute for Advanced Physics in Stuttgart.
Remembering his briefing with Banner and his physics team several days before, they had discussed all the places where Loki could get his hands on enough Iridium to open his portal. There had, unfortunately, been over fifty of them, almost half in countries like China where SHIELD could not openly send agents without going through a lot of red tape; or else, the sites were scattered around eastern Europe or Russia in older nuclear reactors that produced Iridium 192 as a byproduct of neutron radiation. SHIELD had, of course, quickly stationed agents at the places with the worst security or the largest stockpiles of Iridium (no one knew how much Loki wanted to acquire), but there was still almost a dozen that were not yet guarded by SHIELD because their security was deemed 'adequate' by their local government, approval had not been given, or the Security Council were just being dense and had not given Fury the authority to station agents no matter what the local governments said.
Unfortunately, the Max Planck Institute was one of those locations, and they would soon find out if their 'adequate' security control measures could keep Loki out.
Fury highly doubted it.
Gritting his teeth, he began calling out orders for the members of his response team to suit up. They had gone over operational planning on how to tackle Loki when they encountered him again, and everyone moved with calm precision as they moved to get ready, even Swan, as inexperienced as she was.
Fury couldn't quite call them a team - not yet - but he was hopeful that, when the time came, they would trust each other and be the Avengers.
Stepping nimbly into the dark hold of the carrier jet, Bella snapped her restraints into place as Natasha expertly piloted the small plane up and off the carrier. The sudden acceleration left Bella feeling a bit queasy for a moment, but a simple raised eyebrow and smile from Steve helped regain her focus.
Outside of her small window, which she had to wipe with her sleeve as her shallow breathing quickly fogged it up, she saw two other planes lift off as well. One was filled with agents that were coming along to provide backup support and to hopefully get any civilians to safety, while the other had agents onboard that Bella was not sure of their purpose, but several scientists were among them, and she saw a few radiation detectors too.
That last item made her gulp when she'd first seen it.
Trying to calm her racing heart - and cursing the bad luck that had Harry off on a wild goose chase and Fury unable to get a signal to him - Bella let her eyes adjust to the dim light before she began to look at the other occupants of the plane. Sitting directly across from her was Captain America - Steve - and truthfully, he looked like was born to command. His general attitude, demeanor, and quiet confidence was impressive; and he had just the right amount of swagger - without being arrogant - that made you believe that he could get you through anything. Bella had to avert her eyes as her cheeks flushed when he caught her staring, and her eyes moved over the other occupants.
An older man that Bella had not met before sat next to Natasha in the second pilot's chair. Bella wasn't sure if he was the main pilot or not, though Natasha seemed to be flying at the moment. Perhaps he was there in case Natasha was needed on the ground? Somehow - as she often seemed to be able to do - Natasha sensed Bella's eyes on her and turned, giving her a wink, before she turned back out and piloted the ship to higher altitudes as they raced through the darkness on the way to Stuttgart.
In the back of the jet, besides Steve and herself, were two additional helmeted men, both with their visors up. They looked like maybe they were in their early 30's, and both had serious expressions; tight, unsmiling mouths covered partially by a microphone and they both had dark eyes that seemed very alert. At their feet were two black cases, strapped securely for the flight. Inside, Bella knew they held two very long and very large experimental sniper rifles. Back when he first appeared, Loki had shown to be bullet-proof to at least small caliber weapons, so in typical SHIELD fashion they 'got bigger guns.'
Bella didn't know the particulars about their mission - they had been briefed separately - but Bella suspected that if Loki was not subdued by the primary catch team that they would be called upon. These two had orders to disembark a short distance away from the touchdown point of Steve's team and would be returning to base with other transport, so Bella doubted she would ever see them again.
She didn't even know their names, and neither of them looked like they wanted conversation.
Taking another deep breath, Bella reviewed her mission briefing in her mind. Steve's role was to talk down (deemed extraordinarily unlikely) - and if necessary, subdue - Loki, with Natasha and other assets assisting as needed. Bella was there solely to keep Loki from using his trickery to cause problems with illusions or mind control. She wasn't to engage with Loki unless it was a life-or-death situation for her or a teammate, and to keep her distance as far as her shielding ability would allow, which at last practice was almost forty meters.
The ride was generally uncomfortable; the jet was not built for comfort and was small enough that the sometime turbulent air caused violent rocking. No one seemed bothered by it save Bella, however, and Steve gave her a wry grin when a particular violent yawing motion caused Bella to slide in her seat, only the restraining seatbelt keeping her from landing on the floor. Natasha, busy piloting, called out their ETA every five minutes or so, and status updates when they came in. Bella chatted a bit with Steve - some of it mission related but not all - but the conversation was stilted as the two silent agents sat there like grim sentinels, and when Natasha called out ten minutes all conversation ceased.
Bella sighed, looking at the two unnamed agents again, knowing that it was just two more people she had to try and keep safe from Loki's mind control.
London, the Bunker
Harry dove to the side, a quickly conjured shield barely saving him as something crashed into it, barely slowed as it whizzed past him and impacted forcefully with the two auror members of the team. He cast from reflex, but his cushioning charms were a moment too late, and both men met their ends when they smacked into the concrete walls at speeds that were almost certainly fatal.
Neither made a sound save the initial grunts as they got hit and the shattering of bones as they died.
Realizing how close he had just come to his own death, his magic swirled around him in a protective arc, a tight bubble of protection that could probably stop a tank shell. His senses reached out, and he detected faint magical signatures coming from several directions both in front and behind. Hoping to save the SHIELD agents - at least several were still alive a moment ago as the cacophony of automatic weapons fire in small, echoey space rattled his ears - he cast a wide area protego and let more of his magic go. The Elder Wand began to hum, ready to unleash itself on whatever had focused on him.
Pivoting after his protego cast, he sent a quick spell chain towards the corridor they'd come from and the one ahead. The chain was taxing, consisting of several different kind of layered shields that he could then hold with only moderate power drain, but could protect against a lot of different kind of directed energy or physical attacks like the one that took out the two aurors and a few of Brocks men, which he saw splattered on the ground in front of him.
The left hand corridor he left unshielded, as he sensed movement there again. He fired a quick spell chain down its length, followed up by him banishing several ready-made potions down all three corridors, using finesse to insure it would pass through the small gap at the top he'd left in the shields. It took some control and concentration, but he hoped the effect they'd have was worth it.
The spell chain was designed to immobilize a foe, so they'd be right where he wanted them when the potions hit. When they landed, the special mixture of potions - a few drops of basilisk and other venoms, a special flammable adhesive paste, and white phosphorus - exploded in a fiery white mist, spraying the insanely hot and caustic mixture everywhere. Nothing could stand up to the ridiculously hot potion, and spell resistance was meaningless when ten-thousand-degree plasma was sticking to you. The potions were ridiculously expensive, and they were also completely illegal.
Nevertheless, Harry had paid well for them and was hoping they did the job against whatever they were facing.
He wasn't disappointed. In two of the corridors, there was no effect as the opponent may have dodged or fled in time; but down the left-hand corridor, a horrible screech rang out, louder even than the rifle fire, and the whole team turned to face the threat.
Harry watched in mute fascination as what was a human shaped figure - much taller than the shadowed and probably hooded figure they'd seen earlier - suddenly erupted in a vicious bright flame that caused Harry and the agents to see spots. When the figure began to blur as it sped away with flame surrounding it - Harry now suspected a vampire - it didn't even make it a full second before it fell to the ground, as the burning concoction ate through the figures flesh.
The last they saw of it before thick plumes of purple smoke obscured it from view was a pair of burning red eyes that looked at them with hatred as it's hair and body burned like an acetylene torch. A moment later it's face was gone, and the flames sputtered out as the vampire was consumed.
A moment later a shattering crunch brought everyone's attention to the right. Harry's shields were still in place blocking most of the corridor, but another vampire was clawing and beating its way straight through the concrete wall to the side of the shield. It took but moments and half the wall was already gone, and at this rate would be on them in seconds.
Brock began shouting out commands to his team, and the remaining agents split into groups of three, their backs together and each one of them covering a particular quadrant. Harry dropped his shield where the vampire was coming through and recast another and sent a bore drilling curse at its center mass. He wanted to torch it, but it was less than ten feet away and a hellfire curse was so hot that the flame's backwash might kill the SHIELD agents, even if he was able to cast a shield immediately after the hellfire.
The soldiers - now knowing they were facing vampires, pulled their magazines from their machine guns and turned them around so a different, yellow taped magazine was now feeding the chambers.
Harry was unsure what was in the marked magazine; he had been briefed about a new incendiary round that some SHIELD agents carried that burned really hot. The actual reality that vampires existed was still known to very few in the agency, but clearly this group seemed to be in the know.
As they aimed their rifles down the corridors, Harry was unsure if the bullets could breach a vampire's skin, but the rounds - with explosive loads and armored tips - were designed for taking out thin skinned APC's, usually a difficult task for a small caliber weapon. A much more sophisticated, heavy caliber 12mm version and a new, special round was also being developed to specifically counter super-powered threats, but it was still months out.
Even as this was happening, Harry's bore drilling curse hit the vampire dead center, silvery venom spraying everywhere as a fist sized hole was punched straight through its body, sending him careening back. It howled in pain before cursing in a language Harry didn't recognize before retreating in a blur even as the bullets of the SHIELD agents chased it once Harry dropped the shield. The bullets seemed quite effective, as the concrete wall practically disintegrated under their onslaught.
When the last agent stopped firing, smoke still wafting out of hot barrels, everyone looked at each other, nerves strung tight. Brock ordered one of his team to check the downed men - two were shredded and were clearly dead, but the third man and the aurors might have still been alive in his estimation, despite limbs or necks bent the wrong way. Harry meanwhile recast his shields as the team regrouped, his mind working furiously on the ramifications of what they'd discovered.
Why were vampires here? Could they be working with Loki? Was it a coincidence? Had they been using this tunnel as a retreat before Loki had forced their retreat and now, they returned?
Or were they investigating just like SHIELD was? Could they have noticed them in the dockyard and followed them in? Harry realized he should have set a perimeter alarm; it would have warned him of anyone behind him.
He asked himself these questions for a tense minute, but no answer was forthcoming. Finally, Brock's agent swung his head back and forth: all five men were dead. As one, they formed up positions and began walking at a fast clip back towards the entrance. They had no idea how many vampires were down here, and in these tight confines they were very vulnerable.
Harry had a Lumos running behind and in front of them as they walked, and the agents moved in a fast crouch, rifles at their shoulder as they looked through their scopes for targets, with two men at the rear covering anyone coming from behind.
They'd made it perhaps a hundred meters - maybe a bit more - when a loud crumbling noise was suddenly filling the tunnel ahead. The men in front dropped to one knee, and Harry lit the tunnel up in front of them even as the entire structure began to shake. A moment later, a breeze of grey dust and dirt hit them, and the rumbling sound around them made them think that the vampires might have collapsed the tunnel ahead, trapping them in here.
"Fuck," whispered one of the agents. Harry wanted to agree, though he knew he could probably blast his way out, and if necessary, could side-along everyone two at a time. In fact, that was probably their best bet, and he decided it was time to go. "Wait, I'm going to transport us out of here. I can take two with me on each trip."
Just as Brock opened his mouth to say something, an enormous crack appeared at their feet and one of the walls to their left began to shake, throwing everyone's balance off and sending two men to the ground. Everyone looked at each other even as pieces of the ceiling rained down, and it wasn't difficult to guess that the vampires were tunneling right under their feet or between the walls.
Sure enough, just as Harry was casting a new shield, a giant boulder came careening at them from somewhere ahead. A quick shield stopped it just in time, but the cracking in the floor continued and suddenly a large figure jumped out of a crater that appeared under their feet. Even as every weapon turned in that direction a series of cracks and thuds, followed by another blur, and two more men were down with their necks turned the wrong way even as the vampire disappeared down the corridor.
"Fuck!" one of the agents yelled, his voice heavy with fear. "We've no chance, they are playing with us! We need to get out of here!"
A warning from his magic came just in time for Harry to block another chunk of concrete thrown at them, sending it ricocheting backwards. When it smashed into the wall, tearing large chunks out, they all knew it would have been a fatal blow.
Harry had never had to worry about shielding in three directions before - above, eye level in a complete circle, and below - but that was what was needed in this situation. There was no room for him to open the distance and strike the vampires from afar, and he was locked to a fixed position trying to protect Brock's team.
Angered now, he brought his wand up, preparing to create an impenetrable area for them to cover in while he apparated them out. He got the first two shields up, more boulders ricocheting off of them harmlessly, when suddenly a spiking pain, like he was under the cruciatus but even worse, lit up every nerve ending in his body, sending him to the ground in a soundless shriek.
Though his eyes were clouded with pain he was able to see, maybe twenty meters away through the hazy shimmer of his shield, a small figure of a smiling girl with red eyes looking at him with undisguised malice.
Impossibly the pain intensified, and soon the rest of Brock's team were on the ground with him, their screams sounding like the voices of the damned. It took him a moment to realize his voice was amongst them.
By instinct Harry raised his occlumency barriers to their full extent, and he was surprised when the pain lessened quite a bit. The vampire had a mental gift then, he realized.
He rose to a knee with his wand raised, and his occlumency shields held, though it felt like battering rams were smashing against them. The shields he'd cast before the mental attack - that was holding back the vampires from swarming them - still held, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to hold the shields long under the strain on his mind. He needed to do something quickly; and as the thought crystallized, he knew it would be spectacular and dangerous, something that would endanger friend and foe alike. But he had no choice: he could apparate out, save himself, and leave his team to die, or he could take the gamble that might save them all.
Harry would never willingly leave a friendly behind.
Jaw tightening, he locked eyes with the demon child, wand coming up with determination.
Harry needed sentient fire, and he needed it now. Dropping the shields, he shouted in a rough voice that was hoarse from screaming.
"Fiendfyre!"
Watching the humans wilt as she poured her gift into their minds, Jane smiled as could smell the fear and adrenaline pumping through their weak bodies. Their howls of agony were music to her ears, and she wanted to make them pay for destroying Anton. Not that she particularly cared, of course; she cared nothing for the lower guards. Let them burn.
But Heidi would be upset, and that would upset Master Aro. And Jane *did* care about that.
Jane knew that, technically, she was breaking Aro's commands by engaging, and Anton's loss was her fault; but she rarely got to enjoy herself these days, and these humans were just too tempting to ignore.
And she was a bit thirsty, of course.
Jane had arrived earlier today, after a Volturi informer had reported that several of his compatriots had met their end at the hands of a strangely garbed human, who carried a long, glowing scepter. The vampires had been using an old abandoned tunnel in London as their lair, and the strange human successfully evicted them with extreme prejudice. The human smelled like nothing they'd ever encountered before and had dispatched the vampires handily, with only one barely escaping.
When Caius learned of the incident, he was enraged and wanted to descend in force to investigate this threat and eliminate it; but Aro had counseled caution and patience, and the Volturi had sent a scouting party instead with orders to observe only.
With Istvan tracking for them - he was their second-best tracker after Demetri, who was out on assignment - it did not take long for them to find the ashed remains of the coven that had resided here. And just like was reported, there was a new scent nearby, one she was not familiar with, nor was anyone else in the Guard. The eldest of them - Erik, a brute of a man that Aro found in the region that would later become the Nordic countries about fifteen hundred years ago - thought the scent was familiar, but could not be certain.
However, the scent was stale, and at least a few days old.
After relaying her findings to the Master, Jane had been instructed to do a quick search of the surrounding areas to see if anything of interest remained, but to be discreet. Her orders had the caveat she was to keep herself safe amongst all other considerations. If they encountered the man who slew the vampire, they were to report back immediately, but not to attack.
While verbally agreeing, Jane was also mildly surprised. Never before had she received an order like this; typically, the team's safety were considered closer to zero when it came to keeping the secret, and whoever it was clearly knew too much.
Jane suspected that Aro might know more about this than she had been informed, which was not unusual; after all, with his gift, her Master was better informed than anyone else on the planet, and when he held the informant's hand and read his thoughts he did, in hindsight, have a tight look on his face.
Even as they finished their investigation - there was nothing but scraps of machinery in the tunnel - a new group arrived. Jane and her team watched with interest as the small group of humans started down the tunnel where the scent of the vampire slayer was strongest. And, being the curious sort, she commanded her team to follow them down.
It was clear the humans were trying to be stealthy, and Jane suspected they too were seeking out the same mystery that the Volturi was.
Interesting.
Making a quick decision, she didn't want these humans finding something down here before they could investigate themselves. She considered letting them search first - perhaps they would be able to make sense of the discarded machines - and then taking a one or two of the humans back to Master Aro for him to read; but honestly Jane was impatient, and the humans were too slow. She considered calling Master Aro back on her small phone but dismissed it. He trusted her judgement, had for a long time now.
Deciding to spook the humans a bit - she was bored at their slow pace after all and they tasted better with their adrenaline flowing - she moved quickly down a side corridor parallel to them, and waited silently, watching as their little green lights from their weapon scopes intersected her chest.
She smiled as she heard their whispers and their heartbeats increasing, her venom flowing as she anticipated a good meal when she drained a few of them.
It was at that moment, just as she whispered at a pitch the humans couldn't hear for her compatriots to dispatch the humans, she realized that some of their number were wizards or witches. One of them cast a spell that lit up the corridors, revealing nothing as the vampires easily evaded and moved to new positions.
Taking the initiative, the first of her group barreled through the humans, shattering their fragile bodies as they passed. She grudgingly admired a few of the humans as they reacted swiftly, especially the lone wizard remaining alive as a flare of light lit up the area as he cast some sort of misty barrier towards his front and back before sending a spell down the corridor towards herself and Anton.
In the split second after his spell left his wand, she recognized his face from a sketch she'd once seen during a briefing on the happenings in the 'Wizarding World.'
The man was none other than Harry Potter, the Wizarding worlds so called 'Savior.' She knew Demetri had run into him in Greece not long ago, and an updated sketch of the man and his female companion had been added to the 'persons of interest' book that all Guard members had to be familiar with, reading any updates to it periodically.
Now, here he was, investigating the same thing they were.
All of this ran through Jane's mind in the second it took for something to come flying towards them at impressive speeds, and Jane decided caution might be warranted and raced back and around a small alcove, leaving one of the lower guards - an ungifted fighter named Manuel - to gape stupidly at whatever it was that Potter sent flying towards him.
Not a moment later, the corridor behind Jane was lit with a tremendously bright light - even for a vampire - and the screams of Manuel were loud enough to wake the proverbial undead.
She heard the hisses of some of the other guards, now eager for vengeance while watching the dispatch of one of their own. Personally, Jane didn't care - there were very few she did care about - but the ignominy of this assault could not be borne.
Clearly, the rest of the Guard felt the same, as everyone moved to attack.
Over the next few minutes, Jane kept her distance while the guardsman tried various tricks to get around Potter's barriers, and soon more of the humans were down. Jane ordered one of the Guard to block the exit tunnel to increase the human's fear and slow them down, and then five of her number launched a coordinated attack through the walls, ceiling, and floor to bypass the spell barriers.
And then Jane entered the fray, her smile lighting her face as she sent her Gift of pain lancing into their minds, sending them all to the ground where they belonged.
To her great surprise, Potter somehow raised himself up to one knee, his eyes glowing as they locked with hers. She sent more power at him, hitting him as hard as she'd ever hit anyone before, and still, he didn't buckle.
Jane snarled at him in hatred; no one had ever - not in six hundred years - ever withstood her assault.
And then he raised his wand at her, his barrier dropped, and he yelled out a single word that sounded like "fiend fire," but that seemed imbued with menace.
A sudden rush of intense heat washed over her as a flaming form began to coalesce in the air not ten feet from her - a bird, or owl perhaps? - she wasn't sure, and she didn't trust it. And then she felt a great malice coming from the flame, and Jane - for the first time ever - was afraid of the unknown. As the corridor filled with the form of a flaming bird that turned hungry eyes on her, she turned; and in another first, since her barely remembered human days, she fled in fear for her life.
She raced past Felix who, watching her run, turned to join her when he saw what was chasing. Steffon saw them running and he joined them too, a little behind them as the bird careened after them, the feeling of menace coming closer, the heat on their backs increasing.
As they raced on, Jane dared turn her head for a moment, and saw the flaming bird - now blocking the entire corridor - reach out a long fiery talon and then launch forward to engulf Steffon, who seemed to pulse and strobe brightly like he was lit up from the inside. The image lasted but a moment, and then he exploded in ash and smoke, not even having the chance to scream.
Jane ran faster. For the first time in a very, very long time, Jane was terrified, all thoughts of retribution against this Wizard far from her thoughts. She had never known anyone who could withstand her gift, nor had she heard of anything that could track vampires around twisty corridors and immolate them in seconds.
The vampires were fast, racing through the tunnels in just seconds. As they turned down the last corridor towards the exit, two other guardsmen joined up with them in the wider, main corridor. Hissing out her commands, Felix and Santiago began to smash through the barrier they'd collapsed earlier, their burly bodies clearing the way through. Jane kept an anxious eye behind her, watching for the death bird.
Finally, the way was open, and they ran. With Jane leading, they dashed up the last hundred meters towards the exit, feeling the flames stalking them somewhere close behind.
Jane's emotions had calmed, as it seemed they had outraced the bird. Her mind was awhirl as she thought about what all of this meant. At the very least, she needed to report this to the Masters immediately: this Wizard was a serious threat to them, and if other Wizards were just as dangerous then something needed to be done.
She knew Caius would agree.
As she finally sprinted up the last few meters, a sudden glow from a side corridor suddenly seemed to move forwards into the main corridor, tendrils of flame preceding it. Screaming, Jane burst out of the tunnel and into the night just as the fiery form of the bird moved to block the corridor she was just in. She realized it must have come up a side corridor, and that the blockage that took time for them to clear had given it a chance to catch them.
The night lit up around her, and from the scream of one of the guards behind her she suspected another of her number was ash. She didn't bother to turn around, she just ran as fast as she could towards the river, her only thought was of getting into the water where hopefully this fiend couldn't follow.
Unfortunately for Jane, she was the slowest of the group. She had been changed young, and her shorter legs could not keep up with her fellow guards. Felix passed her by, angling to the southeast and one of the others - she wasn't sure who - passed her to the far right.
Jane screamed as she realized the bird was after her now, the night suddenly brightening around her, the feel of heat and hatred just behind her. She could almost feel the bird at her back now, and screeching in horror she used her gift on the guard to the right, sending him to the ground, shrieking in agony.
The pathetic wretch, gasping on the floor from her gift, rolled about a dozen feet from the momentum of his run, taking him right to the edge of the water, but not far enough to fall over the edge. Jane whipped right on by, hoping his sacrifice would give her the precious seconds she needed to get to the safety of the water.
Just as Jane launched herself far out into the air over the bank of the Thames, another inhuman shriek rang out, signaling the end of the Guard she'd sacrificed. Jane thought it might be Robert, but she didn't stick around to find out and frankly didn't care either way. And then blessedly she was in the water, diving straight down into the inky blackness to the bottom of the river ten meters below.
From her perch on the bottom of the riverbed she could make out the shadowy figures of only one other guard as he splashed through the water near her position. She suspected it was Felix - the big bastard had always been a survivor - and she was glad there was at least one other to take some of the blame for this fiasco of a mission. When he spotted her, she began to retreat, following the river bottom east towards the North Sea. Walking quickly - or as quickly as she could underwater with waterlogged robes - she realized it was Felix with her.
There was no sign of the fire bird, and they paused on the bottom and waited a few minutes to see if any of the other Guards made it out, standing silent and still, their robes fluttering in the current. When no one else hit the water, she felt a momentary feeling of regret that Peytr was gone. He was young - at sixteen - the youngest of the Guard save she and her twin Alec and gifted as well. Jane had enjoyed using him for the occasional pleasure tryst over the last few decades - he knew his place in the hierarchy, which was far below hers - but she didn't linger on it for long. She had no real feelings for him except for what he could give to her, and he was easily replaceable for her needs.
Motioning with her hands, she and Felix followed the riverbed as it sloped down and out into the sea, her skin registering the much colder temperature of the water but not being bothered by it. She had initially planned on surfacing a few miles downriver but reconsidered; she wanted more space between her and the accursed Wizard before coming up.
Soon, they left the river bottom and began swimming - shedding their robes as they did - as the depth had increased so much that even their vampire vision could not pierce the darkness. As they rounded Margate on the cape, the surf relatively calm as they powered through the water, she estimated it would take them about a half hour to swim the thirty or so kilometers to Calais in France.
From there they would run to Volterra, and the Masters would know of this threat to their existence.
Whew! Lots of action, and the next chapter is the confrontation in Germany.
We are getting towards the final arc now. Maybe five, six chapters left. Hope to have it finished by years end.
Let me know what you think! Reviews are the only way to tell.