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New York City, New York
Charlotte knehat they were on sight Twoblack gloves and wide-brilasses on a cloudy late Septe? It stunned her that they&039;d been able tosuspicion, but here they were in her apart, on her doorstep, and she had no doubt that Cortez had sent them
Skittish, one hand still on the knob of her open apart in their oing back,&039; she said, e to raise her chin and stare boldly at thes &039;He doesn&039;t want you back&039;
The two reached into their jackets, hands vanishing into folds of fabric with inhulint of the ht of the overhead fixture, Charlottethe door closed behind her with all her strength, not bothering to slon to attempt to bar their entry Their entrance was not in question Cortez e his coven to return to the end, but he wasn&039;t a fool - his children did not need an invitation to co wood and plunking into walls and furniture and shattering glass Charlotte dived to the floor as the first of the shots seared the air above her, transfor even as she landed on the carpet She had adapted to the true abilities of the Shadows, but it was still easiest for her to metamorphose into one of the standard forms, and by instinct she chosedissipated in an instant, as if the impact of her body on the floor caused her to turn to s Cortez&039;s killers weren&039;t firing ordinary bullets at her They wouldn&039;t be that foolish A bullet would do nothing to a va she&039;d been taught, Task Force Victor had another sort of bullet, one infused with a toxin that inhibited the molecular alteration that allowed Shadows to shapeshift That was how they caught rogue vampireshow her kind could be killed Now, sootten his hands on some of the UN&039;s ammo
The door split in two as the first valanced around the apart him look even less human than he was As mist, Charlotte churned toward theabove the breakfast table in her tiny kitchen, knowing he would notice her any moment The second va the first for just an instant, giving Charlotte a fraction of a second to solve a problem
As htly
A ripple went through the whiteflesh and bone at the speed of thought Copper-red hair, wool coat, beat-up Tilass five stories above 2nd Avenue One of the vaain, but by the ti doard toward the street She was half a block froistry Office was on 46th, even closer, if she could just get there
The gunfire stopped They knew she&039;d run for it and that et down to the street, but Cortez had trained them too well to be nocturnal creatures These fools were so dedicated to ancient legend, to being the nightmares that had terrified hu, just like old times Without the cover of their creepy black ensembles, they&039;d burn, which meant they had to be damned careful
Charlotte couldn&039;t afford to be careful
Transfors, wheeling into the narrow alley that separated her building frolance to ain, alighting upon the ground as herself and shuddering slightly, getting used to her own for so much in such a short tin at first She had never liked shapeshifting; it made her feel less hued open in the alley and she spun toward the sound, otten down from her floor this quickly Charlotte blinked when she saw the va blond hair beneath the saht off Annabel, one of Cortez&039;s wives
Idiot, she thought She&039;d never considered there ht be a third
In her frustration, she didn&039;t un was already in Annabel&039;s hand Charlotte felt the pain sear her chest as the bullet struck, even before she heard the shot A wave of nausea swept her iuess had been correct - Cortez had the toxin She didn&039;t knohat the UN had officially named it, but vampires called it Medusa, because it effectively turned them to stone
Stone
She wasn&039;t a statue She could move She couldn&039;t shapeshift but she could run, and though the sky hite with thin clouds, the sun was strong behind the backward, she practically spilled out onto the sidewalk, cursing herself for her foolishness If she had just stayed a crow she could have flown the distance to the Shadow Registry in a couple of minutes, but she preferred to be herself, to stay on two feet, and she&039;d thought she had left the vaet far like that!&039; Annabel called after her
More shots rang out One of the her halfway around She flashed Annabel the finger and let her momentum carry her into the street Brakes screa with a crunch Then she was across the street, racing down 2nd Avenue Medusa had taken away her shifting, but she was still a Shadow, stronger and faster by far than a hu she couldn&039;t hear over the bleating car horns and the angry shouts of drivers Charlotte glanced back at her building and saw the other two vae, and then all three of Cortez&039;s assassins were giving chase The wind blew the hat off of the tallerand snored hi on, but now they clutched their own hats to their heads,sure the wide brims blocked most of the sun They looked so utterly ridiculous that any other day Charlotte would have taken the ti hunted, and that was exactly where she found herself - hunted on the streets of New York
Just blocks away, she thought And she ran
Fear drove her to abandon any pretense at being ordinary People shouted in surprise as she sprinted past the what she was A wohter out of the way On the corner of 49th Street a falafel vendor ducked down behind his cart and crossed hi for a break in traffic The driver of a UPS truck had his eyes on her instead of the road and struck a double-parked cab A Lexus skidded to a halt to avoid crashing into the truck and Charlotte dodged between the vehicles
More screams pursued her down the street, but she knew that these were not because of her She glanced back over her shoulder and saw Annabel and the twothose jammed up by the first collision Charlotte had caused, and as the cop cliun drawn, one of the un went off, shattering glass, but the va at all had happened Annabel vaulted onto the police car&039;s roof and began leaping from car to car while the males dashed between the and juht, Charlotte knew they would have caught her already She&039;d be dead by now Itduring the day The only way ither place for a while, waiting for her to coone for nearly a week Soht without the, they had spotted her, ht because they were afraid she ain before they could take her down
Charlotte raced past the Manchester Pub A dog started barking and she dodged left to avoid tripping over its leash There were too many people on the sidewalk ahead and she shouted for the with that uncanny speed, knocking over a diplomat with a briefcase
She saw the baby stroller just in ti it, but as she passed the from her as if Charlotte were on fire - she crashed into an old roceries The bag tore as the two of the cans and fresh produce to the ground The man cried out as his head struck the sidewalk
No! Charlotte thought, reaching for hiht have killed hiroaned and started to prop hi at her as if she were insane
&039;What is wrong with -&039; he began
&039;Oh herself fro her head, she backed away frootta go I&039;ve gotta -&039;
The look in the old man&039;s eyes turned to fear and she kneasn&039;t looking at her anyrabbed her by the throat, his fingers digging into her flesh, cutting off the flow of air she didn&039;t need In the shadow of his hat bri to deuns and bullets was over This leech intended to tear her apart
Charlotte struck in a blink, plucking out his left eye The va back a step, and she was on hian to s the long black jacket off of him and then the shirt beneath In seconds his whole upper body began to char and burn and he ran toward the front door of the corner grocery to get out of the sun
&039;What the fuck did you think was going to happen?&039; she screamed at him &039;Did Cortez pick the stupidest assholes he could find?&039;
The other round and carrying her into the plate glass frontof the grocery The glass shattered, raining huge shards onto the floor as they careened off of a checkout counter and knocked over a candy rack As Charlotte scrarabbed her ankle His eyes burned red as his claws dug into her, down to the bone
She picked up the cash register and brought it down on his skull with all her strength The wet crunch satisfied a deep gnawing hatred inside her, but already he was turning to mist, so she leaped over the fallen candy rack and raced for the shatteredThe half-naked, scorched vamp tried to catch her before she reached it, but she hurled herself out onto the sidewalk and he skidded to a halt, not wanting to burn again
It had all taken only seconds Outside the grocery, Annabel strode across 2nd Avenue toward her Charlotte turned south and began to sprint, but Annabel bolted after her on a course to intercept Running, the human world seemed to slon around her, but even so the taxicab seemed to come out of nowhere It shot out of 48th Street and struck Annabel, dragging her under even as it screeched to a halt
The driver&039;s door flew open and a handsoirl She won&039;t be down but a second&039;
Charlotte&039;s eyes ide The cabbie had hit Annabel on purpose He , realized that it was vaht in shining aretaway The fool
She didn&039;t even have ti under the taxi
But he&039;d bought her a few seconds&039; head start, and Charlotte wasn&039;t going to waste it All she needed o blocks, and she&039;d be daain She took off running, swerving into the street to get around a cluster of gawkers trying to see as screalass shedding froround Even with all the noise of the city around her, the scuff of her boots on the asphalt see 47th Street, she wondered how long the toxin lasted She didn&039;t like shifting much; it made her feel less human But frozen in one form by Medusa, it felt like someone had put shackles on her
A delivery man came out from behind a parked truck with a loaded dolly, and she barely avoided another collision Focus! she thought Another fall, and she s pu, she increased her already impossible speed, and in moments she saw 46th Street ahead
&039;Stop there, bitch!&039; Annabel shouted after her &039;You speak, you die!&039;
Charlotte wanted to laugh as she turned the corner and spotted the gated entry to the Registry diagonally across 46th They were already trying to kill her It was too late for threats
The wind blew She could sistry had a broad façade of thick glass and guards at the heavy double doors A garage entrance had a guard posted as well, with a thickthe way in She&039;d seen such things once on a class trip to Washington DC, but never since But she didn&039;t have a car It was the front door for her, or right through the glass wall if that&039;s what it caain, and one of the , still in pursuit and still, no doubt, holding onto their hats and looking foolish Charlotte couldn&039;t believe they hadn&039;t given up the chase
The gunshots cas Charlotte flinched with each pop and stared at the guards, ere all just noing their weapons, ready to defend the Registry entrance So where the hell had shooting co 46th Street, and saw bullets punching through Annabel and the ered and the male went down on his knees The sun didn&039;t ht was just another for It wouldn&039;t be able to kill theh above, like God hiround!&039;
Charlotte obeyed, hands behind her head like she&039;d seen on so lanced frantically around Traffic had stopped flowing; some kind of blockade in the street, a e She looked up tohere the voice had come from, and saw that the bullets had come from there as well Bullets loaded with Medusa Windows had slid open in the façade of the building, three stories up, and snipers were leaning out with their weapons trained on Charlotte and her pursuers
&039;Don&039;t shoot!&039; Charlotte called &039;Please, help me! Peter Octavian -&039;
With a clatter, metal plates opened in the sidewalk on both sides of the street Shouting ed, souns and others with flah her like the deadliest poison
&039;No, please!&039; she shouted, but then she saw that they weren&039;t focused on her
She twisted around and watched as theto his feet He made it half a dozen steps before the flame-throwers burned hi ball of fire Annabel lunged at one of the to murder her way onto a path to freedom, and the flame-throwers roared When Annabel&039;s hair went up in a cloud of fire, Charlotte looked away
Into the barrels of half a dozen guns and two flame-throwers
A terrible sorrow clutched her heart She looked into the eyes of the nearest soldier
&039;No,&039; she said softly &039;I just wanted to sign the Covenant&039;