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HILL AND I arrived behind the house, pulses in our throats, hearts beating, slow and thick, bodies slick with sweat Sutton and Her for us, lost in the blackness of underbrush and night I didn&039;t see the fucking gun He&039;d brought the Barrett 50-caliber, good for stopping charging rhinos, stray elephants, and any kind of preternatural that bullets could harht with houses I wouldn&039;t have wanted to use it, because if the big bulletuntil it hit so A 50-caliber bullet would take out most of the chest on a vampire or wereanimal; on a normal human it would take out the upper part of the entire body To bring the big gun here said soance about his own abilities and his teammate&039;s confidence in him He&039;d already put the Barrett on its little tripod stand, so he didn&039;t have to hold the six-foot barrel He was kneeling on the spread blanketlike surface of the drag bag that he&039;d carried the gun in; noas a nice little shooting platfors, rocks, broken glass, or whatever It was like a picnic blanket but without the basket of edible goodies

Hermes had put some sort of liniment on a joint, probably his knee, because the scent was lower down than the arm It was a faint, sharp undersun oil or Hermes&039;s bu for us? I wasn&039;t sure; maybe not Hill and I knelt with them in the planted tree line that bordered the Bores yard and the one behind us There was no light in either yard It was the thickest dark that I&039;d seen in any yard I had a hts to be out, but it didn&039;t rowth bushes and small trees, with Sutton, and were as hidden as if we&039;d been in deep woods Even if the vampire looked out the ould miss us It wasn&039;t his eyes we had to worry about

I was almost shoulder to shoulder with Hill, so the fact that I could hear his heartbeat, his pulse thudding faintly in his throat, was almost to be expected I tried to hear Sutton&039;s and Hermes&039;s bodies, and it was more that I could feel the vaain, would I have been so certain of it if I hadn&039;t known it? I hoped not, because that was the real problem with supernaturals; they had other, better senses than normals

Lincoln&039;s voice whispered inout"

Sutton asked, voice low, "Did perp send the dog out, or did the kids insist on taking it?"

"Perp sent it"

"Shit," Sutton and Herether

Hill said, "Crap"

"What&039;s wrong?" I asked

"He either sent the dog and kids out so they won&039;t see hi to bite him," Hill said

"Either way," Sutton said, "it&039;s not good"

"Spot hiue; I just looked at the side of the house and lowered my control I used to say that I lowered my metaphysical shields, but I could keep my shields that protected h the a shield and sword; you could use the sword and still hug your shield to your body I tried to do that noith my necromancy To use my ability with the dead, but not open myself up so that the vampire inside could spot me metaphysically I&039;d only recently learned how to use iven area; before this it had been like lighting a bonfire every time I used my abilities Great as a distraction, an attraction, or if I was positive that I could take out whatever was coifts way more useful for police work

I reached out toward the vaain, I used to just reach out to the dead, but now I could "aim" better at vampires that weren&039;t tied directly to me metaphysically If a vampire was tied to me in some psychic way I could reach out to thee vampires were harder I reached out toward the house, and as silly as it sounded, reaching out with my hand toward the wall of the house helped er, but ht so I could look down it, and follow the line of it toward the house It was just a visual help, soet out of the way for my mind

I felt a vampire in the house, but with one I&039;d never met before I couldn&039;t honestly tell you that it was the va for; I had to rely on the fact that Lieutenant Lincoln had just been talking to him over the phone, and that everyone else told ht vaence was accurate, because even though it wasn&039;t er, it was still my warrant of execution It was ot us a green light for this va on a warrant of execution ation into the kill He could fire, kill, and not lose an hour off the job, or ato Internal Affairs or anyone else The snipers loved working with me, because it was always a clean, no-muss, no-fuss kill

I couldn&039;t really see the va with your fingers, but hts, as if thoughts were fingers, hands that could wrap around the vaes of hi," I whispered I closed et out of the way It didn&039;t matter what the side of the house looked like; it didn&039;t ht to one side What s the real, hard eyes couldn&039;t see at all

"How fast?" Sutton asked

"Fast" I didn&039;t realize I was

"Is that his speed?"

I stopped uess so"

"Hermes, spot the woman for me," Sutton said

Hermes raised a pair of binoculars that were a little too bulky to be "nor with her back to cabinets, not flat enough to be wall"

"Good," Sutton said, and his voice was already going quieter, a little deeper, as he began to slide away into the mind-set that would let hi bag unfolded into, snugged up against the big rifle It was so big that it ht Sutton was about to fire a 50-caliber projectile through a wall, into a et, and he needed to not just hit it, but hit it square and true, because the last thing anted was a wounded vae, or for thatout at us The fact that there was even the sliht not bring hiing the big gun in the first place We hadn&039;t had it happen, but other units in other cities had had va less than a 50, and a couple of night It had just been the wrong half of the chest, like the half that didn&039;t contain the heart Sutton had to take the heart, or head, or both with one shot Not just dae it, but take it the fuck out; it was the only surety for a true kill

Lincoln&039;s voice caun Repeat, vaun"

"Fuck," Hermes said

"Blake," Sutton said

I tried to reach out carefully, but the gun changed things Up to that point I&039;d thought the vaet close to the woman to hurt her; now he could stand farther away and kill her Shit The spurt of adrenaline brought my shields further down, but it helped ain

"He&039;s slowing, turning," I said, and my voice was lower, careful If the vaht have feltat him, but either he was just that weak, or he was too e but his own i which way?" Sutton asked, voice squeezed doith concentration

I used er to point I could never have explained how I knehich way the va, but I was sure of it; knew it

"That&039;s toward the wo?" Sutton asked