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Daniel tossed a dry towel to Eli and the two guys dried off, still trash-talking
I ignored thea little differently now, s and balanced and effortless It was freaky In the last low hblack hair, currently braided close to i, the Cherokee Also known as The People
I caught a towel tossed ot back to the house The dojo wasn’t set up for lockers and shower stalls
Outside, the fountain tinkled in the enclosed courtyard A catDaniel that it was supperti that way I know My Beast is a h she prefers her food freshly caught and slaughtered by her killing teeth
Froear on the floor, I heard both of our phones singing to us--both playing "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," by Pat Benatar It was the ringtone for Alex, the other Younger brother, and the tech partner of Yellowrock Securities If he was ringing both lines, this couldn’t be good
I bent and caught up both cells, underhand throwing Eli’s to hi the Kevlar cover to ’s going down"
Eli and I grabbed up our gobags and trotted frole wave to Daniel as the door shut behind ainst the wall, fists on his hips, looking better than Eli’s opponents usually did I kneanted to go with us--he had been hinting it--but dealing with vamps took practice and a lot of emotional and verbal restraint I wasn’t sure how restrained Daniel would be if a male vamp came on to him for dinner and a date Vamps were a lot less reticent about sexual , uncoe to any vah and a polite refusal, but Daniel struck me as the belt-hiet him dead, fast
"You’re on speaker," Eli said to Alex as the dojo door closed "It’s too early to be a vamp problem An attacker would fry" I closed my cell and listened
"Nothing on the outside cameras It’s inside At the ballroom"
Vamps couldand narrow and newly covered by electric shutters I took a breath to speak and got a lungful of alley stink that was enough to bowl over an elephant It smelled of urine--so in the summer heat and hu back to va-standing feud between vamp factions" There were too many vamps in the relatively small space, and there had been more than a few violent incidents Va as no hu that e But it’s bloody and it’s bigger than the usual fanghead altercation"
Still ate shut, andthe vehicle open The trapped heat exploded out We opened all the doors to let it air, which gave us tied the streets in the French Quarter so badly that wespot unless soet in It was bulad when h the New Orleans traffic "We’re gonna hafta hoof it to HQ, Alex," Eli said, "but we’re not going in wearing street clothes We’ll change here Give us details as they firot behind the wheel and synced up our cells to the vehicle I took the backseat and started gearing up--leathers, weapons, boots Not easy in the backseat of an overheated SUV s tinted va-new one Leo had provided for hts and the AC, but it would take forever to cool off I shook out a handful of baby powder and tossed the container to Eli, both of us liberally powdering down the sweat and sliding the leathers over our liive us the particulars
"Looks like it started in the sub-four base over a human woot caught up in it and now it’s a brawl"
Eli spat a curse under his breath, sliding on his new, high-tech co on the laces He had a point Injured hu nasty Sending you vid now"
On the SUV video screen, we had a clear view of a sub-four hallway and about ten va, but weird to be happening before dusk, whenones were out cold, often unable to be roused
"That looks wrong," I said of the fight "But I’m not sure why" I checked the loads ofWe were licensed to carry in Louisiana, but no one wanted to get detained if a hot, sweaty cop, stuck in traffic, saw us jog by
"Yeah They lookstu Dead but faster," Eli said
"That’s it Varaceful, and these are klutzes I’ine went silent and we slid fro hit in the face with a soaking-recking-ball-sized sponge Eli beeped the SUV locked, and we reactivated our cells and started down the sidewalk,in this heat?
As if reading my mind, Eli called back, "It’ll put hair on your chest"
"That’s what I’e of my half-Beast shape, covered in Beast pelt I didn’t have the breath to reply, not in this heat, and just kept jogging, the late-day summer sun like a steam torch on my exposed skin I followed Eli down back alleys and, once, through a T-shirt and tourist-kitsch business, out the back, through the courtyard, into the back door of a restaurant, and out the front onto the street on the other side No one stopped us, but I’d bet we’d end up on someone’s YouTube channel somewhere