“Why? Won’t that just give her more of an opportunity to slip away from us?”
“She won’t slip away from us,” Eliza assured him.
“But Mila didn’t say to do that,” Sergio continued.
“She’s on her way out the front door,” Cassidy told Eliza.
Sergio continued to justify his reasoning for getting on her immediately, so much so that he missed Honey coming out the door on the arm of a tall man who didn’t look too different from the fellow she’d picked out the night before.
“That guy she’s with is still a human, for now. His name is Daven, and he’s worried that his wife will know he’s not at his friend’s house playing cards like she thinks, though not worried enough to stay put in the bar when a tall, beautiful blonde invites him down the block to her place.”
“Good to know,” Eliza replied to Cassidy before she said to Sergio. “If you’re done, we can follow the Vampire now.”
She didn’t wait for a response, only took off, paralleling Honey’s movement from the far side of the street. Honey would walk right past where Andor was positioned in a minute. To her team, she said, “We are in pursuit. Andor, stand down until we cross the street, please.”
“Confirmed,” he replied. “I see the mark.”
Eliza could see what Cassidy meant by Honey being antsy. She looked over her shoulder several times just in the block and a half they’d been trailing her. As far as she could tell, Honey hadn’t spotted the two across the street from her, walking at almost the same pace but clinging to the shadows as much as possible. With any luck, she wouldn’t see them until they were out of the busier part of town and closer to one of the slummy back allies where they’d had their last encounter.
“Hey can I bum a cigarette?” a guy asked in broken English, grabbing onto Eliza’s arm.
“Let go of me,” she demanded, pulling his hand off so sharply, he shouted. She shoved him out of the way, hoping Honey hadn’t heard the confrontation. The street was wide enough, and there were still enough people around that it didn’t seem to catch the Vampire’s attention. She was walking faster now as the intervals between streetlights lengthened, making it darker, and now it was Daven who seemed to be glancing over his shoulders.
“He’s starting to get worried,” Cassidy explained. “She keeps saying it’s just a little further.”
Honey turned a corner headed toward a group of apartment buildings, and Eliza decided now was the time to make their move. “Come on.” She shot across the street, dodging a beat up car with one headlight, as she and Sergio flew up behind them.
The street here was narrow and poorly lit. It wasn’t an alley, but it wasn’t well-traveled, and there was plenty of garbage in the ditches and along the sidewalk. The closest streetlight was halfway up the block from where Honey and her intended victim stood by the time they realized they weren’t alone. “Hey, Daven, better get home before I call your wife!” Eliza shouted as she caught up to them.
The man’s eyes were wide with fear as he digested the fact that he’d been spotted. Mumbling an expletive under his breath, he took off running, back the way he’d come, without even so much as an apology to Honey who was no longer interested in him anyway.
“Oh, great. It’s you again,” the Vampire said with a cocky head roll and a grin on her face. “I’ve been wanting to repay you for the way you treated my friends.”
“It’s too bad you didn’t stick around the other night so I could show you the same sort of hospitality.”
Honey folded her arms as if she were completely relaxed. “You should know I am not the same as they are. My veins are alive with the power of one who cannot be stopped by your bullets or your silver knives.”
“Sounds a lot like what a few of your other friends have said recently, the other ringleaders of Daunator’s little band of destruction makers. But I ended them easily enough and hope to have the same sort of fun with you.”
Honey chuckled, but she was backing up now, her heels clicking on the broken cement road, echoing off the buildings and reminding Eliza of a death knell.
Behind her, Mila and Dom came into view as Eliza pulled her knife from its sheath. “You ready, bitch?”
Honey glanced over her shoulder at the sound of footsteps behind her. “Four on one. That seems fair.” But when she turned back to face Eliza, her fangs were out, catching the faint wisps of moonlight and gleaming as her mouth stretched beyond the limits of its human counterpart.
She didn’t come at them, though, only hissed, her talons springing forth from her fingertips. “She’s scared,” Cassidy said. “Which is weird. I wouldn’t have taken her for a coward.”
“Maybe that’s why she didn’t fight me the other night.”
“Maybe. But she’s also stalling. I think there are others on the way. Better get to it.”
Eliza didn’t have to be told twice. She ran at Honey with her knife extended, going in for the kill before the Vampire knew what hit her. The Guardian wasn’t quite fast enough, though. Honey sprang backward far enough that the knife made contact with dead air, and Eliza stumbled forward, expecting an impact to slow her momentum. She righted herself quickly as Honey continued to back away from her, slashing as she went. With each thrust of the knife, the Vampire slid just out of reach.
Frustrated, Eliza drew her Glock. Noticing her teammates stepping out of the way behind the bloodsucker, she took careful aim and shot her several times in the chest and then the head. Honey roared in rage, and billows of ash began to plume out of the holes, but it wasn’t enough. Still, Eliza had her attention now. Holstering her Glock, she tried again, and this time, her knife caught Honey’s shoulder as she couldn’t leap out of the way quite quickly enough.
