(Sorry for the long delay folks. Dissertation and my second book took a lot more time than I anticipated, but I'm glad to be posting the Blood and Magic series again. Enjoy!)
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Kirstin led the party to a small outdoor wooded area a mile away from the hospital. As she circled the parameter she could see the sirens flashing over the horizon. She looked at the hospital in the distance more than she did the road.
Stop blaming yourself for your partner. Melissa's voice startled Kirstin, Whatever happens to him has happened and even if you did go with him, it's likely you'd be dead too.
Kirstin rolled her eyes and thought of Melissa walking down the hotel in her Wonder Woman underwear, Ashley pinching her small buttocks.
Why don't you focus on the present instead of the past or the future? Melissa said by raising her tone.
"Over there." she pointed to a small opening into a wooded area. Kirstin drove slow, maneuvering in between two large trees before putting the car in park. The lights from Dominic's car shined through hers.
Loading her pistol, Kirstin killed the engine. She stepped outside and stood next to Sakeena while waiting for Amos and Dominic to join them.
"What do we know about this place Detective?"
"The hospital closed down in the 2003. It housed a lot of patients when it was running. It could take all night to scope the place out." she thought about mentioning that it was haunted and then remembered who her company was.
"All right then. Prisc-er..Melissa." Amos hesitated, "Ah want ya to scout the outside and find us a way in, away from the police. If'n ya see anything let us know."
Melissa nodded, walking through the woods and disappearing in the darkness. Once she was gone Dominic looked to Amos, "Are there enough of us?"
"Anymore and we'd risk a breach. Ah don't like that the police got here first. Means we can't go in an take care of things ourselves. We might need you to wipe some minds."
"He won't like that." Dominic said. Kirstin shot he and Amos a side glance.
"He's pretty understandin of situations like this."
"Indeed, he is. It's quite odd."
Kirstin looked at Sakeena and mouthed the word, "He?"
Sakeena shook her head, hugging herself as she stared at the hospital. Amos and Dominic stood like statues as they stared at the hospital. She watched the night sky flash from red to blue and red again. Sakeena held Kirstin's hand again mouthing the words "stay with me" to her.
An hour passed before Dominic snapped to life, tapping Amos on the shoulder. Kirstin cracked a half smile seeing Dominic stand on his tip-toes to do so.
Amos looked at Dominic's phone and said, "All right y'all. Melissa found us an opening near the east side of the buildin. We're gonna circle around and enter through there to see if we can get a drop on em."
"And if we do, what then?" Dominic asked.
"If'n the police ain't there, we take em out. if'n they are well, we might have to let the Brood take them out first."
"Exc-" Kirstin started to say but then cut herself off. The turn of Amos' large head was enough to make her knees weak before he had the chance to glare at her.
He opened Dominic's car door and set his gun on the seat. "Ah don't want anyone firin off rounds. The noise'll just stir the police up in a frenzy."
"What should we do?" Sakeena asked as she looked at Kirstin.
Dominic glanced at both of them, the calm look on his face was incongruent with the way his eyes seemed to look right through them. "Come with us for now. We could use Sakeena's strength and Detective Delaney can be a distraction to the police if we need one."
"What do you mean by distraction?"
"You're not supposed to be here." Dominic took a step closer to her, "Defying orders adds more confusion that we'll need to shift attention away from our kind. This does not mean you are to go rogue, stay with us and do as I or Amos says."
"All right y'all, let's go." Amos led them down the hill, carefully choosing his steps to avoid crunching the leaves. Sakeena stayed close to Kirstin, using every steep decline as an excuse to squeeze her hand. Her silence unsettled Kirstin, wondering if it was out of fear or submission to the vampires.
Once they reached the bottom of the hill, Amos stuck his head out, holding his ear to the parking lot of the hospital. Dominic held his hand out in front of Kirstin and Sakeena. The way Amos stood frozen as he listened made him look like a tree. Five minutes passed when he spoke again.
"They ain't heard from the SWAT team in a while, chief is nervous." Amos whispered. "No one's fired any gunshots. What might be going on Detective?"
Kirstin looked back to where the front of the hospital was, estimating the distance to be half a block away. She looked to Amos again with a raised eyebrow. "I..don't know. Williams' team would've went in guns blazing if they wanted. There had to be hostages."
Amos and Dominic exchanged glances, Dominic lowering his chin as he maintained his eye contact with Amos. He broke eye contact when his phone vibrated. He glanced at the screen and said, "All right, Melissa is waitin for us over there, she's got a hospital room window open.
The party hugged the wall as they moved towards the other side of the hospital. Amos was first to spot the opened window. Melissa looked outside, "I couldn't see anyone around but I didn't hear any gun fire."
"Maybe they're still searching." Sakeena said.
"If'n that's the case, let's find them first before making a decision about the Brood." Amos whispered. "First, everyone get inside." without waiting, he wrapped his arm around Sakeena and pushed her towards the window. The force was so strong she nearly stumbled. As soon as she slid her legs inside, Melissa held her waist to guide her to the ground. Kirstin followed. Amos waited until everyone was inside before dropping down unassisted.
"Everyone look away from Melissa." Amos whispered. They gave Melissa a minute before turning around to see that she was gone but the door was left open. "If'n ya hear police, let us know." he said, "Kirstin, take the lead."
Kirstin led them down the corridor to her right, startled when she heard Melissa's voice
I hear something. It sounds like voices coming from the end of the hallway.
Nodding, Kirstin pointed and hugged the wall as she advanced down the corridor, spotting a faint red light resonating off the dark walls. She tilted her head at it to notify the others and moved forward. She nearly jumped at the sight of Amos' large arm move to stop her and take lead.
The closer they moved to the light, they heard a faint sound, low hums at different pitches that reminded Kirstin of a church choir. Amos slowed his pace once he reached the end of the hall. He stuck one leg out into the smoke-filled room. Kirstin squeezed Sakeena's hand.
A wave of heat hit Kirstin in the face, and she held her hand over her mouth to repress gagging. She could smell sweat and the faint sweet aroma of candle smoke. Sakeena coughed but the undead members of their team seemed unphased, until Amos stopped in his tracks when he looked at the ground.
The smoke and the lights blended with the shape of three bodies embraced together. All pairs of legs kicked and slid along the wooden floor, one stocking clad, the other two bare. Two long slender legs wrapped around the slender waist of a blonde woman in a white garter belt. She buried her face into the neck of a woman whose hands reached around to grope her ass, pulling her cheeks apart before giving them both a hard slap. Behind the blonde, a man, hips touching hers as he drove his pelvis into her, leaning forward to kiss the nape of her neck.
"Lord Jesus." Amos muttered.
Low, dim orange light revealed the outline of a sea of bodies laying on the gymnasium. Partners and threesomes hungrily fed each other open mouthed kisses, while others took liberty at engaging in other fantasies. Hands slapped thighs and asses, teeth bit into collarbones and nipples, tongues licked, circled, and lapped. Amos gave the sign of the cross at the sigh of two men laying on top of one another.
"What is this?" Kirstin whispered to Sakeena
"It's a feeding ground." she whispered back, hand over Kirstin's shoulder, "Their minds have been affected by some power it's not-" her fingers clawed at Kirstin's shirt, "-them."
"Focus you two." Dominic said, "try not to breathe in the scent."
Both Sakeena and Kirstin covered their mouths as they stepped over the sea of bodies. They could feel sweat form under their clothes as the room got hotter. Kirstin tried to keep her eyes from looking down, but the feminine sounding cries conjured images in her head too vivid to calm the excitement she felt in her lower belly. Sakeena heard a man gag, his voice muffled by something that pushed into the back of his throat. She circled her thumb around Kirstin's palm.
The warm touch of Sakeena's finger made Kirstin lower her gaze. She stopped as she was overwhelmed with the abstract image of bodies moving. She saw arched backs gyrating, leather straps wrapped around breasts and waists, and wet bodies with matted hair. The aroma of the candles made Kirstin dizzy. She looked to her right and gasped.
On the floor was a tangled mop of black curls covering the head of a nude woman on her knees, bulging ass jiggling as a Black male's hips slammed into her. She wailed as her fingernails dug into the wooden boards.The smoke cleared, revealing the face of Officer Williams, groaning as he slid into Officer Rogan,
"Yes! Yes! Don't stop baby!" she whimpered, lifting her head to look up at Kirstin. "Shit! Kirstin! " her jaw dropped as she saw Kirstin and Sakeena staring back at her with the same look of surprise while Williams continued driving his cock in her. Rogan tried to turn her head away, holding her arms over her breasts as she slouched. "Don't look at us!"