Broken by Shiloh Walker Page A

positive side. We believe Mrs. Jones is in a building with those attackers from Queenshill. They’re shielding her or holding her, I’m not certain which it is .
    It mind-spoke again. Hear me well, Della. You tell your chums not to kill those attackers . Then the caretaker seemed to reconsider. Well, perhaps you can do away with their vampire. Frank was his name, yes? The same goes for that more lethal one who hurt the dogs .
    Della could only hope she would be able to face up to the mean vampire. I understand .
    I want the remainder of the group for questioning. And be quiet going about this. I know what you girls are doing with those charmed humans, using them to get you into that building to Claudia. That was clever in this case. Your efforts could take any fight or exposure indoors, where the public won’t bear witness. But if your humans should attract any attention outside, call them off, Della.
    We will. It’ll be as if we were never here. We intend to erase all evidence of our presence—
    Della stopped herself. She’d been about to tell this creature that the girls intended to kill Mrs. Jones. In fact, she feared that the custode might have already gleaned the information.
    She held her breath, hoping, hoping . . .
    Yet, from the way the custode didn’t comment, Della wondered if the caretaker even cared that Mrs. Jones would die.
    But that was ridiculous. Of course it would care, and Della shut down her mind, lest the caretaker access any further plans for Mrs. Jones.
    I’ll be near to see that this remains a private affair, the custode mind-said. Do you understand me? Secrecy in this is imperative to the continued survival of your community .
    We stay quiet. We withdraw if the trouble spills into the streets .
    Yes, the caretaker thought, tweaking Della’s cheek. Precisely .
    The custode released the contraption from Della’s temples, pulled the hood back over Della’s head, then seemed to fade into the dark of Della’s mind.
    The rest of the night world rushed back: The swick of what sounded like outside lights turning on in the distance. The shuffled steps of the charmed humans as they halted. The knock one of them pounded upon the front door as the other ones hopefully hid themselves from view, as instructed.
    Della crept back round the corner to her mates, just in time to smell jasmine and to see that Stacy was missing, having already hidden near the building’s front door now that the humans were stationed.
    The rest of her pack crouched, their backs arched in readiness for what was to come, and Della joined them.
     
     
    AS Dawn walked down the stairs to the lab, saving her energy, she heard Kiko and Frank over the earpiece, checking who had what weapon, communicating with the Friends as another knock pounded on the front door.
    A charmed human. The vamps had no idea that the scouting Friends had seen what they were up to outside.
    Frank’s voice came over loud and clear. “Dawn, we’ve got a count of twenty-four vamps in an alley close by, plus one right outside next to a human who’s whining for help. He’s saying he got in some accident and he’s putting the pity squeeze on us.”
    “Amateur plan.”
    “Yeah. Some Friends are surrounding the other vamps to try and keep them back if they do come closer.”
    This was one of those times Dawn wished the Friends could kill, but she knew that their souls would be forfeit to the same place Costin was trying to avoid. That’d been the deal with Costin when they’d agreed to come on board to help him after their human deaths.
    “The UV lights outside will also keep vamps at bay,” she said.
    “Did I mention they have thick coats with hoods on?”
    “Okay, we’ve got outside silver darts aimed and ready, too, and maybe those’ll pierce the coats.”
    “Vamps are fast, remember? They can avoid those.”
    “Then they’ll have to deal with us, no matter how many of them there are.” Besides, headquarters was fortified to the nth degree,