Dearly Beloved by Jackie Ivie

dripping water onto Dom. The rest were in various stages of amusement.
Chuckling
. They wore dun-colored uniforms of some kind, matching the surroundings. They had spear-things and guns. They had every light in the place lit. Dom was in the center of them, covered in some netting thing, while two spears projected from him. He was in a heap.
    Keep your cool, Courtney. Evaluate. React
.
    She stepped into the warehouse; aimed both guns; waited until they all looked over at her. Most of their expressions were ludicrous.
    “Evening gentlemen.”
    “What the fu—?”
    It was the guy with the water. Courtney nailed him mid-forehead before his gun finished clearing his holster. She had her sights aimed at two others before the man fell. She almost smiled at the shock on their faces. She wasn’t a VIDWAR Gray Class marksman for nothing.
    “Anyone else want to try me?” she asked, flicking her eyes to the others.
    The heap that was Dom shifted, and then trembled. Good. He still lived. Or whatever vampires did.
Soon, my love. Soon
.
    “You want to just pack up and leave now? Or you want to play?” She continued.
    “Go away, Little Girl. We got things to do.”
    The man on her far right said it with his move to shoot. Courtney pegged him in the chest and then the left eye. Just to show she could. She didn’t wait for him to crumple before moving her sights again.
    “I said release him. Now.”
    “You don’t understand! He’s a vamp—!”
    She had him and the guy beside him who tried to get a shot off, both of them mid-chest, and then center forehead. She’d heard dead silence was an accolade, carrying respect; awe. She was finally receiving it. There wasn’t a sound coming from anyone.
    “I already know he’s a vampire. Now…is someone going to take the covering off him, or do I have to make you?”
    One of them shifted his eyes. A whiff of ash-tainted odor added to it. Courtney hit the ground on a knee, spun, and shot the man in the door through the groin and then his open mouth. She didn’t have to duck to avoid the spear send at her, but did it anyway, regaining her feet to face the others again. It looked like those three hadn’t even moved.
    “I’m really getting tired of asking. You.”
    She gestured with her left gun at the left man. He moved to Dom and pulled at the netting. One part of her noted it had crucifixes dangling from the under-side of it; hundreds of them, each burning and scraping as they moved. The other part of her was steel-hard and lethal. Dominick looked like a piece of raw meat. The two spears went through his chest. All the way through it. Courtney clamped her jaw to keep the cry from sounding. The guns wavered. She tightened everything: her fingers on the triggers, her forearms, back, legs. The muscles behind her eyes joined in, giving everything an odd reddish hue.
    “You have one chance left, Gentlemen. You can drop your weapons and leave, and nobody else has to die.”
    “Who are you?” One of them asked.
    “Me? Can’t you tell? I’m his mate.”
    She should’ve known they wouldn’t leave nicely. Courtney watched them all act as one, on a silent signal. Idiots. She’d passed that test in the Yellow Class phase. She had them all nailed and didn’t need Len’s bullet adding to her final shot, but it was nice to know he’d arrived finally. He moved to stand beside her as the last man dropped onto his face.
    “Holy smoke, Sister. Remind me not to get between you and your mate.”
    Courtney didn’t answer. She’d ditched the guns and was beside Dominick, finding his jaw and lifting his face, looking for his eyes. No spark of life. Just obsidian black. Nothing.
    “I called for a chopper.”
    “What?” She wasn’t really listening. Dom wasn’t responding.
    “We have to evacuate. Rapidly. Doesn’t look like His Highness is ready…and there’s that anonymous 991 call to consider.”
    “You made a 991 call?”
    “Somebody’s got to let those cult members out of the