Vampire Assassin League Bundle 4 - Eternity by Jackie Ivie Page B

There was another Hunter on the ground level, just inside the aperture their vampire probably used. He’d moved. Sneaky bastard. That made four of them at Ta Prohm. Another six in complexes he and Stan had walked through. Probably more in the ones they hadn’t visited. Some days it was a pure pleasure to eliminate them, especially as poorly as they staked a place out.
    Look at the first one Len had spotted. On their left at eight o’clock, second level. Terrible job of concealment. If you’re going to blend in with stone, you can’t wear green camouflage pants. The other one was on the flat rooftop, trying for the eagle eye view, but he forgot that in silhouette, butt and shoulders are easy to see. The fourth was doing a fairly decent job if he hadn’t moved. And then there was the hidden one. The one beneath the sod. Fantastic sniper location. Great disguise. Virtually invisible...if he hadn’t coated himself with DEET first.
    Some days, you just had to love a Hunter.
    Len wasn’t carrying a duffle bag. He preferred a backpack. It was heavy. Loaded. He walked to a certain spot on the stone where sod shouldn’t be growing, unhooked his bag, and let it drop...to a satisfying crunch. He took one step backward, and – if he didn’t miss his guess – effectively stopped any crossbow action as the arrow was the casualty beneath his boot heel.
    “So...hey! We’re here. The House of Fire. Set your tripod up, already. Time’s wasting, Stan-the-man!”
    “On it.”
    Len bent and started rifling through his bag. Two nine mils. Four packed spare clips. An AK-47. Spare rounds. Grenades. Combat knife. Yep. There it was. Finally. His newly purchased camera. Len’s didn’t have a fancy f /4.0 lens, so he settled with an f /2.8. Heck, if he set his shutter speed at 1/100, he’d get the same shot as Stan using 1/50 speed. Or so, the camera expert at the counter had advised him.
    Wow. This place was really sweet. Eerie. Creepy. Atmospheric. And with the light rain falling, it added a nice layer of mist. That Hunter beneath the sod probably hated every second of it.
    “Gloomy place, yes?” Len said it as he hung the clips on his belt. Shuffled around in the bag some more. Palmed a 9mm, and then stuck it in his underarm holster. He stuck the other in the back of his belt, just above his jacket hem.
    “Double yes.”
    “Hey, Stan?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Pass the repellent.”
    The guy looked over at him with raised brows. Len winked.
    “Okay.”
    The can sailed through the air, catching flicks from the last of the fading daylight, as well as a nice coating of rain. Len caught it with the left hand, and then stood, looping the camera strap over his head with his right and then hefting his camera. One handed. That camera expert guy was right. This was a great camera. It ought to be with that price tag. And it had an auto-focus. Point and shoot. Easy. Supposedly he’d have professional grade photos. And hell. He might as well get some picture taking in.
    That was a great shot of the House of Fire. Len held the button down and took repeating shots, stopping only when his finger got tired. This was definitely the place. The sun was just going down. Their vampire was going to awaken any second now. He started subconsciously shaking the insect repellent spray can. He planned on pegging the lower three Hunters, leaving the top one for Stan. And he was starting with the asshole beneath him.
    Wait...
    A shadow slithered around the stone, passing almost imperceptibly along the tree root of a silk-cotton tree. Or maybe that one was a strangler fig tree. Didn’t really matter. Most of Ta Prohm was covered in tree roots, leaving it in a permanent state of decay. On purpose. According to those pamphlets, that was exactly what they’d had in mind when they’d first started preserving and restoring the place.
    The shadow enlarged as a huge chunk of darkness loomed up a tree, gaining dimension and bulk at its base. He’d been wrong. This