The garage was dark, cool, and quiet. The Bultungin he had brought with him flowed behind the Matriarch who was dressed in reasonable clothes with flat boots. Her people moved in a tight configuration behind her, but gave her space to move freely.

Acharya led the group through the garage. The fluorescent lights overhead gave the place a sterile clean look, but the lights were few and far between, and the deep shadows between the lights and the cars that filled every third of fourth space, could hide just about anything.

He rounded the curve of the entry ramp into a parking section of the garage and right ahead of them down a long isle, stood a single set of stainless-steel elevator doors. He glanced behind him and met the Matriarch's eyes before nodding in the direction of the elevator doors. She nodded and flicked her wrist. Immediately half the Bultungin behind her flowed off to her right side, while the other half flowed off to the left and disappeared into the shadows. The maneuver happened so silently and was so well coordinated Acharya was a little shocked. These Shape shifters were just as good as he had hoped they would be. He also hoped that their alliance lasted past today, they had a lot to offer and the werewolves could learn a lot from them.

Acharya strode up the middle of the isle of parked cars, his pack loosely followed him. The Matriarch had pressed off to the side of the parking garage, concealing herself in the shadows with her people. Acharya was sure that there had to be cameras, hidden or otherwise, down here. But the less brazen they were, the more work it would be for their would-be ambushers.

He whistled as he stepped up to the elevator and pushed the single white button next to the elevator doors. He heard the revving of the elevator machinery and saw the floor indicator above the door count down as each number in sequence lit up, going from a middle floor of mid 20's and lighting up each floor under it, one at a time as the elevator descended.

Acharya thought better about being right in front of the elevator doors as it opened and stepped to the side, pressing his back against the wall next to the elevator. The elevator floor bell dinged and the doors slid open.

The elevator doors slid open silently. Acharya readied himself to spring forward from behind whoever came out of the elevator, but looking at Mary and Tara, both of them stood up from behind a car and walked cautiously forward. Acharya swung his head around and looked into the elevator only to find it empty.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Mary said, "Well, that was a little anticlimactic."

Tara shook her head, "There's no way the vampires don't know we're here. Did they really all go to sleep like in a Dracula movie?"

Acharya snorted a laugh, "This isn't the movies, Tara. Though I do have to wonder what they may be planning." He looked from the bottom of the elevator to the top, studying it. "I don't see anything like a trap or anything, should we go up?"

Aiman nodded his head, "As much as I distrust this machine to be anything other than a canalizing death trap, there appears to be no other way out of this garage and into the building. We are being forced to be where the vampires wish us to be."

"They'll know where we are soon enough, lets g…"

A sudden terrible cackle and howl of pain exploded behind them.

Acharya and Aiman whipped around just as the elevator doors silently closed behind them. A humanoid was screaming at a bloody stump that used to be an arm and a hand, with a hyena licking it's chops from the blood. Directly behind the two figures stood three more vampires, taking hesitant steps backwards as three bultungin, in hyena form, approached them.

As if that scream alone was some waited for signal, the silence in the parking garage was obliterated with the sound of explosive gunfire coming from all directions. Acharya and Aiman dove behind a car and made their way to their pack mates as they all shifted and tried to avoid being shot by stray bullets.

Acharya vaulted over a nearby car and swipe kicked automatic rifles out of two vampires' hands. Mary fly tackled into another and started beating the vampire with the butt of her own rifle. Asclepius, stayed in wolf form and darted around the underbelly of a truck and tackled another vampire into the wall.

Malikah shoulder charged a vampire and got shot in the back for her efforts. After slamming her original target into the wall and clawing the hell out of his face, she whipped around and darting to the left, then back to the right and ripped the vampire who had shot at her head off his shoulders before he could reload.

Acharya looked up from the fighting and tapped Aiman on the shoulder, jerking his head up towards the ceiling, "well I guess we know how they got down here without the elevator." Several vampires were jumping up towards the ceiling and disappearing. He could only guess through trap doors.

The Bultungin Matriarch appeared at Acharya's shoulder and asked, "Should we follow them? We have had run in with vampires and other demons and humans over the years, but these vampires have to be some of the more cowardly creatures I have had the displeasure of coming across."

Acharya smiled, "I wouldn't be too quick to call them cowards just yet. If it were me, I would have sent a small scouting team ahead to see just what I was facing, pull my forces back, and be able to plan a much more effective ambush or counter attack when my enemies were a known quantity. We may have tipped our hand too early in the game."

"The art of war and battle is better represented by the game of chess," Aiman commented dryly.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.