Free Lucky Break by Chloe Neill Page A

training accurately. A single bullet wouldn’t kill a vampire, but the sheer firepower in all those magazines would do some pretty serious damage.
    The other half dozen shifters were their own weapons—they were in animal form, large, sleek mountain lions, golden ears flat against their heads, fangs bared in warning. They padded forward on feet big enough to knock me down, strong enough to keep me there.
    I felt a pulse of magic from Damien as he stared them down. He was a wolf and ready to change, ready to play dog-versus-cat with these war-loving shifters.
    But Niall’s crew had other ideas. At his signal, they raised their weapons.
    â€œBullets versus immortality,” he said. “Let’s see which wins.”

5
    We opted not to be shot. With blurring speed, even as we heard the first explosions of bullets rushing through barrels, we moved back inside, sought safety behind the stone as shots pummeled the front door, ripping fist-sized holes in the wood and sprinkling bullets across the floor.
    Ethan glared at Vincent, who stood across the room, shock clear on his face. But Ethan had no more patience for shock. “Is this what you’ve sowed over the course of a century here? Hatred and violence?”
    â€œThey’re shooting at us!”
    â€œBecause they were taught loathing and war,” Ethan’s voice wavered with fury. “Damn you all for poisoning these children.”
    Vincent swallowed hard, the feud’s undeniable cost now shredding the door.
    And then a new light began to flicker through the gaps in the wood, the narrow windows around it. I risked a glance, sucked in a breath.
    The shifters hadn’t brought just guns—they’d brought torches, and they were lighting them in a daisy chain that moved from one shifter to another, creating a circle of fire. The shifters in feline form prowled around them impatiently, eager for action. One of them screamed, a high-pitched sound so much like a human’s cry it raised goose bumps on my arms.
    â€œJesus,” Vincent said, taking a step back.
    â€œYou want to kill our kind?” Niall called out. “But you’re too cowardly to face us? Fine. You can die as you deserve—by fire!”
    â€œJesus,” Astrid said. “They mean to burn us out.”
    â€œAnd salt the earth afterward,” I said, glancing at Vincent. “Tell me there’s a back door here. A way out.”
    Vincent stared at the shifting shadows on the floor, cast by the threatening firelight. “There’s—I can’t just let them take our home.”
    â€œThey aren’t here for shits and giggles,” Damien said, looking back at us. “There’s a time to fight and a time to retreat. This would be the latter.” He looked at Vincent. “How do we get out?”
    Silence for a moment, and then, “The basement. There’s access to one of the mine shafts from the basement. We can follow it out and up.”
    Astrid’s eyes were huge and dark. “You want us to travel through a mine shaft?”
    â€œHave you got a better idea?” Vincent shot back.
    â€œOur options aren’t many,” Ethan pointed out.
Sentinel?
    I’d rather fight,
I admitted, then glanced through the window, watched shifters lay torches against the circle’s wooden exterior, waiting for the spark to take.
But we’re outnumbered and outweaponed, and I don’t think the Marchands would be much help.
    Agreed,
Ethan said, exchanged a nod with Damien, and looked at Vincent. “Let’s go to ground and hope the earth lets us out again.”
    ***
    Vincent called out the remaining vampires in the building, and we climbed single file down a narrow staircase to the basement. Vincent hurried to the back of the room. With Damien’s help, he pulled furniture and plywood away from the back wall.
    â€œThis is all my fault,” Nessa murmured, wrapping arms around herself. “This