A Perfect Blood

cold. The thick man in the overalls turned back to the cage, yanking the door open. And still, Nina choked the first man despite Ivy desperately trying to pry off her fingers.
    The woman in the cage screamed when she was pulled out, babbling and begging him to let her go. Sitting up, I swung my pistol around. Maybe he didn’t know how to set a circle. My eyes were tearing from the bonfire, and I held my breath at the twin puffs of air. “Damn it!” I shouted as they missed, and the man swung the woman over his shoulder and ran to the small row of cots. The alignment was off. This was the last time I trusted assassin weapons.
    “Please! Help me!” the woman screamed, her arm reaching back for me.
    I took aim, but the I.S. officer had regained his wits and darted after them, getting in my way. Glenn was still out cold, and that blonde in the lab coat was still burning everything she touched and laughing. As soon as she was done with the papers, she might start in on us.
    The captive woman screamed again as the man flung open a panel in the floor, and in an instant, they were down it and gone. An I.S. officer followed.
    “Damn it!” I shouted, not knowing who to shoot.
    “Rache!” Jenks exclaimed, and I puffed a strand of hair out of my eyes as he hovered beside me, dripping a bright red dust.
    “Where is everyone?” I griped, then shot at the brown-haired woman chucking paperwork on the bonfire, and she ducked, swearing at me. “This is insane!”
    “Elevator jammed. Someone cut the power before they got out.”
    Swell.
    Nina howled, and Ivy flew through the air, crashing into a pylon, then slumping to the floor.
    Jenks darted to her, and my eyes squinted. I’d had enough. I should’ve come down here by myself, all quiet like, and just put them all to sleep. “Take a chill pill, Nina!” I shouted, and with everyone out of my way, I sat on the floor, aimed a little to the right, and plugged Nina. Twice.
    The vampire spun: her fingers savagely bent, eyes black, hunched to attack. I could see Felix behind the out-of-control DMV clerk, and with a silent “Thank you,” Nina collapsed with a sigh. The man she’d been choking fell beside her without a sound.
    “Damned bug!” a high-pitched voice shouted, and I looked at the brown-haired woman swinging wildly at Jenks. She was bleeding from several scratches, and Jenks was easily staying out of her reach.
    “Just flick the switch and let’s get out of here!” the blonde said, standing with a cardboard box of papers on her hip as if I wasn’t still in here and it was over. Maybe it was. Ivy was out, Glenn was down. I didn’t know what had happened to the I.S. guy in the tunnel. And where was the rest of the team? Taking a friggin’ coffee break?
    Head down and one hand waving about as if at random, the brown-haired woman flicked a lever and a hiss filled the air, accompanied by the lightest touch of mist. “Tink’s a Disney whore!” Jenks shouted, and dropped.
    Sticky silk, I thought when my eyelashes became clingy, then panicked when the woman in the lab coat started for him. “This is how you take care of bugs,” she said, her foot raised.
    Jenks looked up at her, terrified, as he tried to get himself unstuck from the floor. Anger was a hot wash through me, and I shot at her. She froze, a bubble flashing into existence around her, but the air in my gun just hissed and nothing came out. No wonder those assassins hadn’t been able to hit anything, I thought as I flung the gun aside and reached for the other one.
    “It’s that witch!” the woman shouted, her eyes going wide. “I told you putting the corr on display would get her attention. Get her!”
    My jaw dropped. Get her? I shared a panicked look with Jenks, then lunged to the side as a ball of who-knew-what went hissing past me.
    Suddenly I was dodging spells as the two women ganged up on me. I grabbed a still warm tray from the dying bonfire, trying to use it as a shield. It took a spell, then another. My anticharm vest would go only so far. The blonde came at me, and I spun, kicking her in the middle when she reached for me. She flew back into the labware she’d thrown on the floor, shrieking as she went down.
    Grinning, I looked at the younger brown-haired woman, who abruptly looked scared. I didn’t have time for any finesse, and I slammed the tray on her head.
    “Way to go, Rache!” Jenks cheered as the woman dropped.
    I turned, heart pounding at a soft click, but it was only