Violets Are Blue

hundred yards out. It spreads us thin,” Kyle said. “I don’t like it.”
    I didn’t answer him. I was still shaky, not quite over my bad moment of truth with the tiger. My heart was pumping like an engine pushed to its limit. I wondered if I might be going into shock.
    “Alex?” Jamilla spoke. “You with us? You okay?”
    “Just give me a minute. I’ll be fine. Let’s keep going.”
    Soon we could see the faintest glimmer of daylight up ahead. That was hopeful. But where were we coming out of the tunnel?
    “Can’t tell how far it is,” I said. “Or what’s between us and the light.”
    My hip brushed against something. Then my shoulder. I jumped back and my whole body shuddered. But it was only a valve sticking out from the tunnel wall. Nothing. Scared the hell out of me, though.
    Then I could see part of the scene outside — a couple of cypresses leaning away from the wind, a streak of soft gray sky.
    It wasn’t far, maybe thirty or forty yards. Usually, the most dangerous part of a raid was breaking in, but now it was getting out of this dark tunnel.
    I turned to Jamilla and Kyle and whispered, “I’ll go first.”
    I knew I was better with a gun than Kyle, and I was physically stronger than Jamilla — at least I thought so. Besides, this was the way it had been the past few years: Gary Soneji, Casanova, Geoffrey Shafer, now the Alexander brothers and their Sire.
I always go in first. How long am I going to keep it up? Why am I doing this
?
    “Don’t forget, they’re human,” Jamilla said. “They bleed too.”
    I wanted to believe she was right. I moved forward quietly, quickly. I hesitated at the mouth of the tunnel. Took a breath.
One Mississippi, two . . . then out into the big, bad world
.
    I don’t know why, but I yelled at the top of my voice as I burst outside into the light. No words, just a loud scream. Actually, maybe I do know why — I was afraid of these two killers, of their merciless cult, of the Sire. Maybe they bled, but they weren’t human. Not like the rest of us.
    I was in a pocket chasm surrounded by low-lying hills. I saw no one out there. No sign that anyone had been there recently. They had to have come this way, though. The tiger must have been in the tunnel with somebody.
    Jamilla and Kyle came out of the tunnel behind me. The looks on their faces showed their disappointment, their fatigue and confusion.
    I
heard
it before I saw anything.
    Then a black pickup truck came roaring around the side of one of the hills. It was headed straight for me, and I had a choice: dive back into the tunnel or hold my ground in the face of the blond killers. They were inside the truck. I could see both of them.
    I held my ground.

Chapter 91

    THE FACES of the killers glared through the curved windshield of the truck. I raised my gun, held it as steady as I could. Jamilla and Kyle did the same. The black Ford truck kept coming fast, almost as if they were daring us to shoot.
    So we fired. The windshield splintered. Bullets pinged off the roof and hood. The roar of the guns was deafening in my ears. The acrid smell of cordite filled my nostrils.
    Suddenly, the truck stopped, then shot into reverse. I kept shooting, trying to hit the driver as the target distanced itself, the vehicle backing away, veering left then right then left. I took off running up the hill, my legs heavy, as if my shoes held lead weights.
    I couldn’t let them get away. We’d come too far, gotten too close. These two would kill again, and again. They were madmen, monsters, and so was whoever had sent them on their mission.
    Jamilla and Kyle were climbing up the steep, grassy terrain a few steps behind me. The three of us seemed to be moving in slow motion. The pickup truck was weaving wildly, its rear end fishtailing. I was hoping, praying that it would flip as it climbed in reverse up the steep side of the hill. I heard the grinding of gears, and suddenly the truck flew
forward
. It was coming at us again, picking up speed.
    I went down on one knee, aimed carefully, and put three shots into the windshield. The glass was filled with bullet holes.
    “Alex, get out of the way!” Jamilla shouted. “Alex, move it! Now!
Alex
!”
    The pickup kept coming. I didn’t move away. I put a shot right where I figured the driver had to be. Then another.
    The big black truck was almost on top of me. I thought that I could feel heat from the engine. My face and neck were in a hot sweat. I had the irrational thought