"Not quite." The creature knocked into her. This time, she sensed him right before he hit and arched away, lashing out with a kick. The strange energy dispersed all around her, confusing her, blocked everything about his approach except for a tiny, tiny spark of red.

"Almost … have you," she murmured and honed her warrior senses to any movement within arm's reach. She kept an eye out for the spark.

"Do you?"

Before she could move, something draped around her neck and yanked her off her feet.

Ashley gasped and grabbed at the noose around her neck, gripping it before the force of the sudden ascent could snap her spine. The dim glow of a vamp's eyes was several feet away, suspended like she was. She guessed it was Hector.

She swung her legs and used all her strength to haul her body upwards, against gravity. Ashley wrapped one leg around the rope holding her and used it to support her weight. She sucked in deep breaths, the rope burning the soft skin of her throat. Shifting until she was stable, she took a moment to catch her breath and assess her options. She dropped one of the batons and listened for how long it took to hit the ground.

The faint clatter drew a grimace. She was at least twenty feet up. Dropping down was a guaranteed broken leg or arm.

Stretching back for one of the hidden knives, she yanked it free and slid it between her neck and the rope. She managed to cut herself as well as the rope as she sawed through it. The noose fell away from her neck, and she grabbed the frayed end with one hand.

"Still coming for me, Natural?" called a voice from the floor.

"I'm a little tied up right now but I'll be right down," she retorted. Ashley hauled herself up. "Y'all did all this for little ole me?"

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"An ambush is only successful if the most dangerous opponent is taken out first."

Ambush. She paused, uncertain why her thoughts went to Charles. She didn't like vamps, and especially not the one who Tasered her regularly. But …

I kinda do like Charles. And he was Jonny's second, which meant the Black God trusted him. That bothered her as much as the thought of Charles being slaughtered by the same rogue vamps that had her brother.

"I appreciate the sentiment," she replied. "Don't count me out yet." She began to climb the rope and within several minutes managed to reach a beam at the top of the factory. "See? Cakewalk."

The vamp below her was easier to sense from above. He had generated some sort of field, one that addled her warrior senses and made it almost impossible to track where he really was. But from above, he was completely exposed at the center of his field.




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