I SHOULD HAVE known Brick wouldn’t come to San Francisco with only those fourteen or so vampires he’d brought to the armory.

I should have realized that.

It was obvious, now that I thought about it for even a second.

Even so, my jaw dropped when we burst out onto 16th Street, following Dex, Keissa and A.J., who’d taken point once we heard more gunshots and screams up ahead.

It seemed like half the people on the street were vampires.

I stared in shock as two of them jumped at a cluster of humans wearing black and red masks. Gripping handguns, the humans fired wildly, missing both of them.

I watched, frozen, as a red-haired female sank her fangs into the throat of the man in front. He let out a scream, like an animal caught in a snare, even as the second vampire, a male with long, gold hair, bit the wrist just below the gun the second man carried, causing that man to scream even louder as he threw himself backwards, trying to shake him off.

I watched the humans around them scatter backwards, too shocked to even fire their guns.

Within seconds, both vampires had bitten three more humans.

I turned, gripping my rifle as I stared up and down the street.

We’d gotten there via the infiltration team, which finally managed to hack enough of my uncle’s construct that they were able to tap into Barrier communications between the seers in Solonik’s team.

They’d been a lot closer than we’d expected.

We caught up with them roughly at 16th and Mission.

A full-scale riot was already in progress.

We burst out on 16th as more screams erupted.

We were immediately surrounded, forced into a funnel of people fighting to get out of the main intersection. Gunshots erupted on either side, loud even over the panicked shouts and breaking glass I heard from the buildings closest to us. Automatic weapons fire erupted next, followed by louder screams.

Forced to slow our pace, our group came to a near-stop as we stared down at the sheer chaos on the block ahead.

Men in black riot gear fired tear gas canisters and live rounds of ammunition at the crowd as I watched, driving back a group of screaming people stuck in the middle of Mission Street. Only about a third of them wore the black and red masks of the Purists.

That meant the cops were firing on unarmed civilians.

I watched some of those civilians fall to the pavement, screaming, clutching gunshot wounds on legs and torsos.

Bottles were flung back at the cops, some of them on fire.

Here, Miri… put this on.

I tore my eyes off the crowd, looking at Black, who stood next to me. He handed me a face mask, yanking a second one out of the backpack he carried.

Frowning, I pushed my rifle out of the way to give my arms and hands the space to quickly pull it on. It took me a few minutes to adjust the thing as I brought the filter down over my mouth and nose, adjusting the goggles over my eyes. It made it harder to see, even with the infrared in the goggles, but as I watched the approaching gas clouds, I checked the edges of the mask, making sure they were sealed.

I’d been gassed before; it wasn’t exactly fun.

I glanced around and saw Cowboy, Angel, Dex and others pulling on face masks too.

I ducked as more rocks and bricks got thrown in our direction. Some of the nearer ones seemed to be aimed at us, probably because we were dressed more or less like cops or military, especially with the face masks.

Still, we didn’t carry riot shields or grenade launchers, or wear the insignia of the SFPD, so most in the crowd ignored us.

What now? I asked Black.

He gave me a grim look. You know why we’re here, doc. Look for vampires we know. His mental voice lowered to a growl. Preferably vampires who won’t fucking eat us before we can get a message to Brick––

Gunfire erupted to our left, cutting him off, and I ducked, turning.

Cops were aiming automatic weapons into the broken windows of a storefront. I couldn’t see what they were shooting at, but I saw more shadowy forms disappear into the nearby alley.

One darted out as I watched.

Before I could blink, he dragged one of the riot police into the alley with him.

To our left and in front of us, a thicker line of riot police continued marching forward with batons and Plexiglas shields, heading north up Mission. They formed a circle now, protecting their line of uniforms from the front and behind.

More bottles and rocks hit into their shields as I watched.

Some of those bottles were on fire.

A few of those exploded when they hit the Plexiglas, spreading liquid flame across curved shields, setting fire to the arms of the officers holding them.

I winced, ducking when a chunk of brick narrowly missed my head. I’d barely recovered when a larger explosion went off half a block up the street, lifting a cop car off the pavement.

“Goddamn it,” Black muttered from next to me. “This is a fucking mess.” He touched his earpiece. “They’re firing live rounds on civilians down here,” he growled to whoever answered. “We’ll try to get close enough to diffuse it, but we need air cover. Check the tops of buildings around Mission and 16th. So far, I’ve counted at least two teams in sniper hides… I can’t get a read on them, but it’s got to be Solonik’s people.”

His voice lowered, turning gruff.

“See if you can get someone on the horn from the local military too, before this becomes a fucking bloodbath. If it stays like this, we don’t have enough people to diffuse this on our own, not with the construct in play…”

As he spoke, he motioned for Dex and Kiessa to go ahead.

He nudged me to follow as he pushed forward after Kiessa.

Gripping my rifle tighter, I stepped into the path his body made through the crowd, sandwiched between him and Jem, Angel and Cowboy. I felt Black’s light wrap deeper into mine as we moved further into the melee, grounding me in a way that made everything around me seem to slow down, turning my vision hyper-clear.

Shadowy forms continued to pull down bodies as I watched, grabbing them out of the crowd like wolves picking gazelles out of a herd. Darting through the dark lines rimming the spaces of light, they stayed outside the glow of streetlights and fires, working the sides of the streets and staying out of range of the snipers on the buildings above.

A lot of them seemed to be working in pairs.

I saw two more grab and pull down uniformed soldiers on the edges of the riot police scrum, dragging them out of the light. Seconds later, three more grabbed humans wearing the red and black masks of Purity soldiers.

I didn’t recognize any of them.

None of the vampires I’d seen so far had been at the meeting with Brick.

More gunshots echoed between the buildings, forcing my eyes up.

I heard hisses then and turned, right as two of those bullets found targets.

A black-haired vampire growled, releasing the Purity soldier he’d been biting and limping back to the dark. The female vampire with him snarled from a bullet wound to the shoulder. Rather than releasing her prey, she dragged it backwards, holding the heavyset man in the red and black mask up as a shield as she disappeared into a broken storefront.

Black nudged my mind towards another skirmish, further down the street.

I saw a cluster of vampires in street clothes fighting about fifteen Purity soldiers, all of whom were firing hand guns into alleys and darkened store fronts.

I didn’t recognize any of them, either.

It might be enough if they recognize one of us, Black sent.

Frowning, I nodded.

Watching two more vampires dart out to grab cops wearing riot gear, I looked to the other side of the street when I heard more shots ring out, that time coming from higher up.

Black was right. Solonik had at least two groups of snipers up there.

They were clearly targeting vampires.

The crush of humans around us screamed when more shots rang out, pulling us first to the right, away from the direction of the gunfire, then back to the left when more vampires appeared out of the dark parts of the streets on that side, grabbing humans who got too close.

Frustrated by all of the chaos around me, and the poor visibility, I reached out with my light, trying to hook into our infiltrator’s construct.

No, Black sent sharply. He looked back at me, even as Jem gripped my arm, sending me a warning pulse. Stay out of the Barrier, doc. We kept you out of that for a reason.

But why? I sent, frustrated. Don’t you need as many eyes on this as we’ve got?

There’s a good chance Solonik knows we’re here, Black sent, giving me a grim look. We don’t want him knowing you’re with us. Not if we can help it.

He lowered his mental voice.

You used to be connected to him, doc. If that fucker hacks your mind, we have a whole new set of problems.

Black glanced at Jem, adding,

If he’s got a sight ranking as high as Jem says, we have to assume the son of a bitch can hack us. I know you don’t fully get sight rankings yet, doc, but trust me, if he is what Jem says he is, it’s a whole different ballgame.

I frowned, remembering what my uncle said about Jem making someone like Solonik “necessary.” Still pushing past bodies, I only nodded to Black’s words.

Got it, I sent.

I could see a little more now.

The icy December wind was blowing most of the tear gas away from us, up Mission Street towards Highway 101 and South Market. A lot of the Purity Movement soldiers had broken rank and seemed to be moving east, towards Van Ness, probably to get away from vampires as much as the gas.

A lot of the Purity soldiers I saw wore gas masks now, along with their red and black uniforms.

I also saw a lot with streaming, bloodshot eyes and bloody necks stumbling down the street, supported by their Purist friends.

The black-clad cops were mostly aiming their weapons at the shadowed side of the streets now, presumably at vampires.

Solonik probably had something to do with that, too.

Now I could see the BART station entrance on fire. A half-dozen parked cars were on fire too, dotting the street heading north.

Closer to us, a San Francisco MUNI bus also burned, its insides already gutted by fire, the seats burning through the row of smoke-blackened windows. Someone had shot out more than half the streetlights, but the fires gave us a lot of visibility, even with the smoke.

Gunshots erupted from behind the bus as we approached, right before a snarl rose out of the dark. Before I could blink, a liquid, shadowy form leapt onto another form wearing black Kevlar.

Gunshots went off in a string from the man’s rifle, but the gun swung wide as the vampire tore out his throat in a single, disconcertingly agile move.

I stared as the vampire rode the limp form down to the pavement.

The sheer grace of the move paralyzed me.

I focused on the high-cheekboned face, the scarlet eyes that had replaced the dark, almond-shaped eyes I’d previously known. His face was contorted into an animalistic snarl, his fangs extended as he spat out something he’d ripped out of the man’s neck.

Even so, I would have known that face anywhere.

“NICK!” I screamed.

He looked up, his whole body going still.

He stared at me, a held breath, and I saw the violence in that look.

Then shots rang out from above, aiming at him.

He vanished, melting back into the dark before I could wrap my mind around what I’d just seen. I had no idea if he’d just killed a human or a seer.

Without thought, I ran after him, shoving my way through the crowd.

“Miri, no! No, goddamn it!”

Black cursed in Prexci, even as I felt him leap after me.

“NICK! WAIT!” I screamed, ignoring him, ignoring the alarm I felt off the seers around me. I felt Jem and Jax bolt after Black to follow me. “NICK! WAIT! COME BACK!”

I shoved my way through a group of men who were staring down at the cop with his throat torn out, then ran for the bus. I yanked my gun out of a side holster, holding it up, but I didn’t slow down, or stop when I met the line of shadow.

“Hey, lady…” one of the guys yelled out when I rounded the edge of the bus. “You don’t want to go back there! There’s things back there!”

I ignored him, too.

Venturing deeper into the dark, I took a breath. My eyes fought to adjust to the line of black outside the glow reflecting on the brick walls from the burning MUNI bus.

I knew I only had a few seconds before Black and the rest of them caught up to me.

“Nick!” I yelled. I squinted through the smoke and dark, scanning for movement. “Nick! I need to talk to you! You don’t know who these seers are! Tell Brick––”

Hands grasped my upper arms.

Before I could take a breath, my stomach abruptly dropped.

It felt like falling off the edge of a cliff, only I was going up, not down.

The closest I could come mentally was a roller coaster. It felt like I’d just been lurched upwards to follow the massive loop of a giant roller coaster.

My feet left the ground.

I’d barely forced out a gasp when my feet landed back on Earth, my boots sliding and stumbling on a metal mesh platform, bile lurching to my throat.

“Jesus fucking christ…” I breathed out in a rush.

The hands released my arms.

I gripped the banister of a rickety fire escape, where I realized I now stood. Looking down, I absorbed that I was somehow at least three stories up. My mind couldn’t comprehend how I’d gotten there.

I wasn’t alone.

I looked up and around, and met red-tinted eyes that reflected firelight.

Nick smiled at me, fangs visible between his lips.

“Heya, doc,” he said.