I pushed a tiny amount of mana into my choker and, almost instantly, I felt the armor forming snugly over my body. As soon as I saw that Poppy had done the same, I opened the front door and we both slipped quietly outside before closing the door behind us and flying up to a higher branch where we would have a better view of our soon-to-be attackers when they entered our campsite. “Getting into position, everyone, get your comm devices recording,” I quietly told the others, who were still in their tent as I set my comm crown to do just that.

I received quiet assertions from the others, and then Overwatch Two cautioned us, “They should be at your campsite any minute, girls. Be careful, some of those weapons they’re carrying are illegal in Amethyst Harbour, and two aren’t carrying weapons at all. That’s not surprising for Davenport since he thinks he’s in charge, but the other looks human and may be an unknown Altered.”

“Understood,” I replied with a frown. I did not like the idea of another unknown element in this mess. As it was, we had no idea whether Alistair Davenport had developed a special ability yet, and if so, what it might be. I could always have Overwatch drop the net now, but then we would only have a few of them on illegal weapons charges and on possible intent to harm, nothing solid enough to bring them before the Commander and Vice-Commander. For that, we needed them to actually attack us, with witnesses and/or video evidence to support it, and the whole point of this was to catch Davenport in the act when he went after Karen.

No. We were committed to this. If we didn’t let Davenport make his move and stop him here and now, he was going to just keep skating his way out of any consequences for his actions with the help of his slimeball lawyer. He needed to be taken down, that was the reason Karen agreed to this, so we needed to suck it up and either take these assholes down ourselves once they made their move or hold them off long enough for our support to move in and do it, preferably with none of us getting hurt.

It was then that Overwatch One chimed in again. “I contacted the VC, reinforcements are being organized and should soon be en route with standard Altered suppression gear and a medical team, just in case. ETA twenty-five minutes. We’ll let you handle this yourselves and cut off their escape. If it looks like you’re having trouble or you call for help, we’ll be there faster than you can finish saying the word.”

“Affirmative, Overwatch One, we read you loud and clear,” I replied, feeling reassured. Things would probably be over by the time reinforcements arrived, if we were lucky, but at least I knew they were sending a team to collect the trash and that Overwatch had our backs if we couldn’t handle this on our own.

A moment later, a group of eight men emerged from the woods, trying to be stealthy, but the noise they were making killed any chance of that, as did the propane lantern that one of them was carrying for them to see by. You’d think the rich boy would have sprung for a mana lamp like we’d brought. With how quickly they had arrived, though, I guess they had just grabbed whatever outdoors gear they could get fast.

They were all wearing dark clothes, balaclavas, and were barely out of the trees before the majority of them moved to surround the tent where my sister, Karen, and Ainslee were sleeping. The one who wasn’t brandishing a gun, and who was carrying the lantern, paused to pick a stone up off the ground. The stone began to glow in his hand, as I could sense him channeling mana into it.

The man threw that stone at one of the lower branches of the tree we were in, the same branch that my little house was on. Seconds later, the branch we were on shook from the explosion that had destroyed not only my house but the branch as well with a big bang and shrapnel flying over six feet in all directions. Only the thick branch that we were perched on, and our small size, protected me and Poppy from the flying shrapnel.

Holy shit. If we had stayed in my house to wait things out, Poppy and I would both probably be dead. Fear and shock almost immediately made way for fury, though. That asshole had destroyed my house! Everything I owned was in there! He had intentionally done that to try to murder me and Poppy while we were sleeping! It was fucking ON!

“Some asshole blew up my house, but don’t worry, Poppy and I are okay,” I assured the others listening in before adding, “Plan A is a go, send out the bait, girls.”

That was about when Karen crawled out of the tent, rubbing her eyes sleepily as she murmured, “What’s goin’ on?”

“That one is mine,” one of them exclaimed, the other one without a weapon. “Take the others down, but try not to kill them, we might be able to have some fun with them too, after I’m done with her.” Then he reached out to slap Karen and added, “Time to take my cock, Karen.”

His hand passed right through her, and ‘Karen’ vanished as my sister’s voice whispered across our comm unit, “That wasn’t easy… still working on my illusions.”

“Good work,” I whispered back as Davenport and his men stood there looking confused. We had them now, the moment that bastard destroyed my house, we had them for attempted murder, and it was time to make them pay. “Let’s do this, girls. Poppy, take out their light so we can move in. Eyes closed, everyone!”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Poppy replied beside me, sounding as pissed as I was. In the same moment, the lantern erupted in flame and exploded in the hand of the man who blew up my house, causing a scream of pain and a blinding flash of light that I could see even with my eyes closed.

When I opened my eyes, the bastard was down, and the others looked stunned. Even if he lived, he wasn’t going to be back in this fight. Poppy had focused the explosion in as tight an area as she could manage, but the arm that had been holding the lantern was gone, and he was screaming as he rolled around on the ground, trying to put out the flames that now engulfed him. I pulled some water from the lake and doused him to extinguish the flames, but not because I pitied him or anything. The asshole had tried to kill us and destroyed everything I owned, after all.

No, I put out the flames because we needed the dark. We were all at an advantage in the darkness, especially with the moon covered by the clouds right now. All Fae, including us Sprites, have decent night vision, and so did my sister, which gave us a big advantage once we put out the lights. Another advantage was Karen because not only do Dark Elves have even better night vision than other Fae, but they can move virtually unseen and unheard if it’s dark enough.

As soon as the clearing was once again shrouded in darkness, I called out, “Let’s hit them, girls, hard and fast.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, everything became a blur of motion. Ainslee practically flew out of the tent to land a punch on the midsection of one man, while I zipped over to the shore and gathered enough water to batter another man with a high-pressure waterblast to the head. They both went down and weren’t getting back up. Karen seemed to materialize from the darkness to appear behind Davenport, with a hunting knife held to his throat as she whispered, “You're not afraid of the dark, are you? I should fucking castrate you here and now. Tell your men to surrender, now.”

“I would listen to her,” my sister advised the four remaining men. “You have attacked Vanguard personnel and a Vanguard officer with intent to kill, and worse. We have two teams of spec ops surrounding this camp right now to take you all into custody, and more on their way.”

“You have two ways out of this: in custody or in body bags. Your choice. So, drop those guns, because if you use them, we will defend ourselves,” Ainslee’s voice added.

“Fuck that!” one of them yelled. “I ain’t going to no Vanguard prison to be a meal for Vampires!” The others took his cue and, as he began firing wildly in the direction of Ainslee’s voice, the others opened fire on the only person they could see.

My sister’s pale skin, white hair, and tails made her somewhat easy to spot, even as dark as it was outside right now, but that was the point, and why she was only wearing a skimpy negligee. Kelly could take the damage and was protecting the rest of us by giving them an obvious target. Bullets fell to the ground as they hit her, and the very illegal plasma pistol’s bursts of white-hot fire may have lit up the campsite again briefly, and destroyed her only piece of clothing, but only caused my sister to laugh as she said, “Stop that, it tickles.”

I could see Ainslee wince as several odd projectiles struck her armor and one bounced off the protective mana shield covering her head, but she closed the gap between them in a moment to grab his gun arm and break it with an audible snap. I barely paid attention as he screamed, though, as I fired another pair of high-pressure water blasts at the pair who were still pelting my sister with bullets. As for the plasma, well, that was technically fire, and Poppy had turned that back on the weapon and the person who fired it. The result was more screaming until my sister grabbed the flaming man and threw him into the lake to extinguish him.

Those screams went silent before he even hit the water, and I had a feeling that he was now well done, and while the plasma flames might not be hurting my sister, she still needed to dunk herself in the lake as well to keep them from spreading. That just left the man who shot Ainslee and Davenport himself. The first was unconscious, but Karen’s sudden screams drew my attention immediately to Davenport, who had somehow turned the tables while I wasn’t looking.

Karen was screaming and clutching her head and now Davenport had her own knife pressed against her throat as he hissed, “Stop fighting me, bitch.”

“Please tell me someone has a shot on that asshole,” Overwatch Two voiced over our secure channel.

“Not without him slitting her throat when I take it,” another voice replied bitterly. “The mana barriers on the DS-4 armor system are meant to protect the head and throat from projectiles or energy blasts, not something like this.”

“Fuck it, we’re moving in!” Overwatch one ordered.

“Get… out of my head!” Karen screamed as she swung her fist back as hard as she could, right into Davenport’s bulging crotch.

Davenport dropped the knife and doubled over in agony, but not before it cut Karen’s throat. Karen fell to the ground, clutching at her throat and making a gurgling sound, and I immediately called out, “Moonlight, Karen needs you, now!”

Even in his pained state, Davenport tried to grab Karen as she fell to the ground. He reached out for her with both hands, but Ainslee was faster. She summoned a massive flaming sword and swung, lopping both of his arms off just below the shoulders as she snarled, “Hands off, Asshole!” He screamed as both arms were removed and instantly cauterized by the heat of Ainslee’s weapon, and fell to the ground in a dead faint, even as Moonlight appeared and kneeled to touch Karen with her glowing horn. By that time, Kelly reached Karen as well, putting pressure on her throat to keep her from bleeding out while Moonlight did her work.

A dozen Altered in stealth gear erupted from the trees. One, an Elf woman, immediately ran for Karen, pulling a first aid kit from around her waist, while two others slapped restriction bands around the throats of Davenport and the man who blew up my house. My focus was on Karen, though, and I rushed toward her with Poppy at my side. Things were already crowded with Moonlight, my sister, Ainslee, and the Elvish woman surrounding her, but Poppy and I watched from above in concern.

She was breathing, and the wound was seemingly closed by the time we got in place to check on her, so I heaved a sigh of relief that Moonlight was so quick to respond. -She will be fine,- the Unicorn assured me. -I was able to heal the wound before she lost too much blood.-

“Is she going to be okay?” Kelly asked in concern as the unknown Elven woman carefully examined the Dark Elf’s neck under the bright light of a mana lamp. She couldn’t hear Moonlight’s assurances, and her hands were covered in Karen’s blood. The woman didn’t answer until she had Karen on her side, and the Dark Elf was coughing up any blood that was still in her throat.

“The Unicorn’s swift action saved her. She’s lost a lot of blood, though, so we should let her rest until the medical team can get a look at her,” the Elf replied as she smiled weakly. Then she turned toward Ainslee, who was gritting her teeth and looked like she was in pain. “As for you, let’s get those nasty things out of you, you’re not looking much better than your friend here. This is going to hurt, but the longer we wait, the further they’re going to burrow into you, the harder they’ll be to get out, and the more blood you’ll lose. Needlers are nasty weapons; there’s a reason they’re illegal, and you’re lucky you were wearing body armor or you’d need surgery to remove them by now.”

“Do it. I’m going to have to feed after that, though,” Ainslee grumbled, “and since it’s probably a bad idea for me to feed on Karen right now, I know just who to feed on.”

The Elf was just about to pull Ainslee away to remove those nasty projectiles she described when Karen’s eyes fluttered and she croaked out, “He was in my head… trying to… make me do things… Thanks… all of you…”

Kelly glowered toward the now armless and unconscious Satyr, “Of fucking course, the sex predator gets a mind control ability. If you… need to talk about it… I’ve been through something similar.” Her words were hesitant as she reached out to take one of Karen’s hands in hers.

“Hey now, we stopped him, and he won’t be using that ability on anyone else or hurting anyone again now that Ainslee disarmed him and he’s wearing a restriction band. No need for thanks either, we promised we’d have your back, Karen. That’s what friends do,” I said as I smiled down at her. “You heard the medic, rest until the medical team arrives and can have a look at you. Kelly, Poppy, can you both watch over her while I talk with our support teams and get the status on these assholes who attacked us? Sis, maybe grab a couple of the sleeping bags to cover yourself and keep Karen warm.”

“Sure, Love,” Poppy replied as she leaned in to kiss me on the cheek.

“You got it, Sis. We’ll keep her out of trouble,” Kelly added, letting go of Karen’s hand. “I’ll be right back, Karen.”

I left my friends to talk to the two people who had familiar voices and seemed to be giving the orders. One was a female Pixie with bright pink hair, which I guess made sense since they’re supposedly great with illusion magic and keeping themselves hidden, and that would probably be a huge bonus in stealth missions. The other was a Dark Elf, like Karen, though he was male, muscular, and had dark grey hair nearly the same shade as his skin. “You must be Overwatch One and Two,” I said as I approached. “What’s our status?”

“Yeah, that’s us, but now that the op is over, we can drop the call signs, I think,” the Pixie offered with a tired smile. “I’m Lilac, and this is Thom. It’s good to finally meet you in person.”

Thom nodded in agreement before adding, “Your team did good work there. There were a few hiccups, it was a little hairy near the end, and I thought we might need to jump in, but you’re all in much better shape than your enemies. You can’t ask much more after an op like this.”

Thom and Lilac told me about the status of our enemies while we waited for an updated ETA for the reinforcements and medical team to arrive. The one who Poppy dropped with his own plasma and Kelly threw in the lake was a crispy yet soggy corpse, but the rest were alive, even the bastard who blew up my house. He was down an arm and had serious burns all over his body, but alive. Most of the others had broken bones, concussions, and a few other injuries, but they’d live as well, and they were all being tied up for delivery to the Commander and Vice-Commander for a hearing.

When the medic finished pulling those nasty Needler projectiles out of Ainslee, I found myself alone with my best friend and my Unicorn while she approached the man who shot her. Moonlight had healed her so she wouldn’t need enough blood to regenerate her injuries as well, and asked if I wanted her to heal any of the enemy combatants. I wasn’t feeling very sympathetic to any of them, though, and told her not to bother. They could live with their injuries and get whatever medical attention the incoming medical team was willing to give them.

Mana lamps placed around the camp now let us see the prisoners properly, and would let them see us too. Ainslee had broken both of this guy’s arms, which couldn’t be too comfortable with the way he was now tied up, but as far as I was concerned, he got off lightly. At least he still had arms, he could be like Davenport, who he was now propped up against, tied back-to-back. Ainslee crouched down and slapped the man across the face as she practically growled, “Up and at ‘em, Asshole. I want you awake for this.”

“Huh… wha…” The man mumbled as he began to stir, and once he saw Ainslee, his eyes went wide, and his skin paled a few shades.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” my best friend told him far too pleasantly as she bared her fangs. “You made three mistakes. First, you took the job. Second, you came light – an eight-man crew for us? Fuckin' insulting. But the worst mistake you made… You fuckin’ shot me. Those fuckin’ things you shot me with hurt like a bitch when they were pulled out, and I lost quite a bit of blood. Now, I’m here to return the favor.” He screamed in terror before her fangs even reached his throat.

Ainslee didn’t drain him, not completely, since she wasn’t that bad off, but while she was feeding on him, Alistair Davenport began to stir from the movement, and probably the whimpering and begging of his hired muscle behind him. I got right in his face as his eyes fluttered open. “Hey, Asshole. You hurt my friend, and I am going to make sure that you pay for it. You see, any minute now, a Vanguard personnel transport is going to arrive to take you to a hearing, where Vice-Commander Carpenter is going to dig through your mind, just like you were trying to do to my friend, and you will pay for every crime you’ve ever committed.”

A look of intense concentration fell over his face, followed quickly by one of shock, and I smiled viciously in response. “That’s a no-go on the mind control, Al, you’re wearing a restriction band now to prevent that shit. Now, I don’t know what plans the Vice-Commander has for your sentencing, but I know what I’m going to recommend. If I have any say on the matter, and I’m pretty sure I will, I’ve got just the thing in mind.”

“She’s thinking a triple max prison, a no daylight slam. There’s only one of those around,” Ainslee, who had just finished her feeding, suggested from behind him, causing him to look around for the other voice before I got his attention back on me.

“That’s right,” I agreed with the nastiest smile I could summon as I hovered in front of his face. “Amethyst Harbour Maximum Security Prison, where you’ll spend the rest of your very long life being fed on by Vampires whenever you have enough blood to give. They should be plenty strong enough to keep you from trying anything funny, and they get a meal out of you.”

I let that settle in his mind for a moment before adding, “Not just any Vampires, though, Al. Female Vampires only, and only the most beautiful ones for you. An interesting thing about Vampires, pheromones like yours won’t affect them, but theirs should work on you just fine. I hear they’re quite the aphrodisiac when they want them to be. Almost excruciating. They won’t be doing anything but feeding on you, though, and they’ll leave you to get relief on your own. Every. Single. Time. I think that’s going to be pretty hard for you with no arms, so good luck with that.”

Ainslee came to stand beside me as I finished my little threat. Gorgeous Ainslee, built to fuel men’s desires, smiled as I landed on her shoulder, and I could see the effect in his pants almost immediately, straining against the fabric so insistently that it was probably painful for him. She hummed thoughtfully before saying, “That’s such a good idea. Maybe I’ll see about feeding on him once in a while myself.”

“Yeah, I think he’d like that,” I agreed. “Now, let’s go check on Karen. The transport should be here soon.” Then, without another word, Ainslee turned around so we could do that, a deliberate and sultry wiggle to her hips as she walked away from him. Neither of us paid any attention to the curses and threats that he shouted at our backs.