"Dammit," Cali swore.

  "What's wrong?" Roxy asked.

  "I had to shoot one of them in the body! That idiot made me lose points!"

  Roxy snickered at that and shot another mage.

  Arthur couldn't help but notice how calm and collected Sean and Chad were as they gave orders. Arthur had known Chad was important in Sean's organization, and that he was a clever young man, but until now he'd had no idea he was Sean's general. He'd thought it was the faerie wearing the expensive magical armor.

  From the carnage quickly mounting below, it was clear Chad had a firm understanding of tactics and how to best employ his soldiers. Arthur had already been impressed by how they'd managed to filter the mundanes out of this fight. He'd have to ask James to do some research on Chad after all this was over.

  Sean had already explained their goal to him, to kill off the leadership, demoralize the rank and file, and send them back home, beaten and leaderless. They wanted to make it clear to everyone, or at least to all the other councils out there, that they could have killed all of the magic users in this battle. Sean and Chad both hoped a clear and overwhelming victory tonight would cause others to reconsider such actions.

  Arthur doubted it would work; there were going to be some who wouldn't learn, no matter what was done. But if tonight's action prevented an all-out war, it would still be worth the loss of life below, once everyone else saw that, yes, the lions were more than willing to play hardball if it came right down to it.

  William almost screamed when Johnson's head exploded like a ripe pumpkin, blood and bones flying everywhere. He did scream when he saw the same thing happen to his father and was still screaming when Kurt Reese's head exploded, as well.

  Scrambling across the ground, he made his way to the edge of the road, and the drop-off that led down to the river. Screw these guys! Screw everything! He was getting the fuck out of here while he still could! Bullets hit the pavement to either side of him, but he kept going, scrambling as fast as he could, until he was suddenly over the edge.

  It was rocky, and there were foxtails and other prickly things growing there, but he didn't care! He could see the water, glinting off the reflected moonlight in the darkness, he was safe! He was going to make it! He was getting away!

  Between sliding, scrambling, rolling and even a few short drops, William quickly made it down the steep embankment to the river's edge. He could hear the fighting going on up above, the screams, the gunfire, and the occasional explosion. His hands and knees were cut up, his clothes were torn in several places, and he was covered in dirt, as well as other people's blood.

  But he didn't care. He was alive! Hunkering down against a large boulder, he'd hide here and wait until morning.

  "Looks like we got our first bolter!" Chad called.

  Sean scanned the line where the guy had made a run for it. Chad had ordered the soldiers on the fire teams to harass but not actually try to hit any singleton runners, just organized attempts at retreat.

  "There goes a second one," Sean noted.

  "There's a third, and a forth," Chad said. "Looks like they're starting to lose their nerve."

  Sean nodded. "Guess it's time for phase two. I think they're about ready, don't you?"

  "Definitely." Chad nodded.

  Sean dropped his binoculars and, drawing the katana Chad had lent him, he cast a shield spell in front of him. Then, keying his radio, he called out to his great uncle Maitland and his cousin Ruthelma.

  "Maitland, Ruth, let's go!"

  Loping down the hillside, Sean cast a light globe to hover over his head, illuminating him, as Maitland and Ruth both did the same. They joined him in his charge against the middle of the convoy, fire dancing over their faerie armor as they both drew huge flaming faerie swords.

  Sean hadn't been sure about this part, but Chad had told him, if they wanted to get the magic users to break and run, they needed something to shake their faith and fuel their fears. A big-ass werelion and two demonic-looking faeries wielding large magical swords would probably do the trick.

  But just to be safe, all the soldiers on this side of the pass stood up as Sean and the other two passed them, and opening fire, they joined the charge, shooting as they advanced.

  "Looks like somebody lost it!" Cali giggled as one of them ran for the edge of the road and scrambled down the hillside. "Should I tag him, just for fun?"

  "Where's the sport in that?" Roxy growled. "Besides, we're not supposed to kill all of them, just the leaders. Now slide your aim down to the first car that's on fire on the far left. There's a couple of guys trying to sneak around it and make their way back down the road."

  "Oo!" Cali laughed and shot one of them in the knee, blowing half of his leg off. "Sorry, boys! But premature withdrawal is not allowed!"

  Roxy shot the hand off of one who was crouching behind a car, waiting to make a run for it. Apparently he hadn't realized he'd left his hand in plain view on the hood of the car he was sheltering behind.

  Two dead bodies and several nasty wounds later, the ones trying to get past the burning cars at the end of the convoy had given up on that route. One of them decided to try for the hillside and make his way to the river. When he didn't get shot, another one quickly followed.

  "They're starting to break," Cali called.

  "Yup, phase two."

  "I know we're not supposed to really shoot anyone," Cali said as she put in a fresh magazine, "but anybody who points a wand, or even a finger at Sean..." Cali trailed off.

  "Right there with ya, Hon!" Roxy called back, putting in a fresh magazine in as well, just as Sean, Maitland, and Ruth lit up as the word for the troops to charge came over the radio.

  Both girls spent the next minute placing shots into any of the defenders who looked like they were aiming or pointing at Sean, but they could see that most of the magic users were still too afraid to peek over their concrete barricade, and those that did either were still too panicked to aim properly, or took one look, turned tail, and ran for the drop-off and the river below.

  "Damn, I lost count," Cali grumbled.

  "Yeah, me too." Roxy admitted. "Time to encourage the stragglers."

  "Yeah," Cali pouted, "fun time is over."

  "Girl, you really should have been born a cat," Roxy sighed softly, "'cause no one else makes killing so much fun."

  Gary followed the others down the side of the hill, trying not to tumble or roll as he did. There were a lot of big rocks here, more than a few sticking up out of the side of the embankment, and he'd already seen his friend Ulrich, who had lost a hand just a minute ago, smash his head into one and tumble lifelessly down the rest of the way.

  He'd been mocking his brother Todd for avoiding the call and staying behind to take care of his small black-market business, but right now, he'd rather be anywhere else than here. The car behind him had blown up when all of this had started, an eternity ago. His girlfriend's father had been in that car, along with his and Todd's own father. Everyone had been so certain about tonight, how they were going to go kill a bunch of lycans and rape a bunch of their women.

  And now a lion with a sword was cutting off heads, while two demons in flaming armor were cleaving people in two! Yeah, Gary guessed the lycans hadn't gotten the memo about how they were supposed to die and stuff.

  Gary shivered, he'd seen one of those demons run a council member through the gut, then rip the sword out sideways, while laughing, sending blood and organs flying everywhere. He wondered if any of the Gradatim council members had survived. He'd already heard someone say Casey, their leader, had been taken out early on in the ambush; he'd been driving his brand-new Mercedes four-by-four. It was just too bad he hadn't bothered to keep the fancy bulletproof window rolled up.

  Sliding down the last few feet, he got to the bottom and looked around. There were a lot of dead bodies down here. A lot. There were also the remains of three cars, which he suspected where the ones up front where Tobias and the rest of the Vestibulum big shots had been leading the charge. There was also another car, which had landed on its roof hard enough to crush it completely. Even with the night-vision spell he'd cast on himself, he couldn't tell if that was blood or oil pooling around it, and he had no intention of finding out.

  People were milling around, looking lost and uncertain. Some were still casting magical attacks, but at what, Gary had no idea.

  When their heads started to explode, however, that stopped pretty damn quickly.

  Some others were trying to get everybody organized. Gary had seen what happened to the leaders up on the highway. Apparently these idiots still hadn't figured out that the lycans were employing snipers. Very impressive snipers, when he considered the number of headshots he'd seen.

  Looking around, Gary saw only two of his friends were still among the living, one of whom had lost a leg and was trying to stop the bleeding. With a sigh, Gary cast the best healing spell he had left on Dave, then picking him up with a grunt, he slung Dave over his shoulder and headed west.

  "What are you doing?" Dave gasped.

  "Going home."

  "It's almost a hundred miles!"

  "You got any better ideas?"

  "Ummm."

  "Yeah, I thought so," Gary grumbled. At least with one less leg, Dave wasn't too heavy to carry. Gary just hoped he wasn't about to walk into another ambush, but if he did, well, maybe Dave's body would stop enough bullets for him to survive. And if he didn't walk into an ambush, and actually did make it home alive? He'd make damn sure he never told Dave the real reason he'd decided to save his life.

  It was easy, almost too easy, Sean thought as he got to the concrete center divider on the highway and started to hack at the magic users on the other side of it. He took the head of the first one, split the head of the second one, and ripped another one in half with his werelion strength before the others turned as one and ran.

  The soldiers kept firing as they did, but nine out of ten had been told to shoot over their heads, while the tenth one had been told to only shoot one of them.

  "Everyone! Look for survivors and ambushes!" Sean called out over the radio as they carefully spread out and checked the bodies on the ground. Sean heard a couple of shots ring out as coups de grâce were handed out. He'd made it clear, no one left up here survived. No one.

  As the 'all clears' started to ring out over the radio, the rest of the troops came down off the hillside behind him. Two fire teams, led by Sten and Hunter, formed up on the edge of the hill, lying prone as they looked down over the edge, offering the occasional 'encouragement' to the survivors below, along with the snipers on the other side of the pass, to get them moving westward.

  While that was going on, everyone else set to work. They had a hundred and twenty cars to clear, and they had little time to do it.

  "Okay!" Chad called out, standing on the roof of one of the cars. "Dead bodies up by the wrecked truck. As soon as they get it righted, start tossing them in the back! Granite! Roy! Demon! Take your people and move all of the cars that can be driven over here! Oak! Make sure we get our own people loaded into as many as possible once this mess is cleaned up!

  "Ryan! Get those teams rigging slings on all the wrecks! We've got choppers inbound, and they're going to show up any minute! Move people! Move!"

  Sean looked around and decided to help with changing tires on the cars that still looked drivable. Looking at his watch, he couldn't believe the first explosion had gone off less than five minutes ago. It had been intense, but it had been quick. Now they had about ten more minutes to clean this mess up before the lone officer on duty in this area decided to investigate the sudden lack of traffic.

  Steve Conners looked around as he slid to a stop at the bottom of the hill. There was an old dirt path here, he noticed, and looking back towards the west, he could see a lot of people had made it down the slope. Not all of them appeared to be alive, however, as there were a fair number of bodies lying unmoving on the ground.

  Looking to the east, he surveyed how many of his own people had made it down. He'd been riding in the last of the Vestibulum cars; the thought had been that if Kurt had any changes in the plan, Steve would coordinate with him, then call Tobias and let him know.

  That simple idea had saved his life, as everyone else on the council had been up in the first three cars and were now dead.

  As they'd all scrambled for cover after that, Steve really had no idea what to do. Military operations, combat, those weren't his specialties. He was a numbers guy, plain and simple. He managed the council's money and other business relationships.

  When he'd heard Kurt's planning, he got ready to tell his own people to run for it, then Kurt and the rest of his leaders had been assassinated, right in front of everyone.

  Steve wasn't stupid, he'd immediately stopped telling the others what to do.

  Now at the bottom of the hill, he realized Kurt was right, they had to move to the east, and even more importantly, he had to get his people away from the rest of them. The lycans would probably go for the larger target to get the greater number of kills.

  Striking off to the east at a brisk walk, Steve told the others to head east, and to move out now.

  "What about the wounded?" somebody asked.

  "Pick them up; carry them, if you have to. We need to get away from here, now, before they come down the hill after us!"

  "And the dead?" someone else asked.

  "They're dead! Leave them! Worry about the living."

  Looking around nervously, Steve tried to do a head count. They'd come out here tonight with nearly two hundred people. It didn't look too bad; at a guess he'd say there were probably a hundred and fifty or so left.

  "Pull together, everyone," Steve told them, getting into the center of the lead group, so hopefully any snipers that might still be watching wouldn't have a clear shot at him. He wasn't just the only council member left alive, it looked like he was the only senior member left, as well. The enemy had been very thorough.

  "Damn, Boss, look at them go," Dean said from his vantage point, where he'd been keeping an eye on the Sapientia magic users on this side of the pass.

  Arthur watched as everything on the highway was quickly sorted, and crews started to work on righting the truck that had been used to block the road.

  "They've been our worker bees for over a millennia, Dean. Always cleaning up our messes and fixing our problems," Arthur said with a small shake of his head. "I guess it shouldn't be a surprise they're able to fix this just as fast."

  They both paused as they heard a couple of dull thuds echo off the canyon walls, then a moment later two bright flashes, followed by the sounds of explosions down by the river to the east.

  "Guess somebody couldn't take a hint," Dean said, shaking his head.

  "Apparently not," Arthur said as another 'thump' was followed a moment later by one more explosion, a bit closer than the last two had been.

  "Looks like they're walking their fire," Dean said.

  "I would suspect they want the survivors to start clearing out of the area before they bring the helicopters back in."

  Dean nodded as a forth 'thump' was heard, followed by an even closer explosion, but no more followed after that. A minute later, the helicopters showed up, each one flying over the north side of the pass, coming down to hover for a moment as they got a wreck hooked up, then quickly left with it.

  As they watched, the truck was set back up on its wheels, the back of it opened, and dead bodies were tossed in. More than half the cars started to slowly drive past it, some being driven, others being towed. Lycans were busily working on the remaining cars, either rigging slings or getting them ready to be driven off.

  "You know, you were right about your niece, Boss. She sure did pick a winner. It might be time to come down off that fence you've got us all sitting on and admit it."

  "Appearances must be maintained, Dean, even if they're only just appearances. I think the other councils already believe we're firmly on Sean's side."

  "Then why not just admit it?"

  "Because this isn't over yet, and I'm sure there are going to be things we are most certainly not going to wish to be associated with."

  "You think so?" Dean asked, sounding doubtful.

  "Considering the kinds of things some of our compatriots are capable of, sadly, I do."

  "Chad!" Roxy called over the radio. "We got a couple of groups moving east. I think we may have missed one of the leaders!"

  "Where are they?"

  "They're coming up to those two big trees Melissa's team sighted in earlier."

  "Melissa, you hear that?" Chad called.

  "Yes, Chad. I got it. What do you want me to do?"

  "Open fire, start walking west."

  There was a moment's pause, then they heard the first 'thump'.

  "On the way," Melissa called.

  Roxy watched as the first explosion knocked them all to the ground, then the second mortar landed right in the middle of the first group, killing everybody. The other groups that had been following the first one started to crawl back the way they had come, some trying to scramble to their feet as they did so.

  "That did it!" Roxy called.

  "Keep firing," Chad said. "Two more rounds."

  "Yes, sir!" Melissa called and they heard the 'thumps', followed by the explosions.

  Roxy watched as they were knocked flat again; this time they stayed down until the 'thumps' of the mortar fire stopped. Then about two-thirds of them got up and started to run back towards the west. She guessed the remainder were either dead or unconscious.

  "Roxy, Hunter, did they get the message?"

  "Oh yeah," Roxy called, "they're moving west now, all of them; well, all of them that are still alive, at least."

  "Copy that," Hunter called. "They're moving."

  "Pick off any obvious stragglers," Chad ordered, "I want them on their way in the next two minutes."