Read The Coming Storm for Free Online

Parliament guards?” Milwaukee whispered in a tone of horror and awe. “When? Why?”
    “Why do humans join their military?” Seattle shot back. “We wanted to protect our people and help. Before any of you were born. Actually Phoenix was five when we got out. We didn’t have normal protection details or police duties. We were like the Navy SEALs. We went in and got paranormals out of human war zones or who were in trouble. That was our job and we were good at it.”
    “Hence knowing how to drive like a badass and lose the police and feds in downtown LA,” I mumbled.
    “Basically.” He shrugged. “Okay, so you guys heard Boston about once we’re in the coven?”
    “Yes,” a chorus of four agreed immediately.
    “Now I need to know what you found out before we go in there and tell the director.” Boston glanced between Seattle and me for a moment before focusing on me. “He’s driving and needs to pay attention to find the vampires’ mist. Tell me.”
    Now, to understand the correlation of Seattle’s concentration and what he was driving into, a person had to know that vampire mist was a gift. Magic really, that was ingrained in them, like being able to hypnotize people and other talents they had. It was a natural defense from what I knew of it. The way their mystical powers focused when they were just sitting at home or doing whatever. It would spread out and give off that eerie feel to turn around while obscuring what someone was seeing.
    Some of the movies got that right at least.
    Now get a bunch of vampires together, especially some that were thousands of years old, and their combined mist could hide a whole castle altogether. The coven could focus it and extend it out if intruders were coming their way so someone didn’t accidently walk right into the castle because, well, they couldn’t make it disappear.
    Oh, and they could actually turn into their mist and travel that way. Wicked, right?
    I told everyone the abbreviated version of what I’d found and what had happened in the Federal Building. By the time I was done, Seattle announced he’d lost all but two feds, and we were long out of the city now, so he didn’t think we’d have any more police coming up soon. If we could just stay ahead of these two a bit longer, we should be fine.
    It turned out he was right because there weren’t any road blocks or any more obstacles. Seattle kept the gas floored, and ten minutes later, there was a mountain of fog in front of us. As I watched the yellow line leading us into the mist, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was our version of the yellow brick road to salvation… Or hell?
    “Hold on to your asses, guys,” Seattle mumbled right before we hit it. “Think about everything you say and do before you do it, and understand any deal you make is a deal with the devil, and he will collect. They will see you as fresh meat to take advantage of in every way.”
    “Are we sure this really is a better option than taking our chances running from the humans?” Orlando hedged.
    “Yeah.” Seattle glanced at us over his shoulder. “The vampires don’t want us dead.” Then he let go of the steering wheel and we entered the mist.

3
     
    I hadn’t known the mist would guide us in. None of us had besides Boston and Seattle, so I hadn’t been the only one to freak when Seattle stopped paying attention to driving. It was fine, though, because the Expedition pulled up in front of large gothic doors minutes later. I understood the whole eerie thing about the mist too now. I swear I knew what dread tasted like.
    The moment we passed through it, I felt the need to run… Even if it meant out of a moving vehicle. Granted, I was a shifter, so the feeling faded quickly, and we were welcome, so the closer we got to the castle the more normal I felt. But for those first few moments it was as if I were going to face a firing squad or something. I wanted to be anywhere but there. Yeah, creepy.
    As we got out, Seattle