The Matriarch looked at the doorway, and the metal door that now separated them from the werewolves. If the werewolves couldn't get through that door, then they had no chance of getting through it either. She gave the parasites some credit for laying such an obvious but competent trap.

She turned her eyes back to her people, "We're not going to leave our allies to whatever the vamps have in store for them. But we can't do anything for Acharya and his people from here. We have to find another way around…"

"I've heard of shooting fish in a barrel," a cruel voice said from down the hallway. "I wonder if shooting 'hyenas in a hallway' is just as fun?"

The Matriarch looked down the hallway, and standing in front of the ruined elevator doors, a squad of four vampires stood around a tripod mounted mini gun, and the others all had heavy machine guns.

Without a word, the Matriarch grabbed her people and dove towards the side of the hallway towards the doors that were spaced out along the walls. Before they could get to them however, gunfire erupted from the far side of the hallway.

The minigun spewed hot rounds down at them as the Matriarch scrambled to get through a door to relative safety. Her people screamed as bullets ripped through their bodies. The Matriarch knew that something had to be done and quickly or they would all be dead within moments. She crouched down and sprang towards the group of vampires. Mid stride she shifted into her hyena form and the next step she took she disappeared.

The look of shock on the vampires caused several of them to pause firing for a moment as they scanned the hallway looking for the ancient woman.

From behind them one of the vampires screamed and fell over howling in pain. The mounted minigun he had been firing went silent as he grabbed at where his leg should have been, now only a bloody stump that spewed forth blood, spraying his fellows as he collapsed to the ground.

The other three vampires looked around wildly for the cause of the suddenly missing limb from their friend. From the far-left side of their group, a vampire's arm fell to the floor, and his screaming added to the chorus of the pain that filled the hallway.

The other two vampires tried to raise their machine guns at the hyena that had suddenly appeared behind them, only to be tackled to the ground by two other hyenas. The vampires crashed to the ground under the weight of the animals that had tackled them, but before they could pull the triggers of the weapons in their hands, their necks were ripped open by the jaws of the hyenas, nearly severing their heads from their shoulders.

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The Matriarch calmly cleaned her fur with long laps of her rough tongue, taking her time before shifting back to her human form. The other two attacking hyenas shifted back as soon as the vampires were dead.

"That was reckless of you, Matriarch. Without you, our people are directionless. Would you throw away our people's future for some foreign wolves and vampires?" Desta said irritably.

Desta was beginning to overstep her bounds. The Matriarch said nothing but strode over to the younger woman. The Matriarch stood toe to toe with Desta and without a word shifted into hyena form and tackled her to the ground. The Matriarch barred her teeth and held them an inch above Desta's turned head. Desta made no move to shift, nor did she try to meet her Matriarch's eyes. She held her eyes shut as her breathing came in terrified, ragged half gasps.

The Matriarch stayed on the other woman's chest for long moments before she leaned down even lower and bit into Desta's arm, just below the shoulder. Desta screamed and the Matriarch held the arm in her teeth till blood ran in rivulets from her jaw to the floor. Only then did the Matriarch get off the other woman and shift into her human form.

The Matriarch took a few steps down the hallway, towards her injured people, before stopping and turning around. She glared at the injured woman who hadn't moved from the ground. "I trust I won't have to educate you again, Desta." It wasn't a question.

Desta nodded through gritted teeth but made herself meet her Matriarch's gaze, "yes Matriarch. I hear and will follow." The Matriarch nodded and moved down to hallway to the rest of her injured people.

* * * * *

Malik ducked down as a chunk of plaster and stone exploded just over his right shoulder as more high caliber bullets poured down on them. They were pinned down by multiple vampires and were unable to move at all. He had lost two pack members already, and that explosion earlier had cut off their escape route. Malik wished that the old elder from the Mountain city was still around. They didn't find the old man's body with the others, but no one had any idea where he might be or even if he was still alive. As it was his people were looking to him for answers.

Kamaria screamed as a bullet ripped through her leg, spewing blood as she pulled back further behind cover, that even now was being whittled away by the rounds that ceaselessly poured at them from across the room and hallway.

He grabbed the radio that they had recovered and yelled above the sound of rounds hitting the walls around them, "If anyone is out there, we could really use some help."

"Who is this? Where are you?" It was a woman's voice.

"This is Malik of the City under the Sand. We're on the sixth floor. We can't retreat back down the way we came and we are being pinned down by heavy weapons fire from multiple vamps."

The radio crackled for a moment. Malik though that the radio had been cut off, but the woman's voice finally answered him, "This is Ansuya Das of the City under the Mountain. We are below you looking for a way to the upper floors. Is anyone else out there?"

Another much older voice answered, "This is the Matriarch. We are above them; it seems. We have had our own problems but we may be able to reach them in time."

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