William was moving up with the rest of his pack. Aceso and Ansuya were flanking him as he took point. The Shape shifters were moving through the building faster now it seemed. Since their encounter with Brian and his team there had been relatively little resistance. They had met up with the Shape shifters from the City under the Sand and were sweeping towards the north of the tower to meet up with Acharya and their Bultungin allies. They had fought hard to get this far and had lost a lot of friends and allies along the way, namely Huan Li, no one had heard from him in a long time.

William hadn't really asked and didn't think it was a good time to bring it up, but he knew from her body language that Ansuya was troubled by the lack of news of Huan Li's whereabouts. But her determination as she strode next to him was almost a physical force he could feel radiating off of her and he admired her strength.

Aceso pointed out a stairway entranceway off to the right. Ansuya spoke into her radio, "Acharya? Acharya this is Ansuya, come in."

The radio crackled with static, then a voice cut clearly through the background noise, "Ansuya this is Acharya. What's your position?"

"We're somewhere on the thirty second floor. We're at another stairway and are going to go up. How is your group holding up?"

"Not bad, we've lost some. It hasn't exactly been a picnic for us, but our friends are holding up really well, so there's that," Acharya responded.

Ansuya lowered the radio hand mike and looked at the stairway. William knew that Acharya wouldn't give actual numbers or how bad off he was over the radio. Still, that little bit of a hint was probably a lot worse than he was willing to state over the radio. William knew that as the sole member of the elder pack of The City under the Mountain, it was ultimately Ansuya's responsibility to ensure the welfare of her people and her allies. Too much Shape shifter blood had been spilt this day. She knew that House Dukart had to be exterminated and wiped off the face of the Earth for this attack to be worth the cost.

"Understood, meet us on the thirty third floor and we'll reconsolidate there. There's not too many more places for our friends to hide or run to. Stay alert and meet us when you can," Ansuya said without any real emotion.

The coldness in Ansuya's voice gave William pause. She was usually compassionate and understanding. The fact that she seemed to be separating herself from her compassion made William just the slightest bit wary.

"No problem on our end. Is it just me or do folks with longer lives seem to enjoy stuff like this more than regular people?"

That got a smile from Ansuya. William knew that Acharya could only be talking about the Matriarch of the Bultungin. He had met her briefly and she was every bit as fiery and sharp as a much younger person full of piss and vinegar would have been. He hoped that she wouldn't try to do anything reckless. Every cornered animal on the planet was deadly, and they were pushing the vampires into a corner.

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"We'll discuss life experiences later, meet up when you can. Ansuya out." Ansuya ended the radio call and peeled off towards the stairway.

William followed and stepped ahead to take point. The rest of the group fanned out behind him, Aceso, and Ansuya. Dutch was taking a position just behind Aceso's pack, side by side with Thom. The two had proved to be good fighters, and William, without the presence of Ares, was grateful to have another Enforcer near him to help protect the group.

William looked up the narrow stairway. The whole tower had stair way access points, but they only ran up a few flights. Probably a security measure, and a pretty effective one. Once the Vampires had blown the elevators, they had to sweep the tower, floor by floor and find these stairway access points on each floor. It was slowing them down. This could only be an advantage to the vampires.

William cleared the stairway and came onto the thirty third floor. He sniffed deeply, trying to get any hint of enemies. The scent that surrounded him was telling him there were vampires all around him. He couldn't pinpoint any direct location. He turned his head around and looked at Ansuya.

The elder Tracker inhaled and through her gifts, sifted through the various scents. She nodded to various vents in the ceiling. "The vampires are using the air vents to pump in artificial scents, sweat and blood mostly. They're masking their movements; we need to be cautious."

William nodded and readied his body to flood itself with adrenaline if it was needed. He had been caught in a few ambushes since entering this damn tower and he would do anything in his power to prevent them from falling into another one.

He led the way cautiously, using his ears to listen for any signs of breathing or movement. He knew that vampires' hearts didn't beat, and some of them didn't breathe, but they still talked and moved. It was those sounds that he was listening for. The large group of Shape shifters followed William into the room and fanned out behind him, moving with purpose, and keeping their senses alert for anything.

A loud metallic clank reverberated through the entire floor. William heard what could only be described as shutters opening somewhere far ahead of them. And then there was nothing but noise.

The far side of the room erupted with fire and thunderous sounds of guns being fired. The walls in front of them were chewed to scrap, as pieces of plaster and wood splintered and shot out at them.

The Shape shifters were tense and ready, but even that didn't fully prepare them for the sudden and violet attack. It felt like a pure wall of bullets was flooding towards them. William dove to the ground but not before taking a few rounds in his torso and arms. Katherine fly tackled Nicolas and protected him with her body as they tried to crawl towards the door they came from. Charles had grabbed Amanda and was also trying to get to the door when he took a few rounds in his legs sending him splaying onto the ground. Aceso had sustained a flesh wound to her hip as she low crawled after her pack. The wound itself was already healing, and Aceso was crawling without much hindrance. Dutch and Thom were lost in the sudden chaos of the ferocious attack.

William tried to yell over the noise, "Ansuya! We have to go back down! Get to the stair way!"

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