By far, the best news came in the photos taken behind the house because roughly a hundred yards away was the Assabet River. While the section wasn’t tremendously wide, it would prevent anyone and anything from escaping to the rear, which was important. Even though their mission was to stop Napoleon and his army of starving vampires, they also knew they couldn’t risk exposing their breed to mortals.

Max wasn’t concerned about the investigations into the deaths that had already occurred. He would grease the palms of the local constabulary, and all reports would point to an animal attack, but there were three homes to the west of Napoleon’s estate, and on the other side of the Assabet River, there were even more. Dotting the landscape in estates large and small, inside those houses were the makings of a massacre…and it would be a massacre.

Upon learning Napoleon’s monsters had killed innocents, Max and the council agreed that while they had never acted as vigilantes before, they now had a reason to do just that. Mortals living anywhere near one of Napoleon's homes had to be protected, or vampires around the globe risked discovery…and it was not a risk they dared to take.

The bad news revolved around the forest surrounding Napoleon’s estate because Bennett and Ruby had already attested to its denseness. Even though the crunch of frozen underbrush would alert them if Napoleon’s troops were nearby, the thicket, at times, was almost impenetrable.

Max looked up from the photographs. “Do you have any idea how many of those things he has?”

“You mean the starving ones?” Ruby said.

“Yes.”

Bennett and Ruby traded looks before Ruby spoke. “We didn’t hang around for long, but at least a hundred.”

“It could even be more than that,” Bennett said. “Like Ruby said, we got out of there fairly quickly. I have no clue as to how large those cells were.”

Max scrubbed his hand over his chin. “I hate to say this, but we don’t have enough people to do this. Those three homes to the west are the closest, and we absolutely must protect the mortals living inside,” Max said, pointing to the Google map image he’d printed out. “While we’re doing that, his army can basically sashay out the front, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. Anyone traveling that road will be in danger, and since you said some of those sons-of-bitches fed in the forest, they’ll be far faster and stronger than they were last night.”

“They may be faster, but they won’t be armed. That’s to our advantage.”

“Bennett, what you’re suggesting is suicide. We need to cut off all lines of escape for this to work, and we can’t cover both the west and the front with only you five. It won’t work. Armed or not, we are seriously outnumbered.”