I felt a searing pain in my shoulder before Spence grabbed my arm and pulled me down behind a nearby fountain. We ducked below the white marble of the base but I still had a partial view of what was going on in front of us: and it was carnage. Bodies covered from head to toe in black mercilessly shot down whoever was in sight. Hookers were screaming; men were yelling and cursing as they fumbled for their guns to shoot back; and the boom of bullets whistled past us in all kinds of directions. 

"It's nice to see you Spence," I said in between laboured breaths. "But what the hell is going on?" 

"Your guess is as good as mine, mate, I have no idea who these lot are," his voice was the usual, monotone level it always was. He didn't even sound slightly worried about the surrounding threat. 

I glared at him as my shoulder pulsed. "Well what are we going to do then? How many guns you got?" 

"Only one. You'd be no good at shooting anyway as you've been hit," I gave him an incredulous look but he ignored me. "We need to get to the safe house. There's a tunnel leading to it in the shed." 

"Where's the shed?" 

He gave me a grim smile and pointed at a small, wooden building about two hundred metres away. 

"Bloody brilliant," I grunted, looking at the path ahead of us for any more masked men. We were bound to be shot but what choice did we have? 

I glanced around in search of Louie or the other guys but I couldn't see any of them. They had either taken shelter or were one of the lifeless bodies on the ground, which I was pointedly ignoring. I didn't like the way my feelings conflicted at the sight of them: my demonic half in the back of my mind was slyly grinning as if he had accomplished something; whereas I felt panicky and disorientated, wondering if my friends were still alive. 

My shoulder was pulsing. I could have easily healed myself and be done with it, but I didn't think Spence would be able to cope with me revealing my supernatural powers right now. No. The best thing to do was to grin and bear it. I just couldn't get a shot to the head because immortal or not, I would die. 

"There are five men in between us and the shed," Spence told me, frowning as he tapped his finger against his chin. "I think they must be guarding the perimeter or something because they're just standing there. We're gonna have to take them out." 

"Why don't we just get into the house and regroup in there?" 

He shook his head. "I've already thought about that: every person who has tried to get through that door has been shot. They obviously have the entrances marked." 

"Damn. Looks like we only have one option then. Give me the gun." 

"What? You've been sh..." 

"Just give it to me," I interrupted him quickly, realising that we wouldn't be safe behind this fountain for much longer. "I know what I'm doing." 

He shrugged. "Your funeral mate." 

"And yours too," I smirked as he gave me the gun. "Follow my lead." 

Ignoring the pain in my left shoulder, I raised myself up only slightly so that I could aim the pistol at the nearest of the five men in our way. He was half-hiding behind a hedge but stupidly had his head exposed, and for a practised shooter like me, that was a bad move. His gaze was focused on the battle to the side of us and I knew it was a perfect time to shoot. I squeezed the trigger and a second later his body fell to the ground. One down.

I quickly and silently got up, surveying the area to see whether I could get to the place where the dead guy was laying. Three of the four men who were obstacles to us had not noticed the death of their companion, but one had heard something and was looking around suspiciously. 

But his head wasn't turned in our direction and I knew this may be the only chance we had to move, so I made a dash for it with Spence at my tail. 

We dived behind a bush on the way because I thought the guy had saw us, but we got to the dead body without being noticed. I ignored the wound in his head and delved straight into his pockets to find two guns. 

"Perfect," Spence whispered, as I handed them to him. "This should make things a bit easier." 

"If we're lucky," I glanced around the corner of the rather large bush and cursed, immediately drawing myself back. "One of the masked bastards is coming towards us." 

"That's fine," he pulled out a knife and ushered me round the other side of the bush. "I'll catch him by surprise." 

We crouched down in silence as the man approached his dead companion on the floor. He checked his surroundings stoically before bending down to search his pockets, possibly looking for the guns we had already stolen.  

But he'd turned so that he had his back to us, and that was another big mistake: Spence leapt up from behind and had his arm around the man's neck in a matter of seconds, his grasp too tight to allow any kind of noise apart from a strangled groan escape the masked guy's lips. Spence pulled his head back and slit his neck without a moment of hesitation. His body fell to the ground with a slight thud as Spence relinquished his death grip, putting the now-crimson-stained knife back into his pocket. Two down. 

I had to give it to him; Spence was a pretty strong guy. The second masked man looked pretty hefty with a good bit of muscle, but Spence had a reputation, and he had it for a good reason. He was much more of a threat than he seemed and it was always good to remember that, friend or not. 

Spence pulled the two masks off the dead guys' heads and I looked down at their faces for a moment out of morbid curiosity. But as soon as I saw the empty, green gaze of the man I killed I quickly looked away, reminded silently of another pair of emerald eyes and how they would look at me if they saw me now. 

She'd never speak to me again.

I gritted my teeth in exasperation at myself and attempted to clear my mind. Now was not the time for thoughts like that. Now was the time for survival, by any means necessary, and I needed to stop being so human and accept that for once. 

Spence handed me one of the masks and, ignoring my foolish feelings, I gave him a questioning look. 

"Put this on: it'll make things easier if at first we can appear as one of their own." 

I nodded, disregarding the disgusting idea of wearing a dead man's clothes (there were stains of crimson all over my mask) and pulled it over my head, allowing it to hide every facial feature apart from my eyes. 

I pocketed a gun from the guy Spence killed and looked at the path ahead that would lead us to safety. The shed was closer now but three more men were directly in our way. We couldn't simply sneak past them so we would have to take them face on. As soon as they saw our clothes the game would be up, but that should've given us enough time to shoot them down and escape. It was risky but I guess it was the only option we actually had.

For a moment I quickly glanced at the scene of gunfire and violence to the left of us and grimaced: there were very few mafia members left standing. It looked like the sheer surprise and numbers of the attack had pierced the defence of the house. It was a disaster to the mafia but I knew they would recover. They had so many territories in L.A, so the loss of Bel Air wasn't a complete fatality. 

"Follow my lead and be gun ready," Spence whispered to me, before venturing away from the bush and walking straight towards the men with a silent, deadly speed that I knew to be his determined strides of destruction. I copied his actions and found myself feeling a sudden void of emotion, adrenaline numbing my apprehension. 

As we neared the three remaining men who were collectively looking towards the dying battle, one turned his head to give us a fleeting look and, satisfied with the sight of our masks, returned his gaze back to the show. It was mere seconds later when everything seemed to happen at once. 

The guy who turned his head suddenly tensed up, no doubt realising that he had actually just seen two, armed impostors coming right towards them, but by then it was too late. As soon as his head turned Spence jumped him before he could raise his gun, throttling him as he pinned him down to the floor. 

I pulled out my gun and shot one guy clear through the chest, but my second shot to the other man missed by inches. I cursed and dived behind a nearby bush as I felt a ray of bullets fly past me. I scrambled up to my feet, peering past the side of safety, to see the man coming towards me. Spence was still struggling with the first guy so I knew I was on my own. 

I fired a couple of shots at him but he was just as determined with his gunfire, so I couldn't get one on target. Four shots later I was out of bullets and only had one gun left. 

I was about to get my other gun out before I felt myself being rugby tackled to the ground. Ignoring the intense pain in my shoulder, I grabbed his arms so that he couldn't strangle me but damn this guy was strong. I tried to push him off but he was a big, heavy bloke who just had too much muscle for me to budge, especially with my injury. One of his hands managed to latch onto my neck and I found myself struggling to take in any air. 

But I was a hybrid. A demon. I wasn't going to let some shitty human being kill me. I felt my palms burn with a familiar, electric fire that roared through my veins, releasing it onto the guy's arms so that suddenly he leapt off of me and screamed in agony. 

I got up and wrapped my arms around his neck, darkness clouding my gaze in a red haze of fury and violence as I snapped it like a wooden stick. The horrible sound of cracked bones was music to my demonic ears, as his limp body fell to the ground with a thud. 

I was too angry to feel bad: that fucker tried to kill me.  

I took my spare gun out of my pocket and ran over to Spence, who was fighting a losing battle, and whacked the guy's head with the butt of my gun. 

His unconscious form rolled onto the ground as Spence pulled himself upwards, breathing heavily. "Thanks. Why didn't you just kill him?" 

"No point..." I was interrupted by a bullet whistling past us and turned around in shock to see more masked men running towards us. "Damn it- the rest have seen us!" 

We bolted towards the shed as more guns blasted off at us from behind, but we were too close and they were too far away. 

Spence threw open the door as soon as we arrived and we stumbled in, missing another bullet by inches. The room was tiny and feeble and I felt no safer than I did out there. Spence dropped to the floor and moved a dusty mat to reveal a trap door. 

I hesitated. There was something strange about that door. Something that didn't feel quite right.

He pulled the latch up and glared at me. "Get the fuck in."

I didn't need to be told twice. The window to my side shattered from the impact of a bullet and I was forced to dive down. I grabbed onto the edge of the trap door and slid my body into the dark unknown that was our only form of escape. 

There was no turning back now.