Illumination

by ID Johnson

  ***

  Cale had gotten off two shots before Gibbon caught up to him, and Cadence held her breath as she watched her friend duck into one of the cells, slamming the door behind him. Gibbon looked longingly at the heavy wooden door before letting out a groan and continuing on his way down the cell block. Clearly, he was after easier prey—or just trying to get out now—and Cale would be too much trouble. She was glad the doctor had made that decision; it looked as if Shane and Meagan were both going to need medical attention, and Jamie wouldn’t be able to do all of that alone.

  They had passed the human security guard on their way down the hall, and he hadn’t even noticed them, but Cadence was concerned for his safety. Gibbon could easily kill him. She knew that Jamie and Scarlet were right behind her, so she ordered Scarlet to escort the guard to a cell and secure him there, however she could, before she continued. She also told Jamie not to engage with Gibbon if at all possible. There was no way they could get through this if their best Healer was hurt.

  Gibbon stood before her now like a recurring nightmare, and as Cadence and Aaron both blocked his path, weapons drawn, he seemed to realize there was no way he could get past them. He stared at them and growled, and Cadence remembered what it had been like that night in the makeshift cell Giovani had locked them both in together, a fight to the death on his agenda. They had both escaped that night, but Cadence was determined that Gibbon would not make it out this time.

  Cadence knew that Meagan was out there somewhere in the dark, near the end of the hallway, but since they didn’t have any titanium bullets, neither she nor Aaron could harm the other Hunter. Still, the thought of hitting her with a barrage of bullets while she was unconscious made Cadence hesitate. She decided it would be best to aim up at Gibbon so that her shots would either strike him or hit the ceiling, hopefully staying far away from her wounded friend.

  As Gibbon bared his teeth and began to fly down the hall in their direction, Cadence dropped to a knee and opened fire. Aaron stayed standing but unleashed a round of heavy fire as well. While she could see that the bullets were hitting their mark, Gibbon just kept coming, and at the last second, she rolled out of his way into an empty cell. Aaron took the full impact of the angry Vampire who dragged him down the hall a bit before slamming him into the concrete wall and took off toward the observation circle, his wounds leaving a stream of wispy smoke behind.

  “Are you okay?” she said, running to her fiancé’s side.

  He was already dusting himself off by the time she was on her feet and to him, and after a quick inspection, she believed him when he said he was fine. They realized that Gibbon was headed toward the hub now, with only Ashley and Mickey in position to stop him from getting out the front entryway since Jamie and Scarlet must have retreated to an empty cell until Gibbon passed so that they could help Meagan and Shane. So they took off running behind him, hopeful that they could stop him before he got out of the building.

  “Surely, those bullets will have to have some effect,” Cadence hollered over her shoulder as the sprinted down the hall.

  “One would think so, eventually. But he is a lot stronger than most Vampires, and he seems to have some sort of adrenaline rush right now—possibly from the guard,” Aaron answered her.

  “Will it at least slow him down if we keep shooting him?”

  “God, I hope so.”

  There was a barrage of bullet fire flashing in front of them, and once again Gibbon let out a loud growl, almost like a lion’s roar. The next sound they heard was Ashley screaming, and when they came into the room, Cadence watched as the pretty blonde went flying into the air, smashing against the ceiling before she went silent and fell straight to the ground.

  Mickey hurled himself at Gibbon, full force, and even though he was new, he was strong. The effect was as if a cannonball had hit Gibbon. He went crashing into one of the exhibits, knocking it over on top of them. Clearly, Mickey had taken Gibbon by surprise, but it only took the Vampire a few seconds before he shook the newbie off, and before Aaron and Cadence could even reach him, Mickey was up in the air, and Gibbon was sprinting down another corridor.

  “At least it isn’t an exit,” Cadence muttered as she took off after him.

  “At that speed, he could make his own exit,” Aaron noted, right behind her.

  ***

  Cassidy was watching everything unfold on her IAC, and while she was still terrified at first, the more she watched her teammates being injured, the angrier she became. When Gibbon rammed Aaron into the concrete wall, she pulled herself out from under the desk and joined Christian by the door. Glancing behind her, she saw that the table she had been hiding under housed credit card machines, and behind them were two rather large windows that opened up to the main entryway. She wondered if Jamie had realized how compromised her position might become when he shoved her inside or if he had been too busy to notice.

  Standing next to Christian by the door, she used the tiny window there to peer out at what was happening. She could barely see Ashley and Mickey putting up a fight and steering the Vampire away from the exit. Now, her sister and her fiancé were chasing him off around the corner where she could no longer see without using her IAC, and Cassidy began to wonder if there was anything she could do to be of help.

  “They’ll be all right,” Christian assured her, and when she looked up at him, he offered her a weak smile. There was something about him that Cassidy couldn’t quite put her finger on, but she’d never much cared for him. He’d always sort of given her the creeps. Now that she was locked in a tiny room with him, she hoped she wouldn’t find out exactly what it was that had made her uneasy all those times before. Of course, she realized, if she really was a dominant Hunter and not a Vampire, then she should be able to kill him should that ever become necessary. She immediately wondered where such a macabre thought came from and tried to bring her mind back to finding a way to help her sister.

  Christian had his hands in his pants pockets, his jacket pushed back out of the way, and as Gibbon disappeared, he began to pace, as if he was itching to get into the fight but knew he couldn’t because he had promised Jamie he’d take care of her. She looked curiously at the utility belt he wore. She assumed other team members must have worn them as well, but she’d never really noticed before. She saw the guns and knives, which she expected, but on Christian’s belt, there was something else. “Are those grenades?” she asked.

  Christian glanced down at his belt, as if he was surprised that she could see them. “Oh, yeah. It’s something new I’ve been working on. They spray silver, the same concentrate we use in the bullets. We haven’t used them before, but Aaron said I might get to try them out tonight.”

  Cassidy nodded. “Won’t they blow up the whole prison?”

  “No,” he laughed, that creepy look in his eyes, like he was a serial killer trying to lure her in with his smile. “They use a special charge that sprays the silver but doesn’t actually blow anything up. Theoretically, I should be able to toss one in Gibbon’s direction and burn him to death without hurting anyone or anything else.”

  “I see,” she muttered.

  “Except for maybe you,” Christian added, as if it had just occurred to him that Cassidy was also part Vampire. “Aaron said not to use them anywhere near you for fear they may also burn you.”

  “But I’m a Hunter,” Cassidy said, a bit irritated that Aaron would suggest she was anything other than just that—even though, technically, he may be right about her being part Vampire. “I can touch the silver bullets, and they don’t bother me.”

  “This silver is a bit different,” he replied, tipping his head from side to side as if he were working out a difficult math problem. “Have you ever been hit with a stream from the silver liquid we fire out of the Berettas?”

  “No,” she admitted.

  “It’s more like that. It might have a different effect. At any rate, I definitely won’t be using them if you are around. The last thing I want is to hav
e Cadence and Aaron mad at me for not keeping you safe.”

  “Right,” she said. However, she could see through the IAC that things were not going well with Gibbon, that there was a good chance that the others, the ones who could not do what she could do, were going to end up hurt, and she began to formulate a possible resolution, one only she could pull off. Even though it made her a bit nauseous to do so, she said, “I’m just so scared for my sister,” and as Christian stepped forward, she wrapped her arms around his waist, letting him comfort her as his jacket enveloped her. Being sneaky had gotten her into serious trouble before, but maybe this time being sneaky could finally put Gibbon away for good.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Gibbon was far enough ahead of them that by the time they reached the spoke he had disappeared down, Cadence wasn’t sure if he had stayed on the first level or went up to the top. There should be no exit at the end of the hall either way, so theoretically, he should be trapped. Of course, he had just been surrounded a few minutes ago, too, and what good had that done them? Still, she thought the silver had to be weakening him, and maybe if they could keep him in the building long enough, shoot him enough times, she could get close enough to him to decapitate him.

  Somehow, she managed to reach what she thought was cell block eight ahead of Aaron, and she absently thought he must have hit the wall harder than he was letting on; she shouldn’t be able to outrun him. “I’ll take high,” she shouted out as she flew up the stairs, not waiting for a response.

  “Going low then,” Aaron replied, and Cadence came to a stop at the top of the stairs. She didn’t see Gibbon anywhere, but the design was not what she was expecting. There was a narrow catwalk down each side of the cell row, with a large opening in the middle that dropped down a story to where she could see Aaron had also slowed below her. Gibbon could be in any one of a hundred or so cells, waiting for them to pass so he could run out behind them and disappear either out of the building or down another row. This could go on forever.

  “Got anything?” Aaron asked.

  “Bunch of old dilapidated cells,” she replied. “Nothing else.”

  “I’m gonna start repositioning some people,” Elliott said, and for a second the sound of his voice was alarming to Cadence. She’d forgotten he was there. “Don’t mind me.”

  “Good call,” Aaron replied, and Cadence tuned him out as she realized Elliott was pulling people out of the spokes that were not being utilized. A flash in her IAC let her know that Cale, Scarlet, and Jamie were all busy fixing broken team members, and she was happy to see Meagan’s IAC back on.

  She looked into each cell as she went by, and though the ones across the void of darkness were difficult to see from here, she could tell they were also empty. Unless Gibbon had somehow found a way to fold himself up enough to hide behind a rusty bed frame, she hadn’t passed him.

  It was all she could do to keep her march steady and slow. Part of her wanted to rush into the black in front of her in an attempt to ferret him out. But she knew better. Perhaps, if she allowed her to, Cassidy could find him. As tempting as it was, she couldn’t take a chance on turning Cassidy into a magnet that might pull Gibbon right to her. No, for now, she needed to do this the way they would have if Cassidy wasn’t even there—slow and methodical. He’d have to come out eventually.

  Just as the thought entered her head, she heard a commotion below her, and focusing in on Aaron’s IAC, she saw the monster plow through him again as he fired several shots, hitting Gibbon in the chest and shoulders. He kept running, but this time Aaron kept his footing and swiveled around, firing at Gibbon as he continued down the hallway.

  “Hold your fire!” Cadence shouted, and realizing Aaron was ahead of her in the hallway, she took off running back the way she came. She had to time it perfectly—using Aaron’s IAC and her own peripheral vision, and just as she saw the Vampire passing beneath her in the void between the two catwalks, Cadence stepped onto the railing that discouraged inmates from leaping to their deaths, and dove into the darkness.

  Crashing into Gibbon was as close to diving into a swimming pool with no water as she could imagine, and her breath was extinguished immediately. But she had him, and she wasn’t letting go. Digging her nails into his shoulders, she wrapped her legs around his midsection and began to squeeze. She could hear Aaron coming up behind her, and if she could just get the monster to slow down a bit, it was possible the Guardian could help her decapitate him.

  Gibbon had other plans, and before Cadence completely caught her breath again, the Vampire turned and slammed her into the concrete wall. Cadence winced as she felt her ribs cracking. Her hands were beginning to slip as she attempted to cling to his shoulders, which were covered with ashes from where the bullets had broken through his skin. Despite the fact that Aaron was firing at him, and hit him in the head and in the shoulder right next to Cadence’s hand, Gibbon raced forward several steps and then crashed into the wall again. This time, Cadence couldn’t hold on, the pain in her side overwhelming. Her grip slid off, and before she knew what was happening, she was sitting on the floor watching Gibbon take off into the darkness again.

  “Are you okay?” Aaron asked, dropping to his knees in front of her.

  Cadence couldn’t speak aloud, and she realized that her lung was likely punctured by her own rib. “Go. Get him!” she ordered, trying to hide the excruciating pain in her face, knowing he wouldn’t budge if she didn’t convince him she was all right.

  “Someone else can get him. Are you all right?” he repeated, feeling for broken bones. When his hand touched her side, Cadence screamed. “Stay still. I’ll get Jamie.”

  “No, go get Gibbon. I’m fine for a few more minutes. Just go!”

  She could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn’t want to leave her, but whether he was still chasing the Vampire or going after the doctor, Aaron kissed her on the forehead and took off down the hall.

  ***

  Cassidy watched as her sister hurled herself off of the second story and landed precisely on the back of the Vampire, but she also knew she was hurt now, and Cassidy was tired of waiting. “He’s coming this way,” she said to Christian, letting go of him and crossing her arms, hoping he didn’t notice anything as she slipped her right hand into her left pocket quickly and then recrossed her arms.

  “Yes, but Elliott’s got Brandon, Hannah, Morgan, and Aurora out there now. They’ll slow him down enough for Cadence and Aaron to catch up to him,” he said, a sense of longing in his voice.

  “You should go,” Cassidy urged, nodding toward the position she could see the others in, just in front of the spoke Gibbon was charging down. “You could get him. Don’t you owe him one?”

  Christian ran a hand through his hair. “I do. But… your sister would be pissed if I left you.”

  “Gibbon’s not coming in here. He’ll break that line and be out the door. Then, if Elliott can’t stop him, he’ll be gone. You know none of those incompetent Philly people are going to stop him.”

  “True….”

  He was leaving. She could see it on his face. Without even giving him a chance to officially walk out the door, she shifted her concentration toward the other part of her plan. With a deep breath, she opened her mind, and sent out the message, “Come to me! I’m like you. They won’t hurt you when you’re with me. Here, you’re safe.”

  She could no longer hear what Christian was saying, something about being right back, and she vaguely watched as he unlocked the door and walked out into the hall. It was Gibbon she was concentrating on now. She had stepped past the veil, into the dark and twisted world that was the Jogging-Path-Slayer-turned-Vampire’s mind, and what she saw there was not only terrifying, it was overwhelmingly sad and painful. Memories of a small boy begging a trusted adult, his own stepmother, to stop hurting him; fragments of twisted, gasping faces, slowly losing the light in their eyes; her own sister locked in a cage with him as he fought for freedom; the faces of those he’d taken while living
here, those who’d gone off alone, taken two steps too far into the darkness and were devoured by it.

  Cassidy continued to call to him, with tears streaming down her cheeks. Yes, he was a monster, but perhaps he had only become one because of the injustice that had happened to him. Perhaps Cassidy was just as guilty as everyone else who had judged him unfairly. Maybe this monster deserved to be left alone, to be allowed to live, to make his way into the night where he could finally be free.

  ***

  Cadence watched on her IAC as Hannah and Morgan both went flying through the air. She could see Aurora trying to throw something, but whatever it was, the object was knocked out of her hand before she could activate it. Aaron was gaining on the monster, but he couldn’t take Gibbon out on his own—no one could. So, biting her bottom lip so hard she tasted blood in her mouth, she pulled herself up to crouching and then, using her right hand, she pushed herself up to standing. As Brandon went crashing into the wall above the front entryway, she felt the fire inside of her again. She would get Gibbon if it was the last thing she ever did.

  She couldn’t run as quickly as she had before, so she hadn’t quite made it to the opening of the cell block when she realized Christian was standing in front of Gibbon. She could see him through Aaron’s IAC as the Leader closed in from behind Gibbon. Christian tossed an object in Gibbon’s direction, and a few seconds later, there was an explosion of dust and what looked like some sort of liquid. The toss hadn’t been quite on target, however, since Gibbon was running, and all the weapon seemed to do was keep Aaron from being able to see where he was going. A few seconds later, Gibbon crashed into Christian, and the Guardian went flying, careening into several display cases, shattering glass, and becoming buried in the rubble.

  Then, Gibbon did something none of them would have ever expected. He stopped. He turned and looked at Aaron, glanced around at the carnage, and without running, took three long strides into the the tiny, office-sized room just off the observatory turned museum.