by ID Johnson
Cadence, Aaron, and the rest of the team had not waited for Brandon to tell them what was happening. As soon as they realized where Brandon and Cassidy were, it all made perfect sense. “The letter wasn’t addressed to you,” Aaron explained to Cadence. “We had the wrong Miss Findley.”
Cadence had already figured that out as well. She and Aaron hurried to waiting motorcycles and began speeding toward the Thirtieth Street Station, Christian, Jamie and some other members of Andrew’s team following in an SUV. Eliza and her team of six, mostly members from the Philly Area, were closer to the scene, and they arrived in time to see Zabrina dragging Cassidy through the glass pedestrian bridge that joined the station to the Cira Center tower, a large skyscraper across the street from the train station.
“What do you want us to do?” Eliza asked as she sprinted toward the bridge.
“Split up. If she’s going to Cira, it’s got to be because Giovani’s over there,” Aaron replied. “We should be on scene in less than five minutes. Slow them down if you can.”
“Affirmative,” Eliza replied. She gestured to her teammates which directions she wanted them to go. Three of them ran off to gain access to the Cira Center while she and two others ran up the steps to Thirtieth Station to access the pedestrian bridge from there.
Brandon was fast, and while Cassidy couldn’t do much to fend off her assailant, she was managing to dig her heels in and fight back. There were a few onlookers who jumped out of the way when they saw the struggling duo coming, but for the most part, the pedestrian bridge, which was made almost entirely of glass, was empty.
As Brandon caught up to Zabrina, she stopped. Looking behind her, she saw Giovani, Howard, Meat, and Preston approaching, slowly. She turned and faced Brandon with a ghoulish grin on her face, her fangs exposed. She still had one hand around Cassidy’s neck, but she slipped the other hand up and grabbed her hair, pulling her head up sharply. Cassidy screamed in pain, and Brandon lunged forward instinctively trying to save her from Zabrina’s bite.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Giovani said, covering the last hundred-yard distance in less than five seconds. “We will not hesitate to turn the younger Miss Findley into one of us.”
Brandon stopped dead in his tracks, knowing they were not bluffing. He heard hurried footsteps behind him and turned to see three figures dressed all in black, guns drawn, come to a screeching halt behind him. On the other side of the bridge stood three more.
“Well, if it isn’t the little purple-headed vixen,” Giovani laughed. “Didn’t I shoot you once before?”
“What makes you think I won’t shoot you right now?” Eliza sneered.
“No!” Brandon yelled as Zabrina somehow managed to open her mouth even wider. “Put your guns down.”
“Better listen to the young man,” Giovani advised. “I do not think the elder Miss Findley will look kindly upon you if you force my hand.”
“I don’t care,” Eliza replied.
“Eliza stand down, now,” Aaron ordered. “Do not fire; I repeat, do not fire.”
Eliza shifted her gun so that it was pointed toward the ground, as did the rest of her party on both ends of the passageway. “What do you want, Giovani?” she asked, glaring at him.
“Funny, I would have thought Cadence would have come herself to save her sister and the brother of her friend, but she sent you instead. What a pity. I’m afraid I don’t want anything you can give me. I guess I’ll jut take Miss Cassidy here and be on my way.”
“No!” Brandon screamed again as Cassidy began to cry. “Take me instead!”
“You?” Giovani laughed. “I don’t want you. I can’t do anything with you. You’re already—invincible.”
“But I’m not.”
The voice came from far behind Eliza and the others. They turned to see Cadence and Aaron approaching from the train station. While they appeared to be walking, they covered the ground quickly, and in a matter of seconds, Cadence found herself standing in front of Giovani, and her sister, who was sobbing.
“Let her go,” Cadence said quietly. “It’s not her you want. It’s me.”
“Are you willing to take her place?” Giovani asked, taking a step forward.
“Cadence-don’t do it. There are other ways to get you sister back,” Aaron implored only to her.
“I have to do it,” she replied. “I trust you will find me.” Then turning to look at him for a moment, she said, “I love you.”
Before he could reply, she turned her attention back to Giovani. “Yes. Let her go, and I’ll come with you.”
“No!” Cassidy whimpered. “Cadence—it’s too late! She already scratched me!”
“Shut up, you little whore,” Zabrina spat, twisting Cassidy around so that her mouth was crushed against her shoulder.
Cadence looked at Aaron, her mouth wide in terror. He looked just as shocked and devastated as she felt. Turning her attention back to Giovani, she said, “Is that true?”
“Does it matter?” he asked. “If I keep her, I will destroy her, no matter what she is. You know that. Now, come along. You first, and then I let her go.”
Cadence knew he was telling the truth. The thought of her little sister spending eternity as a Vampire was more than she could bear, but just as she would have rather had Vampire Jack than no Jack at all, she was still determined to protect her from an even worse fate. “Okay,” she said quietly. She took her Glock and tossed it on the ground, pulling another one from her holster and tossing it, too.
“And the one on your calf,” Giovani reminded her.
Cadence bent down and unstrapped that one as well. As Cassidy pleaded with her not to do it, she spun around and patted herself down so Giovani could see she was clean.
“Everyone else, drop your weapons. Now.” Giovani demanded.
With little other choice, Aaron gave them the order to comply, and the rest of the team, including Christian, Jamie, Aurora, and Hannah who had joined the group on the other end of the tunnel, dropped their weapons.
“Now kick them this way,” Giovani barked.
Once again, the team complied, sending their weapons within Giovani’s easy reach
Cadence turned and looked at Brandon and then at Aaron one more time, and then stepped forward, her hands out in front of her. Preston handed Giovani what looked like a steel infused rope. He nodded at Zabrina to let Cassidy go as he began to wind the cord around Cadence’s hands. Zabrina launched Cassidy across the open space between them, and she fell forward into Brandon’s arms, trembling and screaming her sister’s name.
Preston and Howard stood between Giovani, Zabrina, and their new prisoner, weapons drawn, with Meat behind them. Once Cadence’s hands were secure, Giovani pulled a black, cloth bag out of the pocket of his long black duster and slipped it over her head so that she couldn’t see. She could still hear her sister crying, and she could see her laying on the floor now, Brandon over her, each time a teammate with an IAC looked in her direction. Now that Zabrina was no longer holding her, Cadence could clearly see a deep red cut down the inside of Cassidy’s upper arm.
“Our ride will be here shortly,” Giovani smiled. “In the meantime, I wonder. Do these weapons have those new titanium bullets I’ve heard so much about?” Temporarily handing Cadence over to Zabrina, he reached down and picked one of the Glocks up off of the ground. “I wonder if they will allow a Vampire to kill a Guardian,” he muttered.
As he was speaking, the deafening sound of a helicopter overhead caught their attention, and as they all looked up through the glass ceiling to see how close the aircraft must be, a projectile came crashing through the glass, sending shards raining down on them. Giovani stood beneath the falling glass as if he were a child enjoying the season’s first snow, his arms spread wide, his face tipped towards the sky. A black grappling hook dangled from the air, and with one fluid motion, he attached it to the steal cord joining Cadence’s hands. The wire retracted almost as quickly as it had appeared, jerking Cadence up thr
ough the hole in the ceiling into the night sky above the bridge, and as her friends watched in horror, she disappeared into the helicopter.
This left the Vampires with no bargaining chip, and as the LIGHTS team reached for their hidden weapons, Giovani’s henchmen opened fire, causing the Guardians to duck in front of the defenseless Hunters. The grappling hook reappeared, and Giovani grabbed ahold of it this time, Zabrina holding on tightly to his waist. As he was hoisted into the air, he said, “Let’s test that theory, shall we?” and started shooting at the Guardians with the titanium bullets, not waiting long enough to see if it actually did any good. Within seconds, he and Zabrina were also gone, disappearing into the helicopter.
“What about us?” Howard asked Giovani using telepathy.
“You’re military. You’ll figure out a way to get back to Clayton in your getaway car,” he replied.
“You’re leaving us?” Howard shrieked in disbelief, but there was no response, and within seconds the helicopter was out of view.
The titanium bullets had no effect on the Guardians who had been hit by them, much to Aaron’s relief, though they did sting a little. He had taken one in the shoulder jumping in front of Cassidy, but he didn’t have time to think about that right now. Brandon had also thrown himself over the top of her, but once the Vampires began to retreat, his anger took over and he lunged for one of the guns on the ground between them. “Wait,” Aaron ordered. “We want at least one of them to get away,” he told everyone.
The team at the end of the passage held their fire, though a few of the Guardians nearby continued to shoot. Eliza managed to hit Preston right between the eyes, and he fell where he stood, turning to a pile of ash as he hit the ground.
Aaron was busy giving orders as he sprinted towards his motorcycle, which he had left right outside of the station. He could still see the chopper in the distance because of his newly improved eyesight, but it was about to disappear over the horizon, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to track it on his own. “Cale, I need your birds in the air immediately. Track that chopper if you can, but if not, illuminate that whole area around the Delaware that we were searching today. If Giovani takes Cadence through a tunnel entrance, we’ve got to see it.”
“Already flying,” Cale assured him. “Should be on scene in less than ten minutes. He may have her on the ground by then, but we’ll light it up.”
“That’s the best we can do,” Aaron replied, knowing the choppers were at the ready but could only be deployed so fast. “Jamie, see what you can do for Cassidy.”
“I’m there now,” Jamie replied. “She’s definitely wounded, and it looks like an infection to me.”
“Damn it,” Aaron muttered as he hopped on his bike. “Christian, you’re with me. Hannah run interference, and Aurora get in the SUV and trail Howard. Pick up Shane and Meagan in the parking lot on your way. Morgan, I need you to mobilize a team and see if you can pick up that chopper once it leaves, assuming this is a drop off and not a landing.”
Everyone answered affirmatively, and as he sped through the night towards the area where they assumed Giovani would be landing shortly, he returned his attention to Jamie asking only him. “What can you do, doc?”
Jamie didn’t answer for a moment, but when he finally formulated an answer he said, “Serum?”
“You have it?” Aaron asked as he heard Christian come up behind him on Cadence’s bike.
“Yes. I don’t know if it will work. I don’t know if it will kill her. But it’s the only thing I can think of that might have a chance of reversing this,” the doctor explained.
“Has it ever been done before?” Aaron asked.
“Not to my knowledge,” Jamie admitted.
Aaron didn’t hesitate. He knew they had to try anything they could to save Cassidy. “Do it”
“How’s my sister?” Cadence asked.
Hearing her voice was a relief, but Aaron knew she needed to be completely focused on saving herself right now. “She’s fine. Don’t worry about her. Jamie’s got her.”
“Is she infected?” Cadence asked.
“Not sure,” he replied, which was true. “You still in that chopper?”
“Yes,” she answered. “But I think we are descending.”
“What is Giovani saying?” He had reached the woods now and was flying between the trees as quickly as he could, trying not to hit any of them, though he was clearly a distracted driver.
Cadence was laying on the floor of the helicopter, the bag still over her eyes. She could hear Giovani and Zabrina talking, but it was all in Italian. She wished she had Aaron’s ability with foreign languages. “I’m not sure,” she said.
“That’s all right. We’ll find you anyway. Just take care of yourself, and leave everything else to me,” he assured her.
“I love you,” she said in response.
“I love you, too. More than anything.”
“Jamie, tell Cassidy I love her,” Cadence instructed.
“She loves you, too. And so do I,” Jamie assured her.
“All right, my pretty,” Giovani was saying somewhere behind her. “We can’t take a chance on you getting away once we land, so Zabrina’s going to give you a little something to hold you over until we’re ready to introduce you to your new friend.”
Cadence felt a stinging in her arm, and she suddenly felt the helicopter lurch. She had the sensation that she was falling out of the sky again. Just before she hit the ground, she lost consciousness and slipped into a black abyss.
Meat had fallen in a heroic effort to cover Howard as he climbed into the getaway car. He had taken fire from all sides and hit at least one Hunter before he fell to the ground. Howard had dived into the back seat just as Meat exploded in a pile of ash. He gave the order for Clayton to drive and headed off in the direction of Jeweler’s Row.
Clayton was certain that the LIGHTS team members would be following him, but he was sure they could lose them. He had done so just a few days ago, after all. He was driving like a maniac again, and since it was early evening, there were all kinds of pedestrians and vehicles driven by humans on the road. He wove in and out of traffic, sometimes playing chicken with the cars on the other side of the street. However, the redhead driving the SUV behind him looked a hell of a lot more determined than her counterparts the other night. They just might have to get a little more creative.
Cassidy was still laying on the floor in the middle of the pedestrian bridge. While Hannah was working interference with the help of Stella from the Philly office. Andrew used the rest of his team to form a perimeter around Jamie so that he could do his work without any intrusion.
Her head was on Brandon’s lap, and she was trembling. Perspiration beaded her lip and her hairline. Her hands were shaking, and occasionally her body would convulse. She was mumbling about being sorry and telling her sister she loved her. “Why is she shaking?” Brandon asked as Jamie prepared the Transformation Serum.
“She’s in shock,” Jamie explained. He took his black jacket off and draped it over her upper body, hoping it might keep her warmer and keep her from jerking around so much while he was trying to find a vein. He loaded the second syringe first, the pain medicine, and said to Brandon, “I’m going to need you to hold this for a minute, okay?”
Brandon took it, but he did so without acknowledging it was even in his hand; he was fixated on Cassidy’s brown eyes. “You’re okay, Cass,” he said reassuringly. “We won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whimpered. “I never should have… it’s my fault… Cadence….”
“It’s all right. It’s all right,” Brandon said as he stroked her hair with his free hand. “Deep breaths.”
“Cassidy, I know you’re upset, but I’m going to need you to try and hold still as best you can, okay?” Jamie asked.
“What are you doing?” He had his hands on her arm, readying the tourniquet, but she jerked away.
“I’m giving you the Transf
ormation Serum,” he explained.
“But I’m not old enough,” she reminded him.
“Close enough,” Jamie replied. “Now, let’s try this again.” He took her arm and wedged it between his knees, tied on the tourniquet, and forced her arm bent so that he could cause enough pressure to build up to find a vein. She was still shaking, but she was doing her best to comply. As he held her arm with his legs, he readied the serum, and once he was sure he could find a place, he pulled her arm up with his free hand and slipped the needle into a vein. As he pushed down on the dabber, her whole body went rigid. Her eyes opened wide, her mouth came open in a silent scream, her arms and legs went completely straight.
“Is she okay?” Brandon asked, panicked again.
“I don’t know,” Jamie admitted. He checked her pulse. “She’s still with us. Her heart is racing.”
“That’s not good, is it?” Brandon asked.
“I have no way of knowing, Brandon. I’ve never done this before.”
“You’ve never done this before?” he yelled.
Jamie plucked the other syringe out of Brandon’s hand. “No, I’ve never attempted to change a Resurrecting Vampire into a Hunter. I don’t think anyone ever has.”
“How do you know it’s not going to kill her?” Brandon shrieked.
“I don’t,” Jamie said, fairly certain Cassidy couldn’t hear him anymore at this point. It was time for the second syringe, so while Brandon considered that answer, he found the vein again and inserted the needle. This shot seemed to have the opposite effect, and Cassidy’s body immediately went boneless, her legs flopping back down and her head lulling forward. Jamie reached up and closed her eyes.