by ID Johnson
She nodded her head.
“Good. You do not use this gun unless a Vampire is headed directly at you. Understand? Under no circumstances do you use this gun unless you—not Meagan, not Shane, not even me—unless you are in immediate danger. Or unless I tell you to. Alright?”
She nodded her head again, taking the gun and sticking it in the back of her pants under her shirt.
“Alright. I’ve got to go. I will see you when this is all over,” he said, smiling at her meekly and disappearing into the night.
Cadence had her IAC on and she had gotten much better about tracking what was going on where and who she should prioritize. She had requested access to Sam, Finn, and Camille but had been denied. She didn’t want to bother Aaron by asking him to grant it for her anyway. As the three visiting Hunters were the only ones in the bar, she had no idea what was happening on that front. Shane knew, however, and he was attempting to relay everything to Meagan. Cadence tried to listen in, but she was frustrated. There wasn’t much use in her even being there if she couldn’t see or hear what was going on.
“They are confronting him now,” she heard Shane say. So the Vampire was in the bar. Surely with the three of them inside, they would be able to trap him.
"Shane, I think we're on the wrong side of the building," Cadence said hesitantly. However, he was so busy relaying information to Meagan, he barely even glanced in he direction. Cadence sighed and tried again. "Aren't those the bathroom windows?" Again, Shane said nothing.
About that time, she heard Aaron saying, “Someone is out of position.”
There was no immediate reply and Cadence was almost certain it was Paxton, but she didn’t feel it was her place to answer Aaron, considering she was just there to observe.
The next time Aaron was a little firmer. “Shane, who is out of position?”
Shane was still not listening however, as he was so intensely relaying information to Meagan.
“Shane,” Cadence whispered as loudly as she dare, “Did you hear that?”
He looked up at her absently. “What’s that?”
Shane who the hell is out of position?
He had heard Aaron that time. “Oh, shit,” he muttered under his breath. “I’m checking.”
But by then it was too late. There was a loud crash and glass flew from the shattered bathroom window into the air, raining down on them even twenty feet away. The Vampire had smashed through the window with the same velocity of an exploding bomb. Cadence covered her face and jumped backwards into the brick wall behind her. She peered out over the top of her jacket and saw Henry standing there, looking around, trying to determine which way to go. She knew he must be looking for a Hunter to be stationed right outside that window, and since there was none, he could go either way.
To his right was Prospect Avenue. Though it was a high crime neighborhood, it was also fairly busy, especially this late at night when a lot of deals were going down. To his left were a parking lot, some abandoned buildings and a semi-busy street. On the other side of the street were some rundown apartment buildings. But behind those buildings was a park. If he could make it to that park, chances were, he could lay low and find a way to escape. He looked up at the top of the buildings. He did not see any Hunters on the roofs, though he knew they might be hiding. He decided to take a chance on making it to the park.
Shane and Meagan had also recovered from the spray of glass, and as Henry took off running, he ran right by all three of them. “Aren’t you going to chase him?” Cadence asked Shane.
“No, I told you, this isn’t my hunt. We are all three just observing.”
“But, he’s getting away,” Cadence pleaded. This was a Vampire who had killed children. How could he just stand there and watch him escape?
Henry was almost through the nearly empty parking lot when Cadence’s instincts kicked in. Without thinking of the consequences, she began to give chase. She heard Shane’s voice echoing behind her to stop and thought perhaps Shane even chased her a few steps. To her left she saw a flash and somehow knew it was Finn. But she was faster and got ahead of him. As she made it through the parking lot, she was keenly aware that Aaron was screaming at her to “stand down immediately.” But at this point, she physically could not stop her legs from moving.
Henry caught the traffic light just right and made it across the intersection while Cadence and Finn, who was close behind her, had to stop.
“What the hell are you doing?” he spat at her.
She didn’t have time to answer. She saw Henry weaving in and out among the shadows near the apartment buildings. Despite the fact that there was oncoming traffic, Cadence began a game of Leap Frog and began to dodge the cars. She was able to make it through safely, but Finn was not so lucky. She heard a screech and the sound of an impact. She didn’t stop to see if he was okay. She was pretty sure a car couldn’t kill him.
Aaron was stationed atop the building directly behind the bar, to the left of the parking lot. He had stopped giving orders through the team IAC now and was screaming at her to stop only on her own frequency. He had a feeling, however, that nothing he could say was going to stop her, and so he was also moving. He had one tool that Cadence didn’t know how to use yet and that was infrared. If he could pick up on where Henry was, perhaps he could at least protect her that way. He just didn’t know if he was fast enough to catch up to them.
Henry had to make another choice. He saw the Hunter fast on his heels and knew that, if he decided to go into the field, there was a good chance she would reach him before he could find a good hiding spot. His other option, however, was to enter the apartment building and try to find a place to hide there, or at least something to make a bargain with.
If he had made his decision one second more quickly, perhaps Cadence wouldn’t have seen which fire escape ladder he jumped up and grabbed ahold of. However, she came around the corner just in time to see him pulling himself up onto the ladder connected to Building Four. Even though she was no longer listening to the chatter on the IAC, she decided she should let everyone know where he was so she passed that information along as she sprinted for the ladder he had climbed.
Aaron knew that he could never get there in time on foot, and since his bike was parked at the bottom of the fire escape he had just descended, he hopped on it and hurried across the street. He wasn’t exactly sure where Cadence was going and he was keenly aware that any human sleeping in those apartment buildings would likely wake up at the sound of a motorcycle weaving in and out of the walkways between them. However, he felt compelled to reach her before she confronted Henry. She truly had no idea just how dangerous that particular monster could be, and even though he was absolutely furious that she had not obeyed his orders, he certainly didn’t want anything to happen to her.
Cadence could still see Henry clambering up the ladder when she reached the building. She was easily able to jump from the ground to the first platform without even using the lowest ladder. Henry must have glanced down just in time to see that and realize she could catch him in just two or three leaps, so he shattered the window next to the landing he was currently standing on and leapt inside.
Cadence cleared the rest of the stairs in just a few seconds. “He’s in the apartment at the back of Building Four on the sixth floor,” she reported as she cautiously pulled herself inside through the shattered window. She was standing in the living room of a small apartment. Wherever Henry was, he couldn’t have gone far. Instinctively, she pulled the gun out of her waistband and began to peer through the darkness.
She heard a noise from the back of the apartment and realized it was a baby whimpering. Afraid he might harm the baby, she rushed to the room where the noise was coming from. There, she saw a horrific sight. Henry stood next to a bassinet, holding a baby girl by her throat with one hand, the claw-like fingernails from his other hand outstretched, threatening to scratch, bite, or ring the neck of the baby.
Though the baby was crying, the young, exhausted mo
ther had yet to realize it, and she was still sleeping on the bed between Cadence and Henry. There was a window just to Henry’s right and the way he was looking at it made Cadence increasingly nervous.
“Put the baby down,” she said as calmly as she could muster. At the sound of her speaking, the mother stirred.
“Now, why would I do that?” he asked, his voice just as ghoulish as his appearance. “Unless, of course, you mean, put it down there,” he said, gesturing toward the window.
The mother was awake now, and she appeared to be frozen with fear. She was staring right at Cadence, and if Henry realized that she could also be used as a shield, Cadence’s challenge would be a lot more difficult. “Mam, I know you have no idea who I am or what’s going on right now, but please, get over here behind me, right now,” she said, leaving the gun trained on Henry.
Perhaps motivated by fear of the weapon, or perhaps because she was not fully awake and thought she might still be dreaming, the woman complied and ran across the room to where Cadence was standing. It was only when she turned around that the horrific scene Cadence had been staring at for several moments unfolded itself to her. “My baby!” she shrieked.
"I need you to stay calm and stay right here,” Cadence said, reaching her arm out to the woman as a reassurance that she should not move back toward the child.
“Why, you’re nothing but a little kitten, are you?” Henry was saying to Cadence now, trying to get into her head. “Not even a full grown pussy.”
“Put the baby down.” Cadence stated again. She remembered what Aaron had said about shooting this gun and she wondered how much trouble she was in already. Would it be worth it to take the shot? Then there was the possibility that she might miss and hit the baby, in which case her game was over before it even began.
“You know, every small child dreams of flying.” He took a step toward the window.
The mother began to weep louder now, and Cadence was afraid she might try to save her child, putting her directly into her line of fire and potentially causing Henry to harm the baby and possibly infect the child with his DNA, transforming her into a Vampire.
“Henry,” Cadence began, “Put that baby down and you can walk out of this building. I promise, I won’t shoot you.”
He began to chuckle, “And what of the rest of your forces, hmm? The old cowboy? The black lady? The hippy? Will they be so kind as you, Kitten?” As he spoke he reached with his free hand over to the window and slowly pulled up the glass.
The mother was frantic now. Henry seemed to know he had little chance of escaping unharmed, and so he began to toy with the idea of tossing the child out the window, just for shits and giggles. Cadence wasn’t sure if she could take the shot in time and dive across the room catching the baby before the little one fell.
As Henry held the child closer to the cold night air, she began to wail even louder. The noise was making it increasingly difficult for Cadence to think. Just then, she heard Aaron’s voice come over the IAC. His orders were clear and she trusted that he could see the situation as she did. “
If you’ve got the shot, take it.”
Henry was swaying back and forth. In order to save the baby from becoming contaminated, she needed a straight shot right into his heart. Otherwise, he might have time to hurt the child before she could kill him. When he swayed to the right, his right arm provided enough cover to prevent her from trusting her aim. But, when he swayed to the left, he opened up jut a bit more and she thought she had a clean shot to his heart. It had to be clean.
She pondered the idea of giving him one more opportunity to put the baby down, but she knew he was not going to comply, no matter what she said. He was driveling on again now, something about cats, but she wasn’t listening. She was using every ounce of her concentration to time her shot.
To the right, to the left. Fire.
Even as her finger pulled the trigger, she began to dive across the room. Initially, her target had been the baby. She hoped to catch her before she fell out of the window to the sidewalk below. However, as she flew through the air, she realized Aaron had burst through the door and was diving for the child. Cadence shifted her focus midair and reached for Henry’s head instead. As Aaron dove under her, she forced her momentum upward, grabbing Henry’s skull and giving it one swift crank to the right. Not only did she break his neck, but just as she had done with Carter before, she severed his head.
She turned to see Aaron’s upper body hanging out the window, his legs resting on the bed and the nightstand. Tossing the head aside, she rushed over to him, afraid he might fall out of the window. If he had the baby, it might be difficult for him to work his way back in. She pulled him back into the room, relieved to see the baby girl wiggling angrily in his arms.
The mother hurried over to take her daughter. Her screams of terror had quickly shifted to tears of joy as she held her precious baby in her arms. Even while the mother was cradling the child, Aaron quickly and carefully checked to see if there were any scratches or teeth marks on the baby. It looked as though Henry had not harmed the child, and so he allowed the exhausted mother to calm her little girl.
Cadence could hear sirens in the distance and realized that, even in this neighborhood, shattering glass and the mother’s screams had probably alerted the building’s other residents to call the police. She looked down to see that Henry’s body had already turned to ashes.
Just as the mother began to ask questions, Elliott entered the room. Cadence and Aaron were both more than willing to let him talk to the shaken woman. Christian had also arrived carrying some sort of vacuuming device, which Cadence assumed was to collect the remains of Henry. Without saying a word, Aaron grabbed Cadence by her upper arm, not hard enough to hurt her but firm enough to get her attention. He directed her towards the door and as she passed Christian, he gave her a pathetic smile. The reality of what she had done began to set in, and Cadence realized she was going to have a lot of explaining to do. It was evident that Aaron was extremely unhappy.
Just as they reached the doorway, Elliott picked the Glock up off of the floor and, without turning his head, tossed it backwards to Aaron, who caught it with his free hand without looking and tucked it into his waistband.
“Twenty minutes to debrief. Resume protocol.” Aaron instructed to the team sharply as they approached the stairs.
Cadence realized that the last portion, the part about protocol, had to be stated because of her. She had broken protocol. And she had broken it good.
Aaron didn’t say anything at all to her as he led her down the six flights of stairs. As they reached the landing before the external exit he said sternly, “Do not say anything to anyone. Do you understand?”
Taking his directive quite literally, she nodded her head in the affirmative and walked with him out the door.
Most of the team had assembled on the sidewalk here, except for the two that were still inside and Meagan and Shane who, no doubt were still standing in the alley. Cadence thought they might remain in the their positions for the next several years if Aaron never gave them specific permission to move.
She could see that Finn was pretty beat up. His arm looked to be broken and he had several lacerations on his face and legs. He was standing with his team on the sidewalk across the street. As Cadence and Aaron exited the building, Sam approached them, weaving in and out of traffic, screaming a trail of expletives at both of them. Aaron seemed to ignore him and led her over to where he had dropped his bike on the sidewalk before he kicked in the front door and sprinted up the stairs to save the baby. Cadence assumed she was riding with Aaron back to headquarters so she stood by as he righted his motorcycle. Sam had a few more choice words for her, and they were becoming more and more vulgar with each passing second. Though she was trying to tune him out, it was becoming increasingly more difficult. She didn’t know if she should punch him in the face or start to cry.
Aaron looked at Sam sharply and slowly stated, “Sam, that’s enough. I said
I would take care of it. Now, leave her the hell alone.”
The old man looked a bit intimidated at first, but then he remarked, “Yeah if everything you said happened, we wouldn’t be in this situation now, would we?”
Suddenly, the older man jumped back a few paces. Cadence had no way of knowing what Aaron had said to him over the IAC, but she got the impression he had used a few expletives himself. Whatever it was, it was enough for Sam to bite his tongue.
Cadence didn’t understand why Sam and his party were so angry. She had completed a task they had failed at for years. They should be thanking her! Clearly, she was missing something, however, and since she had promised she wouldn’t say anything, she was glad that Aaron had handled it. Even though he was obviously angry with her, she felt a little better knowing he had stood up for her against the verbal abuse of Cowboy Sam.
Aaron climbed on his bike and gestured for her to get on as well, which she did immediately. If he was giving directives to the rest of the team, he was doing so individually because she saw nothing more from him come across the team IAC.
He neither said nor sent a word directly to her the entire ride back either. He pushed the motorcycle’s limitation on speed, and she had to hold on tightly to keep from flying, off especially when they went around corners. Under normal circumstances she would have loved the idea of riding his bike with him. But right now, she felt like a small child who had been warned that she would be receiving a spanking when she got home.
As they pulled into the lot in front of the meeting room, Cadence’s emotions began to get the best of her. She was doing everything she could not to cry. He parked the bike, waited for her to get off, and then, without a word, walked into the building, clearly expecting her to follow. He led her down a hallway to a small room near the back of the building. Checking the time, he noted they only had five minutes before the debrief was to start. He would need much more time than that to go over this mess with Cadence.