by ID Johnson
Despite ruining her career, he way of life, everything, it truly was that last part that had been the worst.
She had started her relentless journey to destroy Giovani only a few years later, convinced that, if she could find him and end his worthless existence, perhaps she could at least restore her own sense of self-worth, though she was certain her team members would never have faith in her again. She had recruited her sister, who hadn't even Transformed until that point, and they began this game of hide-and-seek. Now, all of this time had passed, and she still hadn't caught him. Though she hated Aaron and would tell anyone just how much she blamed him for what had happened that night, deep down she knew that wasn't true. Not only was it not his fault she had blown the hunt, she didn't really hate him either. She would never admit it, but a very small part of her was still hopeful that, if she could catch Giovani, she could somehow win him back. It sounded ridiculous, even to herself, so she kept those thoughts shoved way down deep inside, not even voicing them to her sister. She had refused to even speak to him from the time he told her it was over and wouldn't even call in to report her work to him. She refused help from anyone, particularly Guardians. She had to do this on her own--though Laney's help was welcome and accepted. She was, after all, her sister, part of her. Once Giovani was dead, she would be able to have the conversation with Aaron she had waited so long to have, to find atonement, and, if she was lucky, find a way to move on.
Now, speeding through traffic at well over 120 miles per hour, she could see the familiar bumper of Giovani's black Corvette in the distance. He was approaching the 84th Street exit when he seemed to realize she was there and took off. At first, he appeared as if he would actually get off at that exit, but at the last possible second, he weaved back into traffic, cutting off a tractor-trailer and leaving a string of cars with smoking tires in his wake. The only way that Laura could avoid the sudden red lights in front of her was to swerve onto the left shoulder, which was barely wide enough for her car. The highway was divided here, and the median was narrow. She cut around a pick-up and got back in the nearest lane. Giovani was in the middle lane now, though he didn't stay there long. He swerved in front of a compact car, shifted to the right lane, and took advantage of Laura being in the far lane, ditching onto the exit ramp.
Seeing her opportunity disappear, Laura reacted quickly. She cut over to the center lane and almost made it into the far right lane, near the exit, when she caught a glimpse of a minivan on her right corner-panel. If she spun the wheel to the right, she could punch the gas and would probably clear the van and could make the exit. However, she caught the widened eyes of the middle-aged woman behind the steering wheel and thought against it. She straightened the car out, holding her line, and missing the 42nd Street exit. She saw the Corvette tear around the corner, disappearing into the darkness as she and Laney continued to the next exit.
"Why didn't you exit?" Laney asked, looking back over her shoulder, watching their opportunity disappear.
"I couldn't make it," Laura replied, the frustration evident in her voice.
"Bullshit," Laney exclaimed. "She would have hit the brakes. You would've been fine."
Laura turned her blinker on for the first time during the entire trip, preparing to exit the freeway. "Maybe," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Just didn't seem worth it to take out a family."
Clearly frustrated, Laney crossed her arms. A barrage of questions was on the tip of her tongue, but she didn't think now was the right time to lay into her sister. She was beginning to wonder if Laura even wanted to catch Giovani. Maybe, for her older sister, the fear of ending the chase, facing reality without the pursuit, was just too much to face. "What now?" she finally asked, as they approached the end of the exit ramp.
"We head back to the neighborhood we saw his car in," she said. "See if we can figure out if he's staying in one of those apartments."
"He's not so stupid that he would park his car in plain sight, not now that he knows how close we are."
"Probably not," Laura agreed. "You got a better idea?"
Laney had plenty of better ideas. She'd already suggested most of them. Involve LIGHTS, call in another Hunter, ask for help. None of those suggestions were ever acceptable. Finally, she replied, "No, whatever you wanna do."
Laura turned the car in the direction of the neighborhood they had spent the last two weeks combing. Maybe this time, they would get a break.
Chapter 5
Cadence had been easily convinced that she had time for a quick nap. And by the time she had finally dozed off, it really wasn't a very long one. Now, sitting in the passenger seat of the Buick Enclave Elliott had somehow managed to procure, the internal debate raged; should she attempt to converse with the burly Guardian or keep her mouth shut? She was well aware that Elliott was not a fan of hers. In fact, the thought that this was all a set-up had crossed her mind several times. Nevertheless, she had gone along with it, not as a chump, but confident in her ability to defeat any bloodsucker that came her way.
She didn't think that Elliott was trying to off her, however. They both knew that, if something happened to her, Elliott would never be able to face his best friend again. Aaron would likely kill him with his bare hands. Not only was Cadence a major asset to the LIGHTS team, there was more to her relationship with Aaron than strictly professional, though she wasn't quite sure exactly what that more was, not at this point anyway. Still, if Elliott was going to bring her into this situation, he had to be confident that he wasn't about to get her killed. Embarrass her, possibly. But not kill her. That couldn't happen.
"Where are we going?" she finally asked after about twenty minutes of silence. The SUV was going well above the speed limit, and though they took back roads and there wasn't a lot of traffic, Cadence was a bit unsettled traveling this quickly at night in the dark. She didn't think she could die in a car wreck, but she wasn't completely convinced her powers could protect her from pavement.
"Closest town is called Wilbur, but Barbarossa's place is out a ways. Nothing nearby," he replied in his deep, gruff voice. "You getting nervous?" he asked, almost daring her to admit it if she was.
Cadence was armed with two Glocks and a Beretta. Their presence made her a lot less nervous than she would have been otherwise. Still, if Barbarosa was as deadly as he had been described, she probably should be at least a little unsettled. She was honestly more nervous about sitting in the car with someone who seemed to despise her than she was at facing the bloodsucker. "No, not so much," she replied, trying to keep her tone light. She debated venturing another question and finally decided she had nothing to lose. "So, you used to sell cars?" she asked, nonchalantly.
Memories of his previous life seemed to amuse Elliott, and he let out a little chuckle. "Yep, sure did," he replied, taking a corner way too fast. "That was a long time ago, though," he added.
"How long ago?" Cadence inquired, appreciating this disposition more than any other she had recently witnessed with Elliott.
He seemed to think. "Well, I transformed in '66 if that tells you anything. Last car I sold was a '59 Chrysler New Yorker, and I believe the fellow paid $800 for it. He got robbed, by the way."
Cadence found herself giggling at that. "I heard you were pretty talented at moving the metal," she replied.
Elliott's smirk grew wider. "Oh, yeah? Who told you that? Aaron?"
"Yeah," Cadence affirmed. "He said that's why you're so good at persuading people now."
"Well, I don't want to brag," Elliott replied, his tone revealing his intention to do just that, "but I was always the top rated sales person in the area. I won many a vacation for the little family."
"You had a family?" Cadence asked, surprised.
"Oh, yeah," Elliott confirmed, glancing in her direction. "I didn't Transform until I was almost twenty-one. I married my high school sweetheart at seventeen, had a couple of kids. Took them to some great amusement parks, even Bermuda once. Nice little gig we had goin' on."
; Cadence was puzzled. "Where's your family now?" she asked, wondering if he had also married a human, like Aaron.
"Our perfect little suburban dream didn't last. That's one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and Transform. We got divorced, and she took the kids. I still see them every once in a while, but neither of them wanted to follow in their daddy's footsteps so they're actually much older than me, at least in appearance. Now, it's kind of weird seeing my grandkids who look like they could be my cousins."
Cadence laughed, not because it was really that funny, but because she knew he had meant it to be. "That would be weird. Why do you think they didn't want to become Guardians?"
"I don't know for sure," he admitted, passing headlights on high beam temporarily causing blindness. "I would hazard a guess that their mother had something to do with it, but I don't want to lay blame."
"I see," Cadence replied. "Did you miss them when she took them and went away?"
Elliott didn't hesitate. "Of course," he replied. "But I was so excited about my new life, I guess I didn't spend as much time missing them as I should have. And then, the thought of losing them someday made me want to put some distance between us, honestly. Knowing I will never die made me approach things much differently, I'm afraid."
She nodded. "I can't imagine," she admitted. "I guess that's a perspective I'm not used to, not yet."
"Nah," he said, waving her off with his right hand, his left still on the wheel. "It'll be a bit different for you, I guess, being a Hunter. You won't live forever. But if your kids decide not to Transform, then you'll have to think about it. Of course, yours will probably want to, once they see your superpowers."
It was Cadence's turn to laugh. "Think so? What if they think I'm totally lame?"
"I don't think that's possible," he admitted. "You're pretty spectacular."
"Thanks," Cadence said, shyly. She was surprised to hear him admit that.
"Sure," he said quietly. He was lost in his thoughts for a moment, pondering whether or not to say more. He decided he had said enough about how incredibly talented she was and so he added, "I was pretty spectacular at selling used cars."
Again, Cadence laughed, seeing the smug look on his face even in the dim light. "Unfortunately, you lost all of those Humility Contests."
"Oh, for sure," he replied, nodding his head. "Came in dead last."
"You see, this is why I liked you so much at Thanksgiving Dinner," Cadence offered, remembering the first time she had met Elliott. He had come over to her grandmother's house in Des Moines, just before she had gone through the Transformation process. They had laughed at each other's jokes then as well. They also discovered a mutual interest in the National Football League, which included a shared loathing for the Green Bay Packers.
"We did have a pretty good time that day, didn't we?" Elliott asked, reminiscing. For a moment, he considered an explanation of just what had turned him against her. It really wasn't anything she had done or hadn't done. It was the oh-too-recent memory of what could happen when Aaron became distracted by a female member of the team, something that had made more than one mission go awry, and Elliott's fear that Cadence had the potential to be an even more substantial distraction than any and all other female teammates combined. Rather than going in to all that, he decided to let the pleasantries hang between them for now, at least until they approached Barbarosa's place, and he had to explain to her that there was no way in hell he was actually letting her attempt to take the evil one out.
The legend that was Barbarosa had actually been around for thousands of years, though he hadn't always called Nebraska his home. He had been around these parts for hundreds of years, however, and every time he caused a stir, as he had most recently at Halloween, the folks who lived nearby did there best to chalk it up to something else, anything else. No one wanted to admit there was an elderly Vampire living in their midst, perhaps especially if they knew he was responsible for claiming multiple young lives at once. There had been no clean up crew to come in and convince survivors that they had seen something else, the way that Elliott always did whenever he was involved in a hunt. No, it had been up to the elders in the community to convince the rest that they would be better off keeping their mouths closed tight. After all, Barbarosa did not like attention, and if he was under the impression one had stirred up some trouble, well, chances were it would be the last thing one stirred up.
Elliott turned off of the main road and began following a winding dirt path into the night. As they twisted and turned, Cadence began to think this road must be part of the labyrinth. She had no idea which direction they were headed or how many corners they had rounded. "How do you know where he lives?" she asked just above a whisper, as if Barbarosa may somehow hear her coming if she spoke too loudly.
"I've been out here a few times," Elliott admitted. "Only seen him with my own eyes once, though." Even for the seasoned Vampire killer, he shuddered a bit, remembering the terrifying form Barbarosa had taken on their last attempt to bring his reign of terror to an end. They had lost a good hunter that night, and Aaron had decided it just wasn't worth it to continue to throw the team at him when he was causing little to no problem in the community, at least not at the time. When he struck, it was unexpected. And gruesome, always gruesome. Aaron even had a theory that he was responsible for the Villisca, Iowa, murders in 1912. After all, the site of the axe murders that took the lives of six children and two adults really wasn't that far away. Elliott found a bit of irony in the fact that Cadence's first Transformation had happened at an Eidolon Festival also held in Villisca.
As they approached the compound, Elliott brought the vehicle almost to a crawl. Peering out the window, Cadence could clearly see the wrought iron fence, the spikes on top menacing, and the shadowy thorn bushes, clearing the top of the fence by several feet. In the distance, she could see the outline of the massive edifice against the night sky. Several stories high in places, it reminded her of a medieval castle or the stereotypical haunted house. "Oh, wow," she said under her breath.
Before the Enclave even came to a full stop, Cadence was out of it, her eyes covering the fence as rapidly as a cheetah stalking it's prey. By the time Elliott caught up to her, she had already found what she considered to be the weakest point and was scaling the structure, almost to the top.
"What are you doing?" he called from below her, unable to believe how quickly she had surveyed the situation and started to move.
"I'm going in," she said, a hint of annoyance in her voice at having to state the obvious. She popped over the top of the fence, landing between two of the bushes below, not even snagging her jacket on the way down.
Elliott began to panic a bit. "But Cadence," he whispered, sharply, "I didn't think you'd actually go in."
"What?" she asked, using her night vision to identify the path of least resistance in front of her. "What do you mean you didn't think I'd actually go in? What did you think I was going to do? Snap a photo and drive away?"
Glancing up at the massive fence between them, Elliott began to realize he had little choice but to follow her. "No," he said, huffing a bit as he hauled his massive frame up the iron wall. "I thought I'd have a chance to tell you I was bluffing. There's no way you can take him by yourself. I told you, we lose Hunters every time we try this."
Cadence didn't appear to be waiting for him. She was already picking her way through the thorns, carefully moving between them, almost as easily as a little girl skipping through a field of daisies. "Well, I guess I'm lucky I'm not alone then," she said, disappearing into the thicket.
Elliott decided to switch to IAC. "Listen, Cadence, you can't actually be serious. Despite your incredible skill, there's no way you can sneak in there and take out Barbarosa by yourself, or with me, or at all."
"Why not?" she asked. She had one Glock in her right hand and used it to part the thick branches in front of her. Though the thorns were long and jagged, the bushes were not as close together as she had initially though
t they would be, and she was able to step through without gleaning too many scratches.
Elliott was not fairing so well. He had made his descent and was attempting to follow her, though his larger frame and less agile movements were leaving him with several pokes and pricks. "Come on, Cadence, let's go back and find a nice baby Vampire to play with, okay?"
"Do you have a weapon?" Cadence asked, nearly through the brambles now. He had told her it was a labyrinth, and perhaps it had been at one time, but it wasn't now. She was able to make her own path with little difficulty. One of Cadence's most critical assets was her ability to follow her instinct. Though it had already gotten her in trouble once in her short career as a Vampire Hunter, it had also allowed her to destroy several deadly bloodsuckers. Her feet kept her moving forward, despite the nagging voice of Elliott, begging her to quit before it was too late. She had no reason to think that Barbarosa was any more menacing than Holland, Henry, or Carter had been. If she could take them out, this old man should be a piece of cake. And she was almost certain she had the element of surprise. If he had detected them, he had made no move. She was confident she would have sensed him if he had.
"Yes," Elliott answered her. "I have a Glock."
"You got my six?" she asked, imitating all of the tough-guy movies she had watched with her dad.
"Uh, I'm covering you from behind, yes," Elliott begrudgingly admitted. "But I'm still begging you not to go in there."