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 setup 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 their 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.
