"Cadence! Don't do it!" Aaron had caught up to her. He grabbed her from behind, wrapped one arm around her waist, and lifted her cleanly off of the hysterical woman.
"Why not?" she argued, flailing. "She deserves it!"
"You're not a murderer," he reminded her, sitting her on her feet. "You only kill Rogue Vampires. She’ll get what she deserves, but we’ll do it the right way."
Cadence was shaking her head. She turned to face him, both of them turned to the side in front of Camilla, who was still lying on the ground crying. Aaron reached for the gun, and Cadence handed it to him.
"Come here," he said, pulling her into his shoulder.
Cadence was still fighting the tears. She looked up to respond to Aaron, and saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She realized Camilla was reaching for her own weapon. Aaron only fired once, hitting her in the forehead, almost exactly where Elliott had been hit. Cadence's eyes widened, and she glanced from Camilla's body to Aaron. "Is she....? Can you....?" They had no way of knowing if a Guardian could kill a Hunter with a titanium bullet or not.
"I guess we'll find out," he replied. He shoved the weapon into the back of waistband and then bent down and pulled the other gun out of her hand, handing it to Cadence, who was fully aware it was the same weapon she had used to shoot Jamie. The Healer had said nothing on the IAC since he initially notified the team that he had been hit almost ten minutes ago. "She seems pretty dead," Aaron assured her emotionlessly.
In the distance, one of the helicopters took off, spraying them with light as it circled overhead and turned back toward Reno. Cadence was sure the chopper was transporting Jamie, possibly Meagan as well. But surely not Elliott. There would be no reason to rush him to Cale's attention. He was already gone.
The thought of him made her burst into tears again, and Aaron wrapped his arms around her tightly, only just managing to keep his own composure. They were alone in a clearing in the woods, no light save a few cloud covered stars and the flickering lightning in the distance, and Cadence couldn't help but feel as if the surrounding darkness was sucking her in. After a few moments, she realized he was speaking to her. "I'm so sorry, Cadence. It'll be okay. I don't know how, but we'll figure it out." She began to hyperventilate, her body vibrating with each gulp of air, and he embraced her even more firmly, slowly stroking her hair.
"How.. are.. you... not a ... mess...too?" she managed to choke out. "He... was... your... best friend... for so...long."
"I know," he said calmly into her ear. "I am... devastated," he admitted. "But right now, I need to be here for you." She glanced up and caught his eyes for a moment, before putting her head back down. "I fell apart earlier, and I'll do it again. But I've got to make sure you're okay first."
"I'll... never... be... okay," she insisted.
"Oh, yes you will," he replied, pulling back a little, attempting to get her to make eye contact. "Come on, what would he say if he were standing here right now?"
She took a deep breath and swiped at her nose with the back of her hand. At the thought of his ridiculous sayings, she began to giggle through her tears. "Suck it up, buttercup," she managed to get out.
"Probably," he agreed. "Or, get your shit in one sock."
Her laughter mingled with her tears enough to allow her to catch her breath. Within a few moments, she had begun to regain her composure. Staring into those piercing blue eyes, she asked, "How are we going to do this without him?"
Aaron shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. "I don't know if I can do this without him. But...we'll go on. We have to."
She nodded and slid her hand down his arm to take his hand in hers, trying not to think about the drying blood she found there. "Sam and Finn are going to pay for this."
"Yes, they are," he agreed.
She could hear an approaching vehicle in the background and realized Cale had sent his team out to retrieve them on four wheelers. Before they arrived she said, "Thank you."
"For what? I didn't do anything right tonight," he proclaimed.
She gave him a skeptical look. "This wasn't your fault," she reminded him. "But you took care of me, like you always do."
"Cadence, you took care of yourself. Like you always do," he replied.
Cale's people might not have been too impressive in attack mode, but they clearly knew how to extract. Within a few minutes, they had collected the injured team members by helicopter and taken them to the hospital where Cale and other medical professionals were waiting for them. They had located Laura and taken her into custody and transported Hannah, Aaron, and Cadence back to the SUVs via four wheeler so they could transport the vehicles to Reno. Camilla was also collected and removed from the field. Cale had insisted that Elliott be airlifted to Reno as well, though by the time he reached the hospital, he had been without a pulse for almost forty minutes. Dr. Cale Ryan pronounced Dr. Elliott Sanderson dead upon arrival at 11:47 PM.
When Cadence arrived at the hospital, she grabbed her bag out of the back of the SUV before running over to the main entrance. On the otherwise lonely drive over (three SUVs and three uninjured teammates meant they all drove alone) she had gotten an update from Phoebe regarding her wounded friends. Luckily for Meagan, the bullet that had ripped through her thigh had exited; otherwise, she may have found herself in a similar, excruciatingly painful situation as Cadence's predicament when Laura had shot her--titanium bullets hurt. Christian needed to have a bullet fragment removed from his arm but he would recover. Jamie was rushed to surgery; the bullets lodged in his body were titanium and they would have to be removed before he could even begin to heal himself. In the meantime, he had lost a significant amount of blood. Fortunately, several of Cale's staff members were matches and were willing to donate. She had spent the rest of the trip stifling her tears just barely enough to keep her vehicle on the road.
