“What are we missing?” Aaron asked Christian as they walked around, practically in circles, looking for the place where Giovani and Cadence had disappeared. The helicopters both circled overhead, using their bright light to illuminate the ground where the Guardians were searching, but so far it had done no good.
Aaron stopped pacing for a moment and surveyed the area slowly one more time. Where would you hide an entrance to a tunnel? If it wasn’t in the ground, where else could it be? And then he noticed a small pier jutting out into the river. It looked as if the water had receded a bit recently as the near end of the pier was not over the water at all. “That’s it—that’s got to be it!” he yelled at Christian as he took off running for the pier.
Christian followed but hung back a bit as Aaron began to bounce on the end of the wooden and rock structure. There was a bit more give than there should have been, and using his X-ray vision, he could see a steep flight of stairs beneath the planks leading back in toward the city, back toward Jeweler’s Row. “It’s here!” he yelled to Christian.
“Brilliant!” Christian exclaimed as he hurried to help Aaron determine where the door hinged and to carefully flip it open.
“We found the tunnel!” Aaron let the rest of the team know. Now, they would just have to make it to Cadence before it was too late.
* * *
“Hey there, big guy,” Cadence said as Gibbon began to walk toward her. “You must work out a lot.” Her hands were still attached to each other, but she had pulled on the steel enough to stretch it out so that she had about two feet between them now. Still, she would be at a disadvantage if he attacked—when he attacked. She had her arms down in front of her, leaning against the wall as if she was only there to hang out for a little while.
Gibbon stopped in front of her and began to laugh. It wasn’t a giggle of glee, but a laugh so maniacal, it made Giovani seem sane. Cadence had met her fair share of beasts over the last year, but never had she looked into the eyes of a creature and saw the same amount of diabolical evil as the pair of black eyes glowing back at her now.
Within seconds, the laugh morphed into a growl, and almost before she could react, Gibbon reached for her neck with both hands. She was able to dodge out of the way, slipping under his arm, causing him to punch into the air in frustration, and there was now a crater in the brick where his fist made contact.
Cadence was behind him now. He turned to face her, swinging as he did so. She slid out of the way of his left hook, but he caught her in the shoulder with his right, sending her careening into the steel bars, hard. But she didn’t have time to lick her wounds as he was coming for her again. This time, she grabbed ahold of the cage and used it as leverage, kicking out as she did so. She met her target, and Gibbon stepped back with an “oomph” holding his stomach.
There were noises overhead, the sound of guns being fired and heavy footsteps. Cadence didn’t have time to check in on her IAC to see exactly what was happening, but she believed part of her backup may have just arrived. As Gibbon came at her again, she stepped out of the way, swinging at him with her clasped hands as she did so. He got her in the side, sending her flying against the back wall, but not until after she did some damage to the left side of his head.
Giovani and Zabrina were arguing now. Cadence couldn’t hear the whole conversation, but it seemed like Zabrina was ready to leave, and Giovani wanted to stay and watch the fight. She was worried—afraid LIGHTS would break down the door and storm in, killing them both. She wanted to take the tunnel.
Gibbon was coming at her again now, and Cadence was backed into a corner. There really wasn’t any place for her to go at this point, and he knew it. He smiled at her, baring his fangs, and the site of those razor like blades was incentive enough to find an exit. Cadence brought her left knee straight up, hoping to catch him between the legs. While he anticipated the blow and attempted to block it with his hands, she caught enough of his important parts to invoke a scream of pain from the monster. In his anger, he reached out and picked her up, throwing her across the cell. She hit the bars even harder this time, her head slamming into the steel. She would need a moment to recover, but then so would he. She glanced back over her shoulder to see him holding himself, leaning against the wall. Cadence leaned against the bars, trying to catch her breath.
Zabrina was angry now as the sound of searching began to filter down the stairwell. Clearly, LIGHTS was in the jewelry store attempting to find the entrance to the secret underground chamber. “You are going to end up getting yourself killed!” she screamed in Giovani’s face, and pushed him backward, hard, against the bed Cadence had been tied to earlier, knocking it back horizontal.
Giovani was livid; Cadence could tell from his expression that he was about to snap. He shoved Zabrina back, and as she lost her balance and began to stumble, a hand shot out across the dirty brick floor, catching her heel and sending her tumbling back against the bars where Cadence was standing.
Instinctively, Cadence grabbed ahold of Zabrina’s hair and began to pull so that her head was pressed up firmly against the bars. Giovani watched in horror as Cadence changed her grip from his girlfriend’s hair to her neck and began to twist. There was a noise across the cell, and Cadence knew she needed to return her attention to Gibbon, but destroying the Vampire who had infected her sister was more important right now, and she tugged on Zabrina’s neck with one hand, the other tangled in her hair, beating her face against the bars as she did so. Zabrina was screaming and clawing at Cadence’s arm, which was dripping blood all down the front of Zabrina’s blouse. Cadence continued to pull, and as Gibbon grabbed ahold of her waist and yanked her across the room, Zabrina’s head came off with her. Even though Gibbon sent Cadence crashing against the back wall, it was very much worth it.
Giovani was screaming now, calling out for his beloved who was now a pile of ashes on the ground. He was afraid to get too close, afraid Cadence or Gibbon would grab him as well, but he did step over to Dixon and begin kicking him furiously, screaming, “No! What did you do? You will pay for that!” Giovani drew his gun from its holster and shot Dixon in the head.
While Cadence was both thankful for the help and sorry to see such a thing, she was glad the detective was finally out of his misery. The fact that his body did not disappear was puzzling to Cadence—how had he been infected and not turned? She didn’t have time to think about the mysteries of the reserva de sange right now. Gibbon was looming over her again, and she needed to find a way to stop him once and for all.
He had pulled the flesh back away from his mouth in order to display his fangs even more prominently. She was almost out of options and backed into a corner again. She assumed the same trick wouldn’t work twice, but kicking was about all she could do with her hands still bound together, and as he approached, she brought up her left leg, aiming for his gut.
Gibbon caught her leg and twisted sending a shot of pain up her thigh like a lightning bolt. Her knee popped, and as he used her own leg to pick her up and throw her back into the bars, she realized her ACL had snapped again. She landed with a thunk on the floor next to the door, and before she could even catch her breath, he had her foot, dragging her back toward him.
She grabbed onto the bars with both hands, trying to pull away from him, trying to pull herself toward something shiny she could clearly see lying just on the other side of the bars. Giovani was huddled on the ground across the room, crying, and he wouldn’t see, if she could just slide her fingers forward just a bit more.
As Gibbon yanked her backward, she managed to grab the object with one hand and a fist full of ashes with the other. She kicked with her right leg, finding Gibbon’s face, which caused him to let go of her just long enough for her to scramble to her feet. As soon as she put weight on her left leg, it buckled, and she knew it was useless. Gibbon looked up at her, and stepping forward, he made another grab. Cadence held up the ashes and blew little bits of Zabrina right into his eyes, causing him to stumble backward. She had a few seconds now; it just needed to be enough time for her plan to work.
