Cassidy was standing in the middle of the spokes that went off in all different directions down dark corridors lined with prison cells. Elliott had told her to stay with Jamie, no matter what, unless the doctor told her otherwise, and while she didn’t mind any of the Guardians she was standing with, she would’ve been more comfortable if Elliott hadn’t left. Now, she was on her first real hunt, in a dark, allegedly haunted building, practically all alone. And she knew there was a Vampire nearby.
She had wanted to call out to Gibbon the second she entered the premises, but so far, she hadn’t done so. Cadence had told her not to. Her sister was afraid she might tip the bloodsucker off to their whereabouts, and even though she hadn’t attempted to make contact with him, Cassidy was certain he was there, and he was close. Much closer than the others thought.
While she stood in the large circular room, she took turns looking down the length of one long expanse and then the next, wondering if the shadows she saw shifting in the distance were her teammates changing positions or if Gibbon was on his way. Though she couldn’t read his thoughts, she could feel him; it was an overwhelming darkness, like a soul void of feeling. He seemed to suck away the energy, the light, from wherever he was, and she thought that it must be miserable to exist as such a pathetic, evil creature.
Cassidy knew what he had been in life. She saw the news reports about The Jogging Path Killer. He had murdered over half a dozen innocent young women, slashing their throats in cold blood. What could make a person do something like that? If she had the opportunity to reach into his mind, would she be able to see what could cause an ordinary person to turn into something so demonic?
She was peering intently down cell block four and saw nothing, and then her attention shifted to five. She thought Meagan and Shane were positioned down there, somewhere toward the middle of the row. Something began to move, and she realized there was a light coming up the hall. It couldn’t be her teammates—could it? Why would they have a light on. After a moment, when she was sure she wasn’t just seeing things, she nudged Jamie gently in the arm and said, “There’s a light.”
“I know,” Jamie said, nodding in the direction of the entryway. “It’s the security guard.”
“No, not there,” Cassidy replied, realizing now that another light was also approaching from the front of the building. “There.”
She pointed at cell block five, where the light was growing closer. The Healer turned his attention that direction, and over the IAC, Jamie said, “Meagan, Shane what’s going on?”
“What do you mean?” Meagan asked.
“There’s a light coming your way,” Jamie replied, his voice a bit strained. “Probably weren’t even paying attention, dammit,” he muttered aloud under his breath.
A few seconds later, Shane’s voice came through. “It’s another security guard,” he replied. “He’s headed your way.”
“What do you want us to do?” Jamie asked Aaron, but before he could even answer, Aaron was giving directions to the Healer team to take cover so that the security guard could pass, hopefully without seeing any of them.
Cassidy followed Jamie’s directions, and the team slipped around in the shadows between some of the displayed exhibits, attempting to stay out of the human’s way so he wouldn’t have to become involved, though it seemed to Cassidy that there was no way they could take out Gibbon without him being aware.
Cassidy was still having difficulty figuring out how best to use her IAC. She tended to focus on the visuals she got from her sister, since those were most important to her, and then occasionally she would switch to Brandon, who was standing with Aurora in a cell doing very little. At least Cadence was moving, and she and Aaron had just about made their way up to the entryway of the main building behind the security guard, who was diligently checking windows before he shined his light down the main entrance and started heading their way. He would have to pass Christian, Ashley, and Mickey to get there.
The light from the second security guard was coming closer, and Cassidy decided to shift to Meagan’s IAC so that she could see if he’d passed their position. She could see the light bouncing around the hall, as if the guard was checking each cell. Meagan was in the corner of the cell, Shane on the opposite wall as the light approached the doorway. Then, suddenly, it began to bobble, and Cassidy heard the security guard let out a surprised yelp. At first she thought perhaps he had seen one of the LIGHTS members in the room, but then his yelp turned into a scream, and the flashlight fell to the floor.
“Gibbon!” Cassidy said aloud, before catching herself and switching to the IAC. “Gibbon has the second security guard!”
A few seconds later, Shane came crashing into the hallway, Meagan right behind him, their weapons drawn. Gibbon was there. Cassidy could see him through Meagan’s IAC. He looked nothing like the man whose mug shots had been plastered all over the news a few months ago. No, this man was much more musclebound, his arms disproportionate to his body. His hair was nearly gone, his eyes wild, and he appeared to be frothing at the mouth as he bit into the neck of the security guard, not bothering to suck the blood through his fangs as most Vampires tended to do.
Before Shane could interfere, the security guard slumped to the ground, his wound seemingly fatal, and as the Guardian lunged at Gibbon, weapon in hand, the Vampire grabbed the end of the revolver and swung Shane, also a very muscular man, into the air like he was a play thing. The Guardian hit the wall on the far side of the hallway and slid to the floor. Cassidy couldn’t tell if he was conscious or not.
Meagan’s hands were clearly shaking, but she fired at the Vampire anyway, and missed. Gibbon looked at her as if she were the stepmother he hated, and as he came at her, Cale took off down the hallway, his weapon drawn, yelling something about an unprotected Hunter. The other security guard must have also heard the shouting as he hurried across the room in front of where Cassidy stood, Jamie now shielding her with his body, and Cassidy considered yelling out to the human to stop; he didn’t want to go down that hallway.
The Vampire Hunter in cell block five, though she was young and small, had seen many things. Nothing, however, could’ve prepared her for this, and as Gibbon stepped out of her line of fire, Meagan seemed to realize she was in trouble. She screamed, something Cassidy had never imagined a Hunter might do, and Gibbon picked her up, tossing her down the hallway in the direction from which he had come. Her IAC went blurry and then dark, as if she had her eyes clutched, and Cassidy braced herself as a sickening crunch shook the girl’s small frame upon making contact with the concrete wall.
“Oh, my God!” Cassidy mumbled, switching her IAC to Cale, who would be the next person to come into contact with the Vampire.
She didn’t realize until she was halfway there that Jamie was dragging her across the room toward a small office near the hall that led to the entryway. If he had said anything to her, she hadn’t heard it. Where was her sister? Where was Aaron? What would Gibbon do to Cale?
“Stay here,” Jamie was saying, pushing her inside the room. “Scarlet and I are going to have to go help Cale.”
“Alone?” Cassidy cried, wondering why she was so scared of someone who was potentially so much like herself.
Jamie looked around, and by that time, Christian’s team was advancing from the front entryway up to the circular observation room. “Christian!” he shouted, not using the IAC. “Can you stay with Cassidy?”
Christian looked behind him, as if trying to decide what he should do. Cadence and Aaron came blurring down the hallway behind him and Ashley and Mickey, headed for cell block five. Apparently, he assumed they had it under control, so he said, “Yeah, sure,” and ducked into the little room with Cassidy.
“Thanks,” Jamie replied. “Lock the door,” he ordered as he took off behind Cadence and Aaron, and Cassidy wondered why in the world they should bother to lock the door when the monster on the other side could easily rip it off of the hinges, but Christian did as he was told, and Cassidy slid underneath a table, her knees drawn to her chest, waiting.
