The smile on his face was maniacal. To Cadence, he looked like something out of a Batman comic strip. He drew his hands up deliberately, taking his time, as Cadence tried to decide how best to engage him, when a gust of wind seemed to blow him right over, and the next thing she knew, he was laying on the ground about five feet away from where they’d been standing, Elliott on top of him. “Shoot it!” he demanded, as he struggled to get his hands in position to decapitate it.
Having a feeling that more bullets were not going to do the trick, Cadence hurtled over the top of Elliott and dropped to the ground. Brandon secured the hand closest to him just as it broke free from Elliott’s grasp, and Cadence managed to get her knees around the part of his head previously covered by the crumpled hat she was now likely sitting on. “Counter!” she shouted loudly, and Elliott and Brandon cranked the beast to their right as she did the same with his head, pulling in opposite directions. Once again, it felt like his tendons were made of elastic or some other substance that just wouldn’t break, but this time, with the three of them pulling, she finally began to hear a popping sound. Putting all of her body weight into it, she continued to crank. After several minutes of effort, his head finally broke free from his body, and the three of them collapsed to the ground.
Cadence’s struggle to regain her breath was short lived as she realized a stream of gunfire was connecting with something right behind her head. She watched Elliott’s eyes enlarge as he grappled for his gun and also began to shoot. She spun around to see some sort of wolf bearing down on her. Unlike a normal wolf, this one would likely have come to her waist if she were standing, and it was a dark black color with steely gray eyes rimmed in red.
Despite the fact that Elliott and Aaron, who she assumed must’ve jumped down to help as well, were emptying their chambers into the devil dog, it didn’t seem to be slowing. With only a few seconds to decide what to do, Cadence and Brandon looked at each other for just a moment before he rolled to the right and she sprang up into the air, flipping herself backward, landing on the other side of the canine. It would’ve worked perfectly if Elliott hadn’t manage to shoot her in the shoulder as she somersaulted. The bullet stung, but it wouldn’t cause her permanent damage.
Elliott was on his feet when the wolf leapt in his direction. Cadence was behind it now, and she reached out and grabbed it by the tail, pulling as hard as she could. It gave her friend enough time to get out of the way. She pulled backward with all of her might, bringing the wolf to the ground, but he wasn’t about to stay there. He curled himself around, sinking his teeth into her arm. Cadence heard the crunch of the bone in her forearm and bit back a scream as blood spurted out of the wound. She still had a chunk of fur in her other hand, but she was losing her grip as the three men around her moved in to help out.
“You’re going to have to slam it into something hard!” Jamie shouted, and she realized he was running in their direction. “Jar it hard enough to cripple it, and then you’ll need a silver stake!”
Elliott poked the thing in the eyes hard enough to make it let go of Cadence’s arm, and Aaron and Brandon grabbed it on either end, slamming it into the RV where the man in the suit had appeared. Rather than having the jarring effect they had been looking for, the dog went straight through the thin wall, landing in what appeared to be a small bedroom.
“Shit!” Elliott declared for all of them, and he jumped up onto the porch, sprinting for the door as Cadence grabbed hold of the remaining pieces of siding with her good hand, and with Brandon’s and Aaron’s help, they ripped a hole in the dwelling big enough for them to leap through about the same time the wolf staggered to its feet.
Seeing that Jamie was there now with a stake, Cadence went all in, throwing her shoulder into the beast as it prepared to launch at her. They met in the air, and Cadence felt her breath leave her as if she’d landed in a swimming pool drained of its contents. The wolf seemed shaken again, and they fell in a heap on the ground, Cadence regaining her momentum slightly faster so that she could put her weight on top of it as the Healer shoved her head out of the way and rammed a wooden stake tipped in silver right into its chest cavity. The wolf vibrated for a minute, and then began to yelp. Cadence jumped up just in time to see it turn to ash. She realized neither of the other two Vampires they’d killed that night had screamed, like they usually do. In fact, the night had been eerily quiet where that was concerned.
She didn’t have time to think about that now, however. Aaron pulled her to her feet, and she started to follow him out the door where Elliott and Brandon had already disappeared.
“Cadence, you’re bleeding. Pretty badly,” Jamie reminded her.
“I’m fine.” She didn’t want to stop for him to heal her, and she didn’t want to deplete him when someone else might need him more. Her arm hurt, but she would live.
He was having none of it, though. Before she could further protest, he reached out and grabbed ahold of her other hand, which made the healing process start in her injured arm, even though he wasn’t touching it. With a sigh, she turned, and he pushed up the sleeve of her jacket, running his hands over the wound. In less than a minute, the pain was nearly gone and the bleeding had stopped. Jamie looked tired but not completely out of it. “Thanks,” she muttered and used the entryway she’d created a few minutes ago to get back into the fray.
