Looking over her shoulder, Cadence noticed Jamie reached down and retrieved his stake, something she didn’t even know any of the team was carrying anymore, before he leaned back against what was left of a dresser. She figured he just needed a minute, and then he’d be with them.
It appeared to her that the situation in the other RV, with Hannah and Meagan, was under control, now that Elliott and Brandon were in there. Aaron had entered a small trailer on the other side of that one, and she headed that direction just as he was backing out the door, something she thought was unusual, but then everything around her seemed surreal.
Once she realized why he had exited, she couldn’t blame him. There was a mist hanging between him and the door of the trailer now, a thick foggy vapor that glowed enough in the night that she could clearly see it, even though it was a bluish color and there wasn’t a lot of light available in the park. Aaron stared at it, either trying to figure out how to defeat it or transfixed. Either way, Cadence hurried over to him. The closer she got, the more she realized it had a face.
“Have you ever seen anything like this before?” she shouted before she even arrived.
“Yeah, a few times. In Wallachia,” he responded, finally starting to regain some of his composure.
She ignored the reference to a place she couldn’t put a finger on and asked, “What do we do?”
“Aim for where the neck should be!” Jamie shouted from behind them, and as if jarring his memory, Aaron nodded and moved into action. The mist seemed to dissipated as soon as his hands touched it, but she noticed that, as he gained a grip on what would’ve been the monster’s neck if it had been solid, it began to react the same way she’d expect any three dimensional Vampire to respond, and despite the fact that there was no bone structure or ligature, Aaron seemed to be decapitating it. She was slightly jealous that she didn’t have the opportunity to engage this unusual creature.
Luckily for her, another one began to seep out of the doorway behind it, and as she watched, two more followed suit. “Well, hell,” she muttered, holstering her gun and heading off the first one.
The sensation of trying to squeeze something that wasn’t there was odd. The creature was quick, too, and hard to capture. Once she thought she had her hands where they should be, she had to hold them steady as the being began to dart around.
“Pull it down, not up,” Jamie coached her, and she realized he had one, too. Aaron must’ve ended the first one and moved on to the fourth, which he was having trouble tracking down. Even as fast as he was, this vaporous creature was trying to evade him, and he chased it around the other side of the trailer where Cadence could no longer see them. She didn’t want to shift her IAC to his so that she could follow along until she ended this one, which didn’t take long once she finally figured out where its neck was.
Rather than bursting into ash, it kind of fizzled away, sort of like a cloud burning up in the sun. Her hands felt slightly tingly when she was done, and she couldn’t help but shake her head as she tried to figure out if what she was seeing was real. By now, nothing should surprise her, but this night was getting odder and odder.
Before she could go around the side of the trailer and track him down, Aaron reappeared, shaking his hands out. Jamie was also done, and the three of them turned to see four of their exhausted teammates exiting what was left of the camper. Meagan was bleeding from the head, and Jamie sprinted over in her direction as Cadence turned her attention to the other end of the campground.
It was a mess to say the least. The dwellings on that end looked just as decimated as the ones she’d been inside of. She assumed that the fact that all three of the Guardians left in reserve had to come to this end of the RV park meant the others must be having more luck, but surveying what she hoped could now be considered the “aftermath,” Cadence wasn’t sure what to think.
Looking around quickly, she saw Shane, Aurora, Ashley and Mickey, fatigued expression on their faces, but she didn’t see Christian anywhere. She shifted to his IAC and realized that was because he was inside of one of the trailers, an older woman pinned beneath him. He had his hands in position to decapitate her, but nothing was happening. He looked stuck.
“Why isn’t anyone helping Christian?” she shouted to the rest of the team, whom she now realized was standing outside of the RV where the confrontation was taking place.
“She wants to talk to ‘the girl,’” Aurora explained as Cadence reached them. “He wanted to see what you two wanted to do before he ended her.”
Cadence turned to see Aaron a few feet behind her. The look on his face made her realize he was considering it. She was shaking her head before her mouth even opened. “Absolutely not.”
“What if she has information that she’d be willing to tell us?” he asked.
“In exchange for her life—whatever is left of it? No. It’s not worth it. We need to destroy her anyway.”
Before Aaron could say anything, Cadence looked over his shoulder and realized it didn’t matter what either one of them said. Like the unexpected hero taking the battlefield in a movie, Cassidy was deliberately walking toward them, her hair billowing behind her. It was almost like slow motion, though Cadence assumed it was actually normal speed; she was just used to seeing everything else happening around her in a blur.
Aaron turned and saw the younger Findley making her way toward the RV. “We’ll need to restrain her,” he said, stepping past Cadence and heading inside.
Over Aaron’s IAC, Cadence heard Christian say, “She says she wants to talk to her alone.”
Aaron looked the old woman in the face, and Cadence realized this must be the Vampire Cassidy had spoken to the other night, the one who’d told them they were headed for “destruction.” Her face was pale and wrinkled. She looked haggard, with hair the color of dirty cotton. Cadence imagined she was tired. According to her sister, she’d been around for a couple of hundred years. Perhaps she wouldn’t mind reaching her final destination.
Cassidy stopped in front of her, apparently waiting for the Guardians to figure out how to both protect her and grant the woman’s request. Cadence was all for beheading her right that moment, but she kept her mouth shut on that particular subject. “You sure you want to do this?”
“I wouldn’t have jumped out of that tree if I wasn’t,” she replied, a look of determination in her narrowed hazel eyes.
Cadence had forgotten that Elliott had left her in the tree when he came to help. She’d have to go back later and see that footage. She couldn’t imagine how scary it must’ve been for Cassidy to come down on her own. It was hard enough for her with Elliott’s help.
The rest of the team joined them outside of the small RV with Jamie heading inside to help secure the older woman, even though he looked drained. Cadence thought there was a possibility he might know something else they didn’t know, like he’d known about the stakes and the mist monsters.
Brandon put his hand on Cassidy’s shoulder, but she didn’t turn around, and Elliott stopped behind her on the other side. “Cass,” Brandon said quietly, “are you sure about this?”
One sharp nod was all they got.
What seemed like several minutes passed, when in fact, Cadence realized it was only seconds, before the three Guardians stepped back outside.
“She’s secure,” Jamie assured them, and Cassidy nodded again.
That wasn’t a sufficient answer for Cadence. “How do you know? Secure with what?”
“Specialized silver handcuffs,” Christian explained. “She’s not going anywhere.”
“How do you know?” Cadence asked again. When Christian didn’t answer, she looked at Aaron, but he didn’t answer either.
Slowly, Cassidy marched up the three steps that led to the interior of the trailer without saying another word, and as Cadence watched the darkness of the RV swallow her sister up, an irrational fear that she might not ever see her again swept over her.
