Under normal circumstances, it would’ve taken about an hour and a half to drive through Kansas City to Lexington, but at 2:00 AM, there was hardly any traffic at all, and Elliott was exceeding the speed limit by at least half of the posted number which meant they’d arrive well before 3:00 AM. By then, she hoped the Vampires would be done with any hunting they might be up to, and her team could move in and finish them all off.
She sat in the passenger seat of the Enclave, mostly staring out the window. Just like her encounter with the Blue Moon Portal, she hated doing anything without Aaron’s blessing, but this needed to be done. If Holland was off in Europe somewhere doing who-knows what, she likely would have no idea Cadence had moved in on one of her attack teams until it was too late. And Cadence’s philosophy was to get in, get out, and leave no one behind.
The rest of the team was quiet, too, likely contemplating what they needed to do. Because of Aaron’s refusal to let her take any Guardians, her team was slim. Aurora and Meagan were with her, which made her feel more confident. Elliott had allowed Brandon to come, but they were the only two Guardians. Ashley Stone, Jamie’s girlfriend and one of the newer Hunters, had also decided to come along, as well as Martin Greene a Healer. Since Cadence had decided it wasn’t worth it to risk bringing Jamie if Aaron truly meant to transfer any Guardian who went with her, she’d left her first choice behind. But Martin was solid. He was young and couldn’t do what Jamie could, but he would work. She caught his eyes in the rearview and realized he was nervous. He ran his fingers through his jet black hair and looked away, chewing his bottom lip. Cadence wanted to tell him not to worry, but she honestly had no idea what this was going to be like.
“All right,” Elliott said as they reached the outskirts of Lexington. The town wasn’t too large, and the house they believed the Vampires were holed up in was out in the country a few miles. “We should be there in about ten minutes.”
Cadence turned and looked at her team. “I know we went over all of this in the pre-hunt meeting, but try to remember the Anderson House is a state historic site, so let’s try not to trash it if we can help it.”
The five heads behind her all nodded. Despite knowing they were all aware of the role they would play, she went over it one more time, just to remind herself. “Cass said most of them are holed up in a cellar, but the only access is through a doorway at the back of the house. Elliott and I will go down, Brandon and Meagan, you’ll go up to the attic. Aurora and Ashley, cover the front and back of the house respectfully, and Martin you’re in reserve. We won’t have a bird’s eye view on this, so we’ve got to be careful and keep the chatter up. Watch your crossfire. Any questions?”
“Yeah, if I do get transferred, can it be to some place tropical? Like Miami? Or maybe Fiji?” Brandon asked, and Cadence narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t otherwise respond. He had no idea how big of a threat that really was; if Aaron said he’d do something, he’d never given her any reason to doubt him.
“All right. Here’s our parking spot,” Elliott said, pulling off on the side of the road. They’d driven past enough signs to know the house was just up the road from here, and as Cadence quietly climbed out of the SUV, she could see it towering off in the distance.
It was an impressive sight, even in the dark, though with Cadence’s recent changes, her night vision had vastly improved. She had yet to try to see if she had X-ray vision since she had no idea what that might be like, but she thought it would come in handy if she did. Peering across the open field to the rise where the land crested on its way back down to the river bed, she could see why Spittle had chosen this place to hide. It was huge—and magnificent. Three stories tall in the Greek Revival style, with a wing off to the side, the red-brick mansion was an imposing sight, and she thought under normal circumstances she might enjoy wandering around it looking at all of the antiques and imagining what it would be like to live there a hundred and fifty years ago. But not tonight. Tonight she was on a mission, one she needed to get over with sooner rather than later.
“Nice place. A little small for me, but I could make it work,” Elliott joked, and she held back a giggle. He was walking up front with her, the rest of the team fanned out behind them. There weren’t a lot of trees to give them cover here, and if the Vampires found out they had company, it would be hard to chase them down.
Cassidy thought Spittle only had ten of the Vampires who had escaped the tagging center with him. The rest had split off while they were running, trying to escape. She thought Holland had plans for getting them back together, to join them with other large bands of Vampires in various locations around Kansas City, and that this force was set to invade headquarters. However, when the Roatan Guardians had agreed to come help out, Holland’s plans were thwarted. So, much like the LIGHTS team, she’d done nothing. At least, Cadence didn’t think she had accomplished too much these past couple of months. Until recently, perhaps. It still weighed on Cadence’s mind that she didn’t know why Holland had Sam and Laura or what she was doing in Europe.
Her Beretta thumped comfortingly against her back as she walked, and she felt in her pockets one more time for two of the five grenades she’d confiscated from Christian. He’d been invited to join them but had declined saying he didn’t need another reason for Aaron to want to send him to Siberia. So she’d taken the grenades instead. Elliott had one, Brandon had one, and Aurora had one. At least without Cass there, they wouldn’t have to worry about her getting burned. She wasn’t happy to be left behind, especially since she needed one more observation to be official, but Cadence couldn’t risk it on this sort of mission where she knew she was short a few Guardians. She didn’t even like putting Meagan and Ashley in the position where they had no one to protect them.
