Just as Cadence stepped aside, raising up her right leg in a kick that landed squarely in the Vampire’s gut, she heard a barrage of gunfire from upstairs. Checking her IAC, she could see that Brandon and Meagan were pinned in the hallway and that Meagan had been hit in the arm. Apparently, these bastards had guns and weren’t afraid to use them.
“I’m going up there,” Elliott said, and it wasn’t a question. Not that she wouldn’t have agreed. He flew up the stairs as Cadence turned to see he’d only taken care of two of the Vampires he’d been engaged with, which meant she had the bowling ball and a lanky woman with long white hair to dispatch.
They both rushed her at the same time from opposite directions. Since her own firearm seemed of little use, she decided to see how powerful her ninja moves were now that she’d been repurposed. She kicked out with both legs at the same time, leaping into the air in the splits and made contact with both assailants. The man took another blow to the gut while the woman was struck in the face. They both recoiled and came at her again.
Cadence didn’t stop to think about what she was doing as her instincts took over and she began to kick and punch at each Vampire in turn. She imagined she looked like a cross between Jackie Chan and a whirling dervish as she landed shot after shot on each of the Vampires. Eventually, the male Vampire weakened and fell to his knees. Cadence took that opportunity to turn her attention to the woman. She launched herself up at the Vampire’s chest and locked her knees around her, pulling the knife and jamming it into what would’ve been the person’s jugular if she were alive.
Immediately, Cadence realized there was something off about Van’s knife. She’d been able to procure it from Aaron’s safe with the help of Mrs. Carminati who was the only other person besides her fiancé who knew the code. But it didn’t have the same effect on this woman as it did the ones she’d encountered in Melbourne, and eventually, she stuck it back into her jacket pocket and began to twist. With her increased strength, she was able to turn the Vampire’s head several times and pull up. At first, the skin and sinews simply wound around each other, lengthening out like taffy, but after what seemed like at least two dozen twists, the women’s head popped free, and Cadence fell to the ground in a pile of ash.
It was just in time for the other Vampire to gain his feet, and he took off toward the stairs. But Cadence wasn’t about to let him get away. She plowed into him, knocking him across the room again. This time he thundered into the other brick wall, and pieces of ceiling were knocked free. She stayed on top of him, and despite its uselessness before, she pulled the knife and began to saw at his neck, hoping this time it would have the desired effect.
He was fighting her every step of the way, bucking and pushing, trying to set himself free, and despite her best efforts and her speed, the process was slow going. She had sawed through about half of his neck when he somehow managed to knock her up into the air. Cadence made contact with the wooden beams of the ceiling, sending down another shower of dirt, and the Vampire got to his feet.
With his head half-decapitated at his Adam’s apple, he was a ghoulish site, and Cadence would’ve gawked at him if she didn’t realize he was making for the stairs again. As he ran, his head tilted back at the spot where she’d cut into his neck so that he looked a bit like a gruesome Pez dispenser. “Why don’t you just die?” she asked, ramming into him again. He fell hard on the compacted dirt floor, and this time he didn’t seem to have the strength to fight her off again. One more time, she pulled her knife and laid into the musculature of his neck, determined to decapitate him before he could break free of her again.
As she cut through tendons that snapped and tore, she had a few seconds to check her IAC. She knew that Meagan had been hit in the arm, but she seemed to be doing all right. Brandon was firing into one bedroom while Elliott had the other, and even though their bullets were not as useful as the titanium ones might’ve been, they seemed to be weakening the four Vampires that were left. Both of them had silver knives as well, and she hoped theirs would be more useful than the plastic cutlery she seemed to have gotten her hands on.
“Do you want me to assist with Meagan?” Martin asked.
“Negative,” Cadence replied. “We can’t have you getting shot as well.” This was one of the downsides of having a Hunter for a Healer. He could also be injured, whereas Jamie could’ve already been up there assisting Meagan. “She seems stable for now.”
Meagan was pressing her hand against the hole in her arm, trying to push up to standing. “I can make it down the stairs,” she said, her voice shaky but not panicked. She was no stranger to bullet wounds, unfortunately, and Cadence marveled at how much stronger she was now than she had been when they’d first met.
“Go ahead,” Cadence told her as the second to last tendon snapped. She should be done with this one in a minute, and then she could go help. She knew Ashley had taken out one of the Vampires who had tried to run out the front door. Aurora was still in back. When two screams filled the air, she realized that meant there were two Vampires left upstairs, and they’d be clear.
One of them was Spittle, though, and he wasn’t going down easily. He had Brandon on his back, pinned to the floor, pummeling him with fists almost as large as the teenager’s head. As soon as Elliott managed to jam his knife into the woman’s chest he was engaged with, and yank down hard enough to end her, he ran into the other room, crashing into Spittle with his full body weight and sending them both careening into an antique dresser. The mirror broke off and tumbled down on top of them, shattering and spraying all three of them with glass.
Spittle took that opportunity to break free of the Guardians and headed for the door. Just as he reached the doorway, Elliott tossed his grenade. The silver nitrate sprayed out into the hallway, and there was a screech of pain as the compound burned the Vampire’s skin, but it hadn’t hit squarely enough to end the monster, and he leaped over the banister, landing with a thud on the black and white checkered foyer floor, shaking the whole house.
The last tendon snapped, and the Vampire beneath her screamed as Cadence leaped up and headed up the stairs.
“Aurora is in pursuit of Spittle! He went out the back!” Ashley called to her as she, too, went running around the end of the house.
“I’m on my way,” Cadence replied to all of them. She could catch him; she knew she could. She checked her jacket pocket and realized her last grenade must’ve fallen out at some point because she no longer had it. Whispering a curse word, she determined to get herself a nifty utility belt like Christian’s so that didn’t happen again. Ahead of her, she saw Aurora running across the open ground, headed toward a line of trees and what sounded like the Missouri River.
“Aurora, do you still have your grenade?” Cadence asked, almost caught up to her now.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Toss it up into the air on your right when I say now.”
“Why?”
“Now!” Cadence shouted, and even though she had no idea why her Leader wanted her to do so, Aurora complied. Cadence caught the weapon as she streaked by, and then, with the gap between herself and Spittle rapidly closing, she pulled the pin. She slammed into his back running at about sixty miles per hour, shoved the grenade into his pants as he lay on the dew covered grass face down, and rocketed herself up into the air as the explosion lit him on fire.
Cadence grabbed hold of a low hanging branch of one of the trees, pulling herself up, ready to jump onto the screaming Vampire if she needed to. But he only managed to clamber to his feet and take about three steps before losing his footing on the steep embankment and tumbling into the Missouri River. Almost as soon as he hit the surface of the water, he shattered into a cloud of ash.
