Something brushed against Paul’s leg. He glanced down, but couldn’t see what it was and decided it was time to get out of the moat. He began to swim the few feet to shore when there was a loud gasp behind him and then a splashing sound. He turned to see Steph being sucked under the murky water.
“Shit!” Paul shot down into the water again. He could hardly see, but a black shadow was moving rapidly away from him, further down the length of the moat. He swam after it, noting Tanner was right behind him. It took several powerful strokes to catch up with it, but when they did, there was no easy way to describe what had ahold of Steph.
It’s skin looked like seaweed, billowing in the water. It was a dark, mossy green color, and as far as Paul could tell, it didn’t have a face. It held Steph in front of itself in a way that made him think of a criminal positioning a hostage against its chest, but it was hard to tell for sure exactly where its heart would be.
Steph was not going down without a fight. She was kicking and throwing elbows at the creature. Tanner grabbed what could only be described as one arm and began to saw at it with his knife. Paul wedged a hand behind Steph’s back, hoping to make enough space to stab into what he thought might be a chest, but the stench of the creature filled his lungs with the odor of rotting plant matter intermingled with dead fish, and he nearly gagged, giving it a chance to push him away.
A few more splashes let them know help was on the way, and seconds later, two of the Guardians from Roatan, Jess and Lynn, were there. Each of the women grabbed ahold of the back of the creature, attempting to steady it while Paul went in again to find the heart. Steph threw an elbow, hard, giving herself some space, and Paul snuck in with his knife, stabbing and twisting until the monster disintegrated. The water filled with mossy green leaves that quickly fell to ash.
There was no time to resurface. What looked like an enormous white shark sank its teeth into Lynn’s leg. She screamed, her blonde hair cascading out like the sun’s rays illuminating the murky water as she was jerked backward.
Paul couldn’t see an easy way to destroy this thing, so he decided to treat it as if it were a real shark and swam around to its face, stabbing it right in the eye with his knife. The thing bucked, but no blood came out of the gaping hole in its face, a sign it wasn’t really a shark at all. Another stab to the other eye, as well as Tanner and Jess pummeling its tail, and it let go of Lynn’s bleeding leg. She shot off toward the surface with Steph’s help, and the others barely escaped before the shark regained its senses.
There would be no more stopping to catch their breath in the water for any of them. As quickly as they came up, they swam the short distance to the other side of the moat and helped each other up onto the shore. Lynn’s leg left a trail of blood across the carpet of grass, and Paul tore off one of her sleeves to make a tourniquet. She wouldn’t bleed to death because she couldn’t be killed by a vampire, but he really couldn’t afford to use his healing powers on a Guardian at this point.
“What do you want us to do?” Becky shouted from the other side of the moat. There were at least forty team members congregated on the far side now, and Paul needed to get them safely across. He could see a few more Guardians bleeding from encounters with the thorns or other obstacles they’d already come through, but he wouldn’t have a chance to heal any of them either, and they’d have to go on in their current condition.
“I’m gonna say let’s avoid the water if we can.” He really wished he’d brought some sort of a pontoon bridge. “Let’s try flinging each other across. Maybe if we can throw each other high enough, that will work.”
“Flinging?” Becky echoed, but before she even got the entire word out, two large male Guardians picked her up and tossed her in Paul’s direction. He and Tanner caught her easily enough, and the Leader began to think perhaps this new strategy would work. Whoever was left on the other side at the end could just stay there.
“I’m surprised they haven’t….” Jeb began, but then a barrage of gunfire from the building behind them had the entire team scrambling, and Paul could only imagine Jeb was going to say he was surprised the Vampires hadn’t come out of the asylum to attack while they were pinned against the moat.
“Great! Vampires with guns!” Becky shouted from her position directly behind Paul, flat on her stomach so she didn’t get killed. The gunfire wouldn’t hurt the Guardians permanently, though it did sting when they were shot, Paul was reminded, as a bullet made contact with his bicep. The other Hunters were also taking shelter behind Guardians since they could die if they were shot by Vampires.
“Remember the good old days when Vampires preferred old fashioned biting and sucking?” Patsy shouted beside him. She had a Beretta and was unloading, the silver stream taking out a few of the Vampires in the windows nearest their location. Paul had also shot a couple of them, but it seemed like every time one ghoul went down, two more would take its place.
The Guardians continued to pour across the moat, and Paul urged them to cover the last few yards to the building as quickly as they could. Some of them had silver grenades, and flashes of light went off around him as shrieks from the burning Vampires in the windows filled the air.
