Stopping Daunator by herself was an impossible task. After Christian’s failed attempt with the grenade, Cadence didn’t even bother to throw any of the regular ones she had with her. A glance over her shoulder showed Lex was hung up, too, and even though the ground wasn’t shaking as much back where the rest of her team was pinned down, it continued to quake further up the mountain and to her left, which meant there were more minions on their way.
Daunator stood in front of her, a knowing grin on his pale face, as if he’d already done the calculations, and there was no way their meager forces could overpower him. Why they hadn’t just brought everything they had with them, like they had to face Holland, was beyond her. Sure, there was a chance he would’ve heard them coming that way, but from what she could tell, he’d been prepared for this for a while now, maybe even before she’d Transformed. Her sister and Heather didn’t seem to be able to weaken him at all, and as Christian went flying into a boulder behind her, Cadence had to weigh the situation carefully. What was Daunator’s weakness?
“You didn’t happen to bring any of my new weapons did you?” Christian asked, pulling himself up and dusting off his black leather jacket, not that it made a difference. It was going to have to be incinerated because of the smell.
“Some. Why?”
“Did you bring those deflector bracelets?”
Cadence didn’t really feel like she had time to chit chat. Daunator was drawing his hand back, likely a show that he was about to strike one of them again, maybe both of them. “Uh, yeah. Bracelet things? Yeah, I got them.”
“Good. Put them on. They should help block his power so he can’t blow you to smithereens, like he just did me.”
Cadence raised an eyebrow at him, thinking he must not know what smithereens meant, but she didn’t argue. The bracelets were in her pocket. She slipped them on. “Should?”
“Can’t hurt.”
“Okay. What are you going to do?”
“Duck!” Christian said.
“Huh?”
He pushed her down and a ball of fire, much like the ones Holland had been shooting at them in her final battle, went flying over Cadence’s head. “I meant duck. I’m gonna lay low for a minute while I try to remember where I put the other pair, but we need to get one of those new grenades in him. Do you have one?”
Christian was right in her face, the look in his eyes a mixture between desperation and insanity. “I do.”
“Good. Make a hole, shove it in, and that should do it.”
“How do I get close enough?”
“I’ll open fire, but you’re gonna have to use those bracelets to block his shots. Then... do what you do.”
Cadence’s head rocked back and forth as if she understood, but she didn’t really. After all, they didn’t even know if the bracelets did anything. And how could he look for his and open fire at the same time? But Christian’s plan was better than hers—which was nonexistent. And a quick glance around the battlefield told her no one was coming to her aid, not even when she realized Aaron had released all of the Guardians he’d been holding in reserve. Many of them were engaged with the Vampires or the other creatures, but none of them were close enough to her current location to make a difference. Something told her that Daunator had arranged it this way on purpose. Give her enough time to get to him but no one else. Except Christian, and clearly, the Vampire didn’t fear the Guardian he’d kept in a hole in the ground long enough to make him well past overripe.
With her eyes slitted, Cadence took a few steps forward, thumbing the grenade in question. She’d need her knife first, and that was easily accessible as well. Getting there, however, might be a problem.
Daunator smirked at her and seemed to float slightly closer, as if he was beckoning her. Cadence took a few careful steps over the shaky ground, and once she’d closed to within fifty feet or so, Daunator’s hand went up. Another wave of power flew in her direction, though this one wasn’t fire. It looked more like a zap of electricity. Cadence raised her wrist, praying the bracelet did its job. There was a slight tingle of power shifting as the electric wave made contact with the silver band, and then it dissipated, shooting up into the air, moving away from everyone.
“They work!” Christian cheered.
“Aren’t you supposed to be shooting?” Cadence didn’t have time to rejoice as Daunator puzzled over why his first shot hadn’t sent her flying. With a scowl on his face, he tried again, and once more, Cadence sent the blast in a new direction.
This seemed to be working, and she wondered, if the bracelets worked, could the crossbow be effective as well? As far as she could tell, Aaron wasn’t even using it, but maybe he could fire it from back there, and it would actually do something to Daunator.
“Thank goodness you didn’t bring that crossbow I’ve been working on,” Christian said, as if reading her thoughts. “Now that prototype is one that is likely to do more harm than good.”
“We did,” she said, deflecting another surge from Daunator’s hand as she took a few steps closer to him. “Better tell Aaron that.”
“Oh, yeah. Right. Better tell him.” Christian opened fire on Daunator, but the stream of silver nitrate emanating from his weapon seemed to do nothing to the Vampire, and Cadence realized she couldn’t trust Christian to tell Aaron anything, so she sent a quick message herself, continuing to deflect the blasts from the Vampire as she did so. She felt a little bit like Wonder Woman and contemplated if that’s where Christian got the idea.
One of the shots from Daunator careened off of her bracelet and went flying backward, toward her team. She heard some shouts but didn’t have a chance to look to see if it had hit anyone. If Jamie were nearby, and he should be, everyone would be fine anyway. Still, she’d have to be more careful where she sent them, especially the fireballs, like the one that she’d just inadvertently sent into the crowd.
With each of Daunator’s deflected blasts, Cadence took a step closer to him. The monster could retreat a bit, but there was a sharp drop off twenty or thirty feet behind him. Of course, she had no idea what he was capable of. He could hover, she was certain of that, but he might also be able to disappear from one spot and reappear somewhere else. She hadn’t seen him walk out of a cave opening to get to this point, after all. Even if she tried to back him up over the ledge, it wasn’t as if he would fall to his demise.
Something told her it wouldn’t matter. He didn’t seem to be retreating, and as she closed the gap to about ten feet, Christian had to stop shooting so as not to hit her, not that it was making any difference. Daunator still looked amused, and once she was close enough to see the bloodshot whites of his eyes, he stopped blasting her, a cold stare taking over his wrinkled face. He was welcoming her attack. Now, all Cadence had to do was figure out how the hell to get the grenade from her utility belt inside the Vampire without blowing herself up as well.
She paused for a moment, considering her first move. Off in the distance, she heard a familiar voice shouting, one she hadn’t heard often but she realized, just the same, that it was Aaron, and whatever had happened, it wasn’t good. Her head turned slightly, and Daunator took the opportunity to zap her one more time. Her bracelet didn’t quite make it up to block the blow, and a sharp pain radiated through the side of Cadence’s head. For a moment, she thought her eyeball might explode out of its socket. But a split-second later, she found herself basking in familiar blue light and sighed with relief that the pain was gone, and Jamie was near enough to take care of her.
But it wasn’t Jamie. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Scarlet watching her as the Healer engaged one of the Vampires alongside Hannah and Moira. Cadence sent a quick thank you and then reassessed Daunator. The scowl on his face sharpened once he realized that even a direct hit hadn’t had the effect he’d been looking for.
“Perhaps you’re not as strong as you thought you were, Daunator,” she said, letting a nasty snarl take over her face.
“Perhaps you’re about to be disappointed.” His voice was a hoarse growl, the sort of voice one might expect from someone old enough to have chalk for skin.
At the end of his sentence, he raised both hands and sent what Cadence could only assume was everything he had at her. She raised her arms, engaging both bracelets, but the light coming off of them was so bright, she had to squint, and he didn’t seem to be letting up. The bracelets were doing their job, shooting the beams of power off in every direction. How long they might last, she didn’t know. She’d have to find a way to use his own power against him if she was going to weaken him enough to get the grenade to its mark. For the moment, she concentrated on keeping her wrists where they needed to be in order to keep from absorbing another shot herself. While Scarlet’s help was appreciated, the split second of pain was sharp enough for her to want to avoid it.
Locked in a standstill with the beast in front of her, Cadence had enough time to survey the situation behind her. What she saw through her IAC took her breath away, and for a moment, she didn’t care whether she got Daunator or not.
Her concentration wavered for just a split second, but that’s all it took for the glowing pulse of power to nick her in the shoulder. Cadence screamed as the burn bit into her arm, searing her jacket and turning her muscle into molten lava. Scarlet’s light was there in a second, healing her flesh, but leaving her jacket smoldering. Daunator laughed, and Cadence knew she couldn’t pull back now, no matter who needed her. Because if her hands moved even the slightest bit, Daunator’s full fury would consume her, and in that case, there’d be nothing Scarlet, or anyone else, could do to save her.
