Chapter 262
“This is a clearing expedition,” Aaron said, “which means you open fire as soon as you engage. We’re not negotiating or taking prisoners. The fact that these bloodsuckers are here is enough to get rid of them.”
Something about his tone, or maybe it was the use of the word “bloodsuckers,” got my dander up. I tried to keep my cool, but I shot a message to him and to Cadence. “What about the ones that were just turned?” I asked. Surely, they didn’t think it was fair to take out people who were innocent campers just a day or so ago and either happened upon this camping site, not knowing what they were getting into or were attacked by the Vampires as they claimed this place for their own. For all we knew, Southwest Moe himself was down there somewhere sitting among the undead, not even realizing what he was.
Cadence’s voice was slightly sympathetic when she responded, but I knew she wasn’t going to shed any tears over the situation. “We have no way of knowing who that is,” she reminded me.
I was just about to counter when Aaron made a concession. I wasn’t sure how the message was conveyed to everyone else, but to me, he said, “If any of them surrender, we’ll take them in unharmed, but the bullets start flying the second I send these guys in.” I didn’t think that was enough, but I bit my tongue. If I wanted to continue to have a spot on this team, I had to learn not to question the bosses, even when I thought they were being too harsh.
“I think they know somethin’s going down,” Elliott sent to the whole team. “There’s a lot of heads poppin’ up, looking around.” I wondered if he could see that from here or if he was using someone’s IAC since I had seen it through Brandon’s, but I wasn’t about to look down to see exactly how small the little ant Vampires were from here.
“Then let’s go get them,” Aaron said, and then he gave some more directions about being careful since there might be a crossfire, and everyone moved in. I held my breath, and reached out for Elliott, who tightened his grip on me.
“It’ll be okay,” he said aloud, and I nodded. I wondered how it was for him watching his son involved in the attack, though. It had to be odd; all this time fighting Vampires without having to think about something like that, and now his only child who would even speak to him was in harm’s way. I bet there was a time when Elliott would’ve tried to convince himself that Brandon wasn’t really in that much danger, but since Sierraville, when Elliott had been killed, I don’t think any Guardians felt safe anymore.
Once Aaron gave the order, everything started to unfold really quickly, which was completely different than the hunt with Gibbon or any of the others I’d observed. Most of the time, they were only hunting one Vampire, sometimes two, but I’d never seen anything like this before, where there were multiple marks, and all of the teams moved in at the same time. I was glad Elliott had ahold of me or else I might’ve forgotten where I was standing and stepped out of the tree, I was so busy watching Brandon and Cadence move in. They made contact first, but only by a few seconds, and before I knew it gunfire filled the air from every direction.
I could tell almost immediately, though, that I wasn’t the only one who thought something odd was going on. The chatter on the IAC was full of shouts that these Vampires just wouldn’t die. They looked different, too. Vampires are usually not appealing when they are moving in an attempt to kill their attackers, but these looked even more menacing than usual, and my sister was even struggling to take them down. The first one she encountered finally dropped to a pile of ash when Brandon shot it through the heart, but then she turned to find an even larger monster towering over her. He was huge, and I could hardly even stand to look at him without thinking I’d have nightmares.
They just wouldn’t die—that was the consensus. Brandon had had luck shooting the one in the heart, but I heard Hannah and Meagan struggling in the RV at the end of the park and shifted to them. Regardless of how many rounds they fired into the creep they were engaged with, he wouldn’t go down. The inside of the RV was torn to shreds from the struggle, both girls were bleeding, and they probably needed help, but as the ginormous hulk bore down on my sister, and her bullets did nothing, Elliott muttered a curse word, and I knew what was about to happen. I couldn’t blame him. I wanted to go help, but I knew I couldn’t. If that was my kid down there, and I was an experienced Guardian that we were pretty sure couldn’t die again, you’d be sure I’d be down there to protect him.
“I’ll be back,” he said, and I nodded, even though I had a feeling he wouldn’t be, not anytime soon, that is. I grabbed ahold of my tree trunk even tighter and watched in awe as he jumped clean over the top of one of the RVs, landing almost silently near where Cadence was struggling with the brute. There was no way in the world I could do that. In fact, at the moment, I thought if I had to get out of that tree by myself, I would probably die there instead, in however long it takes Hybrids to die.
Elliott bowled right into the giant monster; I could see Cadence’s hair blow up out of the way through Brandon’s IAC and thought his dad was pretty impressive. But I didn’t have too much time to admire it as Elliott demanded they try shooting the thing again, and Cadence jumped over top of him. Brandon grabbed the Vampire’s arm so that Elliott had half of the monster, and he had the other. The three of them worked together much the same way that Gibbon had gone down, and Cadence shouted, “Counter!” as they all began to twist.
It took a very long time for Cadence to pull that monster’s head off. I was debating whether or not I should get down there somehow and help when it finally broke free, but I could tell she was exhausted by the time it finally popped off, and the Vampire turned to ash. Her night wasn’t over, though. Brandon was just resting back onto his heels a bit when I saw Elliott’s eyes enlarging. I couldn’t imagine what it could possibly be that might make a man who can’t die take on that expression, and as Brandon slowly turned his head, I braced myself.
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