Chapter 323
“Get her out of here! Get her out of here now!” Cadence was shouting. She pulled me up and started shoving me toward the fire escape, pushing Brandon and Jamie, who just happened to be between me and the ladder, as she went.
She didn’t understand. That wouldn’t work. “He’s down the street,” I said. I realized now that Holland had filled the entire area with an eerie fog. I assumed that was her way of setting the stage and obstructing our view. I couldn’t feel her, though. I was fairly certain she wasn’t anywhere near our location. “He’s headed this way, and he’s not alone,” I said to my sister. The advanced members of Carter’s forces were coming up the road quickly now. “We won’t make it to the SUV in time, Cadence.” I stopped and looked at her. She was more frantic than I ever remembered seeing her. “He’s not after you. Not yet. He’s after me.”
Clearly, that didn’t make her any calmer. “How do you know that?” she demanded, finally stopping with the pushing.
“I saw it. In his head. He wants to capture me and force you to kill Aaron or else he’ll kill me.” It was all laid out right there in Carter’s mind for me to read.
“But he can’t kill you,” Brandon countered.
“I’m not sure he knows that,” I replied.
“It doesn’t matter,” Cadence said, looking at Aaron with a pleading look in her eyes, like she wasn’t sure what to do. “He’s not capturing her.”
For once, he didn’t seem to know what to do either, and I remembered this was all my fault, like so many other recent disasters. At least they had Paul out now and were getting him back to headquarters. We’d accomplished that part of the task.
“Cass, are you sure you can’t make it to the SUV in time?” Aaron asked me.
“I’m sure,” I said. “But I’m not afraid of him. I can take him.” I felt confident in my ability to fight Carter off, especially with all of them behind me.
“You’re not going to find out. What about Holland?” Cadence asked.
I closed my eyes and felt again. I sensed her now, though she was a ways off. “She’s not here. Not yet. She’s close by, though. She is… messing with things.” She’d done more than just the fog. She was trying to infiltrate our IACs. We needed to turn them off. “They decided it would be best for her to hang back and concentrate on disruptions.” I wish I would’ve tried to contact her before we left, but I was afraid that would tip them off. Clearly, they already knew we’d be coming and what we’d be doing. How, I wasn’t sure, but I needed to find out to make sure it didn’t happen again.
The IACs went crazy just then, and an image of Margie bleeding from the neck filled my mind. I knew it wasn’t real, but I found the Guardian with my mind and checked to make sure she was okay, which she was. She didn’t even know what the rest of us were seeing. I heard Jamie gasp, but I reminded him, “It’s not real. I can still see her. She’s fine.”
He nodded, but I knew he didn’t like seeing it, even if he and Margie didn’t always get along.
“All right. I say we leave you here for now then, Cassidy,” Aaron said, surveying the situation as best he could without the visuals I had. “Cadence and I will go face Carter, and everyone else will stay here.”
That sounded fair to me, especially since I realized the forces coming in from the other direction would be here just a few minutes after Carter’s team arrived. I hadn’t mentioned them yet, though, because I knew my sister would just panic. I wasn’t sure what the Vampires’ plan was yet, if they were just trying to surround us or if they were some sort of extraction force, but I had a feeling I was about to find out.
“I think you should stay here with her,” Cadence said to Aaron. “You’re the strongest. If something happens to me, you need to protect Cass.”
Annoyed at her choice of words, I said, “I’m not an invalid,” but Cadence told me to hush.
“Carter’s not alone, and I don’t know if you and Elliott can handle him,” Aaron reasoned.
“We can handle him.” Cadence looked confident.
“I’ll handle the heck out of him.” Elliott had a look in his eyes that let me know he was itching for a fight. He was about to get one. The advanced forces were nearly to the remaining team members who had stayed behind when Becky had driven Paul away.
“Fine,” Aaron sighed. “Take this.” He handed Cadence a fancy silver knife, something I’d never seen before. “You won’t be able to shoot them. You’ll have to decapitate. And we need to go IAC dead now. She’s really starting to screw around with everything.”
It was true, she was. Through our IACs we could hear Margie screaming for help, but I knew that wasn’t really the case, and no one could hear her with their ears.
I reminded them that there were still people down there to help. “They’ve got Paul out. Margie’s sent Becky and Jeb back to headquarters with him, but the rest of the team is staying. That gives you eight against… about ten, I think.” I didn’t count the Vampires coming from the other direction. I still didn’t know what they were up to or when they’d arrive. A burning in my gut told me they were coming for me, though, that Carter was the distraction, not the ones coming from the rear, led by the crazy doctor I’d seen a few minutes ago.
“These others, Cass, are they as dangerous as Carter?” Cadence asked, glancing down at the street like she suddenly realized it was time to go.
I felt for a moment before I answered. “No, but a few of them are shapeshifters. There’s at least one wolf.” I could see them with my mind, but they weren’t all completely clear, maybe because of the fog. I decided to try to cancel that somehow, though I wasn’t sure how. I also wanted to keep her from communicating with her troops, but again, that was something I’d never done before. “There’s a few mist monsters. Maybe more. I’m doing my best to block Holland’s signals right now, but it doesn’t seem to be helping any. They are all here on their own accord.” I was certain of that. “She’s not manipulating any of them into attacking,” unlike the Vampires at the tagging center.
“Okay,” my sister nodded. “Can you tap into my mind if you need to?”
“I think so.” I had done it before. Surely, I could reach her if I needed to.
“Check on us that way. Once you can get down and out of here, do it.” She looked at all of the Guardians who would be staying with me like she meant for all of them to do whatever they needed to to get me out of here safely. I imagined she thought it would be as simple as her leading the bad guys away from me. But I knew differently.
