Chapter 442
My sister was caught up by the other two Vampires, so she would be no help, and Ashley was checking out her shoulder. I needed to get rid of this guy quickly. Out the door, I could see more coming. It seemed like our perimeter hadn’t done a darn thing. I also heard sirens wailing, which wasn’t a surprise. Even with the silencer on Cadence’s gun, we were still in a suburban area firing guns and breaking glass in the middle of the night.
I shot the guy in the face, knowing it would only slow him down. His head jerked back, and his hands covered the hole in his head. I jabbed my knife into his chest and dragged it down a foot or two as he screeched. By the time I yanked it out and gave him a good kick in the gut, he was done for. I moved through his ashes just as Cadence tossed her knife across the room to take out the last one that had made it into the room.
My sister was bleeding and so was Ashley, but we moved out the door. “Head for the car!” Cadence shouted, and I kept my sarcastic thoughts to myself—where else would I be going?
Cadence got hung up. I should’ve covered her since she was supposed to drive, but when I saw she was engaged, I moved toward the driver’s seat, and my sister tossed me the keys. Whether or not she realized what she was doing, she’d just given me permission to drive.
There were at least ten Vampires closing in on us. Cadence sprayed them with her Glock, but she needed to be moving our way. Ashley threw the back passenger door open and shouted, “Come on, Cadence!”
She fired one more time and then dove for the open door, and I threw the car into reverse. I must admit, my driving isn’t fantastic, and I had adrenaline coursing through my veins. I ran over some of the old woman’s flowers and hit a tree. I heard my sister say, “This is going to be fun!” as she pulled her door shut, and I wondered if she’d put on her seatbelt even though technically I couldn’t kill her. I had mine on... so there’s that.
“Don’t worry. Brandon’s been giving me lessons.” The neighbor’s mailbox got in my way, and I flattened it on the way to the street.
“I guess Brandon is a great driver,” Ashley muttered and then put her seatbelt on. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye but didn’t say anything because I was too busy trying to not kill anyone. I could definitely kill any humans I accidentally ran over.
I had a pretty good idea how to get back to the site of the festival, but I pulled up the map in my IAC just to make sure. I was going a lot faster than I ever had before when I was just practicing, and it was sort of terrifying because this was a real street, not just the empty roads on campus. It took every bit of concentration I had in me to keep us on the pavement. Thank goodness there weren’t many cars out that time of night.
“How’s your arm?” Cadence asked Ashley, though a glance in the rearview mirror told me she was busy staring out the back window at the Vampires who were following us. I realized they were falling behind and slowed down. It did us no good to drive away if they didn’t follow.
“It’s okay,” Ashley said. “I wish Jamie was here to put me back together, though.”
“Yeah, me, too.” It looked like my sister was still bleeding a little also, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
I was pretty sure I was almost to the place where I was supposed to exit the highway, but I wanted to double check. “Turn here?” I asked my sister.
“Yeah, and then it’s up on the left.”
My turn was a little sharper and quicker than I intended, and Cadence went flying across the seat, slamming into the door.
“Sorry,” I said, only glancing at her for a second. She shook her head but recovered and then returned her attention to the Vampires who were still on our tail.
I recognized the field as soon as I saw it and plowed through the grass, which still had ruts from the night before. I hit the gas a little too hard, and we went up and over one of the deeper ruts. Ashley didn’t move, but Cadence’s head hit the roof. I kept my sorry to myself this time because I was too preoccupied with getting to the designated spot.
I pulled the car to a stop near where the Guardians had disappeared. With eleven Vampires closing in on us, I didn’t want to get stuck in the vehicle, so I jumped out quickly—before putting it in park. The car started to roll forward.
“Park, Cass!” Cadence yelled, already out of the vehicle, too.
“Sorry!” It was becoming my favorite word. The SUV hit a small tree and just sat there, so I figured that was good enough, and then it didn’t matter because we were engaged.
My sister was shooting at a guy with a handlebar mustache. He got closer without going down, and she pulled out her knife. I heard her say, “At least none of them have guns,” and was hoping she was right. We didn’t have the kind of protection that would allow me to concentrate on plucking bullets out of the air. I could hear the others coming, but we were still basically on our own and grossly outnumbered.
A round woman with bright red hair was coming at me, and behind her, a tall guy with a wild black mane was closing in quickly. My Glock did little good, so I concentrated on my knife. Ashley was also busy. I kicked the girl in the gut hard enough to knock her down and then dodged the long arm of the guy before I was able to make a swipe at him, catching him on the corner of his chin. It didn’t faze him, so I went for his knees, knocking him down, and then plunged my knife into his neck as the lady got up. I shot her again, twice, taking her back down while I sliced through the man. By the time he was ash, the woman was up again, and I dodged around her T-rex arms to stick my knife in her chest cavity. I had to maneuver it around a bit to get her to poof, but eventually she went down.
The trees behind us were lit up by then, thankfully, because another row of Vampires were moving in on us. These seemed like the All-Stars. They were huge—over six feet tall with bulging muscles, and the expressions on their faces told me we were not their first prey.
