Shots Fired

“Giovani, I really think we should just go,” Jack said, though he was looking longingly at Cadence.
"Fine," Giovani said aloud. He lifted his hands as if in surrender. Let’s go. He glared at Cadence for a moment and then turned to walk away.
Cadence saw Eliza relax across the field from her, but she knew this was a bluff. It had to be.
Eliza’s gun was still pointed down at the ground. Spinning around, Giovani shot her, first in the shoulder, then in the stomach. Cadence raised a nonexistent weapon as she screamed, “No!” She hadn’t taken the gun Aaron had offered her, so she was helpless.
And no one was standing between her and Giovani.
Eliza reeled in pain, falling to the ground next to Laura, who was now left exposed. Even though Jamie rushed in to try to cover Laura, he was too late. She was folded up on the ground, attempting to protect her head with her arms. The first bullet hit her in the hip, the next in the back. Jamie got there just in time to prevent a third shot from hitting her, diving between Giovanni and the girls on the ground.
The bullet grazed Jamie’s arm, doing little damage, as he was able to heal himself fairly quickly. He fired at Giovani, who stepped behind a large pine tree, taking cover there.
At the same time, Christian appeared from out of nowhere, throwing himself between Giovani and Cadence. Cadence hadn’t heard Aaron give the order; had Christian just did it? Elliott stepped out of the trees, his weapon also trained on Giovani.
"Do you think I can't keep firing from back here, behind this nice, fat pine tree?" Giovani yelled into the air.
The ground trembled slightly beneath Cadence’s feet. She looked around Christian’s shoulder to see Aaron was out of the tree now. “Hannah keep Laney back. We don’t need another Hunter to rush into an already volatile situation.”
Cadence couldn’t see how badly Laura was hit, but she knew Jamie wouldn't be able to heal her if he had to keep healing himself. Apparently, Giovani knew that as well because he kept shooting at Jamie, who was returning fire but not able to shoot through the tree.
"Elliott, go cover Cadence," Aaron demanded as he stepped forward, his gun drawn. "Giovani, this is over," he called across the open field.
Elliott moved over in front of her, so now, her view of everything was blocked, except for through the IACs. Cadence watched Aaron step out into the open, positioning himself about halfway between Giovanni and Jack.
Cadence glanced at Jack who looked completely shell shocked, his eyes were wide, and he was raking his hands through his hair, staring at all of the people with guns and realizing, Cadence had no doubt, that he didn’t have one.
A pang of empathy washed over her. She wanted to run to him and hold him, to tell him it would all be all right.
But she didn’t know that.
With Elliott and Christian both standing in front of her, Cadenced whispered, "Does anyone have a spare weapon?" Christian shook his head, and Elliott either ignored her or the question didn’t register.
She should’ve taken the gun Aaron had offered her. If she had it, she’d step around Christian and take Giovani out right now….
"Well, hello, Romeo," Giovani shouted to Aaron, not leaving the coverage of the tree. "I was wondering how many of your girls I could shoot before you showed up. I guess the correct answer is two. What a shame. I was looking forward to shooting the third."
“Giovani?” Jack shouted, obviously angry that his brother would say something like that about Cadence.
Giovani did not respond.
"You are leaving. Now!" Aaron ordered. "Otherwise, you're not leaving at all. Take your pick."
“I’m not leaving emptyhanded,” he shouted back. “I’m not sure if I killed the little blonde bitch who has been following me around all these years, but even if I did, that’s not good enough. We'll leave just as soon as you give us Cadence. Then, we'll be on our way."
"You and Jack will leave now. Alone," Aaron insisted, pointing his gun at Jack.
Jack put his hands up in front of him and took a few slow steps backward. “No, man!” he said. “I didn’t know about any of this—please!”
"Don't point that gun at Jack!" Cadence shouted through the IAC. She tried to dart around Christian’s shoulder to get to Jack, but Elliott was too fast and reached out with his massive arm and hooked her around the waist. “Let me go!” she shouted.
“Sorry, can’t do that,” he said as Christian also moved to block her route.
Aaron ignored Cadence’s continued pleas over the IAC not to shoot Jack.
“Aaron! If you hurt Jack, I swear to god, I will never forgive you!” she said, praying he was listening to her. But she could tell by that look in his eyes—he wasn’t bluffing.
Giovani was skeptical. "You won't shoot him," he cried. “Not when your new lady friend like my brother so much.”
With his eyes still trained on the spot where Giovani had disappeared behind the tree, Aaron pulled the trigger, hitting Jack just above the knee.
Jack screeched in pain and fell to the ground, grabbing his leg and writing around on the ground as black smoke began to pour from the hole.
“Jack!” Cadence screamed, clawing at Elliott’s hand around her waist. Christian wrapped his arms around her so she couldn’t even move. “Let me go!” she said, trying to stomp on Christian’s feet to get him to move.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t do that.”
“Calm down, kid,” Elliott said. “He’s all right.”
“He doesn’t fucking look all right!”
When Cadence allowed herself to look at Aaron’s face through Elliott’s IAC, she realized the Guardian Leader didn’t look sympathetic for what he’d done at all. If anything, he looked… bored
His indifference fueled her on, and Cadence fought even more to escape the other Guardians’ clutches. "Jack!" she screamed. "Oh, my god! Are you okay?"
"He's all right," Aaron assured her.
"I cannot believe you did that!" Cadence reprimanded. “You fucking asshole!” The idea that she’d actually thought she was falling for someone who would do such a thing made her sick to her stomach,.
What kind of a fucking monster was he?
"Holy, hell!" Giovani cried, finally breaking the silence and vocalizing that he realized the seriousness of the situation.
"Now, as I was saying, you and Jack walk out of here now or else you don't walk out of here at all," Aaron continued, his voice completely serene.
"Fine, fine," Giovani reluctantly agreed. "What do you want me to do?" It was obvious Jack wasn't going to be able to walk on his own.
"Throw your weapons out," Aaron ordered, waiting for him to comply. It took a moment; clearly Giovani was hesitant to face them with no weapons.
“You gonna take him out?” Elliott asked Aaron. “End this?”
Aaron didn’t give Elliott a verbal response, but Cadence saw the Leader’s head shake slightly from side to side.
“Yeah, wouldn’t want to go back on your word or anything,” Cadence mumbled.
“He never said he wouldn’t shoot Jack,” Elliott reminded her.
All she could do was glare at him. It still felt like a betrayal that Aaron would shoot her friend like that when she’d begged him not to. It had been completely unnecessary.
. "Keep your hands in the air, and come out from behind the tree," Aaron ordered.
Giovani stepped out cautiously, keeping his hands in the air. "Walk over here, collect your brother, and get the hell out of here. And next time," he added, "I won't be so lenient."
Giovani’s eyes flickered from one gun to the next, all of which were trained on him, as he approached his brother. Jack was still obviously in excruciating pain, but he managed to pull himself up off of the ground. Giovani took his brother's arm and wrapped it around his neck before pulling him quickly into the trees and disappearing.
“Jack!” Cadence shouted. “Call me!”
All she could hear in response was Jack’s whimpering as he limped away.
The same man she’d taken to the hospital a few days ago… the one she’d thought she’d lost forever… now, she’d have no way of knowing if he recovered unless he called her.
She sure the hell wasn’t going to trust anything Aaron told her!
"Follow them," Aaron ordered Elliott. He gave her a sympathetic look before he let go of her and took off behind the Vampires, sticking behind the trees for cover.
That left Cadence to Christian who still had his arms around her.
The initial adrenaline rush was beginning to subside, but she was not okay. Not by a longshot.
"I am beyond pissed," she spat, grabbing his hands and pulling them from around her waist.
"He'll be okay," Christian assured her. "Vampires heal very quickly."
"That's not the point!" she replied. "What if Aaron would have killed him? He didn't even look where he was shooting."
“He didn’t have to,” Christian explained, but Cadence wasn’t buying it. He was showing off, trying to make himself look cool, and she wanted to do the same thing to him and see how he liked having a bullet in his leg.
Hannah and the other blonde, Laney, had joined the rest of the Guardians around Laura now as Jamie assessed the situation.
Cadence was concerned, too. Laura hadn’t moved in a while. As she approached, she heard Aaron ask Jamie how she was.
“The wound in her hip is deep, and the one in her back in a very bad location.” Jamie had his hands on her and was trying to fix her.
Aaron stood off to the side a bit, as if he didn’t want to get too close to the situation. Either because he might be in the way or because he didn’t get along with Laura. Cadence had no idea. Would he stay that far back if it was her on the ground. “What’s the prognosis then?” he asked.
"Not good," Jamie admitted. "But I can save her. I need to get the bleeding stopped, and then you'll need to move us to a better location, like, back to the hotel, I guess."
Cadence’s eyes flickered around the park. Everything was still now. She was surprised that no one from the neighborhood had called the police, what with all the shots fired. It was hunting season, though, so she thought it was possible that they were used to hearing some shots from the woods, even though there was certainly no permissible hunting in the park.
In the back of her mind, she was telling herself to let this be for now and talk to Aaron later, but she found herself walking toward him anyway.
Knowing that the words that were about to come out of her mouth were full of rage, she took a deep breath. He was her boss, after all. She stopped next to him, her hands on her hips. "What the actual fuck was that?" she asked, letting all caution disappear.
Turning his head to look at her, he said in that calm voice that made her want to punch him, "I did what I needed to do.”
Cadence gasped. "You did what you needed to do? You shot Jack. He was just standing there, minding his own fucking business, and you shot him!"
"We're not going to discuss this right now, okay?" he said, turning back to the scene in front of them, his voice still even. He took a step away from her, toward Laura.
Crossing her arms, Cadence felt the weight of betrayal again at seeing him walk away from her toward his ex.
"Fine, well, you let me know when you're ready to chat then, boss. Go, check on your girlfriend. I've got a fucking wake to attend, for someone who isn't dead, that you just shot!”
With that, she spun on her heel and headed out of the park, toward Uncle Mike’s house, which wasn’t far away.