Dixon had dozed off in his seat in the waiting room outside Steven Gibbon’s hospital room. He knew the officers at the door would let him know if there was any change in Gibbon’s condition. So, after a quick call to his girlfriend to let her know he’d be home sometime tomorrow, he nodded off, sure that the hardest part of his day was over.
He was wrong.
At approximately 1:00 AM, ther
Abby Watson had been dead to the world when a familiar, and yet highly unusual, noise woke her. It sounded like firecrackers; it sounded like an assault rifle.It took her a moment to realize she wasn’t dreaming, and even though it didn’t sound like it was coming from the hallway directly outside of her door, it seemed to be on this floor. She heard several more shots and screams of terror as she dug her gun out of her bag and hurried to the door.
As the SUV sped out of the parking lot, the two motorcycles followed. The Vampires continued to fire at them, despite the other cars on the road, and the bikes couldn’t quite keep up. Dodging flying bullets made it a little more difficult to drive on full-speed ahead. The roads weren’t overly crowded, but the Hunters on the motorcycles were fearful that they might accidentally harm innocent humans if they crashed, or one of the bullets aimed at them hit the wrong target, and eventually they lost contact with the SUV, which disappeared into the night.Clayton was driving like a bat
Andrew’s team might have needed some work when it came to stopping the enemy, but they were good at running interference. They had a Guardian named Stella who was a wonderful liar, though most of what she said to the police and the hospital officials was actually true. She explained that they were a special government agency sent there to protect Gibbon and that they happened to pull up just as the assailants were fleeing the hospital. There were no longer fifteen LIGHTS members present, however, by the time the police had arrived, as that would have been too difficult to explain. Only Stella, Andrew, and Reggie had stayed behind to help police and assess the situation.
Cadence hadn’t really slept for the second night in a row. She had been up past 3:00 with Aaron trying to get the Philly team on track and figure out where Giovani may have disappeared to, but it had been a comedy of errors, and she couldn’t help but wonder what in the world they needed to do to get these area teams on target. Once she finally did go to bed, she had tossed and turned and had possibly gotten two hours of restless sleep--if that.At 7:30, she arrived at the office she shared with Aaron. He had already been there for hours talking to various members of their team via
Cadence swallowed hard and nodded sharply. “I can do it.”“I know you can,” Aaron agreed, “or else I wouldn’t even let you go. But we cannot make the same kind of stupid mistakes we did last night. No one goes on this hunt that we don’t completely trust not to do anything moronic.”Before Cadence could respond, there was a knock at the door and
“I’m confused.” It was Hannah this time. “Were they fleeing in a helicopter or on foot?”“Both,” Andrew clarified, “though we didn’t know for sure at the time. I thought it was unusual that a helicopter would be taking off during an emergency situation like that, one where the police were on their way. So, I assumed Giovani had something to do with that. And Aaron told us there were four men trying to make an exit down the back stairwell.”
The passages beneath Jeweler’s Row in the Center City area of Philly were the stuff of legend; tales of what might have been going on under this section of town dated back to the time when what used to be a section of row houses was converted into shops with a plethora of jewelers taking over the area in the mid-eighteen hundreds. While very few humans had ever seen any evidence at all of their existence, the Vampires had dwelt here for decades, finding solace in the dark, dank tunnels and vaults that snaked for miles beneath the innocent city above.It was the perfect place for Giovani
Cadence hesitated a bit in boarding the plane. After all, the last time she had been on one, her exit had been hasty and painful. But once the G5 took off and they were up in the air, she began to relax. And her stomach had finally begun to calm down as well. Now, sitting in the front of the airplane with Aaron, who no longer chose to sit in the back now that Elliott was gone, Cadence found herself able to fully concentrate on the task at hand.“Are you doing all right?” Aaron asked, squeezing her hand.