by ID Johnson
“That’s what I thought. Favorite player?”
“Johnson,” it came out more of a question than an answer.
“Magic?”
“Is there another Johnson?”
Cadence laughed. “Well, I’m not a basketball fan, but I’m guessing there has to be another Johnson.”
“Not when it comes to basketball,” he assured her.
“Perfect,” she said pulling her helmet on.
“Do you know what you’re going to do then?” he asked as she hooked the strap.
“I do now.”
The ride was fairly smooth sailing. Basically, all she needed to do was follow Interstate 80. As long as Christian kept her informed of Aaron’s location, there was no reason to try and hide by using back roads. She certainly wasn’t in any hurry, but she also had no reason to take the scenic route.
The information she found said this should be a twenty-two-hour drive, and she saw no reason to make it much faster than that. She had five days after all. Still, Cadence was used to going faster than humans, and she pulled into Salt Lake City around midnight, well ahead of the time she should have arrived by people standards.
She’d already decided she would spend the night there and scoped out an unassuming motel on the outskirts of town. She wanted a place that took cash, even though she had a credit card with her just in case of emergencies. If she used it, Aaron could find her. As it was, he had no other way of getting a location on her—except for that unexplainable ability they both had to find each other that she had used to locate him in Ireland. That was something she couldn’t find a way to prevent.
By the time she was in her moderately disgusting room, she was wiped out. She’d driven the whole way with very few breaks, only stopping once to use the bathroom and grab a bite to eat. Even though the bed looked a bit abused, she intended to zonk out on top of the bedspread fully clothed so she could be on her way first thing in the morning.
She’d just closed her eyes when a commotion outside of her room in the parking lot caught her attention. Though she wasn’t certain at first what she was hearing, the sounds seemed awfully familiar. “Dammit,” she muttered, pulling herself up off of the not-so-comfortable mattress and grabbing her gun off of the table next to the bed.
Throwing off multiple locks, she pulled open the door just in time to see a man running across the parking lot, headed back toward the rooms from the overflowing dumpsters. Behind him, and closing in quickly, came a streak of black and gray, and Cadence knew immediately the squat man with the red hair and beard was not going to make it if she didn’t intervene.
The Vampire looked desperate. Rather than clinging to the shadows, he had apparently used the refuse for refuge and was now brazen enough to attack in a semi-well lit parking lot. Though this wasn’t exactly the best part of town and chances were anyone who saw him would assume he was just a thug and not a bloodsucker, the fact that he had chosen this method to strike seemed a bit unusual to Cadence. As soon as the Vampire saw her step out of the motel room, he pulled up, his contorted face morphing back into a more human form.
It was an “oh shit” moment if Cadence had ever seen one.
She didn’t have any sympathy or patience. Once she had a clean shot, she took it, and this Vampire let out the unmistakable shriek they almost all did as it turned to ashes before hitting the ground.
The silencer had kept most of the motel’s inhabitants from realizing a shot had been fired, but the scream drew people to the windows, and Cadence hustled to put her gun in the back of her pants to hide it from anyone who might think the scream police-worthy.
Even the man who was being chased didn’t seem to realize what she’d done. As he turned to look over his shoulder and realized he was no longer prey, he pulled up and spun around, as if he wasn’t sure where his attacker might be hiding.
“Hey, keep it down!” Cadence yelled at him. “Some of us are trying to sleep. You wanna scream, do it somewhere else.”
Staring at her with panic in his eyes and adrenaline in his veins, he stammered, “But there was something… chasing me. From the trash pile.”
“Whatever, man. All I saw was you running across the parking lot screaming like a crazy person.”
“I didn’t scream…” he insisted, but by then the few other people who had dared to crack their doors were telling him to keep it down, and with one last glimpse around, he headed back to his room.
Stepping into her own room, Cadence re-locked the door and put her weapon back on the table. She tossed herself back onto the bed and stared at the off-white, water stained ceiling. “Great, now I’m awake,” she mumbled. Vampires always had a way of keeping a person up at night.
This one was strange, though. She wondered if it had anything to do with the blue moon. She knew full moons tended to bring the crazy out in everyone and everything; maybe this particular moon could make everyone act even crazier. It seemed like a valid possibility, and she decided that she would check with Christian tomorrow to see if he had any information. In the meantime, she knew she had better get some sleep. She hadn’t talked to Aaron at all that day, and the last thing she needed was to have him play twenty questions while she was hyped up and get her to admit she’d left headquarters. Perhaps she should try counting Vampires as they leaped over dumpsters.
The next morning, she awoke with a kink in her neck and an IAC full of messages. She hadn’t even bothered to look at the bathroom the night before, and as she stumbled toward the toilet, she realized that had been a good idea. “If a person has to squat above the toilet to keep from getting Hepatitis, is that an automatic zero stars rating on Travelocity?” she wondered aloud.
A glance in the direction of the shower was enough assurance that she would stay cleaner avoiding it. Even washing her hands and splashing some water on her face seemed counterproductive. “Deodorant and dry shampoo it is.”
Back on the road by 8:00 AM, she figured she’d be in Reno by 1:00 at the latest. The scenery was gorgeous, so different than what she was used to in Iowa, and she stopped in a small town to grab a donut and drive past some historic homes.
Aaron had messaged her after his hunt last night, and she had ignored him. She finally decided to go ahead and let him know she was alive around ten as she was humming along down the highway at a pretty good pace. “Hey,” she said. “Sorry—I went to bed pretty early last night.”
“That’s okay. How’s it going?”
“It’s going. How was the hunt?”
“Not too eventful. We basically did a stakeout. Hopefully, things will be better this evening.”
“That’s good. Did Christian get their tech up and running?” she asked, trying to keep him talking about what he was doing so he wouldn’t have the opportunity to question her about her nefarious activities.
“Yeah, he fixed the problem. We need to add training more tech guys to your list of recurrent training.”
“That’s a good idea. Was it a simple fix then?”
“Seemed to be. What are you up to?”
“Not much.”
“Are you at the training facility.”
“No, not right now. Are you going to be back tomorrow morning you think?”
“I hope so. If things go well tonight, we might just head back this evening after the hunt.”
“Oh, okay. Well, I’ve got a lot of conversations going on in my eye right now. Can I get back to you in a few hours?” she asked, hoping he would let it go. He knew she wasn’t nearly as good at handling heavy traffic on the IAC as he was.
“Sure,” he said, sounding a little busy himself. “Talk to you soon. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” she said, clicking her IAC off, happy to have been able to get out of the conversation without giving him any information and hopefully not arousing his suspicions.
She contemplated contacting Christian right away, but since she had just told Aaron she was busy, she didn’t want him to get wind that she was talking to the techie righ
t away. Luckily, within the hour, Christian was contacting her himself.
“Hey, Cadence. How’s it going?” he asked.
“Okay. I’d forgotten how beautiful Utah is,” she replied.
“Yes, nothing like the beauty of an interstate highway.”
“Well, you have to look off into the distance sometimes, but it’s so different than what I’m used to. How are you? You keeping him distracted?”
“I’m trying to, but it’s kind of hard. These ‘problems’ aren’t really problems, so he can fix them pretty quickly, and there wasn’t really anything wrong with their computers either. One of them literally wasn’t plugged in.”
“Seriously? Remind me not to promote that area leader any time soon.”
“No kidding,” Christian agreed. “Aaron’s talking about coming back this evening now.”
“He told me. Can you find a way to make it take longer, you think? Without being obvious? I mean, don’t miss the mark or anything like that. But if you can think of some sort of training to suggest that would be a nice evening event, that would be very helpful.”
“I’ll see what I can come up with,” Christian agreed. “The way these Vampires are acting right now, it shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with something.”
“I was just going to ask you about that!” Cadence exclaimed. “What is up with that? One jumped out of a dumpster last night at a motel and almost got a guy in the parking lot. Is it the moon?”
“I think it might be. Not that it’s even almost blue necessarily, but that it’s almost full.”
“But this is a little much,” Cadence reminded him. “I can’t remember anything like that happening before, and I got several reports Thursday evening of similar bizarre activities.”
“It’s definitely something to keep an eye on,” Christian admitted. “Have you asked Cassidy how she’s feeling? Maybe she could give us some insight.”
“No, but that’s a good idea,” Cadence agreed. “I’ll see if I can get her after school today. I don’t want to interrupt her during class if I can help it.”
“All right. Well, be careful. Let me know when you get to Reno. And I’ll keep you posted if there’s any change here.”
“Sounds good. Thank you, Christian,” she said, sincerely meaning it. Even though he’d been able to figure out where she was going, she wasn’t worried about him telling Aaron. She couldn’t have done this without his help. He said goodbye, and she tried to focus on the scenery, a more pleasant alternative than the myriad of thoughts clouding her thinking.
Cadence made it through Elko, Nevada, a decent sized town, before she realized she was almost out of gas. The idea of running out of gas in the desert, without her phone, even if there were a lot of cars on the interstate, didn’t sound too appealing, so she was happy to see a sign that showed a gas station in a few miles. Once she’d reached the appropriate exit, another sign informed her that the station was actually about five miles off of the highway, a nuisance, but she was in no hurry anyway.
She pulled up to the pump in front of what could only be described as the world’s loneliest gas station and debated whether or not to use her credit card so she didn’t have to go in or suck it up and run inside and pay cash. There was only one other car in the lot, but the lights were on inside the station, and she could see the cashier peering at her through the dust covered window. She didn’t know if the car belonged to him or if there might actually be another customer inside.
With a sigh, she decided she could use a snack anyway, if they had anything that wasn’t expired, so she took off her helmet and climbed off her bike. Leaving the backpack behind was out of the question; she double-checked the straps were fastened tightly. She considered leaving her helmet there since there was no one around to steal it, but habits die hard, so she tucked it under her arm and started toward the convenience store.
A few feet away from the car, she saw movement inside the older model Chevy, and instantly, her hand went to her Glock, hidden beneath her jacket. It only took her a moment to realize there was a child in the backseat, not anything dangerous, although she found it extremely odd that the little boy, who looked to be about eight, was sitting there by himself. Deciding that talking to him might be unsettling—what with stranger danger and all—she chose to see if maybe his parent was inside.
There was a dinging noise as the bell above the door signaled her presence, and right away, she knew something was wrong. Behind the counter, an older man with a scraggly beard and unkempt graying hair stood, a nervous smile on his face. “Morning, miss,” he said, his fingers rapping on the counter before him.
“Hi,” Cadence said, looking around the rest of the store. There was no sign of anyone else inside, which couldn’t be right. Also, the fluttering feeling in her stomach told her that either this cashier was a Vampire or one was hiding nearby. She turned to look more closely at him and realized his eyes were a very dark green. He must have been wearing colored contacts. He was definitely undead.
At this point, there was no reason to suspect he had done, or would do, anything wrong, even though he appeared to be untagged. She kept an eye on him as she walked to the back of the store. Having lost her appetite, she decided to survey him for a few moments. She wasn’t sure if he knew who or what she was, but he was very fidgety.
She walked past the hall that led to the restrooms and heard a faint knocking sound coming from what appeared to be a closet. It was very uneven, but it almost sounded like someone banging their head against a far wall. She took a step closer, and suddenly the cashier was at her side.
“Can I help you find something?” he asked, and as he forced a smile, she could tell that he was doing his best to control his fangs and his grimace.
“What’s that sound?” she asked, squaring up to face him.
“Hot water heater,” he explained. “Makes a bit of a racket.”
Cadence nodded. “Mind if I look?”
“Why would you need to do that?” he asked, nervously crossing his arms in front of himself.
“Why aren’t you tagged?” she asked.
The realization of what she was seemed to hit him full force, and as his eyes grew wide in recognition, his fangs grew long in self-preservation. But rather than lunging at her, as Cadence assumed he would do, he turned tail and began to run.
Even though it would have been quite easy to pull her gun and end this with no trouble, Cadence was tired of relying on the Glock, so rather than shooting him, she dropped her helmet and flung herself into the air, landing hard on his back. He fell, knocking over a candy display, and the force of the contact made her lose her grip. The Vampire pulled away from her, sliding on spilled candies as he struggled to regain his footing.
Cadence was up faster, but as he scrambled away, he began to pull items off of the shelf and fling them at her. She found herself dodging motor oil and engine cleaner. It was enough to let him get to his feet, but not enough to let him get away. She closed the distance between them, but he managed to make it around the corner into the next aisle, which he shoved over at her, and Cadence had to leap out of the way to keep from getting pinned beneath the rusted metal shelving unit.
It had been his last line of defense, and since it missed, his only other alternative was to come at her. If he tried to run for the door, she would definitely get there first, so rather than fleeing, he bared his teeth, elongated his head so that his mouth opened nearly three feet, and lunged for her, claws in the air.
Cadence wasn’t the least bit frightened. She delivered a round-house kick to his midsection, sending him back a good three feet into the debris from the shelving unit. He went down hard amidst the spilled goods, but he didn’t stay down long, and when Cadence reached him, he was already on his feet, though in a squatting position.
She realized his balance would be off from climbing back up so quickly, so she kicked him from the right side, sending him tumbling to his left. Before he could react, she was on top of him, her knees
pinning him to the pile of cereal boxes and granola bars. He attempted to bring his arms around and push her off, but she grabbed ahold of his right arm, the freer limb, and with a yanking, twisting motion, she pulled it off and tossed it across the room. The Vampire screamed in anguish.
Before he could even consider harming her with his left arm, Cadence scooted forward so that his shoulder was now pinned beneath her right knee. Then, with both hands, she grabbed ahold of his head, careful of his gnashing teeth, and twisted. Within seconds, his head was off, and he let out the blood curdling scream of a dying Vampire.
It took her a second to catch her breath, but when she did, she dusted her hands off and stood, watching as the Vampire turned to dust there in the rubble of mac and cheese boxes and ketchup bottles.
Climbing over the mess, she hurried to the closet where she’d heard the noise. The door was locked, but that didn’t stop her. She forced the flimsy lock open, and flipping on the light, she spotted a woman in the back corner, sitting on the floor, her hands and feet tied together, duct tape over her mouth.
Cadence hurried over to pull the tape off of her mouth. “Are you okay?” she asked.
The woman, who was crying, asked, “My son? Did you see my son?”
“I think he’s still in your car,” she replied as she tore through the ropes on the woman’s hands and ankles. She could tell by the expression in her eyes that the woman was shocked that she could free her so easily, but Cadence didn’t bother to explain. Once the ropes were gone, she helped the woman to her feet.
“Where is he? The cashier?” She looked like she was in her mid-thirties, with mousy brown hair that hung in loose curls around her face. Her forehead was damp with sweat, and she wore the wrinkled outfit of a tired mother.
“He took off,” Cadence replied, clearly unable to tell her the truth. “He went out the back.”
“I heard you fighting. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Cadence assured her, checking the woman over for any signs that she had been wounded by the Vampire. Even the tiniest scratch could lead to infection and change. “How are you?”
