Chapter 4: Plea For Help

Seated in a large booth in a relatively quiet diner, Cadence could still feel her ears ringing. Meagan was physically rubbing her temples, while trying not to ogle the good doctor too noticeably. She couldn't help but snicker at her friend next to her. Only Meagan could try to make a migraine look sexy.

"Basically, the reason we wanted to meet with you," the Guardian doctor was explaining while waiting for the waitress to arrive and take their order, his voice hushed, just in case the other four or five patrons cared to eavesdrop, "is to get your take--possibly your assistance-- regarding a band of marauding Rogues we can't seem to get a good handle on."

Just then, the perky little waitress bounced over and took their orders. Everyone had some version of coffee and nothing else, which should have been easy enough to remember, but she wrote it all down, and then bounded back to the counter. Cadence was a bit thankful for the interruption because it gave her a moment to think. Perhaps this time her thoughts would come out more articulately. "That's our area of specialty," she said, an air of confidence in her voice.

"So we've heard," he replied, that smile creeping back at the corners of his eyes. "We really appreciate the time you've taken to come here to assist us."

"It's no problem," Aurora chimed in, a shy smile on her face. She, too, seemed to be slightly in awe of the doctor. Aurora was more a tomboy than the other two, but she also seemed to appreciate a well-built man. "We've covered most of the country in the last four months," she added.

"I hear you were the ones responsible for taking out Sobi in Maine," Nick remarked, a tone of amazement in his voice.

"We did!" Meagan admitted. "That was the toughest kill I've ever been a part of, but we got it done. Sobi, had been terrorizing regions of the northwest for centuries. She didn’t go down easily. It took everything we had to finally destroy her. In the end, I was the one who ripped the head right off of her eloquent neck. Even after that, she was still pristinely beautiful.” Meagan reminisced. “Cadence and Aurora kept her claws and fangs in check while I ended her.”

Hearing Meagan talk reminded Cadence of her personal battle with the legendary Barbarosa. She was happy to let Meagan have the kill this time, however. Nevertheless, thinking of Barbarosa drew Cadence mentally away from the conversation momentarily. Her mind wondered to the Guardians who worked out of the primary LIGHTS office, located in Kansas City. She had been part of that team when she took Barbarosa down. Kansas City was the headquarters for the entire network of Guardians and Hunters who were operating across the globe. It wasn't until Cadence had gone off on her own that she found out LIGHTS actually had regions, with leaders and teams operating only in those jurisdictions. She had been a Vampire Hunter for almost eight months now and still felt like she knew very little. She had a few friends at the Kansas City office, and it was often difficult to keep her mind on the present whenever a reference was made to one of them. She had been with her good friend Elliott the night Barbarosa had gone down. Her thoughts were on him when she realized that Dr. Ryan was addressing her specifically.

"Have you handled anything like that before?" she heard him say. He smiled at her, clearly realizing she hadn't caught the first part of the sentence before he repeated himself. "A large warehouse... with lots of containers and other areas to hide."

"Oh," Cadence exclaimed. "We have...." Just then, the waitress reappeared, not quite so energetic with a full tray off coffees balanced on her hand. She handed them around, checked to see if anyone needed anything else, and then promised to be back to check on them before recapturing her pep and traipsing away.

Once she was gone, Cadence recovered her train of thought. "We did a warehouse job with the Denver team a few weeks ago. It wasn't a large warehouse, but it was fairly good sized. We took out, what, eight?" She looked at her teammates, who were nodding before she continued. "Yeah, we took out about eight Vampires there. And you have how many?"

"Only five," Dr. Ryan began, sipping his coffee. "But these are some badass goons, I'm telling you," he clarified. "I mean, I don't know anything about what you encountered in Denver, but these ghouls will take the head off of a child and not blink twice."

Cadence's forehead crinkled. She had the feeling he wasn't speaking metaphorically. "And why do you think you need to get them on their own turf and not when they are out and about?" she asked. She wasn't a huge coffee fan, usually preferring hot chocolate, but it was June, and even though they were both hot beverages, the latter wasn't as acceptable, for some reason. So, she took a quick sip of the hot, bitter beverage and tried not to make a face as she sat the cup back down.

Dr. Ryan must have noticed her expression because she saw a flicker of a smile before he answered her question. "We've tried that a couple of times before, but they tend to want to start taking out innocent by-standers. We've seen them mow down cars, shoot in crowds of people, even throw individuals down escalators at us."

Once again, Nick and Phoebe were nodding in agreement. Cadence shook her head in disbelief. "Sounds like some extremely misinformed offspring," she commented, wondering which Vampire would create a host of children and not let them in on the rules.

"Well, that's the thing," Dr. Ryan said, meeting her gaze, leaning in across the table, his hands cupping the standard issue white diner cup. "These fellows all came from the same place. One Rogue Vampire very well-known for creating minions who will go out and destroy, completely unaware of the consequences."

Cadence was confused for only a second before she realized she knew precisely who the doctor was referring to. "Giovani," she muttered, her eyes locking on a spot on the white laminate table where a wayward drop of coffee was slowly forming a brown stain.

"Precisely," he replied. "So you know, they haven't been properly warned of the rules, or the consequences of their actions, and they have no intention of trusting or listening to us at this point. They are programmed to kill, and they don't care about the ramifications."

There was a very clear set of guidelines that all three members of the Clandestine Ternion--Hunters, Guardians, and Vampires--must follow in order to co-exist among humans without them ever knowing of their existence. One of these rules was that new Vampires must report to LIGHTS to be tagged with a tracker and given clear instructions about whom they could and could not feed off of. If it worked the way it was designed to, the Vampires would actually benefit society in some ways. They were allowed to feed on criminals, citizens who were deemed harmful to the rest of society. They were not allowed to interact with or feed off of Innocents--humans who had committed no heinous crimes. It was up to the Guardian Leader to determine when a Vampire had broken this rule and change their status to Rogue, which meant Hunters had the right to pursue them at all costs. The Guardians were there to protect the Hunters from the Vampires. While a Vampire could kill a Hunter, they could not kill a Guardian. It was a physical impossibility. Likewise, a Guardian could not kill a Hunter. A Hunter could, however, kill a Guardian, so they had to operate with extreme caution. Until recently, a Hunter was also incapable of killing another Hunter. Cadence had been in a recent incident that seemed to prove that was no longer the case.

"Giovani needs to be stopped," Aurora was saying, shaking her head and causing her red locks to dance around her broad shoulders.

"While I agree with that," Cadence replied, "we haven't heard much of anything out of him for almost four months. Until he reappears on someone's radar, we've got other concerns. And it sounds like these five gems are next on our list."

Aurora nodded in agreement, and Cadence silently wondered how she got to be the boss. It had sort of just happened. Aaron, the Guardian Leader, had always told her it just came naturally to her. Maybe he was right. Her mind started to drift off again at the thought of him, so she met Dr. Ryan's pale blue eyes, a stark contrast to the piercing blue ones she had been staring into a few months ago, and asked, "What would you like us to do for you first, Dr. Ryan?"

"Please, call me Cale," he replied. "I guess I'd like it if you could accompany us to the location tomorrow night. We're certain they won't be there if we go around midnight. They will likely be out wreaking havoc on our city at that point. It might give you an indication of what we are up against. Then, if you have some ideas, we could figure out a time to catch them when they are actually there--possibly the next morning--and try to orchestrate a hit."

Cadence nodded as she listened, trying to weigh his suggestion. She thought it was probably unnecessary to visit the location ahead of time. She came from a long line of Hunters and Guardians, and her DNA was highly saturated with the coding it took to be effective at her job. She was very confident she could go in and take this group out fairly quickly, despite the doctor--Cale's--warning that they were some tough guys. Nevertheless, she was willing to give his way a try. "All right, Dr. Ryan... uh... Cale," she agreed. "Let's do that. Give us the address and we'll meet you there tomorrow night."

"Sounds like a plan," Cale said, smiling. "I'm so glad we have you three on our team," he added.

"We're happy to be here," Meagan smiled.

"Now, who's ready to go back to the club and dance?" Aurora asked. Meagan groaned and reached around Cadence, giving her a shove. "What? The night is young!"

"Not me," Cadence replied. "I need to get back to the hotel. I've got a call to make." They said their goodbyes, and Cadence absently crossed back to where they had left their motorcycles, Aurora and Meagan chatting behind her. Her thoughts were solely locked in the past, and she suddenly felt extremely homesick. The sooner she was by herself, the quicker she could hear the voice she longed to hear.