Chapter 36: Chapter 36

The opening to this cave was much larger than the last one. Standing back at the tree line, which was about a hundred paces from the entryway in question, it appeared that Jo would be able to run inside without doing much more than ducking. That should be a plus compared to last time when they’d had to slide down into the opening. This would be more treacherous, though. With an opening that wide, Jo could send more people in at a time, but it was clear there was some sort of a barrier, a door of sorts, several feet into the entryway, something they’d have to blast their way through. Unless the Vampires were kind enough to open up and let them in, which she doubted.

She had a couple of regular grenades, the kind one would use to blow a hole into such an obstruction. A silver nitrate grenade wouldn’t affect the area around it, just the Vampires. Mila and Mikali would need the other kind to get through that door. Even then, it would be tough. They’d be bottled up right there, sitting ducks. Thankfully, Vampires couldn’t kill Guardians. Still, it never felt good to be riddled with bullets, assuming these Vampires were the shooting type, and she figured they were. Bouncing bullets still stung, even if they didn’t bite into flesh.

Sliding through the trees, Jo came up behind Mikali and Mila where they were hunkered down discussing strategy. “Do you see the door?” Jo asked.

“Yes,” Mila answered in a whisper. “We were trying to decide whether it’s steel or just painted gray.”

“Here.” She handed each of them a grenade. “That should help.”

“Not if it’s solid steel,” Mikali said, shaking his head. “I can’t imagine they won’t open up when we come in anyway. I’ve never known a Vampire to avoid a fight.”

Ignoring his comment about the doors opening, Jo went back to his first statement. “What do you mean it won’t get you in?”

“It will blow a hole,” Mila assured her. “Just not necessarily a big enough one for a grown man to step through. We’ll figure it out. I don’t think they’ll just open the doors and welcome us.”

“I never mentioned the word welcome,” he protested.

Deciding she’d leave the details to them, Jo moved back to her previous position. She’d sent Zane and Scott in a little closer to see if they could spot any snipers on the mountains. While the tree line was set back directly across from the opening, it curved closer further down the mountain. She was hopeful they’d get a clearer look at the shrubs and small trees above the entryway. Even though Scott was a Healer and she’d wanted him in the back, this position was far enough away from the front lines that he wouldn’t be occupied once the fighting began so he could concentrate on healing, should it be necessary. She didn’t trust anyone else with this part of the job.

“There’s definitely movement up there,” Zane said from his position far to her left. “I’m seeing at least four figures, and they are certainly packing. Looks like semi-automatic rifles.”

“Shit,” Jo muttered under her breath. “That’s not good.”

“I agree,” Scott said. She’d sent him around to the right. “I can see three clearly. There might be more. It’s hard to see through some of these bigger granite boulders.”

In looking at the photos sent in by both of them, Jo could compare their points of view and concluded that there were seven visible armed Vampires on the hillside waiting to take them out. “Do you have a clear shot?” she asked both men.

“I can hit at least two of them from here, but that will draw their fire,” Scott said. He wasn’t near any Hunters, but she knew Scott disliked the fact that, if he were hit, he’d have to use a bit of his Healing power to mend whatever damage the bouncing bullet might do. It wouldn’t be much, but it would be a cost.

“The one in the front isn’t protected from this angle. I might be able to get another one or two,” Zane concluded.

Seeing that there was no way that the Vampires could harm either Guardian if they fired at them, Jo said, “Let me get Mikali and Mila’s team ready to go, and then we’ll open with you guys clearing as many of the snipers as you can off of the hill.”

Both of the Guardians let her know they understood, and Jo checked in with her team leaders.

“We’re ready when you are,” Mila assured her.

With a deep breath, Jo said, “All right. Open fire.”

It took only a split second before she heard the soft pew pew sound of bullets fired from Scott’s weapon, which had a silencer on it. The only reason she could hear it at all was because of his IAC. He was a good shot, though not as good as she was, or as good as Cadon, and she could see immediately, he’d hit two of the Vampires closest to him. Zane took out two more on his side, not using a silencer, which should’ve drawn the others toward him, but it didn’t. Instead, the others all seemed to zero in on Scott’s location at the same time and open fire.

Vampires shooting guns was odd enough, but when one of them actually hit their mark, it was more than a little alarming to Jo. Shooting in the dark, at a target hidden in the woods, at such a great distance, should’ve been nearly impossible for the bloodsuckers who usually didn’t have much experience with firing weapons. But what was even more alarming was Scott’s reaction to the single bullet that hit him in the arm.

“Holy shit!” he shouted. “I’m hit, Jo.”

“It’s okay. I know it stings, but it can’t hurt you.” She thought it was odd that his voice sounded so pained. She’d never known him to be such a big baby.

“No! Goddamnit! That’s not what I mean. I mean it didn’t fuckin’ bounce, Jo!”

“Should we head in?” Mikali was asking.

“Hold up,” Jo said to him, and then back to Scott, “what do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I fucking said Josephina. I’m hit in the arm. The bullet did not bounce!”

“All right, Zane, get the hell out of there. Scott, back it up!”

“What’s going on?” Zane asked as he did what she said. Jo realized then that Scott hadn’t told everyone else.

“We need to regroup,” Jo said, but she wouldn’t get the chance, not right away, anyhow. Before she could pull her team together, a burst of bullets came flying toward the center of her ranks, the blue light from their ignition lighting the night sky. There was something different about these bullets, clearly, not only because they could wound a Guardian but they looked different as well. She’d never noticed light given off before when a bullet was fired, sparks maybe, but nothing like this.

“What do we do?” Mila asked.

“Return fire as we back the hell up,” Jo said. She didn’t want to lead the Vampires to her camp. Not only was Ryker there, but so was the rest of their equipment. She needed to disengage from them, but there had to be twenty or thirty armed Vampires in front of them now, coming their direction, shooting at anything and everything.

“I’m hit!” Ping shouted.

“Cale?” Jo moved in to stand in front of Ping as the Healer ran to his assistance. She unloaded both of her Glocks, hitting the row of Vampires directly in front of her and knocking several of them to the ground. The cover fire from the mountainside was not as effective as it would’ve been if she had ordered her forces forward, but the Vampires who had stepped out of the entryway didn’t seem to need their help. She heard a few more shouts as other teammates were hit.

She had no idea how Guardians were being wounded, but she wasn’t surprised at all that the Hunters who were hit were injured. In a few cases, injuries were already life threatening. Cale and Scott, who had mostly healed himself by now, were working their way through, helping the best they could. Since they’d both had an extra dosage of the Transformation serum, they were capable of throwing their blue healing light from a distance, but it was always best when they could lay their hands on the person needing help. There’d been a time when Healers would wear themselves out healing and literally fall asleep. At least she didn’t have to worry about that anymore.

“I’m going to try a shield!” Cassidy shouted, stepping through the fray and holding her hands up. Jo never would’ve thought to ask her to do that; she hadn’t been on enough hunts with her aunt to remember she had that capability. As soon as her hands were in the air, what looked like a bubble of light formed between the advancing Vampires and the LIGHTS forces. The Vampires continued to fire, their bullets hitting the shield and either bouncing back at them or falling to the ground. One of the Vampires was standing too close and ended up having his own bullet bounce from the shield and hit him in the shoulder. He shrieked but it wouldn’t end him, unfortunately. Vampires could kill each other, but they couldn’t kill themselves.

“Where are we going?” Mikali asked.

“Head back that way, toward the brook we crossed earlier. Hopefully, we can put enough distance between ourselves and them that they won’t come after us.”

The rest of the team headed back that direction, the wounded being helped along, as Cassidy held up the shield. Brandon stayed with her, as did Jo and Zane.

“Get those grenades ready,” Cassidy suggested. The Vampires had learned it would do them no good to fire at the moment, but they were starting to move around the perimeter of the shield. Cassidy could lengthen it if she needed to, but it sounded like she had another idea.

Jo dug into her bag of tricks and managed to produce three silver nitrate grenades. She didn’t think she had that many, but she was glad she did. She gave one to Brandon, one to Zane, and readied the third herself. The men spread out so they could hit the Vampires on the perimeter. For all they knew, there were a million more Vampires inside of the cave, but for now, this might help them put some distance between themselves and the monsters.

“Three, two, one!” Cass yelled and then lowered the shield. The other three pulled their pins and tossed their grenades as the Vampires raised their weapons again. None of them got a single bullet off before Cass had the shield back up. Not only did it prevent the four of them from getting shot, she also created an enclosed space so that, when the grenades went off, the silver nitrate was contained. Vampire shrieks filled the air as the metal burned into their flesh. Several of them caught on fire. With no way to escape the bubble Cass had created, they ran into their colleagues, catching even more of the monsters on fire.

“More are coming!” Cassidy yelled. They had a break at the moment, though. They should be able to get away.

“Let’s go!” Jo shouted, gesturing with her arm for the others to follow her. Brandon and Zane took off behind her, but before Jo turned around, she noticed Cassidy lift her open hand and pull one of the Vampire guns from the pile of ash that used to be a Vampire. All of the attacking forces were down now, most of them dissolved, others still burning. It might’ve been a good idea to go ahead and make her attack, but until Jo knew how the Vampires were able to shoot Guardians, she didn’t want to take such a huge chance and put her team in that sort of danger. If Vampires could kill Guardians, the entire world was more out of sorts than she thought.

In a few minutes, she caught up to the rest of the team, shouting mentally to Lucy and Leo that it was them coming since the two were acting as scouts, guns at the ready, in case they were followed by the enemy.

A quick assessment of the situation showed her that everyone who’d been hit was either recovering or back to normal, thanks to the Healers. Cale looked frazzled, maybe a little worn out, and Scott looked pissed. She imagined he didn’t like the idea of Vampires being able to shoot Guardians any more than she did.

Cass arrived a step after the other three, what looked like a modified AK47 in her hands. She was spinning it over, studying it, before she even came to a stop.

“How is everyone?” Jo asked, looking around at each of them. “Is everyone okay?”

“Thanks to Scott and Cale,” Ping said. “I thought I was going to die.”

“How the hell did that happen?” Scott demanded. “How did a fucking Vampire shoot me?”

“I don’t know,” Jo admitted. “But I felt like we should fall back until we figure it out.” She looked over at Cassidy and saw that her aunt had a bullet in her hand. “Any idea what’s different about it?”

“Not for sure, but I have a guess,” she said, looking up and catching Jo’s eyes. “You wanted to know what the scandium was for. Well, I’m guessing it’s for these bullets. We won’t be able to tell without taking it apart and looking at its chemical makeup. That’s something Christian usually does.”

“I can do it,” Emma chimed in, walking over from where she had been sitting next to Ping. “It’ll take me a few days, and I’m not sure I have all of the equipment I’ll need. I might have to go to Moscow.”

Jo sucked in a deep breath. She definitely wanted Emma to do whatever was necessary to make sure they identified what was in the bullet, but it all made sense to her now. “Okay. Do what you need to do,” she said to Emma. Cassidy handed her the bullet, and Jo turned around, her hands on her hips. It made perfect sense now. Why hadn’t it occurred to any of them before? Especially the ones who had been alive when the revelation that titanium bullets allowed a Hunter to kill another Hunter had been discovered?

“So… they’re mining scandium to create bullets that kill Guardians?” Cadon asked, his hands on his hips. “But… that’s not possible. How can anything allow a Vampire to kill a Guardian?”

“How can anything allow a Hunter to kill another Hunter?” Cassidy asked. “It doesn’t follow the rules, but Vampires aren’t exactly about that, are they? At least this way, maybe they’ll stop making their bands of Hunter assassins. I hate those assholes.”

“I doubt that,” Brandon said, shaking his head. “Why any Hunter would allow themselves to be bought out by the enemy to go after Guardians and kill them, I don't know, but nowadays, everybody seems to have a price.”

Jo had heard of the bands of assassin Hunters they were referring to, though she’d never seen one with her own eyes. This new discovery, the scandium bullets, was much more deadly, potentially much more readily accessible to any and all Vampires. And she had no idea how in the world she could ever stop them. If every single one of those Xs on the maps was a scandium mine, then she’d have to kill off thousands of Vampires who were armed with ammunition that could kill the ones meant to keep her safe while she did it.

“They can’t all be operational,” Cass said, as if she were reading her mind and knew the sentence she’d just formulated. Maybe she was. “If they were, they would’ve hit us the first time.”

“They knew we were coming here next,” Brandon said. “They must’ve concentrated their available ammo here.”

“If we’ve caught them early enough in the process, maybe we can stop them before they’re fully armed,” Cadon offered.

“Or come up with a shield of some sort that their bullets can’t penetrate.” Zane joined the conversation for the first time. While Jo liked that idea, she didn’t know how feasible it was. For now, she just needed to find their bitch queen and cut her head off before she could cause any more damage.

“How did they know where we were headed, though?” Cassidy asked aloud. “We didn’t say which cave we were headed to.”

“Maybe they spread the ammo they had between the closest caves to the last one we hit,” Brandon offered.

“Maybe….” If Cassidy said anything else, Jo didn’t hear her. Another thought had entered her mind, and she was off and running through the woods at full speed before she even had a chance to tell the others where she was going, one word upon her lips.

“Ryker!”