I heard Honey telling Eliza she should look around her. Eliza held the Vampire down with her boot on the woman’s chest and looked up. I could feel panic welling up inside of the Guardian. She didn’t know what they were or where they came from. But when she returned her attention to Honey, she was undeterred. She’d come there to end the Vampire, and that’s what she intended to do. No matter what.
“What are they?” she asked me as she focused on Honey’s neck. She was still intending to behead the Vampire, even though the creatures were still heading her direction.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I don’t think you should stick around and find out.” I had no idea what kind of damage these creatures could do if they were able to reach Eliza before she got out of there. Mila agreed. I heard her shouting at her team to fall back.
“You’re probably right,” Eliza said to me, ignoring her boss. “But I have always been hard headed.” She was sawing through Honey’s neck as the Vampire attempted to work her way free. Despite her earlier threats, the silver knife was doing its job. It was as if Daunator didn’t need her anymore and wasn’t trying to save her. Why he would sacrifice her was beyond me.
It wouldn’t matter if Eliza couldn’t get through her neck before the creatures got there and pulled the Guardian off. Now that Mila had pulled the rest of the team away, Eliza was on her own, and the skittering creatures were closing in quickly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone saw as furiously as Eliza was. Eventually, she worked the knife completely through the Vampire’s neck, and Honey let out a scream that shook the glass window panes in the buildings on either side of the street before she dissolved into a pile of ash.
Eliza could turn her attention to the other creatures now. She pulled her gun and kept her knife in the other hand, but they were on top of her now. It was like she was being swallowed up in a sea of black. They began to claw at her arms, their teeth sinking into her limbs through the black leather she wore which did little good against the likes of these creatures.
She was a fighter, that was for sure. Shooting, kicking, stabbing, punching, Eliza did her best to try to work her way out of there, but for every creature she knocked away, two more took its place, and they were still pouring down the walls. I wondered if the people who lived there could look out their windows and see them. I had no idea what she was going to do.
So when she asked me, “What do I do?” there was no answer.
I checked in with Sergio again and was relieved to see he was in the SUV with the rest of the team and flying back toward Eliza’s location. So at least her teammates weren’t abandoning her, despite her inability to follow directions. “Hold on,” I assured her. “Sergio’s got the car, and he’s coming.” My voice was high-pitched and squeaky. I guess I felt compassion for her, despite the fact that I hated her in so many ways.
“What are these things?” she asked me, another question I couldn’t answer.
I tried jumping into the closest one’s mind, but it was as if it didn’t have one. Void, no registered thoughts, just nothingness. I tried a different one, but they were all the same. None of them seemed to have a single conscious thought. It was disturbing. I jumped back out and left her question unanswered because I had no answer.
Eliza was lifted off of the pavement as they continued to dig into her as much as they could, trying to take her... somewhere. She fought, kicking and punching. When I heard the sound of tires screeching around the corner, I was hopeful they’d get there in time. Eliza’s blood stood in stark contrast to the black around her as she struggled to break free.
The SUV plowed through several of the creatures, the windows down in front and Mila shooting at the host attempting to carry Eliza away as the Guardian managed to get free enough to fight her way to the back door. Some of Mila’s bullets hit her, and Eliza winced, but they bounced clear without leaving any damage. Thank goodness they didn’t have titanium.
She reached the back door of the SUV and one of her teammates threw it open. She slammed one of the creatures into the back quarter panel, punched another in what I assume was its face, and then jumped inside. The door wasn’t even closed when Sergio sped off, running over dozens more of the creatures.
I could hear Eliza’s heart thundering in her chest as she wiped at the blood streaming down her arms and turned to look out the back glass. The creatures were disappearing back the way they’d come, up the walls, their fallen comrades lying on the ground. It looked to me as if they were dissolving, sort of like the monsters Brandon had described in the portal, but I couldn’t say for sure, and soon Sergio had the SUV far enough away I couldn’t see any more. I had no idea what had just happened....
“Are you all right?” Mila asked in her heavy accent.
“Yeah, thanks guys,” Eliza said, still panting.
“I told you to abort the mission and fall back.” Mila sounded angry. I couldn’t blame her. “You could’ve been killed. I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life.”
“Me neither. I’m sorry.” Eliza seemed to mean it, though I wanted to question the authenticity of her statement.
“What were those things?” Sergio wondered aloud as he dropped the speed on the SUV now that they were away.
“I don’t know,” Eliza replied. The blood on her arms was starting to dry up a little, and I assumed she was healing since the monsters were not Hunters, and only a Hunter can kill a Guardian.
“Who might know?” Mila asked.
Eliza shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“Would your new friend Gimu know?” The man who spoke was someone I was unfamiliar with, a tall blond who was sitting in the middle seat.
“Gimu?” I repeated, wondering if I’d heard him correctly. “Who or what is a Gimu?”
Eliza didn’t answer me. She answered the other guy. “I will ask, but I doubt it.”
“Whatever they were, I don’t like them.” Mila turned back around, and I got the idea that the conversation was over, at least until they reached their headquarters.
I gave Eliza a second. “Gimu?” I asked once I could tell she was more settled.
“Guy I Made Up,” she explained. “I had to tell them something. You, Christian, some weird person who just decided to drop me information.”
I was with her now. I was Gimu. Perfect. “Well, this Gimu doesn’t know.”
“Maybe Christian will,” Eliza offered.
“Maybe.” I would bring it up the next time I spoke to him, but there were more important tasks I needed to get to first. Hannah and the rest of the bosses might not have thought Cadence and Aaron needed to know about all of these missing persons, but they needed to know about this. And whether she’d hate me forever or not, I’d have to be the one to tell her. “I’ll ask him,” I said to Eliza, thinking she probably wouldn’t be able to contact him herself. “I gotta go.”
“All right. Thanks.”
Eliza was tired and probably wanted me out of her head as much as I wanted to be out. “Sure,” I said and switched off the feed. It was time to contact my sister, whether Hannah liked it or not. Whether Cadence liked it or not. Whether I liked it or not.