Closing the lid of her laptop with one hand, she reached for her half-eaten burger with the other. She’d finish eating human food, then find herself actual human food.
“Time to kick some ass, save the girl, and ride into the sunrise,” she said. “I can do this.”
The rental car melded seamlessly into the darkness dwelling at the base of an outcropping of bedrock. Satisfied that it wouldn’t be detected, Cassandra once more did a quick inventory of all her weapons. Clad in black body armor and heavy duty combat boots, she looked like something out of a science fiction movie. The Kevlar body armor was top of the line and so expensive that Scott made her return it after each job. She was just relieved it wasn’t bulky and allowed her a full range of movement.
Taking in a deep breath, she slowly exhaled. The blood she had consumed was boiling in her veins, imbuing her with the powers of her father. The vampiric aspect of her nature was coiled tight within her by her sheer willpower. It hissed at her to hunt and feed. She felt inhuman, outside of her mortality. All she had to do was release her tight control.
“Here we go,” she whispered, opening her eyes that burned with red fires.
Leaping ten feet up onto the bedrock shelf, she felt the rules of nature unshackle her. She landed easily and perched briefly, scanning the desert before her. In the distance she could see the lights illuminating the perimeter of the vampire’s estate.
It was time.
Like a sledgehammer disintegrating a glass window, her vampire nature shattered her human side. Instantly, she felt her joints popping, her muscles strengthening, and her senses sharpening. With a wild, gleeful grin, she launched herself into the air and landed already in a full sprint. The wind whistled in her ears, giving her body slight resistance as it sliced through the night. Faster than any human ever and matching vampire speed, Cassandra raced across the desert, her boot heels leaving plumes of dirt in her wake.
The fence encircling the estate rose before her, topped with barbwire. Cassandra didn’t even try to climb it, she half-leaped, half-flew over it. Landing hard, she rolled, then was up on her feet immediately. The carefully-sculpted and tended rock garden didn’t even slow her down as she jumped over boulders, cacti, and flowering desert foliage.
She sensed more than saw the first guard. One second she was skirting a Joshua tree, the next second she was slamming her forearm into the throat of the startled man, sending him to the ground gasping for air. Snagging his firearm from his hand, she flung it away and bounded toward the multi-level adobe home before her.
Not even slightly winded, she raced along a walkway straight toward the outside wall. Like the schematic had revealed, most of the windows were either bricked over or heavily barred. The balcony was easy to spot with its wrought-iron railing and red-tile accents. Cassandra jumped, landed on the wall, and scaled it like a spider. The Spider-Man trick drained quite a bit of her power, but she was aiming for swiftness and the element of surprise. Grabbing the rail, she flung her body over it and landed just outside the balcony windows. Pulling out the small device Scott had included in the bag he had left her, she activated it and watched it remotely hack into the security system. Tapping in the code, she saw a small red light on the wall beyond the balcony door wink off.
So far, so good.
Whipping the door open, she mentally ran the layout of the house through her mind. Heart thundering in her chest, she raced down the hall and hopped down the staircase, landing to landing, arriving on the bottom floor. The long hallway that bisected the house and led to Frank’s study lay before her. Dim lights illuminated her path, the glossy black marble floor dappled with warm light. The layout of the house had been a lie though. Doorways opened off the hallway, perfect for a trap.
Cassandra had never deliberately entered an ambush before and her pulse was racing. Drawing her dart gun, she surged forward.
The dhamphir had just cleared the first two doors when they were flung open and heavily armored men burst out. Swiveling on one foot, she kicked one man in the throat, knocking him back into the room and into the men behind him. As the assailant from the opposite room attempted to Taser her, she dropped to the floor and shot him in the soft underside of his chin. The dart slammed into his flesh and he cried out in pain, but to her surprise he did not go down.
For a moment, confusion gripped her as the man she had sedated snatched the dart out of his skin and flung it away. Behind him, another man moved to fire his Taser at her.
“Fuck!” Cassandra screamed, realizing the darts were faulty. Hurling the dart gun at the man aiming at her, she burned even more of her power as she rolled onto her hands and knees and kicked out, knocking the first assailant back. A grunt and a cry of pain informed her she had hit both her marks.
Scrambling to her feet, she only had a split second to see her next accoster aiming at her. Grabbing him by the wrist, she pivoted toward his body, slamming her elbow into his Adam’s apple, before swinging him into two more guards trying to get a bead on her. Panic gripped her and she fought for control.
Pumping more of her blood power into her limbs, she snatched one of the men who had previously attacked her and used him as a battering ram against the others coming for her. A scuff on the marble informed her that more guards were filling the hallway behind her.
The first Taser barb to catch her hooked onto her Kevlar, and the jolt merely drew her attention. Smashing her fist into the face of the guard who had hit her, she saw his blood splatter against her knuckles and spray the air. Her tongue lashed out between her lips, and the sacred vitae rained onto it. Instantly, she felt back in control as the world slowed around her and her inhuman speed accelerated.
Cassandra laughed with joy.
These were the moments when she knew her soul teetered on the brink of darkness. Moving among the insanely slow humans trying to fight her, she kicked, punched, and even bit her way through them. Snatching one man around the neck with her arm, she pierced his throat with her fangs, while using the momentum of her action to kick into the air and send two guards flying. Her feet landed against the wall and the world flipped sideways.
Grinning, she ran along the wall, knocking the mortals off their feet. She snagged the vest of one of the guards and hurtled him into the ceiling, spinning around to catch another one with a sharp jab to his nose. Blood, moans, and cries of pain filled the air.
Cassandra launched herself into the air, flipping her body so she landed on the floor just behind the downed men and looked toward the end of the hall, waiting for more. All around her echoed the soft moa
ns of pain from the unconscious guards.
“Come out!” she called out. “I know you’re there. Fight me!”
A solitary figure stepped into the hallway from a side door. Clad in a flowing white dress, Aimee stood in silence, her head tilted to the side to regard Cassandra.
Taking in a deep breath, Cassandra felt the world return to normal around her. Swiftly leap-frogging over the guard’s bodies, she moved toward Aimee. Maybe Frank really wasn’t here and they could get out now that the guards were gone. She was almost to Aimee when she saw something in the other woman’s fingers.
Turning around to fully gaze at Cassandra, Aimee lifted her hand. Tucked into it was a small cotton bag.
Cassandra stopped in her tracks, her lips parting in surprise and apprehension. “Aim–”