Caulder drove Kevin, Caitlyn, Abby and Zoe, while King took the bike. They travelled through the day to make it to New York, taking up residence in one of Blade's old haunts near the train tracks.
"So, what's the deal with this place?" King asked as he wheeled the bike under cover. Everyone else exited the jeep, taking in the mess left a few years earlier when Whistler had been ambushed by Deacon Frost's crew.
"Blade and my father worked here for a while." Abby explained. "There are a couple of nests in this city, left over from when a vampire named Frost was doing damage. He's dust now, Blade's work."
"We're also here because there have been reports of a strange, vicious creature roaming the streets at night and killing people, leaving drained, torn up bodies in the streets." Caitlyn explained. She was still wearing her sunglasses from the car trip, pushed back up on her head. "We're pretty certain that the vamps have been screwing around with genetic experiments again."
"Like the vampire Pomeranian?" King asked.
"Worse," Caitlyn replied. "Apparently this thing is big, bigger than a dog, maybe smaller than a horse."
"Great," Kevin said, "Now we're animal control."
"I thought you didn't want to get bored?" Abby asked. Kevin rolled his eyes.
"Well," Caulder said, "I've got some new toys for you." He pulled a suitcase out of the back of the truck and opened it on a cluttered workbench.
"Earpieces?" King asked.
"There's a little lens in here," he pointed to a small protrusion on the side, "so that not only will we be able to stay in contact, but from here…" he opened up a laptop and switched it on, "we'll be able to see what you see, at the same time as you're seeing it." Four windows appeared on screen, each blank until Caulder activated the earpieces. "There's also a little torch, here, just above the lens, because, you know, vampires being night-dwellers and everything."
"Cool," Caitlyn said, picking one up. "I call tonight's hunting shift."
"Me too." Abby said, taking another. "You guys can stay here with Zoe and start cleaning up the place tonight."
The two male hunters started protesting while Caulder took Zoe to find a place to sleep.
"No," Abby said firmly, "I was stuck at base last night and Caitlyn will need to get a feel for the sucker population, to tell us how many are here and scope out the best hunting spots. If you let us go tonight she can point you guys in a good direction tomorrow when it's your turn,"
"Don't worry boys," Caitlyn reassured them with a smile, "we'll leave some for you."
The guys grumbled a bit more but gave in. Caitlyn pulled their weapons out of the jeep and distributed them. Abby headed for the bike and Caitlyn started walking toward the city, fixing the earpiece in her right ear beneath her loose hair.
"You know, it's already going to be really dark by the time you get there," King said. Caitlyn ignored him and kept walking, gradually picking up speed until she was jogging, then running easily.
"You forget," Kevin reminded him, "she's a lot faster than we are on foot."
King chuckled. "And Blade doesn't even know he's not the only Daywalker."
"She's not a Daywalker." Kevin stated firmly. "She's just … a bit more than human, that's all."
888
Abby turned down a deserted looking street, her bike stowed in a nearby parking complex. She turned on the torchlight in her earpiece, as it had gotten dark. Caulder, back at base, was watching both girls' monitors. He'd gotten out another laptop so that each picture was full screen. He wore a plain, camera-less earpiece so he could hear what the girls said and talk back to them.
King shifted a shelf unit back to an upright position against the fencing wire, then went to stand beside Caulder. "They found anything yet?"
"Abby got a couple of familiars – no new information, and one vamp. Caitlyn's gotten four vampires, and gave their victim our address. Have we got a cure ready?"
"Yeah, I'll go get the Retro Virus."
"It's a dark-haired, pony-tailed guy with a pierced eyebrow. Tell Kevin to let him in when he gets here."
"Okay." King was about to turn away to notify Kevin, who was doing the guard shift, when he thought he saw something.
"Tell Abby to turn back to her right and look up," he told Caulder.
"Here," Caulder handed him one of the field earpieces. "It's on." King fixed it in his ear.
"Abby, it's King," he said, still looking at the screen.
"Yeah," he heard. The black and white image paused, she was facing a high wooden fence that blocked off an alleyway.
"Look up, to your right, the top of that building."
She did, showing the top of the building, the cloudy night sky beyond it.
"Oh," King said, "I thought I saw movement. Never mind."
"Wait," Abby said. "I think I hear something." The on-screen image moved as Abby tried to locate the source of the sound. Caitlyn's camera started moving very fast, but the guys were focussed on Abby's screen.
"What does it sound like?" Caulder asked.
"Like grating, or growling," Abby said, raising the top tip of her bow into the camera's view. She was getting ready to fire at whatever it was.
"Abby!" Caitlyn's voice came in loud and clear and urgent. "Move!"
The men looked at her screen, she was fast approaching the other side of the wooden fence. They could now hear the growling as the source of it got close to Abby's earpiece. Abby instinctively ducked and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding getting her back torn to ribbons.
Caitlyn cleared the fence with a scrambling leap. Her screen showed a huge beast behind Abby as she landed on the cement on the other side of the fence.
It had powerful shoulders and stocky hindquarters, it's feet containing long, razor-like claws. It had a big, beach ball sized head filled with big teeth. It was like, as King would call it later, the Great Dane from Hell. It had a long tail that it thrashed about in annoyance.
Caitlyn sped to it and leaped at it, kicking its jaws away from Abby's shoulder. Caitlyn kept going past it, giving Abby a chance to shoot it. A second later an arrow embedded itself in the beast's side. It whimpered once and kept growling. It staggered as it twisted its neck around to pull out the arrow, which had only gone part of the way in.
"Are you sure you got it in the heart?" King asked, as the beast straightened up. "Caitlyn, incinerate the thing!"
The beast yelped again as its fur began to burn, but it didn't catch alight, at least not at first. Abby took a few steps back as it fixed its gaze on her, its fur beginning to blaze. Caitlyn ran to its side and tried to decapitate it with her long knife, but the silver only got a few inches in. She tugged the blade out and jumped away as it tried to bite her.
"Damn, it's got thick skin," she said, as it finally succumbed to the flames. In a few moments it dispersed into ashes. "I think I can get the blade through, but I'll have to swing harder next time. A human swing won't get the job done. Abby, if you draw back as if it was twice the distance away, you should be able to get the arrowhead to the heart."
"Next time?" Caulder asked. "Is there more than one?"
"There's…" Caitlyn started. Abby was looking at her face and everyone saw the alarm enter it.
She grabbed Abby's arm and barrelled through the wooden fence, sending wood everywhere. Abby looked back and saw one beast come through the hole behind them, another one jumping over the fence. The girls were moving fast, Caitlyn towing Abby along beside her, and Abby was barely keeping on her feet.
"How many are there?" Caulder asked.
"I can't tell," Caitlyn answered, her breathing unhampered by her pace. "Their signature is different to vamps." She slammed Abby and herself into a side alley, narrowly avoiding being caught by the leaping beasts. They skidded past as Caitlyn went back around the corner to keep them in sight.
"Get your UV beam ready," she shouted to Abby as the creatures scrambled back to their feet. She'd raised both her arms and suddenly spiny vines burst from the ground, wrapping around the hell-dogs, and pulling them down to the cracked pavement. Their lower jaws split in agony as the extra sharp spikes dug into them. More and more vines sprang up to wrap around them as the dogs struggled to escape. Caitlyn wrapped their jaws closed and the feet together so they couldn't injure Abby as she walked towards them.
Abby sliced the heads from the beasts and the vines collapsed as the creatures beneath them were rendered to flickering ash. Caitlyn let them withdraw back into the ground.
"Well that was new," King said, sighing with relief because the girls were okay.
"There aren't any nearby," Caitlyn said, "but I think there are more of them. We have to find the source, whoever is making these things, and destroy them."
"How many do you think there could be?" Abby asked, panting a little from the mad dash.
"Tonight, not too many, but I think that more beasts are being made." Caitlyn ran a hand through her hair. "I've got an awful feeling that once whoever it is figures out that these ones have been killed, they'll send more of them out in force."
"Then we'll have to do the same." Abby said. "You have to be with us next time. If you hadn't sensed I was in trouble and warned me, I'd be dog food. I think we'll need the guys on this one."
"Come back to base now." Caulder told them. "King, don't forget that you've got to warn Kevin before he shoots that poor bastard coming here."
King nodded and left to get to Kevin's post.
"All right," Abby said, "I'm on my way."
"I'll be back soon, there's one more sucker close-by that I want to get," Caitlyn said. "It's just one vampire, I won't take long."
"Happy hunting," Abby told her, jogging toward the parking complex.