“What now?” Cadence asked, checking her IAC to make sure he wasn’t alarmed at the progress of one of the other teams. His son, Brandon Keen, who also happened to be a good friend of Cadence’s, as well as her sister’s boyfriend, was out with another Hunter, Aurora Howe, so a few panicked thoughts flickered through her mind until she was sure he was okay.

“Rats,” Elliott said softly.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, assuming he was just using one of his old colloquialisms from the 1950s.

“No, rats!” Elliott repeated, and she realized he meant there were actual rats in the tunnel.

“What?” Cadence screamed. “Aaron said there wouldn’t be any rats!” There wasn’t much that freaked her out anymore, not since she’d taken to beheading monsters for a living, but she still hated rats, and her understanding was that Elliott wasn’t a big fan either, but before he could even say anything more, there was a skittering noise in front of them, and Cadence braced herself.

There had to be at least three dozen of them, all the size of Pomeranians from what she could tell, though she closed her eyes and put her head down the second the first furry body brushed against her hand. Her biggest fear was that one would run down the bodice of her shirt, so she ducked her head tightly, feeling a few of the hurried creatures running directly into the crown of her head as they made their way around the two human bodies blocking their path. She tried not to scream for fear one of them would end up in her mouth as the sound of their claws clicking against the concrete tunnel and their squeaks of fear filled her mind. One of their skinny tales brushed against here ear, and for the second time that night, Cadence fought the urge to vomit.

Even after they’d passed by, Cadence could feel them on her arms, in her hair, brushing against her hands. “Go! Go!” she urged her partner, wishing she could push him out of her way. She needed to get out of there, now, before anything worse should appear.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Elliott assured her as he began to crawl foreword again. She realized he was spitting as he went.

“Did you…”

“Yep—right in the kisser.”

“Aaron Joseph McReynolds!” Cadence screeched over her IAC. “You said there would be no rats!”

Once again, it took him a moment to answer, and she assumed it was because he was busy, but when he did finally address her, she swore he was laughing. “Sorry, sweetheart. I guess my intel was a little off on that one.”

“It’s an underground tunnel,” Elliott said, hauling himself to his feet. “Of course it had to have rats.”

Cadence wanted to argue, to remind them that Aaron had said that there wouldn’t be any rats because such vermin always scurry when they hear a predator coming and will get out of their way, but as Cadence continued foreword, now hunched over again, but at least on her feet, she pondered what it might be that would cause a large group of rats to run together through a blocked passage, toward two people who were clearly making a lot of noise.

“Oh,” Elliott said, coming to a complete stop in front of her. She bumped into his back and froze in her tracks. “I guess that answers that.”

“Answers what?” she asked, wondering if he’d been thinking about the same thing. They’d have to discuss it later. In front of them, she saw two eyes and dozens of razor sharp teeth, slowly slithering toward her. “Is… that an alligator or a crocodile?”

“Uh, I’m not sure,” Elliott mumbled as they both took a few steps backward. It was huge whatever it was. Cadence couldn’t see the tip of its tail in the dark, but it had to be at least eight feet long, and its snout was a good two feet off of the ground. If Elliott would’ve crawled straight into it, he would’ve been in a lot of pain, even though Cadence reminded herself that a reptile couldn’t actually kill either one of them. As Paul’s experience had taught her, however, sometimes pain was worse than dying, and Jamie wasn’t even in Houston with them.

“Shoot it,” Cadence urged, pushing Elliott forward as she simultaneously stepped back.

He drew his gun and fired directly at the creature’s head, but it didn’t go down. Instead, it snapped at him, causing him to jump backward into Cadence.

“What the hell kinda shit is that?” Elliott said, shooting it again. The bullets had no effect, other than to piss the monster off even more, and after his Glock was nearly empty, the gap between them and the animal had narrowed to mere inches.

“That’s not a crocodile,” Aaron finally said, almost disinterested, as if he’d just noticed what was going on.

Cadence pushed the thought that there was something going on with her fiancé out of her mind. Now was not the time to dwell on how oddly he’d been acting the last few weeks. “Alligator?” Cadence asked. “Not that I care. Why won’t it die?”

“It’s neither,” he replied, his voice even. “It’s a Vampire.”

“What? A shapeshifting, backwoods, Louisiana Vampire?” Elliott growled as the monster lunged for him again.

“I believe so,” Aaron said. “Take care of it like you do anything else.”

“Why does he sound so calm?” Elliott asked her aloud, but Cadence stepped around him. She was tired, dirty, and was pretty sure she still had rat kooties on her arms.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I know how to kill a Vampire.” Without thinking about what she was doing, she channeled her inner Steve Irwin and pounced on the gator, or whatever it was, landing so that she was straddling it. She had fought shifter wolves a few times now and knew the key was to keep their jaws busy. She thought if she was able to occupy it long enough, perhaps flip it over so that it’s heart was facing upright, Elliott could stab it. “You have a knife, right?” she managed to get out as she struggled against the croc who just wouldn’t go down.

“Yeah,” he said, drawing it out of the interior pocket of his jacket.