The Clandestine Saga

Hunting Her Down

Aaron had had to call in a few favors, but he'd acquired the information he needed. He had fairly reliable intelligence that Holland was in Paris and that one of their most valuable turncoat Vampires knew exactly where she could be found. He had initially intended to wait for her to come to him. But, now that Henry was dead, too, he knew she'd be working more quickly to amass a larger number of Vampires. If he went to her, not only would he shorten the amount of time she would have to recruit, it would also give him the element of surprise, something he always found to be beneficial.

Whether or not to put Cadence on the team had been a difficult decision. He knew she was certainly going to be capable of eliminating more Vampires single handedly than anyone else he had in his service, yet he also knew that Holland would throw everything at her the Vampire queen had available. In the end, he decided she needed to go. The team needed her skills, and she would need to have some closure.

Handpicking the rest of the team members was not as easy as one might think. He knew Elliott would have to come, as would Jamie. They both had skills no one else could duplicate. He didn't really want to take Eliza. She had become a bit of a liability over the last few years. But he knew she was invested in this project because she had been present at the initial confrontation. So she was coming. He needed Christian, too, in case they had tech problems. He had already contacted six other Guardians based in Paris and their team was eager to help.

As for Hunters, he had few highly reliable members to choose from if he looked only at his own team. Three Hunters based out of Paris wanted to work with them; they had tipped him off to talk to Sebastian, the turncoat Vampire that had given him a specific location. He wanted to keep his Hunter-to-Guardian ratio fairly low because he wanted to make sure to offer plenty of protection to Cadence since she would likely be doing most of the killing. He decided to call in a female Hunter based out of California. She had worked with his team before but had spent the last few years off on her own. She wasn't exactly the easiest person to get along with, but he knew she was effective. Her name was Stormy, a name that fit her perfectly.

After spending the morning getting commitments from his French connections, he called his team in to go over the plan. Stormy would join them on the IAC. He was also missing Cadence, but he could fill her in later. He hoped she'd be willing to come back soon so they could get to Paris quickly, but he had given her a few days off, and if she intended to use them, he certainly wasn't going to argue. Technically, she was still suspended, and Elliott and Christian were on a team that didn't follow protocol, which meant they should miss the next hunt. Rather than bend the rules on that last one, he organized a hunt for that evening, one he would also not be attending, so that he could say the Guardians had sat one out. And since Cadence was the only one who had any idea that she had been given a few days off, or a suspension, it really didn't matter if she decided to come back sooner.

He set the briefing for 4:00 that afternoon and decided to have it in his own office, rather than the room they usually used. After last night's shenanigans, he thought they needed a change of scenery. Everyone was on time, even Eliza, and he was able to get started right away. He knew Cadence was still in the process of getting Jack to the doctor so she wouldn't even have her IAC tuned in. Stormy was viewing the meeting from his perspective.

"All right, good afternoon everyone," Aaron began once they had taken their seats. "The reason I called you all in today is because I've hand selected you to go on a high priority trip to Paris." He waited for the cheering to stop and then continued. "We are going to kill Vampires, not for the shopping or the sightseeing, just so you know." Eliza groaned disappointedly. "I know. It's terrible. Okay then. This is our primary target." He brought up a picture of Holland. "Most of you were present at the recent mission in Iowa, so you know Holland well. Approximate age is twelve to fourteen hundred, extended clan size numbers in the thousands, but her primary clan is estimated to be between twenty to thirty." There were some gasps from the team members who were really good at math, so he paused to explain.