Annihilation: The Clandestine Saga Book 7 1k2e3i

Annihilation

The Clandestine Saga Book 7

ID Johnson

Copyright © 2019 by ID Johnson

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Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Epilogue

A Note from the Author

Chapter 1

The odor of mildew assaulted her lungs as Cadence Findley made her way through the underground tunnel. Here she still had enough clearance to stand, though she was bent at the waist so that her shoulders were stooped, but up ahead, she was aware it narrowed even further, and she’d be forced to drop to her knees. How her Guardian, Elliott Sanderson, was ever going to make it through the smaller age, she wasn’t sure, but she thought it might be fun to watch. “Moist. That’s the word that comes to mind. It smells moist in here,” he said only to her through his IAC, or Intelligence Assistance Communicator, a tiny chip each member of the LIGHTS (Lincoln International Guardian and Hunter Training Station) team had in their eye so that they could speak to each other and share other information without actually having to open their mouths. “Don’t use that word,” Cadence said, bile ri in the back of her throat at the offense. “That’s the most disgusting word in the English language.” “What? Moist?” Elliott said again, just to annoy her. “You don’t like the word moist, Cadence? Does it bother you when I say moist?” “Seriously—knock it off!” she insisted slowing to throw an elbow at him, which only made him chuckle. “Fine, if I can’t say moist, I’ll just say the German equivalent. How do you feel about feucht?” “I feel like if you don’t shut up and let me concentrate, we’re both about to be feucht,” she replied as she sensed the walls closing in on them slightly. Up ahead, there was a corner, and that’s where Aaron McReynolds, the Guardian Leader and her fiancé, had told her the age would narrow down to about two feet in height. She’d have to crawl on her stomach for approximately a hundred yards before she’d come to a grate overhead, which they could remove, and pop into the tunnel the particular group of Vampires they’d been hunting the last few nights happened to be staying in. The city of Houston seemed to press

down on her slightly when she thought about it, and the fact that these tunnels hadn’t been used in ages made her slight claustrophobia flair up considerably. There were only four Vampires in this group, from what they could tell, and she had insisted that Aaron didn’t need to send anyone else with them. She thought she could handle it alone, but since the Vampires had been particularly difficult to kill recently, what with the return from hell of Holland, or Asteria, as she had been calling herself, Cadence had agreed to let Elliott come with her. Aaron would’ve done it himself except this was one of three such excavations going on at the same time. These Vampires had lived down here for decades, not really breaking any rules, and even when Holland had called for all of the Vampires all to move, to band together in an attempt to form an army and attack the other two els of the Ternion, as far as the LIGHTS team could tell, these folks had ignored her cry. But the rules of the game had changed now that Holland was attempting to kidnap more Guardians so that she could do experiments on them to find a way to kill them, and Cadence and Aaron had agreed they were giving no free es to bloodsuckers, even those who had always followed the rules and only taken the lives of the underbelly of society. All of the similar raids they’d conducted since that time had been easy compared to the rescue mission they’d embarked on in Melbourne two months ago, where she and her younger sister Cassidy had gone in attempting to save their cousin Paul Larkin whom Holland had been torturing. Instead, Cadence had tangled with another demonic Vampire, Holland’s lover, Carter—or Perses as he preferred--and while Cadence had walked away the victor, it had been a hard fought battle. This should be a piece of cake. Thinking of food reminded her that Elliott was going to have a hard time squeezing his girth through the opening they were closing in on, and she wished that Aaron would’ve gone ahead and let him go through with the procedure they’d been discussing ever since the Vampires had raided the tagging center at headquarters and they’d been forced to use a second dose of Transformation serum on one of the young Hunters, Tara, to keep her alive. Aaron had promised that Elliott and Cadence could both do it, too, since it had made Tara so much faster and stronger than she was before, which was saying something considering the superpowers Hunters already had. But Aaron wanted to be one hundred percent sure it was safe, and Jamie Joplin, their resident Healer, still had

a few more experiments to do before he could give the okay. Cadence really hoped that would come in the next few days. “You know, if I was stronger, maybe I could bust through the concrete,” Elliott said behind her. Even through the IAC, she could tell his voice was strained. They were crawling now, through what, she wasn’t sure, but it smelled pretty awful. She’d have to take her purple leather jacket and black pants to the dry cleaner on campus after this—that is, if they didn’t get shredded by claws or fangs. “I was just thinking the same thing,” Cadence itted, ing the initial thought that had made her think of the Transformation serum to begin with. What if they got there and Elliott could bust through the ground around the grate instead of trying to go through a tiny opening? The point would’ve been moot even if they hadn’t just arrived under their location to see that he would be able to fit through, with a little bit of shimmying and luck. Even though she was aware that Aaron had her visuals, she still felt the need to tell him, “We’re at the location.” It took him a half-second to answer, and she imagined that was because he was directing the other teams as well. None of them should be merging here as the other tunnels and ages they were using to ferret out similar gangs of docile Vampires didn’t connect, but they were all in close enough proximity that Aaron was able to direct them from a parking garage a few miles from where Cadence was—and a few hundred yards above her head. She didn’t want to think about that, though, being underground. She wondered for a moment if it reminded Elliott of the time he’d been dead for eight months. Even though he had been cremated, she imagined if she’d been the one to die, anything remotely like being buried would make her uneasy. But then, this made her uneasy, and she’d been alive her entire life. “Ready, kid?” Elliott whispered aloud, likely seeing the look on her face, thinking she was either on the verge of panic or about to be lost to the world. “Ready,” Cadence nodded, sure of herself. This should be quick. Their intel said all four of the Vampires were hanging out in their little hovel presently, and Cadence hoped to take them out with four bullets. There was no point in messing around under the circumstances, even though she generally did appreciate a

good decapitation. A close inspection of the grate above her showed that it was loosely screwed into the crumbling concrete around the hole. She thought she could likely push the entire barrier up and out of her way on her own, and since she was now wedged in underneath it with only about a foot of empty space around her, she figured Elliott couldn’t reach over to help her, but as she gave it a good shove, he somehow managed to stretch his long arms and help, resulting in the metal shooting up out of its brackets a good three feet into the air above them, crashing against the far wall of the tunnel. She didn’t have a lot of time to think now. The noise surely must’ve gotten the attention of the Vampires, so without even a casual glance at what she was projecting herself into, she grabbed ahold of the lip of the now empty entry point and slung herself through to standing. The moment her feet hit the concrete floor on either side of the grate casing, she pulled her Glock from her holster and flipped the after-market safety off. Four pale faces stared at her in confusion. They were stretched out on the tunnel floor, as if they had been about to call it a night, or maybe some of them had been sleeping already; it was hard to say, but as she stepped to the side so that Elliott could follow her, Cadence tried not to give too much thought to what the Vampires had been doing, what they were about to do, what they would never do again. The two women went down with bullet holes through their chests quickly enough as the men scurried, confusion all over their faces. It was clear they didn’t spend a lot of time above ground since their complexions practically glowed in the dark, which made them even easier targets. She didn’t stop to contemplate how old they might’ve been, who they were before they were Vampires, or how long they might’ve been undead. As the men took off in different directions, Cadence tracked the one closest to her with her Glock, hitting him in the back of the head first before lowering her aim and shooting him through the back where his heart was. The other one took several titanium bullets to the midsection as he dodged around, trying to escape her trajectory, falling at last once she made direct with his heart. Like the rest, he didn’t stay down for long as his body turned almost immediately to ash. With no wind down here, however, they stayed where they’d fallen. Cadence gave a satisfactory nod and then turned to see Elliott still stuck in the grate hole, half in half out, sort of like Winnie the Pooh in the honey hole.

Despite the adrenaline still coursing through her veins she began to giggle. “I could get through. If I wanted to,” he argued. His broad shoulders had already crested the opening, which made her think what he said was likely true. That was probably the widest part of his ample frame. “But really… what’s the point?” Cadence tried not to think about how easy it had been. Even though her entire team had agreed that annihilation was their best bet, before Holland was able to sink her proverbial fangs into these docile groups and get them on the run, too, it still seemed a little too much like shooting fish in a barrel. Maybe that was because so far every clan of Vampires they’d taken out hadn’t really been a threat to begin with. “They had moved locations recently,” Elliott reminded her. “We did have cause.” He worked his way back through the opening to the narrow tunnel, and she realized now she’d have to crawl back out the way she came, which literally stunk. “I know,” she replied after he’d dropped through and started army crawling out of her way. This group of Vampires had taken part in a meeting not long ago where she was certain an attack on the Houston LIGHTS headquarters had been discussed, even though they seemed disinterested and had come back to their lair, the same as the other groups of Vampires her team was taking out at the very moment. She made sure the after-market safety was in place and slipped her Glock back into the holster before dropping through the hole. She was glad they could see so well in the dark since carrying a flashlight while crawling out of there would’ve been difficult. “Oh, no,” Elliott whispered in front of her, the soles of his boots stopping directly in front of her face. “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 ed 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 age, 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 itted. “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. Cadence used her entire body to fling the creature up and over, holding onto it with her knees, one hand on each jaw. It bucked and tried to pound her into the concrete beneath them, but her efforts were enough for Elliott to plunge the knife into its chest cavity. He took the blade out and stabbed again, several times, and Cadence could feel the animal start to weaken. Silver knives had worked better than anything else on the shapeshifting Vampires they’d encountered both in Melbourne and in Butler, Missouri, when they’d gone on a raid there right before Paul was taken prisoner. It was working here as well. After a few more jabs, the Vampire crocodile let out a loud sigh and crumbled into ash all over Cadence. She lay there stunned for a few seconds, not sure what to make of the entire reptile situation. Eventually, she came to her senses and jumped up, brushing the residue off as Elliott pocketed his weapon. “Never in my life…” she muttered,

not even sure how she might finish that sentence. “You’re telling me. This is some crazy-ass shit.” He shook his head and nudged her along. Cadence’s feet started moving, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what lie ahead of them. Even if this tunnel was empty, they’d need some sort of an explanation for that last one, and she wasn’t sure who it would come from. A few minutes later, she could see the first grate they’d gone through, the one that had led to this larger tunnel, which was in the floor of a newer parking garage beneath one of Houston’s tallest buildings. The thought of standing in a stream of hot water in their hotel shower for a good hour or two made her walk a little faster even if she thought she had a few choice words for her fiancé when she saw him. As Elliott helped her remove the grate more discreetly this time, he asked, “Do you know the difference between an alligator and a crocodile?” After that last encounter, she was pretty confident neither one of them did, but she decided to play along. She slid the grate over and began to hoist herself up. “No. What is it?” Standing in the parking garage, she watched as Elliott pulled himself through and they returned the metal covering. “One of them will see you later, and the other one will see you after a while.” A guffaw escaped her lips despite the fact she was trying to be quiet just in case there were still humans in the parking garage that late at night, or early in the morning, as the case may be. She shook her head. “Did you just think of that?” “No, I think it’s a meme,” he itted, walking back toward the SUV they’d parked all of an hour ago. “Since when are you a social media butterfly?” Cadence asked; as far as she knew his Smartphone was so old it didn’t even most app updates. “Since I started raising a teenager,” he replied, producing some keys and starting the Enclave remotely. Cadence hurried across the lot and climbed into the enger side.

Mention of Brandon had her checking in on him again. He was fine—no rats, no crocs. Nothing but regular ol’ Vampires. She was glad Cassidy was back home in Kansas City with her parents, even though they hadn’t encountered anything too terribly dangerous. She worried about her sister despite the fact that she’d proven herself the last time she’d gone into the field. But that was months ago, and things had changed. Cadence knew she couldn’t protect Cassidy forever, but she’d try, especially in light of what had happened recently in their small town of Shenandoah. “Hey, you all right?” Elliott asked, steering them out of the parking garage. Cadence realized she’d gotten lost in her head again, something she needed to be more mindful of. “Yeah, fine,” she assured him as he squeezed her knee. “Just… thinking about Cass.” Elliott nodded, well-aware of the situation with Cassidy’s friend, Lucy Burk. “She’ll be all right. She’s a tough lil girl.” “Yep,” Cadence said, but she wasn’t sure she believed it. Her sister had been through so much lately. There were thousands of Hunters under Cadence’s direction now, and many of them were new recruits, like her sister. And Tara— who had almost died recently. And Cadence was responsible for each of them, a job she didn’t take lightly. Sometimes she wondered how Aaron had done it for so long. Thinking of him made her the rats and the gator. Cadence closed her eyes and leaned her head back, ready to be home. “From now on, why don’t we let Texas handle its own shit?” she asked. “Everything is definitely bigger here,” Elliott said, not answering her question. “Bigger rats. Bigger crocapires. Except the grates. Those seemed smaller.” She chuckled, thinking of him trapped. “At least you weren’t stuck when the vampigator arrived.” “True. They say I would live without my head attached to my body, but I don’t wanna find that out for certain.” “Me neither,” Cadence agreed, slapping him on the shoulder, her eyes still shut. “Me neither.” It was one of the many scenarios she hoped she’d never encounter,

and if she lived to be two hundred, she could do without ever seeing another allipire again, too, but she had a feeling Holland wasn’t done throwing them for a loop. The sooner they put an end to the Vampire Queen’s reign, the better.

Chapter 2

“T hat’s incredible!” Christian Henry gushed, looking at images of the vampirecrocodile Cadence and Elliott had dispatched on their Houston trip. They were back in Kansas City now, and even three days later, Cadence could still feel the rats crawling on her skin, despite dozens long, hot showers, and several apologies from her betrothed, none of which made it seem as if he was actually more sorry than amused. “What is it though?” Jamie asked, sitting next to Christian in the conference room where the team had gathered to go over recent missions. There’d been so many lately, these fly-by raids, as Aaron often referred to them, it was impossible to stop after each one and go over everything that had transpired. Since the retired Guardians from Roatan had come up to help, the Kansas City team had been dispatching groups across the country to work with the locals to take care of as many of these pockets as possible, and the meetings were more of an opportunity to talk about anomalies, such as this creature, than a rehash of exactly how each hunt went down. “Well, it’s definitely a crocodile,” Christian said, handling the picture. “Its snout is narrow, and its teeth stick out when its mouth is closed.” “I knew he’d know,” Cadence muttered. “Okay—but what is it?” Jamie repeated, taking the picture back and setting it aside so that Christian wasn’t the only one who could see it “Why would a Vampire take the form of a crocodile? In Houston of all places?” “Do you mean who is it?” Christian asked. “As in who did it used to be that it developed the ability to shift into a crocodile instead of the usual mist monster or wolf?” “Sure,” Jamie said with a shrug as if he thought that might be the only way to make any progress with the one person they all thought might know something about this phenomenon when Jamie itted he’d never seen it before.

Christian shook his head. “I dunno,” he itted. “But it’s really cool.” Cadence bit back the sarcastic answer that was about to roll off of her tongue involving the question, “Why do we invite you to these meetings?” She turned to look at Aaron instead, who was standing at the front of the room. “Can we expect this to be the new normal?” “Yeah, can they just be any critter they want?” Elliott asked. “I have no idea,” he itted with a loud sigh. “But the important thing is that the silver blade worked on it the same way it has the others.” “But if we don’t even know what’s a Vampire and what’s an animal…” Cadence began. “Does it matter?” Aurora asked, her long red hair falling on her shoulders as she raised and lowered them. “Even if it was a regular old alligator—” “Crocodile,” Christian corrected her. She narrowed her eyes and continued. “Crocodile, wouldn’t you have killed it just the same?” “I wouldn’t have wasted an entire clip of ammo on it,” Elliott muttered. “Maybe,” Cadence conceded, ignoring Elliott’s remark. “But… it makes me even more uneasy to know that they can pop up in whatever form they like whenever they like.” “We’ll do some more research on the matter, talk to some of the other old timers and see what they know,” Aaron said, but she could tell by his voice that he was placating her. He didn’t really seem as concerned about this new threat as Cadence was. Even in the moment, when she was literally wrestling with a croc, he seemed to think it was nothing to worry about. She wondered if it was the weight of everything else on his shoulders or if he was close to another break down. Since the last one had caused him to temporarily kill himself, she had to keep an eye on him, even when it seemed like there was nothing bothering him —especially when it seemed like there was nothing bothering him. “What else do we need to talk about?” Cadence asked, wishing this meeting was

over. It wasn’t even that long, and she liked almost everyone in the room—with the exception of Christian who’d only been called in because she hoped he could explain the newest shifter. Since he couldn’t, she was ready to throw him out. Elliott, Jamie, Aurora, and Hannah Roberts were all people she considered friends, but when her eyes fell on the tech guy, she wondered if they could still consider bringing in Hattie, the tech guru from Billings, Montana. “Hannah, how are things in Iowa?” Aaron asked, pulling his chair out and sitting for once. It seemed like he preferred to stand anymore, another sign that he was on edge. He ran his hand through his light brown hair and narrowed his pristine blue eyes in the direction of his number two, a strawberry-blonde Guardian who had been a counselor in a former life. “Better,” she said with a nod that assured Cadence that what she said was true. “We’ve got a handle on things now that you’ve moved Maxine Campbell to oversee operations there. I think, whatever Holland was up to, it’s over with now, or at least she sees that she can no longer be successful.” Cadence let out a long breath she had been unconsciously holding and nodded. She’d grown up in Shenandoah, Iowa, and had only moved to Kansas City a little over a year and a half ago. It had been a few weeks since Holland had decided to make the small town her playground, and Cadence didn’t like to think about the havoc she’d wreaked in just one night when the LIGHTS team’s defenses had been lowered. Six people had been killed, all of them somehow related to a Hunter or Guardian one way or another, some distantly, others who would’ve been able to Transform themselves if they’d wanted to. Shenandoah had become a bit of a haven for their family since Cadence’s grandparents, Janette and Jordan Findley, had decided it would be nice to have as many families as possible in one location, and while that idea hadn’t exactly taken off, it had been enough for Cadence’s father to move there. Now, Cadence wasn’t sure if it was a great idea that would’ve done better with more backing or a horrible idea that left many families vulnerable to attacks like the one that had happened in early March, the one that had left her sister’s friend Lucy Burk without a dad and cost so many other families just as dearly. “We’ve got two dozen Guardians there now, back to watching on rooftops, the same sort of procedure we ran when Cadence and Cassidy were at risk,” Hannah continued in her even voice. “I’m certain they’ll be fine in the short term, until

we can shut this business with Holland down.” “We don’t seem to be gettin’ a whole lot closer to that,” Elliott muttered, tapping the end of a pencil he probably wouldn’t need for anything against the table. “I don’t think that’s a fair statement,” Aaron said in his calm voice. “We’ve gotten nearly two thousand Guardians to come up from Roatan. We have a good handle on Melbourne now, we’ve taken out eighty-two pockets of Vampires in the last month alone. The ones that are congregating, the ones Holland intends to use to invade our headquarters, are on their heels.” “Yeah, but those are the only ones that matter.” Cadence was surprised to hear Jamie disagree so openly with Aaron. He was usually more agreeable. “If we can’t get a handle on them soon, then the rest of these Vampires who really aren’t involved aren’t going to make a difference.” “They are involved,” Aaron argued, his voice a slight bit sharper than usual. “They just haven’t cooperated fully with Holland’s initiative yet. That doesn’t mean they won’t.” “So… what do we do?” Aurora asked, obviously as frustrated as everyone else. Her hands were folded on the table in front of her. Cadence saw a flicker of a look between Aurora and Elliott, who was seated to Cadence’s left, and for a moment, she thought it might mean something. Or maybe it was nothing…. “Remind me what we’re doing—waiting for them to—what?” A sigh of exasperation left her fiancé, and Cadence wished there was a way to tell a person to calm down that actually caused the person to do so. “We need to know for sure what Holland’s numbers are, whether or not that formula she came up with in late February that she thinks will allow her to kill Guardians is effective, and now, what this new shifter business is. I don’t like going in against dozens of Vampires that can do who knows what without that sort of information.” “But—if Cassidy can’t get it,” Aurora argued, “then we don’t have a choice do we?” “I think she can get it,” Aaron assured everyone, but really no one. Cadence wanted to shake her head. She had more faith in her sister’s ability than

anyone, but her potential to see into Holland’s head had almost become a vice. Aaron was afraid to act if he didn’t know exactly what Holland was doing, and Cassidy couldn’t be completely sure of anything she thought she knew since Holland was aware that Cassidy had these capabilities. “I will talk to my sister again, right now, see what she can find out what Holland is up to, but in the meantime, we also need visuals on Spittle’s group. If we get a location on him and go in there full force, we’ll get rid of the direct threat of another invasion here. We should be able to do that.” “What about the procedures?” Elliott asked, his eyes meeting Aurora’s again before he looked at Jamie. “When can we do that?” “Well, if you guys want to attack right away….” Aaron was clearly using Cadence and Elliott’s decision to use the Transformation serum to strengthen themselves as a weapon against them, and she had no idea why. “I have no problem doing it whenever Aaron gives the okay,” Jamie said implying he was not the one hanging up the operation. He shrugged and spread his hands on the table palm up. Cadence’s eyes fell on her fiancé. She had been under the impression Jamie wasn’t done with the tissue sample trials. She wondered how many days Aaron had been putting it off, assuming everyone thought Jamie was still working. “Great. Let’s do it. Today,” Aaron said, standing and heading toward the door. Her mouth open, Cadence watched him go--like everyone else. But she didn’t get up and run after him as she imagined she might. Instead, she shifted her eyes to Jamie who looked as exasperated as she felt. “What the hell?” Elliott asked for all of them. She felt the weight of his eyes on her and turned her head. “Don’t ask me. I have no idea.” “Well, clearly, something is bothering him,” Hannah stated in her serene voice that usually kept Cadence calm but at the moment it made her want to throat punch someone. “Maybe you should go see what it is,” Cadence suggested. “He’s more likely to

talk to you than anyone else.” “Me?” Hannah seemed surprised at Cadence’s assessment. “I would think you should do that.” “Nah, I’m just his fiancée. You’re his right hand girl.” Hannah looked around, and once she could see that she had the consensus of the rest of the table, she stood and quietly walked out the door. Cadence wished she hadn’t made the suggestion as a pang of jealousy hit her in the gut, but she knew there was nothing between Hannah and Aaron except a decades long friendship and years of working together. Still, she probably should’ve gone herself. She just didn’t know what else to say…. She’s already tried so many times to get through to him with no success. “So we jump on this before he changes his mind?” Elliott asked Jamie, as if it wasn’t a question. “I still think it’s a bad idea,” Christian said, standing and heading out the door himself. Cadence was relieved to see him go. Even though the tissue samples he’d tested himself showed nothing to be concerned about, he’d been against it, and she assumed that was because he was not on Aaron’s short list to undergo the procedure. “Yeah, I guess so.” Jamie didn’t sound so confident. “But let’s do it in the morning. Cadence, that will give you a chance to finish up everything you were working on, get Aurora up to speed on everything, since I assume she’ll be in charge of the Hunters while you’re out.” He gestured to the Amazonian redhead to his right, now that Christian’s chair was vacant. “And Elliott, it will give you a chance to… do whatever you do when you’re not hunting.” A smirk spread across Elliott’s face. “All right. More Cheetos and basketball.” Shaking her head once more, Cadence pushed herself up from the table. “Aurora, you wanna come over around 7:00 tonight, and we’ll go over some things?” “Uh, how about you come to my apartment?” The nerves in her voice couldn’t be missed, and Cadence realized she was avoiding Aaron.

“Okay,” she replied thinking the location probably made no difference as far as content was concerned. “My kid sister still in the gym?” she asked Elliott who usually had a pretty good handle on where Cassidy was. “Yep. Shane should be about done with the sims though.” Cadence glanced at the time on her IAC and saw that he was right. Cassidy would be forever indebted to her if she made it over in time to pull her out of any of her training session with Shane, but Cadence knew how close Cass was to being released from training altogether and decided to let the Guardian finish up. She only had one more observation to go—which was ironic since she’d already been involved in so many hunts—but Cadence had decided not to break protocol so that none of the other Hunters would think that she was showing favoritism to her sister. She waved goodbye to Mrs. Carminati, the human receptionist who sat behind the desk outside of the office Cadence shared with Aaron. The kindhearted older woman was there even on days when the office was empty, doing Cadence didn’t know what, but she always looked busy with papers, something Cadence had no place for in her world. The elevator took Cadence to the bottom floor, and she stepped outside into a cool spring morning. Weather had little effect on her anymore, but the crisp air felt good in her lungs, and the flowers Juan Diego and the other maintenance crew had recently planted livened the place up a bit. Cadence didn’t know much about flowers, but she thought these yellow and purple ones with the streaks of black and dots of white were pansies. They smelled good, and almost made her keep walking in the direction of the gym, despite what looked like an emotional interaction between Aaron and Hannah about a hundred feet to her right, closer to the apartment buildings. She couldn’t ignore it, however, and with a deep inhale, she approached. “You guys all right?” Hannah looked exasperated, an expression she rarely wore. “Yes, fine. Just… at an ime.” “I can’t imagine.” Cadence muttered the statement without thinking, and when she saw Aaron’s eyes narrow, she realized now was not the time to remind her beloved he was often difficult to negotiate with. “What’s going on?” she finally

asked. He looked at her but his expression didn’t change. “I’ll… give you some space,” Hannah said, fading back a few steps before she rushed off. He had his arms folded and leaned against the raised planter behind him. “Something’s about to happen, Cadence, something… not good. But I can’t quite put my finger on it, and it’s driving me crazy. Crazier.” “Don’t,” she said harshly, her finger pointing at him of its own accord. “You drive us crazy—that doesn’t make you crazy.” He pursed his lips, drawing them to one side of his face, but said nothing for a moment. “I feel like we need to be still for now, just wait and see what she’s got up her sleeve, but everyone wants to do something. I’m not sure acting is our best bet right now. And I definitely don’t want you out of capacity for a day or two for no reason.” “So you don’t want me to do the procedure?” She tried to keep the heat out of her voice. He hadn’t said she couldn’t, only that he didn’t want her to. “I think it’s a bad move at the moment, but I know I can’t convince you otherwise.” The idea that she was mule headed was almost as annoying to her as the idea that he was a perfectionist was to him, and the fact that he’d brought it up probably angered her as much as the earlier comment she’d made about his inability to be flexible had him. “Are you sure this bad feeling your having doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I want to do the procedure?” He was shaking his head. “No, I don’t think so. But… I don’t know.” “So, maybe that’s all it is. Maybe once it’s over with you’ll feel better.” “And maybe once it’s over with, something will be very different, not just about you, but in the world, and you’ll have slept through it. Or maybe you’ll die and not come back.” Her eyes widened. “Is that what it is? You know Jamie won’t let that happen to me.”

“No, it’s not. I don’t think so.” He ran his hand through his hair again, and this time, Cadence noticed some of the light brown strands clung between his fingers when he pulled them away. She’d never seen that happen before. Things were worse than she imagined. “I don’t know. Just… we’ll talk about it later.” She agreed now was clearly not the time to finish the discussion. “Okay.” She glanced over her shoulder at the direction Hannah had disappeared. Never in the almost two years that she’d been a member of the team had she ever seen Aaron and Hannah have even a slight disagreement. “What was that about?” “Hannah?” he asked, like he wasn’t sure what she was getting at. “She made a suggestion I disagreed with. I’ve never seen her get that upset before.” Cadence might’ve said “angry” instead of upset, but she didn’t correct him. “What was the suggestion?” Again, he hesitated, running his hands down the length of his face before refolding his arms. Behind her, Cadence heard Jamie, Elliott, and Aurora exit the building, knowing them only by their footsteps, not their voices as they were all quiet. She waited. “She just said she thought maybe I should let her handle more so that I could… relax a little bit.” Her head bobbed up and down. “And you insisted you’re fine, and she said you’re not.” “Pretty much.” A tear formed in the corner of her eye, and Cadence realized this was worse that she’d even believed it to be if Hannah was willing to argue about it. “What if she’s right?” He shrugged. “What if I can’t do that?” “You know she can do it. You know she’s capable.” “Cadence—this is the biggest threat we’ve ever had to handle, in the history of the world. I can’t just decide to take a few days for myself as the Ternion crumbles around me.” Part of her wanted to argue that he could, and he must, but the rest of her knew

that her words would fall on deaf ears. “Okay,” she said quietly, wondering if there was something else she should do instead. Was there a way to the Guardian Area Leaders and ask them to work around Aaron, to direct their inquiries and reports directly to Hannah for a while? She thought that probably wouldn’t work since he would inquire straight to each of them if they didn’t report as directed, and if they all said everything was just peachy all of a sudden, he’d know that something was up. The tears somehow stayed in her eyes, though she was sure he could see she was on the brink of an emotional breakdown, that he could sense it. It was his gift, after all. Jamie could heal, Elliott could deceive, Hannah could calm, and Aaron could read emotions. So she really didn’t need to tell him what she had to say when she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. But she did it anyway. “I love you.” “I know,” he said quietly, squeezing her a little too tightly. He didn’t say anything more, but in her head, she picked up on the subtle tone of his statement, the question he didn’t ask--why or how. Why did she love him? How could she love him when he was so… unlovable, and she squeezed him almost as firmly. He pecked her temple and let her go. “Try not to put too much on Cass,” he said as he turned to head toward their apartment building. “She’s starting to get overwhelmed.” The irony was evident to both of them such that Cadence didn’t feel like it was necessary to point out the kettle was calling the pot black. “Okay,” she said for the millionth time that day. He managed a weak smile and a small wave, and Cadence turned to head toward the gym, wiping at a few wayward tears who refused to be contained.

Chapter 3

When Cadence reached the building that housed the gym, a steady stream of new recruits was headed down the hallway toward the showers. She looked for her sister among them but didn’t see her familiar face. “Hi, Cadence!” Tara said seemingly out of nowhere, though Cadence realized she’d been so busy looking for Cassidy she hadn’t noticed the other girl. Her brown hair was in a ponytail and a few tendrils were matted to her face with sweat, but she didn’t look nearly as tired as the other kids—recruits—and Cadence imagined that was because she wasn’t. Another argument for going through with the procedure. “Hi, Tara,” she said, pressing a smile to her face. “How’s it going?” The other newbies in the hallway seemed to suddenly realize who they’d been walking past and there were some oohs and ahhs. This was an entirely new batch from what Cadence could tell, although she’d never paid enough attention to the new recruits. She didn’t recognize any of them except for Tara and Dax Forest who came to a stop behind his girlfriend. “It’s going,” Cadence muttered, trying to force her face into being nonchalant. “Do you know where my sister is?” “Yeah, she’s still in the gym talking to Alex,” Tara replied. “She’s so fascinated with him. It’s kinda funny.” “You should’ve seen her trying to impress him during the simulation today,” Dax, a tall blond who had only been on the team for a few months agreed with a chuckle. “Every time she took a shot, she wanted to turn her head and see if he was watching.” A flutter of panic rose in Cadence’s stomach. She didn’t know who Alex was, but if her sister was trying to impress another guy, what did that say for her relationship with Brandon? “Oh?” she said, trying to seem like it didn’t bother her, but her face was no longer cooperating. The pair didn’t seem to notice. “Yeah, it’s so funny to see her geek out on a

Revolutionary War hero.” Tara giggled and then the two of them moved on down the hallway toward the locker rooms, and Cadence realized they weren’t talking about some new recruit her sister had taken a liking to. She felt better—about Cassidy anyway—and hurried to the gym. She saw her sister standing across from a short, thin man dressed in something one might expect to see in a Broadway play—set at the turn of the 19th century. Despite everyone’s insistence that Mr. Hamilton might blend in better dressed in clothes more appropriate for the current day, Alex had insisted that when he was at home, he would wear whatever the hell he liked, so it was breaches, knee socks, a white wig, and lots of other apparel Cadence didn’t understand. And since Alex had made it abundantly clear that he wanted to be one of the first Guardians to try the Retransformation serum as soon as Holland was stopped, there had been no arguing. This home would only be his place for a short while, if Cadence had any say about it. Then, he could return to Roatan with the others and hopefully die in a decade or two, though he wished it would be sooner. If the Blue Moon Portal legend was true, he wouldn’t die at all, but the team needed his help right now, so they didn’t dwell on the possibilities that even if the Retransformation serum worked for others, it likely wouldn’t work on him. Cassidy was so intrigued by whatever he was talking about, she didn’t even look up as Cadence approached. Alex was making some sort of a gesture with his arms, as if he were firing a musket, reloading, and re-firing it, and Cassidy’s eyes were wide as she listened. Cadence caught the end of the story, standing in silence, waiting for the Founding Father to finish. “And then, it simply sprang free from the cellar door, its fangs barred and dripping blood. So, I fired again, using the smoke as a screen as I discarded my musket and moved in to tear the beast’s head from its shoulders.” “And it worked?” Cassidy asked, still seemingly unaware of her sister’s presence. “Oh, yes. He was soon a pile of ashes there on the cabin floor. It was one of my first kills, but certainly not my last.” “That’s so fascinating,” Cassidy gushed. “I am always so amazed at how you were able to be so successful with such rudimentary weaponry.” “Yes, my dear. That is precisely why I say to you do not worry if these… Glocks

and Berettas, as you call them, fail you. The true measure of a man… er, a woman, a girl, perhaps, in your case, is the ability to find the strength from within to do what is needed at precisely the right moment.” Cassidy’s eyes were glazed over like she was staring at a movie star, rather than what should’ve been a long dead politician. “Cass?” she said quietly, hoping not to jar her younger sister back into reality too harshly. “Can I speak to you for a moment?” Then to Alexander Hamilton she said, “Pardon me for interrupting.” “Aw, if it isn’t the elder Miss Findley. How are you this fine day?” For once in her life, she was glad that Christian was the way that he was—or at least that he didn’t still speak like it was the 1800s. “Good, thank you… kind sir,” Cadence stumbled, which made her sister giggle. She rolled her eyes and said, “Cass?” “Okay, yeah, sure,” her teenaged sister mumbled. “Thanks again, Alex.” “I am at your service any time, Miss Cassidy,” he replied with a slight bow, and Cadence literally grabbed ahold of her sister’s elbow and dragged her a few steps away as he headed across the room in the opposite direction. She smiled at him, not wanting to offend him for more reasons than she could name, but this was the first time Cadence had seen her sister with her head in the clouds since she first started dating Brandon. Even then, it wasn’t this bad. “Earth to Cassidy?” Cadence said, once they were away from the historical figure. “What?” Cass asked in a tone reserved for teenage girls. “I’m not deaf!” “Uh, you are infatuated, though. Does Brandon know about this?” Cassidy narrowed her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. “I am not infatuated. I just happen to take an interest in US history, unlike someone I know who totally takes it for granted and only got As because she sucked up to the teacher.” Cadence decided now was not the time to argue with her sister about her schooling or try to let her know she was gushing all over a man old enough to be her great-great-who-knows-how-many-greats-grandfather, particularly when the age difference between herself and Aaron flickered through her mind. Instead, she said, “Look, we need to chat. How long will it take you to hit the showers

and meet me over at mom and dad’s?” “Ugh,” Cassidy groaned. “Can we go somewhere else? Mom is driving me crazy lately. Do you know my curfew is 10:00—on the weekend—unless I’m on a hunt? It’s 8:00 during the week. That’s so stupid. Brandon’s apartment is literally a floor above ours.” “Okay… how about Brandon’s apartment then? Meet me there?” “I have my schoolwork to finish still.” “I’ll tell Mom.” She knew her mother would want to make sure Cassidy got her academic work done before anything else, but Cadence thought if she explained they needed to talk about the end of the world as they knew it, perhaps her mother would make an exception, just this once. “Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “See you in twenty minutes?” “Sounds good.” Cadence smiled, though once again it wasn’t genuine, and headed out of the simulator room. On the way, she ed by the gym and several smaller fitness areas. Normally, she wouldn’t have even turned her head, but the sound of familiar laughing caught her attention, and she peered into one of the training rooms to see Aurora and Elliott standing unusually close to each other—much closer than they would need to be in order to carry on a conversation. She ducked out of the way before either one of them noticed, but the sight struck her as odd. Why would Elliott even be at the gym right now? If he worked out, which was infrequent at best, it was usually late at night. Aurora was the head trainer, so it would make sense she’d be over here, but… something was going on, and neither of them had mentioned it, which was bothersome since she considered both of them to be extremely good friends. She couldn’t think about that at the moment, though. There were far too many other pressing thoughts on her mind. The hall outside of the locker room was full of chattering kids again—she said kids, even though a lot of the new recruits were her age or older. Aaron said it didn’t really matter how old you were once you Transformed; it was experience that mattered most of all, and she got that in a real big way now. These people all looked like novices, teens who had no idea what they didn’t know, even if she wasn’t quite twenty-one yet and some of them could’ve been almost twenty-two. She could’ve been their grandma when it came to experience.

“Cadence!” She heard Tara’s voice behind her as she hit the exit door and only slowed slightly. As much as she liked the new Hunter, she did act like an eighteen-yearold much of the time. Despite being much stronger and faster than any other Hunter now that she’d been brought back from death by a second dose of Transformation serum, Tara hadn’t been on any official hunts yet. She was almost through with her training and would start observations soon, but her only actual experience in the field had been the night Bonnie, a toddler Vampire Cassidy had brought home a few weeks ago, ripped Tara’s throat out. She also didn’t know jack. “Hey, Tara.” The other girl fell into step alongside Cadence. “Where’s Dax?” As far as Cadence knew, the two were nearly inseparable since Dax had sat up all night waiting to see if Tara was going to survive the attack. “He’s meeting me at the pizza place. Lucy’s supposed to meet us there, too. She’s so much fun. It’s too bad, what happened to her dad.” Cadence heard a question coming in the lilt of Tara’s voice. It was too bad— what happened to Lucy Burk’s dad. And the sixteen-year-old wouldn’t be able to Transform and start her training until her seventeenth birthday, which wasn’t for another few weeks. How she’d managed to kill the Vampire was still a mystery. While she’d chosen to go ahead and come here, her mother and older brother had decided to ride it out, staying in Shenandoah. Cadence often wondered if she’d be able to do the same, if something happened to a loved one, could she still live in the house where they’d died? Mr. Burk had saved the rest of his family by sacrificing himself to the Vampire who invaded their home that night, but he’d suffered and died just the same. “So… I was wondering… do we know… when we’re going after her again?” There it was. The question of the day. When would they organize on Holland? She had wondered the same thing. “No, not right now,” Cadence replied, trying to keep her voice light, as if it was all being handled. “I’m sure we’ll go after the smaller pockets first, then move up to the larger ones before we move on her.” Cadence turned the corner. They were almost to the apartment building where the new recruits stayed. Even though it had been decided that Tara and Dax would be staying in KC, they hadn’t been given new rooms in the other building

yet, and for now, Lucy was staying with Tara because Cadence’s own mother had been too much for the girl; staying with Cassidy and her parents in a two bedroom apartment hadn’t lasted past a two week trial. “Right,” Tara said, turning onto the sidewalk that led to the building. The pizza parlor was in the basement. “It’s just… I was thinking…. Alex said, ‘Cut off the head to kill the snake.’” Her patience all but gone, Cadence asked, “And?” Tara took a step backward, as if she was now afraid of her Leader for her not-sosweet question. “And… I was thinking, if we took out Holland, we might be able to handle the rest of them more easily.” Of course, the same argument had been made several times both to and by Cadence several times over the last few weeks, but when she was making the argument, she was overruled, and when she was listening to the argument be made to her, she was bound by loyalty. “Yes, it’s been discussed. We are still… discussing.” It was about all she could say at the time, considering so much was still up in the air. She was beginning to feel more than a little overwhelmed herself. Tara had a look on her face that told her that she wished she’d never mentioned it in the first place. “Oh, good.” She smiled and began to walk backward. “Okay. Well, if there’s anything I can do….” “I will let you know.” Cadence’s face hurt from fake smiling. Tara turned and hurried away in a blur, and Cadence was glad for her speed so she could concentrate on something other than why they were not going after Holland first. She made her way to the apartment Brandon shared with Elliott and was about to knock on the door when she ed she’d said she’d speak to her mother. Since Liz Findley didn’t have one of those “eye computers” as she put it, Cadence decided to take the elevator one floor down and speak to her mother herself, in person. It might actually be faster than her cell phone. “Hey!” Brandon shouted after her as she was about to board the elevator. “What’s up?” “Sorry!” Cadence stopped and turned back, taking a few steps in his direction.

“Cass and I were going to chat in your apartment, but I ed I need to go talk to Mom first. I’ll be back.” “Okay. Where is Cass? Still talking to Aaron Burr’s side project?” He snickered like the fact that he hadn’t been killed by a friend and brought back from the dead somehow made him a better catch than the other Guardian. “Nah, in the showers now,” Cadence said, glad to see Brandon didn’t seem in the least bit jealous of Cassidy’s newfound fascination. “I’ll be back.” “I’ll be Beethoven. Unless he’s already hanging out with my girlfriend.” He laughed again, but this time Cadence picked up something she hadn’t the first time, a tinge of jealousy, and she thought maybe she was wrong with her first assessment. Maybe Brandon didn’t like Cass spending so much time with Alex after all. She gave his attempt at humor a small chuckle before heading into the elevator. It stopped a few doors down from the apartment her parents had recently moved into. Her father was now working at one of the other buildings with some other engineers on weaponry, something he’d become fascinated with once Christian introduced him to the possibilities. The other engineers were mostly Hunters and Guardians who preferred not to go out into the field, though Eli Findley wasn’t the only human, and whenever he came home in the evening, he was always excited to share what they’d accomplished. Cadence didn’t hear much of it because she was rarely at her parents’ place. She’d been so busy of late. And when she was there, her mind was usually so preoccupied, she didn’t hear much of anything. But then… that was anywhere. She opened the door slowly. Since Liz still hadn’t become accustomed to living so close to her daughters so she wasn’t always prepared to suddenly have guests. It had also been difficult for her to transition to apartment living, and Cadence was contemplating the possibility of actually building a replica of her parents’ house somewhere on campus, but that would have to wait. “Mom?” The living room was immaculate, just like it always was at home, and she heard her mother humming from somewhere in the back of the apartment. “Mom?” “Oh, hello, dear,” Liz Findley said with a smile on her face that beamed down the hallway before her as she approached. “What brings you by in the middle of

the day?” Her mom kissed her cheek, and Cadence gave her a quick hug. As much as she loved having her parents here, part of her missed the independence she’d experienced in the time between her arrival and her parents decision to move to campus. “I just wanted to tell you I need to meet with Cass for a few minutes at Brandon’s before she comes back here to finish her homework. It shouldn’t take too long.” Her mom’s forehead crinkled. “Cadence, you know I want your sister to keep school a priority. She still has an entire year to finish after this one before she can graduate.” “I know, Mom. It’s important to me, too.” She thought back to the freedom she’d given her sister in the few months that Cass had lived with her and Aaron while her parents were still trying to finish up some things at home. She hadn’t been nearly as tough on her sister as her mom was now, and she guessed maybe that was because she wasn’t Cassidy’s parent. But her sister was smart, and there was no doubt she’d graduate from high school with a high GPA, on time, even if she was left to her own devices. Still, Liz seemed to think neither of her daughters were putting enough emphasis on Cassidy’s education. “It will only be a half hour or so.” “Okay,” Liz said, though her puckered expression said otherwise. “Thanks.” Cadence took a step back toward the door. “Once she’s done with her schoolwork, I’ll need her again, but I haven’t told her that.” Liz nodded, like it was to be expected. “She’ll have less time to play with her friends then.” Catching a giggle that almost slipped free at her mother’s use of the word “play,” Cadence said, “I know. She’ll understand. School and work first. Then friends.” “How is Lucy?” Liz asked, her tone changing. “I haven’t seen her since she moved in with Tara. I told her mother I’d keep an eye on her.” “She’s about as well as can be expected,” Cadence said, thinking back to the short-lived experiment of Lucy living under her parents’ roof and how that hadn’t worked out at all. Lucy’s parents had a totally different style than her

own, and when Liz had insisted on checking on Lucy’s homework, etc., there had been some conflict. Things were probably better now, though Cadence hadn’t seen the girl in a few days. “I feel so terrible for them. Your father was good friends with her dad.” “I know, Mom.” Cadence realized her mom just needed someone to talk to. “Hey, I had a thought. Why don’t you ask Hannah if she wants to grab lunch sometime? The two of you would probably get along really well.” “Hannah?” Liz repeated like the thought had never entered her mind. “Why do you think that?” “I don’t know,” Cadence itted with a shrug. “But she’s very motherly despite not actually being a mother. She takes care of all of us when you’re not around. Give her a call. Her number’s in that notebook I gave you.” Since her mom didn’t have an IAC it was necessary for her to have everyone’s cell phone numbers. “I’ll think on it,” Liz said with a half-smile. “All right. I gotta go. See you later.” Like a dutiful daughter, Cadence crossed back to her mom and gave her another hug and a peck on the cheek before heading toward Brandon’s apartment. She wondered if her mother was counting the time she spent speaking with her against Cassidy’s play time. Hearing familiar voices coming from the apartment, she decided not to knock and wasn’t surprised when she was able to open the door. Brandon and Cassidy were sitting on the sofa while Tara, Dax, and Lucy were sitting on the loveseat and chair respectively, a couple of pizzas on the coffee table. The teens didn’t even end their conversation as she walked in, though it didn’t matter since Cadence had no idea what they were talking about. Something about birds, blindfolds, and a river. “Hey, Cass, Mom wants you home soon, so can I interrupt?” “Sorry,” her sister said, as Dax finished his sentence, and no one jumped in with another comment, at least not while Cadence was asking for quiet. “What is it?” Cassidy didn’t seem agitated, just preoccupied. Cadence dropped down to the armrest near her, though she’d be speaking across Brandon. She glanced around

at the others and decided it wasn’t anything they couldn’t hear. Even though Lucy hadn’t Transformed yet, she knew just about everything there was to know about the Ternion. “You I told you Elliott and I encountered some sort of crocapire last night?” “Yeah?” Cassidy said, leaning back a little. “We want you to see if you can figure out what that was all about. Can they shift into whatever they want to now, or was that just a one-time deal? Also, can you check and make sure Hines still hasn’t perfected his solution? We need to make sure Holland hasn’t made any progress on anything. It’s been a few days since you’ve checked in, hasn’t it?” “No.” At first Cadence thought her sister was saying she wouldn’t do it, but then she un-huffed her shoulders and said, “I check in all the time. Hines is confusing me. He seems to think he’s found something, and then he’s certain he hasn’t. I’ll check again. Also, something odd is going on with Holland. It’s almost like she’s sick or something. It’s weird. When I was in her head last night, she knew I was there, but she was ignoring me, and I felt… like sick to my stomach or something. Can Vampires be sick?” Cadence was taken aback. “I don’t think so. That is weird. Was she wounded or anything?” “Nah, I don’t think so. Maybe she’s just anxious. She still cries about Carter all the time. I mean…. All. The. Time. It’s annoying.” “Sorry,” Cadence muttered, not sure what else she was supposed to say. She hadn’t killed the demonic Vampire in order to annoy her sister. “Anything else?” “Just the same thing I’ve been telling you and Aaron both for the past few weeks. I know I can get a location on Spittle and the rest of the escapees whenever you’re ready to go. I think they’ve split into two groups, though. Maybe more. But I think I know where he is.” Drawing a deep breath in through her nose, Cadence said the same thing she had been saying every time her sister brought that up. “I know. We’re talking about it.” Why Aaron was reluctant to move in on the Vampires who had escaped from their very facility was beyond her, but she hadn’t been able to convince him it was a good move yet. “See if you can get some more info on that, too, I guess.”

It wouldn’t hurt to try again. “’Kay,” Cassidy agreed. “When? Tonight? Does Mom know?” “I told her I needed your help tonight. She said that meant you’d have less time to spend with your friends.” Cassidy rolled her eyes, and Brandon squeezed her hand. He probably didn’t like having his girlfriend’s parents upstairs either, but he had never said anything negative in front of Cadence. “How are you doing, Luce?” Cadence asked, turning to her sister’s friend who was practically swallowed up in Elliott’s recliner. “Hanging in there?” “Yeah, I’m okay,” Lucy said. Her light blue eyes didn’t have the same twinkle in them as they did before her dad’s untimely death. “I got all of my homework done, in case your mom asks.” Cadence tried to ignore the sarcasm in the girl’s voice. “She asked how you were. Glad you’re doing okay. Let me know if you need anything.” “Actually…” Lucy said, and Cadence braced herself, wondering if she was going to ask for money or her own apartment. “Do you think it would be okay of I started watching the training sessions? At least the ones with Aurora? I know I can’t participate yet, but if I could watch… that would be cool.” It hadn’t been what she was expecting. “Yeah, sure. I’ll ask her,” Cadence said. It seemed like a good idea and a harmless one. She wouldn’t have been surprised if Lucy would’ve requested for Jamie to go ahead and try the Transformation serum or something much more difficult to agree to. “Thanks,” Lucy said, and Cadence nodded at her before pulling herself up off of the couch. “Okay, you should probably go do your homework before Mom blows a gasket.” Cassidy’s huff was back, and it billowed out of her mouth like a pocket of gas escaping a geyser. “Are you going back up there?” “Nope,” Cadence knew better than that.

“Okay, then, how long did you say I’d be gone?” “Like, a half-hour tops.” Cassidy seemed to check the time on her IAC. “Then I have twenty minutes.” A wicked smile spread across her face. Shaking her head, Cadence headed for the door. “You kids behave.” She suddenly understood why Elliott always said he felt like he had more than one teenager now. Thinking of him reminded her of what she’d seen at the gym. She stopped with her hand on the doorknob. “Brandon, do you know where your dad is?” She tried to sound nonchalant, like she was just wondering, not like she knew herself. “No. Out doing important Guardian stuff, I guess.” “Right,” Cadence nodded. She really wanted to ask if he knew anything, if he was aware that something might be going on with Elliott and Aurora, but she thought, if she were Elliott, she wouldn’t appreciate someone asking her kid that question, particularly if said kid was oblivious. “How’s your mom?” “Better,” he said with a smile. “I talked to her last night. Rehab seems to be working. She’s signed up to take college classes in the summer.” “That’s awesome.” Cadence’s smile was genuine. Amanda Keen was getting the help she needed, thanks to Elliott, and she couldn’t help but wonder what life might’ve been like for Brandon if his mother would’ve let his father know he existed. “See you guys.” A chorus of goodbyes sent her out the door, and she supposed they were back to their discussion about whatever she had interrupted. There were lots of hunts going on around the world, other smaller raids like the one she’d participated in the night before, and she had Area Leaders to check in with, so she headed up to her apartment, thinking Aaron was probably in the office they shared across campus and would most likely rather be alone at the moment. She’d let him have his space for now, but she knew something was going to have to change soon. She’d be damned before she’d lose him again.

Chapter 4

Brandon waited patiently on the other side of the door leading to the rooftop of the new recruits apartment building, listening. It was the same routine as usual. Whenever Cassidy went up there to find some solace so she could eavesdrop on the Vampires, he always waited for her here. Juan Diego had even brought another chair and left it for him, which was quite considerate of the custodian, but Brandon rarely used it. Most of the time, he stood with his ear pressed to the door, waiting to hear if his girlfriend was in any distress or if she needed him. She usually only spent ten or fifteen of her allotted thirty minutes actually in her trance, and then she’d let him know over the IAC she was done. Sometimes, he’d have to go in and get her. He distinctly ed the time she’d been trapped in Holland’s head, right before they’d gone to Melbourne, and he’d had to shake her fairly violently to get her back. That episode had scared the shit out of him, and it was precisely why he didn’t take a seat. He needed to be just as much in tune with her as she was with the Vampires. Standing there listening gave him plenty of opportunities to think about all sorts of things, like their mutual friends. He liked Dax and Tara a lot, and Lucy was cool. It was great she was at LIGHTS now, even though the circumstances were horrific. He liked the role he’d been given, now that he was allowed to participate on almost every hunt. He’d proven himself invaluable to the team and an asset in the field, which was great. When his dad had first come back, Brandon had thought maybe he wouldn’t be needed so much, or maybe Elliott would try to keep him from being so active for fear he might get hurt, but his dad was really great about almost everything, which was awesome since he really wasn’t used to having a parent. He also thought a lot about his mom. The fact that she was getting herself cleaned up was fantastic. He really hoped she’d finally become a doctor, like she’d always wanted to. Sure, she was a little older than most traditional med students, but he knew his mom could do it if she tried to, and he was sure his dad would help her out however she needed. He wasn’t under the impression there was a possibility his parents might get back together or anything. Since they’d never really been a couple, that wasn’t at all likely, but he knew his dad really

did care about his mom, which was awesome since he’d been told his whole life that his dad was a loser who didn’t give a damn about anyone but himself. It was too bad his dad wasn’t seeing anyone because he really was a great guy. How Brandon had ended up being a decent person was beyond him considering his upbringing, but he often wondered if his dad’s good genes had played a part. Checking the time, he noted Cassidy had been in her trance for about twenty minutes. If she didn’t alert him in another ten, he’d go in and pull her out. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to do that. He hated interrupting at all, but he also didn’t want to lose her either, and he wasn’t convinced after that other episode that it wasn’t possible. Cassidy was an amazing girl, and Brandon was certain that he loved her. He couldn’t picture himself with anyone else, and someday really soon, he wanted to ask her to marry him. He knew his dad probably would tell him to wait until they were both at least considered legal adults, but he also didn’t think that age made that much of a difference now. Still, a promise ring wouldn’t hurt, and he thought it might serve as a reminder to other guys that Cassidy Findley was spoken for. Namely, his second-least favorite American Revolutionary soldier. At first, Cassidy had just seemed to marvel at the fact that one of the Founding Fathers had ed their team, but then, the more time she spent talking to Alex, the more time she spent talking about him. Sure, he was an older, eccentric man, with a white powdered wig and breeches, but most of the guys around here were about a hundred years old, and Alex didn’t really look much older than Jamie or Elliott. So… despite her insistence that he needn’t worry about anything, it had crossed his mind once or twice that perhaps Cassidy didn’t even realize she was beginning to develop feelings for the gentleman. Brandon tried not to spend too much time worrying about it since it sounded so ridiculous, but it did bother him, and he hoped Alex would either be reassigned or go ahead and make himself human again and die already. It sounded harsh, even in his own brain, and he vowed never to say those words aloud, no matter how agitated he became. “Brandon, I’m done.” Cassidy’s voice in his head jarred him back to reality, the one where he was her boyfriend, not some guy who should’ve been pushing up daisies two hundred years ago. “Okay.” He opened the door, and headed in her direction. She was still sitting cross legged in her chair, a sign that the session had been intense, so

he rushed his steps and dropped down next to her within a second’s time. “Everything all right?” She was shaking her head. “No, something is definitely wrong with Holland.” “Isn’t that a good thing?” he asked, puzzled over why she looked concerned that the demonic Vampire they were trying to kill was hurting. “I don’t think so,” Cassidy said, her forehead still knit together. “I think this could be really awful.” “Well, unless she’s feeling bad because she’s about to have a whole litter of demonic kittens, I don’t know why that would be.” Cassidy shook her head again and stood, causing him to come to his feet as well. “I need to talk to Cadence. Now.” “All right. Let’s go.” He took her hand, which he noticed was damp with perspiration, and they headed toward the door. Normally, she told him everything she’d seen before she relayed it to her sister, but something was different about this vision, and he hoped whatever it was, it wasn’t something they couldn’t handle.

The pains in Asteria’s abdomen were sharp, as if she was being clawed apart from the inside out. She gritted her fangs, nearly ripping a hole in the side of her own mouth and stretched her back, running a hand along the bulge in her stomach, waiting for the moment to . Thoughts of calling for the doctor, if Hines could even be labeled as such, crossed her mind, but she knew this was only a growing pain, not anything to be too alarmed about, so she rested her head back on the red satin pillowcase and took a few more deep breaths. The girl had been there again. She’d felt her in her head. And this time, Asteria had been in too much pain to ward her off, which meant, after all of these weeks of keeping her secret from her enemy, they would know. She’d hoped to prevent them from finding out until after the delivery since Hines thought it shouldn’t be too much longer, perhaps a month’s time at most, but since keeping them in the dark was no longer an option, she’d have to decide whether or not to move forward before they struck her first. “Oh, Perses, how I miss having you here to discuss these matters,” she lamented into her pillow. If she were human, it would be wet with her tears. She had cried for her lost love every day and night since that bitch Cadence Findley and her team of villains had taken him away from her again. She would not let the Hunter get away with it twice. This time, she was prepared to do whatever it took, no matter the cost. That was the only reason for the delay. She wanted to make sure everything was in place before she moved forward, that the best plan was the one they’d carried out. With only Hines to help her, she realized there was no guarantee that anything they tried would work, so she had spent days looking for a suitable ally, someone to take Perses’s place. Unfortunately, that person had yet to be found. A knock on the door had her pulling in a deep breath for other reasons altogether. “Who is it?” she called, not wanting to see anyone at the moment, especially not the quack doctor who always had promises but no results. “Beg your pardon, Your Majesty,” he said with a nervous giggle through the door. “I have an update.” Asteria’s eyes tipped up so that she was looking at her own eyelids as she dragged herself up to sitting. She was not used to having extra weight in her

normally slender abdomen, and the bulge grew by leaps and bounds. Her back ached, and the muscles around her ribs and across her stomach strained and tore. “What?” He opened the door cautiously and entered, taking a few steps toward her, though he didn’t come to stand beside the bed. His hair stood atop his head like an ungroomed shrub, black spikes with a tint of gray where it had been singed in the last attack. His face was still rippled on the side where the Guardian Leader’s well-timed silver nitrate grenade had lit him on fire. Yet another reason to be cautious. “Your Highness,” he began, “I have finished the trials of the serum I mentioned to you on all of the Guardian test samples we took from Paul Larkin, and I do believe this is a viable possibility. However, I have some other ideas.” The serum. She’d been so excited when he’d explained a chemical compound he believed would work against the Guardians. However, when he’d first told her of it, he’d neglected to tell her it simply turned the Guardians back into their human form so that they could then be destroyed. Even that would be worth the effort, except for it took several hours at best to work, which meant she’d still have to capture the Guardians and hold them somewhere while it was istered and took effects. Also, in order to be effective, they believed it had to be shot directly into the bloodstream, all things that would be difficult when facing a formidable foe, such as the particular Guardian she had in mind to destroy first. Despite her doubts, Hines moved forward with expanding the number of cages downstairs. “What other ideas?” she asked, expecting them to be just as implausible as the others he’d brought to her. “Well, one in particular I think you shall like. Do you recall the incident in Sierraville, the one I told you about? It happened in your absence.” “Of course I it,” Asteria growled, flipping her long red tresses over her shoulder. “I might’ve been dead when it occurred, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize its importance. What of it?” “Well… I was thinking, perhaps we could find other Rogue Hunters, ones that would be willing to our side and destroy the Guardians for us. Perhaps we wouldn’t need to change them then. We could just have the Hunters destroy them.”

“Yes, Hines, I’ve thought of this before.” Of course she had. Again, she wasn’t a bleeding moron. “The only problem with such a plan is though there are many Hunters who might be willing to step away from the command of those who see themselves as their leaders, none have been so brazen as to actually wish to work with us.” “Perhaps we could manufacture some, then,” Hines continued, rubbing his hands together in front of himself. She raised an eyebrow. “Manufacture? How?” He shrugged. “Raise them. Make them here. Take those who are capable and force them to change here where we can convince them that we are the right side.” Her eyes rolled back into her head again. “Not only would that take years, I believe it is impossible. I’m fairly certain that it is literally in their blood to despise us.” He nodded, as if that had crossed his mind. “All right. Well, there are two creatures I believe we may be able to convince to take our side. They are both human now, but I should like to gain their services.” “Who do you speak of?” Asteria asked, cocking her head to the side. An even stranger smile than his normal expression spread across Hines’s face. “The two remaining souls who turned on them the last time. Perhaps they would have some insight. I should like to collect them. At the very least, they should stir up emotions in our enemies that could cause them to act irrationally.” She knew who he spoke of. “You’re going to America then, are you?” “With your permission,” he said with a nod, that ghoulish grin still on his face. “And what of my delicate condition? You said yourself you’ve never heard of this happening before. What shall happen when this child decides it’s time to greet the world?” “I’ll be back before then, I think. If not, there are others who can assist. I have recruited a couple of people who were in the medical field in their former lives.

My assistant, Joanna, could help you.” “But they know nothing of the child I carry.” “Nor do I, Majesty. It should be impossible, and yet here it is before us. The baby you carry is certainly a special being, and I’m certain the others will do their best to serve both of you well.” Holland drew in another deep breath. Perhaps these others would be better than Hines when it came to birthing her child. “Very well. Introduce me to them before you go. And, if these two you seek are unwilling to help, what then?” “Oh, I’m fairly certain they will do what they can to help.” The smile widened, and Asteria would’ve been fearful if she didn’t know her own power. “Well, you better hurry. The girl knows of my child. I’m sure they won’t wait much longer. I am shocked they haven’t discovered our current location just yet. I am still flooding the negative emotions, and they seem to be doing their part, but eventually, they will find us, and when they do, I believe they’ll bring everything.” “I am not so sure,” Hines said, his lips now pursed. “I think they may be taking a different approach. So far, they haven’t hit any of our main forces, picking off insignificant pockets here and there instead. Perhaps they do know where we are but choose not to come, not yet. Perhaps they, too, are waiting for something.” “I am shocked that my distraction could possibly have that sort of effect, but maybe that’s all it is that is causing the delay,” Asteria said. Hines had her attention now. “They’ve already moved armies of Guardians all over the world. Do you think there is something additional to the chaos I’ve been causing?” “Do you think your emotional interference has had such a dramatic effect?” Hines questioned without answering her. “I would like to speak to the two I mentioned before to see if there is anything else, or if the Guardian Leader is so easily swayed. They might know. But have no fear, my Queen,” he assured her with a broad smile. “I have no doubt that you could do all of this on your own. None is as powerful as you.” Asteria lifted her chin, her shoulders tipped back in confidence. “I know that,” she said, trying to keep her voice smooth. However, she wasn’t so sure now. Not

only had the enemy destroyed Perses much more easily than she would’ve ever dreamed, the girl who walked in her mind seemed far more powerful than even she realized. The potential for total annihilation really wasn’t that far away, and she was afraid her bag of tricks was almost empty. She needed someone to confide in, someone she could trust, but all of her former associates were gone now, and she had no idea who she could turn to. She considered asking Hines if he had any ideas, but she wasn’t particularly sure she could fully trust him at this moment, and the last thing she wanted to do was it she was questioning her own strength. The baby stirred in her belly again, a reminder that there were things she had previously been unaware of that still might help her, might guide her to victory. She simply needed to know where to look. Perhaps someone else might be able to take Hines’s ideas and make them plausible. As she watched the doctor leave her chambers, she rested back against the pillows and clawed through her mind’s eye, searching for someone who might be wise enough to help. There had to be someone she hadn’t thought of yet, someone who would help her find a way to take out LIGHTS once and for all.

Chapter 5

“A re you sure?” Cadence asked for about the fifth time, still staring at her younger sister like she’d just said she was growing a second head. “A baby?” “Yes, I’m positive, Cadence!” Cassidy practically screeched. “I know it’s supposed to be impossible, but I’m certain. She’s pregnant.” “But… that’s impossible,” Cadence repeated. She wasn’t sure why she didn’t believe it. After all, everything she’d assumed to be true about the world up until she was nineteen years old hadn’t been the case, so why was the idea that a Vampire could be pregnant so hard to absorb? “We’ve been over this,” Brandon, who was being snarky, chimed in from his spot in the armchair across Cadence’s living room. “She’s certain. So what now?” “I don’t know,” Cadence itted. “I mean, obviously, I need to talk to Aaron and Jamie.” She shook her head, distinctly ing the conversation about procreation she’d had with Aaron before she’d even Transformed. He had told her the only way to make a new Vampire was by infecting a person with the DNA of a current Vampire, through a bite, a scratch, whatever. But the idea that Asteria and Perses had created some sort of demon baby by getting it on just wouldn’t compute in her head. What kind of a product would that make? She had an idea whatever it was, it would make Bonnie seem like a cherub. “Okay. And tell them the name of the town Spittle is hiding out in is Lexington. It’s not that far from here. I saw the house. I can identify it.” Cadence nodded, knowing that finding Spittle would be the least of Aaron’s concerns considering the other news she was about to give him, not to mention he wouldn’t want to organize a hunt with both her and Elliott out of commission because of the procedure they’d be undergoing the next day. But she’d tell him if she got a chance, just to appease her sister if nothing else. Cassidy stood up, Brandon ing her, and they headed toward the door.

“Thanks, Cass,” Cadence said, crossing to follow her. “We all really appreciate your abilities and your willingness to use them.” She sort of expected her sister to remind her she didn’t really have a choice, but she didn’t. “Sure,” was all Cass said, and she leaned over and gave Cadence a hug, which seemed a little odd, but was welcomed, and then the teens headed out the door. Cadence closed it behind them and tried to figure out how to tell Aaron what she knew without completely freaking him out. Maybe she should tell Jamie first, let him tell the boss. She knew she couldn’t do that. With a deep breath, she pulled the door open and headed for the office. The walk of a few blocks wasn’t enough to clear her head, so Cadence stood outside for a couple of minutes, breathing in the night air and hoping some magical words would come to her, ones that would make the news she had to break to Aaron seem like they weren’t that big of a deal or at the very least like something they could handle with no problems. She recognized that if she had trouble accepting that this was even possible—he would have to be beginning to question everything he’d ever known. After about five minutes, she finally pushed through the door, using her IAC to unlock it since it was after hours, and pressed the button for the elevator hard with her finger in order to eliminate some stress. It was only marginally successful. She stepped out of the elevator and through the first door, glancing at the first chair on her right across from Mrs. Carminati’s empty desk, as she did every time she came in. That chair is where she’d sat waiting to meet with Aaron when he thought there was something going on between her and Christian. It’s also where she’d first met Brandon. Funny how a piece of furniture seems to hold emotion in it, she thought as she paused outside of the office door. Announcing herself with a small knock seemed fitting, even though it was now her office, too. Aaron didn’t say anything, so she opened the door and peeked in. He was standing behind his desk with both fists resting on the top, head down, eyes closed, and she wondered what in the world could possibly be going through his mind. “Is now a bad time?” she asked, expecting him to have a human reaction and jump up, having not heard her. “No,” was the only response she got. He didn’t even move. Clearly he had

known someone was there and probably even knew it was her. Cadence crossed the long room, past the place where they usually held their meetings, team size permitting, and dropped into one of the chairs across from him, waiting. Eventually, he looked up before sitting down. “Sorry. Just… a lot going on. What’s up? Did you talk to Cass?” “Yeah,” she said, deciding there was no point in discussing the rest of what he’d said. “She was able to get some information.” “Good.” She’d expected more but didn’t get it so she pressed on. “According to the intelligence she was able to find out from some of the other Vampires, this shapeshifting business is Holland trying to read our fears and put something in front of us that is scary. I guess she found a tunnel to be a good fit for a crocodile, or alligator, whatever, so she helped that particular Vampire shift into that form. She doesn’t do it often, I guess, but it’s an indication she is paying careful attention to what we are doing.” “So we could expect anything to pop out at us then?” “I guess so.” She nodded, giving him a second to process what she’d said before she switched topics. “Cass also has a pretty good location on Spittle and most of the other escapees, and she thinks it would be pretty easy to go in and get them. They’re not that far. Lexington? I think that’s what she said. Missouri.” “Right. It’s not that far. Okay.” She knew that didn’t mean, “Okay let’s do it,” just, “Okay, I hear you.” She readjusted in her chair. “And… there’s one more pretty shocking piece of information that I questioned, but Cass is certain it’s true. So….” She paused, not sure how to even say the last bit without shocking him into a heart attack or a nervous breakdown. “What is it, Cadence?” “Apparently, when Holland came back, she managed to break another rule of the universe, one we had no idea could be broken.”

“Which is?” Clearly, she wasn’t getting to the point fast enough, so she took a deep breath and just said it. “She’s pregnant.” “Holland?” “Well, not Cass!” She wasn’t sure if the statement coming out of her mouth was meant to be funny, sarcastic, or mean, It was none of those things. It was ignored. “No, that’s not possible.” “Yeah, that’s what I said, but… she’s sure.” Aaron shook his head. “It can’t be. It’s not possible.” “Are you sure? I mean, we thought a Guardian couldn’t kill a Hunter, too, didn’t we? And this whole bit with the serum? We didn’t think it would do anything. What about the rest of the crazy things going on? I think just about anything is possible right now.” He only stared at her for a long moment, still not accepting the information she’d provided, so Cadence decided to give up. Maybe he didn’t believe her because he couldn’t. Maybe he knew his own capacity better than anyone and knew pressing that bit of information into his already overworked mind would cause a complete meltdown, one that couldn’t simply be rebooted. She took a deep breath for the hundredth time. “Why don’t you come home?” “I can’t do that, not yet. I have too much to do.” “Is it anything Hannah can handle?” “Nope.” “Aaron, seriously, this has been going on for at least three weeks now. You’ve got to get a handle on it. I’m worried about you. We are all worried about you.” She leaned forward and thought about getting up and going around the desk and wrapping her arms around him, but she knew the expression he wore, and he

wouldn’t have been receptive to that, so she stayed on the edge of her seat. “I know, Cadence. I’m an emotional empath. I feel what you all feel. You’re worried about me; I become more worried about me. I get it.” He shook his head slightly, like he was stuck in a vicious cycle. “Do you think if we stopped worrying so much, it would help?” She made the suggestion only because it was the only one she could think of. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. There’s something else. I just… don’t know what it is.” “Something else that’s worrying you, that idea that something terrible is about to happen?” “Yeah, I guess.” He sat back in his chair looking more exhausted than Cadence could ever seeing him. “I just can’t put my finger on it, and it’s, well, you know.” “Right. But you’re not crazy.” “So you say.” “So I know. Stop thinking that way!” She wanted to say or else he’d end up in a looney bin, but then she thought that was too much. They sat in silence for some of the longest moments in her life, and Cadence stared down at her big, sparkly engagement ring, ing how happy they’d been the day he’d given it to her, despite the fact they’d been leaving Elliott’s funeral. Another example of something she would’ve never thought was possible happening right before her eyes. “There’s so much we don’t know.” “Vampires cannot procreate.” “I know. But maybe….” “If Vampires can procreate, then the universe doesn’t make any sense anymore, and I give up.” “Right. Okay. Vampires cannot procreate.” She stood, thinking it was best if she

didn’t overwhelm him anymore. “I’ve gotta go. Jamie wants us in the operating room at 8:00, and you know that’s early for me.” “All right.” He folded his hands on his desk but didn’t look at her. “Do you think you’ll be home at all tonight?” “Probably not.” “Okay.” She studied him for another long moment, but he still didn’t even glance up, so she turned and walked away, the “I love you” stuck on the tip of her tongue as she ed he hadn’t even said it back to her earlier, though she’d felt that he did then. Now… she didn’t know if he was capable of feeling anything but sadness. Cadence couldn’t control her tears as she made her way back to her apartment building. She tried to brush them aside, but thinking about how she’d felt that night in Ireland when she was certain he was gone forever flooded her memory, and she thought about what it might be like to lose him. Now, he really could change himself back into a human if he wanted to, or at least he should be able to, assuming there was nothing from the second dose of Transformation serum that would prevent him from doing so. Would he try that again? Would he do something even more rash and find a Hunter to end it all? She had no idea what to do about any of it, but she needed to find a way to help him. “Hey, kid, what’s goin’ on? You been visitin’ with Mr. Sunshine?” Her tears had clouded her vision to the point that she didn’t even see Elliott until he opened the door to the apartment building, letting out more light, and illuminating his large frame. “Oh, hi. Uh, yeah.” “You wanna talk about it?” Cadence checked the time. It was almost 10:00, which she wouldn’t have considered late if she didn’t have to get up so early for the procedure. Elliott didn’t need sleep, so he probably hadn’t even glanced at the clock. “I don’t know,” she said, stepping inside. This time of night, there was only one other person in the lobby, the woman behind the counter who was there in the off chance someone would need help with something, which wasn’t usually the case.

“Well, the bar is open, or we can go to your place. Something tells me he won’t be there. Can’t go to mine, though. It’s infested. With teenagers.” He wrinkled up his nose like they were the worst kind of rodents. Despite her recent rat encounter, Cadence giggled, knowing her sister wouldn’t be one of those pests since Cass would have had to head home as soon as she was done giving Cadence the information she’d requested. “I don’t think the bar is a good idea since we have to go under in the morning.” “Apparently, you are not familiar with my capacity to drink,” he replied. “But I understand, you lightweight. Come on.” He took her hand, like she was a little child, and she let him. They made their way up to her apartment, and he unlocked the door. Cadence collapsed on the couch as Elliott headed to the kitchen, which didn’t surprise her. He came back with a beer and a water, the second of which he handed to her. “What’s goin’ on?” She took a sip of the water and said, “Did Cass tell you? Holland is pregnant.” “Holy shit.” He dropped down on the couch, sprawled out like he owned the place, and Cadence guessed he hadn’t heard before. “Well, that’s a new one.” “Yeah. Cass seemed pretty sure that her intel was accurate.” “I don’t doubt it. She is usually right.” He took a swig of his Bud and set it on the coffee table, careful to use a coaster, not that Cadence would’ve minded, but he knew where he was. “Yeah. But Aaron refused to consider the possibility that it might be true.” Elliott raised an eyebrow at her but didn’t say anything for a long time. He’d known Aaron many more years than she had, though not the longest of the LIGHTS team . Still, they’d been close friends for decades. “Maybe it was too much.” “Maybe.” She could feel the tears start to sting her eyes again. “I’ve never seen him like this before, Elliott. Have you? I mean, what is happening?” He shook his head. “No, never. I don’t know.”

“I mean, even when you were dead, he seemed to be able to tolerate it somehow, just as much as the rest of us.” “He almost killed himself.” His voice was matter-of-fact, like he was telling her the time. “No, I know, but not on purpose. He wasn’t trying to kill himself.” “He was trying to escape all of this, though, right? One way or another?” “Yes… but he wasn’t suicidal.” She felt confident that he hadn’t meant to hurt himself when he took Christian’s stupid word for the fact that the serum was ready to use. When she’d found him, he didn’t want to die. Did he? No… he didn’t. She was sure. “Look, Aaron’s a complex fellow. I don’t quite understand what all he’s capable of now with this new superpower. I hope to understand a little more after tomorrow, but I don’t know what he’s thinking or what’s going on. I keep telling myself maybe it will , but so far, it just seems to be getting worse.” “Rapidly. Today seems ten times worse than yesterday.” It was her turn to shake her head. She took another sip of her water, wondering if she should call Jamie and let him know what they had found out about Holland. Maybe he would have some insight into the situation with Aaron, too. But then, she was pretty sure the doctor had plans with Ashley that night, and since that relationship was fairly new, she didn’t want to butt in. It probably wouldn’t help anyway. “Maybe Hannah could do one of those emotional blocker things, like we had her do when we wanted to see if Eliza was really a siren. Maybe he’s soaking up too much of our bad juju.” Cadence’s eyebrows perked up. “That’s not a bad idea. He did say something being worried about him just made it worse.” “Okay, I’ll talk to her. Can’t hurt.” She nodded, hoping that would fix things, at least temporarily. She had a feeling, though, until Holland was gone, none of it would matter. “You need to get some sleep, kid. I know how you are when you’re cranky.

Jamie might end up sticking that needle right into your jugular to shut you up.” Knowing he was teasing she forced out a chuckle. “Thanks. Okay.” He grabbed the beer can off of the coffee table and chugged down the rest of it. “Man, it’s quiet up here. You should come down to my place. Never a dull moment.” He stood, crushing the can, and carrying it to the kitchen. “Do you want us to find Brandon another apartment?” she yelled after him. There was an empty one not too far from Elliott’s, a few doors down, though she thought it might need renovated. He came back into the living room. “Nah, it’s okay. I don’t mind it so much. They usually disperse around midnight.” “Hmmm. I wonder if Cass knows what she’s missing out on.” “She does. She complains about it a lot. I know she wouldn’t be here if your parents weren’t, but I think she could do without having them watching her so closely. And by them, I mean your mom ‘cause I think your dad gets it.” Cadence nodded, but that was a problem for another day. Her sister would be seventeen in the fall, and then with one more year of high school, she’d be on her own soon enough. Cadence knew now how fast time could fly by. She brought herself to her feet and crossed the room, meeting Elliott at the door. Her arms barely fit around him, and she snuggled her head into his chest. “Thanks for coming by.” “Sure. Wish I could be of more help.” His arms were around her, too, and it felt nice to know she wasn’t alone. Cadence took in a deep breath, expecting to smell the same thing she always did when she hugged him, but instead of just leather and his signature cologne, she smelled something else. Perfume. And it was also familiar. She looked up at him, her face puckered. “Why do you smell like Aurora?” Elliott’s eyebrows shot up. “I do not know what you are talking about.” His tone was almost comical, it was so overly fake. “Bullshit,” Cadence declared backing up a bit and letting him go. “I saw you two

at the gym today. I saw you looking at each other across the table at the meeting, too. Are you two dating?” “No!” His answer was emphatic as he put his hands up between them. “We are definitely not dating.” “No?” she questioned. “Well, something is going on. Don’t lie to me, mister. I may not be the truth detector I live with, but I can tell when you’re pulling the wool over my eyes.” “The wool over your eyes? Since when do you talk like that? You been hangin’ out with Hamilton?” “Don’t you try to change the topic on me or sparkle me with your green eyes of untruth. What’s going on with you and Roar?” “Okay, okay!” Elliott took a step back and put his hands on his hips. “Listen, it’s really not a big deal. It’s just… neither one of us really has time to date or anything like that. We’re both adults who happen to like each other just fine. So….” Cadence stared up at her best friend with her mouth hanging open for a long moment, not able to believe what she was hearing. “So… you’re just….” She couldn’t finish. He shrugged and shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. “We’re meeting each other’s needs, I guess you could say.” Dumbfounded, Cadence still could not finish the sentence that she’d started before he spoke again. She realized she shouldn’t be so shocked—people did stuff like that, didn’t they? Weren’t there even movies about it? “Look, it was her idea,” he said with another shrug. “Anywho, the kids don’t know, so I’d appreciate it if you kept your mouth closed.” Since her mouth was still hanging open, he gently reached over and closed it. “Like that.” A giggle escaped her, and she didn’t even know where it had originated since nothing about the topic at hand seemed particularly funny. But she realized it was none of her business, and if they made each other happy, so be it. “I guess, I’m just surprised no one told me, that’s all.”

“Yeah, well, we didn’t intend to tell anyone. And I guess I didn’t take you for a super sleuth. And I didn’t know I’d end up smelling like her. If my kid asks, I’m telling him it’s cause I hugged you.” “Your kid can probably tell the difference between what I smell like and what Roar smells like, but unless he gets super close to you for some reason, you should be fine.” “Good to know.” He smirked at her, like a kid who’d been caught doing something mischievous. “Sorry to load your plate with one more thing.” “No, it’s okay,” she assured him. “It’s a good thing. I just… I’m surprised.” “I’m sure you are. I can’t blame you. There are worse things in the world to be surprised about. Like someone you haven’t seen in eight months showin’ up and reminding you you’re dead.” He winked at her, and Cadence smiled. Again, it wasn’t funny, but the way he put it made it sound like it was no big deal. “I’ll see you bright and early, sunshine. Make sure you get some sleep. Aaron’ll be all right until this is all over with.” “Okay.” She watched him open the door and step out into the hallway, still smiling reassuringly at her, like he somehow knew everything would be fine, but as he disappeared, the assurance did as well, and Cadence felt just as lost as she had before he showed up. There had to be something she could do to alleviate some of the stress Aaron was under, but she didn’t have any idea what it might be. Picking up her water bottle, she headed into the bedroom, still pondering the notion that Elliott and Aurora were friends with benefits and hoping that didn’t take a bad turn. She loved both of them dearly and would hate to have to choose. She knew more than anyone that sometimes life was full of hard choices, and sometimes her own decisions caused a whole lot of trouble for other people. She hoped somehow she’d find a way to fix this problem before the man she loved completely came undone.

Chapter 6

Normally, the sound of Cadence’s laughter made Aaron’s heart feel warm. It was the sort of sound that could brush away all of his problems, at least for a moment, but when it echoed off of the hallway walls outside of the operation room, it did nothing at all to affect his disposition. He knew something was very wrong, but he had no idea what it might be, and despite all of his friends’ concern and offers to help, the cloud that hung over him continued to seep into his core, making him feel like he was part of the thundercloud itself. He didn’t bother to knock on the open door. The laughter stopped the second he walked in, and those concerned expressions immediately filled the faces that looked up at him. Cadence and Elliott were both on hospital beds, sitting upright, Jamie between them with everything he’d need for the procedure on a small table in front of him. Cassidy and Brandon hung on the periphery, an air of marginal concern for their family present in their auras, but that was tainted by the nervousness Aaron’s presence stirred in both of them. He attempted a smile to ease everyone, but his face wouldn’t cooperate, so he approached them with the same sullen look about him he’d come to recognize as his normal disposition. “Hey, bossman. You here for the show?” Elliott joked. He didn’t look worried at all, likely convinced nothing could kill him, though after Cadence’s announcement the night before, Aaron was truly questioning everything. He didn’t want to accept the idea that Holland could be pregnant, but nothing was what it used to be. “Something like that. You guys ready for this?” “Hell, yeah,” Elliott said, and Cadence smiled at him, though she didn’t speak. Her eyes were a little red around the rims, a little puffy. The thought that she might’ve been up late crying over him only made him feel worse. “We’re ready to be superheroes, too.” “Uh, I never claimed to be that,” Aaron reminded them. “Just….” How did he finish that sentence? Try not to die was what he’d intended to say when he’d

started it, but that seemed unfunny at the moment, so he said. “Just try to relax.” “Spoken by the master of recreation.” Elliott was full of jokes today, none of them very humorous. “All right,” Jamie said, looking from one patient to the other. “As you guys know, this is gonna hurt, and there’s nothing I can do about it. But this is what you’ve signed up for, so don’t blame me.” His smile was weak, and Aaron wondered if he secretly didn’t want to do it either. ing the severe pain Cadence had been in the first time she Transformed, Aaron suddenly felt as if he didn’t want to be in the room after all. The last time, Jamie had used his own body to alleviate the burning, but it sounded like he wasn’t going to be doing that this time. “We’re ready, Doc,” Cadence assured him, though the way she was breathing, slow, staggered breaths, said otherwise. Aaron knew he had to stay, even if it was just as painful to watch as it would be for her to endure. He walked over to the far side of her bed, hoping his presence would help her, though he wasn’t sure if perhaps it made things worse. He noticed she wasn’t wearing her ring, but then she likely took that off for the procedure. Bending down, he kissed her on the forehead, and she reached for his hand, which he gave to her. A surge of fear radiated up his arm, and he couldn’t help but tip his head and study her for a moment. Typically, he had a hard time reading Cadence. Not today. These emotions were strong. He wished he had Hannah’s talent for calming people, but emotions only flowed one way for both of them, and while she was a radiator, he was a collector. “Okay. I’m guessing it’ll be about two minutes of hell, and then you’ll be fine. Asleep, but fine.” Jamie picked up one of the needles and flipped the lid off of it. “See ya on the other side, kid,” Elliott said, smiling at Cadence. She said nothing, but she did relax slightly, and Aaron imagined Elliott had done something with that smile to calm her, some sort of trickery. In this case, he was thankful it seemed to work, though it was minimal. Jamie inserted the needle into Elliott’s arm and pressed down on the plunger. Immediately, the Guardian on the hospital bed tensed up and clenched his eyes shut. Cadence looked away, and Brandon stepped forward, taking his father’s

other arm in his, whispering that it was okay. Looking pained, Jamie grabbed a second needle and inserted it in the same vein. Elliott’s reaction was immediate, as his face turned completely red and it was obvious he wasn’t breathing, though by choice, Aaron surmised. Cassidy began to count slowly, as if reminding her friend if he could make it to 120, he’d likely out. It wasn’t clear whether this was helping or not, but Elliott seemed to relax slightly, his face turning more of a bright pink than the crimson it was previously. “Sorry, Cadence,” Jamie said, picking up the needle and turning the other direction. “I really hate that I’m having to do this. And I wish I could make it stop hurting, but I’m afraid to interfere at all.” “No, it’s okay.” She was looking away from him, and Aaron could see tears in her eyes. Aaron dropped down so that he was crouching next to her at eye level. Part of him wanted to remind her that she could get up and walk away right now, but he knew she wanted this, and if he suggested such a thing, it would only make her angry, not deter her. “Hey, beautiful. You’re okay,” he said quietly. Cadence’s eyes widened, and across her, in his peripheral vision, he could see Jamie finding the vein in her arm. “You’ve got this. You’re going to be just fine.” Jamie pressed down, and Cadence immediately started to sob. Reaching up, Aaron smoothed back her hair. “You’re okay. It’s okay. Take some slow, steady, deep breaths.” He could feel the pain himself now, and it was burning like fire. But it wasn’t having the same effect on him as it did on her. Jamie picked up the second syringe. “You’ll be asleep in a minute and it’ll all be over.” “It… hurts….” Cadence stammered as Jamie pushed down the second time. She increased her grip on his hand, and Aaron could hear the bones crunching, but the pain coming from her was far more intense than whatever damage she’d done to his hand. “It’s all right. It’s over now. You’re floating away. You’re falling asleep, and when you wake up, everything will be different. You’ll be faster, and stronger, and nothing will be able to stop you. Nothing.” Her eyes unclenched for a moment, and she stared at him, tears still streaming

down, though he could see how tired she was. The pain had met its crescendo now, and as she rode the wave down, he could see the longing in her eyes, the unasked question lingering there. “I love you, Cadence Josephine Findley, and when you come back to me, we’ll figure this all out, okay? You don’t need to worry about me.” She nodded, unable to speak, and the fire began to fade, becoming a dull flicker before her eyes fell shut, and she was asleep. It took him a moment to loosen her grip from his fingers, and then the throbbing began. Having broken plenty of bones in his years, he didn’t think this was anything to worry over, and Jamie could heal it if he let him. He shook his hand out, kissed Cadence lightly on the head, and helped Jamie pull a sheet up to cover her. On the other side of the Healer, Elliott was also out. Both teens had tears in their eyes, and Brandon held Cassidy close, her head leaning on his shoulder. “Are you okay?” Jamie asked, gesturing at Aaron’s hand. “I can fix that.” “Yeah, I’m okay.” Aaron knew that wasn’t the truth, but at least he’d managed to pull himself together long enough to help Cadence get through her struggle. The fear that she might actually not wake up was present in the back of his head, but he couldn’t let that worry him now. There were thousands of other things to be anxious about, and he had to trust Jamie when he said it was safe. “How long do you think this will take?” Brandon asked, likely already knowing there would be no true answer. “I have no idea, but I’d say probably less than twelve hours. The recovery rate on the samples has been that or less.” They were all quiet for a moment as Jamie cleaned up the used syringes. When he was done, he walked around Cadence’s sleeping form and took Aaron’s hand in his. Though it crossed his mind that maybe now wasn’t a good time for this, what with two patients potentially needing Jamie’s healing powers, they both knew nothing would happen for at least the next several hours. So Aaron allowed Jamie to fix the damage Cadence had caused, which made the doctor yawn, but not out, and then the Healer asked, “Are you gonna hang out here for a while?”

It was a legitimate question, one that hadn’t entered Aaron’s mind until it was asked. He’d spent so much time in his office lately, he’d simply assumed he’d head back over there, but a glance at the sleeping form of his fiancée on the bed had him answering differently. “Yeah, I guess so.” Jamie nodded and Aaron backed out of his way so he could go do whatever else he needed to do across the operating room. Brandon was getting himself and Cassidy a chair, and it seemed like a good idea, to get a chair, if he was going to stay there. But he didn’t move. “You doing all right?” Brandon asked as they both sat down next to Elliott. Cassidy’s hands were folded in front of her face, her lips pulled to the side in concern, but not for him, for the two sleepers. How many times in the last few weeks had someone asked him if he was okay? Too many to count. The simple answer was no, but beyond that, there was nothing that could be said. He had no simple explanation for why he was feeling the way he was—like he wished he was made of sugar so he could fall into a puddle of water and dissolve. “I’m fine.” “You don’t look fine.” Cassidy didn’t even look up at him as she answered. “You haven’t looked fine in a while.” Again, there was nothing to say, and Aaron realized Jamie had brought him a chair, so he sat in it, because that’s what people did with chairs. “I’m going to finish up a few things in my office,” the Healer explained, likely trying to avoid a conversation he’d already had multiple times. “Let me know if they need anything.” The second comment was directed more at Brandon and Cass than his boss, and Aaron couldn’t hold that against him. Would Aaron even be present enough to notice if something did go wrong? Whatever this was, this funk or depression, or whatever anyone wanted to call it, he needed to find a way to get out from under it soon, or else it was going to destroy him. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to do that. And sometimes… he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

Cadence could feel herself slowly coming back to her body, a strange tingling sensation taking over her extremities. It was nothing at all like the last time she’d been given Transformation serum. That time it had seemed like waking up from a long sleep. This time, she had the feeling her body was reawakening, as if it had rebuilt itself while she was away, and now it was welcoming her home. She had the idea that she’d been dreaming, though she couldn’t say what those dreams might’ve consisted of. Something about Holland, she thought, maybe about her sister. Perhaps about the moon. None of it would come back to her, try as she might to put the fragmented photographs together, so that by the time her eyelids began to flutter, she may as well not have been dreaming at all. When Cadence’s eyes came open, she was greeted with near darkness. She realized she had a monitor hooked up to her, and it was beeping steadily. She wondered what had caused Jamie to think that was necessary. A small amount of light flittered into the operating room through the window in the door, but other than that, it was dark. She could still see, though. In fact, she could see even better than she’d been able to before the procedure, the first indication that it had worked. The bed next to her was empty, and for a moment, she thought she might be completely alone. “Are you back?” She didn’t have to move her head to realize it was Aaron, and then she also noticed he was holding her hand, which still tingled slightly. Turning her head around almost gave her whiplash; this new speed and strength would take some getting used to. Even in the dark, she could make out most of the details of her fiancé’s face. He was sitting next to her, and she supposed he had been for however long she was out, which was a surprise to her, because she assumed he’d go back to work. He’d been so distant lately, she wouldn’t have thought he’d do otherwise, but the haggard look about him told her that he’d been sitting there for quite some time. Which begged another question. “What time is it?”

“Almost 3:00 in the morning.” Not the answer she’d been expecting. So she’d been out for about nineteen hours. “I haven’t turned my IAC back on yet.” “You might not want to for a while. We’ve been busy.” “Great,” she muttered, assuming that meant she’d have a ton of messages to go through. She should’ve delegated to Aurora, but she didn’t want any of her Area Leaders to know what she was doing. “How do you feel?” He was standing now, still holding her hand. “Okay. A little groggy. Definitely… different.” A nod assured her that he ed having the same feelings, though in his case, he shouldn’t have ever woken up again. He should’ve died. He did die. “Did I… die?” “No. Neither one of you did.” Cadence let out a sigh, glad for it. More evidence it was the Retransformation serum that had caused that, not the Transformation serum she had given him. “How long has Elliott been gone?” “About twelve hours,” Aaron replied, a small smirk on his lips, something she hadn’t seen for a while. “Seriously?” She sat up a little bit. It would be Elliott to have it easy while she had to lay here for almost a full day. She shook her head and realized that was a good way to make herself dizzy. “Yep. He woke up like Sleeping Beauty, stretched, and then sped out of here to go get something to eat. Man, if we thought he ate a lot before….” She chuckled, so glad to see a little bit of the former Aaron back again, even if it was just for the moment. “Where’s Cass?” “She had to go home. Curfew and all. Your parents said this wasn’t a hunt, and you were fine. They came by, too, but your mom said she didn’t want to stay.

She’d just worry the whole time.” “I hope she went to sleep, but I doubt she did. Can you text her?” “Sure.” He pulled out his phone and did as she asked, and Cadence immediately missed having his hand on her. “Aaron…” she began, not quite sure what she was going to say, but thinking now might be as good a time as any, while he was calm and he seemed more like his former self, to recommend, again, that he talk to someone. Before she could finish the sentence, the door opened. “Are you awake then?” Jamie asked. “Something like that.” “Mind if I flip on the light?” “Go ahead.” She figured it couldn’t hurt nearly as much as the last time she ed seeing the Healer, but when the bright overhead beams hit her directly in the eyeballs, she had to squint. It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust. Jamie was already checking the monitors. “Everything looks good.” He took her pulse manually with his fingers, and then nodded again. “A little faster than normal, but that’s to be expected.” “It is?” She felt normal, but she wasn’t quite sure what that meant. “Yep. You’re probably a little anxious at the moment, and Aaron’s pulse is always a little higher than it used to be. I think you’re fine to go home.” “Great.” Cadence looked around for a moment, not sure what she should think. It seemed to her like she’d just came in a few minutes ago, and now it was all over. She sat up—much quicker than she meant to. Jamie produced her shoes from underneath the bed, which she slipped on. “Thanks, Jame. You’re the best.” He smiled at her, realizing her gratitude was for more than handing over her footwear. “Let me know if you need anything.” He patted her on the shoulder, and Aaron thanked him, too, as Jamie waved and walked away.

Her shoes on, Cadence checked her jeans pockets for no reason and then hopped down onto the floor. She felt mostly the same, just a little faster. It hadn’t taken her too long to get used to her new powers the first time, so she was hopeful it wouldn’t this time either. “I’ll walk you home,” Aaron said, coming around the bed to meet her. “But then I’m probably going to need to head to the office. There’s something… odd going on.” “Again?” She shook her head. It shouldn’t surprise her. There was always something odd going on anymore. “Do I even want to know?” “Once I know more, I’ll fill you in. For now, I’d keep your IAC off for a little while until you’re sure you’re okay. But , I can’t force it on, so if you need something….” “Right.” They were headed toward the door. She didn’t need the reminder; she knew no one could force her IAC on. Despite the fact that she seemed perfectly fine, she couldn’t blame him for worrying. If the roles were reversed she would be worried, too. The idea reminded her that she was worried and that she’d been about to say something about it before Jamie came in. But now, the moment had ed, and as they walked down the sidewalk next to each other but not really together, Cadence didn’t feel like she could bring it up again. She didn’t need to ask if he’d actually sat beside her the entire time she was out—she knew he had. But now that she was awake, he’d be hurrying to make up for whatever he felt he hadn’t accomplished from the chair beside her bed. She could feel him slipping away again, and there was nothing she could do about it. Inside the lobby, she stopped and turned to face him, biting back a sigh. “I know you want to get back to work. I’m fine. Why don’t you go ahead and go back to the office?” She tried to keep her voice light, but she could hear the frustration in her own tone and knew he would pick up on it, too. “Are you sure?” She thought she saw relief in his blue eyes, like he couldn’t wait to run away from her and get back to work. Or maybe it was more like Sisyphus, knowing the rock was waiting for him, and he’d be forced to keep pushing it up the hill whether he wanted to or not.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ll be fine.” “Okay.” He nodded and took a step backward. Cadence reached out to him, thinking she should at least kiss him goodbye, but he tensed up the moment her hand made with his arm, and she let go. “See you.” She shook her head and turned, heading for the elevators, and a few moments later, when she looked over her shoulder, he was already gone. She stepped inside, called her floor, and let that word ruminate in her head for a moment. He was gone… but to where? And would she ever find him again? Her apartment looked exactly the same. She wasn’t sure why she expected anything to be different. She hadn’t even been gone an entire day, but she was different, so somehow, she thought perhaps the world around her would’ve shifted slightly as well. Once she’d showered and ate something, she laid down on the bed for a few moments, thinking maybe she was still tired, but her eyes stayed open, and since she couldn’t do anything, else, she turned her IAC back on. A flood of messages hit her all at once, all about the same topic, and it took her a moment to realize what had happened. “Holy shit!” Cadence muttered. Maybe the world had shifted after all.

Chapter 7

His legs ached, especially his right one, which had been shattered in the airplane crash nearly a year ago. There had been no operations, no surgeries, hardly even any medication, and now, all these months later, lying on a paper thin prison mattress, the pain still kept him up most nights. Of course, there were other parts of his aging body that also ached and groaned all night long, but having his leg broken into a dozen pieces and leaving it up to his body to somehow put the jigsaw pieces back together again was bound to leave some fragments and shards that would not be soothed on this dirty, old, half-stuffed, bug infested mat. Across the cell, his roommate was snoring. Yet another reason why Sam could never sleep. This was a new kid. The last one had been paroled or some shit, something that made no sense to Sam considering all of the things that leatherneck had confessed to. But Sam didn’t even bother to tell anyone what he’d done; most of them were under the impression he was a chomo, a skinner, he hadn’t even known the meaning of the first time he was accused of being such. His withered body had barely survived the first beating he’d gotten in the yard after the other inmates accused him of assaulting kids, and there hadn’t been any special powers to put him back together then, only an infirmary where the workers truly didn’t give a damn. Lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling, Sam reflected on everything he’d seen in his day. He was almost two centuries old, older than the prison itself. He vaguely ed when Leavenworth had been built, though he’d been milling around in Mexico at the time, hunting a particularly nefarious bloodsucker by the name of Romero. Now, he knew it was a matter of time before he was dust, like so many of the Vampires he’d destroyed in all those years, buried beneath the ground next to the prison wall. That was, of course, unless something miraculous happened. Or maybe something… sinister. Even as the thought entered his head, a noise down the hall caught his attention. It wasn’t the usual night sounds he’d begun to grow accustomed to. This was something else entirely, though it wasn’t completely foreign to him. He’d never

quite been in this position before as he waited, his breath straining against his lungs, listening for an approach he neither welcomed nor dreaded. There were no footsteps, only a few whimpers Sam assumed came from the night watchmen, caught off guard and likely consumed within a matter of seconds. Whatever it was that was coming, it was powerful. Sam didn’t have to be a Hunter to sense that. A blue light off in the distance caught his attention. As it neared, he realized it was more of a glowing mist. Despite part of him wanting to cower in the corner of his cell, he drew himself up off of the cot and took a few steps toward the door as the gossamer slid between the bars and came to form a person before him. “Holy shit,” Sam muttered. He’d seen a hell of a lot of crazy things in his years but never anything like that. Not only was this blue mist trick something new, the man standing before him was as strange a fellow as he’d ever seen. He wore a white lab coat over his dark pants and shirt, and his hair stood up all over his head like a damn tumbleweed. Not much light reached Sam’s cell, but even with his human eyes, he could see a malicious smile spreading across the intruder’s face. Behind him, two more forms stood sentient as Sam tried to decide whether or not to fight or give in. “Ah, yes, here we are,” the man cackled. “Sam. It’s nice to see you. Of course, if you were what you used to be, I might think otherwise.” At the sound of his voice, though it was a whisper, his cellmate stirred, and the figure before him snapped his fingers. A few seconds later, one of the other forms in the hallway shifted so that it was also a blue mist. Sam stepped out of the way as it slithered between the bars of his cell and hovered over his cellmates bed. In only a few moments, the snoring turned to gasping, and then fell silent. “Now, where were we?” the freakish doctor asked as the blue mist slipped back into the hallway. “Who the hell are you?” Sam asked. Though he’d spent quite a bit of time at LIGHTS headquarters in Kansas City before he’d found himself here, he had been in a similar circumstance, held captive beneath one of the buildings, and he had no idea any of this shapeshifting was even possible.

“It doesn’t matter,” the Vampire replied, his hands folded in front of him. “I think you can be of service to us.” “But… you know… I’m not a Hunter anymore.” “Yes, of course I know that,” he replied with a flick of his head. “Doesn’t matter. You know more than any of us do. You can help.” “No, I really don’t think I can,” Sam protested. Never in all of his days had he feared a bloodsucker, but then, he’d always been capable of defeating them. Now, in his human form, he realized there was little he could do to defend himself. When the man before him took a step forward, Sam was tempted to step back. He held his ground, but just barely. “Well, the queen seems to think otherwise,” he replied, taking another step in Sam’s direction. This time, his foot slid of its own accord, and Sam found himself retreating toward the wall. Unfortunately there wasn’t really any place to go. “The queen?” he asked, confused. He hadn’t heard anyone referred to in that way since Holland was killed. Had someone taken her place? It was vengeance against the Vampire Queen that had taken him to KC in the first place. Pursuit of one of Holland’s relations, Henry, a Vampire who should’ve had some answers for Sam, a Vampire that wiped out some of Sam’s own kin. If it hadn’t been for that Cadence Findley…. “Yes. Asteria. I’m sure you’ll recognize her when you see her. A lot has happened while you’ve been… incapacitated. But I do believe you can help us, so, I shall have my associates take care of that now.” Even as he spoke, the blue mist forms filed into the cell, and Sam found himself pressed up against the concrete wall. Crying out would do him no good. No guards could protect him, not that they would even try. The rest of the inmates were just as caged as he was, and even if they thought they might be able to help, why would any of them want to? Likely, any that had been roused by the noise, were ducked behind their own cots, praying they weren’t next. “No, wait, please!” Sam begged as the blue mists formed faces and arms. One of them took ahold of his left side, the other his right. Fangs began to form, and Sam braced himself. It seemed impossible that, after all of his years of fighting

Vampires, he would now become one. The only reason this could happen was because of those bastards at LIGHTS who had taken away his powers as a Hunter. He would get vengeance for this, if it was the last thing he did. The sharp teeth clamped down on the right side of his neck, and held in place by two strong immortal beasts, Sam could not move. The pain took his breath away, and he felt his life force leaving his body through the puncture wounds in his neck. His eyes never left the smirking face of the mad scientist before him as he began to crumple, supposing he might wither away on the ground right there in his prison cell, turn back into a pile of dust, blowing away in the wind, the same way he’d ended so many Vampires back when he was Cowboy Sam, Vampire Hunter. Now, if he lived, what would he be? As Sam’s eyes grew heavy, he wished for death. It wasn’t the first time he’d said that prayer, but he’d learned long ago that God didn’t listen to the likes of him. If he opened his eyes again, he knew he’d be a monster, and most of him thought he would be better off dead. But just as he was about to fade away into oblivion, he ed that Vampires kill Hunters, and he had one Hunter in particular he’d like to see dead. Perhaps this wasn’t such a bad thing after all….

The office door banged against the wall as Cadence came flying through it. Aaron didn’t even look up. She could see how busy he was, and she also realized he probably expected her, even if he had no way of knowing when she might show up. She waited for him to finish what he was doing and stood in front of his desk with her hands on her hips. “I’ll call Juan Diego to come over and fix that,” he said in an even voice, and Cadence glanced behind her to realize she’d left a large hole in the wall where the doorknob had connected with the drywall. Clearly, she didn’t yet know her own strength. “What the hell?” Cadence asked, not angry at him, and he must’ve known that because he only shrugged. “Sam? And Laura? Are you shitting me?” She dropped into a chair across from him but knew she wouldn’t stay there. “Yeah. I’m not sure what they have up their sleeve, but Holland must think this will give her an upper hand somehow. I don’t quite get it….” “I mean, really, other than the fact that they both hate us, that’s nothing. Most Vampires hate us.” She couldn’t reason through it. Why in the world would Hines come all the way to Leavenworth to spring Sam and then stop in Chillicothe to pick up Laura? It made no sense. “The good news is we were able to identify the private plane he flew in on. And that means we can track it back.” “Great.” It hadn’t crossed her mind that Hines would need an airplane, but she supposed it beat transforming into a bat and flapping his damn wings all the way across the ocean. They had tracked Giovani’s airplane after all. “Where’d the flight originate?” “Not sure. Christian’s working on it. I would be shocked if it isn’t Melbourne, though. I don’t think that’s where he’s headed now.” Aaron’s voice sounded almost normal for a moment. He was definitely tired, and she could see the anxiety in the way he held his shoulders. There was no sense in thinking his problems had disappeared while she was out. “Well, if Christian is working on it….” Cadence had no reason to think that

Christian couldn’t track an airplane, but she’d lost more than a little faith in the tech guy recently. “Can you think of anywhere else he might be headed? Got any other human ex-girlfriends he might want to Resurrect?” Aaron didn’t even smirk at her little joke. She already knew the answer to that question and also realized he didn’t want to think of Laura in that capacity. “I don’t know where he might go. We’ll track him, though. That might give us a better idea of what’s going on.” “But we know she’s in Melbourne, right? And Cass said she thought it was some sort of an asylum in her dreams. I don’t understand why we can’t go check every run down asylum in the vicinity.” “Because… we aren’t ready. We need to have everything in place before we try to take her out. These little pockets….” “Aaron!” Cadence said, cutting him off and leaning forward in her seat. “Do you even hear yourself? This does not sound like you at all! Since when would you rather go after inconsequential peons than the queen mother herself?” He blinked at her once, like he recognized she was right, but just as soon as the flicker of recognition was there, it was gone again. “Cadence, this has been the plan since we came back from Australia the first time.” “No, this hasn’t been the plan since then. We were going to get the Guardians up from Roatan, take out the bigger pockets, like Spittle’s gang, and the others who were converging on the headquarters across the globe, and then move in on Holland. Now, we are sitting around twiddling our thumbs, taking out Vampires who are literally minding their own business. And it just doesn’t seem productive at all. Meanwhile, she’s out there growing her army, somehow making babies, and collecting all the people we’ve wronged. We have got to do something, Aaron. Do. Something.” “We are doing something.” He ran his hand through his hair and several strands came out again. “We have to stick to the plan.” Frustrated and angry, Cadence pulled herself out of her chair. “No, we don’t. It’s a stupid plan. And I won’t follow it anymore. I know you hate to it it, but I am just as much in charge of this operation as you are. So I’m taking a team, and I’m going to Lexington, and I’m going to take out Spittle. Maybe that’s not a

huge leap toward stopping Holland, but it’s something.” “You’re not taking any Guardians with you!” he countered flying up out of his chair to meet her. “You may be Hunter Leader, but those are my people, and they’re not leaving here without my permission, and I do not approve of this operation.” Both of Cadence’s eyebrows shot up. “What the hell is the matter with you? Of course I am taking whichever Guardians I want to. Seriously, you have got to get your head examined.” She bit her tongue, realizing her words were much more harsh than she’d intended. His eyes narrowed on her. “Any Guardians who agree to go with you will immediately be transferred out of KC.” “Oh, okay. I’ll go get myself killed then. Is that what you want?” she asked folding her arms, and staring at him. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This situation was far more dire than she had ever imagined it might be. He was another person entirely, one she couldn’t stand in the least. “If that’s what you need to do….” Her mouth dropped open for a second, and Cadence turned her back to him, anger welling up inside of her, but more than that, she was hurt. Whether or not she’d even ask Elliott, Jamie, and Brandon to go with her at this point, she wasn’t sure, but one thing she did know, the person behind her was not the man she’d fallen in love with, not the man she’d agreed to marry. As she headed for the elevator, she didn’t look back, didn’t allow the tears searing into her eyeballs to fall. Whatever was going on with him, she needed to that he needed help—right now, all she wanted to do was tear his head off. It wasn’t quite dawn yet when she headed into the one place where she thought she might find someone awake who could help her. Unfortunately, when she got to Jamie’s office, he wasn’t there, and the door was locked. She imagined he might be with Ashley. Their relationship had really taken off recently, and while she was incredibly happy for her friend, she needed his council more than ever. Frustrated, she banged her head against the wall next to his door, and once again not knowing her strength, she actually created a small crater in the drywall. “You know, until you can control that a little better, you might want to take it

easy on the facilities.” Christian. He was headed her direction, seeming to walk in slow motion, though she assumed that was just her new perception. “Sorry. I’m just….” “Furious? Outraged? Ready to kill someone?” “All of those things.” Most of the time, even the thought of confiding in Christian would’ve turned her stomach, but seeing as though Jamie wasn’t there, and Elliott may also be otherwise occupied, she didn’t know who else to talk to. “What the hell is going on with Aaron?” “Ah.” He nodded, like that was what he suspected had her upset. “I don’t know any better than you do, probably not any better than anyone. But I have a suspicion. No one wants to hear it, though.” He turned and walked into his office, as if the conversation was over, and Cadence ed one of the many reasons why he was so frustrating. She followed. “What is your theory?” She stepped into the doorway and prayed it wouldn’t be something stupid. Everyone knew that the relationship between Christian and Aaron was increasingly strained. Normally, Aaron was about the only person who could get along with Christian these days, but since the tech guy hadn’t been taken to Melbourne, there was a chasm there that hadn’t been bridged back together. He shrugged, poising his fingers above his keyboard. Cadence still couldn’t get over how huge his monitor was. It was like a big screen TV from the ‘90s. “I think… when he died, part of his brain tissue died, too, and it hasn’t regenerated. So now, he’s just slowly going insane. But… that’s only my theory.” She stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded. “You can’t be serious.” “Hey, according to all of the studies I did on that particular strand of serum, he shouldn’t have come back to life. So, I think we’re going to continue to see a downward trajectory until he completely loses it and has to be restrained. But… what do I know?” “You’re right,” Cadence nodded. “You don’t know anything.” “Whatever,” Christian said, like he didn’t care either way. “But once he’s gone,

you’re going to have to marry whoever takes over. So, you better push for Jamie to become second in command. Unless you’re into Hannah, which is cool with me.” For a moment, she thought maybe he was drunk or high. Or maybe he was just messing with her. But it was Christian after all…. Footsteps in the hallway had her shifting her gaze out of his office. An older-looking man with short, dark hair, glasses, and a friendly smile was headed her way. It took her a second to place him, but since he was wearing a white lab coat, she ed that this was Dr. Morrow, the scientist who had been working on the Retransformation serum in Roatan for so long. He had accompanied the Guardians when they returned, but Cadence didn’t even know if he was a Hunter, a Guardian, or a human. “Oh, hello, Miss Findley,” he said with a friendly smile. Something about him reminded her of her dad, or a dad anyway. “I’m surprised to see you up at this hour.” The fact that it was so late in the night, or early in the morning, made her think he must also be a Guardian. She could check her IAC, but she wasn’t sure that it mattered. “Hello, Dr. Morrow. I had my procedure today, so I’m not really tired.” “That’s right. How did it go?” “Well, thank you. I think, anyway. Christian and I were talking about the change we’re seeing in Aaron. Christian seems to think it might be related to the Retransformation serum.” “Really?” the doctor asked as she moved out of the way so he could enter Christian’s lab. “Why is that?” Christian seemed a little more at a loss for words now that his theory had been questioned by someone who knew a lot more about the serum than he did. “I was saying that some of the studies I’ve done have shown a continuous breakdown in the cells over a period of time. Perhaps, there is a possibility, that the depression, angst, and general malaise has set in due to a loss of function of the brain cells.” Cadence studied Dr. Morrow carefully, holding her breath, hoping he would disagree. If what Christian said was true, things were a lot worse than she thought they were. “Interesting theory, but hasn’t Dr. Joplin continued to

perform CT Scans on Aaron since the incident? Doesn’t he do blood tests monthly? I believe if your theory was true, we would see medical evidence. Don’t you, Mr. Henry?” She shifted her eyes back to Christian, waiting to see what he might have to say. “I suppose that should be the case,” he began. “But it could be that the cell breakdown just hasn’t reached the point where it would be detectable in those sort of tests.” Dr. Morrow turned back to face her, and Cadence found nothing but warmth in his blue eyes. “Miss Findley, you shouldn’t fret too much about this possibility. I would say that Mr. McReynold’s current health issues likely have more to do with stress and anxiety than anything irreparable. Have you talked to Dr. Joplin recently?” “No, actually, I was hoping he would be here, but he’s not.” “Right, well, I would do that before I begin to worry too much. While there is a possibility that Mr. Henry’s theory is possible, I would say it is not likely. I’m sure once all of this business is over with the current threat, you’ll see your fiancé return to his usual self.” Dr. Morrow patted her comfortingly on the arm and then continued into Christian’s lab, asking him something about data that Cadence didn’t understand. She caught Christian’s eye, and when the other gentleman wasn’t looking, Christian rotated his pointer finger around his ear and crossed his eyes at her. She assumed he was saying that Aaron was crazy and not Dr. Morrow, but either way, Cadence was irritated. She kept her growl to herself and turned to head out of the building. Once outside, she hurried off toward her apartment at such a pace she didn’t realize how fast she was going and nearly collided with Alex as he was crossing the street. “Well, I dare say, aren’t you quite the thoroughbred.” He stepped out of the way just in time and gave her a slight bow. “I’m sorry,” Cadence said, thinking she’d had enough Revolutionary War soldiers for one night. “It’s quite all right, Cadence. How are you feeling? I trust your procedure went as expected since you are much swifter than the last time I saw you.” He smiled

at her, standing in the sort of pose one might expect a proper gentleman from two hundred years ago to stand, and she couldn’t help but stop for a moment to speak with him. “I’m feeling just fine, thank you.” Realizing that Alex had actually been around even longer than Aaron had, and a year or two longer than Christian, she took a step forward and said, “Can I ask you something?” “Why certainly. I agreed to come here so that I could be of assistance. Whatever is vexing thee?” Now, she just thought he was being overly proper. She shook her head to clear it. “Well, it’s just….” Cadence looked around to make sure they were alone. She didn’t like talking about Aaron to just anyone, but she thought perhaps Alex could help. “I don’t know how well you know Aaron, but he doesn’t seem to be himself lately, and since you’ve been around for a while, I was wondering if you had any theories as to what might be causing him to be so stressed out, so angry.” Alex folded his arms for a moment and then lifted one hand to his chin in contemplation. He looked up and caught Cadence’s eyes before slowly shaking his head. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t know. I have little experience with these demonic Vampires. You see, by the time it was sorted out that Dracula had come through the portal at the same time as I had, I was already off on my own, trying to figure out how to cope with a life that will stretch on into infinity.” Cadence was disappointed, but she tried not to let it show. “That’s okay. I just thought maybe you might have an idea.” She was about to turn to leave when she realized what he’d said. “Wait a moment, Alex. Do you think… do you think this is directly related to the demonic Vampires somehow? That is to say…” she caught herself starting to sound like him and rephrased. “I mean, do you think that this is stress from the fact that we have to face a demonic Vampire, or do you think something else might’ve happened when Holland and Carter came through, something that might be affecting Aaron this way for some reason?” “I honestly don’t know,” Alex said, though she could tell by his expression that he was continuing to contemplate the possibilities. “But I do think it is worth investigating. I’m afraid there’s a myriad of information we have yet to discover. Though we think we know all of the rules, all of the potential variables, when we

come to the end of it, we really know little to nothing.” His words were of no comfort to her. In fact, they made her feel even more uneasy. How could someone who had been around for so long think that there was so much more to find out? “All right, well, thank you, Alex. I appreciate your insight.” “I apologize for not being of more help. But should I think of anything else, I shall let you know.” “Great. Thanks.” She managed to smile at him and then hurried off again, this time trying to take it a little slower so there were no collisions. Cadence re-entered her empty apartment and sunk down on the sofa, her head in her hands. She longed for the way things were before, back when Holland was gone, and Aaron was himself. Of course, as soon as that thought entered her head, she ed this was all her doing, and her eyes shifted to the spot above the mantel where Elliott’s urn used to sit. Was she saying she wished she could go back and change things so that Elliott had never come back so that Aaron was himself again? She wasn’t sure. But for the first time since she’d opened the Blue Moon Portal, she was beginning to question whether or not she’d done the right thing.

Chapter 8

Afew uninterrupted hours of sleep should’ve done her some good, but it didn’t, and when Cadence woke up all alone in a king sized bed, she couldn’t decide whether to cry or scream. So she did a little of both, took a shower, and headed to Jamie’s office. There would be no relaxing run on the treill this morning, not until she’d had a chance to talk to the Healer anyway. Despite doing her best to walk slowly, she was still standing in his open office door in less than two minutes. He looked up, slightly startled, as if she had appeared out of thin air, and she thought perhaps to him she had. “Hey. Got a sec?” she asked, leaning in the door with her top half while her legs were firmly rooted in the hallway. “Sure,” he said, though he looked more than a little concerned himself. “What’s up? And since when can you teleport?” She giggled even though she didn’t really feel like laughing under the circumstances. “I guess it might seem that way. Did you hear the front door open and close?” she asked, looking out his office door to the front of the building. “No, but then I was looking at this data Christian collected on your sister, so I wasn’t really paying attention.” Suddenly, Cadence had one more thing to worry about. “The samples still? Anything changed since last month?” “No. Still the same. Cassidy’s samples that are mixed with the Vampire venom don’t deteriorate. Nor do any of the others. It’s all peculiar. I wonder….” He stopped, shaking his head. “What brings you in?” “You wonder what?” she asked, gesturing with her arms for him to continue. “What?” “Oh, I was just thinking aloud. It’s nothing.”

“No, it’s something. What?” He took a deep breath, like he didn’t want to suggest anything about Cass to her, but he continued his thought with her probing. “I was wondering… if you were to cut Cassidy—nothing too serious, but just a little cut—if it would heal quickly by itself. That’s all.” “You mean me because I’m a Hunter?” “Yeah. But we don’t have to do that. I was thinking that might give us more data on whether or not a Hunter can harm her. But anyway, that’s not why you’re here. What’s up?” It was Cadence’s turn to take a deep breath now. As much as she had been going over everything in her head the last eight hours or so, it was difficult to think about saying it out loud. Jamie was staring at her in anticipation, however, so she finally said, “I’m worried about Aaron. Really worried about him. Worse than before worried about him.” Jamie nodded, as if she didn’t need to say anymore, but he asked, “What happened?” “I told him that Cass has a location on Spittle and that I’m tired of waiting around. I said I wanted to take a team and go get him, and he said if I did, I’d have to do it with no Guardians.” Her friend’s forehead crinkled. “What’s that?” “Yeah. He said if any of you went with me, he’d transfer you.” Jamie scoffed at the idea. “I seriously doubt he meant that. Especially considering the people most likely to go with you are me and Elliott, and he knows he needs me. Elliott comes in handy, too, most of the time.” Cadence could only shrug. She knew it was hard for anyone to believe Aaron would say such a thing, but it had come out of his mouth. “Anyway, I’m very concerned. Christian says he thinks his braincells are slowly dying and that he’s going crazy.” “His as in Christian’s—because that I could believe.”

Part of her almost laughed, but it wouldn’t form in her throat. “No.” She couldn’t say it again. “Right, well, I think that’s about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I have done hundreds of tests on Aaron since you guys came back from Ireland, and there’s nothing physically wrong with him. There were some anomalies, but nothing has changed since you used the serum, and none of what I saw seemed dangerous in the least bit. I think we can rule that out.” “I don’t know what to do, Jame!” She ran her hands through her hair in exasperation. “He’s not himself.” “Calm down, Cadence,” Jamie said, reaching a hand across his desk and taking hers. Normally, if someone told her to calm down, particularly a man, it would make her even more upset, but there was something about the way that Jamie said it that actually seemed to work. “I’ll go talk to him, okay? Maybe he’s rethought the situation. In the meantime, why don’t you go talk to your sister, see what she knows about Spittle, and start organizing a hunt? Even if you do have to go by yourselves, which I don’t think I’m prepared to let you do, you’ve done it before.” Still holding firmly to Jamie’s hand, Cadence nodded. Back when she’d left Kansas City, with just Meagan and Aurora with her, they’d went into circumstances lots of times without any Guardians, and they’d always been able to handle every situation. Depending upon the numbers Cassidy threw at her, there was a chance she could do it again with the right team. She would not be taking her sister though—no way. “All right,” Cadence agreed, letting out a deep breath. “Can we fix this, Jamie? Before it’s too late?” “Hell, yeah, we’ll fix it. Just… let’s see what we can sort out, okay?” She nodded, hoping he was right, but it seemed every day that went by the situation was worse, and she started to wonder about Christian’s prediction. What if they did have to lock Aaron up? Would any of them even be capable of doing that? Standing, she let go of his hand. “Thanks,” she said, and he stood, too, looking at her with the same sympathetic eyes she was used to seeing when someone had

died. She wasn’t ready to go there again. Walking out of the office, she checked her IAC and saw that it was almost 10:00, which meant that Cassidy should be done with her training and headed back to their parents’ apartment to do her homework. Cadence realized she hadn’t eaten anything and headed home to grab some lunch, hoping Aaron wasn’t there. She didn’t think he would be, though, since these were prime working hours. She opened the apartment door slowly, glad to hear the emptiness, and headed to the kitchen. She had almost finished making a sandwich when she heard the front door open. “Shit,” she muttered, setting her ham and cheese down on her plate. “Hey,” Aaron said, almost as if he had hoped she wouldn’t be home either. “Just came home to take a shower. I’m going to stop by and talk to Juan Diego on my way back to the office. There’s a crater in the wall by Jamie’s office, too?” “Yep,” she said, not able to meet his eyes. He stood there for a moment, and she froze, staring at the cabinet in front of her, waiting to see if he’d say anything else. He didn’t, and a second later he was gone. No longer hungry, Cadence put the sandwich making materials away and wrapped her sandwich up for later. Maybe in an hour or two she’d regain her appetite, though she doubted it. She hurried downstairs to find her sister before she ran into Aaron again. Her mother answered the door on the first knock. “Cadence! I wasn’t expecting you.” “I know, Mom. I’m sorry. Is Cass here?” “Actually, no. She’s at Brandon’s. They have some test they’re studying for. Is everything okay?” Her mother knew her well enough to see when she was lying, but Cadence didn’t have time to explain right now. “I’m fine. Just need to ask her a follow up question to the info she found out for me last night. Thanks.” “Cadence?” her mother called after her, but Cadence was gone before she could even look back to see the concern written all over her mother’s face. She took the stairs, hoping it meant she could avoid running into Aaron if he was already

on his way back to the office. She knocked on Elliott’s door, and waited as patiently as he could before Brandon called out in a high pitched voice, “Who is it?” as if he was a house wife from the fifties. It would have normally made her laugh, but humor was not on the agenda today. “Open the damn door, Brandon,” she replied, trying to bite back the anger seeping out of every pour. “Gee, someone is in a lovely mood.” He pulled the door open. Cass was sitting on the couch, her algebra book open and her laptop on the coffee table, so at least they were actually studying and not doing… something else. She breezed past him. “Cass, I need you to gather as much intel as you can about Lexington,” she said, dropping into Elliott’s favorite recliner. She looked around, partially expecting him to be there, but she didn’t hear him. “I am going to put a hunt together, but I likely won’t be able to take any Guardians, so I need as much info as possible. And before you ask, no you can’t go.” “Wait—what?” Cassidy asked, setting her math book aside and leaning forward. “What do you mean no Guardians?” “It’s been forbidden,” she replied, brushing her hair back. Brandon was frozen between the door and the couch just staring at her. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but humor me, okay?” That was the only kind of humor she had a stomach for. “Okay—like now?” she asked, still obviously confused. “No, it doesn’t have to be now, but the sooner the better. I need numbers. Hiding places. What kind of location this is. Is it a residence? Is there security? All of the usual stuff, only you’ve gotta be absolutely certain.” “Okay,” her sister said again. “Let me finish my math, and then I’ll check.” “Great. Thanks.” Cadence rested her elbows on her knees, wondering how boring it would be to watch her sister do her homework. “Is there something else?” Cassidy asked, obviously annoyed that her sister was still there.

There wasn’t, not really, but she felt like there should be something else, or otherwise she would’ve gotten up by now. “Uh, could you… check in on Hines? He might be on an airplane right now. It’s just… he’s been up to no good, too, and I wanna know if you can pinpoint him.” She didn’t know how her sister would react to knowing Sam had been Resurrected since Cassidy had every reason to hate him just as much as she did. “Ookay,” Cassidy said as Brandon walked over and sat down next to her. She closed her eyes in concentration “He might not be alone,” Cadence added. “But don’t worry about whoever is with him.” Cass opened one eye, looked at her sister, and then closed it again. Cadence thought about saying something else but held her tongue. Cassidy was quiet for a long moment, and Cadence wondered if it would be better if she left, but after a few seconds, her breathing evened out, and her forehead crinkled. “Oh, no,” Cassidy muttered under her breath, and Cadence prayed it was the bit of information she already knew. “Oh, no!” “Cass, are you okay?” Brandon asked, resting is hand on her arm. “Hold on. Let me check something.” She didn’t even open her eyes. She was slowly shaking her head but kept her eyes closed for another few minutes before they finally opened. “Uh, do you know who I saw?” she asked, her tone accusatory. “Sam? Maybe Laura?” “Uh, yeah.” Cadence nodded. “Yeah. I guess I should’ve told you about that.” “What?” Brandon asked, confused. “The Sam? As in Cowboy Sam?” “Yep,” Cadence confirmed. “Hines broke in and turned them last night, took them with him.” “Son of a bitch.” Brandon ran his hand through his hair so that it was practically

standing on end. “He’s on his way to some place in Europe, but I couldn’t get a direct read on it. I’ll check in later. Maybe he will have landed by then. I looked in on Holland, too, and regardless of what the big bossman thinks, she is pregnant. It wasn’t her idea to get Sam and Laura, but she approved it. I shut her down for a few minutes while I was in there, too, so Christian can get his data. She didn’t like it this time, not at all. She fought me the whole way. It was like she was really concentrating on something.” Cadence was puzzled. “Like what? You mean more than just messing with the Vampires’ trackers?” They all knew Holland had been sending out a signal that made it difficult to track the Vampire’s location using the trackers many of them had implanted, but Cassidy had found a way to work around it. Cadence was able to take the new data, which looked a lot like the old data, and send it to Christian while she was still talking. “Yeah, it was weird. She basically shoved me out of her head, something she’s never done before. She usually wants me to hang out there so she can try to talk me into ing them. I got the feeling she might be traveling, too. She might be going to meet Hines.” “Could that be why she didn’t want you in her head?” Brandon asked, sliding his hand down to take hers. “I don’t know. She’s so weird. It’s hard to tell what she’s thinking. I’m sure it’s going to be worse now that’s she’s pregnant. Prego brain in a crazy ass Vampire.” Cadence could only shake her head. “Okay, well get me that info this afternoon, if you can, okay?” Before Cassidy could answer, Brandon said, “I wanna go.” “At the risk of you being transferred, I’m going to have to say no. Again.” “But….” His argument was cut off when the door opened. “Well, hello there, sunshine,” Elliott said, walking in with a big sappy smile on his face. Cadence hoped it

didn’t have anything to do with Aurora because those images wouldn’t be erased from her mind too quickly, and she couldn’t ask in front of the teens anyway. “How’s it going?” she inquired, no longer ready to push up out of his chair. “It is going. It is going,” he replied, tossing his jacket on the back of the recliner, the breeze brushing Cadence’s hair up off of her shoulders. “You will never guess who I ran into downstairs.” Cadence knew by his happy demeanor he must not have any idea about Sam, and she supposed she’d have to tell him, but there was no reason to spoil it yet. “Who?” “Your beloved. And… it was weird, but he was back to his old self for a few moments. It was… strange.” He was headed into the kitchen, so Cadence followed him, her eyes narrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?” The idea that Aaron could be himself again, even for a few minutes, was almost unfathomable. The closest she’d seen to it in weeks had been before and after her procedure, and it hadn’t lasted, obviously. “Yeah, it was the oddest thing. He was talking to Juan Diego, so I didn’t say anything to him, ‘cause you know how that guy is terrified of me.” He opened the refrigerator and rifled around for a minute before pulling out a carton of Chinese takeout which he smelled and then shrugged over before popping it into the microwave. “And? And?” “And I could see he was, you know, being salty with the poor guy, so I kinda hung back, but then, something seemed to change. His eyes shifted a little, and the next thing I know, he’s telling Juan what a great job he’s doing, like he’s his old self again. So as soon as Juan leaves, I walk over and ask him how it’s going, and he says he feels good. Really good. And he’s smiling at me like there ain’t nothin’ wrong in the world. So I’m like, great because we’ve been a little worried about you. And he kinda shrugs and says he knows, but then, almost as quickly as it came, it was gone, and then he was all morose again and turned around and walked away. I called after him, but he was gone, and I didn’t feel like chasing him down just to be told to go to hell. Weird, huh?”

The microwave beeped, and he pulled out his food, stirring it up with a fork before sticking it back in. Cadence leaned back against the counter, not sure what to say. “That is all very weird.” “So… anyway, maybe there’s hope after all. Maybe Hannah got a handle on him for a second. Or hell, maybe the idea of maintenance being on top of their game is delightful. Either way, he’s in there somewhere.” There was so much information Elliott had missed out on recently, Cadence didn’t even know how much to tell him and what to skip. She decided to leave most of it out. “Well, I’m arranging a hunt to go get Spittle, and he says no Guardians allowed.” “Say what now?” The microwave beeped again, and he pulled his food out. Happy with the heat level this time, he popped open a pair of chopsticks from the silverware drawer, and though he was holding them correctly, they seemed more like a shovel when he started to use them. “Yeah, that’s what he said last night. Cass is going to get me some intel in a bit, and then I’ll make a decision about who is going.” “Well, I’m going. Cause he can’t kill me.” She smiled, glad he had her back. “No, but he can transfer you.” Laughing hysterically, Elliott walked out of the room, but he wasn’t headed for the living room. Instead, he turned the other direction, and Cadence knew he was walking toward his bedroom because she’d been in there once before. When he was dead. She followed, despite being slightly uncomfortable. In his room, there was now a large recliner positioned in front of a large flat screen TV. His bed was shifted so that it was in the corner. “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to the foot of the bed, and Cadence decided to sit so as not to be rude. His bed was made, which didn’t surprise her, since he rarely slept, but the room was still messier than she would’ve liked. Still, she’d hung out in her male friends’ from high schools’ rooms enough times that this shouldn’t be that big of a deal. “He won’t transfer me.”

“He says he will.” “He can kiss my ass. And I say that with as much love and affection as a person can.” She didn’t know what else to say about it, so she decided to get to the other pressing topic. “Has anyone told you about… Sam?” Elliott had the remote in his hand and pressed the on button, flipping through channels as he replied. “No. What? Did the old son of a bitch finally die?” “Not exactly,” Cadence replied, staring at a stain on the carpet she thought could’ve been soy sauce. Or taco sauce. Or one of several different kinds of condiments. He was looking at her now, even though the remote was still pointed at the TV. “Speak, Cadence.” “He’s… undead.” The Chinese food nearly went flying out of his hand as he scrambled to put it on his dresser. “Say what now?” “I know, it’s shocking. Hines went and got him last night from Leavenworth. Sprung Laura, too. We have no idea what they want with either one of them, but I guess they think they’re valuable somehow.” Elliott stared at her with his mouth hanging open for a long moment before he finally shrugged and said, “Well, I guess this’ll give me a chance to kill him then. Get some revenge.” She was glad that’s the way he was choosing to handle it. She wouldn’t up the opportunity to rip the old man’s head from his shoulders either. “Yeah, I guess that’s one way to look at it. Did you get a chance to talk to Hannah?” She almost didn’t want him to answer the question. But he did. Picking up his takeout container off of the dresser, he said, “Yeah, she said she’s tried everything she can. It’s weird. She can send the happy thoughts his way, but it’s like they get absorbed by something before she can make a dent in his… disposition. She said she’s never seen anything like it

before.” Cadence let out a heavy breath. “Did she say if she’d tried anything else?” “She said she’s tried getting him to sit down and talk to her, like a therapy session, but he always says he’s too busy. So she volunteered to take something off of his plate, but he won’t designate anything to her. It’s like he’s stuck in overdrive, and the engine just keeps going round and round until….” “Until it eventually tears itself apart from the inside?” His green eyes were sympathetic, but he was nodding. “We’ll figure it out, Cadence. There’s got to be a solution. Between Jamie and Dr. Morrow, there’s got to be something we can do, don’t you think?” She shrugged. “I have no idea. Nothing I say seems to make a difference. He sat with me the whole time I was out, which made me think that maybe he was making progress, but it’s like all the craziness got stored up, and the next time I talked to him was when he told me no Guardians can go to Lexington.” She pulled herself up off of the foot of the bed, realizing she wasn’t going to find any answers in Elliott’s bedroom. “Well, the fact that I saw him acting like himself earlier gives me hope that we can find a way to extract him.” He tossed the empty food container in a trash can nearby, along with the chopsticks, and stood. “Cadence, I know this isn’t easy, but we’ll figure it out. You’re going to be all right.” She walked into his embrace, fighting the tears. At least he smelled like himself this time, and not like Aurora, though there was a tinge of orange chicken lingering in the air. “Thanks. I know we’ll find a way to help him. I just….” Once again, she was unable to finish her thoughts. “Why don’t you go to the gym? I bet you haven’t worked out today, have you? You’ll be able to get in your miles finished in half the time now.” She chuckled, thinking that was true, though her plan had been to go twice as far, back when she thought the day would be normal. “That’s a good idea, but there’s a lot to do.” “Not anything that won’t wait. As soon as Cass has some numbers, I’ll let you

know. We’ll get the band back together and go fight some Vampires. Okay?” “Okay,” Cadence agreed. Her feet weren’t moving yet, though, as she continued to rest her head on Elliott’s chest. He rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head, and she realized how much she’d missed being touched by someone who cared about her. It seemed like forever since Aaron had shown her any sort of affection at all that wasn’t forced. Laughter from the living room caught her attention, and she realized she needed to go. “Thanks, Elliott,” she said as released him. “Anytime, kid. Just be careful not to tear up the treill. Juan Diego’s already pretty busy fixin’ all the holes you’ve been makin’ in the walls.” She giggled as she headed out of his bedroom, making sure her footsteps were loud in case the teens in the living room had moved on from studying and needed an announcement that they were about to have company. “Cass, get those numbers to Elliott as soon as you can, okay?” she said in her best gentlereminder/I’m-not-bossing-you-around-voice. “Will do,” her sister nodded, and Cadence waved at both of them before she headed out the door. Hopefully, some time alone on the treill would be enough to make her feel better for a little while. What was certain, however, was that all of her problems would be waiting for her as soon as she hit the last mile marker.

Chapter 9

Asteria landed in Linz a few hours after Hines, and while she wasn’t sure this scheme of his was going to pay off, she did feel more hopeful about the situation than she had in days. Ever since those Guardians from the Caribbean had flooded every headquarters she’d been targeting, she’d been stuck. It seemed the serum Hines had concocted was fairly useless, and she wasn’t getting anywhere with any of the plans she attempted to put in place. Perhaps she would find her answers in the hills around Cesky Krumlov. The pregnancy wasn’t affecting her the same way she would have expected a normal human pregnancy to wear on a woman, though the child was growing much faster than any human baby. She had a feeling she’d be giving birth within the next few weeks at most, and then what, she wasn’t sure. Having never had children, other than the ones she’d turned in the night, there would be a lot of sorting out to do, particularly since she could assume the baby would not be like a typical human baby either. She wondered if her breasts would somehow produce the blood he or she would need or if she would have to feed the child some other way. Her thoughts were interrupted as the car she was travelling in came to a stop in front of an ancient stone chateau. She had seen this place before, many centuries ago. Then, the outer walls were not crumbling, and the building itself was new and polished. “Funny how everything decays and fades away,” she said aloud to no one as the driver opened the door for her. Traveling from Australia to Eastern Europe alone had been therapeutic. Despite having Hines in her head every few hours, she’d managed to get some peace and been able to put her full concentration on disrupting the tracking signals as well as messing with the Guardian Leader. It was all in a full day’s work for an ancient Vampire Queen. She took her bag and slid inside of the gate, waving the driver off without a tip, and headed up the winding walkway toward the house. It sat in shadows and darkness, far off the beaten path, and she could understand why Nelo and Venette had moved their operation here once Giovani had given up their previous location. It was unlikely any of the locals would venture this far out of

town and stumble upon the crumbling castle, though, with that girl on their side now, Asteria was well aware that there was no way she could hide, not completely. The sooner they got what they needed and headed back to Melbourne the better. How the girl hadn’t managed to figure out where they were hiding down under was beyond her. She wasn’t surprised that Hines opened the door when she knocked. Two of his goons were with him, the ones she’d given the ability to change into mist. It had come in handy at the prisons, but she was bored of them now. She handed him her bag and asked, “Where are they?” “Do you mean our hosts or our new recruits?” Hines asked, handing her bag off to one of the mist monsters who was presently in his full-bodied form. Asteria looked around. The furnishings were similar to the way they were the last time she’d been here. Plenty of red velvet cushioned seating, baroque end stands and tables, gold candelabras, chandeliers dripping of wax. “The new ones. What did you do with them?’ “They’re downstairs, in the… holding area.” “Do you mean the dungeon?” she asked, turning to face him, her eyes wide. “Yes. We wanted to make sure they stayed here.” His smile was off-putting to say the least. “Does that mean that they were reluctant to us?” The last thing she needed to do was babysit two new Vampires who didn’t want to cooperate. “They were fine on the airplane,” Hines explained taking a step toward her. “It’s just… I assumed we wouldn’t be taking them with us on our exploration mission, so I thought it best if they stayed secure. Nelo and Venette have a full staff here willing to look after them. They also have plenty of reserva de sange.” That caught her attention. Thirsty from the long flight, her fangs protruded from her smiling lips as she said, “Lead the way.” Hines grinned at her before nodding and heading off toward the back of the castle. She followed, wondering if all of the rooms were exactly the same as they had been before. It wasn’t large as castles went, but it had been well-fortified in

its day. She ed the night they’d been attacked by villagers. Her host at the time, an older gentleman by the name of Rodart, had ended the first group quickly enough. But they’d continued to come in waves, and over time, everyone had left him, including her. Rodart had fallen in this very castle. Thinking of her last trip here reminded her of Carter. They had been at the castle together as a couple, guests of the great Rodart. And now, he was gone. For good this time. There would be no chance of bringing him back, and she knew there was little chance she’d run into him in the afterlife. She hadn’t last time, anyway. Just as the Blue Moon Portal’s legend said that a Guardian who es through may never return, the same is true of a Vampire. Only a Vampire can still be destroyed. Turned to ash and dust, and blown away with the wind…. “Here we are,” Hines said, bringing her back to the moment. They were at the top of a long staircase, hidden by a turn in the stone wall. She followed him down, glad to hear the whimpers and cries of those they sought out. Nelo and Venette were known for their ability to keep reserva de sange, something Asteria rarely bothered with. It was easy enough for her to send someone else out to get a fresh victim for her if she grew thirsty. But having these vessels on hand at all times was attractive, and she decided she’d look in to that once she made it back to Melbourne. An older man with stooped shoulders, along with a woman who appeared to be in her mid-to-late twenties with jet black hair were standing in one of the many prison cells quietly giving instruction to the two new recruits. She could tell them from the others because they were still dressed as prisoners. “You didn’t bother to get them any less conspicuous clothing?” Asteria asked Hines. He looked a bit sheepish. “It didn’t cross my mind until we were at the airport. By then, it didn’t matter. I’ll send Jim out to get them something.” She assumed Jim was one of his cronies. Shaking her head, she moved into the cell, and immediately, the two newbies turned and looked at her, their fangs bared. “Oh, I see the babies want a chance to play with the adults. Isn’t that cute?” Asteria placed her hands on her hips. “Why don’t the two of you settle down so you don’t get yourselves hurt?” “Your Majesty,” Nelo began, bowing, “it is lovely to see you again.” “Yes, we were so pleased to learn of your return,” Venette added.

Asteria smiled at them but didn’t take her eyes off of Hines’s new pets. They were both snarling at her, and she realized turning two former Hunters into Vampires truly wasn’t the best idea. She never should’ve let him do it in the first place. Blood dripped down the old man’s chin, and the blonde, who looked much older than her reported age, snarled at her. “The two of you had better learn quickly that I shall not put up with any sort of disrespect. I can end you with the flick of my wrist.” As if to try her, the woman came flying at her, fangs protruding. Asteria grabbed her around the throat and began to press gently on her esophagus. Immediately, she started to sputter as flecks of blood came flying from her mouth. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and Asteria contemplated getting rid of one small problem right away. “Laura!” the old man yelled, grasping for his friend’s leg. “Please, Holland, don’t end her. She just hasn’t learned yet.” Rage filled her face as the queen squeezed harder. “That’s Asteria, old man. I should say you haven’t learned either.” He dropped to his knees. “I apologize, Your Majesty. We will learn, just don’t destroy her. Please. Not yet. We could be useful to you.” Asteria looked down at him, sniffling on the floor. Behind her, she heard Hines asking her to please put his new toy down. With a sigh, she dropped the woman, who fell to the ground, grasping at her throat. “Lock them up,” she ordered, and Nelo and Venette immediately took hold of the two and dragged them out of the cell where they were standing to a previously empty one down the row. In front of her, Asteria saw two villagers lying on the ground, their arms chained to the wall. They looked well-fed, well cared for, unlike some of the other reserva de sange she’d experienced before. “Which one tastes the best?” she asked as Nelo returned, Venette behind him. “The woman with the auburn hair,” he answered, gesturing with his foot. “She is fresh and should keep for many days.” “Good,” Asteria replied with a nod. “I shall drink her upstairs. Bring her to me.

And as for many days… we shall not be here that long.” “Your Majesty,” Venette said, her head bowed, as Nelo went about unchaining the woman, “you must understand, the one you seek, he is not always so quick to oblige. You do know, it may take some time to locate him, and even then….” “I understand!” she said dismissively over her shoulder as she headed for the stairs. Hines was over at the other cell, checking on his newbies, and Asteria tried not to roll her eyes at him. “We are here to see if he has any wisdom to impart. If he doesn’t, so be it.” “Even if he does,” Venette continued, following her up the stairs as Nelo carried the woman over his shoulder, “you must prove you’re willing to listen, which means….” Asteria turned and narrowed her steel gray eyes at the woman. “Do not attempt to school me in the ways of Daunator. I am almost as old as he is and every bit as wise. I know the secrets he holds.” Venette nodded, but there was an uneasiness in her eyes, a look Asteria did not care for. If she didn’t need her assistance in locating the ancient Vampire, she might end her right now as well. Of course, this had all been Hines’s idea. In all likelihood, once they found Daunator, he’d be of little use. But if there was one Vampire on earth more knowledgeable than her, it had to be the cave-dweller. Hopefully, he would show himself quickly, and they’d be able to get on their way. She had a lot of vengeance to carry out. At least her plan to keep LIGHTS busy chasing its own tail was working. It should buy her enough time to come up with a true strategy. Otherwise, she’d have to fall back on Hines’s plan of turning all of the Guardians back into humans so that they could be destroyed, and she didn’t have the patience for that, not if there was another way to defeat them. If Daunator couldn’t help her find a way, maybe she would destroy him as well.

Under normal circumstances, it would’ve taken about an hour and a half to drive through Kansas City to Lexington, but at 2:00 AM, there was hardly any traffic at all, and Elliott was exceeding the speed limit by at least half of the posted number which meant they’d arrive well before 3:00 AM. By then, she hoped the Vampires would be done with any hunting they might be up to, and her team could move in and finish them all off. She sat in the enger seat of the Enclave, mostly staring out the window. Just like her encounter with the Blue Moon Portal, she hated doing anything without Aaron’s blessing, but this needed to be done. If Holland was off in Europe somewhere doing who-knows what, she likely would have no idea Cadence had moved in on one of her attack teams until it was too late. And Cadence’s philosophy was to get in, get out, and leave no one behind. The rest of the team was quiet, too, likely contemplating what they needed to do. Because of Aaron’s refusal to let her take any Guardians, her team was slim. Aurora and Meagan were with her, which made her feel more confident. Elliott had allowed Brandon to come, but they were the only two Guardians. Ashley Stone, Jamie’s girlfriend and one of the newer Hunters, had also decided to come along, as well as Martin Greene a Healer. Since Cadence had decided it wasn’t worth it to risk bringing Jamie if Aaron truly meant to transfer any Guardian who went with her, she’d left her first choice behind. But Martin was solid. He was young and couldn’t do what Jamie could, but he would work. She caught his eyes in the rearview and realized he was nervous. He ran his fingers through his jet black hair and looked away, chewing his bottom lip. Cadence wanted to tell him not to worry, but she honestly had no idea what this was going to be like. “All right,” Elliott said as they reached the outskirts of Lexington. The town wasn’t too large, and the house they believed the Vampires were holed up in was out in the country a few miles. “We should be there in about ten minutes.” Cadence turned and looked at her team. “I know we went over all of this in the pre-hunt meeting, but try to the Anderson House is a state historic site, so let’s try not to trash it if we can help it.” The five heads behind her all nodded. Despite knowing they were all aware of the role they would play, she went over it one more time, just to remind herself.

“Cass said most of them are holed up in a cellar, but the only access is through a doorway at the back of the house. Elliott and I will go down, Brandon and Meagan, you’ll go up to the attic. Aurora and Ashley, cover the front and back of the house respectfully, and Martin you’re in reserve. We won’t have a bird’s eye view on this, so we’ve got to be careful and keep the chatter up. Watch your crossfire. Any questions?” “Yeah, if I do get transferred, can it be to some place tropical? Like Miami? Or maybe Fiji?” Brandon asked, and Cadence narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t otherwise respond. He had no idea how big of a threat that really was; if Aaron said he’d do something, he’d never given her any reason to doubt him. “All right. Here’s our parking spot,” Elliott said, pulling off on the side of the road. They’d driven past enough signs to know the house was just up the road from here, and as Cadence quietly climbed out of the SUV, she could see it towering off in the distance. It was an impressive sight, even in the dark, though with Cadence’s recent changes, her night vision had vastly improved. She had yet to try to see if she had X-ray vision since she had no idea what that might be like, but she thought it would come in handy if she did. Peering across the open field to the rise where the land crested on its way back down to the river bed, she could see why Spittle had chosen this place to hide. It was huge—and magnificent. Three stories tall in the Greek Revival style, with a wing off to the side, the red-brick mansion was an imposing sight, and she thought under normal circumstances she might enjoy wandering around it looking at all of the antiques and imagining what it would be like to live there a hundred and fifty years ago. But not tonight. Tonight she was on a mission, one she needed to get over with sooner rather than later. “Nice place. A little small for me, but I could make it work,” Elliott joked, and she held back a giggle. He was walking up front with her, the rest of the team fanned out behind them. There weren’t a lot of trees to give them cover here, and if the Vampires found out they had company, it would be hard to chase them down. Cassidy thought Spittle only had ten of the Vampires who had escaped the tagging center with him. The rest had split off while they were running, trying to escape. She thought Holland had plans for getting them back together, to them with other large bands of Vampires in various locations around Kansas

City, and that this force was set to invade headquarters. However, when the Roatan Guardians had agreed to come help out, Holland’s plans were thwarted. So, much like the LIGHTS team, she’d done nothing. At least, Cadence didn’t think she had accomplished too much these past couple of months. Until recently, perhaps. It still weighed on Cadence’s mind that she didn’t know why Holland had Sam and Laura or what she was doing in Europe. Her Beretta thumped comfortingly against her back as she walked, and she felt in her pockets one more time for two of the five grenades she’d confiscated from Christian. He’d been invited to them but had declined saying he didn’t need another reason for Aaron to want to send him to Siberia. So she’d taken the grenades instead. Elliott had one, Brandon had one, and Aurora had one. At least without Cass there, they wouldn’t have to worry about her getting burned. She wasn’t happy to be left behind, especially since she needed one more observation to be official, but Cadence couldn’t risk it on this sort of mission where she knew she was short a few Guardians. She didn’t even like putting Meagan and Ashley in the position where they had no one to protect them. “This is where I leave you,” Martin announced as they came to the last copse of trees before they reached the immediate yard around the house. He’d be close enough should anyone become injured, but he also wouldn’t be at risk of getting attacked by a Vampire. “See you in a bit,” Cadence said, nodding at him. She hadn’t had the chance to work with him before, but Jamie said he was one of the best Healers he’d ever seen, so she was confident they’d be all right if someone got hurt. Under the circumstances, there was a good chance that was going to happen. Cassidy said that as far as she knew, none of these eleven had ever shapeshifted, but she thought it was some sort of a power Holland could bestow upon a Vampire from a distance, and once the queen realized what was happening, she could become involved from afar. Since Cassidy was aware of this, she was going to do her best to create some sort of telepathic shield between the Vampires in Lexington and Holland, but she had no idea if she was even capable of doing that. So Cadence was prepared for just about anything. While all eleven of them were bad mamajamas, it was Spittle that concerned her most. He’d become a turncoat only because he was captured by a small army of Guardians and Hunters about twenty years ago. Previously, he was both a biker

dude and a tattoo artist. While there was no evidence he’d taken any innocents as a Vampire, the notes in his file made it evident that he may have. And he was a big guy, too. Before he was turned, he was six-four, two-eighty. Now, he could be any size he wanted within reason. He wouldn’t be easy to take out. Luckily, she’d also stolen Van’s knife, the one weapon that seemed to never fail them. It had been the blade she’d used to take out Carter, and she’d use it again tonight if she needed to. Hopefully, bullets and grenades would do the job, but something told her that would be too easy. “Going to the back,” Ashley said, and Cadence nodded at her as the petite blonde took off like a shot, though she wasn’t nearly as fast as the souped-up version of a Hunter Cadence had become. Elliott stopped about ten yards from the wide porch, surveying the front door. They knew it was likely locked, but as far as they could tell, there was no alarm system, which was what was allowing the Vampires to come and go. The fact that it was not yet tourist season had also allowed them to hide undetected here for the last few weeks, though there were still site workers in and out of the house. Unless Spittle had turned them, too. “Ready?” the Guardian asked her. Cadence surveyed the others before she said, “Let’s do it. Be safe.” Elliott nodded at her and then, faster than her eyes could , he slammed into and through the front door, leaving it lying flat on the ground in the entryway. She didn’t have time to ire the black and white checkered floor she’d seen in the photographs or the free-standing mahogany staircase. He was headed to the back of the house and the kitchen, and she followed, equally as fast. Behind her, she could make out the sound of footsteps taking the stairs and silently wished they’d done something to make the rest of the team faster. It was almost as if Elliott knew where he was going, like he’d been there before. He hit the door that led to the cellar and knocked it in, flying down the stairs with his Glock in his hand, and Cadence just barely managed to keep up. “How are you doing that?” “X-ray vision,” he replied, hitting the packed dirt floor hard enough to leave imprints.

“Right.” She had no idea how to activate that skill if she had it and decided now was probably not the time to experiment. Landing on the floor behind him, she drew her weapon and spun so that they were back to back. They had definitely caught the Vampires off guard, but that didn’t mean they weren’t prepared to fight. There had to be at least six of them down here, which meant the other five were upstairs, and a quick glance at Brandon’s IAC showed that he and Meagan were nearing the top of the staircase to the third story, so she believed they would have company soon. She heard gunfire outside as well, and thought it was coming from the back of the house, which meant Ashley was already engaged. There was no more time to survey the rest of her team, however, as two thick men, shaped like boulders, wound their way out of the shadows. Their fangs were bared, and Cadence couldn’t imagine that any of these creatures had ever lived peacefully in a building on the same campus she still called home. Behind her, she heard Elliott open fire, but from the amount of curse words he was uttering, it didn’t seem like bullets were working too well. They hadn’t been able to get their hands on any of the titanium variety, and these regular silver infused ones had not been useful since Holland had come back. With that in mind, she holstered her gun and pulled one of the grenades out of her pocket. Unfortunately, the two Vampires had split, so she’d have to choose one to aim at with the grenade and then launch herself at the other. Since the one to her left looked slightly more menacing than his partner, she decided he’d be the one to take the silver nitrate bath. She pulled the pin out of the grenade, waited a few seconds to make sure he wouldn’t have time to react, and then tossed it. A second later, there was a flash of light, an explosion, and the room filled with smoke. The Vampire let out a scream, the kind Cadence liked to hear filling the air, and the smoke cleared just in time for her to see him poof into ash. While she could’ve tossed her last grenade at the other Vampire, she decided to save it for Spittle, should she encounter him later. The man in front of her looked slightly frightened after seeing his partner disintegrate so quickly, but as she ran at him full speed, his expression shifted, and a look of rage took over. She slammed into him, pushing him back against the wall. He wasn’t prepared for her speed or her strength, but he pulled himself up and rushed her.

Just as Cadence stepped aside, rai her right leg in a kick that landed squarely in the Vampire’s gut, she heard a barrage of gunfire from upstairs. Checking her IAC, she could see that Brandon and Meagan were pinned in the hallway and that Meagan had been hit in the arm. Apparently, these bastards had guns and weren’t afraid to use them. “I’m going up there,” Elliott said, and it wasn’t a question. Not that she wouldn’t have agreed. He flew up the stairs as Cadence turned to see he’d only taken care of two of the Vampires he’d been engaged with, which meant she had the bowling ball and a lanky woman with long white hair to dispatch. They both rushed her at the same time from opposite directions. Since her own firearm seemed of little use, she decided to see how powerful her ninja moves were now that she’d been repurposed. She kicked out with both legs at the same time, leaping into the air in the splits and made with both assailants. The man took another blow to the gut while the woman was struck in the face. They both recoiled and came at her again. Cadence didn’t stop to think about what she was doing as her instincts took over and she began to kick and punch at each Vampire in turn. She imagined she looked like a cross between Jackie Chan and a whirling dervish as she landed shot after shot on each of the Vampires. Eventually, the male Vampire weakened and fell to his knees. Cadence took that opportunity to turn her attention to the woman. She launched herself up at the Vampire’s chest and locked her knees around her, pulling the knife and jamming it into what would’ve been the person’s jugular if she were alive. Immediately, Cadence realized there was something off about Van’s knife. She’d been able to procure it from Aaron’s safe with the help of Mrs. Carminati who was the only other person besides her fiancé who knew the code. But it didn’t have the same effect on this woman as it did the ones she’d encountered in Melbourne, and eventually, she stuck it back into her jacket pocket and began to twist. With her increased strength, she was able to turn the Vampire’s head several times and pull up. At first, the skin and sinews simply wound around each other, lengthening out like taffy, but after what seemed like at least two dozen twists, the women’s head popped free, and Cadence fell to the ground in a pile of ash. It was just in time for the other Vampire to gain his feet, and he took off toward

the stairs. But Cadence wasn’t about to let him get away. She plowed into him, knocking him across the room again. This time he thundered into the other brick wall, and pieces of ceiling were knocked free. She stayed on top of him, and despite its uselessness before, she pulled the knife and began to saw at his neck, hoping this time it would have the desired effect. He was fighting her every step of the way, bucking and pushing, trying to set himself free, and despite her best efforts and her speed, the process was slow going. She had sawed through about half of his neck when he somehow managed to knock her up into the air. Cadence made with the wooden beams of the ceiling, sending down another shower of dirt, and the Vampire got to his feet. With his head half-decapitated at his Adam’s apple, he was a ghoulish site, and Cadence would’ve gawked at him if she didn’t realize he was making for the stairs again. As he ran, his head tilted back at the spot where she’d cut into his neck so that he looked a bit like a gruesome Pez dispenser. “Why don’t you just die?” she asked, ramming into him again. He fell hard on the compacted dirt floor, and this time he didn’t seem to have the strength to fight her off again. One more time, she pulled her knife and laid into the musculature of his neck, determined to decapitate him before he could break free of her again. As she cut through tendons that snapped and tore, she had a few seconds to check her IAC. She knew that Meagan had been hit in the arm, but she seemed to be doing all right. Brandon was firing into one bedroom while Elliott had the other, and even though their bullets were not as useful as the titanium ones might’ve been, they seemed to be weakening the four Vampires that were left. Both of them had silver knives as well, and she hoped theirs would be more useful than the plastic cutlery she seemed to have gotten her hands on. “Do you want me to assist with Meagan?” Martin asked. “Negative,” Cadence replied. “We can’t have you getting shot as well.” This was one of the downsides of having a Hunter for a Healer. He could also be injured, whereas Jamie could’ve already been up there assisting Meagan. “She seems stable for now.” Meagan was pressing her hand against the hole in her arm, trying to push up to standing. “I can make it down the stairs,” she said, her voice shaky but not

panicked. She was no stranger to bullet wounds, unfortunately, and Cadence marveled at how much stronger she was now than she had been when they’d first met. “Go ahead,” Cadence told her as the second to last tendon snapped. She should be done with this one in a minute, and then she could go help. She knew Ashley had taken out one of the Vampires who had tried to run out the front door. Aurora was still in back. When two screams filled the air, she realized that meant there were two Vampires left upstairs, and they’d be clear. One of them was Spittle, though, and he wasn’t going down easily. He had Brandon on his back, pinned to the floor, pummeling him with fists almost as large as the teenager’s head. As soon as Elliott managed to jam his knife into the woman’s chest he was engaged with, and yank down hard enough to end her, he ran into the other room, crashing into Spittle with his full body weight and sending them both careening into an antique dresser. The mirror broke off and tumbled down on top of them, shattering and spraying all three of them with glass. Spittle took that opportunity to break free of the Guardians and headed for the door. Just as he reached the doorway, Elliott tossed his grenade. The silver nitrate sprayed out into the hallway, and there was a screech of pain as the compound burned the Vampire’s skin, but it hadn’t hit squarely enough to end the monster, and he leaped over the banister, landing with a thud on the black and white checkered foyer floor, shaking the whole house. The last tendon snapped, and the Vampire beneath her screamed as Cadence leaped up and headed up the stairs. “Aurora is in pursuit of Spittle! He went out the back!” Ashley called to her as she, too, went running around the end of the house. “I’m on my way,” Cadence replied to all of them. She could catch him; she knew she could. She checked her jacket pocket and realized her last grenade must’ve fallen out at some point because she no longer had it. Whispering a curse word, she determined to get herself a nifty utility belt like Christian’s so that didn’t happen again. Ahead of her, she saw Aurora running across the open ground, headed toward a line of trees and what sounded like the Missouri River. “Aurora, do you still have your grenade?” Cadence asked, almost caught up to

her now. “Yeah. Why?” “Toss it up into the air on your right when I say now.” “Why?” “Now!” Cadence shouted, and even though she had no idea why her Leader wanted her to do so, Aurora complied. Cadence caught the weapon as she streaked by, and then, with the gap between herself and Spittle rapidly closing, she pulled the pin. She slammed into his back running at about sixty miles per hour, shoved the grenade into his pants as he lay on the dew covered grass face down, and rocketed herself up into the air as the explosion lit him on fire. Cadence grabbed hold of a low hanging branch of one of the trees, pulling herself up, ready to jump onto the screaming Vampire if she needed to. But he only managed to clamber to his feet and take about three steps before losing his footing on the steep embankment and tumbling into the Missouri River. Almost as soon as he hit the surface of the water, he shattered into a cloud of ash. “Now who’s like a cat?” Elliott asked, looking up at her. She’d been so fixated on the Vampire, she hadn’t even realized he was there. Dropping down next to him, she laughed, knowing how he liked to compare his stealthiness to a furry feline. “That everybody?” she asked, catching her breath. “Think so. We’ve got some damage to repair, though. And Ashley said she thought she saw headlights, so we might be in for some company.” They both stood and looked down at the river for a moment. The view would’ve been breathtaking under normal circumstances, but at the moment, Cadence was just glad Spittle was gone. “All right. You better head back up and take care of interference, then. I’ll go back to the vehicle to get the Extracto.” “And the toolbox,” he added as they headed back toward the mansion. “Right.” Sometimes, they’d call in local Independents to take care of things like broken doors, but in this case, there really wasn’t anyone else around to help,

and she had no idea what Elliott might do about the broken mirror and other antiques that had been damaged. She felt awful for trashing such a beautiful historical place, but if the Vampires that had been staying there had the opportunity, they were likely to start turning anyone and everyone who came through that front door. Holland certainly wasn’t playing by the rules when it came to changing people, and if it cost a few precious pieces of furniture and some scuffs on a mahogany handrail, then it was worth it. They parted halfway up to the house, and a Jeep pulled into the driveway. It looked like a park service vehicle, but Cadence wasn’t sure, and she wasn’t sticking around to find out. Elliott could certainly handle interference by himself. The rest of the team was almost back to the SUV, so she ran into the shadows of the trees where the human wouldn’t see her and headed back to grab the supplies they would need to fix as much damage as they could. “Does Dad need any help?” Brandon asked as Cadence flew up next to him. “He’s fine for now,” she said, checking her IAC to see that the short, older woman he was speaking to seemed to be buying his story that he’d been out for a walk and seen some burglars in the house, but he’d taken care of them and would clean up the house. She didn’t even question why anyone would be out walking in the middle of the night or why that person would be responsible for putting things back in order. She only mentioned that some neighbors down the road had called her because they thought they heard gunfire. Elliott assured her that was only firecrackers. She knew how kids were this time of year. It made no sense logically, but she bought it and was soon in her vehicle, backing down the drive. “You okay, Meag?” Cadence asked once she had the opportunity. “I will be. I don’t think it hit anything important,” she replied. Martin was helping her back to the SUV, and Cadence was surprised that he didn’t seem tired at all. If it were Jamie, he likely would’ve exhausted himself trying to heal the wounded Hunter. “My powers don’t work the same way as Jamie’s,” the new guy explained as if reading her mind. “I don’t get tired, but my healing battery, if you will, runs down a lot quicker than Jamie’s. So… I still have to recharge it by waiting and letting it reenergize, but I don’t fall asleep.”

“Got it,” Cadence said with a friendly smile, even though she wasn’t quite sure she did. At any rate, they were back at the vehicle now. She grabbed what she needed, and she and Brandon headed back to the house to help Elliott clean up the best they could. The rest of the team stayed put. “Cass sure did a good job of keeping those bastards from shifting,” Brandon noted as he took the toolbox from Cadence. “Yeah, she sure did.” It hadn’t been something she’d allowed herself to reflect on yet, but Cassidy had said she would do her best to shield the Vampires in that house from Holland’s influence while they were fighting, and since there hadn’t been any werewolves, mist monsters, or other anomalies, she assumed that it had worked. She could only imagine how furious Holland must be now that she knew what they’d done. Once they reached the house, Cadence left the men to fix the door and whatever else they could repair and headed upstairs to sweep up the piles of ash and silver nitrate. How Christian had crafted the grenades so that they dried into a fine powder that didn’t stain or damage anything other than Vampires was beyond her, but Cadence thought it was pretty ingenious. “One of the only things he gets right,” she muttered, and then realizing her IAC was on and other teammates back home might hear her, she bit her tongue, hoping no one would put two and two together. The upstairs took a while, and she had to go to the kitchen to find a towel to clean Meagan’s blood off of the wall and the wooden floor. It definitely wouldn’t CSI inspection, but it would do. She had read that some Southern soldiers had been killed at the foot of the stairs and imagined this place wasn’t exactly biohazard free anyhow. The guys had the door hung and headed upstairs to do what they could with the broken furniture, and Cadence made her way do the basement. Though the floor was dirt, she still wanted to sweep up what she could of the remains of the Vampires she and Elliott had taken out there, and she needed to locate her grenade. She realized she no longer had her useless Beretta either and found it on the ground next to the stairs. A bit of searching turned up the grenade, and she send a message to Christian thanking him for letting them use his secret weapon. They had really come in handy.

Back upstairs, Elliott and Brandon were waiting for her. “We did what we could,” the senior Guardian shrugged. “Ain’t no fixin’ that mirror, though.” “I guess Spittle got all seven years of his bad luck in one tiny, explosive package,” Brandon joked. “Do you mean the grenade or Cadence?” Elliott said, laughing at his own comment before the other two ed in. “Both,” Brandon agreed and then they all headed back to the SUV, leaving the Anderson House behind them. There was lots of chatter on Cadence’s IAC as they headed for home, but she tuned it out. The one person she realized had not ed her at all was Aaron, which made her sad, but at the same time, she figured he’d be ready to lower the hammer on them the second she returned to campus. She’d have to be ready to take it, though. At least she’d accomplished her mission and no one had gotten too severely hurt. Meagan seemed to be doing fine, though she was still holding her bandaged arm. Elliott pulled the SUV onto the highway, which was virtually deserted that time of morning, and Cadence turned to face her team. “Would anyone object to doing the debrief now?” She had a feeling she’d have other things to worry about by the time she made it back to headquarters. “What? Now? In the van?” Aurora asked, a hint of mischief in her eyes. “But what about all the nifty maps, and graphs, and charts, and video replays?” Brandon added, chuckling louder with each new item. Cadence shook her head and resisted rolling her eyes. “I know that it’s not the way we usually do things, and I respect that Aaron has a way he likes to go over the hunt,” she emphasized that second part so they wouldn’t think she was trying to change things just to be irritating to Aaron. “But we are tired, and we have time to go over it now. There really isn’t anything I’d recommend changing. Except we need more grenades. And better knives.” “Yeah, what was up with that?” Ashley asked, leaning up so that she could see Cadence better between Aurora and Brandon’s heads. “Your knife seemed to do nothing.”

Cadence fingered the blade she had tucked in her waistband. “I’m not sure.” She didn’t want to tell them she thought she’d stolen Van’s knife but probably had something that wasn’t even made of metal, let alone silver. “But we need to do a better job of double-checking our weapons. Or I do anyway.” “Titanium would’ve been helpful,” Meagan noted, her voice sounding a little sleepier than normal, likely due to her wound. “I agree. As would have more Guardians, but we do what we can, and under the circumstances, I think we did a pretty good job.” Cadence looked around and saw nothing but agreement amongst her team . Normally, a debrief would take a lot longer than this, but she really couldn’t think of anything more to say, so she asked, “Does anyone have any questions?” hoping the answer was no. “Actually, I do,” Ashley said, and Cadence wasn’t too surprised that if anyone had something to ask, it was the blonde. “Do you think this means Aaron will let us move on to the other larger pockets of Vampires, the ones that are actually a threat?” “I don’t know what this means,” Cadence itted. “I’d like to think so. But that’s something he and I will have to discuss.” She knew all of the team present were aware that she’d arranged this hunt on her own, without his consent. She’d had to tell them in order to explain the absence of the Guardians who would’ve normally gone with them. Still, she didn’t want them to think there was a rift between the two Leaders. Those who knew them best were already aware and had also likely noticed Aaron wasn’t himself, but the others may still be in the dark, and she’d just as soon keep it that way until she figured out how to help him. The rest of the drive was mostly silent, though a snicker between Brandon and Aurora now and again made her think they might be chatting about something on their IACs. Elliott was stoic, and she wondered if it affected him at all seeing Aurora run after that Vampire without a Guardian. If it did, he hadn’t let it show. It seemed odd to her that she wasn’t part of a couple during the hunt, that someone else might be thinking about their significant other—even if they both denied it—while she knew hers was safe at home, slowly losing his mind. Less than an hour after they left Lexington, they pulled to a stop in front of the

apartment building. Cadence was gazing out her window and didn’t realize anything was different until Elliott asked, “What the hell did he do?” She turned to look out the windshield and saw a large moving truck parked directly in front of them, a few of the humans who worked at headquarters loading in some boxes. Even from here, she could see enough to know whose stuff was in that vehicle. “Son of a bitch,” Elliott muttered, reaching for the door handle. “Just… wait,” Cadence said, reaching out to grab ahold of him. “It’s not their fault.” “I know. I’m not taking my rage out on them.” His free hand was a fist, and Cadence wondered who would win that fight if she actually let Elliott go try to bash Aaron’s head in. “Let me talk to him,” she urged. She turned to look at Brandon and realized all the color had drained from his face. Things had just gotten real. “I’ll fix this.” “You better,” Brandon said. “Cause I ain’t goin’ anywhere without Cass.” “I’ll fix it,” she said again, pushing her door open and climbing out. Exactly how she would reason with someone who was clearly unreasonable at that point was beyond her, but she’d find a way. She’d lived eight months without Elliott, and she wasn’t doing that again. She’d have to convince Aaron that he was overreacting. It wouldn’t be easy, but there was a first time for everything. Something told her, as she headed across campus, tonight was not going to be that time.

Chapter 10

Exhaustion was beginning to set in as Cadence made her way to the office to find Aaron. She assumed that’s where he would be. He was hardly ever home anymore. Her steps were not as quick as they could’ve been, but they were determined, and with each one, she resolved herself not to lose her cool. “Cadence, how did it go?” Cassidy asked over her IAC. “I was watching, and I didn’t see any shifters. I was going to ask Brandon ‘cause I figured you were busy, but he said something weird is going on.” With a deep breath, Cadence stopped to answer her sister. She didn’t want to be in the middle of another conversation when she made her way into the office. “Yeah, I’m handling that situation; it’ll be fine. No shapeshifters. All went as planned. I’ll come see you when I’m done talking to Aaron.” “Okay, but you’ll have to sneak in. Mom will be pissed if she knows I’m still awake on a school night.” Cadence couldn’t stop the eye roll. How was her sister supposed to do her job under such strict rules? “Right. I know. I’ll sneak in.” She started moving again, and a few steps later, she found herself in the lobby. She didn’t wait for the elevator, choosing instead to take the steps two or three at a time. She also didn’t knock. It was her office too, after all. He was sitting behind his desk, as she fully expected him to be, and he didn’t look up when she came in. Cadence crossed the room and stopped behind the two chairs across from his desk, her arms folded, her hands fisted. She waited. “I guess you’re alive then.” He didn’t look up from whatever paperwork he was staring at, and Cadence couldn’t help but be offended by his lack of emotions. “You know I won’t let you do this, right?” He shrugged slightly and finally glanced up at her for a moment before looking

down again. “Let me do what? They’re under my command. They purposely disobeyed orders, so I’m doing exactly what I said I would. Don’t worry. Alberta’s not that far away. I’m sure you can run up there and visit now that you’re as fast as lightning.” A stream of obscenities formed in her mind, but Cadence took some calming breaths and tried to remind herself that he needed her help, not her aggression. Still, her patience was wearing thin, and it was just a matter of time before that all went out the window, and she became a screeching, hysterical mess. “Look, if there was a line between who I can command and who you can command, this operation would never work. We both need to be able to direct every member of our team, whether they are Guardians or Hunters, or else people die. Yeah, I lived. My whole team made it out of there, but it would’ve been a lot easier with the proper equipment and the right personnel. The fact that you wouldn’t let Jamie come with us—or come with us yourself, for that matter—made it a hell of a lot more dangerous. But we got them, and that’s the important thing. This will be a huge blow to Holland. We need to keep moving.” “We do not need to keep moving,” he countered, finally giving her his full attention. “You’ve done enough damage. Meagan was injured, could’ve been killed, and your arrogance and cunning have cost me two valuable of my team.” She shook her head violently. “No, it’s your stubbornness that has potentially cost you that. But they’re not going anywhere.” “The hell they’re not.” He folded his arms across his blue shirt, one she’d purchased for him not that long ago, and she studied him for a moment. It was like she didn’t even know him. “Aaron,” Cadence said calmly, “this isn’t you. I don’t know what’s going on, but….” “Yeah, it is me, Cadence. I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but this is me.” He stood up now, though his arms were still folded. “I’ve tried all the bullshit suggestions you and the other jackasses who are supposed to be my friends have offered up, and do you know why it’s not working? Why Hannah can’t fix me, or Elliott can’t convince me that I’m not depressed or angry? Because there’s nothing to fix! This is how I am, and if you don’t like it then….”

Cadence froze, staring at the stranger in front of her, not wanting to hear him finish that sentence, though deep down inside, she began to realize, perhaps it was for the best. His eyes shifted for a moment, as if there was an inner battle going on, like he didn’t want to tell her to get out, but at the same time, he couldn’t help himself. “Then what?” she asked, unfolding her arms and resting her hands on her hips. “Then… maybe you should go to.” Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks, but she fought them. As angry as she was, as much as part of her wanted to rip the ring from her finger and fling it at his face, she knew who she was, and Cadence Findley didn’t give up on people, especially not this one. “No. I’m not going anywhere. I don’t know what’s happening right now, but when I said I’d marry you, I meant it. I’m going to figure this out; I’m going to find you again, and if you don’t like it, I don’t give a damn.” “Cadence—there’s nothing to find! I am who I’ve always been!” She took a step backward toward the door, realizing that if she was going to keep her word and continue to fight to figure out what was happening, she needed to get away from him. “I’m not giving up on you, Aaron, but right now, I can’t be in the same room with you.” The inner turmoil was still brewing when she pulled her eyes away from him and headed for the door. He didn’t say anything, and she took that as a good sign because she fully expected him to tell her to go to hell. Once she was downstairs and the night air hit her directly in the face, a tear sprang free, but she brushed it away with the back of her hand and kept walking, unwilling to it that whatever he had become had been able to get to her. Though she understood she needed to visit Cass so her sister could go to sleep, she decided to swing by and check on Meagan first. She knew the Hunter had gone in to see Jamie, and she wanted to make sure her friend was okay. Since she had to walk right past his office to get to her sister’s apartment anyway, she went ahead and made the detour. “Looks good,” Jamie was saying to Meagan who had a gown on over her black leather pants. The bandage was gone so that the place where she’d been shot was exposed, but it was hard to tell where she’d been hit now. He yawned, which told

Cadence he had done a bit of healing himself, but he didn’t look on the verge of ing out. Shane was standing at the end of the small examination table, and he looked relieved at Jamie’s words. “As long as it doesn’t bother you any, I should think you’re all healed up.” “Glad to hear you’re gonna be all right, girlfriend,” Cadence said, smiling at Meagan as she stood and picked up a bag Cadence assumed Shane had brought her, likely with a blood-free change of clothing. “All in a good night’s work,” Meagan joked. She went into the restroom to change, but Shane was shooting daggers at Cadence, and she assumed that meant he didn’t think it was worth it. She’d have to deal with him later since Cassidy was next on her list. Cadence started to back out the door again when Jamie said, “Actually, do you have a minute? I wanted to talk to you about something odd that happened earlier.” He had her attention now, and Cadence stopped walking. “Sure. What’s going on?” Jamie looked at Shane, whose expression showed he felt a little awkward now, and Cadence headed over to one of the chairs across from Jamie’s desk, assuming Meagan would be done soon, and then she and Shane would go. Jamie tidied up the examination table, and by the time he was finished, Meagan walked out of the restroom. “Ready to go? I’m exhausted.” “Yeah, let’s get you to bed,” Shane said, his eyes locked on his girlfriend now. Cadence noticed Meagan wasn’t as pale as she had been when Cadence had first arrived, just a couple of minutes ago. “See you guys later,” Cadence called, waving at them as they echoed their goodbyes, and Meagan thanked Jamie again for his help. As soon as the couple was out the door, Jamie closed it behind them and then took the seat next to her, his forehead crinkled as if he wasn’t quite sure how to word whatever it was he needed to tell her. “Okay, I think this may sound a little crazy, but while you guys were gone, just for a little bit, I really think Aaron was back to his former self.”

Cadence raised an eyebrow at her friend, whose eyes were nothing but sincere. She ed Elliott’s story from earlier in the day and wondered if anyone had told Jamie about that. Holding the thought, she asked, “What do you mean?” “Well, after I said goodbye to Ashley, I came back here to do some work. I wanted to look back over the scans I’d done on Aaron since the serum was istered, to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. There was no way I wanted Christian to be right. About anything.” He chuckled, probably to lighten the mood, and Cadence forced herself to laugh, too. “I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, on the scans, but I did out the front window. A moving truck.” She nodded. “Right.” “So… since it’s the middle of the night, I figured that wasn’t just some overzealous new recruit already convinced he was ing our team. It was about the time your group was getting out of the vehicle. I was following along.” “I know,” she said with a smile. Of course he was. Not only were all the team on the hunt his friends, his new girlfriend was part of it as well. “I decided I needed to go ask him if he thought perhaps he was being a little rash, moving Elliott and Brandon’s stuff out while they were gone, so I went over to the office. At first, he was the same way he has been—arrogant and short. Said that Elliott and Brandon knew what they were getting into.” “Sounds a lot like the conversation I just had with him,” she mumbled. “But then… about the time Elliott busted down that door, something odd happened. His countenance completely changed. I wondered if maybe he was so caught up in watching the hunt he wasn’t paying attention to how horrible a person he was being, but he said he didn’t have it on. He called over to the apartment building and had them stop packing. I was then able to talk to him about the possibilities of moving on some of the other cells we’ve been watching, the ones that are actually dangerous, and he even said since Holland’s not in Melbourne right now, this would be the time to attack. We started to get a plan together, made some notes, and then your hunt ended and….” “And what?” Cadence asked, leaning forward on the edge of her seat. Hearing all of this interaction with the man she loved, someone she felt like she hadn’t seen in weeks, was promising. She could picture it in her mind, the twinkle in

Aaron’s eye as his plan started to come together. “And then all of a sudden, he started ripping everything up and throwing it in the trash can, yelling that this will never work, this is a waste of time, this is so stupid, etc. He called and had the moving company start packing up again, even made some of our employees help them so they could get done before Elliott got back. I was like, ‘What happened to you? You were you for a few minutes,’ and he told me to go to hell and to get out of his office, and if I didn’t like who he is now, then I could transfer, too.” All Cadence could do was stare at a spot on the wall behind Jamie’s head, trying to let all of it soak in. “It doesn’t make any sense.” Her voice was a whisper. “If he’s in there, why can’t he force his way out all of the time?” “I don’t know. I don’t understand it at all. Has this happened before?” “Yeah, Elliott said that it happened for a few seconds, a lot shorter than what you just described. He was in the lobby talking to Juan Diego. I feel like he was closer to being himself during my procedure. He stayed there the whole time, right? He even held my hand.” “He did stay there the whole time, but he wasn’t himself. Every time I went in to check on you, I’d try talking to him, and he was rude, said he was too busy to chitchat.” Her mind fuzzy with exhaustion, Cadence ran her hands down her face. “I don’t know, Jamie. I guess it’s a good sign that he can be himself from time to time, but I feel like he’s getting worse, getting meaner.” “Yeah, it’s sort of like Holland’s demonic abilities. I mean, she was bad enough before the portal, but now, she’s so much worse. Aaron’s always been extremely Type A to the point where it can be annoying, but this is….” “This is demonic.” She shook her head. “The enemy amongst us.” “Right?” Jamie was shaking his head along with her. “I wonder….” She looked up at him and thought she saw a flicker of an idea cross his face. “What is it?”

“Nothing. It’s just… I wonder if they’re related somehow. But I don’t know how they could be. Aaron didn’t go through the portal. And all traveling through it has done for Elliott is make him eat more, something I didn’t think was possible before he came back.” “I’ve wondered the same thing. But it seems like this change in Aaron started a few days after we got back from Melbourne. I wonder if Carter did something to him or if Holland did. But she wasn’t even anywhere near us. It just doesn’t add up.” “I don’t know either,” Jamie itted. “But we won’t give up, Cadence. We’ll figure it out.” “Yeah, I know.” She wished her voice could sound more confident. They sat in silence for a few beats before Cadence said. “Well, I’ve got to go talk to my sister, so I better get over there before my mom realizes she’s been up all night and blows a gasket.” “Your sister’s still up?” Jamie asked, genuinely surprised. “Yeah. She wanted to go, but I couldn’t risk it without you there. Martin did a great job, but since he’s not a Guardian, I couldn’t send him in to Meagan until after we had the room cleared, which sucked.” “That is a problem,” Jamie concurred. “And since Brandon was with me, Cass wanted to watch. We also had her put a blocker on Holland. I didn’t know if it would work or not, but I think it did. None of the Vampires were able to shift. They were still just as strong as the ones we’ve been encountering, but nothing super crazy. And since Holland pulled that bullshit with the croire, I was glad because if she really can manifest whatever she thinks we are most afraid of at the time, that could’ve been some freaky shit.” “I know. It’s weird how Holland keeps figuring out all of these new talents she has that can trip us up. I wonder where that might end. But you say Cass was able to block her?” “I am surprised it worked. I know she can block her signal to the cell towers that’re messing with our trackers. But it seemed so abstract, I didn’t know how

she might be able to do it. I think it must’ve worked. Either that or Holland was so distracted by whatever she’s doing in Europe, she wasn’t paying attention. I guess her mind might be elsewhere because of the baby, too.” “Wait,” Jamie said slowly, and Cadence looked over at him expectantly. “Wait what?” He raised both eyebrows and ran his hand along his jawline. It was the same sort of expression Aaron often got when he’d figured something out before the rest of them, a countenance she hadn’t seen in a while. “Maybe….” “Maybe… what?” “Is it possible that Holland is doing this? That she’s sending some sort of negativity, angst, depression, whatever to Aaron? She knows that he’s an emotional empath. We know she has telepathy and can send messages directly to our minds. Maybe she’s doing this. Maybe Cass blocking her from the Vampires in Lexington blocked her signal to Aaron, too.” Cadence’s face was frozen. She couldn’t open her mouth to speak, nor could she even raise an eyebrow to let him know she was pondering the situation. It took a long moment before she finally asked, “Do you think that’s possible?” “Sure. Why not? Do you happen to know what Cass was doing when Elliott was with Aaron earlier, when he seemed normal?” Cadence knew exactly what her sister was doing. “Yeah, I’d gone to ask her to try to get me numbers on Spittle’s crew, and while I was sitting there, she checked Holland’s location and blocked her signal for the trackers.” A bubbling sensation billowed up inside of her so that she nearly shot out of the chair. It was a feeling that had been foreign to her for some time until that moment, but she recognized it immediately. It was hope. A smile spread across Jamie’s face. “I think we might have found our solution.” “Oh, Jamie! If this is it, if we’ve actually figured it out….” “Okay, well let’s not get ahead of ourselves, all right? If this is it, we’ll have to figure out a way to stop it without Cassidy having to block Holland a hundred

percent of the time.” “Maybe if Aaron knows about it, he can stop it himself. Is that possible?” Jamie thought for a moment before he said, “Well, back when Eliza was influencing him, he was able to fight her off once he knew about it, most of the time anyway. It depended upon his overall emotional state. Like, when he was upset about you….” “She was able to get to him.” Cadence ed well. “But for the most part, he was able to keep her at bay.” “Yeah. Is he still in his office?” “Probably. Let me talk to Cass real quick, and then we can head over and see if we can get him back long enough to explain the situation to him.” “Can’t you do that while we walk?” She could tell by the smirk on his face that he was teasing her. Everyone knew she wasn’t so great at multitasking, and for something this important, she didn’t want to try to explain to her sister while she was moving. Cadence didn’t answer him, though, only gave him the stink eye. “Cass, I’m sorry I haven’t made it over there yet, but something important has come up, and I need your help.” “I’ll say. Did you know Aaron had all of Elliott and Brandon’s stuff packed up? What the hell?” “Yeah, I know. It’s awful. But that’ll have to wait. Look, Jamie and I think that maybe it’s Holland making Aaron act this way. We need your help. We are going to go talk to him, and we want you to block her long enough for us to convince him that she’s in his head. Can you do that?” “Gee, Sis, I don’t know. I’m kinda tired.” There was a teasing lilt to her sister’s voice, and before Cadence could even yell at her, she said, “Yes, of course. Go. Let me know when to start.” “Thanks. Let us get over there first so we can actually see if we can tell when his disposition changes.” With a deep breath, Cadence got up and turning to Jamie she said, “You ready to go help me get my man back?” with as much ghetto

twang as she could muster. Laughing, Jamie replied, “You are a hot mess, Cadence Findley,” but he took her hand, and they headed out the door. Going back to the office so soon made her nervous, especially since there was a possibility that they were wrong or that this wouldn’t work, though the hope inside of her wasn’t completely disintegrated by the pessimism that began to rear its ugly head with every step she took. At least Jamie was with her. If this wasn’t the solution, then they’d have to try something else. Aaron was still in his desk chair when they arrived, but he was writing frantically when they walked in and once again didn’t bother to look up when the door opened. Cadence and Jamie exchanged questioning looks. Cadence wondered what in the world he could possibly be writing. Still side by side, but no longer ed at the hand, they approached. “Aaron?” Cadence whispered, peering over the top of his desk to look at the paper. “I’m busy. Leave me alone,” he said, quietly, his voice sounding manic. “What is that?” Jamie was talking to himself more than either of the others. Cadence shook her head. The paper was upside down from her point of view, but it looked like he was writing something in another language, and there were already several sheets filled with what appeared to be the same few sentences over and over again. “Okay, Cass. Now would be good,” Cadence said, both aloud so Jamie could hear and through her IAC. “Let the blocking commence,” her little sister replied in a confident voice. It didn’t take immediately. Aaron continued to write for a good ten or fifteen seconds, but then, slowly, he stopped, looking at the papers like he’d never seen them before, and dropped his pen. He pushed back from his chair, his eyes wide, and gradually lifted his chin so that he was looking at them. “What… what is this?”

“Hi,” Cadence said, a smile covering her face. “How are you?” He tipped his head to the side and studied her for a moment, like he also hadn’t seen her for a while. “Cadence.” She watched a myriad of thoughts across his face, and then he shot out of his chair and rounded the desk. “I am so sorry.” Pressed against his chest, Cadence wrapped her arms around him. “It’s okay,” she said, not bothering to fight her tears this time. Jamie took a step away, and she appreciated it, though she was glad he was still there. “It’s going to be okay.” After a lengthy embrace, Aaron pushed back so that he could see her face. “What…? Why…?” He shook his head. “First of all, what do you ? Do you the conversation we had earlier?” He was still obviously confused, but he was nodding. “Yeah. I it, but it’s like a dream or something. I mean, it’s like I was here, but I wasn’t really here. I know that doesn’t make any sense.” “No, it does,” Jamie interjected. “Do you talking to me earlier, too?” “Yeah, but it’s the same. I all of the planning we did together, but then it’s like I wasn’t me all of a sudden. But I was there. I was saying all of those awful things. God, Elliott….” “It’s all right. He’s not on his way to Alberta,” Cadence assured him. She knew from her IAC that Brandon and Elliott had their stuff back in their apartment now. “Okay—so do you know what’s happening?” Aaron asked, backing up and releasing her. He folded his arms but then unfolded them and put his hands on his hips, like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with his own body. “Yeah. It’s Holland,” Jamie said quietly. “She’s messing with you, to put it mildly.” Aaron cocked his head to the side and studied the Healer. “What do you mean?” “I mean, you know how she’s been sending that signal to interfere with the

trackers? Somehow, she’s been swamping you with negative emotions, taking advantage of your talent, I guess.” Cadence wondered if maybe she should’ve let Jamie explain since it wasn’t coming out quite the way she meant it. But Aaron understood. “I never would’ve thought she’d be able to do that.” “Apparently, she can do lots of things she couldn’t do before,” Jamie reminded him. “Right—like have a baby,” Cadence added. Aaron started to run his hand through his hair, but Cadence reached out and grabbed it. “You’ve lost enough of that.” He looked up, as if he could somehow see the top of his own head. “So why am I me right now?” “Cass,” Jamie said, and Aaron nodded. “But she won’t be able to do this forever.” “You know how hard it is for her to block Holland long term,” Cadence reminded him. “I do.” He leaned back on the corner of his desk, and Cadence fought the urge to launch herself at him, realizing he was going to need some time and space. Still, she’d missed him so much; it was hard to keep her hands off of him. “Do you think that, now that you’re aware of what she’s doing, you might be able to combat it yourself, like with Eliza?” Jamie asked, his tone hopeful. “I don’t know,” Aaron itted, running a hand along his jaw. “God, I hope so. Otherwise, I’m more of a liability than anything else at this moment.” Cadence and Jamie exchanged glances, both ing what Christian had said about locking Aaron up. “You’re not a liability,” she said, but she wasn’t sure she even believed it if he couldn’t combat this. Jamie moved around to the other side of Aaron’s desk. “What were you writing?” he asked.

Aaron turned suddenly, like he was shocked to know that the papers were real and weren’t just part of a bad dream. “Oh, uh… well, I’m sure you can read it.” Jamie’s eyes enlarged, and he slowly began to shake his head. “Glad we figured it out when we did.” “What does it say?” Cadence asked, looking from one of them to the other. “You don’t want to know,” Jamie replied, taking the papers Aaron had scrawled all over and wadding them up, tossing them into the trash. “No, I do. I need to know,” Cadence insisted. “Was that Latin?” “Yeah,” Jamie said. “It’s really not that important.” “Jamie…” Cadence began. But the answer came from her fiancé. He reached out and took her hand, pulling her to him. “It said, ‘Kill the bitch in her sleep. Kill myself.’” Cadence could hardly believe her ears. It made sense that Holland would try something like that if she had enough control over him, but to think he’d been sitting at his desk writing that horrible phrase over and over again. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, thankful they’d figured it out when they had. “I’m sorry, Cadey.” “It’s okay,” she whispered back, knowing it wasn’t his fault. “Guess the joke’s on her,” Jamie said, his voice completely serious. “You can’t kill yourself.” Cadence snickered, knowing deadpan Jamie when she heard him. She looked up at the Healer over Aaron’s shoulder. “True, but thanks to the titanium bullets, he could’ve done the first part.” “Maybe you should let me move those to a secret location for a while?” Jamie suggested. “No, it’s okay,” Cadence said before Aaron could even answer. She took a step

back so that she could look him in the face but didn’t let go of his hands. “That’s not going to happen. In a minute, we’re going to let Cass back off, and then you’re going to fight Holland off yourself.” For the first time in as long as she could , he looked scared. It wasn’t an expression he wore well since most of the time, nothing seemed to frighten him, but he nodded slowly, and she smiled, hoping to reassure him that she believed he could do it. “Should we rip the Band-Aid off then?” the doctor asked, coming back around to the front of the desk. Still nervous, Aaron nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.” “Why don’t you have a seat?” Jamie suggested, his physician persona taking over. He directed Aaron to his chair behind his desk. “Try to relax, think about who you are, what you stand for, how you feel about all of us—well Cadence and I anyway, maybe not everyone.” Cadence chuckled again. Funny Jamie was so rare. “And when you’re ready, let us know, and Cadence will give the signal to Cass.” “Okay,” Aaron took a deep breath and leaned his head back against his chair, closing his eyes. “Cass, can you slowly unblock her?” Cadence asked, not even knowing if such a thing were possible. “I’ll try,” Cassidy replied. Cadence’s eyes were glued to Aaron’s face as Cassidy began the process of releasing the Kraken. His eyebrows began to knit together slowly until a pained expression overtook him, and his forehead crinkled in concentration. Jamie took a step back to her, wrapping his arm around her, and Cadence found her hands bound in front of her, pressed beneath her chin. After an eternal minute, Aaron slowly opened his eyes. Cadence meant to draw in a deep breath but realized she’d never released the last one, so she stood there motionless, waiting. “Well…” Aaron said, drawing out each letter of the word, “I can definitely feel

her in there, probing. It’s… odd.” “But you’re still with us,” Jamie reminded him. “True. But… I feel like Regan MacNeil fighting Pazuzu.” “Huh?” Cadence whispered to Jamie. “The Exorcist,” he replied. She nodded, getting the idea. “She knows you’re on to her, right?” “I think so. She doesn’t seem thrilled with the idea that I don’t want her in my head anymore.” “Does she seem to be weakening at all?” Cadence asked, dropping her hands down but otherwise keeping her stoic stance. “It’s hard to say. I feel like maybe she’s fighting me; she really doesn’t want to go. But I also feel that I’m doing a better job of pushing her out. It’s like the angrier she becomes, the stronger I get.” He was breathing a lot more evenly now, and Cadence could see the confidence growing with each ing moment. “Good.” Jamie’s head was bobbing up and down like a coach watching his star running back headed toward the end zone. “You’ve got this.” Aaron raised his hand, like he was going to run it through his hair, a nervous habit he’d had for as long as Cadence had known him, but he caught himself and returned his hand to the armrest, ing her warning from earlier. “I think… I think it’s going to be all right.” She finally exhaled all of the air she’d collected earlier and refilled her lungs, relief settling in. The idea that some monster had been camped out in her fiancé’s head for weeks was more than a little alarming, and she wondered if Holland had gained any information from her infiltration. She had wreaked enough havoc, that was for certain, and bought herself a lot of time. But now that Aaron was back, and Holland was away from her playpen, they needed to strike. “All right. We’re good,” Aaron said, and Cadence believed him, despite the lingering fear she could still detect in the corners of his eyes. “But if I should slip away again….”

“We’ll send Cass in to find you,” she assured him with a nod. “Great. Now, we have a hell of a lot of work to do,” Jamie reminded them. “You’re right, we do,” Aaron agreed. “Do you most of what we talked about earlier?” “I ,” Jamie nodded. Aaron was out of his seat. “Why don’t you get Elliott, Hannah, and Christian together. Run with the ideas we started on earlier, see what develops. I’ll let the Area Leaders who are under direct threat know that they need to be planning attacks as well. Not hunts—full out attacks on all of those Vampire groups that are threatening to knock down our doors--and then we’ll look at what our next steps are. We are going to need Cassidy to find a position on Holland’s lair while she’s away, but since it’s 4:00 in the morning, we’ll let her do that tomorrow. I know she’s still up, but she needs to get some sleep.” “I was going to go over and talk to her,” Cadence noted, now that he’d stopped giving directions long enough for her to speak. A crooked grin spread across Aaron’s face, one with a bit of mischief about it she hadn’t seen in a while, and her eyebrows shot up. She knew that twinkle in his eye, though for a while she’d thought perhaps she’d never see it again. “Tell her you’ll be over first thing in the morning.” He took a step toward her, his arms open, and Cadence moved into his embrace. “Or maybe second thing.” “Uh… I think this might be my cue to leave,” Jamie said, taking a giant step backward. “Nah, you can have the office,” Aaron replied without shifting his eyes off of hers. He reached up and cupped Cadence’s chin, his palm caressing the side of her face. “We’ll leave.” The feel of his hands on her was enough to make her forget all of the earnestness involved in catching Holland, and she leaned in to meet his lips as they crashed down against hers. She opened her mouth and welcomed him in; it had been too long since she’d tasted him, and she felt a surge of energy between them as they reconnected. It was almost like the first time he’d kissed her. A bolt of electricity sizzled up her spine, and she pressed herself against his body, the urgency in his

kisses letting her know he felt it too. His lips released hers, and it was hard for her to let him go, but his arms stayed around her, his breath still hot against her cheek as he asked, “Race you home?” The corner of her mouth pulled up in a devilish grin. “You have no idea how fast I am now.” She raised her eyebrows and lowered them rapidly, and then took off for the door in a flash, his hands still entangled around her waist as the couple shot out of the building to the solace of their own apartment, choosing to take the stairs instead of waiting on the elevator. Falling in a tangle of sleeves and pantlegs onto the bed they’d shared so many times, Cadence felt a burning deep within her. She’d missed the smooth contour of his chest muscles, the way his biceps flexed when he pulled her close. His tongue traced down the length of her neck while his hands searched down her side as if it was all uncharted territory, and Cadence found herself breathless, the longing inside of her nearly sending her over the edge of rapture before they’d even begun. “I love you, Cadence,” Aaron whispered between kisses gently laid in the tender haven between her neck and shoulder. “Thank you for not giving up on me.” Letting go a raspy gasp, she replied, “I love you, too.” She shifted beneath him and slid her hand up his stomach, feeling the ripple of muscle there, before she rested her palm on his pectoral and pressed back just enough to get his attention. “Listen, I lost you once before, and I will never let that happen again, okay? So… promise me, no matter what occurs, no matter what kind of bullshit Holland or anyone else throws at us, we will always find each other again. Okay? Always.” He ran his hand across her cheek, brushing her hair back and smiled at her, his blue eyes sparkling, and Cadence’s heartbeat staccatoing. “I promise, Cadence. Nothing will ever keep us apart. Nothing.” That was all she needed to hear. She dragged her hand back the way it had come, wrapping it around him and pressing him down as she rose to meet him, finding his lips with hers and completely surrendering herself to the man she’d chosen to spend her life with, knowing full well, no matter the circumstances, she would always choose him again, every single day.

Chapter 11

Lush green foliage, thick with brambles and tangled branches, dotted the mountainside, the ground, muddied from recent rain, uneven and densely populated with rocks that made walking unappealing, and in her present mood, the last thing on earth Asteria wanted to do was trek around the forest looking for help from someone who should’ve been seeking her out. She was the Vampire Queen, after all. So why in the world would she need to suffer the degradation of climbing up and down mountain trails looking for one who should feel blessed to be considered a potential use to someone of her stature? “Please try not to worry, Your Majesty,” the stooped man called Nelo said over his shoulder as they wound their way up a nearly undetectable trail. “I am certain we will find him today.” “That is what you said yesterday,” Asteria reminded him. After two days of searching for Daunator, they had come up empty handed. Asteria had announced earlier that morning that she was done, that she would go home to Melbourne and handle the situation herself, but once that insipid girl was able to interfere with her minions in Missouri, and that wretched Guardian Leader pushed her out of his head, she knew she’d have to continue to seek assistance from someone. Hines insisted that Daunator would be able to help them, that he had met the mysterious Vampire once before, but Asteria was beginning to have her doubts, and the longer she chased the shadow, the more convinced she became that there were other less strenuous options. “I’m sorry, my Queen,” Hines said, his hair slightly deflated from the long journey. “If I could do it myself, I would. But the last time I was privileged enough to speak to the knower, he said, ‘He who feels the burn must extinguish the fire.’ I believe that means whoever has the problem must be the one to come and speak to him, and though I am more than a little involved at this point, I am fairly certain he would refuse to confide the answers to me.” “All of that is fine and good, Hines,” she said, running a hand over her bulging belly. It seemed to grow an inch or two each day, and at this rate, she felt she might be giving birth within the week. “But I am not convinced he will even be

able to help us.” Hines stopped, one hand on a tree trunk he’d been using to steady himself, and looked at her. “Does that mean you think our cause is hopeless?” His eyes were wide behind his thick spectacles, and the worry caused his mouth to crinkle. “No, of course not,” she replied quickly. Despite recent setbacks, she was determined to find a way. “I only mean I do not think he could be any wiser than I am. I have travelled to hell and back. I know the forces of nature, the movement of things unseen, more than anyone else. What can he possibly know that I do not?” “Oh, Your Majesty,” Venette said, her face seeming to pale beneath the black hooded cloak she wore. “I beg you not to speak ill of the great Daunator. He is quite powerful. His wisdom reaches far beyond our understanding.” Asteria couldn’t help but laugh. “If he is so great and powerful that he has heard me speak against him, perhaps he will show himself, and then I can defend myself face to face with the all-knowing one. Otherwise, I will continue to have my doubts about his power.” There was an exchange of glances between the others, expressions Asteria chose to ignore. They could mutter about as if speaking ill of one who was clearly not in their presence would bring certain destruction upon the lot of them, but Asteria was at the end of her rope. Knowing she’d left an incompetent in charge back at the asylum did not make her feel better, though now that Perses was gone, there was no one else she would’ve trusted in her absence anyway—and she wasn’t completely sure she would’ve trusted him for that matter. Still, since she and Hines were both here, she’d called upon an acquaintance from her first existence to watch over things, a muscular Vampire named Bossley with icy blond hair and the sort of eyes that make a women’s heart flutter, if she is still alive. He did not affect Asteria the same way since she was not. Her hope was that he would at least be competent enough to hold back any forces that may try to invade while she was gone, but hoping that Aaron’s depression and her own ability to confuse the enemy about the location would be enough to keep them all at bay was slowly fading. The longer she spent wandering around a mountainside, the more she began to see her dreams slipping through her fingers, especially since she was quite sure the Guardian Leader would want to press against her forces now that he was thinking for himself, and she had no idea if

her armies were ready. “Hines,” she called, still traveling up the side of a steep hill despite her better judgment. “Are the rooms prepared at least? Can Bossley at least hold them if he can’t change them?” “Yes, they are ready. I assure you, Your Majesty, I have been over all of that with Bossley and with my assistant, Joanna. If there is an attack while we are gone, measures are ready. Trust your accomplices.” Asteria nodded, and he turned back to face the way they were going, but she still felt uneasy. Joanna was a simpleton, by all s. A tall, dark-haired, newly turned nurse’s assistant who knew about as much about istering a shot of sedative as performing brain surgery. Yet, Hines liked her because when he’d asked her to stomp a litter of newly born kittens, the woman hadn’t hesitated. However, LIGHTS would be a lot harder to squish, and the fact that she could be cruel to helpless creatures meant nothing, as far as Asteria was concerned. If they were attacked while the queen was away, she’d need all of her strength to mentally empower her soldiers to fight off the invaders, and she didn’t know how she could possibly do that after trekking around the woods for days looking for someone she did not need. A sharp pain in her lower abdomen had her clutching her bulging stomach and crying out. The other three stopped and stared at her. “Are you all right, Your Majesty?” Venette asked, her eyes wide with concern. “I’m fine,” Asteria assured them, taking deep breaths. Why she didn’t change form and fly away on wings like an owl or float away in a mist she wasn’t sure, but even her unborn child thought this was a poor idea. “We must be heading back soon.” “Just a bit further,” Nelo prodded. “I am beginning to sense something.” Asteria’s protests stayed inside of her. She was certain this was a waste of time and resources, and if she wasn’t careful, she would end up losing her empire because of it. Her feet kept moving forward, nonetheless.

Cadence switched off the treill and wiped sweat from her dripping forehead on a towel. She’d missed a few days, but now that Aaron was back to his normal self, she was determined not to let another day go by without finding herself in the gym, leaving her frustration on the black, looping track. Since she had put in her thirty-five miles now, she would be able to concentrate better, which was a good thing because there was a lot to be done. And to think, today she’d gone that far in half her usual time. She headed for the locker room , noticing the complex was eerily quiet. She knew Aurora had taken her new recruits outside, but it was odd that no one else was there, and she wondered if she’d missed a memo or something. There was a lot to be done, but Aaron had assured her that morning, when she’d woken up in bed still in his arms, that she should go run and not worry about anything else until she was finished. Grabbing her stuff out of her locker, she headed for the shower when the locker room door swung open. “Oh, good. Someone else is here. I thought I was missing something. It’s so quiet out there.” Ashley Stone. Cadence smiled at her but had no true answer. “Yeah, I thought the same thing.” She only paused for a second before continuing on her way. While Cadence liked Ashley a lot more now that she was dating Jamie and no longer seemed interested in Aaron, it was hard for Cadence to forget the fact that the beautiful blonde had been after her fiancé not that long ago. She was halfway through lathering up when she heard the shower next to hers turn on and hoped she could un-soap herself and get out of the locker room before she’d be forced to talk to Ashley anymore. She could handle the other Hunter much better in a crowd where there was little chance of their discussion turning to anything personal, but Cadence wasn’t in the mood to explore her feelings as to whether or not she’d forgiven Ashley, and any intimate details the other girl may care to share about her relationship with Cadence’s good friend Jamie would be enough to make her gag. Cadence flipped the water off and rushed to her locker, her towel wound around her still dripping frame. She managed to get dressed and was running a brush through her hair when Ashley came over, drying off as she went. “So… I saw

something interesting the other day.” So close…. Cadence thought. “Oh, yeah? What’s that?” “Well, I was walking past Aurora’s office on my way to the pool, and….” Ashley paused and glanced around, like she wasn’t sure she should say what she’d discovered, but since Cadence already had a hunch she knew, she stared at the other woman expectantly. “And Elliott was in there with her. They were standing a little close to just be chatting about the weather.” Ashley’s voice was a harsh whisper as she finished the statement. “Oh, yeah. I know. But don’t tell anyone else.” Cadence finished putting her hair in a ponytail and grabbed her sneakers. “You know?” Ashley asked, sliding a pair of jeans over her narrow hips. “So something is going on?” Cadence shrugged. It wasn’t her place to discuss it, and she didn’t even like it when the thought randomly popped into her head, especially if there were unwanted graphics. “Yeah, I guess. But I don’t really feel like it’s my business, so I haven’t asked any questions.” Ashley was dressed now and sat down next to Cadence, whose shoes were on, and she reminded herself if she bolted off Ashley could never catch her. “Who told you? Or did you see something, too?” “Both—someone told me because I saw something.” She didn’t really feel like it was Ashley’s concern. “But literally no one else knows. So don’t say anything.” It crossed her mind that Aurora might want to invest in a curtain for her door. She stood and moved back to her locker, readying her bag to take back to the apartment before she headed to the office. “Well, I was a little surprised,” Ashley continued. “I mean, they seem to get along just fine, but I wouldn’t have thought he was her type.” “What do you mean?” Cadence asked before she could remind herself that she didn’t care what Ashley thought. “I mean, Aurora usually seems to comment on how gorgeous some of the more muscular, more attractive guys are, that’s all.”

Cadence’s forehead puckered. “Elliott’s super strong. And he’s not unattractive.” She had no idea what had caused her to say that last part. It sounded weird coming out of her mouth since she’d always thought of him like a brother. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean….I guess I should keep my mouth shut.” Cadence considered recommending she do just that. “Listen, Elliott’s a great guy. If Aurora likes him, I can see plenty of reasons for it. You wouldn’t want someone trying to decipher what you’re doing with Jamie, would you?” Ashley’s forehead crinkled, and Cadence realized she’d been misunderstood. “What do you mean? I thought it was your idea that I should give Jamie a chance in the first place.” “Who told you that?” It was true—Cadence had suggested it, but she didn’t realize that was common knowledge. “He did,” she replied, quickly. “On our first date. He said you pointed out how much I look like his ex-girlfriend or something, and it made him start thinking about asking me out.” “Not ex-girlfriend. Deceased girlfriend.” She grabbed her bag and headed toward the door, thinking nothing good could come of this. “Whatever.” Cadence turned and looked at the other Hunter in disbelief. “There’s a huge difference. Do you know anything about Ellie?” She shrugged. “Only that he hasn’t dated anyone else since she ed away. And apparently she looked a little like me.” “She looked a lot like you,” Cadence thought. “Jamie is one of the best people I’ve ever met, and I wasn’t trying to imply that anyone should question why you are dating him. I think the two of you are great together; you make a good couple. I was just trying to say that it isn’t really anyone’s business, that’s all. Everyone has an opinion about what two people are doing together, but it really doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, so long as you’re happy. Same with Roar and Elliott. Not my business. No one’s business but theirs.”

“Sorry, Cadence.” She zipped her gym back and pulled her long hair out of her shirt. “I was trying to make conversation, that’s all. You’re not exactly the easiest person for me to talk to. Maybe I shouldn’t try.” Cadence opened her mouth, thinking she should disagree, but she couldn’t, so she just said, “See you later, Ashley,” and headed out the door, wishing that conversation had gone differently, but it seemed like there was nothing she could do to try to make nice with the pretty blonde. In the hallway, a throng of new recruits poured in from the door at the far end, and Cadence decided to hurry up and get out of there before she said something else stupid to someone. But before she could get out of the building, she heard her name and turned back. Tara and her sister were headed her way, sweaty, but laughing, and Cadence thought the least she could do was say hi. Surely, she couldn’t screw that up. “Hey. How was your training session?” Cadence asked as the other newbies stepped around them to hit the showers. Tara had a glint of mischief in her eyes as she answered for both of them. “It would’ve been boring if Cassidy’s favorite soldier hadn’t been there.” “Oh, stop,” Cass replied, giving her friend a playful shove. “It was fine. Aurora took us out to the wooded area over by the fence, and we worked on approaches.” “Approaches?” Cadence wasn’t exactly sure what that would be. “Yeah, like when you sneak up on a structure or an unsuspecting Vampire,” Tara clarified. “It was Alex’s idea.” Cadence thought she noted a bit of color coming into her sister’s already flushed cheeks. Valentine’s Day had ed, but there seemed to still be some love in the air. “That seems like a good skill to have,” Cadence said, hoping to be dismissive so she wouldn’t have to hear more about how her sister was infatuated with Alexander Hamilton, while Cassidy tried to deny it. “Especially if you’re hung up on the instructor who points out to the entire group how awesome you are, like four hundred times.” Tara’s smile was so wide, Cadence thought her cheeks had to ache.

“All right, friend. Chill,” Cassidy insisted. “It wasn’t like that.” “Whatev,” Tara insisted. Cadence saw Aurora headed into her office and decided there was only one way to get out of this. “I need to go talk to Roar. I’ll see you two later.” “Okay, but you said you’d arrange a hunt for me so I could get out of training, ?” Cassidy grabbed her shoulder as she tried to sneak by so that Cadence had to turn and look at her. “I know. I will. Soon.” “You better.” “But then you won’t be able to stare at Alex,” Tara teased. “Will you stop? Brandon’s going to be pissed.” Cassidy let go of Cadence’s arm, and the two headed for the locker room, still arguing about whether or not Cassidy was interested in the ancient Guardian. “Aurora!” Cadence shouted as her friend’s door was about to swing shut. She shot ahead and grabbed it right before it clicked closed. “Do you have a second?” Aurora seemed surprised at first, momentarily having forgotten how fast Cadence was now, apparently. “Sure. What’s up?” The redhead made no move to invite her in, but Cadence pushed through anyway, and once she was inside the office, she realized why she hadn’t been asked. Elliott was sitting in Aurora’s rolly chair, doing something on his phone. Cadence turned to look at Aurora, whose face was paling. “Uh….” “It’s all right, Roar. She knows,” Elliott assured her, spinning the chair around to face them. “She does?” Aurora asked, the color starting to return, bringing some more red with it, as if she was starting to grow angry. “Yeah. It’s this stupid window,” Cadence said, gesturing at the offender. “Ashley

knows, too.” “What’s that now?” Elliott asked, no longer interested in his phone. It sounded like an angry bird was flying through the air with little effect as a host of pigs squealed in victory. “She just asked me in the showers if I knew anything about you two. You guys are either going to have to come out publicly….” “Or invest in a three dollar curtain?” Elliott asked. Aurora ran her hand down her face. “How long have you known?” Cadence had to think about the answer. It seemed like she’d known for weeks, but it had only been a few days. “Not long. It doesn’t matter. I haven’t told anyone. I’m sure Aaron probably knows, too, though, now that he’s himself again and can figure stuff out. I don’t understand why it has to be a secret.” “Because… we aren’t ready to tell people. There’s nothing to tell,” Aurora explained. “Yeah, it’s not like it’s a relationship,” Elliott added, and Cadence thought she saw a tinge of hurt around Aurora’s eyes that quickly faded away as her friend nodded. “Okay. Well, I told Ashley to keep her mouth shut, but I don’t think that’s her strong suit. So if there are certain people you would rather heard it from you, maybe you should tell them.” She looked hard at Elliott, and he nodded, signaling he had caught her drift. “Now, we have a meeting in a little while so….” “We know,” Aurora nodded. “We’ll be there.” Cadence didn’t think it was her place to question speed, so she let her head bop up and down a few times before pulling the door open, looking at the window as if it should feel ashamed of itself for being so transparent. Walking away from the gym gave her an opportunity to get her head back in the game. They had some impossibly difficult tasks ahead of them, and she needed to make sure that she and Aaron were on the same page. They were scheduled to

meet with the larger team in about an hour, but she hoped she had a few minutes to go over a few things with him before the rest of them arrived. There were about to be a lot of balls up in the air, and she didn’t want to drop any of them. Noises from the kitchen greeted her as she opened the apartment door. She dropped her gym bag by the door, reminding herself to come back for it later so she didn’t poke the bear, as Elliott would’ve put it, and followed the noise. “Oh, hey,” Aaron said, standing over the stove. “How was the gym?” Cadence stood in the doorway a moment longer, both eyebrows arched. “Fine. What are you doing? Have you been abducted again?” He snickered. “I don’t think so, but it’s hard to tell.” He flipped over what appeared to be a grilled cheese sandwich, and Cadence moved in for closer inspection. “I know I don’t cook much—” “Or at all.” “But I wanted to do something nice for you, and Mrs. Carminatti is working on a whole list of items I asked her to look into this morning, so I had to do it myself.” He seemed satisfied that the sandwich was the right color and the cheese was melted enough so he scooped it out of the pan with a spatula and plunked it down on a waiting plate. “Four triangles, halves or whole?” A giggle escaped her lips as she wrapped her arms around his waist. Rarely did he ever attempt to cook anything, and for good reason. Not that she was one to talk. If it didn’t come from a box with specific directions, she wasn’t trying it either. “Halves, please,” she replied, and he cut the sandwich in half with one hand while he held her with the other. It was hard for her to let go of him to take the plate, but the buttery, cheesy aroma was intoxicating, and she soon found herself sitting at the table, wolfing it down. He brought her a Dr. Pepper and a bag of potato chips and took a seat across from her, not speaking, only staring at her with a gentle smile on his face. “It’s really good,” she managed between bites. “Glad to hear it. Janette’s recipe.”

Cadence laughed. “I didn’t realize grandma had a grilled cheese recipe. Butter two pieces of bread, put some cheese in the middle?” “And she said she only shared it with me.” His smile widened, becoming the lopsided grin she loved, and Cadence would’ve tossed her food aside and checked their own speed if she wasn’t so hungry. And focused. She needed to talk to him about… something. Vampires. Yes that was it. Vampires. “What’s up?” “Oh, right. You can read me now, huh? Now that you’re back in there?” “You’ve always been hard for me to read, but I can tell there’s something on your mind. And it seems work related.” A blush covered her cheeks as her mind temporarily went to the night before. She pushed those thoughts away, hard as it was, and tuned back in. “Yeah. I was just concerned that we have a lot to accomplish, and I want to make sure that we don’t leave anything out or screw this up.” “I understand. I feel like I’ve spent the last three weeks working my ass off on things that don’t matter.” Cadence nodded. That seemed about right. “Now that I can concentrate on what we really need to do, I don’t want to leave anything out either. I’ve even got your mom working on a few things.” She tipped her head to the side, shoving another potato chip into her mouth, hoping the look would be enough that he’d understand her question. He did. “You know the initial check Becky did with Paul’s team when he was missing?” “Yep,” she said around her last bite of sandwich. “Well, something wasn’t quite adding up on their reports. I have your mom going back through all of the clearing that was done with a timestamp and a list of properties. It seems like maybe Holland was messing with the team at the time, and I’m under the impression perhaps every building wasn’t cleared.”

Cadence nodded, finishing up her chips. That made sense. She dusted her fingertips off on a napkin. “Why do you think Holland is in Linz?” She washed her lunch down with a long swing of Dr. Pepper while she waited for him to answer, though she could tell by his expression, he was as puzzled as she was. “I can only suspect there’s something, or someone, there that we don’t know about.” “But Eliza’s team swept through there when we were hunting Giovani, and she seemed to be under the impression there wasn’t a large cell there,” Cadence reminded him, though she was sure he already knew all of that. “I’m not certain she was particularly thorough. Giovani was our objective, after all. And Eliza never found everyone that was hiding him.” He leaned back in his chair, still thoughtful. Cadence nodded. After Eliza had been moved from there, another Guardian had taken over, a guy whose name she couldn’t , but the Hunter Area Leader was a woman by the name of Marta. She’d already asked if Marta had any ideas why Holland was there, and the answer was no. They didn’t even know where Holland might be hiding. “Is it just me, or are there an awful lot of female Hunters and male Guardians these days?” “No, that’s true. I think there’s a trend. If the Hunter Leader’s a female, there will be more female Hunters, and since the last two have been female, and the last two Guardian Leaders have been male, it’s making it difficult to find the opposites.” While it should’ve startled her that no one had explained this trend to her, it didn’t. There were just too many surprises anymore to be surprised about anything. “Well, I would really like to find a couple of good male Hunters, but Aurora says she doesn’t have any right now. And recruiting has slowed since we’ve been concentrating on the Guardians coming in from Roatan.” “Maybe after everything settles down, we can see what we can find—if it’s even necessary. In the meantime, speaking of Roatan, I invited Alex to us at the meeting. I’m hoping he can offer some insight into why Holland might be in Linz.” Cadence’s forehead crinkled. “Why do you think he might be able to help with

that?” Aaron stood and took her plate over to the sink. “Because he’s old, and he’s been around a long time.” “But so is Christian….” “Christian knows a lot, too, but sometimes I can’t tell the difference between what Christian knows and what Christian has invented in his own head.” He rinsed the plate off and put it in the dishwasher, and she decided maybe she should at least throw her own napkin and empty can in the trash, so she stood to do so. Her concerns about Christian were too numerous to voice at the moment, so she kept them to herself. She wondered how her fiancé would react if he knew Christian’s theory about him being crazy but decided she didn’t want to be the one to test the water. “Thanks for lunch,” she said, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head against his chest. It was nice to be able to touch him again without him flinching or dodging out of the way. “Thanks for not giving up on me,” he replied, kissing the top of her head. “Well, I didn’t really have a choice,” she began, pulling back to look at him. “All of your stuff is already here, and I don’t have a lot of time on my hands for dating.” “I see. So… it was more convenient to just wait me out?” His tone conveyed that he knew she was teasing, and the way he was pulling on the end of her ponytail, wrapping it around his fingers, was soothing. “Yeah. And moving trucks are expensive.” She winked at him, and his eyes narrowed in silent scorn. She giggled. “Shall we head over to the office and go through a few things before the rest of the team shows up?” “Sure,” he replied, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, and Cadence thought perhaps there was no rush after all. But he saw things differently and let her go, taking her hand instead. “I hope Elliott and Aurora aren’t late,” he muttered as he led Cadence to the door. Unsure why he might say such a thing, Cadence asked, “Oh, yeah? Why would,

uh, they both be late?” “Oh, you know. It’s sort of both of their personalities to be slightly late,” he said, and Cadence decided maybe he didn’t know anything after all, until he added, “And it might be hard for them to pull themselves out of bed.” He opened the door and called the elevator with his IAC. Still not wanting to say more than she should, Cadence asked, “What do you mean?” Aaron snickered. “Come on, Cadence. I was with Elliott for about five seconds this morning and smelled her perfume on him. Everything fell together pretty quickly after that.” They stepped into the elevator, and she nodded, not surprised that he put that together quickly. Stupid perfume. Stupid window. Though, in the back of her mind, she did wonder why she cared to keep their secret a secret if they were being so careless about it that now at least three people were aware. “I don’t think they want Brandon and Cass to know,” she finally said as the elevator touched down on the bottom floor. “Well, then they’re gonna have to make a few changes.” He shrugged and led her across the lobby floor. They saw Juan Diego on the other side of the room and exchanged waves with him. Cadence ed she needed to thank him for fixing all of the walls she’d accidentally bashed in. “I’m glad they found each other, but I’m really surprised,” Aaron continued as they made their way outside. “Yeah, I was, too, but now I kind of think it’s a good thing. Maybe it’ll last.” “I doubt it,” he said a little too quickly for her taste. “I’m not sure Elliott has ever gotten over Amanda, and I think he’s helping her because he hopes he can get her back someday.” She opened her mouth and stared at him, not sure how to respond to that. The idea had crossed her mind, but she didn’t know if it was an actual possibility. She immediately thought of Brandon. What would it be like if his parents were together? But then, Amanda was a human, and it would be a huge sacrifice for Elliott to choose her. She’d die someday, and he never would. Eventually, she closed her mouth, not saying anything. The world was mixed up in more ways than she could even articulate, and for now, all she could do was complete the

next best step that would get her closer to righting as much of it as she could. At least she wouldn’t have to do it alone now.

Chapter 12

“I have Mom’s data,” Cassidy said, spreading a slew of pages across the conference table in Aaron and Cadence’s office. “And I think it’s pretty obvious what we missed.” Cadence looked at the stack of notes, wishing her mother had a better sense of what they needed. It all looked like random notations to her, while she’d been expecting a detailed map after what Aaron had explained to her what Liz was supposed to do. At least it seemed to make sense to Cassidy. “What is it?” Elliott asked, sitting in his usual spot next to Cadence, though she couldn’t help but wonder if he wished he was sitting near Aurora, who was across the table between Christian and Meagan—like she always was. “Well, if you check back through the communication log, you can see that Becky and Patsy are about to clear a place called Larundel at 2:17, but as soon as Becky makes the call over the IAC, Jeb transmits to her and Patsy that he and Steph had already cleared it.” “Okay,” Aaron said, leaning forward and staring over the end of the table at the notes Cassidy was hovering over. “But, when you go back over Jeb and Steph’s log, they never noted that they cleared this place. It’s not mentioned at all, and in fact, they are on the other end of the search zone from Larundel. So….” “You don’t think they actually searched it at all,” Cadence concluded. “But why would they say they’d done so if they hadn’t?” Alex asked. He hadn’t been there with them during the hunt in Melbourne and didn’t know as much about the situation with the IACs as the rest of the team. Cassidy looked at him for a moment, not speaking, and her cheeks went a little pink. Cadence shifted her gaze to Brandon and saw his jaw set slightly, but he didn’t say anything. Neither did her sister.

“Our IACs have been wacky,” Jamie explained. “We know Holland can mess with them. So I think Cass is saying she thinks that message didn’t actually come from Jeb.” It took Cass a second before she agreed. “Right. I think that was Holland messing with the IACs, and I think it hasn’t come back up again because Jeb and Steph don’t even know that Becky and Patsy thought they’d cleared it.” “And if fake Jeb told her it had been cleared already, did Becky even bother to tell them she and Patsy were not going to go in after all?” Hannah asked from her seat next to Alex at the far end of the table. “No, she just said, ‘Affirmative,’ and there’s a good chance Jeb didn’t receive that transmission if Holland was intentionally screwing around with them,” Cassidy pointed out. “So, whatever that place is, I think we need to look at it.” “You don’t know what it is?” Christian asked, his voice a little eerie sounding even for him. “Should I?” Cassidy asked, sinking into her seat. Cadence shifted her eyes to look at the old soldier, watching a creepy smile spread across his face. She braced herself. “I would’ve thought you’d checked, what with your dream and all,” he replied, gaping at her. “Well, I went through this stuff a minute ago and haven’t had much of a chance to do anything else. What is it?” Cassidy’s patience was clearly wearing thin. The annoying, amused look on Christian’s face had Cadence’s stomach rolling, but she tried to stay focused as he made sure he had everyone’s attention before he slowly began to answer the question. “Larundel was originally conceived in the late 1930s, but due to World War II, building didn’t begin until the 1940s. Even with that, it wasn’t until 1953 that it opened its doors.” Cadence glanced around the table, noting nearly everyone else looked the same way she felt, as if they wished Christian would hurry up. Aaron, on the other hand, looked as if he wasn’t paying any attention at all, and Cadence figured that was because he already knew what Larundel was and wasn’t bothering to listen to Christian’s attempt at storytelling.

“It was only open for about forty years, but during that time, thousands of psychiatric patients resided there, some of the worst cases imaginable, too. Schizophrenics, the criminally insane. It’s really not a very nice place. Now, paranormal investigators flock to the site because of all of the activity. Well, they did anyway. I imagine if Holland is holed up there, they wouldn’t be coming in droves anymore.” Christian concluded with a satisfied look on his face. “So you think the place I saw in my dream, the asylum, is Larundel, and that’s where Holland is?” Cassidy asked, her face taking on that crippling grimace only a teenage girl can pull off. “Yes,” was all Christian said in response. “Then why in the world are you just now mentioning this?” Brandon asked for all of them. Christian shrugged. “No one asked me. Besides, I figured it was clear. If Jeb said he’d checked it, I thought it couldn’t be the place. Even though it sounded right by Cassidy’s description.” “Thanks for that,” Cassidy said, still glowering at him. “I think it’s safe to say that we messed this up, and we need to go have a look around.” Aaron reed the conversation. “Cass, do you have any idea who Holland’s left in charge in her absence or how many Vampires we might be talking about?” “I don’t know,” Cadence’s little sister itted. “I have tried to find out numbers, but it’s hard because they’re always adding to their army. And Holland being away has left it difficult for me to zero in on anyone who is still there.” “Okay. We’ll just have to send Paul’s team in and see what happens,” Aaron said with a sigh, like he didn’t think that was a good idea. “What are their numbers like now?” Elliott asked. “You sent them quite a few Guardians, didn’t you?” “I did,” Aaron nodded. “They’ve got about fifty extra Guardians, which on paper sounds good, but I’m not sure what all Holland’s up to. And if she’s truly trying to find a way to kill us, we need to be cautious.”

“Can’t happen,” Christian mumbled dismissively, and Cadence found herself biting her tongue against mentioning all of the other things he had recently thought Holland couldn’t do but they had evidence she could do now. “Actually,” Jamie interjected, and Cadence was glad it was him because he was so reasonable and unlikely to reach across the table and snap Christian’s neck, “there is something she could do.” All eyes were on the doctor as he continued. “If Hines has figured out what we know about how to turn Guardians back into humans, then he could do that, and then kill us. It wouldn’t be quick, but it is a possibility.” Cadence did another turn around the table to see ashen faces and wide eyes on nearly everyone, but Christian was actually chuckling. “There’s no way she could figure that out so quickly. Hines can’t possibly know as much about genetics and our DNA makeup as Dr. Morrow, and it’s taken him decades to get this far.” “Why can’t he know?” Cassidy asked, her tone dripping with teenage venom. “Because Dr. Morrow is at the top of his field. He’s a genius. Hines is a quack,” Christian countered, still smirking. “And… Holland can read minds, you moron!” Cassidy spat, nearly out of her seat now. Brandon pushed her back down. “What makes you think she couldn’t just go for a little stroll around Morrow’s head—or yours—and come up with whatever information she needed?” The chuckling stopped, but Christian was shaking his head. “We’d know.” “We wouldn’t know,” Aaron countered, and no one could argue with that. Holland had set up shop in his mind for weeks, and he’d never suspected. Christian could argue that Dr. Morrow was more intelligent or that he knew everything there was to know about genetics until he was blue in the face, but he couldn’t argue he would be any more aware of his own subconscious than the Guardian Leader. “Would it be possible for Hines to do that?” Jamie asked Cassidy. “Could he get into someone’s head and figure out what we know?”

Cassidy shrugged, and when she answered, her voice was more even, probably because she liked and respected the person asking her the question. “I don’t see why not. I think all Vampires can do it. They just don’t all care to.” “All right, we’ll have to be particularly careful when Paul’s team moves in, make sure he knows the risks. If anyone will understand that, it’s him,” Aaron said, looking unsure of himself, a subtle shifting in his eyes that Cadence hoped everyone else didn’t notice, though those who knew him best likely also picked up on it. “Maybe they should wait,” Elliott offered. “Maybe we should get ourselves back over there first.” “Holland could be back any moment,” Cadence reminded them. “It would be better for Paul to go before she returns.” “Do we know where she is or why?” Aurora asked, her expression still grim. “We know she’s somewhere near Linz, or at least that’s where her planes still are. What she’s doing there, we have no idea, though we were hoping maybe Alex could provide some insight,” Aaron said, eying the soldier directly across the expansive table from him. At the mention of his name, Mr. Hamilton perked up a bit. “Me?” he asked. “While I am flattered, I’m not sure why you may think that. I’ve hardly any dealings in that part of Europe.” “We were hoping maybe some legend, some legacy would come to you,” Cadence explained. She glanced at Christian, who was used to having the role of storyteller and could see he was pissed that someone else was being asked instead of him. She figured if he knew anything at all, he’d chime in. “I’m afraid I won’t be of much use to you,” Alex said with a sigh. “But there is someone who might be able to help.” He pushed back his chair and hopped to his feet as if he was going to find said person right away. Cadence glanced at Aaron to see if he was going to let him go or ask him to wait. “Who might that be?” he asked, seemingly just as surprised as she was that Alex was up.

“Fellow by the name of Schmitz,” he said with a nod. “Older than me. Gentle soul. Grew up near the Austrian border. I’ll fetch him.” Whether Alex didn’t feel comfortable in their meeting, or he honestly felt that Schmitz would be of more use, Aaron let him go, and she could see her fiancé mentally trying to decide what topic to go to next while they all waited for Schmitz to them. There were almost too many to choose from, but he settled on what she thought was likely the most critical one of all. “Cadence and I are going to go ahead and let the other areas move out and destroy those pockets Holland was organizing around the eight largest headquarters. We will be treating Melbourne separately, considering the stakes there, but the other eight will be left in the hands of the Area Leaders. They have all been heavily reinforced with Guardians from Roatan, and thanks to Cassidy’s surveillance and the eyes we have on the ground, mostly Independent Hunters and Guardians, we have enough information available for our teams to move in and destroy them. We are asking that those who can coordinate in similar time zones do so since it should be more difficult for Holland to control that way.” “And it will be harder for her to strengthen everyone at the same time,” Cadence added. Aaron nodded. “So they have permission to attack whenever they feel ready.” “And us?” Meagan asked. She had been quiet up until then, but that wasn’t uncommon for her. “And we will be moving forward as well. There are four pockets of concern to us, now that Spittle and his men have been taken out. Something else we need to decide in this meeting is how to go about attacking all of them at the same time.” “We’ve got a few ideas,” Cadence picked up for Aaron. “But we wanted to run it by all of you first.” “The other topic we need to discuss is who else, if anyone, is going to go through the process Elliott and Cadence just underwent.” Aaron kept his voice low, as if it was somehow a secret. “I am,” Christian said as if it weren’t a matter of him gaining permission. “I worked a long time on the Retransformation serum, so I figure I’ve earned an enhancement.”

Cadence literally bit her tongue and was glad she didn’t have fangs like Cass because chances were they would’ve drawn blood. The only reason they knew that doubling up Transformation serum had this effect was because of Christian’s stupid ass mistake. “That’s fine with me,” Aaron said, his tone much nicer than Cadence’s would’ve been. “But we’ll need to schedule it quickly so that you don’t miss the attack, assuming you want to be a part of that.” “Of course I do,” Christian replied. “I’m ready when Jamie is.” “Actually,” Jamie said again, and all eyes shifted to him. “I want to do it, too.” “Jamie…” Aaron began, shaking his head, but the doctor didn’t let him finish. “I know you’re worried I’ll lose something in the transition, but that doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t think that will be the case. What if it allows me to heal faster or without wiping myself out? I trust Martin enough to keep me safe while I’m under.” It was clear he was convinced, and Cadence turned her attention to Aaron to see if he would argue. He ran his hand through his hair, an indicator he was conflicted. “Let me think about it, okay?” Cadence could see that Jamie wanted to argue, but he didn’t. He only said, “Okay,” and Cadence figured he would do it whether Aaron approved it or not. “I want to do it, too,” Hannah said, and they all turned at the sound of her voice. It was a surprise, at least for Cadence. Hannah spent most hunts directing, not fighting, but maybe she felt like she could be more useful. “Okay,” Aaron said. “Me, too,” Aurora added, a brief glance at Elliott who was still as a statue. “And me. Shane does, too,” Meagan said, speaking up for her boyfriend who wasn’t there. “Can I?” Cass asked, and Cadence turned and glared at her. She shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

“Dad?” Brandon asked. Cadence turned to look at Elliott whose jaw was set tight. “You know it’s safe. You did it.” “I’m willing to gamble a little bit with my own ass, Son, but not with yours.” “It’s not a gamble, Dad. Jamie won’t let anything happen to me,” Brandon argued, and it was clear that Elliott was considering it. “What if it enhances my powers?” Cassidy argued, and Cadence’s eyes flickered from one teen to the other. “Tell you what, Cass, you get Liz Findley to sign a release form, and we’ll chat,” Aaron said, nipping that conversation in the bud. “Dad?” Brandon asked, likely seeing Elliott was caving. “Hell, boy,” he muttered. “I don’t know. Let me talk to your mom.” Brandon’s mood brightened, and Cadence couldn’t help but notice the difference between the two teens—one of them happy to have his mother involved the other knowing her mother would kill her if she mentioned it. “Okay. I would like to move in on these four bands of Vampires sooner rather than later. Jamie how many of these procedures do you think you can handle at once?” The Healer looked up at the ceiling like he was counting. “Well, we still have that makeshift hospital ward set up in the tagging facility. I think there are about fifteen beds in there. I should be able to handle the room at capacity. I’ll get Martin and the other Healers to help, and Kathy can assist, too, since she’s got nothing else going on these days.” “You sure you can handle all of that? What if something goes wrong?” Aaron asked, and Cadence was right there with him. “All I’ve had to do is monitor. We should be good.” Jamie seemed confident. “I’ll do everyone else first, and then if you’ll let me, once they’re all awake, I’ll go.” It was almost as if he was trying to sneak Aaron’s permission into the

conversation, but before he could either agree or disagree, the office door opened, and Alex stepped back in, followed by a short man with dark hair, a mustache, and a closely cropped beard who looked like he was in his mid-to-late thirties. That meant nothing, of course, since he could’ve been centuries old and likely was if Alex knew him so well. “Pardon us,” Alex said, bowing politely in his manner. “This is my good friend Michael Schmitz.” “Yes, of course,” Aaron said, standing and shooting around the table to shake the newcomer’s hand. “It’s nice to see you again, Schmitz.” Cadence wasn’t surprised that Aaron knew him. He knew everyone. If she had ever seen the Guardian, she didn’t recall him. He looked rather timid, and Alex didn’t bother to introduce him to everyone, only offered him the seat he’d previously vacated and took a position leaning against the door as if he were a sentinel as Aaron returned to his chair. “Alexander said you might have some questions for me?” Schmitz asked, interlacing his fingers on the table, his elbows squeezed together. “Yes, we were hoping you could help us,” Aaron replied. “We know that Holland is somewhere near Linz, but we don’t know why she’s there. Giovani went there, too, right before he traveled to Philadelphia to create Gibbon in an attempt to destroy Cadence. Do you happen to know why Holland might be in that part of Europe? Is there anyone you can think of she might be visiting? Or a location she might be staying at for some reason?” Cadence watched what color Schmitz had held in his face slowly drain away the longer Aaron talked until he was nearly as white as a sheet of paper. “Linz?” he finally asked, once Aaron was done, and when the Guardian Leader affirmed he had heard correctly, Schmitz ducked his head and ran his hands across the top of it, clearly in consternation. “What is it?” Cassidy asked on everyone’s behalf. Schmitz needed some time to answer, so they all waited patiently. Cadence’s eyes met Elliott’s and for once there was nothing remotely playful about his expression. He looked a little frightened, which matched Cadence’s countenance. What could it possibly be that would make Schmitz react this way? Eventually, the man cleared his throat. “Back in my day, there was a legend

about a mysterious creature who resided in the hills near the small town of Klet. Even though most of my family had Transformed as young as possible, none of us were ever foolish enough to wander alone in those woods. They said… they said that the monster who lived there had a way about him, that even if you were a Guardian, he had powers that could influence, powers that could destroy. I never actually knew of anyone who saw him with their own eyes, but the legends went back to well before my great-great-grandparents’ time.” The table was silent as Cadence ponder all of the reasons Holland might be looking for someone with that sort of power. While she doubted whatever this thing was could actually destroy Guardians, he did sound menacing. “Do you know what they called him?” she asked quietly. Schmitz’s head bobbed up and down, but he didn’t speak. Cadence’s eyes flickered around. Everyone seemed to be taking the information seriously, except for Christian, who only looked angry. “Can you tell us?” Cadence asked. Schmitz’s head shook back and forth quickly, and he still said nothing. “You can’t tell us?” Aaron questioned. “Why is that?” He cleared his throat. “Speaking his name is said to draw him out, and even though I am certain he cannot manifest here, I’m not willing to take the chance.” “Can you write it down?” Cadence asked, thinking it a little odd this man who was practically an immortal, who had more to fear of her than whatever this beast who lived halfway around the world was, seemed afraid to say his name. She wanted to ask if his name was Betelgeuse but didn’t think it was an appropriate time to make a joke. When Schmitz indicated he could write it down, Hannah ed him her pad of paper and a pen. He took a deep breath and jotted a few letters down on the paper, putting his hand over top of it. “Will you wait until I leave before you read it?” “Certainly,” Aaron assured him. “Well, if there’s nothing more you wish to tell us, I suppose you can go.” Cadence noticed he’d slipped back into a more formal way of speaking since he was talking to people closer to his age and would’ve

thought that was funny, too, if it weren’t for the fear she saw on Schmitz’s face. “That’s all,” he nodded. “That and… just be cautious. We don’t know what he can do, but it’s not… typical.” “Yes, of course. Thank you,” Aaron said with a smile, and Schmitz darted out of the room before he could be asked anything else. “Shall I accompany him?” It was obvious Alex didn’t want to stay either. Cadence wasn’t certain why that might be, but the fact that Alex wanted to be human again, to be able to die, made her think perhaps he was tired of being involved in all of this. “I don’t see why not,” Aaron replied, and Alex departed as well. Once the door was shut, Hannah looked down at the paper. “Are we all ready for me to read it?” she asked. “Nope. Let me get my aluminum foil hat on,” Elliott said sarcastically, getting a chuckle out of almost everyone. Hannah, still smirking, read, “Daunator.” “Daunator?” Christian echoed, as if the name had struck a chord with him. “You know him?” Aaron asked. “I should say I’ve heard of him, I guess. He is legendary. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him.” “Enlighten us, Captain Henry,” Elliott chimed in before Aaron had to say anything back to the tech guy to defend himself. Christian cleared his throat and shrugged. “There isn’t much to say. Just… yeah… I’ve heard he knows a lot, that he has powers beyond your typical Vampire, a lot like Holland. Except, he is said to be able to transcend time and space. I have never heard that he knows how to kill Guardians, but if that’s what she’s looking for….” “So you do think it’s possible?” Brandon asked.

“No,” Christian answered quickly. “But if it were, he would know it.” His answer seemed nonsensical, and Cadence decided there was no point in asking Christian to further clarify. “Okay—so is there anything we can do about her looking for this guy?” She was certain she’d butcher his name if she tried to say it, so she didn’t. “I doubt it,” Aaron replied. “If she’s been searching for him this long, she’s probably found him by now.” “Especially if you only have to say his name for him to show up,” Elliott reminded them. “Thank goodness Winona Ryder isn’t with her,” Brandon muttered, and everyone who got the joke chuckled, though it went over Meagan’s head, and Christian didn’t seem to think it was funny. “So we’ll have to assume she knows something the rest of us don’t know,” Aaron replied. “Maybe you can find something out, Cass?” “I’ll try,” she nodded. “Good. That’s one more mystery we need to unravel about Holland. We know she has Sam and Laura, and we’re assuming that’s because she hopes they know something she can use, though I doubt they do. I ed Laney this morning and let her know.” “How did she handle that?” Hannah asked, a sympathetic look on her face. “Not well. She asked for a leave of absence so she could go speak to their parents, which Cadence granted,” Aaron replied. Laney was running most of Africa, and Cadence hadn’t wanted to let her go, but she had to under the circumstance. Their poor parents had already been through so much with Laura’s act of betrayal and subsequent imprisonment. Laney promised she’d be back to her station as quickly as possible, and in the meantime, Cadence would be relying on her second in command, a person with much less experience. “Let’s look at our attack groups, and then we’ll let those of you who will be

going through the procedure get on with it,” Aaron said, and once he was sure he had everyone’s attention, he shifted to the teams the two leaders had already outlined earlier that morning. It didn’t take long for everyone to agree that the squads looked evenly matched, and everyone understood their assignments. “All right. Let’s assume this whole process takes two days. That means we can plan on moving in on Saturday night/Sunday morning,” Aaron continued, once his entire team was on board. “Unless something goes wrong with this serum situation, in which case we may need more time or to make some alterations to the plan. I’ll let all four of the teams handle getting their people together for the pre-hunt meetings, unless you feel like you need me or Cadence there.” He looked at Elliott, Hannah, and Aurora, the other designated team leaders, and all three of them shook their heads, indicating they could handle it. “Good. You’re going to be working with a lot of people you’re not used to hunting with, though, so make sure you know who you’ve got,” Aaron continued. The mention of splitting their team into quarters made Cadence more than a little nervous, but with the extra Guardians, they would all be strong teams. And there were four Healers, so they would all be covered there as well. She’d decided to take Martin with the team she and Aaron would be leading and send Jamie with Aurora’s team, since she was the only Hunter who would be leading a group, and Cadence wanted to make sure she was in good hands. “You’ll all have plenty of Christian’s grenades and titanium bullets,” Cadence assured them. “The grenades worked great the other night when we went after Spittle.” She smiled at Christian, hoping to throw him a bone, but he was clearly pissed not to be in charge of anything and only glared at her. “Will you be shipping any of them to the other areas?” Aurora asked. “They might need them, too.” “The grenades, yes,” Aaron replied. “But not the titanium bullets. There’s too much of a risk with them. Melbourne still has some from when we were there a few months ago, though.” “Oh, goody. We’re the only ones who might accidentally blow each other’s brains out,” Elliott mumbled, though it was obvious he was kidding. “Seems ironic coming from you, considering that’s happened before,” Cadence

replied giving him a steady look. “And no one ever put them back,” Christian chimed in from his seat almost directly across from Elliott. Cadence drew in a deep breath. Part of her wanted to laugh hysterically— because it was a funny comment—but knowing the history between the two, she was afraid the tech guy may have just ignited World War III. Instead, Elliott burst out laughing, causing everyone else to stare at him, wondering if maybe a screw had finally completely come loose. “Now, that was a good one, Henry,” Elliott said once he regained his ability to speak. “We set you up pretty good on that one.” Cadence turned to Aaron, who looked relieved since he would likely have to be the one to stop any fight that broke out between the two of them. “Let’s just all be cautious, okay? We don’t want to have to put anyone’s internal organs back inside of them.” “Yeah, with this dry weather we’re having, my hands are all chapped,” Jamie added with his deadpan sense of humor that finally allowed Cadence to get the giggle out she’d had entrapped since Christian’s chide. “All right. You all go assemble your teams. Let me know if there are any questions.” Aaron’s nod was a dismissal, and the vast majority of the team was up and out the door before he could blink, though the usual suspects stayed behind. “Didn’t you hear him, Dad? Go get your team together. And call Mom,” Brandon said, also not moving from his chair. “I will, I will,” Elliott assured him, gesturing with his hands that his son should settle down. “I just want to make sure we are all on the same page, that’s all.” “I believe that’s something you’re supposed to do during the meeting,” Cassidy reminded him, her eyes narrowed in a teasing manner. “Listen, lil girl, I don’t asking you. Don’t you have some Vampires to spy on or something?”

“Sadly, yes,” Cassidy replied, scooting her chair back. “Let me see what I can find out about Larundel. And Daunator.” “You’re going to be busy.” Cadence gave her sister a small smile of gratitude. “Story of my life,” Cassidy lamented as Brandon also got out of his chair. “But this will count as my last observation, right? So after this hunt, I don’t have to train with Roar anymore? I’m good on my own?” “That’s right,” Cadence nodded. “Thank God. I swear I’m this close to punching Shane in the nuts.” “Language!” Elliott said narrowing his eyes at her. “Sorry. Scrotum.” Cassidy winked at him, and Elliott shook his head in return. “Let me know what you find out,” Cadence called after her as the two teens disappeared, then she turned to Elliott and said, “Whose baby sister is that again?” “Hey, you’re the one who allows her to talk like a lumberjack,” he replied. “Technically, that second term was the medically correct one,” Jamie reminded them. “Did you guys stay here to talk about something other than Shane’s man parts?” Aaron asked, looking at the three remaining of his team with a large question mark hanging over his head, “Or do you want to get on with your jobs?” “Well, I guess if you’re going to be like that,” Elliott said, pushing his chair back. He looked at Aaron for a moment with his eyes scrunched together. “Is mean Aaron back?” “Nope, this is just regular asshole, boss Aaron who wants you prepared so no one dies and Jamie prepared so no one turns into a Gila monster.” “Oooh, that would be cool if you could do that,” Elliott said to the Healer as the two of them walked out the door together. “Do you have a recipe for that?”

“No, but I bet Christian thinks he does,” Jamie said stepping into the hallway. Whatever else they said, Cadence didn’t catch it as she turned back to her fiancé who was spreading papers out in front of him, poring over them again. Even though the IAC would’ve allowed him to do the same thing, sometimes he preferred a more tangible option. “These teams are even, aren’t they?” he asked, looking at them closely. “Yeah, I think so. We went over them a dozen times.” It had been difficult splitting everyone up, especially when they didn’t know all of the new Guardians well, but Alex had helped them with that when they’d first arrived, asg everyone a number based on experience and other factors he thought would be relevant when considering their skills. “I worry about Dax. He’s so new. You sure he’s ready? He still has an observation or two, doesn’t he?” Aaron asked. “He has one more, like Cass. He’s gone on some she hasn’t been able to because of schoolwork. He and Tara are ready. They work together well. You put them with Hannah. She’ll take care of them and hold them in reserve for as long as necessary.” He nodded, but she could see he was still worried. They’d come so close to losing Tara once before, she was certain he was still concerned about it. “All right. I guess we need to talk to Paul, put a bug in his ear, and then, once we get what info we can from Cass, we can send him in.” “Yep. But I think we need to get him as prepared as possible before Cass tips Holland off. If the queen has time to whoever she left back at the shack, they could be waiting for Paul.” “Do you think she’ll know Cass is snooping around?” Aaron asked, his eyebrows knitting together. “I have no idea, but I don’t think we should take the chance. The quicker we can send him in, so long as he is prepared, the better off we’ll be. Of course, he’ll have a limited number of the titanium bullets. At least he knows about the silver blades.” “True. By the way, sorry I sent you with a replica of Van’s knife. That was not

cool.” He shook his head slowly, like he couldn’t believe everything he’d done to sabotage her back when Holland was still in his head. “It really wasn’t,” she said, smiling. “But it’s okay. I made it work. I’m just glad we’ve got you back because there’s no way I could’ve done all of this by myself.” “You wouldn’t have been by yourself,” he reminded her. “You would’ve had everyone else with you.” “Not the same,” she replied, reaching out and taking his hand. “If you’re not with me, I’m alone.” “Luckily, I’m not planning on going anywhere anytime soon,” Aaron replied, and Cadence leaned over and kissed him, sealing the deal.

Chapter 13

Ready to give up didn’t even begin to describe Asteria’s feelings as she continued to trek through the woods, and yet her feet kept moving. She had no idea why. She should’ve gone back to the solace of the castle hours ago, should be contently sucking on one of the reserva de sange . Instead, she was nearly at the top of a mountain now, and in the back of her mind, she wondered what it might be like to float right down off of the top into the valley below. Would it hurt or would she bounce right off of the rocky bottom back up into the clouds? They had already been to the place where Giovani had apparently fallen into a cave of some sort and disappeared for four hours. They’d had no luck anywhere near that particular spot, so Nelo had pressed on, but Asteria was beyond hopeless at this point and certain that she was wasting a lot of time. Meanwhile, she was also certain all of her efforts around the globe were about to be completely ruined as LIGHTS had to be planning something. Aaron had forced her out nearly two days ago. He wasn’t just sitting back twiddling his thumbs, she was certain. “All right—that’s it!” she exclaimed near the summit, causing the three figures in front to turn and look at her. “I’m finished! This is beyond absurd. I am going back to the castle, and once I’ve had my fill of that tasty morsel you’ve got chained in the dungeon, I’ll be headed back to Melbourne. Hines, you can continue to wander around out here like an imbecile if you’d like, but clearly Daunator knows he has nothing to offer me, or else he’d show himself.” “My Queen, please. We shall surely find him soon,” Venette argued, her head tipped to the side. Even in the dim light of dusk it was clear she was frightened, and Asteria imagined it was because she’d dare taunt the beast again. “I have heard the same thing for days,” Asteria reminded her. “I don’t even think he exists.” She turned and took one step back the way she came, and suddenly, the ground beneath her foot gave way. She tried to steady herself, but there was nothing to grab, and she found herself falling into what appeared to be a deep black hole. Her arms went out, trying to slow her progress, but there weren’t even any sides to the tunnel. She could see nothing, hear only the whoosh of air

around her, and try as she might to find the strength to levitate, it appeared as if her powers were not working. After several minutes, the ground came up to meet her, and she hit hard against a rocky floor which she took to be the inside of a cave. She groaned and reached for her ankle, which hurt despite her undead state. Looking up, she saw nothing but inky blackness. It was if whatever had swallowed her up subsequently closed its mouth tightly. Asteria came to her feet, feeling her baby to make sure he was uninjured. It was impossible to tell for certain, but the thudding of little heels against her hand was reassuring. Even with her incredible eyesight, she could see nothing. Feeling around, her palms met with nothing, and she was afraid to take too many steps for fear she’d stumble over a ledge. Even using her telepathy to try to Hines was futile. “Hello?” Asteria finally whispered, giving up on any other possibility of making with anyone or anything down here. “Is… anyone there?” Her cry was met with silence. Once again, Asteria attempted to levitate, thinking it might be the only way for her to get out of the hole. She wasn’t frightened yet —not that she would even it to herself if she was—but she had spent some time in a similar place, though this one was not nearly as hot or steamy, and she didn’t like it. She slid her foot forward on the rocky terrain, feeling for a ledge before taking each step. Whether or not it was a good idea to leave the spot beneath where she had fallen, she couldn’t say since she likely wouldn’t be able to find it again, but how she could climb up when there were no walls and she could not levitate was beyond her, so feeling around for another exit seemed like the only possibility. “Hello?” This time her voice was louder. “Is anyone here? Daunator? Are you present?” Again, there was nothing except for the faint echo of her own voice. Irritated that she could find no barriers and see nothing at all, she raised her voice. “Hines! Can you hear me?” This time, her voice reverberated around the space, growing louder and louder with each until her ears were ringing. Frustrated, Asteria shouted, “Daunator! Come out! Show yourself! Don’t you know who I am? It is I, Asteria, Vampire Queen! How dare you mock me!” Once again, the noise echoed around her, stinging her ears so that she raised her

hands to cover them, and the baby kicked as if he were trying to escape her womb just to avoid the cacophony. Then, once her own shouting finally dissipated, an answer greeted her. Slow, low laughter rose up from all around her, encircling her with its menacing mockery. Anger bubbled to her throat. Her fangs dropped, and her claws came out. Who was this being to think that he could laugh at her, imprison her, and deny her requests? Asteria was ready to fight. Daunator would regret her ever coming here. “You cannot fight me.” The voice was right behind her, warming her neck with a vapid breath that held the stench of death. Asteria whirled around but saw no one. “Your power is nothing compared to my own.” “Do not be so sure!” she challenged. “I have done what no one else has done. You haven’t the faintest notion of what I am capable of.” Again, his laughter rang throughout the space, and Asteria covered her ears once more. “You are the one who has no idea, Holland.” “I am called Asteria now!” His willingness to defy her was infuriating. “You are what you have always been,” he countered as another rush of air met her in the back, and she realized he was moving around her, though she still could not see him. “The powers you have do not belong to you, nor have they changed who you are.” “I have been to hell and back,” she informed him. “My powers have grown exponentially!” “You have only learned to take what you need from others, Holland. What you do only changes the ebb and flow of our kind. You cannot create more power, only transport it.” She had no idea what he was speaking about. Of course she could. She had strengthened her forces, giving them the ability to shift, to fight off the enemy. They were much harder to kill. She could control their minds—even different types of beings, such as the Guardian Leader and others who had no idea she walked inside their thoughts. “You know very little of what I can do!” she argued.

“I know everything.” In front of her, the outline of a face began to form. It started as a soft glow with blackness where the eyes, nostrils, and mouth should be, but as he continued to take shape, she could see his pale features, his ancient, luminescent skin. Of all of the appearances to adopt, why he would choose this one, she had no idea, but at least she was face to face with him at last. Part of her wanted to reach out with her claws and strike him in the cheek, but she held back, deciding it would be best to hear him out, no matter how incorrect he may be. “Can you help us?” Asteria asked, calming herself the best she could. “We seek to destroy the Guardians.” She could see his outline now, his full form. An ancient man in a black hood. Behind him, she could even make out what appeared to be a cave wall illuminated by a torch. How she had been unable to see all of this before, she wasn’t sure. “You believe that is possible with the powers you currently control?” he asked, his sunken eyes critical. “I do not know. Hines… the doctor…” “I know of who you speak.” “He believes he’s found an element that, once injected, will turn them to human, and then we may destroy them. He obtained this information from them, from some investigations and probing. At any rate, we have not tried it. The process seems lengthy. It would be better if there was an element we could use to destroy them, the way they discovered titanium can allow a Guardian to kill a Hunter.” She hoped her explanation made sense and that he was aware of all that had gone on. Something told her he knew, despite the fact that he lived in a cave in the center of the Earth. “It cannot be done,” Daunator said dismissively. “There is no such element.” “But what about the one that can turn them back into human?” she asked. Was he saying that even that process wouldn’t work? Daunator narrowed his gaze, as if she were trying his patience. “If the doctor is able to capture them and ister the compound, it is possible that he may be able to destroy them. It would be an arduous process.”

“And you’re saying there is nothing else?” she asked. “Do you know the element used to reverse the DNA?” he countered. Asteria shook her head. She assumed he meant whatever it was that Hines had used to inject into the samples they’d taken from Paul Larkin that seemed to strip the Guardian elements from the DNA. “If it is istered incorrectly, there is a possibility what you will create will be something far worse than the Guardians you fight now. There are already three who cannot die, you realize?” Once again, her head shifted from side to side. She wasn’t sure who he spoke of. “The same method you used to… grow your power… has made three Guardians completely immortal. It would serve you well to investigate your methods before you use them. Your Highness.” The last two words were dripping with sarcasm, and once again, Asteria’s dander was up, but it seemed she had underestimated Daunator. Perhaps he did know more than she did. Or perhaps he was an elderly being who had lost his mind long ago, and everything he was saying to her was complete hogwash. “What can we do, then? Surely, you must think our cause is true? They’ve stolen my love from me… again.” “And why is that?” he countered, turning his back to her and beginning to pace, his hands folded behind him. “Because you could not leave well enough alone? Why must you provoke them, Holland?” He whirled on her, and she took a step toward the cave wall. “Do you know what they are capable of? The Ternion has been thrown off balance now. The Guardians no longer stand in the middle.” “They never have!” Asteria countered. “If they truly wished to protect us….” “How many innocent Vampires have been slaughtered these past few weeks because of the shenanigans you’ve been pulling in the Guardian Leader’s head?” She had no idea he was aware of what she’d been doing. “While you were protecting your own amassed army, he has ordered the deaths of hundreds of innocents who have followed the rules.” “That’s on his head!” she spat.

Daunator flew at her, backing Holland against a cold, rock wall. “It is on yours!” he screeched. She covered her ears with her hands again. “If you continue to meddle with the Ternion the way that you have, we will all be destroyed!” The walls shook, and fragments of rock rained down around them. Asteria’s hands shot up over her head, and she ducked to protect her unborn child. Realizing he could bring the entire mountainside down around him, Daunator took a step back and breathed in deeply through his nose several times. “You must cease this operation of yours before it is too late.” Asteria rose to her full height, her shoulders back. “Do you think that would stop them? They have already sworn to annihilate all of us.” “And if they do, it will be your burden to bear,” he reminded her. She sucked in air through her nostrils. “What can I do?” “You can do nothing. Go, hide, disband. Have that creature you’re carrying around with you, whatever the hell it is, and leave us be.” “You don’t know what my baby is?” Asteria asked, shocked to hear that the allknowing Daunator didn’t have an explanation for him. “It is not a Vampire,” he said resolutely. “Perhaps it is a demon. Perhaps you were impregnated in hell.” “No, the child belongs to Perses. It happened here, on this side of the Blue Moon Portal.” Daunator shook his head. “Impossible. Whatever that creature is, it belongs in hell.” Asteria’s hand flew out. She wanted to tear his eyes from his face. But before she made with the thin skin of his cheek, her hand froze in the air. His arms were folded neatly in front of him, and yet she could not move. Irate, she fought against him, using every ounce of strength she could muster, but her hand would not budge. “Do you understand now that your powers are useless against mine?” He pressed her hand back to her side without moving, and she let out a sigh of exhaustion.

Asteria encircled her throbbing wrist with her other hand and began to rub it. “Why don’t you us?” she asked, her eyes wide with hope. “With that sort of power….” “No,” he said with force. “I wish to remain here and leave the outside world to its own devices. The only reason I finally allowed you to find me was to be rid of you once and for all.” She pursed her lips together, realizing then he had likely heard every word she’d said while wandering around the mountain searching for him. “Well, then, allow me to leave. Clearly, you are of no help.” “My help is in telling you that you must let this be. You must step away from this war. You cannot win.” “And I’m telling you it’s too late. They will come, and keep coming, no matter where I go or what I do.” Daunator drew in a sharp breath, and she began to see acceptance settle around his ancient bones. “Sadly, I fear you may be right. When this is over, there shall be nothing left of our Ternion.” “I can win.” “You cannot!” “Help me!” “There is no help for you!” The rocks came down in thicker sheets this time, but Asteria did not cower. She stood in defiance of it all. Once the dust had begun to settle, she said, “There must be something.” A thoughtful shadow crossed his face, giving he a flicker of hope. “What is it? You’ve thought of something, haven’t you?” “It would be nearly impossible, and the likes of you and that ridiculous doctor could never manage.” “Please, whatever it is, let me know. I shall be the judge of that.”

Daunator narrowed his eyes and took her in. Asteria stood with her head held high, hoping the confidence she had in her own abilities assured him he should tell her his secret, not dismiss her as a foolish creature. After what seemed like hours, Daunator said, “You traveled here through a age meant for someone else. Blue lights dance for good, for honor, not for sin and greed. But there is another way, one meant for evil. The devils dance from one world to the next, and in that age, blackness dwells. Entrapment on Earth is fleeting; entrapment beyond our realm, in the never regions, could be eternal.” Once he’d finished his statement, Asteria gave him a moment, not sure he was done. “What does that mean?” she asked once she was certain he would say no more. Daunator did not answer her question, only shook his head. “You are doomed to failure, Holland. The evil creature within you should not be allowed to walk the Earth. I wish you luck in restoring the Ternion, but should you choose to destroy it instead, may all the ashes that fall be on your head.” She stared after him, unsure how to respond, as he slowly began to fade from her sight. “Daunator!” she shouted, thinking he couldn’t possibly go, not now, not when she still had so many questions, not when she had no idea how to get out of this blasted cave. But he did not respond, and a moment later, she found herself in the pitch black again. And then she was falling. Asteria tumbled down the mountainside, rocks and boulders of all sizes gashing her in the arms and legs as she continued to plummet. She ripped through small shrubs and careened off of trees until she finally managed to reach out and grab hold of a tree trunk only inches from the side of the mountain, the same one she’d pondered floating down from before Daunator’s hole sucked her below the surface. “Asteria! Your Majesty!” Hines shouted from higher up the mountainside. “Are you all right?” A slew of curse words came out of her mouth as she pulled herself up to standing. The child within her kicked in protest. She took of herself and saw plenty of places that would’ve been bleeding if she were capable of such a thing, but she was fine, save a few aches and pains, and ready to get back to the castle. “Will you get down here!” she shouted at all three of them. It was time to

leave this blasted mountain forever. “But Your Majesty,” Nelo quaked as they rushed toward her. “I’m certain if we only look for a bit longer….” He was still a long way off, but she hoped he could see her expression as she stared at him as if he were a complete moron. “What are you talking about? Did you not see me fall through the hole in the ground, you imbecile? I found him!” The three of them continued to descend the mountain but looked at her with shocked expressions on their faces. At least she could see through the darkness again, she thought to herself, and to test her other abilities, she began to levitate a few feet off the ground. Satisfied that all of her powers had been restored, she came back to rest on the forest floor a few feet in front of them. “Asteria, my Queen, whatever are you talking about?” Hines asked, looking at the others for . “You just fell down the mountain. You didn’t go anywhere.” “Don’t be absurd, you moron,” Asteria answered. “I fell into a hole, a deep one. Daunator and I talked for at least ten minutes. It wasn’t in the least bit helpful either. If you missed all of that, I don’t know what to tell you, but I assure you, I saw the monster. And he’s a right old bastard!” The ground beneath them shook violently for several seconds, and Asteria ed the falling rocks and what it felt like to be trapped beneath the surface of the mountain. For a moment, she regretted her words, but when the ground stilled itself, she only asked, “See?” and turned to go back down the path that had brought her to no good end. “What did he say?” Hines asked, running to catch up with her after the scare of the shaking ground had worn off. “So now you believe me?” Asteria muttered. The child kicked her, hard, in the ribcage, and she slowed to rub her side. “He said a lot of ludicrous, ridiculous statements. For example, he called my baby a demon child. He said that we should stop our pursuit of the Guardians, that there is no method that can change them, though he did it that your discovery is valid, which seems like a huge contradiction to me. He also said that there is one way to entrap them—which is also in direct paradox to his previous statement that it wasn’t possible.

Essentially, he let go a lot of drivel that did nothing to enlighten me and simply wasted my time.” She was floating now, going much faster since she was looking for nothing but the way out, and since she knew exactly where she was going, she didn’t pause for anything, only migrated around the trees and branches that would slow her should their wicked fingers reach out and snag her hair or gown. “Could you tell us precisely what he said?” Venette asked. Asteria stopped and turned to face the other woman. “No, I can’t tell you precisely what he said,” she replied in a snarl. “What, do you think I took notes or something?” “Perhaps we should return to the castle, refresh ourselves and rest. Then, Asteria may be more inclined to discuss her findings with us,” Hines suggested, and the other two nodded, though the queen thought it highly unlikely. There wasn’t a word of usefulness in anything the old bastard had said, and it didn’t matter how many empty minds poured over his words. Wisdom could not be expelled from balderdash. She was looking forward to the refreshment Hines spoke of, though. She may as well drain the village girl when she got back to the castle. It wasn’t as if she’d have any use for her after this night. Tomorrow, she’d return to Melbourne, and everything better be exactly how she left it, or else she’d have someone’s head, and it would likely be a Guardian’s—one way or another.

Chapter 14

Cadence walked into the makeshift hospital room in the tagging center and inhaled sharply, regretting it immediately as the stench of ammonia hit her lungs. Someone had cleaned up pretty intensely recently, and she knew why. The last time she was in this room, it was full of Guardians that had essentially been turned inside out in the throat region. She was glad all of them had recovered, but the memories of that night when Bonnie had attacked, not that long ago, still made her shudder. She still had nightmares about the state Aaron had been in when she’d caught him coming through the glass doors of the reception area. The scene before her was eerily similar, though none of these patients were bleeding, and none of them were screaming—yet. She was certain that last part wouldn’t last. All four healers were present, as well as Kathy, the Guardian in charge of the tagging center, and Dr. Morrow. Jamie had them huddled in the far corner of the expansive room, likely giving last minute directions, and Cadence surveyed the beds. Now would be the perfect time for Asteria to attack if she was going to have any chance at taking out the KC building. Cassidy stood next to Brandon’s bed, holding his hand, and he was smiling at her reassuringly. Cadence knew he would be there because Elliott had come by her apartment earlier that morning, after speaking to Amanda the night before and spending half the night contemplating what to do, and she told him she thought he should go ahead and let Brandon go through with the procedure. Now, looking at her sister’s worried face, Cadence wondered if she’d made the right suggestion. If anything happened to him…. If anything happened to any of these people…. Aaron was chatting with Hannah but looked over and smiled at her, that spark in his blue eyes that made a shiver ride her spine. Meagan and Shane were holding hands lying next to each other, and he was whispering to her quietly. Of all of them, it was Meag that Cadence was most worried about. She’d likely freak out the second the needle went into her arm. Christian, Aurora, Dax, Mickey, and Ashley were all there, and Cadence realized when this was over, of the team she usually took into the field, only Jamie and

Cassidy would be unchanged. Since Jamie was planning on going through with the procedure as soon as the others were out of the woods, that would only leave Cass. It wouldn’t be long until her sister found a way to talk her parents into going through with it, too, Cadence imagined. Elliott came in the door behind her and rushed over to Brandon’s bed. “Sorry I’m late. Got my arm caught in a vending machine again.” Brandon chuckled, and Cadence wondered if that was true or just a ridiculous thing to say to make his kid feel better before he went under. “It’s okay. Nothing has happened yet.” Turning to look at the Healers, Elliott asked, “They havin’ a medical powwow over there?” “Yep. Trying to figure out the best way to not kill anyone,” Cassidy answered. Cadence giggled at her sister’s remark out of politeness and closed the distance to Brandon’s bed. “Good luck, buddy. It’s really not that bad. After the pain subsides.” “Uh, I was there when you underwent yours, so I’m gonna call bullshit on that one. But thanks.” “Hey, it didn’t hurt me at all,” Elliott said, and Cadence cocked her head to the side to look at him. “Well, not much anyway. Not like you, cry baby.” Cadence punched him in the arm and then turned back to Brandon. “We’ll be right here.” She bent down to hug him and kissed his cheek before moving on to the next bed. Luckily for Elliott, Aurora was right there, so he could keep tabs on his “notgirlfriend” while watching over his son. “You doin’ okay, Roar?” Cadence asked, taking her friend’s hand. “I am great. I’ve never been better.” Aurora’s smile was a little shaky, and it was obvious she wasn’t quite being truthful. “You’ll be fine,” Cadence assured her. “Just push past the pain to your happy place and think of how much better you’ll be at… running.” Cadence winked,

and Aurora’s face actually turned a little pink, a rarity. Proud of herself for making her friend uncomfortable, Cadence took that as her cue to exit and moved on to the next bed. Christian lay here, next to Aurora, and Cadence really had little to say but felt compelled to say something. “You ready for this? You worked a long time to get here.” She didn’t really think that last part was true, but she may as well throw it out there. “I’m ready,” he said with a nod. “I just hope whoever injects me doesn’t screw it up.” Cadence thought it might be best if Dr. Morrow did his injection then since he seemed to be one of the few people left who could stand the guy. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. See you on the other side.” She smiled somehow and then moved on. The door opened, and she turned to see Tara and Lucy come in, giggling. Their faces went straight as soon as they realized Cadence was watching them, and they both looked apologetic as they scooted across the room to Dax’s bedside. Cadence only shook her head. Had she really been a carefree, giggling schoolgirl just a few years ago? It seemed like she’d been a grown up forever now. At least Lucy was laughing—that was something. She couldn’t imagine what the poor girl had been through. Shane didn’t look up as she stopped at the space between his bed and Meagan’s. He had her hand, and tears were streaming out of her eyes. It amazed Cadence that someone who could be such a prick most of the time could be so tender when it came to his girlfriend. “Meag—it’ll be okay,” Cadence reassured her. “It only hurts for a few minutes.” Meagan’s lip was quivering as she turned to look at her boss. “I know. I’m just… anxious.” “I’m sure the Healers will take good care of you.” She went around to the other side of the bed so she wouldn’t come between them and stooped down to hug her trembling friend. She wished she could do something to take her fear away, but the only person in the room who could do that was Hannah, and she was likely too busy concentrating on preparing herself at the moment. Cadence didn’t say anything to Shane, but she did smile at him and then moved

on to Dax. “I bet you’re just here so you can keep up with Tara,” she teased. “You know it,” he replied, forcing a grin. She wasn’t as familiar with the Guardian since he was new to the team, but he seemed like a good guy. “It’ll be fine.” She clasped his hand, and he squeezed hers. “And don’t be ashamed to cry in front of your new girlfriend.” His eyes widened, and she laughed like she was kidding, even though she wasn’t, and then moved on. She wished Ashley and Mickey good luck but didn’t linger near them. Mickey didn’t like to talk, and Cadence was still perturbed at Ashley for her comments about Aurora and Elliott. She could tell the other Hunter wanted to say something, but it would have to wait. Maybe Ashley would awaken as a person Cadence could stand, but she doubted it. Cadence slipped her hand into Aaron’s. “Hey, Hannah. You seem calm.” The Guardian smiled up at her. “I feel calm.” Her strawberry-blonde hair was up on top of her head, which made her look elegant in a way, despite the T-shirt and sweatpants she was wearing. “Just ready to get on with it.” “Did you tell everyone that it doesn’t hurt even a little bit?” Aaron asked, a cocky smile on his face. “Yes, I did. Because I am a big fat liar,” she replied, smiling back at him. He laughed and leaning in close to her ear asked, “Who do you think will scream the most—other than Meagan? That one’s too obvious.” That would’ve been Cadence’s immediate answer, so she looked around for a moment before making her selection. “Ashley,” she whispered. She wasn’t sure, though. Someone might shock them all and come undone, maybe one of the muscular guys, like Mickey or Shane. “Interesting. Even with Jamie here?” Aaron asked. Cadence shrugged. “Why not? He can’t do anything to help her, right?” She wished he would’ve used his powers to make her hurting stop when the pain was so intense she was contemplating ending it all, and Jamie had done nothing, afraid it would mess everything up.

“He’s not supposed to,” Aaron agreed. “But I guess we’ll see.” “I don’t think he’s even istering her shots,” Hannah said, ing them as if they hadn’t been whispering. Cadence wondered if Jamie had decided to steer clear of her so as not to interfere, but before she could wonder anything aloud, the team of doctors came over. There were six of them, including Dr. Morrow and Kathy who were not Healers, and that meant a few of them would have double duty, istering the serum to more than one patient. Cadence wasn’t sure where she could stand so that she could lend her but still be out of the way. Her first instinct was to go over to Brandon and Aurora, but Elliott and Cass were already there. Shane and Meagan were focusing on each other, and Dax had Lucy and Tara with him, which left her Ashley and Mickey or Christian, other than where she was already standing next to Hannah. “Hey, you should go over there with Christian,” Cadence whispered to Aaron. “Why?” he asked, looking at her like she’d grown a second head. “Because we shouldn’t both stay here, and I don’t wanna.” “Well, I don’t wanna either,” he replied. “I already told Hannah I’d be right here if she needed anything so….” Cadence let out a huff and crossed the room, trying to plant a smile on her face, though it probably looked more like a snarl. Christian didn’t seem to notice anyway. He was staring up at the ceiling, taking deep breaths. That was a sure sign to her that he was scared and just didn’t want to let anyone know. “So what happens if you don’t hit a vein?” Cassidy was asking Jamie, who was now poised between Brandon and Aurora’s bed, the small table between them set up with the shots and other items he would need to send them both off to Sleepyland, right after a quick detour to Killmekillmenowville. “I don’t know,” the Healer answered without turning around to look at her. “But I wouldn’t want to find out.” “Do you think it would kill the person?” she continued, looking at the needles

over his shoulder. “I don’t know,” Jamie repeated, possibly annoyed. “But we’re not going to find out.” Cass scrunched her face and let out a teenage girl growl before moving out of his way. She went around to the far side of Brandon’s bed and took his hand, and it looked to Cadence like they were probably talking through their IACs. Elliott was standing with his arms crossed at the foot of Brandon’s bed, but his eyes were shifting back and forth between his son and Aurora, and Cadence could tell he was nervous as well. Across the room, Dr. Morrow was standing between Meagan and Shane’s beds, whispering something quietly to Meagan who had tears rolling down her face. Ona was with Hannah, Martin was with Ashley and Mickey, Kathy was standing near Dax, and Sicilia was on her way over to Christian. Cadence braced herself for the screaming and cursing to begin. “How you doin’, Christian?” the petite brunette asked. The last time Cadence had seen her was when she was working to reattach Hannah’s severed arm down the hall in this same building. She was good at putting people back together, Cadence was certain. But this wasn’t as much a Healer skill so much as a doctor’s work, and Cadence hoped she was just as good at that. “I’m fine,” Christian replied. “Ready to get the show on the road.” Sicilia laughed politely, but there was an edge to it, like maybe she’d drawn the short straw to get Christian as her patient. “All right, well, I’m going to get started right now. I’ll begin by swabbing your arm, and then I’ll find a vein. , there will be two injections. It will probably sting…” “I know.” His tone was borderline rude, but Sicilia’s smile didn’t falter. Since Christian was wearing a short sleeved white T-shirt, it was easy for her to do exactly what she said she would, and Cadence watched as she cleaned his arm and tied a tourniquet in order to find a vein. “You know, you really don’t have to stand there,” Christian said, looking up at her as Sicilia worked. “I’m fine.” “Are you sure?” Cadence asked, wondering where else she might go.

“Never been better.” She didn’t have to be told again. Rather than approach Mickey and Ashley, the only other ones without , she went to the front of the room and stood in the middle where she could see everyone. Jamie started with Brandon, and as the first shot went in, the teenager drew in a hot breath through clenched teeth. His eyes immediately began to water, and Cadence thought that Cassidy might start to cry. She didn’t, though. She was whispering the same thing over and over again, “You’re all right. You’re all right.” Cadence had heard the same words from their mother every time she’d hurt herself as a young child, and she hoped it served Brandon well, though by the looks of it, he was close to screeching. His dad stepped forward and put his hand on Brandon’s leg, and Jamie put in the second dose. That’s when the violent shaking began, and both Cassidy and Elliott moved to try to still him, but it was doing no good. “Great,” Aurora muttered, but Cadence didn’t get to see what happened next on that end of the room because Meagan began to scream bloody murder the second the first shot went into her arm, and Shane got up from his bed to attempt to calm her, but she was thrashing around so much, between Dr. Morrow and Shane, it looked like she still couldn’t be controlled. Cadence moved in, too, taking hold of her legs and keeping her on the bed as Ashley began to wail behind her. A glance over her shoulder let Cadence know she wasn’t completely coming unglued like Meag, but she was not doing well. Hannah hadn’t made a peep, and as Dr. Morrow announced he needed to put the other shot in, Aaron left his post and came to take the doctor’s place to hold Meagan down. The Hunter was shouting a string of obscenities now, begging for them to kill her, and the doctor was having a hard time getting her arm still despite the three other unbelievably strong people holding her down. He eventually managed and stuck the second needle in. Meagan began to shake so violently the bed bucked back and forth. Cadence moved to one end to hold it down while Aaron, Shane, and the doctor held Meagan to it while trying to keep it up right. The rest of the team froze, waiting to see if any more help was needed. “Meagan, you’re okay,” Shane kept saying, though Cadence decided the girl couldn’t hear him through her screams. Ashley’s crying got louder, too, and

Cadence imagined Kathy was forced to ister her second shot, despite keeping an eye on Meagan. The screaming and convulsing lasted for at least a full three minutes before Meagan’s strength began to leave her, and the shouting turned to whimpers. Cadence continued to keep both hands on the bed, even though it was no longer in danger of toppling over. She looked around the room and shook her head. Brandon was out. Aurora was crying, and Elliott was holding her hand. Jamie stood at the end of her bed, but he was facing Ashley, who was shaking now, but no longer making a sound. Christian was sobbing, and for a moment, the sound almost made Cadence laugh. He was so sure he was fine… now he sounded like a little boy who’d dropped his ice cream cone. He wasn’t shaking yet, so she wondered if Sicilia had given him the second shot. Hannah and Dax were both out, and Cadence was proud of the new recruit as she hadn’t heard a sound out of him. Tara was holding his hand while Lucy was standing with her back against the wall about twenty feet from all of them. Meagan finally became still, and if Cadence couldn’t see her chest rising and falling, she might’ve thought she’d gotten her frantic wish and died. She let go of the bed and turned her attention to Shane, who was panting from exertion. “Well, now, Mr. Talberson, are you ready?” Dr. Morrow asked, and Cadence silently wondered how the table hadn’t been knocked over. Shane answered with a nod of his head and laid back down on his gurney as Christian began to buck up and down on his table like his hand was trapped under the rope on the back of a bronco. Everyone left standing exchanged glances, and Aaron finally went over to his table and made sure he didn’t fall off while Cadence turned her attention to Mickey. By now, Martin had the first shot in the Guardian’s arm, and he had tears running down his face, but he didn’t make a sound, so she thought he might be okay. Aurora was trembling under Elliott’s hands but she wasn’t rocking the entire bed like Christian was. As soon as Dr. Morrow got the first shot in Shane’s arm, the Guardian pulled back violently, shrieking and shoving the doctor across the room. Luckily, Jamie was able to move fast enough to catch the other physician, but Shane was sitting up with an ugly scowl on his face, as if he’d lost his mind and turned into the

Incredible Hulk. Cadence charged him from behind and threw her arms around his waist as he started to get up. She was able to pull him back to the bed, but it took Aaron pushing him from the other side to keep him in place. “And this is just after one shot,” the Guardian Leader muttered. Practically everyone who was still awake converged on Shane’s bed, except for Sicilia who stayed with Christian and Martin who was istering Mickey’s second shot. Jamie grabbed the second needle since Dr. Morrow was a little shaken up and moved in on Shane’s bulging bicep. “I can’t see where the vein is,” he said. Ona took hold of Shane’s wrist and pulled it straight down while Kathy flattened out the center of his arm, but even with so many hands holding him down, Shane was fighting. “You’ll have to give it to him, soon,” Dr. Morrow reminded Jamie from across the room. “Or it might not work. And who knows what might happen.” “I know,” Jamie replied, still trying to see where to inject it. “I think it’s right here,” Ona said. “I don’t see it,” Jamie answered. “Here!” Jamie handed Ona the needle, and the other Healer stuck the needle into the spot on the Guardian’s arm where she thought the vein would be, pressing down on the plunger. “Oh, nope,” she muttered, looking at Jamie with her mouth hanging open. “Son of a bitch,” he whispered, though he didn’t necessarily look mad at his trainee. Shane began to roar, struggling against all of them. It seemed as if the second shot had made him even stronger, and he pulled his arm out of Cadence’s grasp, thrashing out and connecting with her right eye. She went flying across the room, crashing into the wall. She heard Aaron shouting her name but didn’t have time to react to the pain shooting through the side of her face and her back. She shot to her feet and sprinted across the room as she saw Jamie taking off his gloves, which meant he’d be doing what he could to ease Shane’s pain and hopefully put him to sleep. They didn’t know what might happen if the Healer interfered, and there was a

huge amount of concern since the needle didn’t go in correctly, but the second Jamie’s bare hands connected with Shane, he slowly began to calm. It took several minutes for the Guardian to stop fighting. Eventually, his thrashing turned to spasms and then he was still. There was a collective sigh of relief as everyone let go of him, and then Cadence realized how much pain she was in herself. A Guardian couldn’t kill a Hunter without a titanium bullet, but he could sure the hell mess her face up. Her eye was beginning to swell closed. “Let me see,” Martin said, and she gladly let him take his gloves off and fix her face. A few seconds later, all of the pain was gone, and she was able to see again. Exactly what she saw didn’t at first, and then she realized what she was hearing as well. It was her sister, and she was quietly calling for Jamie. She was lying on the cot next to Brandon, one hand pressed against her arm, as tears streamed down her face. “You have got to be freaking kidding me!” Cadence mumbled, pushing past Martin and shooting across the room. No one else had noticed yet, but Cadence knew immediately what her sister had done. There was no point in arguing with her now—she was too out of it to respond. “Sicilia!” she shouted, since the Healer was still standing a few feet away at Christian’s bed. “You got another injection?” “What did she do?” Elliott asked, coming up behind her like a rocket. “What did she do?” “Oh my, God,” Sicilia muttered, coming over as quickly as she could. “Jamie!” “On the shelf, under the table,” he said, pointing, though Cadence realized the only reason he was standing after healing Shane was because Aaron was holding him up. Sicilia crouched down and saw that there were a few extra doses of the serum in a container underneath the table Jamie had used to ister the shots to Brandon and Aurora. She quickly moved to Cassidy, shot in hand, and felt around for a vein. Since Cassidy hadn’t used a tourniquet when she’d given herself the first injection, Cadence had no way of knowing if she’d hit a vein

then or not. “Wait!” she said to Sicilia, realizing she might be able to help. Using her X-ray vision, Cadence scanned her sister’s arm. She could actually see where the first injection had gone through the skin on the inside of her sister’s elbow, and it looked like Cassidy had miraculously hit a vein. Sicilia’s needle was a fraction of a millimeter to the left of it now. “Scoot it over a tad,” Cadence instructed. Sicilia did so. “There you go.” The fleeting thought that it was too bad they hadn’t thought of finding Shane’s vein this way flittered though her mind. The Healer pushed down on the stopper, and Cassidy began to shake violently, but she didn’t make a sound. Cadence pressed her down, trying to still her the best she could, and Elliott moved in to help. Her shaking didn’t seem nearly as violent as some of the other patients, but it wasn’t good, and it lasted a long while. Just when Cadence began to think her sister would continue to vibrate forever, she stopped and appeared to be in a deep sleep. “Holy hell,” Elliott said as they both withdrew their hands. “What in the world was she thinking?” Cadence had no answer for that, but as she gazed at her sister lying next to her boyfriend on the cot, both of them barely breathing, she thought they looked morbidly like Romeo and Juliet. “Can we have another cot?” Martin wheeled one over from the other side of the room, and they moved Cassidy onto it, covering her up with a sheet. Cadence thanked him and ran her hands down her own face in exhaustion. By now, Jamie was sitting in a chair between Shane and Christian, so Aaron could come over and wrap his arms around her. “She’ll be fine.” “She’d better be,” Cadence replied, realizing she would have to go tell her parents what her sister had done. “I really can’t take my eyes off of her for a second. She’s like a puppy. It doesn’t matter how many times you tell her not to go through the fence, the second you turn around, she’s darting toward oncoming traffic.” Aaron kissed her on the top of the head. “I’ll go talk to your parents.” She looked up at him, surprised. “I can do it.” Even she could hear the longing in her own voice for him to insist on doing it for her.

“You stay here. I’ll go.” Breathing a sigh of relief, she said, “Thank you,” and sat down in a chair that magically appeared beneath her. She looked around trying to figure out who had brought it and supposed it might’ve been Sicilia, who was crossing back across the room, but she didn’t know for sure. Aaron nodded and took off, and for a moment Cadence was a little envious that he got to get the hell out of there for a little while, even if it was to deliver bad news to two people at least one of which would probably lose her shit. Elliott brought over another chair and sat down beside Cadence, shaking his head. “That was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” “You’re telling me. And yet, it’s not the craziest thing that’s happened in this building in the last month.” “True.” He shuddered, and Cadence imagined he was also thinking about Bonnie. She had that effect on people. “I just hope Cass didn’t hurt herself. What if her powers are all screwed up because of this?” “What if she can literally walk around in people’s heads now?” Cadence asked. Before he could say more, Lucy was standing in front of them, staring at Cassidy. Cadence had forgotten her sister’s best human friend was there. “Is she going to be okay?” “We think so,” Elliott said, smiling at the young girl. “Don’t do stupid things like that, Luce. No good can come of it.” “Oh, I know,” Lucy replied, her arms folded. “I would never…. I would never.” “Do you want to stay here and wait for her to wake up?” Cadence asked trying to keep her voice as positive as possible. “Uh, actually, I was thinking of going back to the apartment. All of that was… crazy. I’m not sure I want to see what happens when they start to wake up.” “They should be fine,” Elliott assured her. “But if you want to go home, I’ll walk you.”

“Oh, no, that’s okay,” Lucy objected. “I know you want to stay here with Brandon.” “I do, but he’s not going to do anything for the ten minutes it takes me to walk you home.” He was already on his feet, and Cadence noted that it wouldn’t take nearly that long if he picked Lucy up and carried her. “’Kay,” Lucy replied, looking around the room one more time. Cadence stood up and wrapped her arms around the teenager. She somehow seemed much more fragile now than she had even when she’d first arrived right after her dad died. “It’ll be all right,” she said again. “I know.” But Lucy didn’t sound like she knew for sure, and Elliott’s arm went around her shoulders as they headed for the door. Once they were gone, Cadence looked around. Tara was sitting next to Dax with her phone in her hand, and all of the doctors were busy walking around, checking on the patients, except for Jamie who looked like he was starting to regain some color in his cheeks. Though there weren’t any monitors on any of the sleeping team , the doctors were manually taking their pulses and writing numbers down on charts attached to the foot of each of the beds. Cadence wondered how Shane’s and Meagan’s charts had even stayed put. “What do you say we never do that again?” Jamie asked her over the IAC, and Cadence couldn’t help but laugh. It had been absolutely ridiculous. “From now on, one at a time.” “You still thinking you wanna go next?” “Absolutely. But I don’t want a room full of people to watch me cry.” “Fine. I’ll just record it and send it to everyone.” Jamie snickered and ran his hand over his face before sitting up tall in his chair and gazing over Meagan and Mickey at Ashley. His girlfriend was still now, the sheet tucked in under her chin, but Cadence could only imagine how helpless he felt watching her struggle so. “She’ll be fine,” Cadence reminded him, and he only nodded in response.

Dr. Morrow came over to check on Cassidy and made a small, “Hmmm” sound when he dropped her wrist. “Is she okay?” Cadence asked, a little concerned. “Yes. It’s just her pulse is slower than the others. I’m sure it’s nothing. It’s not dangerously low or anything. It seems that the serum generally speeds the heart rate up, but hers is slower than normal.” He smiled, as if that might calm the alarms sounding in Cadence’s mind, and then moved on. “Oh, little sister, what have you done to yourself now?” Cadence wondered aloud quietly to herself. She had no idea what effect the serum would have on a Hybrid, but something told her that Cassidy wouldn’t be the same after this— and not in the same way everyone else would be altered either. She was sure her parents would be angry at her for not keeping a better eye on her sister, but at the end of the day it seemed quite evident Cassidy Findley was going to do what Cassidy Findley was going to do. Until it killed her.

Chapter 15

The body of the auburn-haired villager collapsed on the floor, making a thunk that reverberated around the room and would’ve made a human cringe, but Asteria hardly noticed it. Venette had thought the new morsel would last a while. However, Asteria had been so upset after she returned from her expedition on the mountainside, she’d finished the woman in just a few gulps. While she was delicious, it was more the need to reenergize after such a harrowing event that kept her drinking. The baby was kicking furiously now. Apparently, he had liked her, too. “My Lady, now that you are refreshed, would you care to tell us more about what Daunator told you on the mountain?” Hines had the sort of smile on his face that told her that he was trying to be patient but really wanted to know what she had found out. Unfortunately, since that was nothing, it didn’t really seem to matter how long he waited. Asteria grew weary of the asking, however, since her psychotic physician wasn’t the only one who wanted to know. She took a deep breath and rested her hands on her bulging belly. “He didn’t say much. As I already mentioned, he said he thinks my baby is a demon. He said it was impossible for a Vampire to procreate.” None of the other three faces that stared at her so intently wavered, as if they were afraid to agree with Daunator because she might come unhinged but also didn’t dare disagree with the devil in case he showed up there and destroyed them all. “Did he say anything else about the Guardians?” Hines asked, his voice meeker than usual. Asteria narrowed her eyes. “He said that I am doomed to failure, that the creature who dwells inside me should be returned to hell, and that all the ashes that fall shall be on my head. While he did say that it is possible the method you came up with may work, he said that the injections could cause them to become something far worse than what they are now.”

“What could that mean?” Hines asked, scratching his head so that his shaggy hair shook around resembling an unseen animal lost in shrubbery. “I haven’t the foggiest,” Asteria itted. “I told you this would be a waste.” She ran her tongue along her teeth and looked at the body on the floor, wishing there was more. There were others in the cells, but none of them tasted the same. She absently wondered about the other two Vampires Hines had created and wished they were back in America, back in their cells. So many stupid ideas. “Did he say anything else at all?” Nelo asked. “Sometimes even the slightest comment can mean more than just one of us could predict on our own.” Asteria went back over the conversation in her mind. She’d spent much of it trying to dodge loose rocks falling from the roof of the cave, and since Daunator was trying to blame her for the demise of the Ternion, she hadn’t been inclined to pay too much attention to anything he had to say. She certainly wasn’t going to mention how the old bastard had rendered her powerless. “He said that I traveled through means meant for others to get here, which I assume meant that the Blue Moon Portal was intended for Guardians only?” “Yes, as far as I know that is true,” Nelo nodded checking with Venette. “Guardians and other heavenly beings.” Asteria raised an eyebrow. Whatever else that might mean, she wasn’t sure. If there were angels on Earth, she’d certainly never met any. “He said blue dancing lights were meant for good, but there was another means, one intended for devils. He seemed to think a Guardian trapped in whatever he was talking about wouldn’t be able to escape.” She hadn’t been listening too intently to that part of his speech because it was spoken in prose, but that was as much as she had gathered from it. For all she knew, it was all a bit of gibberish. But the other three perked up at the idea. “Can you exactly what he said?” Venette asked, taking a step forward. Asteria leaned back in her chair, resting her head against cushiony velvet that had likely sat in this same room for five centuries. “I don’t exactly what he said. Something about devils dancing from one world to the next. That’s where blackness dwells and entrapment might be permanent.” She suddenly felt exhausted and clambered to her feet. “That’s all I can tell you.” The exchange of blank stares between the three of them was evidence none of them had any idea

what Daunator may have been talking about, and she had no doubt whatever it was, it would stay hidden in the mounts with the beast. It was just as well. She’d known all along if she were going to defeat the LIGHTS team, she’d have to find a way to do it on her own. She slowly began to pad her way down the hallway, thinking her abdomen had stretched and grown again, and now the baby felt heavy and low. The weight of him pulled her forward so that she had to walk as if she had a bowling ball between her knees. She hoped this pregnancy would end sooner rather than later. “Your Majesty, should you think of anything else, please let us know,” Hines called after her. Asteria didn’t even raise a hand to acknowledge him. Hopefully, she would get a few hours of rest before all hell broke loose and the fortress she built in Melbourne would fall under attack. Every fiber of her being was telling her to get back there right away, but she knew the attack was coming, and she wouldn’t be able to make it back in time, so she may as well get some rest before heading home. Hopefully, the obstacles she’d constructed would be enough to hold them off, but at this point, she felt completely hopeless. Perhaps Daunator was right and the Ternion as she knew it was about to burst into ashes, and if that were the case, it would all be her burden to bear.

Paul Larkin had been waiting for Aaron to make the call for weeks that he and his team should move in. It was clear something odd was happening with the Guardian Leader because Paul never imagined he would drag his feet the way that he had. There was a good chance that Holland was amassing the great majority of her forces in Paul’s back yard, and he wanted to go in and destroy her as soon as he could; at the least, he wanted to hunt down the maniacal doctor who had tortured Paul for days, and given the opportunity, the Area Leader of Melbourne would take him in and give him a taste of his own perverse medicine. But days had turned to weeks, and Aaron kept putting it off. Paul waited, prepared, waited some more, and then finally, he got the call. When Aaron told him Cassidy believed the target was Larundel, Paul wasn’t too horribly surprised. He went back over the reports from when he was gone and quickly saw the same discrepancy Cassidy pointed out. Becky and Patsy had been under the impression Jeb and Steph had cleared the facility, while neither of the latter two team had been anywhere near the place. It was amazing how much damage Holland was able to do with the messages she sent. Confusion and chaos were certainly going to be a part of whatever attack plan they did come up with, whether or not Holland was on the continent or still in Europe when they moved in, but Paul was ready to move into action now that he had permission. His team was assembled around the table in the conference room in the bunker he’d returned to. They had never gone back to the old headquarters building because Holland’s goons had trashed it late that night, and they just weren’t safe there. It was a tight squeeze in this new facility with so many Guardians sent in as reinforcements, but since none of them had to sleep, only the handful of Hunters he had, they made it work. “All right, listen up,” he said, gaining everyone’s attention. He still hadn’t learned all of the new people’s names. There were too many of them. “We have permission to move in on Holland’s location.” There was a small cheer, which he cut off abruptly. “I know you’re all as ready to go as I am, but there’s a lot you need to know, and while most of us can’t get killed, we can get captured, and believe me, that’s no fun.” A few faces shifted to sympathetic expressions, and he ignored them. He was

over it, though there were times when his left side would still ache. Jamie had done a great job of putting him back together, but all of the tissue Hines had removed had to regrow, and that took time and wasn’t exactly comfortable. Another reason to bring the bastard in. “According to the intel we’ve been able to collect, the location Holland has been using for her headquarters is Larundel Asylum.” There were a few gasps as his teammates who were familiar with the place inhaled. “I know we thought we checked it before—that you thought you checked it while I was being held, but we believe that was just a trick on Holland’s part. Jeb, Steph, you didn’t move in there, did you?” Both of them shook their heads as if they thought the question odd. “But… you said you did,” Patsy’s pixie blonde hair stayed perfectly in place despite her agitated movement. “No, we didn’t,” Jeb replied quickly, shaking his head. “We weren’t anywhere near there.” “It was Holland, wasn’t it?” Becky asked, grimacing. “She was messing with us.” Paul confirmed her suspicion, and the Hunter swore under her breath. “Damn it. We could’ve found you quicker.” “Or you could’ve gotten killed. Listen, we don’t have a lot of direct evidence to this, but there’s reason to believe Holland has created an expansive obstacle course that’s going to be difficult to traverse. We can see that ungodly amount of shrubbery and the high barriers from the outside, most of which has barbed wire and other fun, pokey deterrents. We have no way of knowing what else might stand between us and our objective. Which, by the way, isn’t likely Holland. We think she and Hines may be in Europe.” “Why are we going in now then?” Tanner, another Hunter, asked. “Why not wait until she’s there so we can get her, too?” “Because Aaron thinks it will be easier to go in and take out the rest of her constituents while she’s not there,” Paul replied. “At the very least, it will give us an idea of what we’re up against, so if we need more reinforcements before we attack again, we’ll be better prepared.”

“Does he think that might be what has to happen?” Becky asked. She had been in charge while Paul was gone, and it seemed to have given her a bit more confidence. “No, I don’t think so. But either way, we don’t want that to be the case. We need to clear and destroy this facility because whatever she has in there isn’t good. And under her direct supervision, it will be nearly impossible to complete our mission.” “I’m shocked the KC team hasn’t come to do this themselves,” Derek, one of his most trusted Hunters itted. “I think they’ve got plenty going on in their own area.” Paul was actually surprised himself, but he knew something had been going on with Aaron. He hadn’t been himself at all; hopefully that was all over now. “We can handle it, especially with all of our new team . But we will have to be careful. So… if you are all ready, let’s go over what Aaron and I have come up with, and please, no matter what, be careful. Holland has a lot of tricks up her sleeve. She can change the appearance of her henchmen so that they look like your worst nightmares—or your closest friends. She can disturb our communication. She can capture and imprison any of us. This is going to be the toughest thing any of us have ever done, so we’ve got to make sure to do it right.” His eyes shifted from one team member to the next until he’d made his way completely around the room, and when he was certain they all understood, he took a deep breath and projected a map of Larundel on the wall behind him. The plan was simple enough. There was really only one way into the place. While he would have a line of defenders on the back side of the complex, they would be there to hold their ground, not to move in. He went over teams, who would be working with who, and how the waves of attackers would move in. While part of him wanted to leave the Hunters behind for fear something would happen to them, he knew not even to bring it up. Along with Jeb, Derrick, and Becky, he had two relatively new ones—Jill and Shelly. They had seen some action but nothing like this. Their eyes were both wide as he spoke, and while he’d already assigned them to the last wave, as well as pairing them with four able-bodied Guardians each, he was still nervous for them. “Aaron said we need to be extremely diligent when it comes to protecting our Hunters. He said he would not be surprised at all if Holland doesn’t send her

troops specifically after them, and there will be nothing but bloodshed on their minds. So those of you that are paired with Hunters, don’t forget your primary purpose. Guardians protect Hunters from Vampires.” “And Vampires against Hunters,” Jeb said sarcastically, but Paul didn’t smirk in return. He knew that was the original intent of his people, but that wasn’t the case now. “This is annihilation,” the leader reminded his team. “No mercy, no quarter, no anything. I don’t care if they present themselves as a bunch of crying children, we seek them out and destroy them. Got it?” Every head in the room nodded, but Paul wasn’t completely convinced they had any idea what they were up against. He had lived it for two days, the longest, most painful days of his life. The thought of being put back in that position terrified him; he wouldn’t wish it upon anyone—except for the bastards who’d done it to him. Thinking of any of his team in a similar situation also scared the hell out of him. They would have to be cautious, that was for certain. But something told him they were about to see things they’d only imagined in their worst nightmares.

Chapter 16

Most of the beds in the room were empty before the sun even set. But even at almost four o’clock in the morning, Cadence still couldn’t go home since two of the most important people in her life were sound asleep in the cots next to the chair she’d spent most of the day in. Brandon and Cassidy continued to sleep like modern day Shakespearian lovers, and Dax was also still out across the room. Tara occupied the bed Hannah had vacated only a couple of hours after her injections, and though the teen had spent a great deal of time on her phone, Tara was now asleep. They had woken up according to age, which Cadence thought was quite an odd phenomenon, and it had sparked a conversation amongst the doctors as to why that might be. Christian had been under for less than two hours. Hannah had been next to re the waking world, followed by Aurora, and then Shane. Jamie had done a lot of tests on the Guardian since he had gotten one of his injections outside of the vein and the Healer had put him to sleep. It appeared as if Shane wasn’t quite as fast as some of the others who had gotten the serum, but it was difficult to see a difference since they were all so unbelievably quick. Meagan had woken up next, and then quite a bit later, Mickey and Ashley had come to almost at the same time. Jamie had been relieved to see Ashley was okay and had even left the room with her for over an hour while the rest of the Healers kept vigil. Cadence’s love for Jamie overrode her distain for the blonde, and she couldn’t help but smile, thinking of how happy she made him. Now, they were down to the last three kids, the ones who’d most recently Transformed, and Cadence wondered if Dax would wake up first because he was the oldest or if Brandon would because he had Transformed first. Her money was on Brandon, but she hadn’t said much of anything aloud for the last few hours. Her mother was sitting on the other side of Cassidy’s bed. She’d insisted on coming back with Aaron when he’d gone to tell her what had happened, and she refused to leave until she was certain Cassidy was okay. While Cadence ed she hadn’t been at her own bedside during her procedure for more than a few minutes, she tried to this was different; her mother still

thought of Cassidy as her baby. Her dad had also swung by, but when Liz insisted he go home, he hadn’t fought it. He’d never been one for hospitals, and this place was close enough. Aaron had been with her most of the day, but she’d sent him back to the office for a little while once the meeting in Melbourne started, which wasn’t long ago. She wasn’t following along, nor would she be watching the attack if Cassidy was still out. She needed to take one thing at a time so as not to get overwhelmed, and it was going on twenty hours since her sister had injected herself with the serum. There was no way to know what might happen when she opened her eyes, so as heavy as her own eyelids were, Cadence continued to keep her vigil. The sound of snoring roused her a bit, and she realized her mother was asleep in her chair. With a soft sigh, Cadence got to her feet and gently picked her mom up, carrying her to the cot Christian had vacated hours ago. Liz only stirred slightly as Cadence pulled the sheet up over her, smiling at the irony of carrying her own mother to bed. She kissed her mom on the top of the head and looked longingly at the other vacant beds, but she wouldn’t take one. “You can sleep. It’ll be all right. I can wake you,” Jamie said through her IAC, and not for the first time. He was the only doctor still in the room since there were only three patients left. “It’s okay,” Cadence said, reclaiming her chair. She assumed they were using their IACs so as not to wake her mother and Tara. She stifled a yawn. “I’m awake.” “You know, assuming everything goes all right with my procedure, we are planning a hunt tomorrow night, right? You’re going to need some rest.” “I know, but I can sleep while you’re out. I mean, it’s not like I care what happens to you.” He shook his head and narrowed his eyes at her. “If you two are talking to each other, you have to include me,” Elliott said. He was sitting on the floor across the room, watching YouTube videos or something with earbuds on, and Cadence had momentarily forgotten he was even in the room.

“Sorry. I was just telling Cadence to go to sleep,” Jamie replied. “And I was just telling him I’d sleep while he does.” “Well, if my calculations are correct, and I’m sure they are because my math is genius level, I’d guess Brandon should be up soon enough. Cadence, you were out for nineteen hours, right?” “I guess,” she replied, not knowing exactly how long she had been asleep, never having cared to count the hours. “And these kids have been out for twenty now. You’re just a little over a year older than him so, I’d guess he’d need about an extra hour to get this done.” “So shouldn’t Dax be awake by now?” Jamie asked. “Listen, Doc, I’m not gonna tell you how to do your medicine, and you’re not gonna tell me how to do my math. Hell, I don’t know how old Forest is.” “He’s nineteen,” Cadence replied. Dax was only about a half a year younger than her. “But I haven’t figured out if it’s age or how long it’s been since they Transformed that wakes them.” “I think it has more to do with how long they’ve been Transformed,” Jamie said. “I suspect Brandon will be next, and I do think it will be soon.” Even as he spoke, the Healer crossed the room and checked Brandon’s pulse. Brandon shifted a little bit as Jamie released his arm. Elliott somehow saw it from across the room and shot over to his son’s bed, and Cadence wondered if he was using Jamie’s IAC or had used his X-ray vision to see through the beds between them. She stood and stepped over a few feet so she was standing right next to his cot, and Brandon moved again. A few seconds later, he began to blink, and then he was staring at the three of them, confused. “Why are you all in my bedroom?” “Oh, good, you’re alive,” Jamie said, smirking at him. “How do you feel?” It must’ve suddenly dawned on Brandon where he was. He raised his hand up in front of his face and looked shocked at how quickly he could move. “I feel

weird,” he said slowly. “Like… everything is different, but everything is still the same.” “Well, that seems to be a common response,” Jamie said, taking his stethoscope from around his neck and putting it in his ears. “Let me take a listen.” Brandon laid still, and Jamie listened to him in several places and then checked his pulse one more time before nodding and saying, “Everything sounds fine. I would say you could go home, but I guess you won’t want to.” “Why is that?” Brandon’s forehead crinkled, and Cadence exchanged glances with Jamie and Elliott. She’d assumed Brandon knew what Cassidy had planned, but it occurred to her that he had no idea what she’d done and hadn’t noticed her sister sleeping on the cot beside him or even gathered the fact that when he’d undergone the procedure, there hadn’t been a cot there. Not to mention she wasn’t there to greet him when he opened his eyes. Cadence realized Jamie and Elliott were looking at her expectantly. “What? He’s your kid.” “She’s your sister,” Elliott countered. “Are y’all attempting to freak me out?” Brandon asked, leaning up on his elbows. “Cause it’s working. What’s the matter?” “Uh… Cass pulled a Cass,” Cadence said, moving out of the way so he could see. She wasn’t expecting him to shoot out of the bed, but he did, and he nearly tipped the whole thing over in his haste to get to his feet. Jamie caught it before it toppled to the ground, and Liz let out a loud moan but didn’t wake up. “What the hell?” Brandon asked, grabbing Cassidy’s hand. He looked over his shoulder at Jamie. “I thought you weren’t going to do hers yet.” “So did I,” he retorted. “But Cass had other plans. She gave herself the first injection while we weren’t looking, and Sicilia had no choice but to give her the second one.” “What were you doing?” Brandon asked, and Cadence thought it was a strange

question under the circumstances, but maybe he wanted to know since Jamie was supposed to be monitoring him. “I was trying to keep Shane from ripping the room apart,” Jamie said nonchalantly. “You really missed a lot,” Elliott said to Brandon, stepping around to his son’s other side and putting a hand on his shoulder. “I recommend not falling asleep for most of the day again.” “Or dying for eight months?” Brandon said, sarcastically. “That will also keep you out of the loop.” “So… is she okay?” Brandon asked, staring at Cassidy like he might be able to make her wake up that way. “We don’t know, but so far her heart rate is a little slower than the rest of yours, and she seems to be sleeping, so, I guess so,” Jamie replied, also ing the rest of them at Cassidy’s bedside. “I cannot believe she’d do something so…” “Stupid?” Elliott offered. “Reckless?” Jamie asked. “Dangerous,” Cadence whispered. “All of those things,” Brandon agreed, shaking his head. “Dammit, Cass.” “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Jamie reassured him, and his tone really did convey that he wasn’t worried, but Cadence wouldn’t believe her little sister was all right until she saw it with her own two eyes. “What are y’all staring at?” She turned around to see Dax standing behind her, and Cadence’s mouth dropped open. “Oops. Guess I missed one,” Jamie muttered. “How you doing, Dax?”

“Fine. Just feel a little weird.” He waved his hand around, too, like everyone else had done, and Cadence stifled a giggle. “Why don’t you have a seat and let me do a few quick checks,” Jamie suggested, and Dax sat down in the chair Cadence had spent most of the day in. “I thought you weren’t letting Cass go through the procedure yet, Cadence,” Dax said as Jamie checked his heart rate and did all of the other things he’d just done to Brandon. “So did I. Cass does what Cass wants to do.” It was the only explanation Cadence was capable of at the moment. She was exhausted, and even though she’d eaten dinner around 10:00, she hadn’t had anything since, and her stomach was rumbling. “You’re fine,” Jamie declared. “If you wanna go wake Tara up and go home, you’re clear to do so.” “Awesome,” Dax said shooting up out of the chair. Jamie caught it before it hit the ground. The new Guardian turned a little pink. “Sorry.” “You guys have to learn your own strength,” Jamie said with a smile. Dax went across the room to collect his girlfriend, and Cadence shifted her attention back to Cassidy. She oscillated between wanting to shake her and ask her why she kept doing such stupid things and praying when she woke up she wouldn’t have done any damage. Thoughts about how she might have hurt herself kept flooding her mind, and she had to fight them off. “Well, I would guess she’ll come around here pretty quickly if Dax is awake,” Elliott whispered, likely trying not to wake up Cadence’s mother. “I don’t know, though. It’s not like we’ve ever done this with a Hybrid before,” Jamie reminded them all. Elliott hopped up onto the bed Brandon had recently vacated and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Staring at Cass won’t make her boil any faster.” It was a good point, and Cadence reclaimed her seat, offering the one Aaron had spent many hours in to Brandon. He took it, but he continued to stare at the

immobile figure on the bed. Cadence reached over and took his hand, certain he had to be having a hard time with all of this, and Jamie went about updating the charts hanging at the foot of Brandon’s and Dax’s beds. Cadence pondered turning in the Melbourne hunt now that everyone was awake except her sister, but she was afraid it would be too much of a distraction. Her plan had been to have Cass interfere with Holland’s signal while Paul led his team in, but that had gone out the window, and now she was certain they would struggle, even though Holland wasn’t even there. Hopefully, they would at least get some good intel and then could drop back and regroup, maybe even wait for the KC team to come over and help out, but if Holland had a chance to do some damage to the Melbourne team, she wouldn’t hesitate to do so. Paul was in for quite a battle, especially now that Holland would be at full strength. She only hoped there was something else going on somewhere else to distract the monster.

The pain in Asteria’s abdomen was intensifying. The fact that her home base was about to be infiltrated weighed heavily on her mind, but she felt like this might be it, that her baby might come bursting into the world at any second, and while she had no reason to doubt Hines’s medical skills, the fact that the doctor with the crazy hair might be the one to deliver her child terrified her. She’d almost just as soon do it herself. As if she’d somehow summoned him just by thinking about him, despite not having used her telepathy to do so, the doctor appeared in her doorway, an ancient book in his hand. “Your Majesty, I think we might’ve found something.” Another vicelike contraction squeezed her midsection, and Asteria fought the urge to scream every curse word she’d learned in the last millennia at him. “Shut up, you idiot!” she screeched. “Can’t you see I’m busy right now?” His mouth hung open for a minute as he surveyed the situation, and then he set the book gently on the dresser behind him and rushed over to her. “Are you in labor? Do you think the baby is coming?” “You tell me, you asshole! You’re the doctor!” She screamed as another pain ripped through her. She felt like the baby was trying to claw his way out through her stomach muscles, rather than exciting the usual way. “All right, my Lady. Calm down. It will be all right.” Hines set about rearranging the pillows and scooting Asteria back against the headboard. She opened her eyes to see Venette was there, along with some other petite woman with white hair and an expression on her face that made her look even more feeble-minded than the other idiots in the room. They were discussing what all was needed, but since they’d never delivered a Vampire baby before, no one knew for sure, and then they began to scurry about the room, and Asteria decided she was just going to have to rip her own abdomen open and pull her child out by herself. “Lean back, my Queen, and let me check you,” Hines insisted pressing her legs apart. Asteria was wearing a gown, but she still had on her underclothing, which he

discarded somehow—she didn’t want to think about how—and then his clammy fingers were on her, and Asteria wanted to scream for other reasons altogether. “Oh, dear,” Dr. Hines mumbled. His tone did not sound hopeful. “Your Majesty, I’m afraid there’s no way this child can be born the natural way. He is far too large.” “Do you think, you taint licking imbecile?” The pain was increasing substantially with every ing second, and the messages from Melbourne began to pour in about the same time. Her fortress was under attack, and she could do nothing to help them. She’d have to trust those she’d left behind to fend off the assaulting forces. “There’s really no need for such name calling,” Hines mumbled under his breath, his feelings obviously hurt. “Listen, you little shit,” Asteria began as she stretched her arm beyond its usual limits to grab the tuft of hair closest to her and drag the doctor over closer to her snarly face. “You get my baby out, now! And if you so much as harm a hair on his head, I’ll put you down faster than a lame dog that eats its own ass, do you understand?” “Yes, Your Majesty,” Hines sniffled. “I’ll need my black bag, though. I’ll have to put you under. I’ll need to make an incision, and I’m afraid, if you’re awake, you’ll be too angry and move about too much.” She let go of his hair, more because of another sharp pain than so he could do what he needed to do, and she wrapped her hands around her bulging belly, trying to keep in another scream as he hurried off. The two women were back now with a bowl of water and towels. “There won’t be any blood, you morons!” Asteria shouted at them. They placed their loads on a nearby table and hurried out the door, nearly colliding with Hines as he was coming back in. “No, wait, I’ll need your help!” he shouted after them, but neither woman paused, and Asteria tried to that she could accidentally kill one of them if she didn’t get her rage under control. Hines was fumbling with his bag at the foot of the four poster bed, but

eventually he got it open and pulled out a needle. Asteria recognized it as the same sort of injection he’d used to put Paul Larkin under, and she didn’t trust Hines for a moment to use the sedative on her, but she felt she had no choice now since each second was turning into murderous torment. He didn’t even bother to find a vein, simply plunged the needle into the flesh of her thigh, and she shouted at him again, only because she didn’t know what else to do. A few seconds later, her head began to swim, and then, Asteria fell into a deep slumber.

Chapter 17

Larundel looked like anything but a sanctuary as Paul’s team moved into position. Even in its hay day, he couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to drop a loved one off at this facility. The whitewashed walls glistened in the moonlight through his binoculars, giving an eerie glow to the parts of the outer walls that were not covered with graffiti, and he thought it looked haunted even from here. Yet, it wasn’t specters and phantoms they needed to fear that night. It was something far more dangerous. There were tall hedges and concrete walls beyond the initial fence that had been standing there for almost eighty years. He assumed these were Holland’s creations, and they wouldn’t be easy to get through. Even in the near darkness, peering through his binoculars, he could see that there were sharp, thorn-like objects protruding from the walls and bushes. And it looked like there were some sort of water obstacles beyond that, though he couldn’t see what they were. Hopefully, his team would be able to wind their way through all of those hazards without getting hung up, but he was worried about the Hunters getting pinned and taken out before they could make it through. Now would be a good time to learn how to fly. “Looks messy,” Jeb said beside him. He wasn’t holding up binoculars because he could see through Paul’s IAC. “Understatement of the year,” Paul replied, putting the tool in the pocket of his leather jacket. “We need to be extremely cautious.” “Don’t worry, boss. We’ve got this,” Derek said, on his other side, but Paul wasn’t so sure. They were all three perched on the top of a residence a few blocks down the street from the facility while the rest of the team moved into position. The Guardians who would secure the back were almost into place, and then he and the other two could go the team at the front and move in. Paul had been hunting Vampires for decades, and only once or twice had he ever ed even the slightest bit of fear. But tonight was different. He wasn’t sure if it was bad memories from the last time he was here or if Holland was

somehow messing with his mind, but as he leaped down silently from the twostory house, his heart beat slightly out of control. The idea that he could be trapped in there again, that they could begin to harvest his tissue, or worse, that they had figured out whatever it was they were looking for through the experiments they were doing on him, wasn’t calming his nerves, and as he thought about the rest of his teammates, he prayed that no one else would end up in the position he had been in. Aaron had let him know a good hour ago they’d be going in without Cassidy’s help, which was a real letdown because she’d been such a huge assistance to him personally the last time they were in this position. She had also been able to direct Paul’s team to his location and help them rescue him. When he’d envisioned this attack, it had been with her in his back pocket, but without her, things would be much more difficult—doable, but difficult. “All right,” he said as he ed Becky and Steph near the cast iron gate. “We are ready to move in. , IAC silent unless you have to say something, and if you don’t the code word we discussed before we even got in the SUVs, then don’t say anything at all.” He knew Holland was capable of messing with their internal communication devices, and the last thing he wanted to do was screw up and get someone hurt because they thought they were talking to a team member when it was really the enemy. Aaron had also warned him that she was capable of making people see their worst fears—yet another reason to turn around and run if he had been the running sort. But Paul Larkin wasn’t a runner, and he couldn’t have his team seeing how terrified he was. The first wave, which included him, six of the Guardians from Roatan, Becky, and Patsy, all began to approach the gate, dressed completely in black, not that it would matter with the night vision the Vampires had. He just hoped they weren’t drastically outnumbered. He approached the iron gate himself, looking up to see several of the letters had fallen off, and the name was no longer legible, not that there was any doubt exactly where they were. Paul assumed he and some of the others would have to manhandle the rusted iron to get it open, but he gave it a tug, and it swung open, creaking ominously as it seemed to invite them inside. Paul looked over his shoulder at his teammates, exchanging a nervous glance with Becky. He had his Glock in his hand as he took a few steps through the

opening and into Holland’s world. His binoculars hadn’t failed him. There certainly were giant thorns on the shrubs that grew here. It reminded him of a cartoon he’d seen a long time ago, Sleeping Beauty or something like that, where a prince has to crawl through all sorts of knife-like bushes to get to the sleeping princess. Paul wasn’t seeking a beautiful dreamer right now, though, and he signaled for his team to be cautious as they stepped through. For all he knew, they couldn’t be killed by these razor sharp plants, but he didn’t want to test out exactly what Hines had discovered before they even reached the walls of Larundel. Paul ducked under one thorn while straddling another at his feet and carefully snaked his body through. He had broad shoulders so it was difficult to twist by unscathed, but he managed to get through the first row of hedges by acting as if he was a contortionist. He’d had to holster his weapon, though, and he imagined this would be a great place for an ambush. A whimper escaped Patsy’s lips as she got snagged by one of the thorns, but she pushed her way through, signaling to him that she was okay. He could see she was bleeding and considered moving to heal her, but he knew that would drain him slightly, and he thought he should wait to see if his powers were needed elsewhere. His ability to heal others was quite limited, and he was thankful that Aaron had sent him two other Healers from Roatan, but neither of them was nearby, and Patsy looked as if she was okay to move on. Checking on the other Guardian was all the distraction it took for him not to see the blue mist monsters headed through the bushes in front of them until they were right on top of his team. There were four of the creatures. They hung like blue lights between the two rows of thorny bushes for a split second before they divided, each headed for a different LIGHTS member. Paul had never fought one himself, but he’d seen the footage from the battles the others had had with them and knew what to do. He didn’t think they’d be too hard to take down since all one had to do was reach for the part of them that should be a neck. However, the bushes had some of his team in compromising positions, and as he reached up to decapitate the misty creature floating near his head, he heard Becky let out a scream. Dispatching his assailant as quickly as possible, he sprinted the few steps to help

her. She was caught between two thorns, crouched down as she had been about to climb her way through, and he saw her arm was bleeding, but he didn’t think it was from the shrubbery. The fangs on the mist monster were exposed, and he assumed the creature had taken a bite out of his second in command. It was facing the other direction, but Paul grabbed ahold of it anyway, assuming his hands were in the right position, and he started to pull. It fought back, something the first one had not done, and Paul found his boots leaving the ground as it started to lift higher into the air. Unwilling to use his weapon at this point because he didn’t want to sound the alarm, he continued to fight with it, trying his best to decapitate the monster as it began to buck on the breeze like a wave at high tide. He reached around into his belt and pulled out the silver tipped knife Aaron had suggested he carry and began to stab into the area where he thought the heart should be. It felt like he was stabbing nothing, and his hand that was still wrapped around the neck was wet but otherwise felt empty. However, with his five stabbing motions, the mist monster let out a small gasp like steam escaping a teapot, and Paul’s feet came back to the ground. “Are you all right?” he whispered to Becky as soon as he regained his balance. “I’m fine,” she said, making her way out of the bush. “It’s just a scratch.” Her “just a scratch” was bleeding pretty badly, and he didn’t think it was a good idea to let her continue that way. Becky was a tough girl; she had a defiant look in her brown eyes, and her jaw was set, but Paul was still the boss, and even though he thought he might regret it later, he reached out and laid his hand on her arm. He felt energy drain from his body and transfer to her, and a few seconds later, when she pulled away from him, he could see that the wound on her arm was healed. “Thanks.” Becky gave him a look that said she wasn’t really appreciative because he’d drained himself a little, and Paul held back a snicker. The other two mist monsters had been dispatched now, and the team moved on, picking their way through the next row of shrubbery while the second wave of Guardians and Hunters moved in behind them. It was going to be a long night.

Cadence had been hopeful that Cassidy would awaken quickly after Dax since she had actually Transformed before him and wasn’t all that much younger than he was, though sometimes those three years seemed like decades. But by the wee hours of the morning, when the sun was about to come up, her sister still wasn’t awake, and Cadence watched as a restless Brandon paced back and forth in front of her cot. Liz was still asleep, and Elliott and Jamie were on the other side of the room discussing something through their IACs. Dropping her head into her hands, Cadence began to wonder how much longer she could stay awake. She had thought she’d be back in her bed hours ago, but then, she’d had no idea her sister was going to pull one of her stunts again either. She ed the quiet, obedient girl Cassidy used to be and wondered how they’d gotten themselves here. Cadence couldn’t help but think about how much of it was her own fault. “Holy hell,” she heard Brandon mutter but didn’t look up right away. Her eyes were heavy with sleep, or lack thereof, and since he didn’t seem to be shouting or running, her head came up slowly. It took her a moment to understand what he was gawking at. From her angle in the chair next to her sister’s bed, everything looked relatively the same. But then Brandon took a few steps closer to Cassidy’s bed and gently pushed down on her leg, and Cadence’s eyes widened when her sister’s body dropped down an inch or two. Cadence shot out of her chair, her eyes flickering from Cassidy to Brandon and then back again. They watched as her sister slowly began to lift off of the mattress one more time and came to levitate about two inches off of the bed. “Jamie!” Before the doctor even made it over, Cadence put her hand on Cassidy’s arm, but she didn’t push her all the way down, only applying enough pressure to watch her sister sink slightly and then rise back up to where she’d been floating before. Brandon’s eyes were wide as saucers, and he was slowly shaking his head, unable to speak. She glanced over his shoulder to see their mom was still asleep and was grateful for it. Liz Findley would not be able to handle this. “Uh… I don’t know,” Jamie said, standing at the head of Cassidy’s bed and

running his hand between her streaming dark brown hair and the pillow. “I guess… she’s learned a new trick.” “What the….” Elliott stopped himself short of saying the F dash, dash, dash word in front of his son, but he seemed to be just as dumbfounded as Cadence felt, if not more so. She began to wonder if Cassidy had somehow made herself more of a Vampire by taking the Transformation serum, though that didn’t make any sense. As they continued to stare at her, the petite body above the bed began to stir. It didn’t cause her to drop back down, though, and when Cassidy opened her eyes, she was still a good two to three inches above the mattress. “Why are you all staring at me?” she asked in a groggy voice, somehow managing to sit up without realizing she was floating. “Cass…” Brandon said, shrugging at her and the bed, trying to suggest she figure things out on her own. “What?” she asked, still confused. Her boyfriend cleared his throat, and then carefully placed his hand on her leg and pushed down. As soon as her tushy hit the mattress, Cassidy’s forehead crinkled and then she said, “Wait—what?” “You were levitating,” Jamie said as if it were a medical diagnoses, something matter-of-fact that had an explanation. Of course, he’d already stated he didn’t have one of those. Cassidy spun her head around to look at him. “I was what? Levitating? But how?” “That is the million dollar question,” Elliott said for all of them. Cassidy continued to stare from one of them to the next until she heard her mom stirring in the bed next to them and mumbled, “Oh, shit.” “Yeah, you think?” Cadence asked. Seeing her sister seemed okay—other than having some new funky magical power--she ed that she was irate. She folded her arms and waited for Liz to realize she’d fallen asleep, but she was now awake, and her youngest daughter was also awake. And in really big trouble.

It took the mother what seemed like several minutes, though it wasn’t, and eventually, she stretched and said, “Oh, dear,” as if she hadn’t realized she was in a bed or where that bed was. Liz slowly turned to face her daughter, and since Brandon had stepped out of the way, she got a clear view. “Cassidy Elizabeth Findley,” she was muttering before she even swung her legs over the side of the cot. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” “I’m sorry, Mom,” Cassidy began, but it wasn’t going to be enough to simply apologize this time. Cadence knew, as her boss, she’d have to do something to punish her sister for acting so recklessly. “I just didn’t want to be left out.” “I may have accepted that answer when you no longer wanted to attend high school or when you wanted us to let you start your training early, but this is exactly the sort of thing that I have been afraid of all along, that you would do something so completely dangerous--again. Do you have any idea what you could’ve done to yourself? Do we even know if she’s all right?” That last question was addressed to Jamie, and Cadence took a step back because she realized her mom had this, and maybe she wouldn’t need to do anything after all. “I actually haven’t had the opportunity to examine her yet,” the doctor explained. “I know you have all been here for an eternity waiting for her to wake up, but I think it might be best if I checked her over alone, and then I’ll let you all back in the room, okay?” Cadence knew what he wanted to see, if she had control over her ability to levitate, and if there was anything else unusual, but she could hardly say anything in front of their mom. “Come on. Let’s go wait outside.” Cadence stepped around the end of the bed and took her mother by the arm, having to pull a little harder than she expected, but Liz’s feet started moving after the second tug. Brandon kissed Cassidy on the cheek. Elliott put his hand on his son’s shoulder and followed Cadence out into the hall. Immediately, Cadence requested visuals from Jamie, and he said he’d rather not, which irritated her to no end, so she tried her sister instead, and Cassidy turned them on. Jamie was checking her heart and all the other things he’d done for the rest of the team as they’d come to. “Your pulse is a little slower than usual, but everything sounds okay. How do you feel?” he asked. “Weird,” she said, her hand fluttering around like everyone else’s had, though

hers seemed slightly different. Rather than just moving faster, it seemed to ripple in the air. Jamie noticed it too. “Why don’t you stand up for me for a minute? Be careful getting up.” He offered his hand, and she took it, but she seemed steady on her feet. He led her around the edge of the bed to the open part of the room, where Brandon had been pacing. “Do you feel okay?” “Yeah. Just a little fuzzy. It’s weird. It’s like I’m vibrating on a different plane. I don’t think that probably makes much sense, but it’s like I’m moving through the air differently.” “I think I understand,” he said, though Cadence was pretty sure she didn’t. “Take a few steps.” Cassidy did as instructed, and then picked up her pace so that she was running. Her speed seemed to mirror the others who had gone through the process, but she was definitely moving the air differently. She turned at the wall and came back to Jamie, all in the blink of an eye. “Do you think you can levitate just by thinking about it?” “I can try.” She took a deep breath, like the idea of it made her nervous. As she exhaled, she slowly came up off of the floor and hung in front of the Healer for a few seconds before gently coming back to the ground. She didn’t look at all surprised that she was able to do it, despite her shock at waking up to find herself hovering above the bed. “Interesting,” Jamie said, making a note on her chart. “Did you come down because you wanted to?” “Yes.” “Do you think you could go higher or stay up longer?” “I’m pretty sure I can.” “Okay.” He made another note. “Why don’t you sit back down on the bed for a second? There’s something else I’d like to check.”

Cassidy walked over to the bed she’s spent almost an entire day in and sat on the edge without any flying. She waited patiently for Jamie to finish writing on her chart, and Cadence wondered if he was going to ask her the same thing she would if she were in the room. “Okay, I want you to try reaching out to Holland. I want to see if it’s the same or if it’s easier now.” She nodded, as if she’d been expecting the same thing, and then closed her eyes, leaving Cadence in the dark. She wouldn’t be able to see what Cassidy saw, so she turned her attention to the other occupants of the hallway. Brandon was walking back and forth, like he always did when he was worried about Cassidy. Elliott was slumped against the wall, the look on his face telling her he wanted to tear someone’s head off, though it couldn’t be Cassidy’s, and this time she was the only one to blame, and Liz was crying softly. Cadence felt bad that she hadn’t even noticed her mom’s tears and quickly wrapped her arm around her mom’s shoulders. “Mom, it’s okay. She’s fine.” “Is she?” Liz sobbed. “I came to Kansas City so that I could be here for her, and… and… she still ends up getting herself into these terrible positions. I am… an awful mother!” Pulling her mom’s head against her shoulder, Cadence stroked her hair. “No, Mom, no you’re not. You’re a wonderful mother. It’s not easy raising a halfVampire child, that’s all.” She thought about Bonnie and how that experiment had ended in disaster only a few hours after the girl reached the facility. “Mom, don’t cry. Cass is fine. She just needs to learn some discipline.” “You know, she reminds me of another new Hunter from a couple years ago, give or take a few months,” Elliott said, and Cadence turned to see his eyes still locked on the door across from them. “She almost got herself killed on the first hunt by doing something really, really stupid. But she learned from it, and she’s not half bad now.” Liz looked over at him, having no idea what he was talking about, and Cadence wished she had a free arm so she could throw an elbow in his direction since he was clearly talking about her. But he did have a point. While Cadence still had to follow her instincts in a hunt, she’d learned a lot in a short amount of time. Part of it had come from getting shot, some from seeing people she loved get killed—

like Jack and Elliott—but then she’d just grown up a little bit. Experience seemed to be everything, and maybe Cassidy really needed more of it, not to be excluded from the hunt because she’d done something rash and stupid once again. “Mom, Cassidy just needs to learn a few things about how all of this works. She’s impulsive, and she doesn’t always think about how her actions affect other people. She didn’t know she was delaying Jamie’s procedure because of her stunt. She probably thought I wouldn’t want to worry you and wouldn’t tell you about it until it was over, like last time. But she’ll see how her actions distressed everyone around her this time, and maybe she’ll stop this ridiculous behavior.” “Or maybe I’ll put her in boarding school,” Liz said, wiping at her eyes and straightening up. “Maybe if she had to spend a few months away from this place, she’d stop acting so utterly ridiculous.” Brandon took the threat seriously and stopped walking, his mouth agape. “She doesn’t mean it,” Cadence told him, but he didn’t seem so sure. He looked at his dad, who shook his head, negating Liz’s statement, and Brandon began to walk again just as Cassidy’s eyes came open. She was clutching her abdomen, and Jamie had his arms around her immediately. “Are you okay?” he asked as Cassidy made an awful moaning sound. Cadence moved to the door, but her sister seemed to snap out of it, whatever it was, pretty quickly. “I’m okay. But Holland isn’t. She’s… having the baby. She’s not conscious right now, but while I was in her head, I could feel it. That’s never happened before. Also, I spent some time with Hines. It’s different now. I can access their thoughts a lot more quickly than I could before. I tried… making him do something. He looked like he was getting ready to do a surgical procedure, like maybe he was going to deliver that baby, and I wanted to see if I could get him to do what I wanted, so I had him take one of the scalpels and cut a hunk of his hair off. It really freaked him out. But… I think… maybe, I can influence them, the way that Holland was influencing Aaron.” Jamie stared at her, shocked. “Okay. Well, that might come in handy.” “Yeah, as soon as he realized I was there, he regained control, but it was neat while it lasted. I wonder if there’s anything else I can do.”

“I don’t know,” the Healer itted. “But be careful. You don’t want to get stuck over there or anything.” “I don’t think that could happen. Do you? Maybe… maybe I can use this to make her stop, or to probe into their minds and make them all stop. Or maybe I’ll be able to access information more quickly.” Cadence couldn’t see her sister’s face, but her voice sounded different, like she wasn’t quite herself, like she had let this new power go to her head a little. “Maybe. But I think you should take it easy for now. In fact, I think you should probably go back to your apartment. I’m pretty sure your mom wants to talk to you about how this happened.” Cassidy let out a low sigh. “Okay,” she said, her voice sounding slightly ashamed of what she’d done. “There’s just one more thing. I wonder….” She didn’t finish the sentence. Rather, she held her hand out in front of her, and across the room, one of the medical trays that had been left out began to levitate off of the table. Cassidy laughed, and then it sank back down. When she returned her attention to Jamie, his eyes were about as wide as she’d ever seen them. And then… he started to float. “All right, Cass, put me down,” he said, once he was about an inch off of the ground. “Are you sure?” she asked, her voice teasing. “It’s kind of fun.” “I’m sure. Put me down.” The Healer came back to the floor. “And don’t do that to people.” “But… that should come in handy, don’t you think?” “I’m sure it will, but I recommend you save it for Vampires.” He still looked a little startled, almost like he couldn’t quite trust her, and Cadence realized this could be a real problem if Cassidy decided to go rogue. Thoughts of her floating their parents around the apartment jumped to her mind, and she had to take a deep breath to try to slow her heartbeat. “Are you watching what’s going on in there?” her mother asked. “Is everything okay?” “Uh, yeah,” Cadence replied, turning to face her. “It’s just… Cass has a few

unexpected new talents.” “Like what?” Brandon asked, but before Cadence could even answer, she realized her feet were coming off of the ground. “What’s happening?” Liz asked, her face ashen. “Cassidy! Put me down!” Cadence shouted loud enough for her kid sister to hear through the door, and her feet hit the floor again. “Apparently, she can levitate things, people, herself.” “She did that?” Elliott asked, his eyes bulging out of his head. “Apparently,” Cadence repeated. “Holy shit….” Brandon covered his mouth, realizing he’d swore in front of his mother’s girlfriend. The door behind her opened, and Cassidy walked out like a normal sixteen-yearold girl, Jamie behind her. “Good news. I can infiltrate Vampire minds like never before,” she said, smiling like that was going to make everything else okay. “And float people,” Brandon added. “Yeah, that too. You wanna try it? It’s fun.” “No.” His answer came quickly. “I told her not to do that,” Jamie noted. “I heard you,” Cadence nodded. “Right before my feet came off of the floor.” Cassidy shrugged, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Gotta have a little fun, don’t I?” “No, no you don’t,” Liz said, shaking her head. “You are grounded.” “Oh, Mom….” “I’m serious. Don’t think that just because you have some sort of magical powers that means I can’t punish you, young lady.” She was already moving

down the hallway, and Cassidy followed with a teenage exhale that could’ve shaken the whole building. Brandon walked behind them at a safe distance, but Elliott lingered in the hallway. “This is going to be a problem,” he said, echoing Cadence’s concern. “She’s not mature enough to handle that kind of power.” “I know. But what in the world can we do about it now?” Cadence asked. “I haven’t the foggiest idea, but I can’t see any good coming of it,” Elliott replied. “Listen, I don’t know what all you could see through her IAC,” Jamie began, “but something seemed a little off to me. She seemed a little… less good natured than she usually does.” “Since when has that pubescent bundle of hormones been good natured?” Elliott asked, but Cadence understood what Jamie was trying to say. “You think that the serum somehow enhanced her Vampire qualities, too, so that she’s a little more… evil… than before?” “I guess that’s what I’m getting at. Maybe evil isn’t the right word. Maybe mischievous is better.” “So more like a nymph than a fairy?” Elliott asked, stroking his chin in contemplation. “Come on, everyone knows those creatures aren’t real,” Cadence replied, though at the moment she had no idea what was real and what wasn’t. “I’m just saying, we need to be careful because none of us can control her at the moment, and she could end up taking some bigger risks in an effort to help.” Jamie’s tone sounded cautious, and Cadence fully understood his meaning. She only hoped her mother didn’t do anything to make matters worse. “Well, I am exhausted, and there’s a full scale attack going on in Melbourne. So… I’m going to go check with Aaron and then get some sleep. It’ll be up to you night dwellers to make sure my little sister doesn’t destroy the world for a while,” Cadence concluded.

“I am going to get Martin and Ash over here and go ahead and get my procedure over with,” Jamie concluded, and Cadence suddenly felt bad that she wouldn’t be able to stay with him, but it was a struggle just to keep her eyes open at the moment. “It’s okay. I’ll be fine.” “You better hope so,” Elliott muttered. “I think I’ll tail your mother home and make sure your lil sis doesn’t destroy anything in her angst.” “All right. I’ll walk with you,” Cadence said, thinking she could go most of the way with him before she had to split off to head to the office. She leaned in and hugged Jamie tightly. “Good luck. Don’t do anything stupid. We need you.” “I think we’ve had about enough stupid for one day,” he replied, squeezing her back. “I’m sure I’ll be okay.” She pulled her hands away, though she wondered just how different he might be the next time she saw him and pushed that thought aside. He’d probably end up exactly like the rest of them—super fast and able to see through things. Surely, his healing powers wouldn’t be affected, although it did seem like Aaron’s abilities had been enhanced since he had gone through the process, and she began to wonder if Elliott’s had, too. Elliott wished Jamie good luck, and they headed off down the hallway. “Do you think your gift has been heightened?” Cadence asked as they walked along. “Do people believe your lies more quickly now?” “I don’t know. They were pretty strong to begin with,” he replied, and she knew that was true, though part of his answer was his ego talking. “We can try it and see.” “What do you mean?” she asked, and her eyes locked on his. She saw the same vibrations in his green irises she always noted when he was trying to convince her of something, but they did seem to be moving more rapidly than she’d noticed before. “Boy, you sure could use a donut,” he said, his voice calm and serene. Cadence wrinkled her forehead and pulled her eyes away from his. “Of all the things you could’ve told me, I guess I should be thankful it was that and not that I needed to see Christian naked or swim with sharks.”

Elliott chuckled. “I’m not sure which of those is worse.” A shudder went down her spine as she pushed open the door that led to the gate and the fresh predawn air hit her in the face. She said hello to the guards there before she replied, “I do.” “Hey, you liked him at least a little at one time, as I recall.” “Can we please let that go?” The Guardian at the gate punched in a code with his IAC, the clicking sound of the buttons ticking off with each new entry, and then the gate swung open, and they thanked him as they went through. “Why would we want to do that? We gotta have something funny to talk about.” “Don’t you forget, my friend, I know a secret about you.” She looked at him with a smirk on her face. “About that. I’ve kinda thought maybe I should just wipe it from your memory. And Ashley’s. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about it.” “Are you serious? Do you really think Ashley hasn’t told anyone? You have no way of knowing who knows and who doesn’t now. I’m sure Jamie knows.” “Yeah, well, I could start with you.” “Don’t you dare.” She refused to look at him for fear he might actually tamper with her mind. Suggesting breakfast and wiping out memories were two different things. “All right, well, you better keep those lips sealed tight until I have a chance to tell my kid. Something tells me now is not the time.” She agreed with that. “I won’t say anything.” They walked along down the mostly deserted sidewalk, only a few other Guardians stirring, until they reached the apartment building that housed the new recruits, and Cadence turned to proceed up the sidewalk without even thinking about where she was going. “I thought you were headed for the office,” Elliott reminded her, a grin on his face.

“Damn it!” Cadence exclaimed. “I was. But… I need to run in here for a moment.” He began to laugh. “Why is that?” “Shut up!” she screamed back at him, and he started following her. “Where are you going?” “Hey, since when have you known me to turn down food?” Cadence growled but couldn’t argue with that. “I was thinking the kind with the pink frosting and sprinkles sounded really good.” “I know,” he said, and she glanced up at him. “That’s the kind I told you you wanted.” Her eyes widened. “No, you didn’t. You only said I wanted a donut.” Still laughing, he replied, “My powers have changed, too. I planted the picture in your mind.” He leaned in close to her ear and whispered, “Scary, ain’t it?” “God, between you and Cass, I don’t think Holland has a chance.”

Chapter 18

The fact that there was a moat didn’t come as a surprise, but as Paul and the first wave of his attack team stood on the edge of the murky water, looking at an expanse of about eight feet, he was shocked at what he was seeing moving beneath the surface of the water. The low growls and rumbles emanating from the bubbling water didn’t make him feel any more comfortable. Tentacles sprang from beneath the murky surface every once in a while. There were other forms as well. Some looked like shark fins or snapping jaws. The shadows that past near the surface were all unwelcoming, so the team stood on the edge contemplating how to get over this roadblock. “We could try to leap across it,” Jeb suggested. “Yes, but how do we know those arms aren’t going to reach out and grab us,” Patsy said, which was precisely what Paul had been thinking. “Could we throw together a bridge or something?” Becky stood with her hands on her hips, gazing at the other side of the expanse. Derek looked up in contemplation. “What if we tossed a rope over the branches of those trees. Could we swing across?” All of those ideas had merit, but there was something else they hadn’t considered. As the second wave caught up to them, there were now fourteen Guardians and Hunters trapped on one side of a monstrous moat, Larundel about a hundred yards off in the distance, and the Vampires within had to know they were there. It would just be a matter of time until they came out to greet the attackers. Unless, of course, there was a reason they wanted them to come in. “Look, I’m not opposed to any of those methods, but I think we need to be cautious. No one moves unless they’re covered by at least two other team , okay? And no Hunter goes until we’ve got Guardians on the other side.”

“Well then,” Tanner said, backing up several feet. “Who wants to cover me?” “Got it.” Derrick dropped to one knee, his Beretta raised and trained over the surface of the water. Jeb did the same, careful that they had no other teammates in their crosshairs, and Tanner took off sprinting. He leaped up into the air and floated above the surface of the moat, nearly making it to the other side before a long, black tentacle reached out of the water and wound its way around his ankle, pulling him down into depths of the murky water. Immediately, Jeb and Derrick opened fire, hitting the tentacle several times, but it didn’t sever the grasp it had on Tanner, and within seconds, he disappeared beneath the water’s edge. Panic began to set in as Paul and the others scanned the surface, trying to decide whether to jump in after him or give him time. Paul had noticed Tanner had a knife in his hand when he went under, and the Leader was hopeful he could fight his way free. He put his arms out in an attempt to keep the rest of his team from jumping in, and a few seconds later, Tanner’s arm emerged, but then he was pulled right back down. “Stay here!” he ordered, and without another thought, Paul dropped his Glock and dove in head first. The water was much hotter than he expected, and he felt as if his flesh was beginning to boil, but he knew the heat couldn’t do him lasting harm, so he swam down in the direction where he’d last seen Tanner. Something grabbed him from behind. Paul wheeled around, knife in hand, and began to cut furiously through flesh. He couldn’t see well enough to know what it was, but the slippery, suction cupped texture made him think it was some sort of an octopus. He ed what he’d been told about the crocodile and assumed this was actually a Vampire. His slashes sent ash into the water, confirming his suspicion, so he fought his way to the core of the beast, and once he’d found its trunk he stabbed into the area where he assumed he’d find the heart. After a few jabs with the silver knife, there was a great roar and then a wave of sound and fury washed over him, expending him back to the surface as the Vampire turned to watery ash. Paul surfaced and saw his team still standing at the edge of the moat, though they looked ready to jump into the fray despite his orders. “Stay there!” he shouted and dove back down in an attempt to reach Tanner.

He saw him then, despite the dark water. He was wrapped up tightly, the white of his eyes visible in the low light but very little else. More than one creature had ahold of him, and he was completely entrapped in their sticky arms. Paul didn’t think there was any way he could defeat this creature on his own, so he broke back through the surface of the water. “Steph! Get in here!” He’d chosen her not only because she was a Guardian but because she was tough as nails, and before he could even dive back down, there was a splash next to him as she ed him in the water. She made a shocked bleat as she saw what Paul had already noted, but it didn’t deter her. Kicking as quickly as she could, she swam off in Tanner’s direction, and Paul went with her, keeping an eye out for any other predators. Steph reached their friend first and began to saw at the tentacles, but knowing that wasn’t the best way to defeat these particular creatures, Paul made his way to the trunk. His knife plunged into the creature on the left, making instant with the heart but only weakening it. These suckers were tough, and it took several more jabs before it burst into ash. Moving on to the other creature, Paul began to stab while Steph held it still. Eventually, he was able to work his knife through the jelly-like goo that made up the monster’s body, and it also turned to ash, freeing Tanner, who shot to the surface as quickly as he could, gasping for air. Despite not being able to drown, staying underwater for so long was extremely uncomfortable, and Steph and Paul came up to draw in deep breaths as well. Something brushed against Paul’s leg. He glanced down, but couldn’t see what it was and decided it was time to get out of the moat. He began to swim the few feet to shore when there was a loud gasp behind him and then a splashing sound. He turned to see Steph being sucked under the murky water. “Shit!” Paul shot down into the water again. He could hardly see, but a black shadow was moving rapidly away from him, further down the length of the moat. He swam after it, noting Tanner was right behind him. It took several powerful strokes to catch up with it, but when they did, there was no easy way to describe what had ahold of Steph. It’s skin looked like seaweed, billowing in the water. It was a dark, mossy green color, and as far as Paul could tell, it didn’t have a face. It held Steph in front of itself in a way that made him think of a criminal positioning a hostage against its

chest, but it was hard to tell for sure exactly where its heart would be. Steph was not going down without a fight. She was kicking and throwing elbows at the creature. Tanner grabbed what could only be described as one arm and began to saw at it with his knife. Paul wedged a hand behind Steph’s back, hoping to make enough space to stab into what he thought might be a chest, but the stench of the creature filled his lungs with the odor of rotting plant matter intermingled with dead fish, and he nearly gagged, giving it a chance to push him away. A few more splashes let them know help was on the way, and seconds later, two of the Guardians from Roatan, Jess and Lynn, were there. Each of the women grabbed ahold of the back of the creature, attempting to steady it while Paul went in again to find the heart. Steph threw an elbow, hard, giving herself some space, and Paul snuck in with his knife, stabbing and twisting until the monster disintegrated. The water filled with mossy green leaves that quickly fell to ash. There was no time to resurface. What looked like an enormous white shark sank its teeth into Lynn’s leg. She screamed, her blonde hair cascading out like the sun’s rays illuminating the murky water as she was jerked backward. Paul couldn’t see an easy way to destroy this thing, so he decided to treat it as if it were a real shark and swam around to its face, stabbing it right in the eye with his knife. The thing bucked, but no blood came out of the gaping hole in its face, a sign it wasn’t really a shark at all. Another stab to the other eye, as well as Tanner and Jess pummeling its tail, and it let go of Lynn’s bleeding leg. She shot off toward the surface with Steph’s help, and the others barely escaped before the shark regained its senses. There would be no more stopping to catch their breath in the water for any of them. As quickly as they came up, they swam the short distance to the other side of the moat and helped each other up onto the shore. Lynn’s leg left a trail of blood across the carpet of grass, and Paul tore off one of her sleeves to make a tourniquet. She wouldn’t bleed to death because she couldn’t be killed by a vampire, but he really couldn’t afford to use his healing powers on a Guardian at this point. “What do you want us to do?” Becky shouted from the other side of the moat. There were at least forty team congregated on the far side now, and

Paul needed to get them safely across. He could see a few more Guardians bleeding from encounters with the thorns or other obstacles they’d already come through, but he wouldn’t have a chance to heal any of them either, and they’d have to go on in their current condition. “I’m gonna say let’s avoid the water if we can.” He really wished he’d brought some sort of a pontoon bridge. “Let’s try flinging each other across. Maybe if we can throw each other high enough, that will work.” “Flinging?” Becky echoed, but before she even got the entire word out, two large male Guardians picked her up and tossed her in Paul’s direction. He and Tanner caught her easily enough, and the Leader began to think perhaps this new strategy would work. Whoever was left on the other side at the end could just stay there. “I’m surprised they haven’t….” Jeb began, but then a barrage of gunfire from the building behind them had the entire team scrambling, and Paul could only imagine Jeb was going to say he was surprised the Vampires hadn’t come out of the asylum to attack while they were pinned against the moat. “Great! Vampires with guns!” Becky shouted from her position directly behind Paul, flat on her stomach so she didn’t get killed. The gunfire wouldn’t hurt the Guardians permanently, though it did sting when they were shot, Paul was reminded, as a bullet made with his bicep. The other Hunters were also taking shelter behind Guardians since they could die if they were shot by Vampires. “ the good old days when Vampires preferred old fashioned biting and sucking?” Patsy shouted beside him. She had a Beretta and was unloading, the silver stream taking out a few of the Vampires in the windows nearest their location. Paul had also shot a couple of them, but it seemed like every time one ghoul went down, two more would take its place. The Guardians continued to pour across the moat, and Paul urged them to cover the last few yards to the building as quickly as they could. Some of them had silver grenades, and flashes of light went off around him as shrieks from the burning Vampires in the windows filled the air. The gunfire began to taper off once the Vampires saw what happened when the silver nitrate spray from the grenades made with their flesh, and Paul

knew they needed to move quickly if they were going to infiltrate the building before the Vampires regrouped. Some of the Guardians had already moved in, and without his IAC on, he had no way of knowing whether or not everyone was okay or how the attack was going. He hated moving blind but he had no alternative. The upper floor of Larundel looked a lot different than the basement where Paul had been held, at least he assumed the concrete cell he’d been in was in the basement. The ground floor level almost looked welcoming, with newly refinished wood floors, white paint, and crown molding everywhere he looked. It was a stark contrast to the hellhole he ed, one he hadn’t been prepared for. Still dripping wet from his encounter with the moat, he started down the hallway with Becky behind him, Tanner on her tail so that she would be well protected. He had no way of knowing where anyone else had gone, but he didn’t hear anything at all except for the distant pounding of footsteps, and he assumed those were his own forces. They came to an intersection, and Paul glanced both directions. Down the hall to his right, he saw a flash of black moving and decided one of his teams had already gone that way. To his left, he saw nothing at all and signaled to his team that they would move forward to investigate. Somewhere further in the building, there was shouting and gunfire. Paul didn’t recognize the voices but occasionally, he’d hear a Vampire scream, which made him think his team was winning. He continued down the hall cautiously, trying not to become distracted by the noises from elsewhere in the building. It was dark, and without their IACs, their vision was only slightly better than human. The deeper into the building they walked, the further away from the moonlight, the harder it became to navigate. Paul saw a door on his left and decided they should open it. He waited for Tanner to get into position on the other side of the door, gave a count of three and then burst through it. The room was empty, but behind them, another door opened, and something barreled across the narrow hallway, plowing into Tanner and knocking him against the wall. Becky opened fire, careful not to hit the Guardian because she could kill him.

The first three shots seemed to have no effect on the tall, male Vampire who had Tanner by the neck, but by the fourth shot, he was weakening, and Paul hooked his Beretta around his shoulder and grabbed ahold of the monster’s head, giving it a hard crank to the right. It came off a moment later, leaving a pile of ash in the hall. “Well, that was an adventure,” Tanner muttered, brushing his hands off. “Maybe we should open the doors to the rooms we think are empty, and the others will come out,” Becky added. She had her Glock by the side of her face, and when Paul glanced back to look at her, he could see she was nervous. He couldn’t blame her; he was too, and he couldn’t even die at the hand of these freaks, though he wasn’t all that sure that was a positive after his last trip to the asylum. They turned another corner, and the hall grew even darker. A noise at the far end caught Paul’s attention and he hurried in that direction, but there were many doors along each side of the hall, so his other two team did not rush to follow him. Instead, they spread out down the hallway. By the time Paul reached the other end of the hall, whatever he had heard seemed to fade away. There were double doors at the end of the hallway which led to what looked like a kitchen, and from what he could tell by peering through the window, the large room was empty. Rather than push through it, he went back a few steps to the hall they’d just come from and slowly turned the knob to the door on the right. The door creaked open, and inside, he saw the form of a woman sitting in a rocking chair. Dressed in a yellow-tinged gown, with long, flowing white hair, she only stared at him, unmoving, and for a moment, Paul thought perhaps this was actually a patient, long forgotten and left to rot. But as a smile spread across her face, he saw the fangs and raised his Glock. Before he pulled the trigger, he heard a yelp to his right and turned to see Becky was gone. Catching Tanner’s eyes, he asked, “Where...?” “I don’t know,” Tanner itted. “She just disappeared.” “Did she open one of the doors?”

Tanner took a few quick steps in the direction to where Becky had been standing, saying, “No. She literally disappeared.” “Gone,” the woman in front of him said, and Paul turned back to look at her, anxiety building in his chest. Her smile was wide now, her eyes maniacal. “All gone.” “What’s all gone?” he asked, though he assumed she meant Becky. “Extinguish the lights,” she said, pushing down on the arms of the chair with her wrinkled, claw-like hands. “It’s already dark, you crazy bitch.” He raised his Glock, needing to dispatch her so he could find Becky. She took a few cautious steps forward. “No. Extinguish the LIGHTS!” It ed, then, what she was saying, and as she came flying at him like a screaming banshee, he opened fire. It took several bullets to slow her at all, and she came crashing into him, pushing him across the hallway as he continued to fire, her wide mouth closing in on his face as she groaned and then exploded into black powder. Paul turned back to see if Tanner had found Becky and realized he was gone, too. “What the hell?” Paul asked, spinning around. He rushed down the hall, opening all of the doors, but found nothing. He had no choice now. He turned his IAC on and requested visuals from Tanner and Becky. Both of them immediately accepted, but as the pictures ed, Paul’s knees weakened and he slumped to the floor, sliding down the wall. “Oh, my God!” They were in cells, both of them, but not together. He knew they had to be in the basement and that they must’ve fallen through some sort of opening in the floor. Without taking another step, he requested the rest of the team turn on their IACs. “Proceed with extreme caution! There are openings in the floor, and cells beneath them!” “I can’t find Patsy!” Jeb shouted. “She’s gone!”

“Glenn is gone, too,” Lynn said. “He was right here.” “Paul, drop back now. Start your exit.” The sound of Aaron’s voice in his head was startling, and Paul pulled himself to his feet but didn’t know whether or not to follow the order he was just given or find his teammates. “We’ve got people missing.” “I know that, but you’re not going to be able to get them out under the present circumstances, and there are probably more cells down there waiting to be filled.” “He’ll torture them!” Before Aaron could respond, a wall in Becky’s narrow cell slid opened. She pulled her Glock around and began to fire, but what appeared to be half a dozen Vampires swarmed in. The brunette was backed against the wall, and even though she managed to shoot down three of her attackers, they just kept coming. “Paul!” she screamed as a large brute knocked her gun away from her. She reached for her knife, but a woman with tangled black hair grabbed her arm and pinned it against the wall while another disarmed her. Literally. Becky screamed in anguish. “Becky!” Paul’s eyes searched the floor for the opening where she’d disappeared but he saw nothing. He needed to find the stairs to the basement. Ignoring his orders, he took off running blindly. But it was too late. He watched in horror as Becky, his second in command, and one of the best friends he’d ever had, was ripped to pieces. The Vampires that attacked her were savages, ripping, clawing, biting, until there was nothing recognizable about his teammate. Her screams echoed in his head even after she slipped down the wall and her IAC went black. “Becky!” “Paul, you need to get the rest of your team out of there.” Aaron’s voice was as calm as ever, but Paul couldn’t listen. He was still running, looking frantically for stairs going down. “Does anyone know where the stairs to the basement are!” he shouted into his

IAC. “Stanley is gone!” Jess screamed. “I checked his IAC. He’s in a cell somewhere!” Chaos was breaking out around him, and yet Paul continued to search. He came to a dead end, spun around and was heading the other direction when suddenly the floor beneath his feet was gone. “NO!” he shouted, grasping at air. Flailing, he managed to get the tip of one finger on the floor above his head. He pushed down as hard as he could as he swung his other arm around and found a grip, but there seemed to be some sort of suction coming from beneath him, pulling him down. Visions of what he’d gone through before, the flesh being dug out of him, the drill, the blades and needles, kept him fighting. He managed to work his palm up onto the floor and slowly dragged himself up to his elbows and then managed to work his upper torso out of the shaft. It took every ounce of strength he had left, but he succeeded in pulling himself out of the floor. Paul crawled a few feet away from the spot where the ground had disappeared and wrapped his arms around his shins, taking deep breaths. Part of him had wanted to fall so that maybe he could find his teammates, but he could tell by the IACs that the Guardians who had been captured were all in individual cells, and there was nothing he could do to help them right now since he had no idea where the stairs to the basement were, and the floor could drop out from under him at any moment. With tears in his eyes, Paul said, “We need to drop back. Cautiously. Test each step before you put your full weight down, and make your steps wide so that at least one foot is on solid ground before you step. The floor can open up at any moment.” “What about the others?” Jeb asked. “We’ll have to come back for them,” Paul replied, though he had no idea how he would do that exactly. A lot of maybes were floating around in his head, but for now, he knew he needed to get the remaining team out before anyone else disappeared. Paul checked to see that the Guardians who had been captured were all testing

the walls in their cells, trying to escape, but none of them were being tormented or tortured, not yet. And Becky had been the only Hunter to slip beneath the floor. It choked him up to think that he was the one who was meant to keep her safe, and he had failed miserably. Rather than fight back through the obstacles in front of the asylum, they went out the back way. There was still the moat to contend with, but there were no hedges here, only a high fence they were all able to climb. Once he had his team assembled on the other side, Paul confirmed he had left five Guardians behind. Tanner, Patsy, Glenn, Stanley, and Bobby were all trapped somewhere beneath the floor of Larundel. No one had seen how to access the basement. “We’re out,” Paul confirmed over his IAC to Aaron. “But I don’t know how I can leave without the rest of my team.” “Then don’t leave,” Aaron said back, much to Paul’s surprise. “Until we can figure out how to access where she’s holding them, I’m not sure what we can do, though.” “How are we going to figure that out short of busting the whole place to pieces?” Paul shot back. “I will have Cassidy check to see if she can find a way. In the meantime, Holland and Hines are not in Melbourne. I think the rest of your team will be okay without Hines there. I suggest you go back to headquarters and get some rest. You’ve got some injuries to take care of. But if you insist on staying there… I’m not going to order you to leave.” Paul turned and surveyed the team. None of them could hear the conversation he was having with his boss. They stood waiting for him to give directions, and his heart was aching. An image of Becky flashed before his eyes, and they filled with tears. “We need to regroup, see if Cassidy can figure anything out, and come back for them,” he began. “Do we have to leave?” Jeb asked. He was good friends with Tanner and Patsy and likely felt the same way as Paul about going back to headquarters without them. “We don’t have to,” Paul replied. There was a thick line of trees between where they were standing and the rest of the neighborhood behind Larundel.

Theoretically, they could stay there inevitably without anyone even noticing, though he was sure the Vampires knew they were still nearby. “Good,” Jeb said, dropping down and sitting on the grass, his back against a tree. “I’m not leaving without the rest of our team.” Paul nodded, and one by one, the rest of the Guardians sunk down to the ground, even those who were bleeding or soaking wet, like him, and he took a spot, too, determined to find a way to get to his trapped friends before it was too late.

Chapter 19

The world slowly came back into focus, and Cadence got the idea that she hadn’t really been asleep that long, but the weight of familiar eyes had her stirring beneath the sheets, and she checked the time on her IAC before she opened them. It was only 9:30, which meant she hadn’t been asleep for even four hours yet, but whatever had brought her fiancé to her bedside after such a short amount of time had to be pressing, so she cautiously opened one eye and stared at him. “Hi.” “Hi. What’s up?” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, but none came out, so that was something. She opened her other eye and pulled herself up to sitting. It must be bad or else he’d just tell her. Immediately, her thoughts went to Cassidy and then to Jamie. Had his procedure gone well? Had her sister floated away during the night? “It’s Becky.” Cadence was confused for a moment. She hadn’t been expecting him to mention anyone who wasn’t part of their immediate KC team, but then she ed Melbourne had been in the middle of their attack when she’d gone to sleep. She’d wanted to stay awake, to help, but their IACs were off anyway, and she knew Aaron could take care of anything Paul might’ve needed. Apparently, something had gone horribly wrong. “Is she…” He nodded. “It’s bad, Cadey.” Her IAC was telling her there were lots of messages waiting for her, some of them even from Becky, but rather than weigh through all of that, she asked, “What happened? Is anyone else hurt?”

Again, his head bobbed up and down. “There were some sort of trap doors waiting for them in the hallways inside of the asylum. Five Guardians fell through, as well as Becky. The Guardians are still alert and communicating, though they are more than a little freaked out. Becky was… slaughtered.” He had tears in his eyes, a rarity, and Cadence could only imagine how awful that must’ve been to watch, particularly from the Hunter’s perspective. She could go back and watch it herself, but she wasn’t sure she could stomach it. “They poured through the door, six or eight of them. She didn’t ever have a chance.” Cadence shook her head in disbelief and tried to clear her muddled thoughts. “They’re all being held in different cells then?” “Yes, and they’re small. They’re searching for a way to get out, tried everything they can think of. Tanner even attempted to shoot his way through the concrete. That didn’t work well.” She nodded, imaging the bullets would ricochet in such a tight spot. “Is he okay?” “He will be. He can’t kill himself. It’ll heal.” That was answer enough. She thought about Tanner for a few minutes, how strong he was, how he’d helped her defeat Carter and been wounded in the process. “Who else did they get?” “Three of them are from Roatan. Stanley, Glenn, and Bobby. I don’t think you’ve ever met any of them.” “No. Have you?” “Yeah. I worked with Stanley a while in London. Bobby’s older then Christian. I think they know each other. And Glenn used to run Mexico.” “Who was the other one?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. “Patsy.” All the blood rushed out of Cadence’s face as she pictured the little pixie of a woman. Tiny but fierce. And now trapped in a cell somewhere, probably fearing she’d be tortured like Paul had been. Or maybe worse if Hines had figured out

how to turn them human and then kill them as he claimed. “What are we going to do?” “Well, that’s just it. We have other attacks scheduled. We can go ahead and let everything else ride and get over there now, or we can follow through with the rest of the plan and then head there. The only problem is, Holland might get there first. If she and Hines arrive before we do, it might be too late.” “What is Paul doing?” “Right now, he’s waiting. I didn’t want him to lose anyone else. I’ve got Cass trying to figure out how to get to them, but she’s a little hung up because she’s not aware of whose head she needs to be in.” Cadence nodded. It would be hard to find someone in Melbourne that she could infiltrate since Holland and Hines weren’t there, and they were the only identified suspects. “What’s Holland up to.” “Just gave birth.” Once again, Cadence was stunned. Her mouth dropped open. “Bouncing eight pound, eight ounce baby boy?” “Oh, no. Nothing like that.” Aaron ran his hands down the length of his jeans to his knees. “I’m not even sure how to describe—it.” She decided she didn’t want to know. “What are our options then? If we decide to stay here and run our own attacks tonight, what can Paul do?” “Well, I was thinking of sending Margie, Grant, and a few of her best people over there again. They don’t have anything planned for right now because Perth wasn’t on Holland’s hit list. Maybe they could work together to get back in there. I don’t even care if they attack in broad daylight at this point. He’s going to need a few more supplies—like a pontoon bridge to get back across that damn moat.” She had seen some of those obstacles before she went to sleep and was glad she got to sit that one out. “They still have some grenades left and plenty of ammunition. But I’m leery of letting anymore Hunters into that mad house.” Cadence bit her bottom lip. That really wasn’t his call, and he should’ve known that. She wasn’t sure it was a good idea to let them in either, but she knew that

Jeb and Derrick wouldn’t want to sit on the sidelines while the rest of their team went in to rescue their friends. “You disagree?” “I just… I think they should get to decide for themselves, that’s all.” He looked at her incredulously, his eyes wide. “Well, I guess it’s your call.” That’s what she needed to hear. “I’ll think it over. I think I need to talk to Cass see what kind of info she’s getting. It really does seem like we should be there.” “I agree, but I’m afraid that Holland is on to us, and if we don’t move on the cells here now, we’re not going to have another chance to get them. And if we are successful, since she’s brought all of her troops together, we can wipe out almost all of the hostile factions at the same time, leaving her powerless, except for what she’s got hanging out in her little amusement park in Melbourne.” “There seemed to be an awful lot of them there.” “You can say that again.” “There seemed to be an awful lot of them there.” He stared at her for a moment before a crooked grin spread across his face. “Hang out with Elliott much?” Cadence shrugged. She’d had to do something to break the tension. “Okay. I’m going to take a shower and then check with my sister. I think you should mobilize Margie and her people. Even if we end up going, it will still be helpful to have her there. That woman is a beast.” “Yeah, she definitely takes things to a different level.” Cadence stood, straightening her pajama top. “What’s up with Jamie? Is his procedure done?” “You’re not going to believe it until you see it, so I’ll just let you talk to the man yourself.”

She raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t say anything else. He was still sitting on the bed, so she stepped between his knees and wrapped her arms around his neck. He leaned into her, and for a moment it seemed like everything was going to be okay, like no matter how awful it all seemed, no matter how many balls there were up in the air, together, they’d figure out how to sort it all out without any of them touching the ground. But the sense of urgency weighed her down as heavily as his eyes had before she even opened hers, and Cadence kissed him quickly before rushing off to shower. Something told her it was going to be another long day.

Asteria’s eyes flew open, and she immediately noted that something was different. She sat up too quickly, and a pain shot through her head, something that shouldn’t happen. A glance around the unfamiliar room reminded her of where she was, and then she felt her abdomen. Empty. On unsteady feet, she clambered across the room, grabbing a dressing gown as she went and flinging it on over her dress, which she noted seemed to be in shreds in the front. She hurried down the unfamiliar hallway, but the castle seemed too quiet, as if everyone was down in the bottom lairs, which is precisely where she headed. The longer she walked, the more steady she became until she was practically flying. She ed Hines giving her the shot to put her out so he could remove her baby from her womb. Her hands went there now and felt stitches beneath the robe. She wondered how long it would take for those to heal, but more importantly, what had become of her child. Voices greeted her as she approached the basement. She stopped short, listening, trying to determine what they might be saying. “We can’t kill it.” It was Venette, and Asteria grabbed ahold of the railing for fear she might out again at the mention of destroying her child. “We have to!” Nelo practically shouted. “It is an abomination. It is not a Vampire.” “It’s not even a baby,” Hines chimed in. “But I will certainly not be the one to end it, not without Asteria’s permission.” “But what if it escapes?” Nelo was saying. Asteria had heard enough. She flew down the last few steps, grabbing Nelo around the neck with one hand and squeezing until his eyes bulged. “You dare think to end my child before I even lay eyes on him?” “Majesty… please…” he eked, clawing at her hand with both of his. “You do not understand.”

“I do not understand?” Outraged, Asteria threw him across the room, and he hit hard against the brick surround near the first of the cages that lined the basement. Nelo sat on the floor for a few moments before a groan even escaped his lips. “Where is my child?” Asteria asked, wheeling on Hines. “He… it… we had to secure him, my Queen. He’s just there.” He gestured toward the second cell. Furious, Asteria approached the cage. Why anyone would see fit to cage a baby, she had no idea, but she assumed Hines hadn’t completely lost his mind and there must be something different about her child. Still, he was hers, born of a love that would never be again, and she needed to see him. “Take care, Majesty,” Venette whispered behind her, but Asteria raised a hand to stop her and forced the cell open without use of a key. Whimpers came from the darkest corner of the cell. With her night vision, Asteria could see an outline, the form of a crouching child in the corner, but something was certainly different. This was no baby. In fact, he looked to be the height of a two year old--at least. He was thin, however, and sat awkwardly with his knees bent to the sides, his elbows between them, his head down. She slowly walked over to him, hearing the door to the cell close behind her. She wanted to chastise the others for fearing something so innocent, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from him. Dropping down, Asteria studied him better. He raised his bald head and met her eyes. His were black pools with minimal white and no delineation between iris and pupil. He was naked and blood red, and she assumed he simply hadn’t been cleaned up, but when she reached a hand out to touch his skin, she ed there had been no blood, and it wasn’t a sticky substance that covered him; his skin just happened to be a crimson color. At her touch, his head jerked around to study her hand. “Have no fear, darling. Mother is here.” He opened his mouth, and Asteria was shocked to see a full set of teeth. But they didn’t resemble human teeth at all. Rather, rows of razor sharp fangs glinted in

the dim light, jagged and of varying heights, and beyond it blackness. A ripple of fear went through her as she pondered the possibility that Daunator was right. He did not appear to be a Vampire, but rather a demon. How could that be? None of it made sense to her, but then, neither did the idea that she was pregnant. If she and Perses had really become demonic Vampires by crossing back through hell, did that make her part demon now? Was that why her powers were stronger than before? And was it only the demon parts of them that could procreate? The child continued to stare at her hand as she stroked his arm. “There, there, my sweet boy. Mother loves you.” She meant it. Despite the monster she was looking at, he was still hers, hers and Perses’s. How could she have any less love for him simply because he did not look like her? The child’s head swiveled back around to look her in the eyes, and Asteria smiled warmly at the face of her own offspring. A wicked grin spread from one side of the child’s face to the other, and then, either outraged or overcome with an insatiable thirst, he launched himself at her, ripping open her robe and what was left of her gown with his sharp claws, knocking her backward as his mouth latched onto her breast. Asteria shrieked in surprise and agony as his teeth bit into her flesh, but then he began to suckle. Sharp shooting pains pulsated throughout her chest, the places where his teeth had sunk into her stung as well, but something was happening, and when she glanced down at his face, she could see scarlet droplets around his lips. “He’s nursing!” she proclaimed, looking over her shoulder at the other three who were all frozen in fear on the other side of the cage door. If she were able to cry, a tear would’ve slid down her face, but since she had none, all she could do was smile down at her child and rub his back as he drank. She would be thirsty again soon, and she hoped the three imbeciles behind her were capable of doing something about it, but for now, Asteria slid back against the wall, held her child, and let the idea of motherhood surround her with a sense of purpose and delight she’d never experienced before. She realized the other three continued to watch her, even when the child switched sides, which was also quite painful, his dagger-like teeth sinking in

with no regard for her sensitive flesh. “What are you doing?” she barked at them. “Surely, there must be something else you could be spending your time on!” “Your Majesty, much has happened while you slumbered. Melbourne… we’ve been attacked. But we’ve pushed back the assault, for now. And we have prisoners as well as a Hunter’s demise.” Hines oscillated between an anxious smile and pride. “Only one?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. “Well, they brought hardly any Hunters with them. But five Guardians stand in the cells below Larundel, waiting for my return so that I may end them.” “Why are we waiting? Have your incompetent assistant do it.” The child adjusted, snarling, as if he didn’t like it when she spoke, and she patted him on the head in an attempt to soothe him. “Your Majesty, I’d like to take care of that myself. I’m not sure anyone else can do it,” Hines explained. Asteria’s eyes became slits. “Hines, there is no sense waiting around, giving them an opportunity to escape. It will take you nearly a day to get back there. Half of one anyway. And that’s if you leave now, which you cannot. So…” “I will discuss it with Joanna,” he said, but Asteria could tell if he had his way, nothing would be done until Hines returned. By then, it would be too late. “What else?” she demanded, wanting them out of her presence as quickly as possible. Hines cleared his throat. “The two new associates have agreed to head to Kansas City. Nelo made a recommendation of an escort who can take them there by the name of Fergus. They will our ranks there and do what they can to infiltrate the headquarters.” “No, that won’t work. LIGHTS plans to attack too soon. At best, they can serve to hinder their attack on our strongholds. But if that were to be successful, they would’ve had to have been on a plane hours ago.” She dismissed his ridiculous idea before it even had legs.

“But… they have been, Your Majesty,” Hines continued. “They should be arriving in Kansas City within the next few hours. I sent them… some time ago.” Something about the way he spoke made her wonder if she’d even been unconscious when this task was done or if he’d simply done it behind her back. She decided not to argue with him since she’d never truly wanted the two anyway. At least now they were out of her hair. “What else?” “We found something. In a book. In the library.” Nelo’s voice was still hoarse, as if her squeezing his neck had done permanent damage. “Whatever are you talking about?” She had no idea what use a library might be under the current circumstances. “Daunator said there was a age for Vampires, yes? Essentially, isn’t that what he said?” Venette asked. Asteria tried to recall precisely what the old bastard had told her, but the strain of giving birth and nursing her ravenous child was wearing on her mind. “Something like that,” she muttered. “And you think you’ve found another portal?” “Possibly,” Hines spoke up. “There are a few tales written in ancient Czech that tell of a age through which Vampires used to travel to another world. What it is, we cannot say. We do not think it was hell because they could come back and forth.” “It is a land full of danger, even to our kind, Your Majesty, or so the stories told.” Venette was walking across the room as she spoke, and Asteria could no longer see her, until she returned to stand by the others next to the cell door, an old, brown leather book with gold gilding in her hands. “Eventually, traveling there became forbidden by the ancients, and it faded from memory.” Asteria’s head was beginning to grow fuzzy, and her throat ached. She needed sustenance. The child was draining her dry. “And… what do you think we can do with it?” An evil smile broke out across Hines’s face. “I have a few ideas. But, the opportunity only presents itself under very specific circumstances, and we will not have an opportunity to try it until later this summer.”

Inhaling sharply through her nose, Asteria held a breath and then let it out slowly. “You expect me to wait months to try some hairbrained scam of yours that likely will not work anyway?” “Your Majesty, perhaps we should discuss this some other time, when you’re feeling better,” Hines suggested. “I can make the cell into a nursery, my Queen,” Venette offered. “And find the child some proper clothing.” “Don’t be daft!” Asteria shrieked back. “My son will not be staying in this prison! He is my child, and he shall come to my room with me, as soon as he is finished nursing.” “But, Your Majesty, we could hardly control him earlier in order to move him here,” Hines argued. “I don’t think you understand how… powerful he truly is.” “I understand that he is my baby, and I will not be leaving him here!” she shrieked back. “Now, go, find me something to drink. And get him some proper clothing!” The three of them jumped and began running into each other in their haste to comply. To Asteria, they looked like three bumbling idiots, and it reminded her of an old television program she’d once seen back in the days when she had time for such frivolities. She cast those thoughts aside and tried to concentrate on her suckling child, though the urge to send a signal to Melbourne, to tell them to get on with it straight away and end those filthy Guardians, was in the back of her mind. That wasn’t the only thought in her mind, though, and as she rested her head against the wall, a voice came through, sharp and brilliant. “You can’t win, Holland. You may as well give up now. We are far too strong to ever be defeated,” followed by the annoying laughter of an insolent teenage girl.

Chapter 20

Liz opened her apartment door, looking exhausted, and waved for Cadence to come in. She wrapped her arms around her mother and then greeted her father with the same sympathetic gesture before asking, “Where is she?” “In her room. Floating above her bed in some sort of trance.” Liz sounded completely defeated as if it had been hard enough to control her teenage daughter before she could essentially fly. Cadence entered her sister’s bedroom with caution. She wasn’t sure she was prepared to see her that way again, but Cassidy was sitting with her legs crossed, her hands out, palm up, about a foot above her bed with her eyes closed. “Cass?” Nothing changed, so Cadence took another step inside the room and cleared her throat. “Cass? Can you hear me?” With a sigh, Cassidy fell back to the bed and then opened her eyes. “What?” “Nice to see you, too,” Cadence muttered. “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to know if you figured anything out about Melbourne.” “Not much,” she itted with a shrug. “I can see that the stairwell is hidden behind the wall, that there’s a sliding that leads to it, but I have no idea how to tell Paul even where to look for it, other than that it’s at the back of the building.” “Have you tried looking at blueprints of the original Larundel?” She rolled her eyes. “Yes. But they hired a Vampire carpenter, and he’s essentially redone the entire bottom two floors. So it didn’t help any.” Cadence sighed almost as loudly as her sister had as she took a seat on the end of her bed. “All right. What about the cells?” “There are ten of them. They’re made of some sort of reinforced steel with

concrete outer walls a few feet thick, so even if the Guardians managed to hammer their way through, which theoretically they could do if given enough hours, they would have a lot harder time getting through the steel rebar. And they are equipped with vents that would allow the Vampires to gas them with the same chemical Hines injected into Paul. It doesn’t look good.” Dropping her head in her hands, Cadence ran her fingers through her hair. “We need to be over there.” “That would be exactly what Holland wants, you know? She didn’t let Hines build those cages for just anyone. She wants you guys. And me. By the way, Hines thinks he’s come up with something else, some other sort of age he can use somehow to transport Guardians. He didn’t explain it to her, so I’m not sure what he’s talking about, but he said it won’t work until late summer, and walking around in his head is kind of like sorting spaghetti noodles. It’s slippery and it doesn’t ever lead where you think it should.” She raised an eyebrow at her sister’s analogy but then let it go. “Well, we can worry about that later then,” Cadence said, dismissively. One problem at a time. “Okay. Can you relay everything you just told me to Aaron? I’m going to go check on Jamie, and then I’ll hunt Aaron down and see what we need to do.” “Yeah, I’ll let him know, but listen, Sam and Laura are on a plane, and I think they’re on their way back here.” “Perfect.” “Christian is tracking the tail number. Why would they bother? Do they really want us to kill them again?” “I don’t really have an answer for that, Cass,” Cadence itted. Both former Hunters would have to know they were walking into a death trap, even if Holland could somehow make them more powerful. They couldn’t kill the Guardians, so it would just be a matter of time before they were ended once and for all. “Holland’s baby is a disgusting demon who looks a lot like a blood-red version of Sméagol.” Cadence’s attention was back on her sister. “Say what now?”

“Yeah, she thinks that being a demonic Vampire allowed her and Carter to mate their demon parts. It’s really gross and could probably do a lot of damage if it gets out of its cage.” “She’s keeping her baby in a cage?” “The other Vampires locked him up while she was still out of it. It had to be a Csection because he was so ginormous.” Cadence opened her mouth to say something but the words wouldn’t form into a sentence, so she closed it again. After a moment, she simply said, “Thank you for all of the information.” She patted her sister on the knee and noted she felt a little cold. “You know, you’re freaking Mom and Dad out, though, right?” “I know. I can’t help it. I’m not trying to.” “Why did you….” Cadence stopped herself. She was sure Cass had already been given the third degree by her parents about her reckless behavior, and it was pointless for her to ask, too. “Sometimes, my impulses outweigh my ability to make rational decisions,” she said with a shrug, like she’d snatched the last cookie from the cookie jar. “And what is your consequence?” “I mean, what can they do, really? I am not allowed to see Brandon outside of work for a month, but that won’t last. He has to help me with my algebra, or I’ll fail, and they won’t like that.” “Okay, Cass, I guess they can’t do much to you. But I’m your boss. I can.” “What are you going to do, Cadence? Not let me go on the hunt? That would be really stupid on your part because you know no one else can do what I can. Not take me to Melbourne if you go? Of course you will. how idiotic Aaron was for not letting you take enough Guardians to Lexington? You won’t be that stupid.” “That wasn’t Aaron,” Cadence snapped. Her sister seemed to have a knack for sounding like a teenage brat these days, and Cadence needed to get away from her before this turned ugly.

“I mean, I know it wasn’t actually his decision,” Cassidy said, a sort of apology. “But he still said it. Anyway, you know you can’t do that.” Cadence’s face puckered up as she contemplated whether or not she knew she could do that. Maybe she could get along just fine without her sister’s help. She’d done quite well for herself before Cass even knew Vampires existed. “Look, I’ve got a million things to do.” She pulled herself up off of the bed. “Why don’t you go pretend to be your old sweet self and clean the kitchen or something?” “Sure. That sounds like fun, actually,” Cassidy said, bounding up off of the bed. Cadence was puzzled and stopped on her way to the door to consider her sister. “What do you mean?” A dirty pair of jeans began to levitate off of the floor and made its way across the room to the laundry hamper. Cassidy smirked at her and folded her arms. “You are such a weirdo,” Cadence muttered, not sure what else to say. She headed for the door but soon found herself floating. “Put me down!” “Say you’re sorry.” “You’re sorry.” Cadence continued to float up toward the ceiling and her parents watched with their hands over their mouths like they still couldn’t believe it. “Fine. Let’s find out your range, little sis, shall we?” Somehow, Cadence was still able to move despite the fact her feet were nowhere near the ground. She propelled herself forward, toward the front door, grabbed the knob, and went out into the hallway. She was almost to the elevator before she began to sink back to the ground, but she didn’t know if Cass had given in or if she really couldn’t keep her up from that distance. Frustrated, Cadence jabbed at the down button with her finger, rather than using her IAC and waited for the elevator to stop. As she made her way to the bottom floor, she pondered everything her sister had just told her. Holland had a demon baby. Sam and Laura were on their way back to KC. They had five missing Guardians, waiting in tiny cells to be terminated, and no way to reach them. Oh, and they were coordinating attacks all over the

world, starting in a couple of hours in Japan, to eradicate about seventy percent of the Vampire population. What was there to be worried about? She made the quick jaunt to Jamie’s office in less than a minute but waited before she opened the door to compose herself, ing how alarmed he’d been the last time she’d flung herself through his open door. He didn’t look surprised at all to see her, however, once she finally came in. “Hey, how are you?” she asked, hoping to keep her voice cheery despite the fact that she had just listed several enormous problems that all needed solving. “Peachy,” he replied, a goofy grin on his face the likes of which she’d never seen. Cadence approached him cautiously, wondering if someone was tampering with his brain. “What’s going on?” “A couple of things,” Jamie replied without removing the grin from his face. “First of all, I have an endless battery life now, or so I surmise from all of the unnecessary healing I’ve been doing. Walking around taking care of canker sores and blisters, that sort of thing. I haven’t even yawned once.” “That’s amazing,” Cadence itted. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like for Jamie to be able to heal people indiscriminately without having to worry about sleeping through the end of a battle. “What else?” “Well, there’s this.” He raised his hands about a foot apart, palms facing each other, and Cadence watched in amazement as a blue light began to glow between them. It looked a lot like an electric current but then it widened so that it was at least three or four inches high. “What… is it?” “It’s my powers,” he replied, his smile somehow widening. “Now I can blast it across the room at people so I don’t even have to touch them.” “Wait—you can shoot blue healing light out of your palms?” Her strange world was getting odder and odder by the moment. “I sure can.” He continued to bounce the light from one hand to the other.

“How did you figure out that’s what this is and not some kind of crazy death beam?” “Well, I tried it out on Elliott, since I figured I couldn’t kill him anyway,” he said with a shrug. “And it worked. Didn’t hurt him.” “Hmmm.” Cadence folded her arms. “It’s too bad you can’t switch it back and forth, you know, depending upon who you want to jolt. That could come in handy the next time we see a werewolf.” “True, but I don’t think it works that way. I guess I can test it out tonight.” “Oh, yeah, that would be great. Your team can sneak into the location where thirty shifter Vampires are hiding, shoot the hell out of them, and then you’ll patch them all up so they can shoot them again,” she said with a wink. “You don’t think that’s a great idea?” His face was perfectly straight, like he really thought she should consider it. Cadence punched him lightly in the arm. “All right, Jame. If that’s what makes you happy.” She shook her head, glad that he was on their side. Perhaps they had a chance at knocking out all of those problems after all. “What does Ashley think of it?” “I’m not sure. I can’t catch her.” He laughed at his own joke, and Cadence giggled, too. “She is glad I won’t be asleep all the time now, that I can heal more people. I think she’s just happy I came through it unscathed. It’s hard to watch someone you love go through something like that. But I guess I don’t have to tell you.” She nodded. The first time this had happened, when she’d istered the serum to Aaron, they had no way of knowing whether or not it would work; that was a night she’d just as soon forget. “I was thinking about something that could get me in trouble if I’m not careful.” “What’s that?” she asked, pulling her head back out of her memories. “Well, Aaron said he was going to send Margie and Grant to help out in Melbourne. I was thinking, they have a Healer at their headquarters—Sheena.

She’s pretty good at her job. She has serum. Maybe….” “That’s actually not a bad idea. How long is the trip from Perth to Melbourne?” “Long enough that they should both be changed by the time they get there. It occurred to me that, if Margie had X-ray vision, maybe she could find the seams the others aren’t able to see.” Cadence ed Cassidy saying it would be hard to tell where the stairs were once Paul went back inside, but if Margie and Grant could see through the walls, they could find it. “Are you nervous about sending your sister into a situation like that, though?” Jamie’s shoulders went up and down quickly, but she could tell it did bother him at least a little. “She’s a big girl. She can take care of herself.” She wondered exactly what the situation was between the two of them, but she couldn’t ask right now. Maybe that would be a topic of discussion for their next trip to Melbourne, assuming they even needed to go back. “I think it’s a good idea. Have you asked Aaron?” “Not yet. I’ve been too busy doing this.” He made another blue ball of light shoot out of one hand and land in the other. Shaking her head, Cadence backed toward the door. “I’m on my way over there now. I’ll talk to him. Of course,” she paused with one hand on the doorjamb, “chances are he already thought of it, and your sis is asleep and on her way across the continent.” He opened his mouth, as if her words shocked him, but then closed it and nodded. “You’re probably right.” Cadence laughed and headed for the door a few steps away at the end of the hall. Christian’s door was open, and she could hear him talking to himself, or maybe someone else was in there, and he sounded frustrated about something, but she decided now was not the time to get into a conversation with him, so she headed for the exit instead. It was shaping up to be a nice spring day, but she was ready for nightfall. They’d decided to do their own hunting a little early that night since they needed to get

the show on the road, and the Vampires in question tended to stay in their confines most of the time. There were four different locations all within a few hours’ drive of their headquarters. She would be traveling to a warehouse on the outskirts of Osceola, Kansas, which wasn’t far at all. She wondered if Sam and Laura had arrived yet. What she wouldn’t give to be at the airport to greet them. Which of the four locations would they head to, or would it be another place, something to throw them off? The Vampires would have no way of knowing they’d split their team and planned on taking all four cells out at once, would they? She didn’t know what Holland was capable of these days. Aaron had maps spread all over the conference table in the back of their office, and he was puzzling over them as she walked in. “I’m so shocked to see you staring at papers,” she said, trying to keep her tone light as she embraced him and gave him a quick kiss. “I know. I really don’t do enough of this,” he agreed. “The Tokyo team is moving into position now. Moscow will be right behind them. We are going to be extremely busy momentarily.” “Yeah,” she mumbled, glancing over what he had in front of him. It appeared to be detailed maps of every attack site, including Melbourne, and they were laid out in order of when and where the hunt would commence. She trusted her people to stay on top of things, but she definitely wanted to keep in with her teams this time after what happened with Becky. She didn’t know if she could’ve done anything to prevent her death, but she imagined she’d feel better about the situation if she would’ve been monitoring it and knew the answer to that question. Now, there was no way to tell. “Have we instructed them to leave their IACs on?” Cadence asked. “Yes, the leaders anyway. I don’t know about the rest of the team . I’m still debating.” He had his hands on his hips, looking from Tokyo’s map to Moscow’s to Melbourne’s. “Jamie sure is something else.” He laughed. “I have not seen him that giddy since… for a long time.” She knew what he was getting at. Since before Ellie died. “He’s going to be even more useful than before.”

“See? Aren’t you glad we thought of this?” “I have to it, it was a good idea. As long as… there don’t end up being any negative side effects we aren’t aware of.” He ran his hand along his jawline, and she wondered if he still thought his recent break down might’ve had something to do with the serum. She didn’t think that was at all possible, especially since Holland had been forced out of his mind, and he was fine now, but since Christian had made the suggestion, it was hard to completely put it out of her thoughts as well. “Jamie suggested we go ahead and give the okay for Margie and Grant to do it so that they have X-ray vision.” He nodded. “Already done.” She wanted to be surprised but wasn’t. “How come you didn’t tell him? That’s his sister, you know?” “Is she? I didn’t realize.” He winked at her, and Cadence felt her knees weaken slightly. “I know, but Margie and I made a deal a long time ago that her business is her business. She asked, and I thought it was a good idea.” Cadence nodded. Not knowing the whole story, there was no reason for her to assume Margie was in the wrong for wanting to keep things that way. “I talked to Cass. Did she fill you in?” “She did. I think Holland will be more than a little distracted when this thing starts to go down, but by the time we roll out, she’ll know what’s up, and most of North America is going to get hit with some pretty crazy shit.” “Yeah, I was wondering about that, too.” Changing the subject, she asked, “Do you think this baby is going to be a threat?” “I have no idea. I wish I could see it, to have some idea what it is. Do we really think it’s a demon?” “I don’t know. Have you ever encountered a demon before?” He was reflective for a moment; Cadence could see his mind playing back over almost two hundred years. “There’s been a few times when I thought maybe we

had, but I never knew for sure. It makes you wonder what else is out there, you know?” “I definitely know.” She thought about her sister floating above the bed. It made sense that someone who was half-Vampire could do that, but it was still hard to swallow. It didn’t matter at the moment, however. She needed to concentrate on the known threats. “How long until Margie gets to Melbourne?” “About an hour. So things are about to get interesting.” Cadence looked across the room to the chair behind her desk. Where would be the most comfortable spot to oversee multiple attacks on different continents? Here or at home? She stifled a yawn and realized she was going to need some caffeine. “I think I’m going to run this from home.” “Okay.” There was a questioning lilt at the end. “Do you need to be here?” Aaron glanced at the maps on the table. “Yeah, I think so. I work better from here.” She nodded. She didn’t. It was too… officey or something. “All right. I might come back later if things are going bad. Or if things are going good. I don’t know.” He chuckled at her and opened his arms. Cadence walked into them, reminding herself not to get distracted, but it was hard when she felt like he’d been away from her for so long, and now he was back. He kissed her temple, and she fought the urge to sweep all of the maps off of the table and have her way with him. “Maybe when all of this craziness is over, we can finally get some real wedding plans down on map paper,” she said gesturing at the display in front of her. They’d done plenty of discussing and even had the invitations picked out, but they hadn’t been ordered yet, and they would need to start getting serious about it all soon if they were going to keep their September date. “When this craziness is over, we should all have a lot more time to relax. I’m not sure what it’s like to live in a world without Vampires because I never have, but I can’t imagine it’s nearly as stressful.”

Cadence held both of her hands still on his chest and took him in for a moment. Of course, she had been under the impression she was living in a world without Vampires for over nineteen years. She couldn’t understand how a person could grow up the way Aaron had, fearing for his life and the lives of his loved ones all the time, knowing there was something out there that could get you at any moment. The fact that he had even kept his sanity was commendable; the fact that he was coordinating all of this, that he’d run this entire operation for decades, was even more impressive. “I love you,” she said, staring up at him. “I love you, too,” he replied, leaning down to kiss her. When he pulled away, she muttered, “Oh, good. No Han Solo answer this time.” He smirked, like he had a vague recollection of what she was talking about, but he wasn’t actually there. “I’ll see you in a little bit.” “Okay. Good luck.” “You, too. We’re going to need it.”

Chapter 21

The trip to Melbourne went by quickly since Margie Joplin was asleep most of the way. It would’ve been great if she and Grant Wharton, her sometimes boyfriend, had some time to test out their new powers before they needed to use them in the field, but she understood the importance of getting to Paul’s people as quickly as possible. As soon as Sheena had injected her and Grant, they’d been transported to the plane, and both of them had been out for most of the flight. The SUV, driven by another of the Guardians she worked with, Zach, pulled to a stop a few blocks away from Larundel, and Margie took the opportunity to test her X-ray vision. She was able to see right through the cement wall of the abandoned department store they’d parked next to. She was ready to go. Turning to look at Grant beside her, she couldn’t help but smile. He was a handsome man, and even though he still looked a little groggy, she wouldn’t want anyone else beside her going into this hunt, or any other for that matter. A ripple of anxiety washed through her as she ed there was a chance he could fall through the floor and disappear, as the others had, but she was determined not to let that happen. When she loaded up this SUV to go back to the airport to catch their flight to Perth, all four of the current occupants would be in it. “We ready then?” Toni, a tall blonde whose hair resembled a lion’s mane, shaved on the sides but thick and full down the center of her head, with one thin braid on the side, asked, reaching for her holster to check her Glock was where it should be. “Ready as we’ll ever be,” Margie told the other Guardian. With one more glance at Grant and a nod to Zach, the four of them climbed out of the vehicle and started on their way. The sun was descending behind the taller buildings, but she could see as if it was midday with her new vision. It would take some getting used to, but she could tell she was going to like these modifications. It would be great to sprint over to

Paul’s location now, but she couldn’t go off and leave Zach and Toni, so the four of them walked along, much faster than humans, but only at about half of Margie and Grant’s capacity. They could see the looming gate up ahead and the towering shrubberies Paul had warned them about. They knew his team was still camped out behind the building, so they swung around wide, and she used her IAC to let the Leader know they were approaching so that he could calm his team. She was certain everyone was on edge. They’d been sitting idly by for hours while their teammates clawed and scratched and did everything they could to break through concrete walls. “Margie, Grant,” Paul said as they came toe to toe. He grasped each of their hands. “This is Zach and Toni,” Margie said, gesturing to the other two. “I brought my A team.” “Good to meet you,” Paul said, shaking the other two hands as well. “We need all the help we can get.” “Any movement in or out?” Grant asked, getting right to it. “Not that we can tell. I have a few Guardians on the other side of the building on lookout. No sign of Hines at this point. But we don’t know that he doesn’t have minions capable of carrying out whatever it is he has planned for our teammates.” “Well, we just have to make sure that’s not an option,” Margie replied, matter-offact, but for once in her life, she didn’t feel as confident as she wished she did. Something told her that Hines’s orders were not to move forward with anything until he arrived—unless LIGHTS moved in first. “How did your procedure go?” Paul asked, and Margie thought she saw a tinge of jealousy around his eyes. “Good,” she and Grant answered at about the same time. She continued, “I can see through concrete, so that will be helpful.” “I have a feeling we can break through it, too,” Grant added.

Paul looked relieved, as if he wasn’t sure this idea would work, but now that he’d seen the results, perhaps he’d regained some hope. “That should definitely help.” “I was so sorry to hear about Becky.” Margie wasn’t an emotional person, but she’d met the Hunter the last time she was here and had liked her. It was a shame to see what had happened to her. Margie had watched the footage. She needed to know what Holland had up her sleeve; it had been gruesome. Paul nodded but didn’t otherwise respond to her comment. “We found out the hard way we don’t want to go in the water,” he said, turning away, as if he couldn’t look at her at the moment for fear he might get emotional. “So we flung each other over last time, but while most of us kept watch, I sent a team out to get material to build a pontoon bridge.” “Don’t you think whatever is in the water will just plow right through the bridge?” Grant asked as they all began to walk over toward the rest of the team. Margie could see the moat off in the distance, fifty or so yards away, down a slope in the yard. Larundel looked even more ominous now that the sun was setting than it had before, but she had entered spookier dwellings than this one. It wasn’t even as large as she’d imagined it would be. “That’s a possibility,” Paul nodded. “We didn’t want to use our firearms the first time because we were trying to be stealthy, but this time, they know we are here. So I’m planning to position a few armed Guardians around the bridge to take out anything that moves.” “What if they attack underneath the bridge?” Toni asked. “We’ll just have to get across quickly,” he replied with a shrug. “Are the silver bullets working on these bitches?” Margie asked, ing how hard it had been to take them out the first time, even with titanium. “To some degree. It seems easier since Holland isn’t right here. But , she was preoccupied the first time we attacked, so we aren’t sure what she’ll be doing this time. Something tells me, she’ll be ready. And we’ve decide to leave our IACS on.” “Right. Aaron said he’d try to get Cassidy to set up some sort of a screen if she

can, but with so much going on back there, she might not be available for the entire attack. I guess we should just get the show on the road, then.” “Yes—we just need to get in there and get those five Guardians out. Forget about the original plan for now.” Margie nodded, though she wasn’t quite sure she agreed with Paul’s assessment. She’d like to wreak a little havoc in there while she was at it if she could. “All right, boss. We’re ready when you are.” She flashed Paul a confident smile, and he returned it, though his was not quite as assured. That was okay—Margie had enough confidence for the lot of them.

Hines was in Joanna’s head and knew precisely what was going on out there on the lawn behind the asylum. When the blue-haired woman who’d helped take out Perses arrived, he began to curse under his breath. He should’ve left hours ago. Now, they would waltz into his facility and reclaim his playthings before he even had a chance to see whether or not his serums would work. “What do you want me to do, Doctor?” Joanna asked. She was peering through a pair of binoculars from an upstairs window and saw Larkin organizing his troops on the other side of the moat. Hines could see just fine using his telepathy. He was pacing back and forth in the same library where he’d found the book, the ancient text that gave him hope that this wasn’t all for not. Asteria had taken that damnable baby upstairs with her, and he could hear her scurrying around, cursing, followed by a crash of furniture now and again. He knew she’d be of little use until she decided to put that child back in its cage. It could feed like the rest of them if it wanted to—there was no need for it to suckle at her teat like a newborn kitten. What they needed to do was leave the creature here and get on a plane now. Though, by the time they arrived in Melbourne, chances were all the fun would be over. “I want you to go ahead and prepare the patients,” Hines finally said. At least he’d be able to watch what happened through Joanna’s mind. It wasn’t always clear, but it would do. “You’ll have to do the procedures yourself.” He heard an inner gasp as she processed his statement. “But, Doc, are you sure? This is your brainchild. What if I mess it up?” “You won’t, Joanna. You’re as capable of giving shots as I am. You’re simply giving them the injections with the blue lids, and once they take, you’re giving them the red ones.” “But… didn’t you say, in some of your experiments, the blue made the tissue react more violently, rather than simply dissolving the DNA strands that are responsible for creating Guardians from humans?” “Yes, that has happened. That’s why you must strap them down securely. Use the same method I’ve taught you. We have ten beds prepared. Everything is ready to go. You’ll be fine.”

“And what if they break into the facility before I have a chance to ister the red?” Hines was silent for a few moments. Blue to change them to human; red to kill them. “We’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t transpire.”

Paul had all of his people in position and was ready to go back across the lagoon of doom, or so he’d come to think of the moat. Getting over the enormous, spike laced wall seemed easier this time, perhaps because they were all too angry to care when a barb pricked an arm or sliced into a leg. He had decided to take twenty souls with him and leave the rest behind in case they all needed rescuing. If he couldn’t do this with Margie and Grant, he couldn’t do it at all. But he wasn’t leaving that building this time without his people—all of them. The pontoon bridge was deployed across the moat now by a few of the Roatan Guardians, and Paul had planned to lead the way across, in case the concerns that the bridge could easily be toppled were legitimate, which he thought they probably were. But when Margie volunteered to go first so that she could test out her new speed, he let her go, and she zoomed across so quickly, he could hardly see her. “I need to get me one of those booster shots,” he muttered, watching Grant tear across after her. Paul was next, and while he wasn’t slow, his speed was nothing compared to theirs. He tossed his Beretta across first, Margie catching it, thinking he might be able to move a little faster that way. As he sprinted across, the bridge bucked and quaked as if something enormous was underneath it, and he’d almost reached the other shore when a large purple tentacle stretched out of the water, aiming for his waist. The Guardians on the shore opened fire, hitting it enough times to throw it off its trajectory, and Paul made it over. The Guardians shot into the water near where they thought the creature must be, an attempt to keep it at bay, as more of Paul’s teammates made it over. The final few were on the bridge when something rammed into it from underneath, hard, sending the center of the bridge high into the air. Jill and a Guardian, Maurice, were on the bridge at the time. Both of them went flying into the air, landing in the water on either side of the bridge. “Not again,” Paul mumbled, ready to jump into the murky water one more time. “Let us,” Margie insisted, gesturing at Grant. Paul stared at them for a second as Margie dropped her gun and flung herself into the deep, Grant doing the same on the other side of the bridge. They were moving so quickly, Paul couldn’t even

track them. It seemed like only a few seconds later when Grant surfaced with Jill. She was panting, sucking in air like she’d been down there forever. Perhaps she hadn’t had a chance to take a deep breath before she went under. Grant kicked his way to the shore easily, deposited a sopping wet Jill, and then went back beneath the surface. Paul shifted his IAC to Margie. She was struggling against another one of those octopus like creatures they’d seen the day before. She had her knife out and was hacking at its arms. “Go for its heart,” he relayed, and she shifted her attack just as Grant ed in alongside her. Maurice was struggling but had little room to maneuver to try to free himself. Walking to the edge of the moat, Paul prepared to leap in should they need him. A shark fin was making a beeline down the middle of the moat, headed their way, but gunfire from the distant shore seemed to dissuade it and it circled back. Paul thought it might actually dive deeper and go in to help its tentacled friend so low it couldn’t be seen from the shore. Margie and Grant could hack away at the octopus much more quickly than he’d been able to, and eventually, the beast turned to ash, freeing Maurice, and the three of them headed to the shore. Paul offered Margie a hand, but she was standing beside him before he could even blink, so he pulled Maurice to his feet, and Grant was already well behind him before it even ed he was out of the water. They were all across now, and Larundel loomed behind him, all of its secrets about to be exposed, whether the Vampires liked it or not.

Joanna Gunter had been a nurse’s assistant a few months ago before she wandered out into the parking lot at the hospital she’d worked at for almost a decade and found herself begging for her life. The crazy-haired man in the medical coat had only smiled at her, assuring her he didn’t want to kill her; he only wanted to offer her a job. A few days later, she’d awoken here, at the asylum, a completely different person by all s. Hines was a nut job, that was for certain. And Asteria was a power-crazy bitch. Joanna would’ve just as soon escaped and gone back to her other life if she would’ve thought that possible. But the urge to drink human blood probably wouldn’t have mixed well with her duties at the hospital, so she had little choice but to do as Hines told her to. Which meant attempting to turn these Guardians back into humans and then kill them. The idea of these creatures still fascinated her. She was new enough to this world that she still didn’t quite understand how any of it worked. But she knew it was kill or be killed, and if she didn’t do what she could to take these attackers out, they would end her, something she wasn’t exactly thrilled about. There were at least a hundred Vampires at her disposal, and with the help of Asteria’s assistant, a good-looking but smarmy man with an icy stare name Bossley who was almost as creepy and uncaring as the queen herself, Joanna thought she could get the job done. She just didn’t know if there would be enough time to ister the red syringes before their door was knocked down, and she’d have to fight for her life. Or run away. Where she’d go, she wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t above it. Bossley was directing the Vampires who would remove the Guardians from their cages once they ed out as Joanna flipped the switches that would allow the gas to fill their chambers. She looked at the switches carefully, trying to which rooms were occupied and which ones were vacant and finally decided to gas them all. “Seriously?” Hines asked in her head. “I could’ve told you which ones they are! It’s two, three, five, seven, and eight!” “Sorry,” she muttered and turned to see Bossley even knew because he had his ghouls positioned next to the walls under those numbers. There were no doors as

of yet; those would appear with the flipping of other switches on a board Joanna didn’t quite understand. It would take a few minutes for the kicking and scratching to stop. There were cameras inserted into each of the chambers, but she didn’t want to watch them out, despite Hines urging her to turn her head and look at the monitors. She listened instead. Once she was sure they were all out, she’d have to clear the cells before the Vampires went in or else they could temporarily out from the sedative as well, and she needed everyone operational because the attackers were across the moat and already moving into the upstairs. “You need to hurry,” Hines urged her, and Joanna wondered who else’s head he was in. Gunfire sounded upstairs. She didn’t understand why this was more urgent than it had been the day before, but Hines seemed to think time was of the essence, so she finally turned her head to look at the monitor. The tiny woman in cell two was out while the bigger fellow all the way down in eight was still twitching. The others seemed to be losing consciousness as well. With a sigh, Joanna studied the again and asked, “What do I do to clear the gas?” “Those switches on the top left,” Hines said, and even though she couldn’t see him, she was sure he was grinding his teeth as he spoke. She reached over and flipped all of the switches, clearing the gas from all of the chambers. “Ready, Bossley,” she said after she was certain the gas had dissipated. The shooting was getting closer, and she heard several shrieks. It didn’t sound as if her side was winning. She rushed over to get the syringes with the blue toppers as the Vampires carried the deadweight from the chambers to the beds. “Start with the small woman,” Hines instructed her. “She should react the quickest.” Joanna loaded five blue syringes and five red ones onto a cart and pushed it across the concrete floor. The room was large, wide enough for all ten beds, and by the time she got back to where the blonde woman was being strapped down, the rest of her patients looked ready to go as well. She heard banging on the walls upstairs and assumed they’d gotten past the troops and were about to make their way down the stairs. They were trying to

find the opening to the stairwell, and while Joanna had been assured it would be nearly impossible for them to find, she wasn’t holding her breath. “Go!” Bossley ordered all of the remaining Vampires once the Guardians were secured to the beds. A small army of monsters ambled out of the surgical room, down the hall, but they could hardly make their way upstairs or else they’d give away the location, so they took up position in the hallway; Joanna could see them outside of the door before it slid back into place, concealing her whereabouts. “We are running out of time,” Bossley urged her, swatting a hand across his gleaming forehead. “We should’ve started earlier.” “I was waiting for Hines,” she reminded him. “I didn’t think they’d get through the defenses so quickly. And… I didn’t think they’d find the stairwell so fast either.” Hines sounded frantic in her head. “Hurry up.” Joanna didn’t see the point. Even if she could somehow manage to get all of the blue injections done, she wouldn’t be able to wait the appropriate amount of time and then inject the red. Even now, she could hear the sound of footsteps on the stairs and shots ringing out in the hallway. The Vampires were armed and fired back, but assuming those were all Guardians barreling down on them, it wouldn’t matter. She tried to if there was another way out of this room, but as far as she knew there was just the one door. And all of the chambers. She could get into one of those and bust through to the top floor, maybe get out that way. “Do it!” Bossley urged. With shaking fingers, Joanna took the cap off of the first syringe. The sound of shots getting closer outside of the door didn’t do much for her ability to find a vein, and at this point, she didn’t much care whether she got it in the right spot or not. The Guardian was unconscious, but she still winced as Joanna pushed down the plunger. There was a banging against the concrete wall. Frozen in fear, she turned and looked over her shoulder. It seemed like the was ebbing as something came crashing into it. “For the love of hell fire, hurry it up!” Bossley screamed. He came charging at

her, which was almost as bad as what was on the other side of that door. As quickly as she could go, Joanna grabbed the next syringe and moved on down the line, one after another, until all five Guardians had the blue chemical inserted somewhere in their arm, though she was pretty sure she hadn’t hit a single vein. She looked up to realize Bossley was following behind her with the red syringes. “That’s not how it works!” she shouted. “We haven’t got time to sit around and wait for them to become human again! This will have to do!” In her head, she could hear Hines screaming obscenities as he saw his plan fall apart. The door buckled then, almost folding in half, and Joanna decided it was time for a little self-preservation. She ran to the closest cell and leaped up, crashing into the ceiling. It wouldn’t budge at first, and then she ed there was a mechanism that kept the Guardians from being able to use it to get back out. She shot back across the room, flipped a switch on the , and then, as Bossley shouted at her, calling her a coward and every other name in the book, she ran back to the cell and leaped up, grabbing the lip of the floor above her and pulling herself up to the first floor of the building. A look around told her she was clear, so she took off for the closest door, praying if there was a god who listened to Vampires, he’d hear her cries.

Paul’s team blasted through the Vampires on the bottom floor of the facility fairly easily. If Holland was doing anything to modify them, it wasn’t evident, and many of them were shot in the back as they were running away. There had been some encounters with tougher specimens upstairs, and Grant was bleeding from a deep gash in his shoulder, but no one else was injured, save from a few stray bullets that bounced off of Guardians’ chests and limbs, and it hadn’t taken Margie long to find the sliding concrete that covered the stairwell. Removing it had taken a few minutes, but eventually, they’d powered through. The descent to the basement was much trickier. There were dozens and dozens of Vampires all along the path, many of them armed, and as the LIGHTS team made their way down, all sorts of monsters stood in their way, which took more time than Paul was willing to waste. He’d left quite a few Guardians outside to make sure that anyone who tried to escape would meet a quick end, and he watched as a tall female Vampire with blonde hair was mowed down on the front lawn before she even got to the moat. He wondered if she had anything to do with what was going on behind that concrete wall in front of him. Since she was wearing a white lab coat, he thought she might. Somehow, Margie managed to wind her way between assailants with just an errant kick or punch here and there, until she was in the hall behind the majority of them. The rest of the team fought their way through as she began to look for the door. Paul did his best to follow but got tangled up with a few of the monsters. One in particular, a lanky guy with a hump on his back, took forever to go down. Paul pulled his silver knife and jabbed it into his chest several times before he let out a groan and burst into ash. “This is not what I was expecting!” Jeb shouted from right behind him. “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel!” “Yeah, but I’m feeling a little fishy myself right now!” Paul yelled back as the Vampires let go another barrage of gunfire aimed at the Guardians and Hunters still on the stairs. Jeb ducked behind Paul, and he made himself as wide as possible as there was a yelp of pain behind them. He turned to see Jill was hit in

the leg. She stumbled, and one of the Guardians from Margie’s team swooped her up and rushed her back up the stairs, out of the fray. There were still several Guardians on the first floor, clearing rooms, but through his IAC, Paul could see they hadn’t found anything, so he thought the Hunter would be relatively safe up there. Turning his attention back to the melee around him, Paul took careful aim at the Vampires who were still shooting at them and was able to take a couple out through carefully placed bullets. The silver seemed to be having the desired effect tonight, and he supposed it was because Holland was too far away to do much; either that or she was preoccupied. By the time he made his way to the place in the wall where Margie was using her shoulder to try to burst through, they were down to less than twenty Vampires, and the rest of his team was making quick work of them. Some of them were running off in other directions, perhaps trying to regroup. Others were engaged in hand to hand combat; only a few still had their firearms, and if they did, they weren’t firing them. Paul checked on Jeb and Derrick one more time, saw that they were with another Guardian, and turned his attention back to the door. “It doesn’t slide?” he asked. “Tried that.” Margie was short of breath and looked like her shoulder was bothering her, but she took another run at the and it bent in two, but it didn’t cave. Paul took a stab at it and managed to bend it further. “It’s not just steel,” he said, taking a step back to look at it. “I thought they were concrete at first, but now I’m not sure what it is.” “What it is is in the way!” Margie shouted, and this time she karate kicked it. Paul could plainly see her footprint right in the center, where the biggest dent was. “Let me try something,” he said, wishing he had a real grenade, but he didn’t even have any of the fancy silver nitrate ones Christian had made left at his disposal. He pulled his Glock and said, “Cover your face,” and fired a straight line of shots through the center, where Margie had already made a crease. Whether it was the heat from the bullets or it had just gotten that weak in the center, he couldn’t say, but he could tell that it was even weaker now, and he warned Margie back with his hand and fired a few more shots before he gave her

the okay to try kicking the door in once more. Margie was able to break right through the center this time, and with a few more kicks in different places, they succeeded in knocking the door down. Before Paul could even step inside the room, a tall, blond Vampire came shrieking at his face, fangs protruding. He fired a few shots before his clip emptied, but the monster didn’t slow. He barreled into Paul’s gut, pushing him into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. “Go!” Paul shouted to Margie and a few of the other Guardians who were standing next to the opening, looking at him with question marks on their faces. “I’ve got it.” If this was their last ditch effort, the Vampires were in big trouble. Paul pulled his silver knife from its sheath and raised his knee to catch the towering Vampire in the gut. He groaned in pain but didn’t give up. “You mustn’t!” the creature screamed, his pale white skin and red-rimmed eyes nearly pressed to Paul’s face. “You mustn’t!” Paul assumed he meant they mustn’t rescue the Guardians, or they mustn’t overrun the asylum, but either way, that wasn’t a point of contention. A glance over his shoulder saw very few Vampires still standing and his teammates making quick work of them. It wouldn’t be long until this one crumpled as well. Sinking his dagger into the Vampire’s neck gave him the inches he needed to maneuver around and drop the creature to the cold, concrete floor. He positioned his knees so that he could press the beast’s arms down and then withdrew the blade from his neck and sunk it into his chest several times. The Vampire seemed relentless. “Please! You mustn’t!” he shouted again as Paul continued to stab. A gurgling sound emanated from the man’s throat, and with one more jab with the knife, he disappeared. “I think he’s the last,” Jeb said over his shoulder as Paul tried to slow his breathing. He could only nod. “Come on. Let’s check on Patsy and Tanner.” The reminder was enough to get him off of his knees, and Paul followed his friend through the hole in the wall, ducking to get under the hanging piece of concrete still attached at the top and stepping over the remnants on the floor.

Margie was standing next to Patsy now, but it seemed as if she must’ve checked on all of them. Grant was next to Stanley, checking his pulse. It was obvious the other four Guardians were still alive because they were jerking and bucking on the table, but Stanley was perfectly still. “What did they do to them?” Paul asked. “How the hell would I know?” Margie replied, placing her hands on Patsy like that might somehow stop the twitching. The blonde girl’s eyes were closed, and drool was running down the side of her face. “You’re a Healer.” “Yeah, but I’m not a doctor.” He thought the two Healers from Roatan were upstairs tending to the wounded, and he didn’t know if either one of them was an actual doctor either. Paul looked over at Tanner who was convulsing so hard, he was afraid the rickety bed might collapse. Jeb must’ve noticed, too. He motioned for Derrick, and they went about unhooking their friend, moving him and the thin mattress onto the floor where at least he wouldn’t fall if he they couldn’t get him under control. “Damn it,” Margie muttered. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish my brother was here.” Paul’s eyes widened. He couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting Jamie anywhere for any reason. “Can you see if he can help at all? Or shall I?’ “Go for it,” she replied as Patsy began to vomit. Margie was already unhooking her and the two of them turned her to her side so she wouldn’t choke. “Jamie, can you see what I’m looking at?” Paul asked, hoping the Healer wasn’t in the middle of anything. “Holy shit, yes. What did they do?” he answered almost immediately. “I don’t know. There are some spent needles.” “Is there a microscope anywhere?” Paul gathered a few of the syringes he spotted on the floor and carried them over to a row of cabinets on the other side of the room. He quickly opened them all but didn’t see anything.

“What do you need, boss?” one of the new Guardians from Roatan shouted from across the room. “Microscope!” Paul shouted back. “I saw a whole lab room down the hall. I bet there’s one in there,” the other man, a tall guy who looked to be in his mid-thirties, said as he ran out of the room. “Take those syringes with you and follow him,” Jamie insisted, and Paul tailed the other Guardian down the hall. “Here you go.” Paul thanked him and quickly ran into the room. Shelly and Toni were right behind him. “We need a microscope,” he said, and the girls spread out, searching the cabinets. “Here!” Toni shouted, pointing at the apparatus sitting on a shelf. It was hard to see because there was so much crap everywhere. Books, beakers, jars of fluids he couldn’t identify, lined every visible part of the counter, and Paul absently wondered if any of the parts he saw floating in those jars belonged to him. “Okay—what do I do?” Paul asked as he knocked everything away from the microscope that looked unimportant at the moment. Several glass jars and beakers shattered on the concrete floor, and he made a note to destroy this place before they left. “Get a clean slide if you can find one, and put a few drops from the syringe on it. It doesn’t have to be much. I just need to see what it’s made of.” Paul didn’t answer, only did as he was told, hoping the slide he’d found in a container by the microscope was clean. There wasn’t much left in the first syringe, but he emptied it onto the slide, getting a drop or two. He positioned it, careful not to lose the sample, and then looked into the lens. Jamie sighed. “Okay—I think that might be what he used to try to turn them into humans, but I’m not sure. Is there a hydrometer anywhere?” “A what?” Paul asked, having never heard that word in his life, at least not that he recalled.

“A hydrometer… just look around.” “Boss! We found these!” Shelly came running over with several other completely full syringes, some with blue lids and some with red. “That’s perfect,” Jamie said. “Tell them to look for something that looks like a kitchen scale with a silver circle on top.” Paul took the syringes and repeated Jamie’s request, but as soon as he turned back around, he saw something that looked like the machine Jamie had described. “Is it this?” “Yes, that’s it.” Jamie talked him through how to measure the density of one of each of the new vials, and Paul did his best to follow the directions, even though his hands were shaking and he had no idea if any of the tools he was using were clean or reliable. When they had finished their science experiment, Jamie was silent for a few moments. “Do you know what he did?” Paul asked, running out of patience. “Yeah, it looks like he gave them a shot of a similar chemical to the one we’ve developed, but I don’t think he used enough Krypton to destroy all of the Guardian DNA cells. The second shot looks to be straight potassium chloride.” “Potassium chloride?” Paul echoed. “You mean like they give people on death row.” “Exactly. I doubt there’s much there that can help, but if you can find anything at all to help slow their pulses down, it will help. Something like aspirin would help, but what you really need is some heavy duty drugs, like calcium channel blockers. You’re not going to find any of that. Get some towels, soak them in cold water, switch them out as they warm up. If they calm down enough to drink, get them plenty of water. But Paul, I think they’re all going to need blood transfusions, and the sooner the better.” It was Paul’s turn to be silent. When he finally spoke he said, “Can you walk me through that?” “I can’t. I’m getting ready to go on a hunt myself. You can Sicilia, though. She can help you. She’s also on her way to a hunt, but she’s a little

farther out than I am.” Paul took a deep breath. There really wasn’t anyone else he wanted to help him, but he understood Jamie had a job to do. “Okay. I’ll get her on the horn then.” “Good luck, Paul. You can do this. Theoretically, I think Hines missed the mark on that first shot, so the second one shouldn’t kill them. But you don’t want to mess around.” “Do you think I have time to move them? I’d be more comfortable knowing there’s nothing coming for us.” It seemed like there should have been more Vampires inside the facility, but he had no way of knowing at the moment how many they’d taken out. “I wouldn’t screw around with it, man. I’d just get it done. You’ve probably got all of the materials you need right there in that lab.” “All right. Thanks.” Paul was tight lipped for a moment as he disconnected from Jamie and sought out Sicilia. The other Hunter didn’t ask a lot of questions, only started giving directions, and Paul, Shelly, and Toni started gathering up what they needed, hopeful by the time they returned to the other room, it wouldn’t be too late.

Chapter 22

Osceola, Kansas, wasn’t too far from headquarters at the speed Aaron was driving, and Cadence spent most of the time silently monitoring the situation in Melbourne. Paul had done a great job leading his team, and having Margie there was extremely helpful. By the time they were rolling up on the warehouse where they believed at least fifteen Vampires were camped out, planning an attack on their own facility, Paul had just finished inserting the needle into the fifth Guardian to start the blood transfusion. It hadn’t been easy with all of the convulsing, but Jamie and Sicilia both seemed to think clean Guardian blood, along with the aspirin Margie had forced down their throats, might be enough to save them. The only one who didn’t look like he was on the mend was Stanley, but his heart was still beating, and Paul was using what little Healer power he had to bring the man back from the brink. It was too bad they didn’t have any Transformation serum on them. It seemed like that would’ve been the one thing sure to take care of the problem, but hopefully, these other methods would at least save their lives. The warehouse was a two-story building on the outskirts of town, and in a lot of ways, it reminded Cadence of the place she and Aaron had helped Cale take out back in Reno, before Elliott had died and this nightmare began. This place was different in that it was still in use and that instead of boxes and boxes of papers it was filled mostly with appliances and furniture. Independent Guardians had given them a pretty detailed layout a few days ago when Cadence decided she was doing this with or without Aaron. It would be much easier with him beside her. The other team with her were Martin, Paxton, who was essentially worthless, Rusty, Alex, and six of the Roatan Guardians she couldn’t have named if her life depended on it without the use of her IAC. The nameless Roatan Guardians drove separately, and Aaron directed them to bring their SUV around to the back of the building so they would be coming in from the other side. Cadence wasn’t too worried about a crossfire, even though some of them had titanium bullets, because they’d been directed to go straight up to the second floor and clear it while she and Rusty, the only two who had to worry about

shooting the Guardians, would be on the first floor. Martin shouldn’t be firing at anyone since he was their Healer. The Hunters would need to watch out for the three Guardians with them on the bottom floor, and anyone who had titanium would be at risk of killing a teammate. Cadence wasn’t worried about her teammates killing each other because they were all professionals, but she did wonder if Holland was back to her old tricks now that the baby was born and everything in Melbourne had settled down. Would there be some other sort of massive reptile waiting inside for her? Cassidy wasn’t with them, which felt odd. She’d assumed her sister would come along with her team, but she’d asked to go with Elliott and Brandon, and Cadence had complied. In the end, she thought it might be better if she was with Elliott so that if Holland tried anything tricky with Sam, Cassidy would be there to head it off. That didn’t completely give her sister leave to ignore the rest of the teams, though. She knew her primary job would be to head Holland off at the , a duty that would be made more difficult by the hundreds of miles separating the four different teams. She’d also decided to make the switch to send Jamie with Elliott and Sicilia with Aurora once Cassidy decided she was ing the team headed to the amusement park because she wasn’t willing to take any chances with her sister. Aurora had understood and had every confidence in Sicilia’s ability to keep her safe. Lots of chatter from other countries clogged her IAC as she opened the door and checked that her Glock was loaded. So far, all of their attacks had been successful, though there had been a casualty in Moscow; one of the newer Hunters had gotten double-teamed, and she hadn’t made it out. Cadence was shocked she’d been the only one lost so far, other than Becky. As other attacks were getting underway, she wouldn’t be surprised if there was another handful. It was hard enough to run attacks with no casualties, but under the desperate circumstances these Vampires found themselves in, and with Holland’s influence, she thought for sure she’d lose a few folks. She just hoped it wasn’t her—or her sister, which she wasn’t sure was even an option. She’d taken Jamie’s advice and cut her sister’s hand with a knife before they left, just a little swipe, and it had healed almost instantly. So… if a Hunter couldn’t harm her, could anything? Hopefully, not. “You with me?” Aaron asked, and she ed that a Vampire could most certainly hurt her. She needed to get her head in the game.

With a nod, they took off toward the building, Martin hanging back since he was only there to bandage up anyone who got hurt. Aaron went first with Cadence right behind him. “I heard there are some fascinating older engines kept here,” Alex whispered as they approached. He didn’t seem to care for the IAC. “If we have a moment, I should like to run up to the second story and have a look.” He readjusted the weapon he and Christian had created a few weeks ago, which looked like a musket to Cadence but was actually something more like a powerful sniper rifle from what she could tell. She’d never seen anything like it. “So long as all the Vampires are dead, that’s fine by me,” Aaron answered, clearly appeasing the older Guardian, and then all was silent again. Aaron glanced into the window by the door; nothing was moving inside. Looking through his IAC, Cadence could see rows of metal shelving with the occasional large crate or other shape in the middle. It looked exactly like what she’d expected, and she assumed there were Vampires in some of those crates, though she couldn’t be sure. About halfway down the length of the building, she saw a makeshift wall, and then on the other side, she knew there were hallways and offices. It was possible the Vampires might be back there as well. The upstairs was mostly shelves and storage. Aaron gave a count over his IAC and then the two of them rammed their way into the door while the other team tore through on the other side and immediately ran up the nearby staircase. The door fell to the concrete floor in front of Cadence, and Aaron ran over it first, Glock in front of him. Cadence was right behind him. The first floor of the warehouse was quiet while shots were fired upstairs. The sound of a grenade going off let her know they must’ve hit pay dirt on the second floor. There was another staircase on this side of the warehouse, and she was about to make a run for it, hoping to trap them, when something off in the distance, near the doorway to the offices, caught her eye. Aaron signaled for Rusty and Alex to head upstairs to stop anything coming down the second stairwell, and Cadence thought he’d told her too as well, but when she saw the figure down the row of shelving, she froze, peering through dust that rose and fell in the light streaming in from the high windows. She knew

that form, and even though she couldn’t see clearly at this distance, as the outline turned and practically danced in the other direction, her mouth fell open. It was Drew! Cadence took off without a word to Aaron who shouted after her. He clearly hadn’t seen what she had. All of this time, she’d thought for certain her friend was dead, but she wasn’t! Did LIGHTS know about this? Had her body been temporarily misplaced like Jack’s? Or did they bury her while she was still alive, and a Vampire came back and freed her later? As she ran, she heard what sounded like the screech of wood on wood and shots fired behind her. She briefly glanced over her shoulder to see five or six Vampires popping out of wooden crates, firing at Aaron and Martin, but she didn’t slow her steps. In just over a second, she’d run the length of the warehouse and found herself standing in the spot Drew had just vacated. “Drew!” she screamed as more shots echoed off the concrete walls behind her. She saw another flicker of movement, a shadow on a wall, down at the end of the hallway, disappearing around the corner, and charged off again. She had no idea what she would do when she caught up to her friend, but she couldn’t let her get away. Cadence had so many unanswered questions. She rounded the corner and saw the girl standing in what appeared to be a nearly empty conference room. Only a copy machine over in the corner and a dying fichus filled the space. Drew turned and looked at Cadence, the crooked, flirty grin Cadence had missed so much on her pretty face. “Well, if it isn’t my friend Cadence Findley,” she said in that valley girl tone she used when she was being silly. “How I’ve missed you.” “Drew?” Cadence asked, so focused on the girl in front of her, she had no idea her IAC had just flickered to black. “How are you here?” She shrugged. “After the Eidolon Festival, I was picked up by a couple of guys. They’ve been taking care of me. But… I’ve heard I’m supposed to come in for tagging or something. Is that right? I mean, I wanna do what I’m supposed to do.” Still puzzled, Cadence nodded. “Yeah, but why didn’t you find me before?”

“Uh, you’re pointing a gun at me, that’s why. I thought maybe you’d try to destroy me. They told me you were the enemy. I guess I believed them.” While those answers did make sense, something seemed off. Perhaps it was the fact that she was a Vampire now, but Cadence had a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. She ed what Aaron had told her about the trick with the crockagator. Gunfire sounded down the hall again, closer now. “You must really miss your boyfriend, Jon,” Cadence said, dropping the gun so it was pointed at the floor. “I do. I miss Jon so much,” Drew replied with a loud sigh. “But I didn’t want to get him involved in all of this, so, I’ve watched him from afar. When I get the chance.” Cadence nodded as if she believed her. “Okay, well, I’m going to need you to put your hands up over your head and turn around and face the wall so I can cuff you.” “Cuff me?” she echoed. “Aw, but we were best friends.” “Or I could shoot you right now.” Cadence raised her gun. “Cadence! What’s gotten into you? I thought you cared about me.” She took a few slow steps in Cadence’s direction so that there were less than ten yards between them, a distance that could be lethal if Cadence wasn’t ready. “We aren’t anymore,” Cadence replied matter-of-factly. Drew’s hands covered her face, and she began to cry. Tipping her head to the side, Cadence puzzled over how to approach this, and in that second of confusion, the Vampire launched herself across the room, right at Cadence’s throat. She couldn’t get her Glock up fast enough, and it went flying out of her hand. A mouth full of gleaming white teeth rocketed toward her face, and all of them looked razor sharp as the fake tears turned to maniacal laughter.

Elliott pulled the SUV to a halt at the far end of a lengthy parking lot. “Okay, kids. Welcome to Walley World. Looks closed. If only there was a forest creature out front who could’ve given us a heads up.” “Dad, you’re the lamest person I’ve ever met,” Brandon groaned as he unbuckled his seat belt. “Why are we so far away?” Cassidy asked, and Elliott immediately regretted bringing the two kids. Two other SUVs, each carrying six Guardians from Roatan, pulled into spots nearby. Meagan and Smith, an essentially useless Guardian, sat in the back and Elliott looked at them for confirmation about how ridiculous “kids these days” were but only found a concerned look on Meagan’s pretty face and an absent one on Smith’s. He should’ve looked to Jamie for , but then he was probably watching Ashley’s hunt and wouldn’t have noticed Elliott’s plea for either. “We parked out here so they don’t see us coming. There are only about five or six Vampires here, our sources say, but this is a huge area to cover, and there are only eighteen of us, so taking them by surprise would be great.” He pulled his door open and got out, the others following suit. “Also... this way we’ll be the first to the exit when the park closes.” He looked at their faces, but the two teenagers didn’t seem to get the National Lampoon reference. Elliott gave up. “Awesome. Abandoned amusement parks are the best,” Cassidy muttered as she walked behind him. She sounded distracted, and he imagined that was because her sister was likely already attacking in Osceola. While they’d staggered their departure from headquarters to all essentially arrive at the same time, it hadn’t worked out quite right, and he’d gotten to Wichita a little off schedule. He knew the group going to Columbia hadn’t arrived yet either, but they should be at their destination soon. That was Aurora’s group, and he was glad she wasn’t engaged yet because he would have also found himself distracted. As they walked across the parking lot, the team spread out, only Elliott, Cass and Brandon staying together. Elliott’s goal was to find a nice place to park Cass and leave her where she could do her thing and still be safe, but he knew the IACs were already acting up because he couldn’t see what was going on with

Cadence. Once the team had knocked the door down, he’d seen her run the length of the warehouse, and then everything went black. Over his shoulder, he asked, “Cass, what’s up with your sister’s IAC? I can see Aaron, but not her.” “I’m not sure,” Cassidy itted. “I’m trying to block Holland and get her back on, but I feel like the bitch is focusing everything she’s got into disrupting Cadence right now.” Elliott didn’t like the sound of that, but he kept walking. “Aaron, I see you’re pretty busy playing wack-a-Vampire with the pop up crates, but I don’t think Cadence knows what’s happening with you. I’ve lost her. Can you see her?” “Negative,” Aaron answered as he shot down another Vampire in yet another crate, slowly creeping his way toward his fiancée’s location. “I’m working as fast as I can.” Seeing no reason to further distract him, Elliott kept his response to himself. They were almost to the gate anyway. He looked up and saw a giant sign that read “Happyland.” He had read online that this amusement park had opened in the 1940s but closed about fifteen years ago. Apparently, the rides were so old, it was costing more to maintain them than the park was bringing in. It was a shame. Riding an actual rollercoaster right now, instead of just an emotional one, would’ve been a lot more fun. The place looked to have fallen into even further disrepair since it closed down, and Elliott imagined it was difficult to keep teens out of here. He used his X-ray vision to scan the place but didn’t see anyone hanging around causing trouble, and they all entered through various points in the shabby fence or even through the front entrance. A ticket booth looked like as good a place to station Cass and Brandon as any other, so he broke the lock off and said, “This is where I leave you. Be careful.” “Damn, I wish I was in on this,” Brandon muttered. “I’d happily swap you out for Smith, but I don’t think that would be in Cass’s best interest.”

“Or you could just let me go.” Cassidy smiled up at him like she was asking for a pony for Christmas. “If she moves, shoot her,” he said to Brandon, joking but hoping she caught his drift. He was growing tired of her shenanigans. Once the pair of them were settled, he hurried off to meet up with Meagan. She was the only Hunter in the group, and he wanted to keep an eye on her. He found her not far away, standing near the opening of the old fun house. Her Glock was drawn, and she was approaching cautiously like she’d seen something. Smith was gone, and Elliott used his IAC to see him running across the pavement in pursuit of something that looked like a clown. Elsewhere, he saw Guardians running after shadows and wondered how he had missed all of that, or was something wonky going on with his IAC again? “What is it, Meag?” he called to her, with his voice. Startled, she jumped slightly but didn’t turn around. “I thought I saw… something.” He came up on her lightning quick, his Beretta out. “What did you see?” “Uh, not sure.” That didn’t sound good to him, but he didn’t press her. “Well, let’s investigate.” They walked inside, careful not to trip over the uneven floorboards. It was almost pitch black inside, but they could gather just enough light with their enhanced eyesight and IACs to see how the floors slanted and the hallways broke off into different rooms full of fun. Elliott stepped cautiously, keeping Meagan in his sights at all times. Up ahead of them, he thought he heard the floorboards creak, but the hall turned, and he couldn’t see what was around the corner without accessing his X-ray vision, and by the time he had it on, whatever it was seemed to have slipped away. Meagan fell behind him, and he went around first, his gun ready to fire. Then, he saw what she had seen, and his mouth dropped open. Up ahead of them, a figure turned a corner, disappearing from sight, but not until he got a good enough look at familiar gray hair and a wrinkly face unchanged by the fresh puncture wound

in his neck. “Sam,” Elliott muttered, hell bent on getting him and paying him back for what the Hunter had done to him at Sierraville. It was no wonder Meagan had frozen. Sam had been trying to kill her, too, with his titanium bullets, the ones they had loaded in their Glocks now. The Beretta’s shot silver streams, but those were also enhanced with titanium. Still, when he caught up to Sam, it wouldn’t be a bullet that would end him. Elliott would take his time destroying the cowboy. Right before he took off behind the old bastard, he felt a prick in his neck and saw a flicker of white, a hand. He opened fire, sending a stream of deadly silver into the Vampire lurking in the shadows, and it burst into ash almost instantaneously. But the damage was already done. When Elliott reached for his neck, he realized he’d been given some sort of injection. The last thing he heard was Meagan screaming his name before he hit the ground.

Chapter 23

Vampire fangs directly above her face, Cadence twisted her body as her hands came up to grab at Drew’s familiar face, though she was certain whoever this was, it wasn’t her friend. Drew had dated Kash--not Jon. She didn’t have time to ponder whether or not this was a Vampire she was acquainted with trying to hoax her or just one of Holland’s tricks. Since her Glock was across the room, and she had chosen not to bring a Beretta this time, without fishing around for another weapon, she only had her hands to fight with. And her knees. She raised them into the Vampire’s gut, hard, and as the woman gasped, she took advantage of the situation and pushed her across the room. The monster careened into the wall, but it only took a moment for the Vampire to launch herself back at her. Cadence’s fingertips grazed the butt of her Glock, but she couldn’t get it in time, so she pulled her knife. It was Van’s blade—she was certain this time--and when the Vampire came screeching her direction, she whipped the weapon around, catching her across the chest, cutting through the white material of her shirt and gashing into her chest. The screech morphed into a cry of pain, and the Vampire recoiled a step, but she wasn’t done, and she came at Cadence again. This time, the knife connected with her arm, and Cadence kicked at the same time, knocking the creature backward. She snatched up a handful of Cadence’s hair, pulling her down with her by the ponytail, and they both tumbled to the thinly carpeted floor. The monster wasn’t giving up easily. They rolled across the floor, vying for position as Cadence swung the blade at every chance, and the Vampire’s sharp claws dug into Cadence’s arms and ripped at her cheek. Cadence rolled them closer to the copy machine, stabbing the Vampire’s hand with the knife so that she screamed and let go of her hair. Then, she grabbed her by the top of her blonde head and banged her face into the copy machine several times. The Vampire sunk her claws into Cadence’s forearm, and her grasp on the knife began to slip, so she tossed it up into the air, twisted her arm so that the

claws came lose and then punched the Vampire in the side of the head before grabbing the blade as it came back down and sinking it into the creature’s neck. Once again, a sharp scream filled the air, and when Cadence looked down at the dented in face beneath her, it wasn’t Drew she saw, but it was someone she knew. “Laura!” she shouted, though she wasn’t even sure she could trust her eyes at this point. The knife sticking out of the Vampire’s neck had slowed her struggle, and as Cadence pulled it back out and readied herself to plunge it in again, she repositioned her knees so that the woman beneath her couldn’t wiggle free. “That’s right you stupid bitch!” Laura growled, but her face shifted so that the dents were gone, and she smiled up at Cadence, looking much like her former self, except for paler. And with sharper teeth. “My one regret in this life is that I didn’t kill you or Aaron when I had the chance.” “Well, that’s over now,” Cadence replied, sweat dripping down her forehead. “You blew your last chance at immortality.” Laura didn’t respond to the statement, only shook her head and continued with her own train of thought. “You think you can win, but you can’t. You have no idea what forces you’re messing with. Just wait. You’ll die. And when you do, you’ll be all alone.” Her smile morphed into a snarl, and Cadence decided it was time to end this fight once and for all. She plunged Van’s blade back into Laura’s neck, closer to the right side this time, and began to saw it across toward the gaping hole she’d left on the left. Laura grinned up at her the entire time in some sort of macabre victory celebration Cadence didn’t quit understand. The twisted pleasure she got from sawing off the head of the woman who’d gotten Elliott killed and tried to end her and Aaron was not something she was proud of, but when she finally made it through the last sinew of Laura’s neck, she couldn’t help but feel relieved. Laura didn’t scream like most Vampires did. Instead, she laughed. It was a maniacal, asylum haunting, deep, throaty laugh that seemed to echo around the empty room for far too long before it dissipated, and Cadence found herself sitting on the ground again, a pile of ash between her knees and a reverberation in her brain.

She realized then that her IAC wasn’t working. Reaching for her gun, she double-checked the aftermarket safety was still off, and hearing no gunfire from outside the door anymore, she stood, intending to go check on the rest of the team. As she turned around, a form filled the doorway. A muscular Vampire with short hair and a ghoulish smile on his face, and she immediately clicked the safety off and opened fire, tired of these games. “Cadence! What the hell?” the monster screeched, ducking back around the corner. She knew she’d hit it in the shoulder, but there was something off about the tone the Vampire used when it spoke her name, and immediately she thought of Holland and her dirty games. She took three quick steps to the door, her Glock still in front of her. The sound of hurried footsteps in the hallway had her running as the creature ducked behind something in the room next door. She followed but stayed outside. “I know you’re in there!” “Cadence! I’m not sure what the hell is going on right now, but you just shot me —Aaron—your fiancé. Can you please put that gun away? I’m gonna need Martin, and I can’t have you shooting anyone else.” Puzzled, Cadence looked down the hallway toward the warehouse. Had she really shot the man she loved? It seemed impossible, yet she’d thought Laura was Drew. Hoping her sister could use her telepathy, she sent a signal out into the world. “Cass, can you put a block on for me?” “No, I can’t,” her sister replied quickly. “Somehow, she’s screwing with what I can do. What’s going on with your IAC?” “I don’t know. It’s not working now. Did I shoot Aaron?” Her sister was quiet for a second. “Son of a bitch, Cadence! Put your gun away!” “How do I know you’re you?” “When you were in eighth grade you tripped in the hallway at school and on your way down, you accidentally kissed Jon on the mouth, and he thought you were his girlfriend for three weeks. Put the damn gun down and get Martin!”

“Shit,” Cadence muttered, holstering her weapon. Then to Aaron, she said, “Okay. I put the gun away. I’m coming in!” She opened the door to find him behind a desk, bleeding pretty badly from the shoulder. “Shit,” she said again. “Yeah, you think,” Aaron replied, pressing his hand to his shirt beneath his leather jacket. “Those footsteps are Martin, so don’t shoot him. Okay?” There was no reason to try to explain right now. He seemed to be losing a lot of blood, so she looked around for something to stop the bleeding but saw nothing. When Martin arrived, she moved out of the way, and the doctor fell to his knees on the ground next to the Guardian Leader. “He’s going to be okay,” he assured her. “But you sure got close to making this a game changer.” Cadence had no words. She paced back and forth across the small room for a second, watching Martin do his work. Aaron’s expression changed from a grimace to something closer to normal, and she took a few deep breaths, knowing then he would be okay, no thanks to her. “Building is clear,” Aaron said, his words choppy. “Most of the other team are still upstairs.” “Good.” Without her IAC, she couldn’t check that. She had no idea how Holland was messing everything up, but the monster had definitely done a number on her that night. “I’m going to go get some fresh air.” She wasn’t doing any good standing in there. Wiping Aaron’s blood off of her hands the best she could onto her purple leather pants, she headed for the door. Once outside, she stopped to take a few deep breaths and looked up at the stars. The moon was low in the sky, and she thought about how that orb had changed everything once before, maybe for the better, but at this point, after having almost killed Aaron, after chasing Drew down a hallway only to kill Laura, she wasn’t sure. She slowly started to walk toward the SUV, thinking a few moments alone inside might calm her down before the rest of the team loaded up, and they could head home. Without her IAC, she couldn’t even check the progress of the rest of the teams. Nor could she open the door without the keys. “Damn it.”

“Something wrong?” She turned quickly and let out a sigh, glad to see it was only Alex. How he had snuck up on her, she didn’t know, but her stomach was in knots, probably from the atrocious error she’d recently committed, and she wasn’t quite herself. “No, I just… my IAC is screwed up. How are you?” He was still a good ten feet away, but he looked tired. His shoulders slumped, and he was fiddling with the cuffs of his sleeves. “Ready to get on the road,” he said with a sigh, and Cadence noted something sounded off about his speech. He was usually so formal. She glanced back up at the top floor of the warehouse and saw shadows moving around. Hadn’t Alex said something about wanting to explore old engines up there? Why wouldn’t he be with the rest of the Roatan Guardians? Like most things that night, this wasn’t making any sense, but then, she couldn’t just pull her Glock on him either, so she took a few steps back and studied him. He seemed to be doing the same.

Aaron tried to relax but his shoulder still hurt like a son of a bitch, despite Martin’s ability to stop the bleeding and begin the healing process. The kid was good, but he was no Jamie. “So… she just shot you?” “I think she thought I was someone else. A Vampire. Apparently, Holland is concentrating all of her efforts to screw up Cadence’s IAC. I can get flickers of her from time to time, but I don’t think she can use it much at all, and she can’t hear or see anything.” Martin nodded. “About a half an inch lower, she would’ve hit you right in the heart,” Martin said, repositioning his hands. “I’m lucky she was still rattled from whoever she was battling then. She usually doesn’t miss.” Martin snickered, as if he was trying to be polite, and repositioned his hands. Aaron got a quick flicker of Cadence’s IAC in the parking lot, but something didn’t make sense. She was looking at Alex, but when he switched to Alex’s IAC, he was still upstairs. “Martin, I’ve gotta go!” With every ounce of strength he could find, he pushed up off of the office floor, past Martin and out the door. The Healer was a little stunned but he followed behind. Aaron readied his Glock as he went, but without her IAC, there was no way he could warn Cadence. That wasn’t Alex.

“Elliott! Wake up!” The voice in his head sounded familiar, but fuzzy, and as he tried to open his eyes and found it impossible, he tried to where he was and identify who might be talking to him. “He’s going to get Meagan if you don’t get up off of the damn floor! Go! Go get Sam!” Whether it was the mention of the bastard’s name or something else—maybe realizing it was Cassidy’s voice he was hearing in his head—Elliott tried to will himself up off of the sticky, metal amusement ride floor. His eyes felt heavy, like bags of sand were keeping them closed, and as much as he struggled to move his arms, he couldn’t. In the distance, he heard someone screaming, and the sound of running feet, but he couldn’t get his body to comply enough to get up off of the floor and help. “Where is Jamie?” He managed to string together a sentence and was proud of himself. “Across the park, over by the rollercoaster, heavily engaged. He can’t get there in time. You’re going to have to do it, or I’m sending Brandon.” The idea that his son might be running into Sam had Elliott struggling to pull himself to his feet again, but without the use of his hands or eyes, that would be difficult. He attempted to put all of his strength into pushing up off of the ground and got nowhere. He needed to find the power to get up off of the ground and hurry to Meagan before it was too late, but the sedative he’d been given was a heavy one, and he was certain it was meant for more than just a siesta. If he didn’t get up now, he might not be able to do so again, not until Sam and his cronies carted him off to who knows what living hell. Elliott concentrated on opening his eyes and failed. In the distance, Meagan screamed.

“You’ve gotta go!” Cassidy shouted at Brandon who was doing his best to pace in a four by four ticket booth. “I’m not leaving you,” he replied, though the fact that he was running his hand through his curly mane of hair let her know he was considering it. “Then I’ll go with you.” She had been sitting on the ticket agent’s chair, if a person could even call the rusted piece of metal that anymore, but pushed herself up now. “I can help. I’m not a baby.” “You’re observing,” he reminded her. Cassidy snickered and lifted him up off of the floor, dropping him back down before he could even protest. “Observe that.” He knew better than to argue with her, so he burst through the rusty door and grabbed her hand. “You have got to stay with me, the whole time. Got it?” “Yes, sir,” she replied with a giggle as they quickly made their way across the amusement park. Off in the distance, she heard shots fired and knew that it was mostly coming from the rollercoaster where two of the Vampires were up in one of the ride carts, and Jamie was scaling the wooden beams, trying to get to them. It was pretty cool to watch him jump from one trellis to the other, especially since Cassidy knew this was one of the oldest wooden rollercoasters in the world. It would only be a matter of time before the Healer and the other Guardians closed in and took them out. She only wished some more of them had been with Elliott and Meagan. Smith was by himself over by another ride, a tilta-whirl, doing not much of anything, and she decided he was completely worthless; they may as well leave him there. The funhouse loomed in front of them, macabre clown faces glowing in the moonlight. Cassidy wondered why in the world anyone would want to walk around in there in the first place, under the best circumstances, but she had no answer for that. She and Brandon stepped through a gaping clown mouth into a room full of mirrors. She knew Meagan was close by because she could see it on her IAC, and she could hear her screams. Sam had already shot her twice, once in the arm and once in the opposite leg, taunting her. Jamie was aware, but Meagan had told him she was okay for now, to finish what he was doing. The

Healer turned into some sort of a spider monkey, hopping up onto the rollercoaster track, and closing in on the Vampires in the cart. The flooring was uneven, and Cassidy tripped, falling forward. Brandon caught her, but she decided this just wouldn’t do and took to hovering over the ground a few inches instead. He shook his head at her. “Go help Meagan, and I’ll find your dad.” “What if there are more Vampires here?” “Then I’ll kill them.” He shook his head but didn’t argue. She was at his eye level now, thanks to the levitating, so he leaned over and kissed her and then took off to help Meagan. Cassidy watched Jamie open fire into the rollercoaster seat. The Vampires looked like mere children, and as the Healer shot them, they tumbled out of the cart, falling toward the ground as he finished them. A sprinkle of ashes covered the tops of the trees below, dusting the concrete where twenty years ago a crowd of onlookers would’ve watched the rollercoaster ride. Jamie leapt the hundred feet down to the ground below, and Cassidy felt the building she was floating in shift around her when he made with the ground. He was perfectly fine, which brought a smile to her face. It was like she knew a superhero. She turned the corner and saw Elliott on the floor. She could be a superhero, too.

Chapter 24

Cadence reached for her Glock at the same time he moved, rushing her and dragging his claws across her face as he wrapped his hands around her neck. She should’ve been faster, should’ve realized this was another trick. But she’d let her emotions interfere with her judgment, and now, she found herself in a compromising position as this Vampire twisted her around to face the building, blood dripping from both cheeks. She wondered why he didn’t attempt to kill her right then, not that she wouldn’t fight him to the bitter end. He was strong, and she imagined Holland was doing everything within her power at the moment to strengthen this one beast. But as he spun her around, she could see his dilemma. Aaron came bursting out the hole that used to be the warehouse door, and though she could see he was struggling, blood stains all down his left side, he had his Glock pointed at the monster behind her. “Go ahead! Pull the trigger. I’m sure you’re lovely won’t mind being bitten by titanium.” Cadence glanced up to see he’d taken his regular form, or at least he didn’t look like Alex anymore. His build was similar—tall and lithe—but he had stringy blond hair and a pock-marked face. She wanted to reach over and bite his cheek just to see him squirm, but instead she decided to hold still and let the Guardian Leader do what he did best, negotiate. In the meantime, she knew she could take this asshole, despite the fact that he had a gun pointed at her temple. “Let her go, Fergus. You know you can’t walk out of here alive,” Aaron said, his voice deceptively smooth as she noticed the hand by his side shaking. “But won’t my mistress be so proud to know I managed to take out both of you on my way out?” he countered, and Cadence realized what he intended to do. It wouldn’t be easy, even with all of Holland’s power coursing through his veins. Use her hand to shoot Aaron, and then kill her. She would never let it happen. Aaron had figured it out, too, of course. “She could knock you out right now if she wanted to. You’re not stronger than her. Holland has no idea what she’s dealing with.”

“Doesn’t she, though? Don’t you think she knows everything you do? And her name is Asteria!” With that, he stretched his claws up from around Cadence’s neck and grabbed a lock of her hair, ripping it out. Cadence’s scalp stung, and she felt more blood spilling down the side of her face as he let what looked like half of her hair fall to the ground. Pissed, she delivered a blow to his ribcage with her elbow. He stumbled back but kept his grip on her and brought the end of the pistol he held down hard into her bleeding scalp. Cadence saw stars and thought she might throw up. Maybe he was stronger than she’d thought. Without her IAC, she couldn’t communicate with Aaron to know when to move so he could get a clear shot. She noticed they had drawn attention from the top floor of the warehouse though, and she wished some of those people were down here so they could sneak around behind this ass, but by the time one of them got downstairs and went all the way around, she might be unconscious already. Her head was pounding so hard, she could hardly keep her eyes open. If only Jamie were here with his fancy blue pain-relieving orbs. They were negotiating, or at least Aaron was trying to. It was hard to hear what was happening with the fuzz in her head. She felt herself starting to weaken, her knees wanting to fold, but tried to keep herself conscious. She needed to be able to fight. An electrical pulse seemed to vibrate throughout the Vampire, and Cadence assumed that meant Holland was pooling her power here. It would just be a matter of time until Cadence slipped into oblivion, and then he could use her hand for whatever he wanted. Surely, Aaron would be fast enough to get out of the way. Her head began to bob, and the Vampire didn’t seem to like that much. He crashed the butt of the gun into the bloody mess of flesh he’d already assaulted twice, and Cadence felt her skull crack, heard the crunch in her ears. That was no way to keep her conscious, and as her head slumped forward once more, she heard the explosion of fire mingling with gunpowder, and the whole world went black.

Elliott was floating, and not in the sort of way one feels when they’ve been on a boat and their feet are back on dry land again, but his body was literally being picked up off of the floor and made to stand upright. He managed to crack one eye slightly and saw that Cassidy was next to him, her hands out in front of her. “I thought I told you to stay put,” he reminded her. “I’m not known for listening or following directions.” Willing himself to become conscious was quite the feat, and he hadn’t made it there yet, but another yelp from Meagan had him coming to much more quickly, and he tried moving his arms only to find Cassidy must’ve placed his Glock back in his hand. “If only I could move it.” “Tell you what, I’ll move you, and you put everything you’ve got into aiming that gun, okay? I am pretty sure the stuff in your DNA that won’t allow you to die can combat whatever the hell was in that syringe. You just gotta want it.” “Well, don’t you sound like a fitness commercial. All right. Let’s go.” The funhouse looked even more ghoulish with his eyes slitted and everything fuzzy. He was glad he didn’t have to worry about any of the uneven floors as Cassidy moved him toward the sound of crying and a commotion in another room. They rounded the corner, and he saw Sam with a gun pointed at Meagan, Brandon in a standoff with him, negotiating, but getting nowhere. “Jamie’s less than a minute out,” Cassidy said in his head, and he was thankful he didn’t need to expend any energy to discover that for himself. “Well, if it isn’t Dr. Sanderson. Is this a case of physician heal thyself or what?” Sam croaked in his gravelly voice. Meagan was bleeding badly from both arms and legs, and she looked like Sam had been using her as some sort of pin cushion without the pins. His strength continued to return so that now his eyes were open and things were beginning to come into focus. “You think this is some sort of a sadistic game, Sam? Pretty sure I owe you a bullet to the head.” Sam chuckled. “I know I can’t kill you, but it’s a shame you managed to get up.

Maybe I can kill her.” Before Elliott could react, Sam turned the gun on Cassidy and fired a single bullet in her direction. How Elliott had managed to let her walk out there with no cover, without even a weapon drawn, was beyond him, but he couldn’t move fast enough to react, and Brandon was across the room. Sam’s laughter mixed with the sound of his own scream of, ”NO!” as he tried to position himself between Cass and the bullet. He wasn’t fast enough. But it didn’t matter. The bullet stopped a good two feet from her, hung in the air for a moment, and then fell harmlessly to the ground. “That all you got?” she asked, folding her arms and cocking her head to the side. Sam’s confusion created the perfect opportunity, and without fixating on the fact that his little friend had just stopped a bullet with her mind, Elliott turned on Sam, aiming low, and hitting him in the gut, right underneath the arm he had yet to return to Meagan, his gun still pointing helplessly at the ground. The cowboy let out a groan, and Meagan took advantage of it, throwing an elbow and raising her leg so that her heel caught him between the legs as she flung herself toward Brandon. Sam fired multiple times in her direction, but Cass caught all of the bullets before they hit their target, and they all tinkled to the ground like falling confetti. With a grin on his face he could not control, Elliott regained his legs and took off toward Sam. Seeing he was outnumbered and had no protection now, the cowboy headed for the shadows, his hand covering his midsection where a gaping hole trailed smoke behind him. His IAC was fully operational now, and Elliott could see Jamie coming in the room behind him, hitting Meagan with a beam of comforting blue light before he even worked his way over to her. Elliott followed behind Sam’s smoke trail, imagining he was hunting a wounded animal, and smiling like a fool. It didn’t take long for him to catch up to Sam in the room full of mirrors. “You can’t catch me, Sanderson. The moment you fire at the wrong figure, I’ll duck away.” Elliott chuckled. “That’s okay. I got plenty of bullets.” He shattered the mirror to his left, just to watch Sam jump, which he did, but he didn’t try to flee. This

room was his last resort, and this is where the old son of a bitch would finally die. “Tell me something, Sam,” Elliott said, taking aim at the next mirror. “Why did you do it? Why turn on your own team like that?” The second mirror splintered into a thousand tiny slivers. “Revenge,” Sam said simply. “I wanted to pay Cadence back for Henry. I wanted Aaron to know what it felt like to lose someone he loves.” The third mirror was so close to Sam’s true location that when it exploded, he jumped and covered his face. Elliott knew exactly where he was now. “You do know that Aaron’s first wife died, right? That he also lost his little girl?” Elliott didn’t even know all of the details, and he wasn’t about to tell Sam even if he did. “Cadence did everything you were trying to do, and you just couldn’t handle it, could you? A newbie, a girl, hunting Henry down and then Holland. You really takin’ orders from her now?” He moved a few steps closer, blocking off the only visible exit in the room so that Sam would have to come through him or make a hole in the wall. He saw that Brandon had moved into position to cover the back exit of the building, so even if Sam made it out of the room, he couldn’t escape the building. “I did what I thought I had to do,” Sam muttered, and Elliott could hear regret in his voice. “I never chose to come back as this.” “So why not just disappear into the night? Why come here? You did what Holland told you to do? Came here to drug me, kill Meagan, and what? Take me back to her to be some sort of a science experiment for Hines?” Sam said nothing, though his head hung a little lower. Elliott took a few steps closer, and Sam turned, facing him now. The last time they had stood like this, Sam had fired his weapon right into Elliott’s head, and it had been the last thing he’d seen before he died. Now, Sam’s weapon was useless and hung at his side like a broken appendage. Elliott slung his Beretta around his shoulder and pulled his Glock. “I really want to shoot you in the head right now, watch you fall to the ground, maybe spit on your ashes a few times, but I’m a bigger man than you, Sam.” “Whatcha gonna do with me, then?” Sam’s voice was quaking.

“I don’t know,” Elliott itted. “I haven’t decided yet. Maybe keep you in a cage in my apartment where I can torture you. Take your body parts off one at a time. Not sure.” He knew he’d do none of those things, but it was nice to see Sam’s trembling increase. “Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s not up to me.” “What do you mean?” Sam asked, but before he could answer, a noise behind Elliott caught both of their attention, and Elliott took one large step to the left. Meagan opened fire, driving Sam back into the mirror behind him. It shattered at the force of the impact, and shards of glass mingled with ashes as Sam was blown into the next world. “Take that, you son of a bitch,” the tiny Hunter said, panting, wiping her upper lip on her blood soaked shirt. Elliott moved over and wrapped his arm around her shaking shoulders. Jamie had healed her just enough to let her come and get some vengeance of her own, and God knew, she deserved it. “Come on, Meag. Let’s go home.” He didn’t need to tell her twice, and the two of them turned their back on the man who’d tortured them for over a year, glad they’d never see his snarling face again.

Sicilia hurried back to the SUV as soon as Aurora gave the all clear that the museum was vacated from all Vampires, other than the ash variety. She’d done everything she could to help Paul out before her hunt started, but when she’d had to let him go to concentrate on the attack, he was still struggling. “Talk to me, Paul. How’s it going?” she asked as she climbed into the enger’s seat, hoping to get a little bit of peace before the rest of the team got back to the vehicle. “Everyone seems to have reacted well to the aspirin and the transfusions, except for Stanley. He’s pulse is barely detectable, and he’s pale.” Requesting visuals from Paul, she assessed the five victims. He was right; four of them looked like they were resting peacefully, as if they might wake up at any moment and be fine, but Stanley, a larger man with a buzzcut, didn’t look good at all. “Okay. I think you should move them all back to your headquarters and wait for Jamie to get back to you.” “Even Stanley?” Paul asked, and Sicilia could pick up hesitation in his voice. “Yes, even Stanley. Keeping him there won’t help any, and he seems stable enough to move. Just be careful getting him across the moat.” “I’ve got a team working on clearing that right now,” Paul replied, and she could pick up on a slight chuckle in his voice. She could only imagine what the team was up to, now that the house was clear of Vampires. “I wish I could be of more help, but I’m sorry I can’t do much from here.” “It’s okay. You’ve been very helpful. We’ll get them moved, make sure they’re stabilized, and I’ll be in with Jamie. Thanks a lot, Sicilia.” “Good luck.” She took a deep breath, wiping some blood off on her pants she just realized was there from when she had to put Aurora’s hand back together. Overall, the hunt had been a success. It had taken some time to clear the basement of at least a dozen Vampires, but they’d made it through. Now, she was ready to go home and relax.

Aurora and the rest of the team who were riding in her vehicle were on their way out, and a huge smile illuminated their leader’s face. Aurora had done well on her first mission as a leader. Sicilia rested her head back, happy to have that over with, but as she checked her IAC for what was happening elsewhere, her stomach tightened. Not everyone was out of the clear yet.

Cadence’s head was throbbing, but she heard Aaron calling her name and slowly opened her eyes. His face hovered above her head, and she could feel wet, sticky blood still dripping down the side of her face. But she didn’t think she’d been shot in the head. “What happened?” She noticed her IAC was back and a flood of messages hit her all at once. She brushed them off. “Alex shot Fergus, the Vampire who bashed your head in, with his sniper rifle. He aimed right over your shoulder,” Aaron explained. “Try not to move. Martin’s going to put you back together.” She did as she was told. As Martin placed his hands on the side of her head, Cadence closed her eyes. The pain began to subside almost immediately. She could only imagine what she must look like with a huge chunk of her hair missing and her scalp a bloody pulp. If Alex hadn’t been there, who knows what might’ve happened? Aaron probably could’ve taken the shot, too, but he would’ve hesitated, afraid he’d hit her instead. Alex likely had a better angle, a better scope, and not that kind of fear. “Feeling any better?” Martin asked. Cadence whispered, “Yes,” still afraid to move her head too much. “Good. I’m afraid I can’t do much more. Getting both of you to halfway is about all the juice I can keep in the tank.” She opened her eyes and looked at Aaron. He was ashen, as if he was still bleeding some and had been this whole time. “Why didn’t you let him fix you all the way?” “Because I realized you were walking into a trap,” he answered. It was hard for her to be mad at him when he’d been trying to save her, probably did save her, since his negotiating with that bastard Vampire had given Alex enough time to line up the shot. “Where is Alex now?” “Uh, here, my lady. At your service.”

She couldn’t shift her eyes to look at him, but she could see him through Aaron’s IAC when her fiancé turned his head. Alex was bowing, and she couldn’t help but giggle. Now, that was a Revolutionary War hero she could get on board with. “Thank you kindly, my dear sir.” He chuckled at her attempt to sound as formal as he always did. “It is an honor and a privilege, my lady.” “All right. That’s all she wrote,” Martin said, sitting down on his haunches. “I’m afraid we’ll have to wait until you get back for Jamie to fix the rest of you. Both of you.” “Can I sit up?” Cadence asked. “Sure, but don’t move too quickly. I know that’s hard for you.” Aaron helped her up, and she leaned back against the car door, trying to get the world to stop spinning. “A lot of good my speed did me tonight.” “I think Holland must’ve basically possessed Fergus to give him that kind of strength and speed.” Aaron’s hand was still on her shoulder as if he was afraid to let her go. “I was thinking the same thing. He jumped on me so quickly.” “Well, the good thing is, all of our hunts were successful tonight. And we only lost six Hunters, so that’s something.” He gave her a sympathetic smile, knowing the only number she would’ve found acceptable was zero. “Six?” she asked. She tried to shake her head, but it hurt. “Anyone I know?” He knew what she meant. Of course, she knew all of the Hunters, at least by name and area, but she wanted to know if they’d lost anyone else she’d met, like Becky. “No, I don’t think so. We don’t ever want to lose anyone, but the fact that we took out over three hundred Vampires all over the world tonight and only lost six Hunters is an amazing accomplishment, Cadence. The training you’ve been doing, the other programs you’ve put in place, those are really working. You should be proud of your team--and yourself. I am.” “Thanks.” She supposed he was right. She could only imagine how those teams

who had lost someone might feel, though. At least she knew her sister was safe. “Did Elliott get Sam? Did he show up?” She had a feeling once she’d killed Laura that Holland must’ve somehow figured out where she and Aaron would be and that Sam was likely headed for Elliott’s location. “No, he didn’t,” Aaron replied, and Cadence’s forehead crinkled, wondering if there was more. “Meagan did.” A smile spread across her face as she thought of her friend getting revenge on the bastard who’d haunted her dreams for far too long. “Are we ready to load up?” Alex asked. “I believe the other Guardians are finished speaking with the authorities.” Cadence hadn’t even considered who was running interference in Elliott’s absence but was glad Aaron had found someone who could do it. With all of the shots fired, there was bound to be some police called, even though they were not in a residential area. “I’m ready,” Cadence assured him. “Just help me up.” Martin took one side of her and Aaron took the other, even though she wished someone else could’ve stepped in for him since he was injured, Alex, or Paxton who was standing nearby with his mouth hanging open gazing at the stars. She got to her feet, and Martin opened the back enger side door for her. She got in, and Aaron went around and climbed in next to her, tossing the keys to Rusty who seemed to appear out of nowhere, but Cadence imagined he’d been standing on the other side of the SUV. Once they all piled in, Cadence slid over and rested the uninjured side of her head on Aaron’s uninjured shoulder. “I guess we did what we set out to,” she thought. “Yep. Holland’s forces are greatly diminished, her sanctuary is burning to the ground as we speak, and she’s running out of places to hide. It will just be a matter of time now.” Cadence closed her eyes, and for the first time since she’d found out about the Clandestine Ternion, she imagined a world with no Vampires. When she first started out, she never would’ve dreamed it was possible, but now, it seemed it

was within their grasp. A smile spread across her face, thinking about living a normal life with the man she loved, maybe a baby or two, doing normal family things, like visiting the beach and amusement parks that were not infested with the undead. Perhaps those dreams were possible after all now that Holland’s team had been annihilated. She just needed to kill the queen herself, and then it would all be over—once and for all.

Epilogue

Asteria was inconsolable. Her entire queendom was crumbling around her, and all she could do was watch through the minds of those who suffered and died, those whose final thoughts would haunt her as she witnessed them bursting into ash. She sat alone in the library, the musty smell of old leather and papers reminding her of ages gone by, those she could still if she let the memories in. Her child had been taken back downstairs, and while she’d protested at the time, she was glad for it. What he was exactly, she wasn’t sure, but sitting near the window, looking out at a sky transitioning from night to dawn, she wished that the rising sun really was capable of burning both of them into oblivion, all of them into oblivion. She heard a noise behind her but didn’t need to turn her head to identify the shuffling feet as Hines. He had been beside himself earlier, watching his experiment fail, Joanna screw everything up and try to run away. At least they’d gotten that little bitch, Asteria thought to herself. “It’s all gone,” she whispered, the words stinging her tongue like a knife to the throat. “We tried, Your Majesty. We simply can’t defeat that which we cannot kill.” He was right, she supposed, and she felt foolish for putting so much effort into something she couldn’t accomplish. Why couldn’t she have just left well enough alone? She and Perses could’ve hidden together somewhere, perhaps taken over a small island and claimed the tourists. Instead, she was in this rotting castle with a demonic child, surrounded by incompetents, and her dreams were as shattered as the glass Sam’s ashes now lay intermingled with. “Your Majesty… we can still make her pay.” “No, we can’t. It’s over. She’s won. There’s nothing we can do.” Even as she spoke the words, a tinge of hope bubbled up inside of her. She wanted to believe

it was possible, that even if she couldn’t end the other two els, at least she could make Cadence Findley suffer the way she was suffering now, to feel her heart wrenching from the inside out. “There’s still… the portal.” Asteria ed Hines talking earlier, downstairs, but at the time she’d been too preoccupied with her child to listen. She slowly turned her head. “Portal?” “Yes. I’ve done more research, and I believe it’s a viable option. I think… if we plan everything out perfectly, perhaps, we can trap them inside of the portal, leaving only Cadence. And then you can destroy her.” She liked the idea, but needed more information. She swiveled about in her chair. “Who is everyone?” “Everyone who means something to her. Certainly Aaron and that idiot Elliott. The Healer will need to go, too. Whoever you’d like, my Queen.” The small bubbles of hope began to effervesce inside of her. “Do you think there’s still a possibility, then, that we can make her pay?” “Yes, my Queen, I do. But we shall have to wait and play our cards right. It won’t be easy, but if anyone is capable of destroying Cadence Findley, it’s you.” A smile cracked across her face, and Asteria allowed her mind to wander to the possibilities. “We shall do whatever is necessary, take our time, make sure everything is in place, and then, when the time is right, we shall do what we can to destroy her.” Hines smiled back at her, bending down to clasp her hands. “It isn’t over yet, Your Majesty. Now, we wait. For the Blood Moon.”

The End Obliteration is now available! Find it on your favorite retailer.

A Note from the Author

Hi there! I hope you enjoyed Annihilation! If you did, please consider leaving a review. Sometimes later books in a series don’t get many reviews, which is kinda sad. So if you liked it, please just leave a few words to let other readers know. Obliteration is now available. Find it on your favorite retailer. Now that book 9, Termination, is finished, the series is complete. I am a little choked up about that because I feel like the LIGHTS gang is sort of part of my family now, but all good things must come to an end. Whether or not there will be another series based on some of the minor characters is still up in the air. But I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know if you think you’d be interested in reading about other people in the same world, or maybe some of your favorite minor characters taking center stage. Leave your in your review or email me at [email protected]. In the meantime, if you haven’t read The Chronicles of Cassidy, book one, So You Think Your Sister’s a Vampire? is free on all major retailers. It tells the same story from Cassidy’s perspective. That series is also complete. You could also check out A Vampire Hunter’s Tale to read the backstories for some of the more popular characters from Clandestine. Aaron is book one, but you can read the series in any order. When you sign up for my newsletter, you can dowload several of my books for free, including Saving Cadence, a novelette about the Eidolon Festival strictly from Aaron’s perspective. Find Saving Cadence, free novels, and previews when you sign up here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/idjohnsonnewsletter My newsletter comes out twice a month and always has free and discounted books as well as information about what I’m working on.

Thanks again for your continued ! ID Johnson