“No!” Brandon shouted. I couldn’t help but let the whimpers I’d been holding back escape my throat. Zabrina had a glimmer in her eye, like she couldn’t wait to get me home to play. “Take me instead!” Brandon begged. I shifted my eyes to look at him, wishing I could speak to try to tell him not to say such things.
It didn’t matter. “You?” Giovani laughed. “I don’t want you. I can’t do anything with you. You’re already—invincible.” The Vampire had a point. Zabrina had two of them, and they were very shiny.
“But I’m not.”
Never in my life have I been so happy to hear my sister’s voice. I couldn’t see her, but I thought she was behind Eliza. The entire congregation became quiet as my sister and Aaron approached. Finally, I could see her, and while I was doing my best to stay calm, I realized I was sobbing. I had created this mess. Now, my sis
Over the sound of my own sobs, I heard Giovani say something about their ride and titanium bullets. A moment later, there was a roaring sound that reminded me a bit of the train and then the sound of shattering glass. Brandon’s hands went up and I instinctively covered my head, too. I looked up in time to see my sister disappearing through the ceiling, attached to a black grappling hook. She was being sucked through a hole in the glass, swallowed up by a helicopter. Something told me that one didn’t belong to Cale. Cadence was gone, and a few seconds later, chaos broke out around us.The Vampires were still standing there, their bargaining chip having just disappeared through the ceiling. It turned out my sister’s friends were sneakier than Giovani had given them credit for. Around me, I heard hidden weapons come flying out, and the Vampires opened fire as LIGHTS began to take aim at their assailants. Brandon scooped me up into a ball and threw himself betwe
I’ve never believed any of those people who had out-of-body experiences, or those who claim they went to Heaven for a visit. It all seemed a little ridiculous to me. Why were they so special the Big Guy would want to have a one-on-one chat with them? But then, until recently, I didn’t think Vampires were real either. Now that I’d had a face-to-face encounter with a couple of them, I wished I could go back to before, back when Vampires were monsters one only read about in books or saw in tragic, Gothic love stories.I can also now testify that coming back to your body once you’ve left it feels a little bit like slamming into a brick wall. Not in the sense of pain but in the breathlessness it causes. The jar is unbelievable, especially when you don’t realize you’ve been gone.Once I collided with my exterior again, it took me a moment to open my eyes. I could hear voices first, feel someone’s hand on my arm. I felt warm, like I w
“Thank you,” I said, handing my sister her phone. I took three calming breaths before I turned to Jamie. “What am I?”He cleared his throat and sat down next to me on the edge of the bed, Brandon scooting his chair out of the way. “I’m not sure. But… I would guess we were able to stop the Resurrection process in time to prevent you from becoming a full-fledged Vampire. I would say… some sort of hybrid.”“A Hunter, Vampire hybrid?” I questioned.“That is my best guess,” the doctor nodded.“Have you ever…?” I couldn’t finish the question.“No,” Jamie said, clearly reading my mind. “I’ve never seen anything like it. So, we won’t know what you’ll be able to do until we give it some time.”“Do you feel any burning in your throat?” Aaron asked, still the calmest of all, though Jamie didn&rsq
“Yeah, he is. But we’ll get him. Right now, don’t worry about any of that. You need to regain your strength, and then we’ll have to figure things out. No one on our team got seriously hurt, thank God. And Brandon told us about the Vampire that had trailed you from KC.”“You know, then, that the poem Giovani left was about me?” I asked.Cadence nodded. “We figured it out just a few minutes too late.”I dropped my eyes. “Cadence, I know I shouldn’t have ever gotten on that train. It was reckless and stupid. Someone could’ve ended up dead because of me.”“Yeah, they could’ve,” she agreed. “And it was almost you.”“It could’ve been you, too,” I reminded her. “I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.”She leaned forward and brushed my hair back from my face. “I told you. Don’t worry abou
People talk about not knowing themselves, like not being in touch with who they really are, but when I returned to Shenandoah that rainy Tuesday afternoon, I honestly felt like I was someone else completely, not the innocent young girl who’d left my home just a few days before, and despite everyone’s reassurances, I knew there was nothing that would ever make me who I’d been the last time I was home.My sister had been forced to call my parents while I was still out since I was supposed to be home in time for school the next day, and they were wondering where I was. Cadence tried to keep it all nonchalant, saying something had come up, and she wouldn’t be able to bring me home until a day later than expected. Apparently, my mom wasn’t very happy, but Cadence assured her Jamie, the doctor who worked as part of the LIGHTS team, would write me an excuse for school.And it probably wouldn’t be for just one day, I imagined, considering ho
Aaron pulled into the driveway, and I took a few deep breaths while they waited on me. Before I even finished climbing out of the vehicle, I saw my parents standing at the door. Normally, my dad wouldn’t be home from work yet. But he was here.My mom greeted and hugged each of us, as did my dad, except he shook Aaron’s hand, and we all moved into the living room. Obviously, my parents knew something was up, but I think they were relieved to see we were all alive. My parents sat in their chairs, my sister and Aaron on the couch, and I lowered myself into the chair across from my mom.“What’s going on?” she asked, looking at each of our faces. “You kids are scaring me.”Cadence looked at me, and I wished Brandon—or someone—was here to hold my hand the way she was grasping Aaron’s. But I was on my own. And I’d asked for this. I knew I could back out, and Cadence would tell them, but this really was s
Aaron’s calm voice filled our living room, and while I felt bad that he was the one who had to relay this information when he was the least to blame, I was thankful someone who wasn’t overly emotional was recounting the tale. “We got word late Saturday night that Steven Gibbon, the Jogging Path Killer, had been kidnapped from the hospital in Philadelphia where he was recovering from his gunshot wounds. We had intelligence that let us know that Giovani, the same Vampire that had been with Jack when he went on the killing spree in Cabo, was planning to turn Gibbon to use him against Cadence, so our team flew to Philly Sunday morning, hoping to locate Gibbon.”My parents nodded, letting him know they were following along. “We had asked Brandon, a new Guardian who hasn’t completed his training yet, to drive Cassidy home, and he agreed to do that. But… instead, they took a train to Philly.”My mom turned and looked at me, and
On Wednesday, I didn’t get out of bed until almost noon, and when I went downstairs, I discovered my sister had left a few minutes after I went to bed the afternoon before. She’d left me a note telling me she’d call me soon. I couldn’t blame her. She needed to get back to headquarters so they could figure out what to do about Gibbon, and I honestly didn’t want to talk to her anymore anyway. It would be hard to get past what we’d been through together. She’d keep blaming herself, and I’d keep feeling guilty for putting her in a position where she had to trade herself for me.My dad had gone to work like everything was normal, and his daughter wasn’t some freak. My mom was sitting at the kitchen table eating a sandwich and reading a magazine. When I walked in, she looked up and said, “Hi, honey,” and went back to what she was doing. I looked around the room, thinking there must be some sort of crew filming us or