I’m not sure if a few stories make a huge difference when you’re trying to reach out into the universe with your mind, but I wanted to be as close to the cosmos as possible, and Brandon was kind enough to humor me. Rather than going up to the roof of our perfectly good building, he accompanied me across the street to the slightly taller trainee building, and we took the elevator up to the top and then, with the help of Juan Diego, the lead custodian who is very fond of both of us (but terrified of Elliott), we were able to access the roof through a door normally kept locked so that the trainees didn’t go up there and mess around. I wasn’t sure what difference it made until I got up there and saw there were a lot of mechanical components housed there and decided it made sense to just keep the door locked. He trusted us, though, despite Brandon looking so much like his dad, and when Brandon moved one of the large wicker chairs from the tenth-floor balcony hango
I realized almost instantly that this Vampire was the woman whose memories I had just seen flickering across my mind like a movie, only I wasn’t just watching, I was immersed in them. And now, I was sitting with her beside a roaring campfire as others the same as her laughed, told stories, drank, and made merry.With a deep breath and an air of caution, I replied, still trying to figure out where we were. “A friend,” I said, hoping she’d believe me. If I could see into her mind, understand her past so quickly, could she do the same? I pinned the image of Zabrina, her jaw opening wide, in my mind’s eye, hoping this other woman would be able to see only that I had been turned and avoid the rest of the details, like the Guardian standing nearby with the Transformation serum who’d saved my life, who’d made me anything but a friend to these people.She seemed to accept me, though, and I got the impression that while this wa
My sister and Aaron were back in the apartment by the time Brandon and I got there. It was odd that Aaron was home since he was almost always in his office when something like this was happening, and the fact that he was pacing around the living room made me think he would be leaving again as soon as I told them what I’d discovered.“Well?” Cadence asked, as soon as I was fully in the room.“Hello to you, too,” Brandon remarked smugly, not letting go of my hand.With a humph, my sister said, “Hi, Cassidy! Hi, Brandon! How are you today? Cold enough for you out there? Now, what the crap did you find out?” The first part was delivered in an overly syrupy voice like one might use if they worked in customer service. The last part just sounded downright mean.“Well, that was rude,” Brandon murmured, crossing the room to sit in a recliner nowhere near where my sister sat on the couch. I waited for Aaron to s
Aaron was quiet for so long part of me just wanted to get up and shout, “Hey! Can I go now?” But I waited patiently like a student in class who has heard the bell ring but knows it’s not the bell that dismisses this class; it’s the teacher.“Okay,” he finally said. And then he was on his feet. “I’m going back to the office.”“For what?” Cadence asked, and I knew I was dismissed. I looked at Brandon, and we both sort of looked at my room, like maybe we could melt and flow across the floor out of this conversation undetected.“I need to look at the maps again,” Aaron said to my sister who had crossed the room and was standing next to him at the door.“You’ve been looking at them all day.”I think sometimes Cadence doesn’t understand how her fiancé’s brain works. Not that I do, but the fact that he is constantly working, and she isn&rsquo
The team for the hunt at the RV park was so big, we had to meet in the old conference room, which isn’t even in the same building as Cadence and Aaron’s office. Their set up is much nicer, but there’s no way all of those people would’ve comfortably fit around the table where we had met the last few times I went out on a hunt with them.Not that it was comfortable now. Elliott had just gotten back from Oklahoma about an hour before, and he and Brandon had had a huge fight. I was in the middle of it, though I had mostly tried to comfort Brandon. Apparently, things with Amanda didn’t go so well. We’d been watching TV when Brandon got a really nasty text from his mom. He’d been so upset, he just started pacing the floor waiting for his dad to get back. Elliott was oblivious as to why Brandon was so angry, but he said he’d take care of it, and all he did was try to get Amanda back on her feet. I think Brandon and Elliott hashed thing
Once everyone else was clear about their positions for the hunt, we went out to load the SUVs. The auxiliary staff had already loaded everything up while we were working—those are people like Juan Diego who are actually people and only know about the Ternion because they have some sort of ties to it, like they could’ve Transformed but decided not to, or they have a relative who is a Hunter or Guardian. Aaron and Elliott still wanted to look over everything before we headed out, but once they were satisfied we had everything we needed, Aaron gave the order for us to load up.“You ridin’ with me, Son?” Elliott said to Brandon, and I think it was a sort of olive branch, like, “I may have just really made you mad, but you’re still my kid.”“Sure,” Brandon said hesitantly, as though he wasn’t sure whether to take the branch or snap it in half. I looked at my sister, who had her eyebrows raised, but I knew she
Cadence looked like she could impale Ashley with her eyes. Clearly, she felt like Ashley was after Aaron, which was just ridiculous, because Ashley would have to be an idiot to think anything could come between those two, but I could see that was what the deal was.Once again, I had to sweep that away, though, as Aaron was heading out, and Elliott had already told me twice to come on. I looked at Brandon, and then made a bee line for Aaron, grabbing him by the arm. “Wait!” Pointing to the evergreen Elliott had just confirmed was our destination, I said, “Elliott says we are going up in that tree.”Aaron seemed much calmer than he did the last time I interrupted a mission with my antics. “Yeah, I told you you would be with him, and he’s on lookout.”“But… I don’t want to go up in that tree,” I replied. I hoped my eyes were as imploring as a sad little pu
“This is a clearing expedition,” Aaron said, “which means you open fire as soon as you engage. We’re not negotiating or taking prisoners. The fact that these bloodsuckers are here is enough to get rid of them.”Something about his tone, or maybe it was the use of the word “bloodsuckers,” got my dander up. I tried to keep my cool, but I shot a message to him and to Cadence. “What about the ones that were just turned?” I asked. Surely, they didn’t think it was fair to take out people who were innocent campers just a day or so ago and either happened upon this camping site, not knowing what they were getting into or were attacked by the Vampires as they claimed this place for their own. For all we knew, Southwest Moe himself was down there somewhere sitting among the undead, not even realizing what he was.Cadence’s voice was slightly sympathetic when she responded, but I knew she
It was a wolf—but not just your regular run of the mill might-be-a-Husky wolf. This sucker was huge! We’re talking Jacob on Twilight huge. And it was running at full force at my sister’s back. Elliott was grappling for his gun in the pebbles and ash at his feet, but I had a feeling that wasn’t going to make a difference. Since I had no idea what this thing was—an actual wolf, a werewolf, or some freaky kind of Vampire—I didn’t know what it could do, either. I almost screamed, but I clamped down on my tongue and waited to see what might happen as the creature continued to barrel down at my sister and my boyfriend.I realized Aaron was down there now, too, and he and Elliott were both emptying their chambers into that devil dog, but it wasn’t even slowing down. The wolf was almost to them when Brandon rolled out of the way, and Cadence leapt into the air, doing some sort of backflip that landed her behind the attacking wo