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
Rather than jumping out of the tree in one leap like Elliott had, I took my time and chose my footing carefully. I’m sure I was moving faster than most humans were capable of, but relative to the rest of my team, I was slow and cautious. Getting down is almost always harder than getting up when it comes to climbing, but I knew if I hurried, I’d end up falling, and I wasn’t ready to test out how badly I could hurt myself.I was about halfway down before I lost my balance the first time and had to grab at a branch that wasn’t quite as strong as I’d hoped. I recovered, but the branch broke free, and then I found myself falling through the air. My hands shot out, and I reached for another limb. This one was strong enough to hold me, and by the time I steadied myself, I realized I was only about ten feet off the ground. “You can do this,” I whispered, and then, looking for a clear path between the remaining rows of branches, I jumped.
There was a chair directly in front of the frail Vampire woman. I figured the Guardians had put that there for me. The quarters were so cramped, I had to straddle her boots to sit down, but she didn’t budge, only watched me sit across from her.I realized now that I’d seen the same visions again, all in a rush, when she’d contacted me in the tree. Sitting there across from her now, more images flashed into my mind. I saw more of her Resurrection, the life she’d lived since that night so long ago, and then I caught flickers of the destruction she was certain was to come. I saw the portal, saw a shape exiting into a sandy desert landscape, but I couldn’t tell who or what it was. I took a deep breath and tried to relax, waiting for Mina to speak as I fought to put the images out of the forefront of my mind. I wondered still what she could see when she reached into my head.“You are pretty, beautiful, just like her,” Mina said. She
A smile flickered across Mina’s face as she considered my question. A glimpse at her teeth had me running my tongue across mine. Neither of us had fangs just now. “Heavens, no.” Mina shattered my hopes of finding someone with similar problems, but whatever it was I could do for her daughter, I would still do it. She continued, and I hung on every word. “That was a long time ago. She’s long past, that one. Beautiful girl, though.”My confusion grew with her explanation. “You knew someone who was half Vampire, half Hunter?” What really caught my attention was the fact that this person had died. What had killed her? I leaned forward toward Mina, and she shifted her weight, too, which had me leaning back. I wasn’t afraid of her. I knew she wouldn’t hurt me even if she could. This wasn’t a trap—she legitimately wanted me to help her daughter. When she nodded in response to my last question, I asked, “Whe