“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
I had no idea how Mina was related to the child, whether she’d turned her or found her and took her in, but I could only assume she was speaking of the old woman on the sofa. Before I could stop her, the little girl sprang out of the box and ran to Mina. She was faster than any creature I’d ever seen, and for a moment it alarmed me.But she buried her head in her mother’s lap, the tearless crying continued, and Mina, who couldn’t even reach out and wrap her arms around her child one last time said quietly, “It’s all right, Bonnie. Cassidy will take care of you now, child.”I didn’t even know how Mina knew my name, though I supposed she’d found it in my mind. I felt compelled that her words would be true. I would take care of the child, though I had no idea how or what that would mean.Bonnie was having nothing to do with it, though. “No, Mama!” she shrieked. It was as if she knew what was about to
Aurora drove us back to campus. I didn’t know when she’d gotten the keys from Elliott, and I didn’t care. Bonnie quivered in my arms the entire time it took to get back, and I tried not to cry right along with her. No one said a word aloud, and I didn’t see the telltale flicker of eye movements that would’ve let me know that the other women in the SUV were talking on their IACs either, though I suppose it was possible. We were all trying to sort out what had just happened. I knew none of them had been affected as profoundly as I had been, but I had a feeling nothing like this had ever happened before.I had a Vampire child in my arms, and at the moment, she was the only person in the world I cared about. I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do with her, though. It wasn’t as if I could just take her back to Cadence’s apartment with me. At sixteen, I hadn’t even considered being a mother. And she wasn’t exactly a
The drive meandered around a little bit, but Aurora seemed to know where she was going. She finally stopped by what I assumed was an intake door. There were two Guardians there, one a short woman with a scowl on her face and the other a man, which I knew would scare Bonnie.My sister turned to look at me, and I decided to play nice. I wasn’t handing this baby over for anything, but I asked, “Can I go?” and was relieved when my sister said, “Of course.”Bonnie sat up now, and her voice was timid as she asked, “Where are we going?”Her face wasn’t streaked by tears since Vampires can’t make them. I smoothed her hair. I knew she was scared. This was a lot of change for such a small person.Cadence answered her. “We are going to a place where there are more people like you,” she said, her voice infused with fake joy.Bonnie immediately caught a glimpse of the Guardian at the door, the ma
“Where does—” Cadence started to ask about where the blood Bonnie had just drank from a pouch came from, but Faye interrupted her.“Donations,” she explained. “We encourage the humans who work at headquarters to donate. We also purchase blood that is about to go bad from blood banks.”“Fascinating,” Cadence mumbled as Bonnie handed me her empty container and went back to the toys. I saw a trash can and crossed the room to toss it in. “So what happens now?” I asked, glad to see Bonnie playing. She seemed like a carefree child again, at least for a few minutes, but the chill of watching her mother die was still in the forefront of my mind.“We will keep her in here for as long as she wants to play, and then, when she gets tired, we’ll take her to a room. In the morning, we’ll look at a permanent arrangement for her. As you know, we have Compliants that we work with on a regular bas
Cadence was glowing, holding both of her babies, one in each arm. I smiled at her and then focused on Josephina. She wasn’t crying now, but her little face was wrinkled as if she might burst into tears at any moment. Aaron had his hand on her back, beaming with pride as he looked at his little family. Jamie and another Healer, Ona, were cleaning up a tray table, but I caught his eye, and he winked at me. I hoped he could tell how grateful I was. If it wasn’t for him and his life saving blue magical healing powers, not to mention his medical skills, Cadence never would’ve come back to life.“Where’s my new favorite lil girl?” Elliott asked beside me.“Hey! I’m your lil girl. You’re going to have to think of something else to call her.” I threw an elbow at him.“Oh, I’m just teasing,” Elliott assured me. “Still, she is definitely lil. And she is my girl.”“I&rsqu
I’ll never forget the day my sister died. Even now, eight months later, sitting outside of Jamie’s operating room with Brandon’s hand in mine, every time I think about what happened that day, I get tears in my eyes. So many things could’ve gone differently, if only one of us would’ve made a different choice. I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on what I could’ve done differently myself that day, and even though everyone tells me there’s no point in dwelling on it, what’s done is done, it still haunts me sometimes when I’m trying to fall asleep at night, when I can so vividly see Cadence hanging there in the air before she plummeted to the ground, the whoosh of power that left my hand just missing its mark.The new Hunter Leader is a guy named Daniel Bower. He came in from California a few months ago. He’s awesome. I’ve known him for a while. He’s the one who helped capture Professor Stewart after th
I continued to beg and plead with her to come back to us. At fifteen minutes, Scarlet’s whispers were loud enough for me to detect what she was saying to Cale. “How long will he give it?”“I don’t know.” Cale seemed agitated and upset, certainly more connected to my sister than Scarlet. “Not yet.”“Please... Cadey, please.” I felt as far and as deep as I could, thinking about how I’d had to go so very far into her brain to plant that dream. The clock continued to tick. Cadence still wasn’t breathing, and Jamie began to sound desperate. At twenty-five minutes, when Jamie said “thirty,” his voice broke. He knew that the chances of her coming back to us now, after this long, were minute at best. He couldn’t give up, though. We couldn’t give up.Aaron blew two breaths of air into my sister’s lungs, and Jamie started counting again.Something was diff
After Aaron finally moved forward, I followed, staying back a little bit. I didn’t want to see her like that. I had never seen a person’s body after they’ve fallen that far, but I could imagine what it was like.Only when I finally did take a few hesitant steps around the trees, Brandon’s hands on my shoulders, she didn’t look like I expected her to at all.Cadence was lying flat on the ground with her hands folded over her abdomen, sort of like Snow White. Her feet were out straight, and her hair was blown out around her. She looked absolutely beautiful. And still. So very, very still.Jamie was doing chest compressions, and when it was time to breathe, Aaron did that for my sister. Some sort of automatic pilot must’ve turned on for him because his movements were very robotic. Jamie would say thirty, and Aaron would breathe into my sister’s open mouth twice before Jamie started counting again.Tears were rolling
“No!” My scream echoed across the mountainside as I watched in horror as my sister fell. I cannot guide what I cannot see, and I didn’t have a chance to get a grip on her before she plummeted. My hands shot out in her direction, but the surge of power I’d sent to grab her went over her head. I saw a streak of blue do the same and knew Jamie had missed as well.Fumbling through Cadence’s stream of consciousness, I tried again, hoping I’d be able to figure out how to get my powers around her before she hit the ground, but she was moving too fast, and without my eyes on her, I wouldn’t be able to get a grip.Part of me wanted to at least jump into her head, to be with her, to let her know she was okay, but then, the thought of what she was about to endure, when she hit the tops of the trees and then cascaded down through them to the earth, I couldn’t bear the thought, and I knew she wouldn’t want me to see it.I
“Brandon!” I shouted, floating over to where he had disappeared. He didn’t answer, and I realized he must’ve fallen all the way in. “Dang it.” I looked around the battlefield. I knew he was safe down there, but I hated that he was in that miserable place. Cadence was firing at Daunator now while Christian moved in, to place the grenade, I assumed, so I thought perhaps she’d be safe for a few minutes. I decided to help Brandon.“Are you all right?” I asked, using my telepathy.“Thank goodness,” he thought, probably not even to me. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just really dark in here.”“I know. Hold on, and I’ll get you out.”“If I hold on, won’t it be harder for you to get me out?”“All right smarty pants.” I needed to focus all of my energy if I was going to do this
“You okay?” Brandon shouted to me as he moved a little closer to where I was standing. The holes in the ground were not shaking now as much as they had been before, but they were still an obstacle we had to consider. I didn’t want him to get too close because of my tornadoes, but I was glad he was nearby.“Great,” I called back, sending another pile of creatures over the side of the mountain.Aaron was fighting his way through the crowd of black creatures, working his way to Cadence. The path was getting clearer, as far as the minions were concerned, but once he got within about a hundred yards of Cadence’s location, one of the Vampires that had been engaged with our forces closer to the top of the mountain broke off, clearly on his way to intercept the Guardian Leader.Whether he liked it or not, Aaron wasn’t alone now. I wasn’t sure where she’d come from, but Eliza was running parallel to him, fighting off
Moving the black creatures off of the ledge worked well, and I was just starting my second round when I realized my sister had taken off running toward Daunator. Christian had reached him already, a grenade in his hand. I prayed he didn’t get sucked down into another hole. The fact that Cadence was so far away from Aaron was worrisome, but he was busy with the creatures. While Cadence was slowed a few times by the minions sinking their teeth into her arm or grabbing at her heels, for the most part, they seemed to be letting her through, which seemed like a bad sign to me. Did Daunator want her to fight him?A blast of light illuminated the mountain, and then a wave of smoke obscured my view of Christian and Daunator. He’d thrown a grenade, the old kind, the ones he knew wouldn’t work. When the smoke cleared, Daunator’s laughter echoed through the air, and Christian went flying twenty feet in the air.Paul’s voice came over the IAC as I tos
Christian’s eyes widened. “Get out of here? We can’t. We have to get Daunator.”“We will. But for now, we need to go back and regroup. The most important thing is that you’re safe now,” Cadence explained to him.Christian was starting to freak out again. “No, Cadence, you don’t understand. We can’t just leave from here! We can’t just let him go!” His eyes were wild, and he reached forward and grabbed my sister’s shoulders. That lasted about half a second before Aaron grabbed him and pulled him off.“Listen, Christian, I agree. It’s important we come back and end this, but you need medical attention. And a good visit with Hannah.”And a shower, I thought to myself. But I was staying out of this one for the moment. I felt a stirring in the ground and a shift in energy somewhere further up the mountain. The argument was about to be moot.“No,