Dax was back pretty quickly, and we sat in silence, watching Tara sleep with only a few words between us. It was around 1:30 when Jamie was awake enough to check on Tara himself. I watched him carefully, even though I realized he’d been doing this since before the turn of the last century. Still, I didn’t want him collapsing on my watch. He said she was healing nicely, but it wasn’t clear yet whether or not we’d acted in time, and I nodded, though it didn’t really make all that much sense to me. I didn’t quite understand how she could hold on for this long, be healed, and still potentially expire.
Jamie went back to sleep, and I started to nod off. “Hey, Cass?” Dax said, shaking me lightly. “Why don’t you go back to your apartment for an hour or two and rest? I’m really not tired, but you’re not going to be any good to anyone if you’re exhausted.”
I wanted to argue with him, but I reali
“Wow. That must’ve been crazy, seeing your first Vampire in the forest like that,” I said, to Dax, shaking my head. “But the girl you came across in the woods was okay?” I thought I’d heard that from my sister or Elliott or someone.“Yeah, she was okay, but her dad wasn’t so lucky. Her name is Delilah. She was just shaking the whole time she was in my truck. I took her to the police before we went out to look for her dad. He… looked a lot like the folks we ran into tonight.”I understood what he meant. Throat ripped out. “How terrible. What did the police think?”“They thought it must be a wild animal of some sort. I told them what I’d seen, and they decided it had to be unrelated, that Delilah was attacked by a criminal of some sort while her dad was being killed by a bear or whatever. I knew what I’d seen, though, and my grandma helped me get ahold of Daniel.”
“Gee, Cass, I’m so sorry to hear that Tara is doing so poorly,” Emma said, and I could tell she really must’ve meant it because Emma O’Sullivan doesn’t say she’s sorry for you if she doesn’t really mean it.“And Brandon’s AWOL?” Lucy asked.“Yeah, he came by a few hours ago, but I was taking a short nap.”“Do you think he thinks there’s something going on between you and Dax?” she asked.“I think he does.”“Is there?” Emma asked, and I wished I could see her so I could give her the snake eye.“No! We are just friends.”“Just checking,” she said, and I could hear her shrugging.I heard the front door down the hall open and couldn’t help but smile when I saw it was Elliott. “Girls, I’ve gotta go in a second. Elliott just walked in.”“Oh, put him on!&rd
Around 3:00, Dax’s stomach started to growl. “Do you know if there’s a vending machine or anything around here?”“I don’t know,” I said, thinking I hadn’t noticed one on the tour of this building I’d done at the beginning of my training. “You could go ask Christian.”“Is he the tech guy?” Dax asked, making a face. “I think I’ll just look around.” I snickered and watched him walk to the door. He stopped short of the exit and asked, “Do you want anything?”“No thanks,” I answered quickly. “I’m not hungry.” I’d had my fill of doughnuts and sandwiches for a while, I thought.“Drink?”“Uh, yeah. A Dr.. Pepper would be great if you see one.”He smiled and gave me a little nod before disappearing down the hall.Once he was gone, I was sort of glad to have the room to myself fo
I was out of my chair and leaping completely over Dax before he even knew what was happening. “Brandon!” I shouted, wondering how he had just happened to pick the one second out of the last fifteen hours that looked even marginally like I was interested in Dax as more than just a friend.In the hallway, Brandon was trudging to the front door, his footsteps quick and even, but he wasn’t running. “Brandon, wait!” I shouted as I sprinted toward him. I was within a few feet of him when he reached the door. But he didn’t go out. Instead, he rested his hand on the handle and dropped his head so that he was staring at his Converse. He took a deep breath, and I braced myself, waiting to see if he would believe my explanation. There was nothing between Dax and I except for some camaraderie around a horrible experience. Staring at the back of my boyfriend’s head, I had no doubt in my mind who I wanted to be with.His voice was quaking a
I could see my explanation as to why I was so upset at him was making sense to Brandon. He took it all in and processed for a few seconds before he reached up and caressed my cheek with his thumb. “I’m sorry, Cass. I had no idea you felt that way. If I had….”“No, it’s okay,” I interrupted, taking his other hand in mine so I had both of them. His green eyes were glistening slightly, as if his emotions were starting to get the better of him, too. I didn’t want him to feel that way. “It isn’t your fault. I realize now, obviously, that all of them needed to be destroyed.” I thought about Bonnie and how she had been so small and frail and then turned into a savage that ripped out my friends’ throats. I was sure he could see the guilt on my face; there was no reason to explain to him now how I was feeling about her. “I just needed to remember that, as much as they can suck me in and make me feel like I&
The sound of the heart monitor buzzing in one even pitch was haunting as I flew into the operating room and over to where Tara lay perfectly still on the bed. Even with the volume almost completely down, it filled my head from the inside. I pressed my ear to her chest, willing there to be some sort of sign that she either wasn’t dead or that this wouldn’t last, but I heard nothing but my own static breath.Brandon entered the room, followed by Christian, and I vaguely remembered having heard Brandon knock on his office door while I was rushing back to Tara’s side. I prayed Christian would be able to do something, anything to help, but he wasn’t a doctor, and Jamie was out of it. Maybe Cale was available. Maybe I should call him. I moved out of Christian’s way and let him do his own examination.After he turned the volume completely down on the heart rate monitor, he pushed me further aside, pressed his head to Tara’s chest, felt for
Cadence handed me a plastic bag full of snacks and said, “Thought you might be hungry.”I noticed she was looking at Brandon like she thought he might eat all of the chips and other snacks she’d thrown together, and he said, “Don’t worry. I had a large pizza for lunch.” My eyebrows shot up, though I’m not sure why it was a surprise to me. I’ve seen the boy eat. “I’m a stress eater,” he added, and I chuckled. He’s an any time eater.“Dax, how are you doing?” Cadence asked, and I was happy she’d remembered his name, though I guessed she could’ve cheated and used her IAC. My sister is so bad at remembering names, how people are related, where people are from, all those little details that I always know. I think it drives her a little crazy that she’s so awful at it, but there’s a lot on her mind.Dax sighed and somehow produced a smile. “I’m okay.
Cale was still looking from one of us to the next, trying to figure out what was happening. He finally returned his attention to Cadence. “What did you do?”She folded her arms and let out a deep breath. “Transformation serum.”His blue eyes widened. “Cadence!”“Hey, I didn’t do it on my own this time,” she reasoned. “It was a team effort.”He didn’t seem to care. “Yeah, and I’m sure the one person who was not chosen to play by the team captain was the guy who can fire me or send me to Siberia.”“If it’s any consolation, I hear it’s lovely this time of year,” Elliott joked.Cale wasn’t amused. Neither was Cadence. She looked at Elliott hard but then returned her attention to the doctor. “You aren’t doing anything. You’re just here to… keep an eye on her while Jamie’s out. That’s all.&rdq
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,