Tara looked absolutely normal, sitting on the sofa in her apartment next to Dax, sipping a bottle of water, chatting away. It was nearly impossible to believe only a few hours ago she had been dead, but I was so happy to see her, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, even when my eyelids were so heavy I almost fell asleep sitting upright.
“So Australia, huh?” she asked smiling. “That’s so cool.”
“Yeah. I’m looking forward to the plane ride. So I can sleep,” I joked. I hadn’t told her much about the trip because she didn’t know about the portal. But she knew we were leaving in just a few minutes, and I could tell she was a little jealous that she couldn’t go with us. I didn’t blame her. I would’ve been too.
“I went there once about five years ago,” Dax said. He was sitting fairly close to Tara, and I wondered if their friendship might develop into something else.
Bandon and I headed out of the apartment and rode the elevator to the lobby, Brandon carrying my bag for me. I always thought it was weird that we didn’t all meet here and ride to the airport together rather than taking separate vehicles or getting one of the humans to take us, but I figured Aaron had a reason for his madness. When we headed back over to our apartment building to arrange a ride, we saw Jamie and Elliott loading up and hopped in with them. I was glad Jamie was driving because Elliott’s just a little too dangerous for my taste, even though I know a car crash can’t kill me.By the time we got to the airport and pulled in near the private jet we’d be taking, my eyes were so heavy, I thought I would fall asleep before I could get aboard. “You okay, Cass?” Brandon asked me. I managed a nod, but I was glad he had his arm around me as we headed up the steps to the plane. I had never been this tired in my whole life.Once we
“He messaged me, too, like a hundred million times,” Brandon said, and I knew he was talking about Christian. “I told him you were sleeping, and he could wait, but he is relentless.”“Sorry about that,” I said between bites.“No, not your fault. Just….” He shook his head, and I agreed he probably shouldn’t finish that sentence.I also had IAC messages from Tara and Dax, who had gotten his IAC implanted while I was out, so I checked in with them while I finished eating. It was cool to see Tara in the gym. She was with Aurora, Ashley, and Meagan, and they were preparing for a possible attack, one I was sure wasn’t coming. But she was so fast and so strong. I was a little jealous. However, I was also glad because I was pretty sure that meant she’d get to stay on our team, which meant I could pursue my friendship with her without worrying she’d be gone soon. I couldn’t imagine Aaron
The Guardian stood up as soon we entered the room and came around the table to greet us. The hug Margie gave her brother was a little awkward, like she wasn’t sure she wanted to touch him, and I remembered Jamie had told me that they didn’t get along very well.“Cadence, this is my sister, Margie,” Jamie said as she stepped forward, taking Margie’s outstretched hand.“Pleased to meet you,” Margie said, and I could tell by Cadence’s reaction Margie had quite a grip. I braced myself, hoping she’d be a little more gentle on me.“You as well,” Cadence managed, shaking out her hand once Margie had let go.Margie greeted Aaron and Elliott, whom she’d obviously met before, and then it was my turn. I thought the tips of my fingers might explode, she squeezed my hand so tight. I didn’t even have time to look at Brandon’s face to see if he was in as much pain as I was since I was tr
We took three SUVs to the location. Elliott drove ours, and I sat in the way-back holding Brandon’s hand and trying to keep myself calm. Melbourne didn’t look anything like I thought it would. The dream I’d had gave me the impression it would be desert-like, but it wasn’t. The city was huge, and we drove through the heart of it. There wasn’t much traffic this time of night, and Elliott was going well over a hundred miles an hour, but I could see the bright lights and tall buildings and thought maybe I’d come back here someday when there would be time to take it all in.Eventually, we got off the freeway and started winding our way through a not-so-lovely part of town. Here, the buildings were rundown. There was trash everywhere, and while we only saw a few people, they may have been homeless. The cars we saw looked like they might give out at any moment. I had a feeling we were getting closer to the location.I could tell Elliott was
“Get her out of here! Get her out of here now!” Cadence was shouting. She pulled me up and started shoving me toward the fire escape, pushing Brandon and Jamie, who just happened to be between me and the ladder, as she went.She didn’t understand. That wouldn’t work. “He’s down the street,” I said. I realized now that Holland had filled the entire area with an eerie fog. I assumed that was her way of setting the stage and obstructing our view. I couldn’t feel her, though. I was fairly certain she wasn’t anywhere near our location. “He’s headed this way, and he’s not alone,” I said to my sister. The advanced members of Carter’s forces were coming up the road quickly now. “We won’t make it to the SUV in time, Cadence.” I stopped and looked at her. She was more frantic than I ever remembered seeing her. “He’s not after you. Not yet. He’s after me.”
Time was up. A barrage of bullets lit up the street below us, and I knew Margie’s team had come into contact with those advanced forces. “Be careful!” Cadence said, pulling me over to her. She kissed the top of my head and then squeezed Brandon’s arm before nodding at Jamie in a show of confidence.Aaron followed her the last few steps to the fire escape. “Becky wanted to send backup from HQ, but I told her not to. We don’t know for sure where Holland is, and she could be planning an attack there. Remember, Cadence, this was a rescue mission, not the attack. Our objective is to get everyone out alive.”“Right,” my sister said, but I knew she wasn’t thinking about that. she wanted to get Carter again. I couldn’t blame her. I would’ve been thinking the same thing. “I love you,” she said just as a scream filled the night sky. I felt with my mind and saw that it was Steph, and she was hurt
Brandon and Jamie were engaged with Vampires as well, so I was on my own with this dark-haired, vicious woman. Her large claws came at my head, and I stepped out of the way just in time, bringing my knee up to the pit of her stomach. She winced and toppled to the ground, but she was up in a matter of seconds, and as I hit her with a roundhouse kick in the chest, I realized my sister was asking me how many Vampires they had left. It was hard to concentrate on that and beating the witch at the same time, but I managed to tell her she was down to three plus Carter just before witchy came at me again. This time, she scratched the crap out of my cheek before I punched her in the face and sent her flying back again.She wasn’t a big woman at all, and I really thought if I could get her pinned, I could twist her head off. I heard a scream from Aaron’s side of the roof and was glad he had been successful. Brandon was double-teamed by two odd-looking twins in bowler hats a
When I’d finished explaining to Aaron that Holland was coming for me, he sounded as calm as ever, which didn’t surprise me. He is the Leader for a reason, after all. “It’s okay, Cass. Can we make it to the SUV?” Aaron asked.“Go get it, bring it here,” I told him. I didn’t have to say it twice. He was gone in a flash, and I wondered when he’d gotten the keys from Elliott or if they just happened to be in it. Maybe he had some sort of superpowers that made him capable of starting cars without the keys.By the time the rest of us made it down the fire escape, Aaron was pulling the SUV to a stop in front of us. He jumped out, and I knew then he wouldn’t be going with us. He tossed the keys to Brandon, and Jamie hesitated, like he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. “Go help Paul,” Aaron insisted.The sound of fighting down the street was louder here, and it caught Jamie’s attent
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,