Lucy was still grumbling, but she came inside. I could hear Elliott in his bedroom, which is in the back of the apartment. He’d bought a big screen TV and a new recliner a few weeks ago and put them back there. He said he hadn’t realized his house would be the place all the cool kids hung out, and he didn’t want to cramp our style. We did spend a lot of time here, and I felt a little bad that he couldn’t even sit in his own living room alone anymore. He had lived here by himself for a long time. Before he died.
“Is that my favorite blonde-haired teenager?” he called as he came down the hallway. “What’s the matter, Lucy Goosey? You not enjoyin’ our glamorous lifestyle?”
She was already giggling before he got close enough to tweak her chin. I was slightly jealous, even though I knew that was stupid. He was my Elliott—not hers. “It’s great,” Lucy said, smiling up at him. “It’s
Two weeks. That’s all it took before Lucy was packing her stuff, again. She had her phone in one hand, talking to her mom, crying, while I helped her get her clothes out of my dresser drawer and closet and back into her few measly suitcases. I could hear Annie telling her to calm down, that everything was going to be all right, and she could come back home if she wanted to. Lucy didn’t want to. But she did want to get as far away from my mother as possible.When Brandon and Dax showed up to grab her stuff and move her over to Tara’s apartment, my mom just stood in the living room by the kitchen entryway with her arms folded. I’ve never seen her look so defeated. I could see both sides, if I’m honest. The one time Lucy missed her new curfew, my mom lost it and tried to keep her from going back over to Tara’s the next day, and Lucy screamed, “You’re not my mom!” and slammed my bedroom door. My mom felt like she was supposed
I knew who was speaking to me before I even turned around because, even though Alex isn’t the only Revolutionary War soldier on campus, he’s the only one who addresses me that way. I tried to control the crimson in my face. “Thanks,” I said, not meeting his eyes. “I’ve had a lot of practice.”“Oh? Have you been battling the creatures of the night since you were quite young?” he asked, his expression showing true interest.“Actually, no. I didn’t even know about them until I was fifteen. But I’ve been on quite a few hunts. I’ll be done with my training after one more observation.” I didn’t mention that my sister had been dragging out that “one more observation” for over a month now.“Splendid!” he said with a genuine smile. “Ah, I remember when I was first released into the wild. Such a glorious feeling. Although, my first encounter with a Vampi
“Cass?”I had no idea how long my sister had been standing next to me. I hadn’t heard her walk up, and I hadn’t even noticed her until she said my name. Maybe it wasn’t the first time she’d said it either. I felt my cheeks turn red. This was the first time I realized Tara might be a little right—maybe I did have a bit of a crush on Alex. I didn’t think it was anything to worry about because I loved Brandon—I love Brandon. But I hated that she was right.My head swiveled to look at my sister, and she asked. “Can I speak to you for a moment?” Then, she turned to Alex and added, “Pardon me for interrupting.”“Ah, if it isn’t the elder Miss Findley. How are you this fine day?” Alex did his little bow, and my sister looked bewildered.“Good, thank you... kind sir,” Cadence stammered. I couldn’t help but giggle. Just because Alex spoke so formally d
With a sigh at my own ridiculousness, I continued to the shower. I saw my sister talking to Tara outside and realized I had even more time than I thought since Tara loved to chat. I thought I should let her know I would have a little freedom before homework. Maybe she would want to meet me at Brandon’s. I didn’t want to interrupt her conversation with Cadence, though, so I decided to do it later and pushed into the locker room, relieved to see that Addy and the rest of the girls were already gone.After a quick shower, I let Tara know I was going to Brandon’s. She was at the pizza place with Dax and Lucy waiting on their order and decided to make it to-go and said she’d meet us over there. I wasn’t hungry, but I knew Brandon would be—he always is—so she said she’d bring an extra pie.“Hey, I’m on my way to your place.” It was a nice spring day and it was hard to rush, even though I wanted to tak
Cadence didn’t want to seem rude to my friends, I guess, but they weren’t giving her much of a chance to talk. “Cass, Mom wants you home soon, so can I interrupt?”“Sorry,” I mumbled as Dax said something about trying to navigate a canoe with a blindfold on. “What is it?”Cadence took a seat on the armrest, Brandon between us. I scooted up a little bit so I could see her. My sister looked around to see exactly who would be privy to this information and seemed to decide she could carry on without telling anyone to get out. “You remember I told you Elliott and I encountered some sort of crocapire?”“Yeah?” I wondered where she was going with this. It wasn’t what I was expecting her to want to talk to me about.“We want you to see if you can figure out what that was all about. Can they shift into whatever they want to now, or was that just a one-time deal? Also, can you check
Cadence turned to Lucy and asked how she was doing, and Lucy told her she was doing okay. I thought Lucy had acclimated very well to her new life, especially since she’d moved in with Tara. She was also taking online classes now and was enjoying them. “Do you think it would be okay if I started watching the training sessions?” Lucy was asking. My ears perked up. I couldn’t imagine Lucy wanting to get up early to go watch people work out. It sounded odd. But then, I guess she was just excited to get on with this as soon as possible.My sister didn’t answer right away, so Lucy continued. “I know I can’t participate yet, but if I could watch that would be cool.”It did not sound cool to me, but I would be happy to have Lucy there, so I said nothing. Cadence slowly nodded. “Yeah, sure. I’ll ask Aurora.”“Thanks,” Lucy said, looking relieved. I wondered if she’d been thinking about as
Knowing that Brandon was standing on the other side of the door waiting for me was always a comfort, but as soon as I settled into my trance, I had the feeling this was going to be different, more intense.The stars reached out to me like they always did as I felt myself fade away. It seemed like I should save the most hazardous task for last, so I pushed Holland off and honed in on the situation in Houston. All of the Vampires that had been present during the hunt were dead now, obviously, but I hoped I could get some sort of a read on what had taken place from other Vampires in the area. The chatter was mostly about how violated the Compliant Vampires were feeling, that they didn’t understand why they were being targeted when they hadn’t done anything wrong, and I had to agree with them to an extent. But some who were claiming innocence held secrets in their minds, ones no one had been able to access until I walked in. So when my sister and Aaron had declared to
Going into Holland’s mind is always a risk because she can get information from me as quickly as I can get it from her. So I had to be fast, and I had to be quiet. I had a feeling she was still in Melbourne. We still hadn’t been able to determine exactly where her headquarters was, and she’d done everything she could to mask that information from me, as well as keep all thoughts of anyone who knew the location, other than Hines, out of her thoughts so I couldn’t determine who to pinpoint. I wish I knew how to zero in on people I hadn’t met or didn’t know, but my skills didn’t work that way, or if they did, I hadn’t figure out how to make them that precise.Something was different this time. I could tell immediately, the second I slid into her nefarious mind. While that sense of overwhelming despair she still harbored for Carter was obvious, there was an undertone. What I had perceived as nausea before hit me in a wave, and I tuc
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,