The sun was up way too soon, and when I opened my eyes just before my alarm went off, I wanted to turn that bright orb off and roll back over. How I longed for the days after my training was complete when I wouldn’t have to get up and go to the gym so early.
“Hey, you up?” My sister’s voice in my head was way too perky, and I ignored her for a moment as I got dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.
“Yeah,” was all she was getting. She wasn’t the one to let me know my shield had worked the night before, after all. If Jamie hadn’t told me they’d been able to help Aaron, thanks to me, I’d still be in the dark. I didn’t let thoughts of how lovely the dark could be stay in my mind too long.
“Sorry I had to blow you off last night. It worked though. Aaron’s back! Thank you for your help. It would’ve been so much harder without you.”
“It would&
For most of training, I held on to the fact that I was mad at my mother. When Tara asked me for the five hundredth time what was wrong, I finally admitted we’d had a disagreement, and she reminded me that I was lucky I have a mom. I knew what she meant; Tara’s mom died a long time ago. And since Lucy had recently lost her dad, I’d been trying not to take either one of my parents for granted. But if I couldn’t even choose what I ate for breakfast, what did I have control over?We were outside running some obstacle courses Meagan’s trainees usually utilize when a familiar voice caught my attention, and I turned my head slightly to look at Aurora. Alex was standing next to her. If I didn’t have better coordination now than I did when I was a human, I probably would’ve tripped over my own feet and landed face first in a tire, but I recovered fast enough and tried to keep my attention on the rest of the course.Dax must’ve not
I didn’t know if Tara was aware of the meeting I was going to since she wasn’t invited, so I didn’t mention it. Instead, I thought back to how nice it would be if I didn’t have to go to training anymore. To my sister, who was stepping around us, I said, “Okay, but you said you’d arrange a hunt for me so I could get out of training, remember?” I grabbed her shoulder, nicely, and she turned to look at me.“I know. I will. Soon.”I hoped that meant today. “You better.”“But then you won’t be able to stare at Alex.” Tara said his name way too loudly.“Will you stop? Brandon is going to be angry.” I let go of my sister so I could confront my friend who was seeming a little too unfriendly at the moment. She laughed, and we headed for the locker room as my sister raced down the hallway. I glanced over my shoulder, still surprised to see how fast she can move. A pang o
Deciding my mom may as well know what had been going on with Aaron, I confirmed her suspicion. “I know,” I said as the microwave dinged. I grabbed my lunch and a can of pop out of the refrigerator and headed into the living room. I decide my mom may as well know what was wrong with her future son-in-law. “Holland was messing with him.”My mom turned to look at me as I took a spot on the sofa. “She was what?”“Yeah, she was clogging up his brain with all of this... black goo.” I realized as soon as the words were out of my mouth I hadn’t even told Aaron that much. “It was weird. But he’s fine now.”“The things you kids do these days.” My mom’s utterance made it sound like Aaron had been listening to a controversial band or even eating Tide pods. “Well, I hope this is what he was looking for.”“What is it?” I asked with food in my mouth. A quick
The elevator doors opened, and Brandon waited for me to walk out toward my sister and Aaron’s office, even though that meant he had to rush to open the office door for me. “Well, good afternoon Cassidy, Brandon,” Mrs. Carminati said with a wide smile. I just love her—she’s always so nice and sweet. “How are you today?”“Great, thank you,” I said as Brandon nodded the same. “How are you?”“Good, good. Your sister is expecting you. You two can head right on in.”“Thanks,” Brandon said as he hurried to get the final door. I would be happy when I could set this mess down.There were plenty of other papers spread out on the conference room table, though, and I realized my mom and Aaron had something in common. He scooted his into a stack quickly as I brought in my mom’s. “Hey,” I said to both of them. “Mom sent this with me, but if you two don&rsqu
I ignored Brandon and honed in on the conversation that had caught my attention right before I headed over. It all unfolded in front of me. I could clearly see what happened, and a different sort of tingle shot up my arms as I realized I knew where Holland had been hiding.“All right, everyone, let’s go ahead and get started.” Aaron has a way of quieting a crowd, and since most of the people present probably had no idea he was fixed, the room went silent instantaneously.I glanced around the table, seeing who had snuck in that I had missed and realized I was standing in front of Jamie’s chair. I muttered an apology and scooted over, but he just patted me on the shoulder and sat down next to me as I slid my papers over one spot and had a seat next to Brandon. On his other side was Christian and then Aurora and Meagan. Alex was sitting on the far end across from Aaron, which meant he had inadvertently displaced Hannah, who was now sitting next to
An amused expression overcame the tech guy, and I realized Christian was about to launch into one of his stories that is neither amusing nor important. He seems to think he can dazzle us with his sense of history when all I really needed was a one word answer. If he was trying to say this was the asylum I’d seen in my dreams, then that would do. Instead, he embarked on a journey back in time that none of the rest of us wanted to accompany him on but had no choice because everyone else is too polite to interrupt, and I was trying to be nice. Jamie’s shoe told me I had to be.“Larundel was originally conceived in the late 1930s, but due to World War II, building didn’t begin until the 1940s. Even with that, it wasn’t until 1953 that it opened its doors.” I wondered if he’d just pulled up a Wikipedia page and was reading it to us—slowly, in the most ridiculously annoying voice ever conceived.I glanced around the room. Aaron
Jamie continued to explain what he thought Holland might do in order to kill off all of the Guardians. “If Hines has figured out what we know about how to turn Guardians back into humans, then he could do that, and then kill us. It wouldn’t be quick, but it is a possibility.”Those were my thoughts exactly. If we had cracked that code, and it seemed like we had, although we hadn’t done any trials yet, why not think that Hines could, too?Christian was shaking his head. “There’s no way she could figure that out so quickly. Hines can’t possibly know as much about genetics and our DNA makeup as Dr. Morrow, and it’s taken him decades to get this far.”Dr. Morrow was a Guardian from Roatan, and Christian had recently started working with him to finish off the formula. It was Christian who’d messed the whole thing up enough that Aaron almost killed himself trying to use it. If Christian was half as smart as h
Aaron paused for a moment, obviously as caught off guard as the rest of us. But he continued like he knew exactly where he meant to take the conversation next, even if he didn’t. “Cadence and I are going to go ahead and let the other areas move out and destroy those pockets Holland was organizing around the eight largest headquarters.” There was a collective sigh of relief. Everyone had been waiting for this announcement since the Roatan Guardians had arrived and been distributed to said headquarters. “We will be treating Melbourne separately, considering the stakes there, but the other eight will be left in the hands of the Area Leaders. They have all been heavily reinforced with Guardians from Roatan, and thanks to Cassidy’s surveillance and the eyes we have on the ground, mostly Independent Hunters and Guardians, we have enough information available for our teams to move in and destroy them.” I appreciated the shout out, but I didn’t real
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,