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
“Dad?” Brandon asked again, hoping Elliott would say yes and let him get the second round of Transformation serum. I saw a flicker in Elliott’s eyes once more, like he was considering it.“I don’t know, boy,” he said, defeat setting in. “Let me talk to your mom.”Instantly, Brandon’s mood brightened, and I thought about how unfair that was. His mom was supposed to be the crazy, abusive one—but she was likely to say yes to this because she had already basically turned Brandon over to his dad. My mom was the one at headquarters where she could actually see how much of an enhancement the procedure created. And she would absolutely say no.Aaron moved the conversation forward, talking about how we would attack the four bands of Vampires as soon as Jamie was done with the procedures. Once I realized they were talking about how all of that would go down, I tuned back in. Maybe there would be another opportuni
My sister’s voice cut through the stillness. Cadence asked Schmitz, “Do you know what they called this monster?”Schmitz nodded, but he didn’t answer aloud, and I wondered if maybe he sent her an IAC message with the answer, but then my sister asked, “Can you tell us?”Immediately, the nod turned into a negative, a quick shake back and forth that couldn’t be misunderstood. We were all puzzled. Aaron asked, “You can’t tell us? Why is that?”Finding his voice again, Schmitz replied, “Speaking his name is said to draw him out, and even though I am certain he cannot manifest here, I’m not willing to take the chance.”I was shocked to see him so frightened by someone who was reputedly located on another continent and realized I needed to know what this thing was so I could try to find out as much as I could about him.“Can you write it down?” Cadence asked, her voi