Finding out information about Daunator was still tricky. I’d tried jumping back into his head, and though the black cave wasn’t as dark, it was obvious I hadn’t begun to scratch the surface of his power, which was disappointing. He wasn’t our biggest concern right now, however, since he wasn’t a threat, so I didn’t spend too much time trying to break down any barriers.
Instead, I jumped right over to Holland and got the surprise of my life. And that’s saying something considering I was hovering a few inches above my bed as I did my investigation. Her baby wasn’t a baby at all—not in any sense I’d ever imagined. It was blood red, with no hair, and looked to be the size of a large two-year-old. Its mouth was full of razor sharp teeth, and all it did was screech, eat, and tear things up. I couldn’t blame the other Vampires for locking it in a cage while Holland was still out, and when she’d tried to take it
Speaking of seriousness, I was reminded of Hines’s other idea. “By the way, Hines thinks he’s come up with something else, some sort of passage he can use somehow to transport Guardians. He didn’t explain it to her, so I’m not sure what he’s talking about, but he said it won’t work until late summer, and walking around in his head is kind of like sorting spaghetti noodles. It’s slippery, and it doesn’t ever lead where you think it should.”Cadence raised an eyebrow at me, like she was imagining me with said pasta. “Well, we can worry about that later.” I agreed, but I felt like I needed to tell her now before it slipped my mind. “Can you relay everything you just told me to Aaron? I’m going to go check on Jamie, and then I’ll hunt Aaron down and see what we need to do.”I remembered that Jamie was having his procedure after mine and thought I should’ve checked on him b
While I worked on the dishes, I dropped in on Jamie. “How was your procedure?”“Great! You will not believe what I can do now. It’s not as cool as what you can do, but it does involve blue lights shooting out of my hands, so there’s that.”I couldn’t remember ever hearing him so giddy in my life and was relieved he didn’t seem angry at me anymore. “Cool! Let me see,” I said, floating a pan into the dishwasher.He gave me visuals, and I saw a streak of blue light come out of one hand, form a ball in the air, and land in the other palm before disintegrating. “That should come in handy. I can shoot it across the room. And I think my battery is endless now.”“Amazing!” I said. I couldn’t imagine a Jamie who didn’t fall asleep as soon as he healed someone. A knock on his office door took his attention away from me, and wh
My mom was shaking her head when I came into the living room to see what it was they wanted to talk to me about, and I could see tears in her eyes. “This is all just a game to you, isn’t it?” she asked.“Paul has five Guardians trapped in cells beneath the floor of an insane asylum, and a mad scientist is trying to turn them back into humans so he can destroy them. My job is to interfere with Holland so she can’t send any messages to the Vampires she’s left behind in Melbourne, so no, that’s not a game. That’s five people who might die if I don’t do my job.” I knew Margie wasn’t even there yet, I had a feeling she was a few hours out, but my parents didn’t know that.“Fine,” my mom said. “We’ll make it quick. You’re grounded. For a month. You don’t see Brandon outside of work, or your other friends, not even Lucy. Do you understand?”Sarcastic me wan
Margie Joplin is the sort of beast I aspire to be one day. Sure, my sister’s fierce, but seeing that tiny woman with the blue hair rip through Vampires like they were unsuspecting customers standing in line for a corny dog at the state fair gets me excited every time. Now that she has X-ray vision and can move faster than lightning, it was even more stellar. The second Paul led his team into Larundel with Margie right behind him, I had no doubt they were going to get the Guardians out okay.It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, though. I figured out whose head I needed to be in too late to do anything with that information. Apparently, Holland’s next in command after Hines is a guy named Bossley. By the time Paul and Margie located the basement cells, he and some other Vampire nurse chick had already administered both shots to the five Guardians. Thanks to Jamie and Sicilia’s help over the IAC, it looked like they were all going to be okay, thoug
“Cass, what’s up with your sister’s IAC?” Elliott asked. He must’ve had the same idea as I did. “I can see Aaron, but not her.”“I’m not sure,” I admitted. I took a deep breath and sent out a signal to try to shield Cadence from Holland, but there was definitely something odd going on. “I’m trying to block Holland and get Cadence back on, but I feel like she’s focusing everything she’s got on disrupting Cadence right now.” It didn’t make any sense. Maybe if I was closer to Cadence, I’d be able to do something. I should be stronger than Holland. Or maybe I just couldn’t focus. Either way, my concern was growing.I decided to pay attention to what was in front of me now and worry about my sister if Aaron said I needed to. We made our way through the entrance, and Elliott stopped in front of a small ticket booth that looked like maybe it was part of guest relations
I scanned my IAC quickly to try to find anyone who could come and help her, but there was no one. It was obvious Meagan was starting to lose it. She darted away from Elliott’s limp body and tried to find a place to hide. I hated that Sam had that effect on her, that she was so terrified she was beginning to shake.“We’ve gotta go help her,” I said, taking a few steps toward Brandon.“I’m not supposed to let you out of here. Just give him a minute.”Through my IAC, I tried to contact Elliott but got nothing. I tried something else—my telepathy. “He’s going to get Meagan if you don’t get up off of the floor! Go! Go get Sam!” I was shocked when Elliott’s voice sounded in my head. “Where... is... Jamie?” He was clearly still out of it, but at least he could communicate—sort of.I answered, “Across the park, over by the rollercoas
Elliott was still lying where he’d fallen, which was actually a good thing. If the Vampires intended to take him away somewhere to conduct experiments on him, they hadn’t tried to move him yet. I bent down next to him, seeing the spent syringe now. I was certain we were alone and used both my IAC and telepathy to shout at him. “Elliott! Wake up!”I must’ve shouted it a dozen times as I shook him. He was out of it, that was for sure. So, I decided there was only one thing I could do to get him where he needed to be. I put myself back on the floor and lifted him up off of it, rotating him so that he appeared to be standing.He cracked one eye and looked at me, confused. “I thought I told you to stay put.”“I’m not known for listening or following directions,” I replied with a shrug. He was in no position to argue with me. Across the building, I heard a gunshot. We were running out of tim
Jamie had a question mark hanging over his head, but he didn’t argue. We could all see through Elliott’s IAC that Sam was cornered. He was in a room full of distressed mirrors, the kind that make you look like something else. I thought it was ironic in an Alanis Morissette sort of way. Sam didn’t look like himself at all—and he would die the same sort of creature he’d spent centuries destroying.“Whatcha gonna do with me?” Sam was shouting at Elliott just before the mirror behind him exploded into a thousand shards of glass. He ducked and covered his face, but it was too late. Elliott had his Glock pointed right at the old man’s head.“I don’t know,” Elliott replied. He was aware that Meagan was on her way, I could tell by the way his eyes were shifting toward the hallway, like he was waiting for her. But he continued to taunt Sam. “Maybe I’ll keep you in a cage in my apartment where I can to