I’ve always wanted to visit Rome. I thought of Brandon and I taking in the ancient sights together, maybe jetting over to Venice, spending the night in Paris.... Okay, different country, but much closer to Rome than Shenandoah, Iowa. Never would I have imagined I’d be visiting only to retrieve my boyfriend after a portal sucked him up in West Virginia and spit him out on another continent.
We rode to the Roman team’s headquarters in one of their SUVs, and it was a tight fit, even though Cale volunteered to stay at the airport with Dr. Stewart. It was basically silent, except for Ashley sniffling every once in a while. I tried to focus my attention out the window. I was still angry at her. And Tara was driving me crazy with all of her giggles. She was actually not riding next to me, which would’ve been strange if I hadn’t purposely waited until she picked a row and then got in another one.
The view out the window was amazing, even if I was
“I’ll see if I can remedy that and get you a better Healer,” Cadence offered. When the elevator door opened, it was evident we were not all going to fit inside. I looked around for a stairwell but didn’t see one. “For now, why don’t Cass, Amanda, Tara, and I go up, and the rest of you can head that way in a few minutes?”That made the most sense to me. I followed Cadence into the elevator. It was still a tight squeeze with all of us in there, and Lex. He smelled so good, I wanted to ask him what kind of cologne he was wearing so that I could get some for Brandon, but that seemed really weird. I’d just check his mind later.Lex pressed the button for the fifth floor. I wondered why these elevators hadn’t been modified to work with IACs, but then this building was so old, it was a wonder it even had elevators.“Brandon is doing well. Maybe he could have healed himself without it, perhaps. But I thought it
Cadence left, along with all of the others who had come up with us, and those who came up in the second trip, except for Tara and Amanda. Dax came over to me, and I let go of Brandon’s hand momentarily to give him a hug. “How are you?”“So much better now that I’m here,” he said. “That was the worst experience of my life.”I didn’t want to ask him to compare watching Tara almost die from Bonnie’s attack, so I didn’t mention it. “It’s so great to see you again.”“Thanks. Tara and I are going to go down the hall for a few minutes. There’s a little lounge over there. We just wanna talk in private.”“Oh, okay. See you soon.” I knew they could talk in private right here through their IACs, but I couldn’t blame him for wanting to spend some alone time with his girlfriend. I wanted Brandon to myself, too, but his mother was sitting right here.
“I’ll go turn on the shower for you,” Amanda offered to Brandon and stepped into the adjoining bathroom.“I hate to ask you ladies to leave, but this gown isn’t closed in the back so....”Brandon didn’t need to say more. Heather shot out the door like a firecracker. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and followed her, closing the door behind me. I was glad his mom was there to help him get up and make sure he could walk okay. She’d worked in a nursing home, after all, so she should be good at that sort of thing.“So... yer sister? She nice? I mean, she seemed kinda nice but also a little wound up. Pro’ly ‘cause her fiancé’s gone, ya think?”“She’s nice. She’s great. You’ll like her.”“That’s good. Them other fellers is nice. I like Jamie. Elliott’s a little bit of a... knucklehead. But he ain’t bad. I ain
I sat with Brandon on the plane ride to England. His mom was nice enough to give us some space. I know they’ve never been close, though she’s working on that now that she’s sober and back in school. But she sat next to Hannah, and they were chatting like good friends, which was cool. I had a feeling Elliott would appreciate his teammates welcoming Amanda. I glanced at Aurora and felt sorry for her. She looked pathetic, like she didn’t know if she was allowed to be sad about him being gone or not.Cadence had gotten a text from Aaron while she was in with Lex and Gia. She’d let us all know then that Aaron had a plan on his side as well, and we just needed to carry through with what we had talked about. She didn’t go into detail about what it was, and I wondered why that might be. So I asked Brandon.“What do you think Aaron’s plan is?”He swallowed hard and wadded up an empty bag of chips. He hadn’t stop
“I don’t know why Dr. Stewart wouldn’t want to go into the portal.” So even Christian can be sarcastic. “I’m sure he’ll figure out a way to free himself before the demons come for his soul.” He laughed like a villain in a really bad B movie.Stewart was restrained with the special kind of handcuffs Vampires can’t break. He also wore shackles and a whole mess of duct tape. He was trying to break free but was getting nowhere. “Why don’t you just let me float him in?” I looked at Christian when I said it, like maybe I meant him. Maybe I did.“I would,” my sister said, “but I’m probably going to need a shield from you. Holland’s going to give this everything she’s got. And I don’t want any shifting or super strong Vampires if we can help it.”“Heather can do it.”Cadence looked past me to our new friend, who was between Brandon a
A loud explosion almost brought me out of my trance, but then I remembered Christian’s grenades and figured that must’ve been what I’d heard. Hopefully, he didn’t just blow up Stonehenge. We’d probably be in a lot of trouble if we wrecked this place. I didn’t want to find out.The next sound I heard that didn’t fit with the battle was a popping, fizzing sound, and then a whoosh of air. I already knew what it was before Brandon said, “It’s opening.”I wished I could open my eyes to see what was going on, but I hadn’t figured out how to do that and keep the energy flowing yet. When I heard a snarl, I decided I’d have to see what was happening. If that demon baby was headed our way, I wanted to know.I cracked open one eye just in time to see the thing launching itself at my sister. “Cadence—be careful!”It was too late. The creature had its claws in my sister’s n
As red as her hair and gown had been before, her scales gleamed in the fire shooting out of her nostrils. She had wings and a pointy tail and everything. Though she wasn’t stories tall like Maleficent, she was at least three times as tall as Elliott.All three of them pulled up, regrouping. But my sister only hesitated for a second before she took off again, running right for the monster. Holland was still trying to get her bearings in her new body, so Cadence dodged around behind her, and Elliott and Margie opened fire on the dragon, which didn’t do much good, except to make her mad.The dragon’s fireballs were bigger than the Vampire’s had been. She started a few grass fires when she missed Elliott and Margie. Others stepped in and opened fire when they moved aside, so she was under a constant barrage of fire as my sister ran right between her legs and the next thing I knew, she was sitting on Holland’s back, her knife drawn.Holl
By the time we landed at Shannon International Airport and drove to Lahinch, in County Clare, the sun was coming up, and we were getting close to the time the portal should open again. On the ride over, my sister confirmed our Irish team, led by none other than a tall red-head named Moira who could’ve been Merida’s direct descendant if the Disney princess were a real person, was in position, and so far there’d been no Vampire sightings.We were all pretty quiet. The nap on the plane had done me good, but I needed to focus. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to go as planned. I seriously doubted we’d show up, Moria’s team would hold off the bad guys, and Christian and Aaron would come strolling out of the portal like they’d just returned from a weekend getaway to the Poconos. No, something was bound to go wrong. I just hoped we were resilient enough to fix it on the spot because I was tired of thinking about portals.Ireland is b