Cadence and I both took in the ocean for a few more minutes. It seemed to be growing angrier. The wind had picked up, a likely explanation, but to me, it seemed to shift with the arrival of the Vampires, as if to say nothing that evil was welcome there.
Since we were asking personal questions, I tried one of my own. “What about Cale?” He was currently standing with Hannah about a hundred yards on the other side of Cadence. “Why is he really here?” He glanced over at my sister, like I’d seen him do a half a million times since he picked us up at the airport.
Swallowing a lump in her throat, Cadence admitted, “I’m pretty sure he still has feelings for me.”
“Oh.” I already knew that, but it was good to see she knew it, too. “Did he say something?”
“Yeah.” I stared at her a moment longer. “Something.”
She wasn’t going to tell me anything else. “W
In front of me, all three of my protectors went rigid for a second, and I felt a tightening in my abdomen before I heard the same popping, whooshing sound we’d heard at Stonehenge. They must’ve sensed it before it happened, having been in there and anticipating it so many times. I just sensed a shift in energy. A glance to my right told me the portal was opening near where Cadence was positioned, Elliott behind her looking like he was ready to catch a baseball. A patch of sky began to shimmer and vibrate dangerously close to the edge of the cliffs.Moira was engaged now. I threw my shield. These Vampires seemed like fresh recruits or recluses who’d never harmed a fly before. Our team was making short work of them. If need be, I’d let Heather take over so I could help with the portal, but I didn’t think that would even be necessary until Ashley asked, “What’s that?” over our IACs. I picked up her visuals and then had to
A split second later, when I thought the portal was already closed, there was another whoosh, and then Aaron was falling. He collided with Cadence, who was still up on Jamie’s and Elliott’s hands, and they both went tumbling over the side of the cliff.It took me a few seconds to realize what had happened, and I wasn’t able to keep them from falling. All of us ran to the edge to see them resurface. I was having trouble getting a grip on both of them at the same time because the water was tossing them around like corks. It pounded them into the rocks a couple of times before I managed to start pulling them out of the water.Aaron was in horrible shape, so Jamie sent a beam of light his direction before I even got them all the way up the cliffside. Of course, they were kissing, which made me gag a little. And they didn’t seem interested in coming up for air. Everyone else was cheering, but this is my sister we’re talking about ,after all. I
Back at the hotel, I camped out in Brandon and Elliott’s room. The bag of Cheetos was much appreciated since as far as I know, they don’t really sell them in those parts. Once again, my tiredness overcame me, and even with the TV on and Elliott chomping away, I passed out on the bed.By the time Brandon woke me up, the sun was going down. I’d slept virtually the whole day, which was depressing, but I felt so much better. “Do you wanna go get some Irish food?”“Uh, no,” I said, having heard that Irish taste buds are way different than mine. “But I bet we can find something American.”He laughed. “Okay.” He wasn’t moving yet, though. I realized he had something in his hand. “You should probably go ahead and read the message from Alex.”Brandon must’ve fished the phone out of my jacket pocket. I had been avoiding it. “Can’t it wait until we get home?”
My mom cried through the whole wedding ceremony. I stood next to my sister and Aurora and did all of the maid of honor things a girl is supposed to do. When my sister’s friend from high school, Taylor, messed up the words to the song she was singing, I tried not to laugh. No one else seemed to notice, probably because nobody knows the song “Broken Arrow” by Rod Stewart except my sister, me, and Rachel Hunter, Rod’s wife.The preacher pronounced Cadence and Aaron man and wife, and everyone cheered. I averted my eyes from the kissing again. When the pianist played the wedding processional, Elliott and I looped arms and followed the happy couple down the aisle. I have never seen my sister look so radiant in all of her days, and that’s saying something. Aaron looked like he just walked out of a GQ photo shoot, and Elliott had scrubbed the orange from under his fingernails.We formed a line. People came by to congratulate all of us, not that I
Life is made up of a series of choices, and every single tiny decision you make can change everything for the rest of your life. Seriously, like, even something as simple as whether or not you get up to go to the bathroom right this very second or continue to hold it for a minute or two could impact the rest of your life. Don’t believe me? Okay—let’s say you’re at a Starbucks, sipping your latte, and you really need to put your book down and go use the facilities, but you decide to wait until you get to the end of the chapter. The next thing you know, some crazy person who doesn’t know the gas from the brake comes flying through the front of the store, sending shards of glass, bits of scone, and a bucket of coffee your direction. Now, if you’d been in the bathroom, maybe your shirt wouldn’t smell like espresso. Or maybe you’d be dead because the car actually careened into the first stall before coming to a stop a few feet away from a t
That’s where I was that afternoon a few days after my sister’s wedding, on the treadmill, when an obscure news article caught my attention. I was just glancing through the headlines when I noticed it in the corner of publication that translates European newspapers into English. Since Daunator was the only major threat still out there, I had been paying attention to the part of the earth he occupied, to our knowledge, so when this article out of the Czech Republic caught my eye, I had to read it.The report was originally published in some off-beat newspaper in Prague, so it didn’t seem like the most reliable source in the world. But if what it said was true, we had a huge problem on our hands. According to the reporter, people were vanishing from the area by the dozens. In fact, it said over the last week, at least fifty people were gone from some little suburb of Prague I couldn’t have pronounced if I wanted to. That was a lot of people! Immediately,
By the time I was done going through all of the resources Christian had inadvertently taught me about over the last few months, I’d compiled a list of over a hundred people that all appeared to be missing from the same relatively small area near Prague. Something told me stepping into the larger cities would give me even more names, but I needed to keep this proportional and not get overwhelmed. There was definitely something here, and I needed to show it to the persons left in charge when my sister and brother-in-law left.I tried Aurora first because technically she should be my boss now. She is the second highest Hunter, at least in KC, so when Cadence left, she had appointed Aurora to be in charge of all of us. Technically, I’m a Hybrid, not a Hunter, but the half of me that isn’t a Vampire is Hunter, so that’s where I fall. When I tried to get her on the IAC, she was obviously busy, saying she was caught at the gym with some new recruits and she&r
“You want me to ask your temporary boss if you can come to our meeting and present some numbers about missing persons in Europe?” Elliott was through the kitchen entryway, fridge open as I shot down the hall behind him. Brandon was sitting on the couch with his phone in his hand, and it looked like maybe he and his mother were having a conversation via text. Probably about how stupid his girlfriend is.“Yeah, I want you to ask someone. It can be Hannah.”“Hannah ain’t the boss of you.” He moved a few items around inside the fridge before pulling out the milk. I was puzzled until he set it on the counter and opened one of the cabinets to produce a box of Fruity Pebbles. I knew Elliott wasn’t about to guzzle a glass of something potentially nutritious, not unless he also had a plate of chocolate chip cookies.“I know technically she isn’t, but she is in charge of the leadership team, mostly, isn’t s
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,