A few moments later, he stopped laughing enough to say, “Thank you for filling me in, Cass. It sounds like I’m missing out on a lot of information still, but at least I know what you’ve been up to. It must’ve been stressful for you, trying to keep Christian’s secret when you knew it would be better for both of you if you got him some help. I can imagine that must’ve been very distracting.”
He seemed to think my confession was over, and if I was smart, I would’ve left it at that. But as long as I was baring my soul, I may as well press on and clear the air of everything. I didn’t want for us to get back together with any secrets between us. “It was difficult, Brandon, but if I’m going to be completely honest with you, I have to say, that wasn’t the only problem.”
The color slowly drained from his face. “There’s more?”
I wasn’t sure how to explain the rest of what
I spent the rest of the afternoon into the evening at Brandon’s apartment, sitting on his couch, talking and watching movies we’d already seen a million times before. That way, whenever I got interrupted to work on something, he didn’t have to pause the movie. He’s always been understanding about me having to mentally step away for a minute, but I felt like he was even more so with everything I had going on.After the leadership team met, Elliott came in and said, “Well, we’re headed to Hungary.”We’d been watching Office Space, and Brandon did pause it for that. “Me, too?” he asked, hopeful.“Not sure yet. I’m guessing Aaron will let you know.”That sounded like a cop out to me, like Elliott didn’t want to tell Brandon he couldn’t go. He walked down the hall a few steps before he came back into the living room. I’d hoped he’d have more news, but
“Jamie is hoping Eliza or someone will take one of the creatures captive tonight so he can do some experiments on them when we get over there. I’m not sure what we can do, but we’ll try our best.” Cadence sounded hopeful despite the odds.“All right. Heather coming, too?”“We’ll need her. She can float things and throw shields.”“Right. We’re leaving at 8:00, so Brandon and I need to be at the airport at 7:30?”She was quiet for a second, and I could see her rolling her eyes in my head even though I couldn’t actually see her at all. “Cass....”“I need him there, sis. I don’t work as well without him as I do when he’s there. We just got back together. If you want me at my levitating best, I need my most trusted Guardian.”“Cassidy, it’s only necessary personnel.
I grabbed Brandon’s arm and tugged him back toward the living room. “Come on.” No one wanted Brandon’s parents talking more than he did, so I figured it was in his best interest not to interrupt. It was amazing how much Amanda had changed in the last few months since she’d cleaned herself up.We went back to the living room, and Mila sent me a message asking if I knew where Sylvester was. I’d need to get back to work. There were so many things I wanted to discuss with Brandon about what Skelton had told my sister, but they’d have to wait. “Mila’s on,” I said to him as he settled back against the cushions.“All right. I’m going to puzzle through that portal part of the discussion while you’re talking to her.”“Good.” I smiled at him and turned my attention to Mila. “Hey, I’ve got a location for you.” I dropped her the address I’d been a
As soon as I finished speaking, Sylvester’s head turned so that his eyes were trained on Eliza, who was standing in front of him, though in the shadows. His fangs bared, he started to move in her direction, and Eliza opened fire.Another of her team members, one I didn’t know, leapt off of a rooftop behind the Vampire, a knife in his hand, and started stabbing Sylvester, knocking them both to the ground. I covered my mouth, shocked at how savage it looked, even though the Vampire wasn’t going down easily. Brandon asked me if I was okay, and I nodded, but I couldn’t tell him what was going on at the moment. Lukas had taken off toward the warehouse, and Eliza was chasing him.The view was bouncy as Eliza sprinted after the newbie, leaping over pallets full of miscellaneous items that hadn’t exactly been moved into the warehouse neatly. Her boot caught on a box, almost tripping her, and a million screws clanked across the concrete floor. Luka
While Eliza looked around, I tried to get a perspective from Mila’s viewpoint. She was pinned down. Some of the teammates had managed to get over the fence, and even though the creatures were out front of the building, they were far enough way that the gunfire was holding them off. Mila was stuck, being dragged down into a black sea. Eliza would be in the same situation soon if she didn’t move.Before I could make a suggestion, Eliza leapt up the wall to the rooftop, running to the far side of the building where Mila was trapped. Eliza opened fire, shooting at the creatures around the perimeter of Mila’s location first, trying to give her a chance to fight off the ones that had their teeth and claws sunk into her.The creatures didn’t seem to like the bullets coming from above them. While several dropped to the ground, dead or wounded, more rushed up the sides of the building. From her teammates out front, I could see they were coming from that
The flight to Budapest had been a long one. I’d tried to sleep as much as I could, but Aurora and Elliott were arguing more than usual. Apparently, she’d thought it would be funny to have all of the Cheetos Elliott had requested taken off of the plane before we left the airport. He didn’t think it was humorous at all, and they spent a couple of hours screaming at each other, airing all their dirty laundry for all of us to hear. Even when Aaron stepped in like he was their dad, it took forever for them to settle down. By the time we got to Budapest, I was exhausted.But the meeting we had with Mila and the rest of the elite team members the leaders had invited in was invigorating, so by the time we started to climb the mountain where Christian, and Daunator, awaited us, I was wide awake. It helped that Jamie had had enough time to examine the creature Eliza and Sergio had captured and the Healer thought he had an antidote that could save some of the people in
It took a few more minutes for the last of the team to get into position. Some of them had to go around to the other side of the mountain first, and not all of them have had the second dose of serum, so they’re not all as fast as those of us who have. Christian was singing again, something about soldiers, and I took some deep breaths, knowing I’d have to work fast.The potential was there for this to be the biggest battle we’d ever faced, yet, our team was relatively small. I understood why; it was hard to organize people with such short notice, and we couldn’t use all of the Hunters. The idea that this could be it, that this might be the apocalyptic battle I’d been imagining for almost two years was surreal. If we defeated Daunator, the Vampires would have no one left even remotely as strong. If we didn’t defeat him, the world would be a different place when people woke up the next morning.It was a lot of responsibility....
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,