Brandon pushed past Elliott into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, downed it, and tossed the plastic into the recycling that also needed taken out.
“Okay. What’s going on? You’ve been bumming around here for the last couple of days. I ain’t seen our little sunshine much either. You two have a fight?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it.” He rested his head on the refrigerator, wondering if Cass would even care if he got sucked up by another portal.
“Well, I do. So what’s going on?”
Brandon turned to look at his dad whose features were much softer than his tone at the moment. The teen ran a hand down his face, wiping away sweat and angst. “We had a fight a couple of nights ago. We’ve been civil to each other since, but not like before. I thought when I got back from the portal, everything would be easy, like we’d never argue or be apart again becau
Cadence Findley stood on the balcony of her hotel room gazing out at the fading sun, dancing off the turquoise waters, as the sky turned pink and gold. The tropical breeze lifted her hair up off of her shoulders and could’ve lifted her spirits if she wasn’t so deep in thought.They’d been in Fiji for twelve days and had had a wonderful time. Most of those days had been spent on the beach, relaxing and doing nothing much at all. But they’d also gone sightseeing, hiking, zip-lining, snorkeling, all kinds of great expeditions she’d never experienced before.Now, watching the sun begin to fade beyond the horizon, an unsettled feeling began twisting in her gut, alerting her that something was wrong. She’d had the same sensation several times in the last few days but had managed to ignore it to the point that even Aaron didn’t seem to notice that something was bothering her. This time, it was more intense, and even though they only h
Eliza knew where Christian really was, too, but she wouldn’t say anything. Thanks to the information Cassidy had passed to her through him, Eliza and her team had managed to take out two of the six thugs on the list on consecutive nights this week, and that night, they planned on heading after Honey herself. Christian wished Eliza every bit of success and that she would serve as a distraction to Daunator so that he wouldn’t see Christian coming or be prepared when he showed up.The cityscape turned to forest and mountains quickly, and Christian checked his IAC to make sure he was still headed in the right direction. Finding Daunator might be the most difficult part, or the easiest. Either way, nothing about this adventure would be simple, but it needed to be done.A woman’s voice crooned at him in Czech over the radio. Rather than fiddling with the knob until something came through in English, he decided to leave it be. There was something soul stirri
Cassidy’s IAC flickered, bringing her out of her head and back to the room, which was just as well. The last thing Christian needed was for Cassidy to tip Daunator off. She actually had two messages, one from Eliza, which would’ve been weird under any other circumstances, and one from Brandon, whom she’d been avoiding the last few days. He’d asked to talk to her the day before yesterday, but she’d blown him off completely, and then yesterday, she’d gone over to Lucy’s to hang out with everyone but hadn’t really said much to him. Eventually, she’d get over their fight, but right now, she wasn’t in the mood to talk about her feelings.“I’m busy. Check in later,” she said really quickly to Brandon and then she responded to Eliza. “What’s up?”“Hey. Sorry to bother you. We’re headed into Honey’s prime territory, and I was just wondering if
Eliza’s team was parked outside of the bar Cassidy had identified, just down the street far enough that the black SUV wouldn’t draw too much attention from anyone, hopefully not the Vampire they were after, at any rate. While it would’ve been nice to have Cassidy’s ability to jump into Honey’s head and make sure she was still close by, Eliza had to take her word for it, at least until she asked the Hybrid to help out again, if she dared to do so. She couldn’t blame the teen for hating her guts, but she did seem willing to help them out, despite the history between Eliza and Cassidy’s sister, which was likely due to the fact that there wasn’t much going on in Kansas City these days, not because Eliza had proven herself to be worthy of help.“You’re sure this is the place?” Sergio asked from the driver’s seat.“I’m sure it was the place,” Eliza replied. “I have no way of knowi
“Why? Won’t that just give her more of an opportunity to slip away from us?”“She won’t slip away from us,” Eliza assured him.“But Mila didn’t say to do that,” Sergio continued.“She’s on her way out the front door,” Cassidy told Eliza.Sergio continued to justify his reasoning for getting on her immediately, so much so that he missed Honey coming out the door on the arm of a tall man who didn’t look too different from the fellow she’d picked out the night before.“That guy she’s with is still a human, for now. His name is Daven, and he’s worried that his wife will know he’s not at his friend’s house playing cards like she thinks, though not worried enough to stay put in the bar when a tall, beautiful blonde invites him down the block to her place.”“Good to know,&rdqu
Sounds on the rooftops one either side of them caught Eliza’s attention, but not enough to draw her eyes off of the Vampire. Mila called for the other two members of their team to get there in a hurry, and then more gunfire rang out, but Eliza was so caught up in ending Honey, she still didn’t pull her eyes away long enough to understand what was going on. The Vampire was pressed back on her heels, and Eliza wanted to get rid of her now.Honey began to laugh, even though Eliza’s next swipe with the dagger caught her in the chest. It wasn’t deep enough to cause too much damage, and the monster got free before the Guardian could drag the knife to her heart, but the laughter was alarming. “You won’t end me before it’s too late.”“What are you talking about?” She brought the knife around again, but this time, it was a distraction as Eliza’s leg swept out on front of her. She caught Honey’s ankles and k
Cadence shot straight up off of the hammock she’d been dosing on and nearly flipped it over. If Aaron hadn’t been awake and alert, they may have both ended up in the sand.“Cadence? Are you all right?”Despite the fact that she was lounging on the beach during the hottest part of the day, and the tropical sun was almost right above her, goosebumps covered her arms, and the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end. “I don’t think so.”“What’s the matter?” Without rolling the hammock, he managed to sit up, too, so he could look her in the eyes.“I just had the craziest dream I’ve ever had in my entire life. And that’s saying something.”“I’ll say. What happened?” He tilted his sunglasses down so she could see his eyes, and there was nothing but concern within those clear blue orbs.Cadence settled back, and Aaron did the same, keepin
Brandon shoved the last piece of pizza down his throat and tossed the box back on the coffee table. The television was on, but he may as well have been watching Telemundo; he had no idea what was going on. The nagging idea that he’d taken this all a step too far wouldn’t go away, but he fought the urge to run down to Cassidy’s apartment and apologize, swallowing his feelings topped with pepperonis and washing them down with a beer from his dad’s tiny fridge in his room he wasn’t supposed to touch. His plan was to finish it and hide the evidence before Elliott came back.That didn’t work out. The apartment door opened, and the first thing his dad asked was, “Is that mine?”Still chewing, Brandon waited to answer till most of the pizza was gone. “It was.”Elliott studied him for a moment before taking a seat next to him on the couch. “Everything okay?”“Nope, not even a little bit