Almost instantly, Amanda picked up. “Brandon Michael, where the hell are you?” she asked, her speech slurred. “I’ve been texting you all damn day.”
“Ms. Keen, this isn’t Brandon,” Aaron said, keeping his voice completely calm, despite her obvious agitated, and extremely inebriated, state. “This is Aaron McReynolds. I was a friend of Elliott’s.”
Cassidy FaceTimed her friends, and it only took a few seconds for Lucy to answer, Emma sitting behind her on the bed in Lucy’s bedroom. “Oh my gosh, Cassidy. I thought you’d died.”“Uhm, it’s been, like, forty minutes,” Cassidy replied, just slightly offended at her word choice, considering the recent events. “What is it?”“So, Chri
Detective Abby Watson had been sitting in the lounge outside of the Intensive Care Unit for hours. Though there were two armed police officers at a time working shifts directly in front of Gibbon’s door, she was not about to leave until she had a chance to talk to him. Since his surgery earlier in the day, he still hadn’t come to, and so she continued to wait, a plethora of coffee and frequent trips to the bathroom her new weekend routine.She hadn’t slept in longer than she could remember. Not that she ever rested when she did sleep. Still, sitting in the uncomfortable chairs in the w
Giovani and Zabrina had gone straight from the airport to the appointed meeting place near the Hospital of the University of Philadelphia, where Gibbon was being treated. Standing atop a parking garage, they had a clear view of the building, and though there were a few cars coming and going nearby, for the most part, this area of Philly seemed to have gone to bed for the evening. The lights in the surrounding office buildings showed no one at work, and the apartment buildings in the distance were mostly dark, with shades drawn, the people inside snoozing, completely unaware of the monsters playing on the rooftops only blocks away.
Brandon had only been under anesthesia one other time in his life, when he was eight and he’d had his tonsils out. Waking up from the medicine Jamie had given him after the Transformation Serum was a little like that. He sort-of remembered where he should be, but his brain was foggy, and his body felt funny—tingly, full of electricity. It took him a few seconds to open his eyes once he realized he was awake, and alive. He looked around the small operating room, and seeing the empty chairs near the door, at first, he thought he was alone. But then he turned his head and saw that another bed had been set up near his. He smiled when he realized who was asleep in it.
Cadence bolted up right, almost knocking Aaron’s phone out of his hand as she did so. She looked around her own living room like she wasn’t sure where she was or how she got there. The last thing she knew, she’d been talking to Aaron about strategy, and then she was being chased. By Jack.“Are you all right?” Aaron asked, setting his phone down on the table next to the couch and cautiously putting his hand on her back.
Dixon had dozed off in his seat in the waiting room outside Steven Gibbon’s hospital room. He knew the officers at the door would let him know if there was any change in Gibbon’s condition. So, after a quick call to his girlfriend to let her know he’d be home sometime tomorrow, he nodded off, sure that the hardest part of his day was over.He was wrong.At approximately 1:00 AM, ther
Abby Watson had been dead to the world when a familiar, and yet highly unusual, noise woke her. It sounded like firecrackers; it sounded like an assault rifle.It took her a moment to realize she wasn’t dreaming, and even though it didn’t sound like it was coming from the hallway directly outside of her door, it seemed to be on this floor. She heard several more shots and screams of terror as she dug her gun out of her bag and hurried to the door.
As the SUV sped out of the parking lot, the two motorcycles followed. The Vampires continued to fire at them, despite the other cars on the road, and the bikes couldn’t quite keep up. Dodging flying bullets made it a little more difficult to drive on full-speed ahead. The roads weren’t overly crowded, but the Hunters on the motorcycles were fearful that they might accidentally harm innocent humans if they crashed, or one of the bullets aimed at them hit the wrong target, and eventually they lost contact with the SUV, which disappeared into the night.Clayton was driving like a bat