The flight from London Heathrow would be much longer than the initial flight from Vienna, but it would give Giovani and Zabrina a chance to strategize, and there wasn’t too much to complain about while sitting in first class, sipping champagne.
“What is your plan once we arrive in Philadelphia?” Zabrina asked, absently flipping through a fashion magazine.
Giovani turned his
“Are you sure you don’t want me to call your mom?” Aaron asked. “You might be out for a day or two.”Brandon scrunched up his mouth in consideration. After a moment, he began fishing his phone out of his pocket. “All right,” he finally replied. “But make sure I’ve gone through with it before you call her. And her number isn’t under mom. But you’ll find it.”
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