Brandon was already moving toward his father before even realizing he’d said nothing to Jamie to let him know about the conversation he’d been having with Cadence and Cassidy. The Healer reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder. “Brandon? What’s going on?” Jamie asked, stopping the teen and spinning him around.
“I don’t know. Something weird is going on with Cassidy. I need to find my dad.” His eyes trained over the crowd, seeking out his father’s familiar face but not seeing him anywhere.
“Okay,” Jamie said with a reassuring nod. “They’re over there.” He gestured in the direction of the big tent, the way Brandon had been walking before the doctor had slowed him down. Jamie didn’t take his hand off his shoulder as they moved in that direction.
Unless he used his superhuman speed, which might alarm the Vampires dancing and gallivanting around between his current location
Grabbing her Glock off of the dresser, Cadence slipped it into her holster before she realized she needed to tie her boots. She dropped onto the bed. “Where’s your weapon?” she asked her sister, who was already pacing by the door.“In its holster,” she replied, pulling open her jacket.It hadn’t occurred to her that Cassidy was packing heat while she was sitting on the bed. “Keys....” Cadence mumbled once her boots were tied. Her hair was down, which generally drove her crazy during a hunt, but she had no time.Cassidy picked up the keys to the SUV Aaron had left them off of the dresser and tossed them to her older sister. “Come on! Let’s go!”Cadence glanced around, thinking it would be better if she took more guns, but they needed to hurry. She gestured toward the door, and Cassidy flung it open, both of them charging into the hallway, nearly colliding with Ashley who was just coming out
“Christian, I’ve got this.” Cadence pushed him away, and Ashley immediately started asking him if he had any idea where Jamie was. Cadence realized then that the other Hunter wasn’t up to speed.“Mika,” Cadence said, taking a deep breath. “Listen, we need your help. I’m not sure what you know, but we have at least four missing Guardians. Are you sure you have no idea what might’ve happened to them?”“No, I don’t know!” she shouted, shaking her head furiously. “I didn’t do anything. I only called Aaron to organize the festival. I didn’t do anything else.”“Was there something else to know about?” Cadence asked. “Do you know about the artifacts? The water, mirrors, obsidian?”“No, I don’t know anything!” the woman insisted.Before Cadence could press further, Cassidy said, “She’s lying—she k
The scent of ozone mixed with sulphur was overwhelming, and it hit Aaron in the face out of nowhere. One moment, he was walking toward a woman who looked strangely like his wife, and the next, everything was black—and smelly.“What the hell happened?”It took a few moments for Aaron’s eyes to adjust to the dark, but when he was finally able to make out the form of his best friend next to his shoulder, part of him felt relieved that he wasn’t alone wherever they were, and the other part was angry that Elliott had just been transported to whatever this place was. Even though he’d only gotten a glimpse of their surroundings, it was pretty obvious it wasn’t a hospitable place to say the least.“I’m not sure,” the Guardian Leader admitted, “but it doesn’t look like paradise.”The landscape around them began to come into focus, and Aaron could hardly believe what he was looking at. Th
Cadence stood in the field, steering up at the moon for hours. Around her, the LIGHTS team worked to take eight Vampires into custody, verify the information they’d collected from every other Vampire present, and comb the area for anything they’d missed. Vampires worked to tear down the tents and other festival equipment, once LIGHTS had fully searched it and determined there was nothing of value. Even when the moon had worked its way across the sky and was descending beyond the horizon, she stood, watching, thinking, wondering how this had happened.Most of the team had long since gone back to the B and B, and Cassidy had gone with them because Cadence had insisted she do so. Dragged against her will was basically the best way to describe it. Only Hannah and Job, the local guy Aaron had mentioned the day before, remained behind with her. They pretended to be searching the perimeter again, but she knew they were waiting for her to call it, to give up, to go home&m
“Did you get anything?” Cadence asked, praying she’d been able to find Stewart.“Not much. But I know he’s running. I decided to see if I could find Holland instead. If I can figure out where she’s hiding, I can stop the signal.”Looking over her shoulder briefly, Cadence said, “But you haven’t been able to do that for months.”Cassidy sighed. “I’m out of ideas.”“Okay, okay.” Cadence put her hands out, trying to show she wasn’t trying to irritate her sister. “Whatever you think. Stewart’s got to resurface eventually, though. He’s a professor. Do you think he’ll just walk away from all of that to serve Holland?” They were out the door and headed to the SUV.“Maybe.” Cassidy slid into the back seat and Cadence went around as Job got in and fired up the engine. Hannah got in as well, and they headed out. “Who
“Okay, this is the festival grounds,” a tall guy Cadence remembered meeting the night before was saying, gesturing at a 3D model they’d hastily put together on the table. “This is where we found the first set of objects, here and here, and this is where we know Aaron and Elliott were stationed.”“Thanks, Ahmed,” Job said with a nod before a shorter, spunky girl with pink hair picked up.“Brandon and Jamie were over here, on the other side of the festival grounds.” She pointed to the side closest to the parking lot. “And Dax and Alex were here.” With her pointer finger, she indicated an X on the model nearer the center of the activities. “The second set of objects was picked up right about here.”Cadence took it all in and visualized those locations from where she’d spent most of the twilight hours. “All right....”“So Brandon and Jamie must’ve cross
“I guess he had enough experience with portals to figure it out,” Christian replied with a shrug.“How do you know it’s a portal?” Cass’s voice sounded a little jagged, and Cadence increased her grip on her sister’s shoulder.“I mean... I think it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Christian replied, still seeming a little too nonchalant for Cadence’s liking. “Clearly, the Blood Moon Portal exists after all, and they just walked into it.”“What do you mean after all?” Cassidy sounded even more aggressive this time as she took a step forward, and Cadence stretched out her arm to keep light contact with her sister.Christian’s eyes flickered back and forth from Cadence to Cassidy, and she could see an uneasiness in his disposition. This was the Christian she’d become more familiar with of recent—unfortunately. The sketchy one. “Nothing. I just m
Exactly how much time had passed, Brandon wasn’t sure, but it seemed liked they’d been trapped in this hellish black cave for hours. Dax was still pacing back and forth, crying, Jamie and Alex had ventured a few steps away, down the tunnel, and even though Brandon could still see them, if they took a few more steps, their silhouettes would disappear into the darkness. Brandon was usually the one pacing in situations like this, but Dax was freaking out enough for both of them, and Brandon was trying to come up with some explanation for what had happened.“It just doesn’t make any sense...” Dax was muttering. “Why are we here? Why?”“Dax....” Brandon didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence, probably because he had no idea what to say.“I shouldn’t have followed you....”“I know.” They’d been over this. He wished his friend hadn’t jumped down the rabbit h