The answer Cassidy received wasn’t in the form of words, but she knew he hadn’t been taken far from where he’d been captured. It was evident whatever was happening to him, he was in an unbearable amount of pain, and she got the impression that it was the sort of pain that wouldn’t end him, which meant their only hope for putting him out of this agony was to rescue him. Unable to stand the excruciating sensation any longer, she had to pull away, knowing he was not going to be able to communicate with her directly anyway while he was suffering so.
She stayed in the same vein, however, reaching out in the darkness that ebbed and flowed around her cousin. Cadence had told her about the IAC message, and Cassidy had immediately concurred it was a fake. But who was capable of this? How had it been done? She concentrated on that aspect of the enigma. What was it allowing their signals to be crossed and distorted? In the tracking center, they’d used the a
Vanishing into thin air was one of the few things Becky had yet to see anyone do. And yet, as her colleagues continued to search the area around the theater, it seemed as if that was precisely what Paul had done.Every single member of the Melbourne team was called out, armed to the teeth, methodically crawling there way from building to building, checking every room, every cellar, every attic, every square inch for any sign of Paul at all. But now, hours after they’d started, there was not so much as a hair from the top of his head to be found.About an hour ago, she’d decided to expand the search. Some of the area they were covering was residential. Luckily, she had a Guardian on her team capable of running interference, and by now, any civilian they’d come into contact with thought they were participants in a special boot camp for people interested in joining the armed forces. It was nice to have someone like Tanner on the team who was so very capa
Asteria ran a hand through her long red hair and studied him for a moment, trying to choose her words wisely. There were times in the past when they’d fought each other so violently that they may have killed each other, if that were even possible. Spending hundreds of years with the same person wasn’t always easy, and occasionally, they’d have to separate for a decade or two in order to remember how much they meant to each other. In fact, the scheme that had gotten him destroyed in the first place had been completely against her wishes. She’d told him then it was a foolish plan, one that may well end him. Since he’d come back, she’d fought the urge to remind him that she’d been right. Having been overjoyed to be reunited, she had chosen not to ruin the mood by bringing up his own demise. Now, having just found him again a few weeks ago, it was hard to believe he’d managed to annoy the hell out of her so quickly, but as he stood staring
Fumes were her only fuel. By the time her sister came back from her solitary confinement to report her findings, Cadence was mere moments from dropping like a fly. Now would’ve been one of those times when a taste for coffee probably would’ve been helpful since her hot chocolate just wasn’t cutting it pep wise. Cassidy came in carrying a bottle of Dr. Pepper, and Cadence envied her sister’s more caffeinated choice as Brandon pulled out his girlfriend’s chair like a true gentleman.“How did it go?” Aaron’s voice seemed calm, but the fact that he was tapping his pen on the table let Cadence know he was just as eager to hear what Cassidy had to say as she was. The rest of the assembled team members, Hannah, Christian, Elliott, Aurora, and Jamie sat in silence, holding a collective breath.Cassidy looked around the table for a moment before she quietly stated, “I saw him. He’s not in very good shape. They’re
“Cassidy,” Aaron said, exasperated, “do you have any idea how Holland is doing this? How she’s disrupting our IACs and the trackers? If we can’t stop her from doing that… this is going to be that much harder.”Cassidy cleared her throat and stared at the table again. “I know it’s her telepathy, that she can mimic, that she can tap into our systems. She can send messages to one person from another without the other person or anyone else on the team even knowing it. She sent that message allegedly from Paul earlier, the one you forwarded to me,” she looked at Cadence then, “but she only sent it to the two of you and Becky. She can basically do whatever she wants to in order to disrupt our communication.”“You say she used the alarm system in the tracking center for this, right?” Aurora asked.“Yes, so I think, in order to communicate with so many people at such a great dista
“How do we know which one it is?” Cadence asked.“It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “Either way, we can’t engage with her right now. We have to get Paul first.”“Why is that?” Aurora asked.He ran a hand through his hair. “Because we aren’t prepared for her yet either.”Cadence’s forehead crinkled. “What else can we do?”Before he could answer, a flicker in her IAC caught her attention. There was a short beeping noise, then nothing for a split second before, all at once thousands of trackers began to emit their frequencies all at the same time, and the map of where those tagged Vampires were currently located came to life.“Holy hell, Cass. You did it!” Aaron exclaimed. He would be the only other one with access to the program, and Cadence was relieved that he was seeing the same thing she was. The chances that Holland would try to throw
That only left those of them who would be traveling to the land of koalas and kangaroos. At least, that’s about all Cadence knew about Australia. “Christian seemed a little disgruntled.” Brandon smoothed back his girlfriend’s hair, making the understatement of the year.“I don’t know what you’re talking about. He seemed perfectly gruntled to me.” Elliott folded his arms like he didn’t really give a damn, and Cadence assumed that was because he didn’t.“He’ll get over it,” Aaron replied. “You guys, we’re about to undergo an extremely dangerous mission. You know they’re going to throw everything they have at us. The Melbourne team is good, but they’re not up to the caliber of what we’re used to working with. We have got to be extra diligent and not veer from the plan, especially since, as Cassidy noted, we’ll be going into this with no communication system.&r
Spending an entire day on a small private jet would’ve been unbelievably boring if Cadence hadn’t been so tired she fell asleep almost as soon as the plane took off and dozed for a good ten hours before waking up to take care of nature’s call, eat something, and go back to sleep for another five hours. The fact that her sister was asleep even longer made her feel a little less like a freak since none of the Guardians had to sleep at all. She was shocked Jamie wasn’t tired since it took so much energy to heal himself the day before, but when she settled into the seat beside him to pick his brain for a while, he claimed he hadn’t slept a wink.Stifling a yawn, she reclined the seat as far as it could go and leaned back into the soft leather. “How are you still tired?” he asked, his voice quiet so as not to bother Cassidy who was snoozing on Brandon’s shoulder a few rows in front of them.“I know it’s been a long
“Ellie couldn’t Transform, could she?” Cadence asked, not truly able to wrap her mind around the idea that Jamie could look like he did right now, in his early twenties, and have an elderly wife at home.“No, she was completely human.” He was quiet for a moment, reflective, before he said, “I always knew I’d lose her someday; I just had no idea it would be so soon. She died before she’d even had a chance to live. Ellie wanted nothing more than to be a schoolteacher, to be a mother. I hadn’t gotten around to asking her yet, but I think she would’ve agreed to be my wife.” A tear formed in the corner of his eye, but it didn’t fall. “All of that was stolen from us.”“At Pearl Harbor?”“Yes.” Quiet hung between them as Cadence tried to remember everything she could from history class, which probably wasn’t as much as it should’ve been. “I thin