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
Memories of the unsettling dream stayed with Cadence through packing and heading to the airport a day earlier than planned. Even settled into her comfortable seat on the team’s most luxurious jet, a magazine in front of her, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. Aaron had seen immediately that there was more to this nightmare than just a bad dream and had agreed they could leave early. As much as she’d enjoyed having him all to herself, she was ready to get back to work. She had a feeling he was, too, even though he’d done his best to try to hide it recently. Her stomach felt queasy, as if she were near a Vampire, and her head was starting to pound. She chalked it up to nerves, but she couldn’t remember ever feeling this way about a dream before.They’d decided to wait until they got back into US airspace and were close to HQ to turn their IACs back on since they wouldn’t be able to do much while they were in the air anyway. The last t
The sound of Cassidy’s alarm had her heart beating out of her chest again. She reached for her phone to turn it off, and it fell on the floor. Frustrated, she used her powers to stop the noise and bring her phone back to her outstretched hand before she slammed it down on the mattress next to her.She’d been dreaming, though she had no idea what it had been about. All she could remember was feeling miserable, like she had been buried alive and was left all alone in the cold, hard ground to rot for eternity. There was nothing pleasant about the sensation that her nightmare, whatever it had been, left crawling all over her skin. She literally flew out of bed and went directly to the bathroom to turn the shower on so that she could try to wash away the unsettled sensation, whatever had caused it, before it sank into her skin.After taking care of a few other important morning matters, she went back into her bedroom and picked out an outfit. Her mind was busy,
Hannah took Jo to give her a bath, and Ona helped Cadence get Cadon latched while Jamie left to go check on his own one-month-old baby. Cadence’s son was a pro almost immediately, latching on the first try to resting peacefully while he nursed. Cadence couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have even one sweet baby, let alone the blessings of two. He wore a tiny little cap to keep him warm, and she couldn’t help but stroke his head while he made soft baby noises in her arms.Hannah brought Jo back before Cadon was finished. It took her daughter much longer to latch. She kept turning her feisty little face away, growling her discontentment as Cadence tried to get her on and not disturb Cadon at the same time. With Aaron’s help, their daughter finally latched, but he had to have his hand on her back or else she’d pull off again. “She is definitely a Daddy’s girl,” Cadence declared, shaking her head at her strong-spirited daughter.
“For the record, there really is no comparison between us naming our son after a famous jazz pianist and you naming your daughter after a murderous dictator,” the Healer pointed out before getting back to the task at hand. “I think in two or three more pushes, we’ll have a baby.” He was looking at Cadence now, smiling at her above the draped sheet that made her feel a little more secure even if it didn’t really hide anything at all from the doctor.“Okay,” she said again, ready to get it over with. Jamie told her to push, and she did, as hard as she could, hoping for two and not three as the lucky number.“Keep pushing,” Jamie said, even though Aaron had reached ten. “She’s almost there.”Cadence strained even harder, giving it every bit of energy she had left, and a few seconds later, she felt her daughter slip into the world. Listening to her cries made Cadence’s heart melt all
“One more push, Cadence,” Jamie insisted, his normally friendly-tone replaced by his not-quite-as-friendly medical professional tone. “One more time, and we’ll have a baby.”Cadence could feel the sweat dripping off of her forehead and wondered how normal human women did this, especially the ones who refused any sort of pain medication. Even with her superhuman strength and resilience, she was tired. Jamie had gloves on so he wasn’t using any of his healing powers to help her, but she had opted for the epidural, which minimized her pain but did nothing for the exhaustion.“You ready?” Aaron asked, standing next to her, holding one leg while Ona, a Healer who was acting as Jamie’s nurse, held the other.“I’m ready,” she nodded. Her husband’s smile hadn’t dimmed since her water broke three hours earlier. It might not have diminished since they’d left Prague eight months ago,
Jamie gently wrapped his arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” He kissed her cheek. “Love you, Cadence.”“I love you, too,” she said, returning the kiss. He took a step back and smiled at her before heading off toward the mountain.Cassidy hugged her sister a little more tightly than the doctor had. “Don’t you ever die on me again.”“I won’t. You neither. I love you, little sister.”“I know.” Cassidy giggled at her own smart remark. “I love you, too.” Cadence kissed the top of her sister’s head, and Cassidy let her go, stepping back to wait for Brandon.“Good job getting the monster.” Brandon’s hug was more like a pat on the back, and Cadence almost laughed, wondering if he just didn’t want to break her or was embarrassed.“Thanks, Brandon. Take care of my sis.”“I will try,
“The baby, Cadence,” Aaron said in her head. “You’re carrying our baby.”Cadence sucked in air all over again, like she had when she’d first fought to open her eyes. The baby! Jamie had told her she was pregnant before the hunt. How it had slipped her mind was beyond her, but yes, she was going to have a baby.Or was she? Her eyes flew to Jamie’s face, all of her questions bottled up in her eyes as she raised both brows, hoping he could alleviate her worry.Jamie smiled and gave a small nod only she could see. All of the air rushed out of Cadence’s lungs again as her hand flew to her abdomen, sighing in relief.“What is it?” Cassidy asked. “What was the other thing you couldn’t remember before?”Part of her wanted to keep their little secret just that, and she was disappointed that she hadn’t been the one to tell Aaron. She looked to him to see if
Cassidy smiled, but didn’t say anything, and Cadence could tell by her expression, she didn’t know what to make of Cadence’s revelation. It was no matter—she moved on.“Jack was pitching, Elliott. And the batter was a guy who looked so much like you. I couldn’t remember you at the time—sorry—but I asked, and my grandparents said the batter’s name was Jimmy.”“Jimmy?” Elliott echoed. “I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that name to you.”“I don’t think you have either, but that’s your brother’s name, isn’t it.”Elliott’s head rocked back and forth slowly. “Wow. If that don’t beat all.... It’s like the freakin’ Wizard of Oz. ‘And you were there, and you were there....’ Hmmm.”“Well, it gets Wizardier because your mom was there, too. Arlene. And she wa
A growl from Elliott let her know he disagreed, but he didn’t say anything more, and Christian only nodded before he faded out of view. It was just as well. Cadence was exhausted. She didn’t really want to talk to anyone else, just let her husband pick her up in his strong arms and carry her back to the SUV so she could take a shower and fall asleep for a few years.“I hate to interrupt,” Scarlet said, taking a step closer to where they were sitting. “Cadence, it is wonderful you’re okay. But Jamie, what about that serum you made? Do you think we should try it? If we can get the Hybrids back up there, we might be able to save some of those people who are still trapped in the holes.”“Oh, right.” Jamie scratched his head, like he’d forgotten about the serum. “Yeah, why don’t you and Cale start working on that. The serum is in my backpack, which is in the trees near where we first encountered the bla
Lungs burning, body aching with the pain of soldering itself back together, eyes blinded by brilliant white, Cadence opened her mouth and sucked in air for the first time in as long as she could remember. Her legs still felt like they were on fire, like she’d been running for hours, but as she tipped her head back and began to cough the memories of what had happened to her, how she’d killed Daunator and then found herself in the air with no ground beneath her boots, flooded her mind, and every trace of memory about why she felt like she’d been running fled her mind.“Cadence? Cadence!”Aaron was there. She could feel his hands on her, even though she couldn’t open her eyes to look at him yet. Her throat burned as she continued to sputter, coughing and choking on the air she so desperately wanted in her lungs. How long had she gone without taking a breath? Why did her heart feel like a jackhammer, her chest muscles sore from the exert
Jamie was at twenty-two, and Aaron was trying to focus, but the voices to his left were prominent in his mind. He could still hear Elliott’s murmurs, Cass’s sobs, sighs and gasps from others. Christian was pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, behind almost everyone. Aurora, free of her handcuffs now that she was no longer a threat, was doubled over on the ground, her hands linked around her knees, her wails having lost their voice minutes ago so that she was no longer making a noise as her body shook and spasmed. Eliza had her arm around the much taller Hunter, trying to be comforting, but Aaron was aware that, of everyone here, Eliza Wrath was the only one who really didn’t care if Cadence ever opened her eyes again. He could feel it rolling off of her in waves of ugliness like the sea during the type of storm that leaves debris littered all over the beach, breaks boats in its wake, and sends sailors to the bottom of the ocean.There were