Jumping up out of her chair, Cassidy leapt over Dax’s long legs and took off. “Brandon!” she shouted, hoping not to wake Jamie but not giving it too much thought as she chased after her boyfriend. “Brandon, wait!” The fact that she was sprinting while he was walking in an angry stomp allowed her to close the distance, though she stopped midway down the hallway when she realized he hadn’t yet pushed the door open but stood instead with his hands resting on it, staring at his Converse.
From this angle, she couldn’t tell if he was angry or exasperated. She gave him a moment and tried to read his heavy sighs. With his back to her, he said, “I had a feeling something like this would happen as soon as you got here, though, I have to admit, I thought it’d be someone older than me, someone flashier.”
Confused, Cassidy took a few steps forward. “What’s that?” she asked. “Brandon, what are you ta
Brandon’s eyes widened. “Why do you say that?”“Because… I hissed at Shane yesterday in training, and I almost lost my shit on Christian last night.”A cocky smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. “Well, in fairness, they’re both a couple of douchebags.”Smiling in return, she said, “Nevertheless, I probably shouldn’t try to kill them. I might just be able to.”“Of course you can. You’re a Hunter. You could crush my skull right now.”She rolled her eyes, knowing she’d have to overpower him in order to do that—if she wanted to. Which she didn’t. Anymore. “I’m being serious.”“I know. I’m sorry. It does sound like something we need to deal with, but I know it’s not something you can’t handle, Cass. You didn’t kill either one of them, even if they deserved it.”His words did
The scent of mildew mixed with the taste of aluminum and stale vomit, and Paul felt his stomach lurch as a searing pain shot through his head, centered around his brainstem and his right eye. He fought to open his eyes even a crack, scraping off the pain in order to try to focus long enough to remember where he was, what had happened. The last thing he could remember, the team was loading into the van, ready to go on a hunt. After that, everything was… hazy, just like his vision.His left eye felt swollen and puffy. He pried it open just a slit, but his right eye stung so badly it refused to budge out of a tight squint, opening only enough for tears to pour down his cheek. Everything looked foreign. A bare light bulb flickered, swaying on a chain a good three feet in front of him, casting shadows around what appeared to be a small room made entirely of concrete. Trying to lift his arm to wipe at his eye was futile, and he realized he was chained to the wall. His biceps
“Here it is,” Perses said, carefully placing a gray piece of metal so small it was barely visible to the naked eye on a napkin so Asteria could see it. They were standing in the newly constructed operating room, or as Hines liked to refer to it, the toy room. The tweezers he had been using to hold it were bloodied but not nearly as much so as the scalpel lying on the table next to it. Hines had been disappointed Larkin hadn’t been awake for his first experiment.“That’s it?” Asteria asked, holding her red locks back with one hand as she peered down at the device. “It looks so inconsequential. How can they do so much with such a tiny speck?”“I don’t know, but that’s it. The fabled Intelligence Assistance Communicator. Without it, they’ll never be able to track him, and he won’t be able to tell them what’s become of him either.”Asteria stood, her arms folded for a moment be
“Don’t worry. I had a large pizza for lunch,” Brandon replied. Cassidy turned, gaping at him in surprise, and he shrugged. “I’m a stress eater.”“Dax, how are you doing?” Cadence asked, hopeful that she had his name right since she hadn’t checked her IAC to make sure.“I’m okay,” he replied, managing a smile. “Still… overwhelmed. And tired.”“I can imagine.” She gave him a sympathetic grin. Her IAC began to light up, but she ignored it for a moment, trying to focus on the young man in front of her. “I promise, there are dull days around here. Hopefully, you’ll see that soon enough.”“Dull days. Dull people. Dull-witted people,” Elliott mused, grabbing a bag of Cheetos out of Cassidy’s bag when she wasn’t looking.“I brought those for the kids,” Cadence scolded him.“When have I eve
“Uh, Melbourne,” Cadence replied.Cassidy settled back in her chair a bit. “Did you hear that, Jamie? Not Perth. She’s okay.”There was a flicker of recognition in his expression, and Cassidy seemed satisfied that Jamie was no longer alarmed.Still confused, Cadence asked, “Who’s okay?” As far as she knew, Jamie wasn’t dating anyone.The sigh Cassidy expelled could only be produced by a teenage girl. “Margie, Cadence. He was worried about Margie.”“Oh.” Cadence nodded, trying to remember who that was. She thought that might be the Area Guardian Leader for Perth, and from what Cassidy said to Jamie, that would make sense. But that still didn’t explain why Jamie would care. She hoped her expression didn’t betray her ignorance.The sound of Elliott’s rich chuckle told her that she wasn’t fooling anyone. “Damn, Cadence. It’s like you
The Vampires who had escaped the holding cells seemed more powerful than usual, but nothing compared to Bonnie. Whatever was happening had given them enough strength to temporarily overpower the Guardians on duty down there, though there were only a couple, and then they’d come up the stairs. Bonnie had been waiting for them in the hallway, and she had been the one to tear the necks out of most of the Guardians they encountered in the hallway. Another Vampire, a big brutish man named Hal who had been here for decades seemed more powerful than the rest of them and he got a few shots in himself. When Cassidy entered the building, the rest of them had fled while Bonnie headed straight for Faye, taking out a few Guardians along the way, including the one who’d accidentally shot Lena before Bonnie chased him down the hall and left him in a pool of his own blood.Aaron shook his head and ran his hand along his throat, thinking about what it had been like to come around
While this revelation was a bit unsettling, particularly in light of what had happened with Bonnie, Aaron knew Cadence was right. He didn’t want to put Cassidy in danger, but even leaving her back at headquarters didn’t seem particularly safe. “All right. Let Cadence and I chat, and we’ll see what we think personnel wise, but Hannah, I’m thinking I might want you to stay here and oversee things while we’re gone.”The Guardian nodded. “I can most certainly do that.” It was hard to say whether or not she was happy with that assignment, but Aaron knew she’d do whatever he asked of her. At this point, he was tempted to leave Christian here as well, but he thought the IAC situation might’ve been resolved more quickly last night if he’d been with them. Something told him taking Elliott and Christian was a surefire way to set themselves up for problems, though. There was no way the two of them would be able to g
“Hey, this is Paul. I’m really sorry for taking off like that, but something came up. I wanted you to know that I’m okay. I’ll… I’ll be in touch in a day or two, but… I just had to go. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”“Paul, where the hell are you?” Aaron asked, shocked to have heard from the Melbourne Area Leader at all. “We’ve been worried sick.”“Are you all right?” Cadence asked.“Yeah, I’m fine. But my IAC isn’t working right. I’m going to switch it off. Just… wait for me to call, okay?”“Paul, I need to know where you are.”“I’m on my way to take care of a family problem. It’s fine. Really. Talk to you in a few days.”“Paul? Paul!” Aaron’s cries went unanswered as the other