Cassidy sat in her chair atop the apartment building looking off in the distance, feeling the world around them to see how close the Vampires were now. A few weeks had passed, and she knew they were still out there, but this had become a standoff, a long game, not a simple flash in the pan attack, and every day, as more Guardians arrived from the settlement in Roatan, the Vampires became more nervous. She could feel it rolling off of them, but she could also hear it in their chatter.
LIGHTS was planning an attack now, an epic one, and Holland knew it. Cassidy spent too much time in the Vampire queen’s head. She always knew when she was there, but she couldn’t hide her thoughts. The ancient creature was prepared to throw everything she had at the ones who had taken her lover from her twice now, and in her mind, she believed she’d find a way to wipe all of them from the Earth, even the Guardians.
She was no closer now than she had been when they’d
“I guess our wedding plans will be put on hold for a while,” Cadence said, taking his hand in both of hers. It always surprised her how smooth they were despite decades of battles and other hard work.“I hope, by September, all of this will be put far behind us.” He managed a small smile.“Maybe, but it seems silly to be picking out flowers and cakes when we’re gearing up for… Armageddon.”“True. But I’ve never been a fan of Ben Affleck.”Cadence snickered and tried not to roll her eyes. “Don’t you think it’s crazy to keep planning when the world is crumbling around us?”“Is it? I hadn’t noticed. Seriously, Cadence, we’ve got the upperhand here. Holland is just one person—one very evil, menacing person--but still there’s just one of her. We’re not going to put our wedding plans on hold just because she’s fuming over h
The odor of mildew assaulted her lungs as Cadence Findley made her way through the underground tunnel. Here she still had enough clearance to stand, though she was bent at the waist so that her shoulders were stooped, but up ahead, she was aware it narrowed even further, and she’d be forced to drop to her knees. How her Guardian, Elliott Sanderson, was ever going to make it through the smaller passage, she wasn’t sure, but she thought it might be fun to watch.“Moist. That’s the word that comes to mind. It smells moist in here,” he said only to her through his IAC, or Intelligence Assistance Communicator, a tiny chip each member of the LIGHTS (Lincoln International Guardian and Hunter Training Station) team had in their eye so that they could speak to each other and share other information without actually having to open their mouths.“Don’t use that word,” Cadence said, bile rising up in the back of her
It took Aaron a half-second to answer, and she imagined that was because he was directing the other teams as well. None of them should be merging here as the other tunnels and passages they were using to ferret out similar gangs of docile Vampires didn’t connect, but they were all in close enough proximity that Aaron was able to direct them from a parking garage a few miles from where Cadence was—and a few hundred yards above her head. She didn’t want to think about that, though, being underground. She wondered for a moment if it reminded Elliott of the time he’d been dead for eight months. Even though he had been cremated, she imagined if she’d been the one to die, anything remotely like being buried would make her uneasy. But then, this made her uneasy, and she’d been alive her entire life.“Ready, kid?” Elliott whispered aloud, likely seeing the look on her face, thinking she was either on the verge of panic or about
“What now?” Cadence asked, checking her IAC to make sure he wasn’t alarmed at the progress of one of the other teams. His son, Brandon Keen, who also happened to be a good friend of Cadence’s, as well as her sister’s boyfriend, was out with another Hunter, Aurora Howe, so a few panicked thoughts flickered through her mind until she was sure he was okay.“Rats,” Elliott said softly.“What’s the matter?” she asked, assuming he was just using one of his old colloquialisms from the 1950s.“No, rats!” Elliott repeated, and she realized he meant there were actual rats in the tunnel.“What?” Cadence screamed. “Aaron said there wouldn’t be any rats!” There wasn’t much that freaked her out anymore, not since she’d taken to beheading monsters for a living, but she still hated rats, and her understanding was that Elliott wasn’t a big fan either, bu
Cadence used her entire body to fling the creature up and over, holding onto it with her knees, one hand on each jaw. It bucked and tried to pound her into the concrete beneath them, but her efforts were enough for Elliott to plunge the knife into its chest cavity. He took the blade out and stabbed again, several times, and Cadence could feel the animal start to weaken. Silver knives had worked better than anything else on the shapeshifting Vampires they’d encountered both in Melbourne and in Butler, Missouri, when they’d gone on a raid there right before Paul was taken prisoner. It was working here as well. After a few more jabs, the Vampire crocodile let out a loud sigh and crumbled into ash all over Cadence.She lay there stunned for a few seconds, not sure what to make of the entire reptile situation. Eventually, she came to her senses and jumped up, brushing the residue off as Elliott pocketed his weapon. “Never in my life…” she muttered, n
“That’s incredible!” Christian Henry gushed, looking at images of the vampire-crocodile Cadence and Elliott had dispatched on their Houston trip. They were back in Kansas City now, and even three days later, Cadence could still feel the rats crawling on her skin, despite dozens long, hot showers, and several apologies from her betrothed, none of which made it seem as if he was actually more sorry than amused.“What is it though?” Jamie asked, sitting next to Christian in the conference room where the team had gathered to go over recent missions. There’d been so many lately, these fly-by raids, as Aaron often referred to them, it was impossible to stop after each one and go over everything that had transpired. Since the retired Guardians from Roatan had come up to help, the Kansas City team had been dispatching groups across the country to work with the locals to take care of as many of these pockets as possible, and the meetings were more o
“We’ve got two dozen Guardians there now, back to watching on rooftops, the same sort of procedure we ran when Cadence and Cassidy were at risk,” Hannah continued in her even voice. “I’m certain they’ll be fine in the short term, until we can shut this business with Holland down.”“We don’t seem to be gettin’ a whole lot closer to that,” Elliott muttered, tapping the end of a pencil he probably wouldn’t need for anything against the table.“I don’t think that’s a fair statement,” Aaron said in his calm voice. “We’ve gotten nearly two thousand Guardians to come up from Roatan. We have a good handle on Melbourne now, we’ve taken out eighty-two pockets of Vampires in the last month alone. The ones that are congregating, the ones Holland intends to use to invade our headquarters, are on their heels.”“Yeah, but those are the only ones that ma
Shaking her head once more, Cadence pushed herself up from the table. “Aurora, you wanna come over around 7:00 tonight, and we’ll go over some things?”“Uh, how about you come to my apartment?” The nerves in her voice couldn’t be missed, and Cadence realized she was avoiding Aaron.“Okay,” she replied thinking the location probably made no difference as far as content was concerned. “My kid sister still in the gym?” she asked Elliott who usually had a pretty good handle on where Cassidy was.“Yep. Shane should be about done with the sims though.”Cadence glanced at the time on her IAC and saw that he was right. Cassidy would be forever indebted to her if she made it over in time to pull her out of any of her training session with Shane, but Cadence knew how close Cass was to being released from training altogether and decided to let the Guardian finish up. She only had one more observ
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