“Okay—so if I’ve got this straight,” Elliott was saying from his position across the tunnel from him. “They think the next two times the portal opens, it’ll be into outer space or someplace too tricky for us to get out. So when the portal opens the third time, you expect Jame and I to just plow out of here, full steam ahead, and leave you behind, hoping you can get out. That right?”
“Yeah, I’ll bring up the rear. If Cadence’s plan works, Stewart should be in here somewhere, and then I’ll be able to follow you out.” They’d learned from their own abduction by the portal that just because there was one opening that didn’t mean they’d all end up in the same place on the inside.
“No, I don’t like it,” Elliott said with his arms crossed. “I don’t think any of us go until all of us can go. Once we see Dr. Stew in here, we go together.”
“By
“Welcome!” An older woman with a thick Italian accent greeted them when they walked in the door. She was round and grandmotherly, and Cadence got the impression she was a human. She hugged each of them and kissed them on the cheeks before leading them to the back of the building.“I’m Nessa. Lex and Gia might be the Leaders, but I run this show.” She laughed at her own joke in a jolly chuckle. “They are expecting you.”At the entrance of a conference room, she stood in the doorway with one arm extended. Cadence thanked her and led her team a few steps inside, though there were so many of them, most had to stay in the hallway until Lex and Gia realized they were there.Lex was more attractive in person than he was over the IAC, and Cadence actually heard Aurora gasp behind her as he stood and smiled at them. “Ah, Cadence! It’s so nice to see you in person!” He rushed over and hugged her, and Cadence retu
Avoiding the demon hunters was getting more difficult by the minute, and by the time the portal had opened the second time since Rome, Aaron was ready for the next six hours to be up so he could send his friends along their merry way—hopefully joining them--though he wasn’t holding his breath on that one. He had a feeling he’d be in there a little bit longer.There had been no signal the second time the portal opened, which was what Ward had predicted. It was a huge disappointment, but at least it had opened so that they could get a signal the time before that, and they knew Brandon, Dax, and Heather had gotten out all right. Cadence had warned them that there had been Vampires waiting for the trio when the portal opened, so the three left behind knew to be ready for a fight as soon as they got back to terra firma. Aaron welcomed a fight out in the real world where he knew the chances of him actually getting killed were slim, at least compared to inside the
With the addition of Brandon, Dax, and Heather on the plane from Rome to Southampton Airport, it was a little louder at first, but then it died down as the teens turned to cuddling masses, though Cadence could still hear Heather and Aurora talking about the portal. Part of Cadence wanted to know every detail, but the rest of her thought it was too ghastly to think about it and would wait to hear it from Aaron when he got out in a few hours.She was sitting by herself in the front of the plane and had been for most of the first two hours of the three hour trip. It would’ve been easy to fall asleep if she wasn’t so concerned about how this might go. There was still no sign of Holland, but Cadence could feel it in her gut that the Vampire Queen would make an appearance and try to wreck their plans. She likely hadn’t meant for Dax to be sucked into the portal to begin with, who knew what her thoughts were on Heather, and as much as Holland probably thought it wo
Stonehenge was even more impressive in real life than in all of the pictures Cadence had seen over the years, though it was a little difficult to see in the middle of the night. By the time they arrived in several SUVs and parked far enough away that they wouldn’t be announcing their location to Holland, it was past eleven, and Cadence was rushing to get everyone into place. Still, when she finally had a chance to look up at the towering structure, she stopped for a moment to take it all in. How in the world the ancients had managed to stack those enormous rocks in such a way that they’d stood for so long she didn’t know. She only hoped they didn’t end up getting knocked over tonight. Of course, if that did happen, she wouldn’t feel so badly about it as long as she met both of her objectives in the process.Stewart was refusing to walk, so Cass was levitating him alongside them as they covered the open ground nearing the landmark. There wasn&rsqu
The demon baby was running amok, leaving bleeding Guardians and seriously injured Hunters in its wake, and Cadence couldn’t help but compare the damn thing to that little psycho Bonnie. It tore through another Hunter, leaving the girl’s leg bleeding profusely, on its way to Cadence. It was hard for her to believe the mother would let her own child attempt to fight her battles for her, but then, Holland was just the sort of parent she imagined would’ve also left her kids alone in the car while she went inside to grab some more menthols despite hundred and ten degree weather--if she had been a human.Despite the chaos unfolding around her, Cadence heard the distinct popping sound of the portal opening to her right. It fell in line with the demon child seeking her out, so she couldn’t pay too much attention to what was happening. She needed to fend off the beast while still managing to get Stewart into the portal, and once the opening began to take shape,
The sound of voices jarred Aaron awake, and his hand immediately flew to his head. The last thing he remembered was running headlong into the portal wall, trying to break free. He’d seen something come flying in and hoped that was his chance to get out, but for some reason, whatever Cadence had done hadn’t worked. So he’d knocked himself out trying to reach her.That didn’t explain the voices, though. He sat up too fast, made himself dizzy, and leaned back on one elbow. The forms were at the far end of the tunnel, and it was difficult for him to understand what or who he was looking at at first because his vision was blurred. But then he recognized a voice. “Shit,” he said, falling back to the cave floor thinking he’d rather be in there all alone than trapped with Christian Henry.“Hey—you awake?” Major Henry called, making his way over. Aaron managed to sit up again, this time hoping to handle the situation a
The Vampire Queen was pissed, and she was doing her best to take it out on Cadence’s friends. That wasn’t going to do—not at all. The Hunter Leader chewed up the space between them as Elliott fell into step to her right, Margie, who’d seemed to materialize out of nowhere on her left. Up ahead, Jamie was ready to literally put out any fires Holland created while he healed those who’d already felt her wrath. Cassidy was doing her best to offset what Holland was doing with the other Vampires, but it didn’t seem like there was much she could do about the redheaded monster herselfHolland saw them coming, but she couldn’t stop all three of them at the same time, and as she aimed her balls of fire, Cadence and the two Guardians were able to sidestep them, their speed unquestionably a surprise to Holland. With less than a hundred yards between her and the grieving mother, Cadence tried to determine how best to take her out once and for all.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Elliott asked, lying next to her on the ground, panting heavily. “Miss me?”“More than you can ever imagine,” she replied with a crooked smile. But the fight wasn’t over yet, and a much as she wanted to lie there and chat, she had to see if her grenade had done the job.It hadn’t—not really. She jumped to her feet, and off in the distance, she saw Holland’s dragon form flying off into the night. There was a stream of smoke trailing the monster, and she was still shrieking, but she wasn’t dead, and Cadence felt defeated. She’d ruined one of the world’s greatest treasures but hadn’t taken out the monster.“That had to hurt,” Jamie said, coming up behind her. “It might not have killed her, but that will put her out of commission for a while, I think. I doubt she’ll be able to follow us to the next portal opening.”&ld