Elliott chuckled. “That Eliza sure is a piece of work. I’m so glad we got rid of her when we did. Don’t you go thinking she’s earned her way back here, now. That was impressive what she did to those Vampires on the roof the other night, but that don’t make her a gold star student.”
“I won’t,” Aaron said, and Cadence knew that to be the gospel truth. Eliza could do all the good deeds in the world, but she wasn’t coming back to this team.
“All righty. You two have a good night.”
“Bye, Elliott,” Cadence called, finally snapping out of her thoughts enough to remember her manners.
Aaron told him goodbye, too, and closed the door behind him. He stood with his hands in his pockets for a moment, staring at Cadence.
“Do you think...?’
“I don’t know.” He came back toward the couch but didn’t sit yet. “God, I hope not. Surely, s
Cassidy was growing frustrated with Christian. He’d been in that hole so long now, his brain had to be turning to mush. Even after he’d told her about the attack, how he’d tried to blow Daunator up with one of his grenades, and it hadn’t done a thing to the monster, he still refused to let her tell anyone he was down there.She decided to try again. It had been a couple of hours since she’d contacted him. She’d spent a lot of that time talking to Eliza, but since the Guardian said she didn’t want her help anymore, now that Aaron and Cadence were back and might be upset about the entire situation, the hunt had fallen through. The team hadn’t been able to find the mark and had gone back to regroup.Despite her decision to leave Cassidy out of it from now on, Eliza had been very chatty, and Cassidy had had to cut her off so that she could work on the other assignments Aaron had given her. She was used to having the bulk of t
Tears sprung to Cassidy’s eyes as she admitted to herself for the first time just how devastated she was not to be with Brandon anymore. Talk to Christian about it was the last thing she thought would make her feel better. Maybe it did.... Then again, maybe it only made her feel worse.“Yeah, well, you can compare those two things, but until someone has actually done it, you have no idea.”Cassidy had no idea what Christian was talking about. “What do you mean?” She was lost. Until someone had actually done what?“Nothing. Never mind. It doesn’t matter. Don’t tell them where I am. Lie to them. Tell them you’re in my head, and I’m relaxing on the beach, all right? Just do it Cassidy.”She didn’t know what else to say, so she agreed. “Fine. I’ll check on you later.”“Don’t bother. I’m fine.”
The fact that these were actual people Daunator and his minions had stolen off of the street over the years also explained the clothing. Who knew when Daunator had begun to make these minions? Some of them could’ve been in shafts like the one Christian was currently in for hundreds of years. While she was fairly certain Christian couldn’t be turned into anything else, it was still terrifying to think that this horrible fate could befall anyone she knew.Cassidy tried to contact him, but when she jumped into his head, he was still singing the same horrible song as before. “Christian, listen, I need to tell you something. Will you shut up for a moment and listen?” He continued to sing. “It’s really important! It’s about the others, the ones you heard screaming!” She had a feeling he could hear her, but he didn’t stop his antics. “They’re people—but he’s turning them into monsters
Brandon had been staring at the TV for so long, he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d moved. His dad came in not long after he’d left, muttered something about Christian’s shenanigans, and disappeared into his room. It had been a while since that happened, but Brandon had lost all track of time recently. Ever since he broke up with Cassidy, his days and nights ran together. He hardly did anything. His friends invited him over, but he always declined. Sitting on the couch staring at the TV or his phone and trying not to feel anything at all was eating away at his life, but it was all he ever felt like doing.A loud banging on his door tore him out of his daze. He glanced down the hall to see if his dad was coming but realized, whoever it was, they probably couldn’t hurt him. It wasn’t like Daunator had just shown up or anything. He got to his feet and pulled the door open, shocked when Cassidy came flying inside, her hair as wild as h
Cadence’s head was pounding when she woke up. A glance at the clock told her Aaron had let her sleep in. It was past 9:00. Normally, she’d be grateful, but they had so much to do, things she’d hoped to be a part of, she found herself feeling irritated at more than just the sledgehammer in her head.Popping a few aspirin, she went to the bathroom, turned on the shower, and took care of nature’s call. She couldn’t tell if the headache was stress induced, hormones, or just bad luck, but she knew it wasn’t two glasses of wine, not when alcohol never even affected her anymore. Her stomach was a little queasy as well, though it was mostly her head bothering her. She hoped she wasn’t coming down with something. Now was not the time to get sick—assuming she was even capable of that. As soon as she was out of the shower, she’d be paying Jamie a visit. If he could heal her arm while it was on fire, surely he could stop the Mack truc
Cassidy’s arm was asleep. She had been laying on it funny, and now that she was awake, she was afraid to even open her eyes because she hated that uncomfortable feeling of creepy crawly tingles that would greet her as soon as she took her weight off of it. But the more aware of her conscious self she became, the more she remembered why her arm was asleep.She opened one eye and then the other and noticed she was staring at familiar carpet, but not the one in her apartment. And this definitely wasn’t her bed. Her arm was no longer her biggest concern as she realized her head was lying on a pillow on Brandon’s lap. She wondered how long he’d been sitting there just letting her sleep.Slowly, she sat up, wiping her eyes and running her living hand across her mouth to make sure she didn’t have any drool or anything. He still hadn’t said anything, which was weird. When she turned her head, he was looking at her, a small smile on his face,
Elliott folded his hands between his knees and thought for a moment, the posture he took when he had something important to say but hadn’t quite chosen the words yet. He blew out a deep breath, loudly, and then said, “I’m worried about you.”“Me? Why?” That wasn’t at all what she had been expecting. Cassidy took a drink of her shake and then set the cup down on the table beside her next to a lamp.“I’ve known you a really long time, since you were in diapers, and I can tell when you’re keepin’ somethin’ to yourself, even better than your sister can, I think.”The blood seemed to be draining out of her face, but Cassidy tried to play it cool. “What do you mean?”“What were you doing yesterday when Daunator got stuck in your head?”“I was checking on these people.” She gestured at the papers spread all over the coffee table. “I foun
Sitting behind her desk in the office she shared with Aaron, Cadence had been discussing some of the new weapons her dad was working on with her husband when she’d gotten a strange call from one of the Guardians at the front gate, the barrier visitors came to on the rare occasion they had any. An older “gentleman” was asking to see her--alone, without Aaron. He claimed to be a Hunter, but he didn’t have any identification, no IAC, and he wanted to talk to Cadence by herself, saying he had valuable information about, “her enemy.”Aaron hadn’t wanted to let her speak with him, even though he admitted he had no idea who it might be, but Cadence postponed her appointment with Cassidy to go downstairs and meet the man. He was sitting on a bench near the chapel, the one where they’d had Elliott’s funeral. Dressed similarly to the way Cowboy Sam had been the first time Cadence had met him, in dusty brown pants, a faded denim shir