Research had told them there were only three theaters here. Originally, there had just been one screen, but over the years, before the economy tanked and the cinema closed down altogether, two more had been added. Becky and Tanner walked through the first empty space, stepping over broken red, plush seats and the occasional pile of trash, sweeping their weapons out in front of them, making sure the room was clear.
Neither of the other teams had discovered anything. The only creatures in the basement had been rats, which while vile and potentially deadly under the right circumstances, were not Vampires. “We’ll head up and check the equipment rooms,” Steph said, sounding slightly squeamish from her time with the rodents. She wasn’t a fan of such critters.
“Moving to theater number two,” Becky informed the team as she and Tanner continued on to the next large room.
This one, like the last, showed no sign of being inhabited, excep
Standing in a makeshift hospital room surrounded by twenty-some-odd Guardians whose bodies were struggling to put themselves back together, Cadence tried to concentrate on what the doctor was explaining to her, but too many distractions filled her mind, and she ended up just nodding along.It should’ve helped that Dr. Cale Ryan was the second hottest guy that she’d ever met in real life. With his wavy blond hair and light blue eyes, he was tall and dreamy. And his British accent was to die for. When they’d first met the year before, she’d fallen for him almost immediately. Her anger at Aaron had driven her on a self-discovery tour that eventually took her to Cale’s territory—Nevada—and while their relationship had been short-lived thanks to the ambush and tragedy at Sierraville, she still counted the doctor as a friend. So paying attention to him shouldn’t have been this difficult. When Aaron had asked him to catch a plane the n
Biting her nails was a bad habit Cassidy had picked up from watching her sister, but right now, she was sitting in a room listening to Tara’s heart monitor beep every twenty or thirty seconds, waiting to see if each blip might be the last, the noise only offset slightly by Jamie’s even breathing on the bed next to her; Cassidy wasn’t willing to give up the vice.It’d only been about five minute since Dax had left to go find a snack, but it seemed like an eternity. It was amazing just how many independent, disturbing thoughts could flicker through her mind’s eye in just those few minutes. The most disturbing of all involved the little girl who’d begun all of this mayhem, and Cassidy was still baffled at how she’d missed the true intent behind Mina’s plea to take care of her little girl. How had she been so easily tricked?Asking that question was sort of pointless, though, because Cassidy already knew the answer. Mina had
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