By the time Eliza awoke, the hunt was over. Aaron had his IAC fully up and operational and was sitting on her couch, answering messages and monitoring the newsfeed. As much as he wanted to go home, he knew he couldn't do that. So, he sat and waited for her to make her way into the living room, not sure where they would go from there.
"Hey," she said yawning. She was wearing only a T-shirt which hit at the top of her thighs, her hair still disheveled, clearly still groggy. "Working away as usual?" she asked with a coy smile.
When Giovani and Zabrina had run out of new places to hit along the Caribbean coast and the Mexican shoreline, they had returned to Cabo San Lucas, Jack in tow. They had long since given up on counting the number of victims. No one could touch them--the authorities thought they were chasing some sort of terrorist group. Every night, they took multiple victims, no longer caring about the possibility of being detected by either witnesses or recording devices. In fact, they were getting a little sloppy, and Jack was the only reasonable voice amongst them. He continued to caution that they needed to wrap it up and get back to the states so he could see Cadence, but by mid-January, Giovani was on such a high, Jack wasn't sure he was ever going to come back down.
On the treadmills at the gym, Cadence often let her frustration out by pounding the hell out of the track. She could now easily maintain 40 miles per hour for about two hours. There were times, however, when she wished she could just go outside and run, even though it would have to be slower so as not to draw attention to herself, because often Eliza would end up working out at the same time, and even looking at her ex-friend made her sick to her stomach."God, look at her over there," Aurora said, stomping it out next to Cad
“Thank you for choosing American Airlines. How may I help you?” the short brunette behind the counter asked as Jack approached the front of the line. She wasn't particularly pretty, but she had a friendly smile, despite the fact that working at the lost baggage center had to be anything but pleasant. Her name tag read "Grace," and Jack was drawing on every bit of that quality he had left to contain the rage he felt at having to report to this particular area of the airport to begin with."Hello, my bag was lost on a
Grace Faircloth had digital information on both of the passengers she found to be suspicious. She had sent it all over to her Uncle Sam earlier, but it wasn't until she was making her drive home to Arlington that she received a phone call from him confirming that he had received it. Due to the hectic Dallas-area traffic, she decided to play it safe and take the call over her wireless Bluetooth connection. "Hi, Uncle Sam! How are you?""Hey, darlin'" came the reply. "I'm a little concerned, sweetheart. I think you did the right thing in letting me know about these two shady characters. Unfortun
Cadence was done running in the team workout facility. After yesterday's encounter with Aaron and the merciless gleeful expression always plastered on her ex-friend's face as she trotted along on the elliptical, she decided to take her run outside. Even if it meant working on endurance instead of speed, she was not willing to run into the same problem two days in a row.And yet, as she rounded a corner nearly 15 miles from headquarters, she found herself running exactly into said problem. "Son of a bitch," she muttered, bringing her sprint to a halt in front of where Aaron sat on a brick wall
Cadence made it back to her apartment in record time. She had cried so often in the last few weeks that she honestly didn't think she had anything left in her. Yet, as she locked the door and leaned back on it momentarily to catch her breath, she felt the tears stinging her eyes once again. Wiping at them absently, she resolved herself not to let him get to her, not to even entertain the notion of what it would be like to have to face Jack in combat, and taking her phone out of her pocket and setting it on the coffee table, she went to take a shower.Despite her hopes that the shower would was
Cadence's eyes widened as she listened to a firsthand opinion about the cause of the Irish Potato Famine. She had always had a keen interest in history, and now, listening to him describe it as an eye-witness was fascinating beyond description."One day, in 1846, my best friend Kian O'Braonain and I were returning from a trip to a neighboring village. In an attempt to find some food to take home to our wives, we came across a ghastly scene. A pair of Vampires had captured three little girls and were about to feed on them. The girls were screaming, clearly terrified at the sight of the monstrou
Aaron continued. “ I should have understood that, that was precisely what had happened. But I was too foolish, or too emotionally distraught to believe it. I thanked God for giving me my wife back. We went on about our lives, completely entrenched in our marital bliss, me ignoring all of the signs that this creature was not my wife, she pretending everything was as it should be, until I caught her sneaking back into our home one night. The next morning, I stumbled upon a mourning party burying the remains of a small child. There was no doubt in my mind then that Aislyn was no longer the person I had married.
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