The footage from the night before was difficult for Cadence to watch, but she made herself go back over it with the team, looking for anything they could’ve missed. In the first few seconds of Alex’s IAC recording, before he spoke at all, they could hear one of the Vampires in the background chanting something. That had sent Cassidy on an errand to go extract the information by whatever means necessary. A few hours later, she’d returned with a glint in her eye. “Leig solas na fala fala a-mach d ’anam!”“Fala fala to you, too,” Cadence replied, a smirk on her face for the first time in a while. “Where’d you find that?”“All of their heads, eventually. Well, the four gents. The girls had no idea what I was talking about. It took a little persuasion of the strong-arm variety.”Cadence shook her head, glad her sister was on their side. “All right. So... now we just need to f

The Vampire girl, Heather, had led them to some sort of a large opening, and from his vantage point, Aaron couldn’t quite see what she meant when she said they weren’t alone. But he could hear. Around them, the growls and hisses grew substantially louder until it was obvious attack was inevitable.“What is this place that they don’t seem to want us here?” Elliott asked, his voice low.“It’s not the place itself, I don’t think,” she replied in a harsh whisper. “I think it’s just that this place is more open than the rest, that they can see me—us—better, that’s all.”“And this thing you want to show us is here?” Brandon clarified.“Yep. So get ready. Be careful with your damn bullets, though. I ain’t traversed this place this long to get killed now.”Heather took a few more steps into the opening and the rest of them followed. As so

“A what?” Heather asked, and the others exchanged confused expressions for different reasons altogether. He’d had his hand on that phone the whole time they’d been in there, so if he’d had a text before, he would’ve seen it. This had to be new.“What does it say?” Brandon asked, looking over Dax’s shoulder.Tears were streaming down the kid’s face again. “Hey, babe! I’m so glad you thought to text me. I’m not sure if or when you’ll get this, but you all should know we’re doing everything we can to get you out of there. So just be strong and be careful. I love you so much, and I can’t wait to see you again. I know it’ll be soon. You’ve got some savage protection in there with you. You’re going to be just fine. Don’t worry about me. I love you!”Dax read it again; Aaron could see his eyes wandering back over it. The second he was done, the

When she finally opened her eyes again, it was dark outside. She snatched her phone up off of the nightstand and quickly scanned the empty room. Cass wasn’t here. The clock said it was past 11:00. “Holy hell,” she muttered, shocked she’d slept that long.She had a text from Aaron, and the one she’d sent had gone through. “Hey, Mrs. McReynolds. I hope you’re holding up okay. Sorry I didn’t text you sooner. Who knew, right? Anyway, we’re all fine. Heather is here, if you haven’t heard by now. I’m not sure what these kids are sending out. She’s been here a long time and seems to know the place. With her help, I’m sure we’ll find our way out of here in no time. She claims there’s some sort of a key that’s supposed to open a door, but then it also opens by itself every once in a while. We’ve also found a spike in the ground in an open area with a bunch of tunnels heading off in lo

The right shoulder of Aaron’s favorite black leather jacket was shredded, claw marks ripping all the way through his shirt beneath, blood stains darkening the white material. But at least his arm was put back together, thanks to Jamie. In the last attack, none of them had gotten by unscathed. Even Heather, who had told them she hardly ever got injured by the bastards anymore, had been bitten pretty badly. Luckily, Jamie’s healing powers worked on Hybrid’s, too. She’d been astounded at how quickly and completely he could mend her shattered hand without even touching her.“They’re getting stronger, more intense,” Elliott noted as they all took refuge in one of the tunnel openings. It was the safest place to be. They could still see the center area where they’d found the spike, and they should be able to make it back out there when they heard the whooshing sound of the portal opening so that they could note which of the tunnels was