Destruction: The Clandestine Saga Book 6 E-Book

Johnson ID

• Herausgeber: ID Johnson
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Was bringing her best friend back from the dead a lethal mistake?

Against the Guardian Leader’s wishes, Cadence opened a portal in order to bring her best friend back from beyond the grave. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one who came back.

Now, Cadence must battle two demonic vampires and send them back to the beyond before they create an army of the undead whose only mission is to destroy the LIGHTS team forever. Hundreds of people could lose their lives, and every last Hunter could be wiped out, if Cadence can’t hunt down and destroy the pair she’s already terminated once.
Will she be strong enough to end them again?

The Clandestine Saga follows the story of Cadence Findley, Vampire Hunter extraordinaire, as she embarks on a quest to rid the world of Vampires. She is part of an elite team of Hunters and Guardians know as LIGHTS whose sole purpose is to protect humans from the creatures that lurk in the shadows.

Leseprobe

Destruction

The Clandestine Saga Book 6

ID Johnson

Copyright © 2018 by ID Johnson

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Book cover designed by Sparrow Book Covers

Created with Vellum

To Kaye. Thanks for all of your enthusiastic support!

Newsletter

Get several of my books for free when you sign up for my newsletter here:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/idjohnsonnewslettersignup

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Epilogue

A Note from the Author

Chapter 1

The sky above the forest seemed to have swallowed up the stars, and the remnants of the moon did little to light the way as Delilah Lewis drew in her breath and cautiously waded down to the shore of the river. She was careful not to slip on the rocks her father had just warned her about two seconds earlier. If she had her cell phone with her, she could use it as a flashlight, but her dad had insisted, “No electronics on the camping trip.” She knew he relished days like this, and even though it was fairly warm outside for February, Delilah didn’t want to let him know how absolutely miserable she was already, just one day into the long weekend.

She squatted down at the water’s edge and rinsed the dinner plates. Her dad was always very careful about keeping things tidy at camp, especially since there’d been rumors of bears or something else large meandering around in the woods recently. One more reason why she hoped this was the last time the two of them ever had to go camping together. At fifteen and a half, there were a lot more fun things she could think of to do on a long weekend then drive out into the mountains with her dad, even if it was a tradition and this was the thirty-second time she’d found herself at Angeles State Park in sunny Southern California.

Thoughts of what her friends were likely doing back home had Delilah pausing, taking a seat on a larger rock and examining the night sky. It was usually beautiful out here, but tonight something seemed off, like the stars had neglected to take their places. It was probably prettier from the beach where her friends were staying. Or from Robby Lee’s house where an epic party was happening without her.

“Delilah!” her dad called. “You get lost? Hurry up! It’s late. We need to get to bed soon if we’re going fishing at dawn!”

She looked up the slope to see her dad, Kent, had taken a few steps closer before yelling. The moonlight seemed to reflect off the top of his balding head.

“I’ll be right back, Dad!” she called, glad they didn’t seem to have any other campers too close by. She’d hate to wake anyone else with their shouting. This was her dad’s favorite location, even though it was pretty close to a new road the park service had recently put in, and he wasn’t a fan of hearing vehicles in the middle of the night—not that that happened much. Occasionally a ranger would drive by on patrol, but that was about it.

Delilah sighed and brushed her long red hair over her shoulder, carrying the dinner plates back up the hillside. A rustling sound from the tree line had her frozen in her tracks. It actually sounded like footsteps crunching on top of the fallen leaves. When she stopped and turned to face the outliers of the forest about twenty yards in front of her, the noise stopped, too, as if whatever was there was intelligent enough to know she was looking. Whatever it was making that sound, it seemed large. Delilah swallowed hard as little beads of perspiration sprang up along her forehead.

“Lilah-Bug!” her dad shouted.

“C—coming.” Her response probably wasn’t loud enough for him to hear, but Delilah turned and headed back up the incline as fast as her legs would carry her.

When she reached the campfire, she was glad to see her dad standing there in the orange glow. She took a deep breath, certain he would find a way to protect her from whatever animal that might’ve been in the woods.

“Are you okay?” he asked, taking the plates from her and sliding them into their storage case. “You look a little pale.”

“I’m fine. I just… heard a skunk or something,” Delilah replied, taking deep breaths. She looked around for her canteen and found it next to the log she’d been sitting on earlier. Her dad tried to rough it as much as possible. No folding chairs for them.

Her dad immediately began to laugh. “Oh, my gosh! Do you remember that time your mom got sprayed by that skunk?” he asked as Delilah took a sip of water. “That was the funniest thing that has ever happened to us while camping.”

“Yeah, Mom didn’t think so,” Delilah replied, screwing the lid back on her canteen. The woods ran up the incline and narrowed in closer to the small, quick-pitch tent they’d brought with them. Whatever was out there could just as easily stay under cover and make its way up here. She peered into the darkness between the trees but didn’t see anything.

“I know. I think that was the last time she ever came with us.” Her dad’s voice didn’t sound so colorful now, and Delilah thought about how hard the divorce had been on him, how hard everything had been on him since her mother remarried and had her little brother. That was one of the main reasons why Delilah had come. She couldn’t bear to see him disappointed even one more time.

“Well, I think everything’s cleaned up here,” Kent said, surveying the area carefully. “I need to go visit nature’s restroom one more time, and then we’ll get to bed.”

“Okay,” Delilah said. Kent gave her a meager smile and headed off toward the tree line. Delilah thought she saw something moving there again, though she didn’t hear anything. “Dad!” she called as he came within a few steps of the first patch of darkness beyond which she could not see.

“Yeah, Lilah-Bug?” he called, pausing to look over his shoulder at her.

Swallowing back her unfounded fear, Delilah said, “Uh… watch out for skunks.”

Kent Lewis gave a little chuckle. “Don’t worry about me. I’m immune to skunk spray.” He was still laughing when he crossed in-between the trees and disappeared into the inkwell of forest.

Despite feeling silly, Delilah stood perfectly still, staring into the darkness, forcing herself to breathe. Something was wrong; she could feel it in her bones. In all of her camping trips, she’d never felt like this before. She glanced down to see the hairs on her arms below the pushed up sleeves of her flannel shirt, all standing on end. She inhaled deeply again, refocusing her attention on the line of trees.

The rustling sound began again, this time to her left, closer to the water, but not far enough into the forest to be her father coming back unless he’d gotten lost and wasn’t taking the same path to return. That didn’t seem like him. Delilah wanted to call out, to tell him she thought the animal was moving in his direction, but as the leaves continued to crunch, she realized whatever this was had to be much bigger than a skunk. Images of her father being torn apart by a bear filled her mind, and then the forest grew silent.

Delilah took a hesitant step forward. With quivering lips, she shouted, “D-dad?” An eerie silence hung in the air between her and the forest. Her pulse was racing as she fisted and unfisted her hands at the sides. Delilah took another step so that she was standing at the edge of the fire pit. “Dad!”

Once again there was nothing, and then, from between the trees, weaving in and out like a smoky finger tracing its way through the air, a gust of air descended upon the campfire, extinguishing it like a deluge of water had been poured from an invisible bucket, leaving Delilah surrounded by a thick darkness.

No longer able to shout, Delilah’s ragged breath echoed around her as she searched the tree line frantically for any sign of her dad. She couldn’t formulate the words to yell for him again. Thinking she heard something behind her, she spun around, but there was nothing there. The trees there were almost as still as the ones that had been in front of her, the ones that had devoured her father. Delilah spun back around just in time to see another shift in the tree branches. Footsteps crunched through the leaves, hurried ones, and branches began to snap. Tears filled her eyes as Delilah began to pray it was her dad, but before she could find the strength to shout for him again, a terrifying scream punctuated the night sky.

“Delilah! RUN!”

“DAD!”

Something was coming through the trees, but it wasn’t her father. She could tell by the distance from which she’d heard his voice, which sounded unnaturally gravely, almost as if he were underwater. Just as a form broke the veil and stepped out into the clearing, Delilah recovered her ability to move and instinctually turned and took off as fast as she could toward the road.

The path was rocky, with fallen branches and twigs that reached out and swiped at her hair. She felt thorns dig into her face as she lost her footing and tumbled into a bush. Regaining her footing as quickly as she could, she continued to fight her way uphill toward the road, her only chance at finding someone to help. The sound of footsteps behind her grew nearer, but Delilah didn’t dare turn to see what was behind her. The overwhelming sense of doom filled her soul as she ran for her life.

About twenty feet in front of her, she could see the edge of the pavement. She realized that just because she reached the road, that didn’t mean she’d find help. Seldom did anyone even use this access path, but she knew there was a park ranger cabin about a half a mile down the street, closer to the park entrance. Maybe she could outrun it. Something told her that whatever this was it was toying with her. If it wanted to catch her, it would’ve done so already. This was a game, and Delilah was the ball. Nevertheless, she kept running.

Dax Forest was made to be a park ranger. That’s what his friends always said, anyway. Not only had he been one of the youngest boys in his troop to reach Eagle Scout, he had the perfect name for someone who liked to spend the majority of his time outdoors. That’s why when he’d decided to forgo college and take this opportunity to become a park ranger the year before, no one had been surprised.

When he was younger, his father had taught him how to fish and hunt, how to survive outside. In fact, he was often far ahead of the rest of his Boy Scout friends and earned all of his badges as quickly as possible. His dad always joked that hunting was in his blood, though if one were to ask his grandmother, it was a different kind of hunting.

Dax had never really believed the fanciful tales his beloved Nana Mel had told him when he was younger, stories of how her great-grandfather had been a vampire hunter. She had some really detailed ones, ones that made a person think maybe there was some truth to them, but his dad always insisted Nana Mel was just pulling his leg. Dax always thought if he ever saw one ounce of proof in his life that vampires were real, perhaps he’d further explore his grandmother’s prediction that he was capable of doing the same sort of things her great-grandfather had done, beheading monsters, joining secret agencies, hunting the undead. For now, he was content to keep an eye on the scanner and help lost campers if it let him enjoy the serenity of nature.

Something seemed to be different that night, however. As Dax sat at the park ranger station with the radio on, listening to nothing, an electricity seemed to fill the air. He glanced down and noticed the hairs on his arms were standing on end. An uneasiness settled over him, and before he knew what he was doing, he stood, grabbing his portable radio, snapping it to his belt, and pulling the keys to the SUV down off of the hook by the door.

Outside, the air was palpable. Usually, the air out here was crisp and clear, especially this time of year as winter turned to spring. Even before he’d taken the job at Angeles State Park, he’d spent more time camping and fishing here than he could ever calculate, so he was familiar with the park in all seasons. Tonight, the air seemed too still, the stars seemed dull, and there was a heaviness that seemed to descend from the heavens, weighing him down, pushing him into the earth like a heavy blanket of darkness.

Dax climbed inside and brought the engine to life, not sure where he was going, but something deep inside of him said to drive. So he did.

Delilah reached the edge of the road and lost her footing as the asphalt began to slip away. She fell, her chin connecting with the broken surface, splitting open. She scrambled to her feet and wiped droplets of blood on her sleeve as she took off toward the ranger station.

Running along the edge of the road, she felt that she was no longer being followed, though the idea that something evil was nearby hadn’t left her completely. She took a chance and glanced back over her shoulder. She was relieved to see there was nothing behind her but continued to run anyway. Whatever had inspired her father to shout at her to do so was still out there, and hopefully so was he. Thoughts of what might have happened to him had tears streaming down her face again.

There was a curve in the road in front of her, and she thought she saw headlights just around the bend. Delilah gathered what little breath she had to shout out for help when the sound of snapping branches on her right surprised her, and she turned just in time to see a pale hand reach through the trees, grabbing her by the back of her shirt. Delilah screamed and tried to pull away as her clothing ripped. She could see long, black claws protruding from the hand. Looking up, eyes glowing gray, rimmed in red, met hers, a pale white, ghastly face with long protruding fangs stared at her between the trees.

Delilah screamed and the creature, whatever it might be, launched itself out of the forest, colliding with Delilah and sending her careening across the asphalt just as the vehicle rounded the corner. The hollow eyes on top of her bore down as the car approached, and Delilah was certain she was going to die, though she had no idea which method would claim her first.

Dax didn’t usually listen to music while he was driving around the park for fear it might distract him from the radio on his belt, should someone be trying to call him, but whoever had driven this vehicle last had left it on a country music station, so he kept it there as he rode along, listening to Johnny Cash. He adjusted his hat, smoothing his dark blond hair behind his ears and trying not to pick at his face, something Nana Mel was always getting on to him about. He’d hoped by the time he was nineteen, he’d grow out of it, but she said oily skin was in their blood. And so was vampire hunting.

He sighed and approached a sharp curve in the road, trying not to fixate on Nana’s silly stories. If her own son didn’t believe them, why should he? Still, on nights like this, where something just seemed wrong, and he couldn’t put his finger on it, he wondered if there was any truth to it.

A chuckle escaped his lips as he thought about how ridiculous that sounded. He rounded the corner and his headlights caught something on the edge of the road. At first he had no idea what he was looking at. Dax pounded on the brakes as what looked to be two people scuffling went flying across the road, landing right in front of him. He turned the wheel to the side and barely brought the SUV to a stop just short of making contact with the two.

With shaking hands, Dax threw the vehicle into park and fumbled to locate the emergency firearm they kept secure in the glovebox. Deciding from the looks of the scuffle he didn’t have time, he leapt out of the front seat of the SUV with only his flashlight as a weapon. He rounded the back of the car in time to see a human form sprinting into the woods on the other side of the road. Just before it disappeared into the darkness, it turned and looked at him, the pale face seeming to glow in the moonlight. Dax felt the urge to chase after it, but screams from the other person, the one still lying next to his tire on the road, drew his attention away, and when he looked back up, the figure was gone.

Dax rushed to the young girl on the ground. She was lying on her back, blood trickling from her chin and her head. “You’re okay!” he shouted, dropping down next to her. “You’re okay!”

“Dad! DAD!” the girl shouted, scrambling up to a sitting position.

Dax reached out and grabbed ahold of her shoulder, forcing her to stay where she was. “Take some deep breaths. I need you to calm down so I can help you.”

“That… that thing… it got my dad!” She shouted, still fighting to get to her feet.

“Okay, okay,” Dax said, shining his flashlight around again, both in the direction from which he thought the girl came and toward the place where the monster had disappeared. “Who was that?” he asked.

“Not who,” the girl said, her lips trembling. “What.”

Dax Forest swallowed hard and shone his flashlight in between the trees where an impenetrable darkness seemed to mock him. Perhaps Nana Mel wasn’t making things up after all.

Chapter 2

The sound of her shoes hitting the treadmill was a noise Cadence Findley had grown to love over the last year and a half. Sometimes she didn’t even listen to music when she worked out, preferring to focus on the sound of her rubber soles thunking against the endless black road beneath her feet. She knew she was running particularly fast when it sounded like a heavy deluge was falling, and by now she could usually tell when she’d reached thirty-five miles per hour without even glancing at the numbers because it had a certain… cadence to it.

Today, she was preoccupied, though, watching her sister, Cassidy, in the gym across the hallway, two windows and a couple hundred feet between them. Cass was still training with Aurora Howe and would probably be ready for her observational hunts in a week or two, though she was still having trouble with the weapons. Cadence thought it probably had more to do with Shane Talberson being the one to teach her how to shoot than the actual shooting itself, and the Hunter Leader considered asking Elliott Sanderson to work with her in a couple of days, once he got back from Oklahoma.

All of it seemed surreal—the fact that Cassidy was a Hybrid who had been able to lure Gibbon out of hiding, that Elliott was back from the dead, that Grandma Janette was gone forever. Even though it had been nearly three weeks since they’d returned from Philadelphia, in these still moments when she had a chance to think, she had a very hard time believing any of this was real.

Taking one hour for herself every day to run was about all she could afford with thousands of Hunters around the world to coordinate. It was always night somewhere; there was always a hunt—or a dozen—going on elsewhere, but she held this time for herself sacred and rarely gave it up for anything anymore. Now that her system of delegation seemed to be working, it was getting easier.

And there was the fact that Vampiric activity seemed to have dropped off significantly recently, something they still hadn’t quite managed to grasp. The drop in sightings and attacks seemed to correspond with the night last week when Cassidy had her nightmare. That’s the only way Cadence could describe it. Even now, thinking back to how eerie it had been to see Cassidy sit up ramrod straight and announce, “The time is now,” before collapsing, was… bizarre to say the least.

While Cadence had been afraid to wake her sister at the time since she seemed to fall back into a peaceful slumber almost immediately, the next morning, she’d asked a million questions. All Cass could remember was standing in front of a dilapidated building, staring at two people who didn’t know she was there. She couldn’t remember who they were or what they were doing. As much as Cadence had questioned her in an attempt to jar her memory, nothing was forthcoming.

The door to the workout room opened, bringing Cadence out of her thoughts. She couldn’t help but smile when she realized it was Aaron despite the fact that he was here probably meant bad news. Still, even when he had that concerned expression on his face, she thought he was absolutely the hottest guy on the planet. He ran his hand through his light brown hair, another sign something was wrong, and Cadence glanced down at the treadmill. She had another fifteen minutes to go, but she was pretty sure she’d be cutting her run short today. She hit the kill switch and wound her way down to a jog and then a walk as he waited patiently for her next to the treadmill.

“What’s up?” she asked as soon as she could catch her breath. She pulled her water bottle out of the holder in front of her and guzzled it as he began to speak.

“Sorry to interrupt. I know how important this time is to you, but I think you need to know about what happened in California last night,” he replied, his piercing blue eyes narrowed with concern.

“Everything okay?” Cadence asked, a question she knew he’d take to mean she wanted to know if everything was okay with their own personnel. Obviously, everything wasn’t okay or else he wouldn’t have interfered with her run to walk all the way over here. The fact that she had her IAC completely off so that no one could bother her while she worked out was a good indication of how sacred her workout time was, and if anyone knew that, it was Aaron McReynolds.

“Yeah, with our people, anyway, but… just come to the conference room as soon as you’re done in the shower.”

“What? You don’t want me to come like this?” she asked, tossing her towel over her shoulder and jumping off of the treadmill, her hands raised in a display of disbelief.

Aaron flashed a crooked grin in her direction. “Nah, cause you stink.”

She made a wounded puppy face and then launched herself at him, wiping her sweat all over his nice blue dress shirt and gray slacks. “I stink? I stink?” she asked.

“Seriously, Cadence?” he asked, but he was laughing, a sign of progress that she was managing to make him a little more normal, and she found his lips briefly before she pulled away sparing him the task of pushing her off. She knew he would likely go all the way back to their apartment and change clothes now that she’d wiped her stinky perspiration all over him.

“Okay. I’ll be right there,” she said, stepping backward as he looked down at his damp shirt and shook his head. “I was just marking my territory,” she shrugged.

“Thank God you didn’t pee on me then,” Aaron muttered as he turned to walk away. Over his shoulder he shouted, “By the way, for future reference, I don’t think that’s necessary! Everyone already knows I belong to you.”

Cadence couldn’t help but smile. “They better,” she said, catching his eye before she turned and took off for the showers. As she pushed through the door, she almost ran directly into Ashley Stone who was headed into the workout room.

“Oh, sorry, Cadence!” Ashley said, stepping back out of the way.

“No, I’m sorry,” Cadence replied, forcing a smile on her face. They danced around each other for a moment before Cadence finally stepped out into the hall and held the door open for Ashley. They shared a little giggle, which was totally fake on Cadence’s part, and then she headed onto the shower, the easy smile Aaron had brought to her lips only a few moments ago gone.

She tried not to think about Ashley, although there was just something about the new Hunter that rubbed her the wrong way, and entered the locker room. She knew she needed to hurry. There was a good chance Aaron wasn’t the only one waiting on her, so she didn’t bother to turn her IAC back on for fear she’d get distracted. Instead, she rushed through a quick shower and got dressed, hoping her body wash would be strong enough to rinse away the stench her beloved had referred to earlier.

By the time Cadence reached the conference room, about twenty minutes had passed, which wasn’t bad. Her hair was still damp and she hadn’t bothered to put on any makeup, but she seriously doubted anyone Aaron would’ve assembled there would care anyway. Since Elliott was out of town, she expected to see Hannah Roberts, Jamie Joplin, and Christian Henry there, and when she walked in, that’s exactly who greeted her, and Aaron, of course, who pulled out her chair as she walked in.

“Sorry to keep you all waiting,” she said, rushing over and taking her seat.

“No problem,” Hannah said, speaking for all of them. “Sorry you didn’t get a chance to finish your workout.

“Do I smell any better?” Cadence asked, eying her fiancé, who had on a different shirt, though she thought his pants were the same. She wondered if he kept clean shirts strategically located throughout headquarters, though she’d never thought about it before.

“Much,” he replied smiling at her before he turned his attention back to the rest of the team. “Okay, I received a message about an hour ago from Daniel Bower, the head of the San Francisco Area. As you all know, he’s been running most of California recently.” Aaron looked at Cadence out of the corner of his eye, an indication that he was referring to her new system, one he wasn’t necessarily fond of, but Daniel had proven himself in San Fran, and Cadence had recently expanded his responsibility. “He said he got a telephone call early this morning from a park ranger at Angeles State Park, saying that there was a death in the park last night, and this ranger thinks it could be one of ours.”

Cadence’s eyes narrowed. “What makes him think that?” she asked, leaning in a little bit. “How did he even know who to call?”

“What’s the ranger’s name?” Christian asked. “Anyone we’ve contacted before?”

Cadence looked at him sternly for a moment, wondering why he didn’t give Aaron a chance to answer her questions before he interjected, but Christian looked oblivious. The anger she’d felt at him for allowing Cassidy to put herself in another dangerous situation was still bubbling just under the surface and for a moment she wondered what the chances were that Aaron might reassign the Guardian. To Timbuktu.

Aaron cleared his throat and went about answering all of their questions at the same time, even the unasked once. “The kid’s name is Dax Forest, and yes, we think he might be one of ours. He said his grandmother, Melanie Forest, has been talking about Vampires for years, so he got Daniel’s contact info from her.” Cadence saw a flicker of recognition cross Jamie’s face, but the Healer didn’t interrupt. “Apparently, a young girl and her father were camping. Dad went to relieve himself and something ripped his throat out. He was able to scream at his daughter to run, so she took off, ran into Forest on the road….”

“The one coming out of the forest?” Jamie asked, and Cadence stifled a giggle, thinking if Elliott had been here, he probably would’ve asked the same thing.

Aaron didn’t even pause, “The ranger said he saw something disappear into the woods, and the girl, Delilah Lewis, described some sort of pale person with long stringy hair and sharp teeth.”

“Sounds like one of ours to me,” Hannah agreed.

“Yeah, so Daniel’s team is taking care of it, but he wants to know if we want him to recruit Dax,” Aaron concluded.

“Of course,” Jamie said quickly. “Guy with park ranger experience? Why not? Besides, I’m pretty sure he’s already on our list. That name sounds familiar.”

Christian was nodding. “Yeah, Melanie Forest is Grayson Townsend’s great-granddaughter. I’ve got it pulled up. Dax and his sister Gretchen are on the list. We just hadn’t gotten to them yet.”

One of the changes Cadence had made when she’d taken over as Hunter Leader was more aggressive recruitment. Aaron had never had time for it when he was trying to do everything by himself, but Cadence thought they could build the team faster if they actively went after kids between the ages of seventeen and twenty to try to convince them to join the LIGHTS team before any sort of encounter started the Transformation process or they missed their window altogether. Aaron had always believed it should be up to family members and fate for the most part to convince people to go through with it, but Cadence knew how desperately they needed good Hunters and Guardians, and so far her method was working.

“Hunter or Guardian?” Cadence asked, crossing her fingers.

“Guardian,” Christian replied.

“Nuts,” she muttered, snapping her fingers in disappointment.

“He hasn’t even agreed to Transform yet,” Aaron reminded her.

“I know, but he will. You don’t go back from that. I assume he saw the bloodsucker, too?” she asked. Aaron slowly nodded his head. “Yep. New recruit for you.”

“Okay, well, beyond all of that, the fact that this happened in a state park—in February—got me wondering. We haven’t had very many attacks in the last week or so, but the ones that have taken place have all been in strange locations.”

“What do you mean?” Hannah asked, brushing her strawberry-blonde hair over her shoulder.

Aaron pulled up a map on the projector behind him. “The Xs all mark spots where the recent attacks have occurred—the ones we know about that are certainly ours. This is just America, but a look at other countries and continents would show a similar pattern.”

Cadence turned to study the map. All of the Xs seemed to be in rural locations, all near major highways, and some of them close to each other.

“What do you mean by strange locations?” Christian asked.

The Leader must’ve already been prepared for that question because, using his IAC, he pulled up an overlay that covered the first image with labels. Cadence read a few of them quickly. “Gas station, hotel, rest stop,” she said, her eyes flickering around, finding much of the same. Only a couple were listed as residential or highly populated commercial, which is what they were used to seeing.

“So… I’ll give you that’s weird,” Jamie said. “But what do you think it means?”

“I’m not exactly sure yet,” Aaron admitted, turning from the map to face his team. “But it looks like movement to me.”

Cadence agreed. All of those locations had something to do with traveling. “So where do we think they’re going?” she asked, her eyes still stuck on the red Xs.

“I don’t know.” The feel of Aaron’s gaze made Cadence turn to look at him. “But I think we’ll find out soon.”

His words sounded ominous, and Cadence swallowed hard, holding his eyes with hers.

“We need more information,” Christian concluded. “Maybe we can get Cass to…”

“Maybe,” Cadence said, interrupting before he could finish the sentence since she already knew what he would propose. She let out a sigh. “I’ll talk to her.” Her sister didn’t really like using her Vampiric abilities to probe into the minds of the undead, but in this instance, she might need to.

“Do you think it has something to do with the portal?” Jamie asked, looking directly at Aaron.

“I do,” he nodded.

“We don’t know that,” Cadence interjected. “It could be something else. Is there an Eidolon Festival coming up or anything?”

“Not that they’ve announced.” Aaron shook his head and ran his hand along his jawline. “I don’t think they’d do that without letting us know.”

Eidolon Festivals were tricky, and Cadence was all for getting rid of them altogether. Her friend Drew Peterson had been killed at one, and that’s how she’d gotten dragged into this other world herself. Giving Vampires free reign for one night, so long as no one got hurt against their will, when it was so hard to distinguish what was against a person’s will under the circumstances, seemed like a very bad idea to her. “I’ll see if Cass can find that out, too.”

“All right. I think that’s all for now. I have heard a few rumors that we might have an RV park of our own to investigate soon enough, down near Butler, but I need some more information.” Aaron began to shuffle the papers in front of him.

“Great! Red-neck Vampires,” Jamie muttered.

“You don’t have to be a red-neck to live in an RV,” Hannah reasoned.

“Maybe not, but I’d be willing to wager we’ll find our fair share of NASCAR posters on the walls,” he replied as the three of them stood and sauntered toward the door.

“What do you have against NASCAR?” Christian was asking as they walked out, and Cadence had to chuckle a little bit. She wouldn’t have taken Christian for a racing fan. If Jamie answered, it was out of her earshot.

Aaron swiveled his chair around to look at her. “What do you think this is?” he asked, looking at her like he already knew the answer but wanted to feel her out.

“I don’t know,” she admitted with a shrug. “But I don’t know how it could be portal related.”

His eyes didn’t shift, and she understood that to mean he disagreed. He had kept his word, so far, and hadn’t said anything at all about the portal opening bringing back something evil and it all being her fault. She assumed he was just biding his time. “Are you keeping a close eye on the missing person’s reports?”

“Yep,” she nodded. That was one statistic she had her Area Leaders check on every day and alert her if there was any unusual rise in numbers.

“Nothing so far?”

“Nope.”

He narrowed one eye at her, like he wasn’t sure if he trusted that response. He let out a long sigh and said, “When this all goes to hell, we’re going to have to act fast this time. We can’t let whatever this is get too far ahead of us.”

Bringing up the point that she still didn’t think there was anything to worry about seemed pointless, so she only nodded. “You think the drop in numbers is due to this movement, not an actual decrease in activity?”

Aaron nodded his head.

“Have you ever seen anything like this before? A shift?”

“No, I haven’t,” he admitted. “But then, the portal’s never been opened in a time when we can track it either.”

Cadence was afraid to continue to discuss the portal for fear they really would end up in an argument, so she stood. “All right. I’ll go talk to Cass. When’s Elliott coming back?”

“He wasn’t sure. Tomorrow or the next day.”

“Will we have enough intel on the RV park you spoke of to move by then?”

“I hope so. I’ve got a few Independents scoping it out.”

Independent Hunters and Guardians—people who worked with them but weren’t directly part of the team. “All right,” she said, heading toward the door. “Keep me posted.”

“Will do,” he replied, and Cadence turned to smile at him to remind him that she still loved him even when they were talking business and bordering on the touchy subject of what opening the portal may have brought back. The fact that he returned the smile, and it looked almost genuine, lifted her spirits slightly as she headed out to find her sister.

Chapter 3

The small ranch-style house sat in the middle of a row of similar unassuming houses in the better part of town, from what Elliott could tell, if there was a better part of town in Pryor, Oklahoma. Driving in, he’d notice there wasn’t much about this tiny village to get too excited about.

Brandon said his mom usually got home from her job at the nursing home around 5:30, a little later if she stopped by the liquor store on the way, which Brandon noted was pretty much every afternoon. A glance at the time on his IAC told him she should be pulling into the driveway any minute now.

He’d considered calling, but he knew she wouldn’t believe it was him. Cadence had filled him in on how she’d spoken to Amanda Keen at the funeral—his funeral—so she thought he was still dead. Brandon hadn’t told her anything otherwise, mostly because he had been avoiding speaking to her as much in the last three weeks since the portal opened as he had the first eighteen years of his life.

At 5:37, an older model sedan pulled into the drive and a few seconds later, a small woman with long, wavy red hair climbed out of the driver’s side, carrying what appeared to be a purse, lunchbox, and a brown paper bag—the big kind, the kind that carried more than one bottle.

“Jesus,” Elliott muttered under his breath. When Brandon had mentioned she had a bit of a drinking problem, he’d imagined the kid might be exaggerating a bit. If she was bringing multiple bottles home every night, his son was more accurate than he’d given him credit for.

He gave her a moment to get inside and get settled before he took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the Buick Enclave he’d parked across the street from the small house. He unfolded his large frame from behind the steering wheel, stretching. It had been a long time since he’d spoken to her, though he had sent her one email right before he died, and memories of the night they met flickered through his mind’s eye, reminding him of how beautiful, how full of life she’d been. Even though it had only been one night, he’d remembered every detail for nearly two decades. Something told him the Amanda Keen he was about to interact with had changed a bit over those years. He approached the house with disinclination.

He pulled open a creaky metal screen door and knocked twice on the thin circa-1970s front door. He heard an exasperated sigh from within and the sound of footsteps drawing closer. He doubted she was expecting anyone. Except for maybe Jack Daniels. Or Brandy Wine.

Amanda pulled the door open, words already flying out of her mouth. “What do you want?” she asked, tipping her head up to meet his eyes as the last words exited her lips. Her countenance changed, and she stared at him in confusion and then recognition.

She didn’t look the same—not even a little bit. When they’d met, Amanda had beautiful alabaster skin, a spray of freckles across her nose. She’d worn her hair shorter then as well, but there were more wrinkles on her face than should’ve been. She reeked of cigarette smoke, and there was already a trembling in her hand as she braced herself against the doorjamb, like he hadn’t quite given her enough time to down whatever fix she’d carried in in that brown paper bag.

“Hi,” was about all he could manage as he stared down at her.

“What—what are you doing here?” she asked, punctuating the “you.” She looked him up and down. “You died. I was at your funeral. It was… ridiculous. Just like you.”

“Nice to see you, too, ‘Manda,” Elliott said, forcing a smile he wasn’t quite feeling. “I’m back. I’d explain it to you, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t believe it anyway.”

She nodded and raised her eyebrows as if to say that’s probably true. “So why are you here?” she asked again. The tremor in her hand increased and she shifted, bringing it down to her hip, as if that might hide it.

“Why don’t you let me in. Let’s chat,” Elliott suggested. “Something tells me you could use a drink.” He wanted to add that he could use one, too, but watching her battle her own body made him think about giving it up altogether.

Amanda didn’t argue, just backed out of the way, headed for the kitchen, he imagined. Elliott took his time, walking in slowly, surveying his surroundings, and pushing the door closed behind him.

The living room was a mess. Dirty dishes, discarded clothing, an overflowing ashtray, and other countless items were flung all over the furniture. The carpet was littered with debris like it hadn’t been vacuumed in weeks, and even from the front door he could see a layer of dust accumulated on all of the surfaces Amanda might not have touched recently, like the television and the stand it sat on in the corner.

The kitchen must’ve been off to the right since that’s where he heard a barrage of opening and slamming cabinets. He headed that direction, walking in to see an even more disgusting situation here. The dishes were piled out of the sink, the trash literally overflowing onto the floor, and the stench of cat piss emanated from a litter box by the back door that looked like it hadn’t been changed out in a month.

Apparently unable to find anything suitable in the cabinets, Amanda grabbed a glass off of the counter, rinsed it out and poured herself a stout glass of Vodka swallowing it down straight in a big gulp. She drained over half of the glass before refilling it and turning to look at him. “What do you want, Elliott?”

So many answers flooded his mind all at once, but he didn’t know which of them to choose. She’d left him speechless before, but never like this. Finally, he said, “Amanda, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, leaning back against the counter next to the sink, which caused a bit of a landslide, and glass dishes clattered into one another loudly.

“What do I mean?” he repeated. Elliott ran a hand through his thick curls and leaned on the counter in front of him for a moment. With a deep breath, he looked up and tried to keep his voice even. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“Tell you?” she echoed, her tone not nearly as calm as his. “Tell you? Why? So you could come and take him? Steal him away from me in the middle of the night?”

“You know I’d never do that,” he said, not taking her bait, not yet, anyway. An argument was brewing, but he’d weather the storm. For now.

“How do I know that?” she said, her arms flailing. A splash of Vodka landed on her hand and for a moment he thought she might lick it off, the way he’d seen numerous Vampires collect every drop of blood off of their claws.

“You should’ve told me. I could’ve helped you. I could’ve… been there.”

Amanda set her glass down and took a few steps closer to him. “I didn’t want you there.”

He remembered it hadn’t always been that way. The evening they’d met, the electricity between them had been palpable. Before that, he’d read about people seeing someone across a crowded room and instantly knowing that was the one, but nothing remotely like that had ever happened to him before. He’d seen her on the other side of the dance floor and had instantly been drawn to her. They’d spent the entire evening together, all of the night, and in the morning they’d talked about the rest of their lives. Together.

And then he’d mentioned what he was, and she’d shattered the dream world he’d built for them.

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him. That was the funny thing. She did. She said she’d always suspected there was something out there, something evil. But she didn’t want to be a part of it. And she couldn’t be with someone who wasn’t human.

He’d said he’d quit. Right then and there, just like that; he was willing to give it all up, to walk away, to be with her.

Amanda Keen had finished pulling on her boots, turned around looked him squarely in the eyes and said, “Pretend you never met me,” and walked out of his life forever.

Until now.

Elliott stood staring into her green eyes, wondering why he would bother to argue with her about a decision she’d made nineteen years ago. There was nothing he could do or say to bring back the time he’d missed with his son, no way to know if he might’ve saved her from herself. He cleared his throat. “What, uh, what are you doing now? Working at a nursing home?”

“Yeah,” she said, taking a step back and grabbing her glass. “It’s great. Just like being a doctor.”

He remembered she’d been planning to start medical school. He’d always imagined she had done so. Not looking for her had been a challenge, but he’d done what she asked. Until Cadence convinced him to contact her a few days before he died. He should’ve done it sooner. Maybe he could’ve prevented this from happening.

He moved around the counter only slightly. “You know, you still could. If you want to. It’s not too late.”

Amanda laughed. “Are you serious? I never even completed my undergraduate. By the time I finished all that, I’d be… fifty.”

“So? In ten years, you’ll be fifty anyway. May as well be a fifty year old doctor.”

She shook her head and took another swig. He could see the tremors had stopped, but there would be other side effects soon. Something told him that Amanda wasn’t a nice drunk, and once again he wished he’d been there for his son when he needed him most. “And how would I pay for that exactly?” she scoffed.

“Well, the way I see it, I owe you a substantial amount of back child support.” He took another step toward her. “Why don’t you let me help you. With this.” He gestured at the glass in her hand. “Get you cleaned up a little bit.” He indicated the mess in the room. “Get this cleaned up a little bit. Get you back on your feet. And then… you can go be whatever the hell you want.” He was standing about a foot in front of her now, hoping she could see that he sincerely wanted to help her, hoping she could see that even through all of this, he still cared about her.

Once again, she was laughing, this time almost uncontrollably. “You can’t be serious, Elliott. You think any medical school would take me? A washed up, single mother whose only ever worked as a cashier, a waitress, or emptying bedpans?”

“Yeah, I’m serious. You know I can make you whoever you wanna be, Amanda.” He had told her all of that, told her what he could do, how he had access to all kinds of badges and official paperwork, how he could make people think whatever he wanted them to think. He’d never done it to her, though, as tempting as it might’ve been.

“Listen, Dr. Sanderson,” she began, “I’m not interested in your charity, okay?” She gave him a shove, making him take a step backward before she stepped around him, and Elliott wondered how many times Brandon had been on the receiving end of that sort of anger. It didn’t hurt him, of course, but it did shock him at how brazen she was. He had at least a foot on her and maybe a hundred pounds. He imagined Brandon’s size hadn’t been a deterrent either.

“I don’t want your help. I don’t want to see you. I raised our son—he’s grown now--so there’s no reason for you to ever show your face around here again, okay?” she was walking toward the living room briskly, and Elliott realized she was seeing him to the door.

Slowly, he followed her to the living room, taking one more look around. “Okay, Amanda. Well, if you change your mind…”

“I won’t change my mind.” She grabbed the door and pulled it open.

Elliott shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his black leather jacket as he headed out onto the porch, the sound of the metal screen door slamming behind him. He didn’t look back.

Cassidy Findley sat alone on the top of the trainee apartment building in a comfortable wicker chair with thick pillows Brandon Keen, her boyfriend of about three weeks, had set up for her here. She decided that the higher the elevation, the nearer the atmosphere, the quieter, the more alone she felt, the better her chances of feeling into the darkness to see what she could discover. It was more than a little comforting, however, to know that he was just on the other side of the door that led back into the building, should the process freak her out.

Her older sister Cadence had asked her a few hours ago to see if she could figure out what was going on with the Vampires. Cadence had gone over how Aaron had discovered there were a lot of incidents occurring around locations having to do with travel, and the Leaders wanted to know if there was anything she could find out by probing into the darkness. So far, since she’d made contact with Gibbon in Philadelphia about three weeks ago, Cassidy hadn’t tried to use her gift to reach out beyond her own consciousness. From time to time, she would catch snippets of conversation, but it was nothing like it had been leading up to the blue moon, when she’d been actually trying to figure out what was happening. For some reason, she’d felt fairly calm about everything, as if the Vampires were content with their own existences and were just going about their lives, trying to be like normal people. While she was aware she’d had a bad dream the week before, she couldn’t really remember it and didn’t see the point in trying to drag it back to memory unless and until it became necessary.

The stars were visible above her, even with the bright lights of downtown Kansas City off in the distance. A slight breeze stirred her hair, and she closed her eyes, trying to reach her thoughts out into the night, searching for those like her.

Initially, nothing happened, but then she began to hear static, like on a radio station that’s not quite tuned in. Snippets of conversation followed—nothing that seemed important. Sometimes all she could make out was the rhythm of discussion, the back and forth between two voices, without knowing what they were saying. Every once in a while she’d catch a word or phrase.

Cassidy reached her mind out further, thought about the RV park her sister had mentioned to her. Tried to think specifically about Butler, Missouri, a town she’d never visited but had looked up on her IAC. “What’s going on?” she called into the darkness. “Who’s there?”

It took a moment, but a jarring sensation sent her gasping for breath as visions filled her mind. A small house on a hill, a long time ago. Women in flowing dresses. Tall grass blowing in the wind. A dark night—an attack. And then… a change. She’d seen these things before, twice now. It was like she was stepping into the memories of that Vampire, and she realized she was in the mind of an older woman, one who’d been turned long ago, perhaps in the early 1800s.

“Who are you?” the woman asked, her voice crackling with age and distance, perhaps a bit of caution.

“A friend,” she replied. Cassidy had no way of knowing whether or not the woman could also see her own thoughts, how she’d been turned. If so, she might see more than just Zabrina scratching her. She might see Jamie injecting the Transformation serum that had saved her. Cassidy tried to concentrate on Zabrina’s face as her jaw had stretched beyond the limits of human capacity so that, if the other Vampire could see into her mind, she might think she was just like her. “Where is everyone going?”

If the woman was suspicious of her, there was no indication of it in her response. “The time is now,” the woman replied, each word measured. “We must get into place.”

“Into place for what?” Cassidy asked. More images flickered in front of her. She saw a crowd around a campfire, ten, maybe twelve laughing smiling faces. People of all ages, drinking, joking. Telling stories. Behind them, she could see RVs parked in rows. Cassidy got the impression this is where the woman was now. These people were not people anymore, not in the true sense of the word.

The television station in her mind began to flicker. The picture was gone, but then back again. Cassidy concentrated, trying to tune the frequency. “Into place for what?”

As the woman began to fade from her grasp, a one word answer came through loud and clear. “Destruction.”

Chapter 4

Elliott headed back to headquarters late in the afternoon the next day. He’d originally wanted to storm out of Amanda’s house and never look back after the way she’d dismissed his offer of help, but he realized that there was no way he could leave her to fend on her own, not in the shape she was in, so he’d taken care of a few things before starting the drive back to KC, which would’ve taken about twice as long if he’d been a human.

He pulled to a stop in front of the apartment building about a quarter till six, which left him more than an hour to get himself together in time to head to the pre-Hunt meeting Aaron had told him about earlier in the day. Part of him wanted a good stiff drink; the rest of him never wanted to touch alcohol again for the rest of his life. And if Aaron was right, that would be a really, really long time.

Juan Diego Arriaga, one of the humans who worked on campus, came out the door, and Elliott tossed him the keys. The guy was always real nervous around him, and Elliott heard rumors he was convinced he was a ghost. Even though Elliott couldn’t remember ever meeting him, apparently, he’d seen him carry Cadence into the hospital when she’d gotten shot by Laura Comer and been the custodian at the school where they’d taken out Cowboy Sam—after Elliott had died. Now, Juan Diego was always nice enough to help out by reparking the cars Elliott brought in, but he never wanted to chat and certainly wouldn’t have shook the Guardian’s hand.

Elliott called the elevator with his IAC, boarded it, and waited for it to reach his floor, his mind still going over the conversation he’d had with Amanda. He honestly wasn’t too surprised at her reaction to seeing him, though he had hoped she’d take some time to think about things and at least decide to get help for her addiction.

He walked into his apartment and was immediately surprised to see his son there. After living here for forty years alone, having a roommate was taking some getting used to. Brandon was pacing back and forth in front of the sofa where Cassidy was sitting, a worried expression on her face.

“Hey, what’s up?” Elliott said, taking off his jacket and tossing it on the back of the recliner nearest the door. “You trying to wear out the carpet?”

Brandon stopped and turned to look at him. “Why?” he said, raising one hand in the air, the other poised against his hip. “Why did you have to go and poke the bear?”

Elliott raised his eyebrows, not exactly sure what the problem was. He looked at Cassidy, who had been like a little sister to him before he died, though the fact that she was now dating his son complicated things. His eyes returned to Brandon. “What do you mean?”

“What do I mean?” Brandon repeated, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Brandon—tell your cock sucking father to stay the hell out of my goddamn house. If he so much as places one more shit covered boot in my yard I will find a way to blow his goddamn head off. The same goes for you.” He lowered the phone and stared at his father, his nostrils flared and his pupils dilated.

“Well, I guess she didn’t like the gifts I left her,” he replied with a shrug.

“Do you think this is funny?” Brandon asked, shoving his phone back into his pocket. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to get a text like that from your own mother?’

“Seeing as though we still had rotary phones when my old lady was alive, I’m going to have to go with no,” he replied, leaning on the chair, trying to figure out how to make this better. He didn’t feel as if he’d done anything wrong, but at the same time, he didn’t want to upset his own kid either.

“Elliott, whatever you did, she’s taking it out on me now because she can’t reach you.”

Noting that this was the first time Brandon had called him by his first name in at least a week, Elliott took a deep breath. “That’s not true. I left her my phone number. All I did was have a cleaning crew come in and clean up that shithole. Do you have any idea the kind of disgusting squalor your mother was living in?”