Saving Cadence: A Clandestine Saga Novelette E-Book

Johnson ID

• Herausgeber: ID Johnson
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

One night can change everything....Aaron McReynolds is the Leader of a team of Vampire Hunters and Guardians tasked with keeping the world safe from the undead. Once a year, the Vampires are allowed to gather and celebrate without any interference. However, when Cadence Findley, the granddaughter of an ex-Leader, shows up at the festival, Aaron is sworn to protect her. Will she be whisked away by a band of bloodsuckers, or will she finally realize her own destiny and transform into Cadence Findley, Vampire Hunter extraordinaire?]
This novelette is a great introduction to The Clandestine Saga, seven books of which are already available on all major retailers. In Transformation, we see the Eidolon Festival unfold around Cadence. Now, see it from Aaron's point of view. You do not need to have read any of the books in The Clandestine Saga to enjoy this story.

Leseprobe

Saving Cadence

A Clandestine Saga Novelette

ID Johnson

Contents

Saving Cadence

A Note from the Author

Newsletter

Also by ID Johnson

Saving Cadence

Aaron McReynolds pored over the contents of the case file one more time while he waited for the rest of the team to make their way to the makeshift meeting room in the basement of an old building in the heart of downtown Villisca, Iowa. He had been preparing for this day for quite some time, but now that it was upon him, it all seemed a bit surreal, and that was saying something, considering everything he had seen over the last 186 years. But this hunt would be different, particularly since it wasn’t really a hunt at all. And then there was the girl, the girl who could change everything, or possibly die before she ever even knew who she really was.

He heard the door open and close behind him but didn’t bother to look up to see who it was. He could see through the device implanted in his eye, the IAC or Intelligence Assistance Communicator, that it was Elliott Sanderson, his right-hand man. Without averting his eyes from the picture of the beautiful long-haired brunette, he mumbled a reply to Elliott’s greeting and pushed away a deluge of memories, some he hadn’t allowed himself to think about in decades. When the door opened again, he managed to slide the pictures back inside the manila folder and turned with a small smile to greet Eliza Wrath and Jamie Joplin, two other very important members of his team.

As more members began to filter in and take their seats, Elliott pulled himself up out of the chair he’d found and made his way to the front of the room. He was a large man, tall and barrel chested, with a swath of unruly dark curls atop his head. “Everything okay?” he asked in his deep, growly voice.

Aaron nodded and absently ran a hand through his light brown hair. “Yes, just… making sure everything is in order. We can’t afford to mess this up.”

Elliott nodded as well, the look in his eyes saying he knew that wasn’t quite all that the Guardian Leader had on his mind, but he didn’t press the matter. “It’ll be fine,” he assured his friend, patting him on the shoulder hard enough to knock the smaller man forward a bit. “Seriously, we got this.”

“I know,” Aaron agreed, catching his balance, his blue eyes narrowing as if to silently ask Elliott to take it easy. “I just… don’t want to let Janette down.”

“We won’t,” Elliott insisted, crossing his arms across his burly chest. “You’ve assembled a massive team of Hunters and Guardians. Look at all of these people. There’s got to be, what, fifty of us here? And that’s not even counting the group Hannah and Shane have over at Location Two. Seriously, bossman, we’ll keep her safe. And with any luck, she’ll walk out of there not even knowing how close she was to being Holland’s dinner.”

Aaron slowly shook his head. “You certainly have a way with words, buddy.”

Elliott snickered. “I do, don’t I? Now, come on, let’s get this party started. I ain’t getting any younger here.”

“You ain’t getting any older either,” Aaron reminded him as Elliott made his way back toward his chair. He turned to flash him a sly grin as he sat down next to Jamie, and the room began to quiet in anticipation of what their leader had to say.

His friend was right; this was a large crowd, significantly larger than the majority of Hunters and Guardians he had addressed for other operations. While he was used to talking to and coordinating hundreds of members of the worldwide LIGHTS (Lincoln International Guardian and Hunter Training Station) team through the IAC all day everyday, it was a bit different to stand in front of them and look into their curious eyes all at the same time. Still, he was fairly certain that once he began to speak, everything would come out the way he intended it to. It would just be getting those first few words out that might be difficult.

With at least four dozen team members, all dressed in black, watching him intently, he cleared his throat and said, “All right everyone, let’s go ahead and get started. It’s almost two in the morning, and that gives us about an hour to get in place before the Eidolon Festival begins, and we definitely don’t want to be late.”

When he was sure everyone was paying attention, he used his wristband to project an image of a red-haired woman up into the air near where he was standing. The advanced technology of the piece allowed him to display clear images anywhere without any sort of a back drop. “This, as most of you know, is Holland. Though she is not technically one of the first Vampires, she is often referred to as an Ancient Vampire Queen because of her power and the vast number of minions she has acquired over the centuries.” He paused, giving them a moment to study the image. With alabaster skin, steely gray eyes, blood red lips, and flowing, wavy red hair the color of autumn leaves, she would be easy to pick out of a crowd and difficult to forget.

“We expect her to be attending this Eidolon Festival again this year, as she has most years, and while she is only one of potentially hundreds of Vampires projected to be in attendance, she is also the most likely to cause a problem.”

A hand shot up near the back of the room, and he paused, taking a second to remember this particular Hunter’s name. He was used to operating directly with his own fairly small team out of Kansas City, but for this mission, they had gathered up volunteers from all over the Midwest, and while he knew all of them, whenever he spoke to someone through the IAC, there was always a name and rarely a face. Still, after a moment, he nodded at the pretty blonde and said, “Yes, Kim?”

She smiled, her sparkly white teeth gleaming, clearly happy to have the attractive Guardian Leader acknowledge her by name. “Thank you, Aaron,” she said with a shake of her short blonde tresses. “Why, exactly, is that, do you think? That is, why would Holland be the most likely to cause a problem at the Eidolon Festival this year when she never has in years past?”

Aaron couldn’t help but smirk a bit at her obvious flirting, but a quick glance at Eliza, who happened to be sitting almost directly in front of Kim, wiped the grin off of his face rather quickly. Clearly, the petite Guardian with the mahogany hair was not amused. “That’s a great question,” he began, pausing to clear his voice. “It’s true, Holland has attended dozens of Eidolon Festivals—not just in Villisca, in several locations around the world—and has never caused a problem at any of them. But we expect this might be different for a number of reasons that we’ll get into as we continue to discuss our main objective for tonight’s operation.”

“I thought our main objective was peace keeping,” a deeper voice called out from the back of the room.

The lights were dimmed so that everyone could clearly see the projections, but even without accessing the infrared capabilities of his IAC, Aaron could see that the speaker was one of the more prevalent Guardians who lived and operated here in Villisca. “Yes, of course, as usual, that is our main objective, Pete,” the leader agreed. There seemed to be a bit of confusion reflected back at him on the faces of some of the attendees, and so he took a deep breath and quickly sorted through how to explain everything that needed to be said in the simplest way possible. “As you all know, Eidolon Festivals are the one Vampire gathering that we do not interfere with. Though it would be very simple for us to sweep in and annihilate dozens of them all at once, thousands of years ago, an agreement was made between the Vampires, Hunters, and Guardians, that Vampires would be allowed to hold these celebrations a few times a year, where they could gather together without fear of Hunters or Guardians intruding. Over time, when the occasional innocent bystander wandered upon these festivities and ended up a victim of an overzealous Vampire, we insisted on allowing Guardians in to protect any innocents who might be swept up in the event.”

“But we still aren’t allowed to intervene,” another voiced chimed in from the front row.

Max, one of the more knowledgeable Guardians also out of the Villisca area, sat with his arms crossed, a knowing expression on his face.

“That’s true,” Aaron conceded with a nod. “That’s what makes this so complicated, and that’s why I hope you are all very familiar with what is and is not allowed at an Eidolon Festival. We can protect humans who are ambushed or taken against their will, but not those who willingly go with the Vampires.”

“Even if we feel like the Vampires have been deceptive?”

It was Eliza, and he knew she already had that information, so he could only assume she was attempting to help him out by asking the question for anyone else who may still be confused. “Yes, that’s right.”

“And what if we’re not sure?” Jamie asked from his seat right next to her.