Termination: The Clandestine Saga Book Nine E-Book

Johnson ID

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

All good things must come to an end... and sometimes that means death.

Cadence Findley McReynolds is on her honeymoon and doesn't want to be disturbed unless the world's falling apart. When she has a horrific dream that pits her against creatures she's never seen before, she knows it can't be only a nightmare. She and Aaron come back to their team only to find out nothing is what it should be.
Daunator is on the attack. With thousands of people missing, including a teammate, LIGHTS has to act quickly. But going in unprepared against the most powerful Vampire in creation can't be a good idea, and when Cadence receives an even more shocking surprise, her focus is jarred. How can she face off against a power so evil when she can't even keep her head in the game?
Will her effort to defeat Daunator and free her friend cost Cadence everything?

This is the final installment in The Clandestine Saga, a nine book series that follows Cadence Findley as she embarks on a mission to rid the world of Vampires. She is part of an elite team of Hunters and Guardians known as LIGHTS whose sole purpose is to protect humans from the creatures that lurk in the shadows.

Leseprobe

Termination

The Clandestine Saga Book Nine

ID Johnson

Copyright © 2019 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.

Cover by Sparrow Book Cover Designs

Created with Vellum

Newsletter

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For all of the people who’ve inspired characters in this series over the years, both those I know and those I probably never will. If I’ve left anyone out, I apologize, but I will attempt to name them all here in no particular order:

Drew Berrymore, Matthew Fox, Matthew Perry, Kevin Griffin, Courtney Cox, Christine Taylor, Connie Britt, Elliott Sadler, Christian Bale, Ashley Greene, Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Chris Hemsworth, Stormy Anderson, Bryce Dallas Howard, Courtney Selby, Julie Grau, Elliott Gould, Christina Pickle, Kaycia Jones, Kale Walters, Crystal Peltzer, Morgan Knauth, Iam McDiarmid, Jason Stathom, Dominic Monahan, Laura Waite, Dani Morrow, Laney Russell, Natu Nimee, Terrie Snell, Dawn Charlebois, Dawn Jones, Phillip Jones, Sam Elliott, Heather Wood, Josh Holloway, Heather Russell, Candi Carminatti, Noah Wylie, Imogene Morrow, Jordon Morrow, Levi Morrow, Aerial Johnson, Sophie Johnson, Lorrie Scott, Juan Diego Ariagga, Ron Pope, Sebastian Sanchez, and a couple of former bosses I shall not name (may their characters RIP.)

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

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Epilogue

A Really Long Note from the Author

Chapter 1

He was getting close. He could feel it in his bones. Every step was taking him further in the right direction, and despite the alarms going off inside of his head, he felt compelled to carry on with this self-assigned task, not to let the fear creep into his conscious mind and slow him.

Tree branches reached out to obscure his view, so he often switched to the mode that allowed him to see right through them, ignoring those who would scratch his face or trip him up. The forest was dense and desolate, and in all the hours he’d been here, he hadn’t seen another person—human or otherwise. There was a time when he would’ve counted himself more of the former, but as this journey continued, the harder he prayed he was actually more of the latter than he’d ever cared to admit to anyone. As well as some of his colleagues professed to know him, none of them knew the truth, not even the ones he’d known the longest. The secret he carried had died along with the man who’d saved him, well over a century ago.

Battling uphill against evergreens and loose rocks, stumbling near jutted cliffs, and fighting his own inner demons, he pressed on until the electricity in the air confirmed this had to be the correct location at last. It was time to prove himself, once and for all, to let the others know just how severely they’d underestimated him.

He stepped through a clearing and felt a tremor in the ground beneath his boots. The moon hung in the distance, a satisfying ally reminding him that the monster could not strike him down. With every ounce of courage he had within him, he roared, “Daunator! Where are you? Come forth and show yourself!”

The ground went still. Nothing so strong as the flap of a nightingale’s wings stirred the air as he awaited a response. Seconds turned to minutes, and still he was all alone. Confused, he looked around, wondering if perhaps the creature might try to overcome him from behind. Nothing there but the trees. He exhaled sharply through his nose, irritated at a lack of response.

Once again, he dug deep within himself, calling on the rage that had fueled his mission so far. “Daunator! I’ve come a great distance to face you! Show yourself!”

He held his breath, waiting for the ground to shake again, for the loose rocks atop the mountain to come tumbling in his direction. All he heard was the hooting of an owl in a tree far away.

Being ignored was almost as infuriating as the treatment that had sent him here to begin with. Rejection, condescension, minimization, and now this. He had not come all of this way to fail. With everything he had inside of him, he balled up his fists and shouted again. “Daunator! Are you frightened of me? Will you not come out and meet your match?”

Not even a small hint of a breeze stirred the pine needles behind him. Frustrated, he decided perhaps he was mistaken, and this wasn’t the right location after all. Determined to continue on his quest, he turned to go.

Tremors peeled out from beneath his boots in every direction, the roar from the earth greater than any locomotive he’d ever witnessed as rocks and boulders cascaded down the hillside, bouncing and careening off of each other. A wicked laugh seemed to emanate from deep within the ground, its rumbling reverberations even more unsettling than the landslide that swept his feet from beneath him, sending him sprawling. He scurried to his feet, bringing his Beretta around, still not seeing the face of his assailant. But he could not keep his feet, and a split second later, he found himself falling into nothingness. The world went black, still, void. Silent.

Ten days earlier...

Dr. Elliott Sanderson sat in the conference room, tipped so far back in his chair he might’ve fallen over at any second if he didn’t have superhuman balance and agility. Across the room, he watched his dear friend, and his son Brandon’s girlfriend, Cassidy Findley, plead her case, the stacks of papers in front of her not unlike her now brother-in-law Aaron’s notes which might’ve been convincing to the Guardian Leader, if he were here to witness a thing she was saying. Since Aaron and Cadence McReynolds were still away on their honeymoon, and would be for another week and a half, Cassidy was presenting her findings to those the two Leaders had left in charge, and while some of the others looked interested in what the teen had to say, none of it seemed compelling enough to make them jump out of their seats and fly to Europe.

“With the recent disappearances in Budapest, that brings the total number of missing persons cases in Europe over the past week to four hundred fifty-two. That’s significant,” Cassidy said, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder. “Even when Holland was attacking us in DC and England, she didn’t turn that many people.”

“She didn’t have time to,” Hannah Roberts, the Guardian in charge of the planet while Aaron was on vacation, noted.

“I agree.” Cassidy’s head bobbed up and down so vehemently, Elliott wondered if she’d end up with a neck sprain. “So why are we giving Daunator all of the time in the world?”

Dr. Jamie Joplin, who was an actual doctor, not the fake kind Elliott only pretended to be, kept his hands folded in front of him as he spoke in his gentle, clinical tone. “Cass, while I agree the numbers are staggering, there isn’t much we can do that we aren’t already doing. We’ve sent reinforcements to the area. Mila is doing her best to follow up with each case. So far, many of the people who’ve gone missing are not of the sort it would be illegal to change.”

“Maybe not illegal but problematic,” Cassidy pointed out. “Even if they are members of the underbelly and perfectly legal to consume, changing them without having them come in for proper tagging and instruction is still against the rules.”

“True. But they have up to a month to come in, and by your own numbers, it hasn’t been long enough.” Jamie shrugged and gave her a sympathetic smile, as if he wanted to help but didn’t know what else could be done.

“I’m sure Cadence and Aaron will be right on it when they get back,” Aurora Howe began. Elliott didn’t turn his head to look at her while she was speaking—or at all. Ever, if he could help it. “But I’m reluctant to do anything more than what I already have without Cadence’s blessing. I’ve strengthened the Hunters in the area. They’re making nightly searches in several cities. Until we have more to go off of, our hands are tied.”

Frustrated, Cassidy sat down, banging her fists on the table hard enough for it to rattle. Elliott’s eyes went to Christian Henry, who hadn’t spoken at all the entire duration of the meeting, an oddity in itself. He had been the last victim of Cassidy’s rage. The table looked much better than Christian’s face had once the half-Vampire, half-Hunter was done with him. Elliott had laughed when he watched the video, and he found himself suppressing a chuckle now.

He was pretty sure he hadn’t made a sound, but Cassidy’s eyes were on him anyway, like she wanted him to say something. With a sigh, he dropped his chair back to the floor. “Aw, hell, Cass. I don’t know. It seems unreasonable to just pour everything we’ve got into a place we aren’t quite sure needs it. Is this Daunator’s work? Maybe. But my understanding is he could take all of us out with one blast from his halitosis. Why would he need all of them?”

Her hazel eyes were narrowed as she replied, “To. Kill. Us.”

Elliott couldn’t hold back the chuckle that slipped past his lips that time. “Then why would we go running over to him?”

Cassidy didn’t think it was funny. “Because it’s our job! How are we supposed to keep people safe from this monster if we’re all the way over here, and he’s in the forests of Hungary building his army?”

“All right, Cass. Give me your notes, and I’ll look them over,” Hannah offered, beckoning for the papers with her hand. Elliott had known the ex-therapist long enough to see when she was placating someone. Cassidy hadn’t known the woman nearly as long, but it was evident as she passed the papers to Jamie and on down to Hannah that she was also aware of the counselor’s motivation.

“What else do we need to discuss?” Jamie asked, looking relieved to be able to move on.

Finally, Major Henry opened his mouth. “Some of the Roatan Guardians are asking when we can start administering the serum. Dr. Morrow and I have been telling them we need to wait until Aaron gets back to approve it. You concur?”

He was speaking directly to Jamie, who’s opinion was far more valuable, in Elliott’s opinion, than Christian’s. “Yes, I think they can wait. It’s only another ten days.”

“They should wait longer than that,” Cassidy muttered. “We haven’t even begun the final battle yet.”

Every face turned her direction, but not a single pair of lips parted to acknowledge her concern. “Anything else?” Hannah wanted to know.

“Yeah, I’m administering the second round of Transformation serum to some team members who didn’t get it last time in an hour or so.” Jamie said as he checked his watch, and Elliott thought about how funny it was some of his older teammates still wore them since they had a clock in their eye. “Several of these people have flown in from other Areas. I’ll need to get them done so they can get back to their stations.”

“Who all is on your list?” Cassidy asked, and Elliott was glad to hear she was interested in something other than Daunator.

“Uh, well Heather, Rusty, Ona, and Martin are the only locals. I’ll do the others before the Healers. Then, Cale, Morgan, Crystal, Daniel, Antonio, Lex, Tessa, Job, Kaycia, Moira, and Gina have flown in. As well as your cousin Paul and a couple of his teammates, Tanner and Patsy.”

“That’s a lot,” Hannah commented. “Can you handle all of that?”

“Yeah, we’re doing it differently than last time. They each have appointments. We’ll get them under one at a time with the entire medical team available in case anyone else goes Shane on us.” The team snickered, though it hadn’t been funny when Shane had tossed Cadence across the room during the administration of his second dose of serum. “We’ll make sure everyone is strapped down first, too.”

“All right, well let me know if there’s anything I can do,” Hannah replied, picking up Cassidy’s stack of papers as if that were the end of the conversation.

“I will,” Jamie nodded. “Probably wouldn’t hurt to have some of your good vibrations headed our way.”

Hannah giggled as if she wasn’t sure whether or not he was serious, though Elliott assumed he was, and they all walked to the doors. Since the happy couple wasn’t there, they’d been using the old conference room, the one that occupied the bottom floor of a building closer to the apartments, and Elliott’s mouth began to water as he thought about the leftover Chinese food he had in the fridge.

“Hey!”

He felt a tug on his sleeve even before he’d pushed completely up to standing and knew Cass was irritated with him just by the tone of that one syllable. “What is it, lil girl?”

Everyone else had vacated the room, and Elliott cursed himself for being so slow. Not that she wouldn’t find another way to track him down. She practically lived in his apartment anyway. At least Brandon wasn’t here so that the two could gang up on him.

“Why didn’t you have my back?”

“Oh, that.” He headed for the door, but she was on his heels. “What did you want me to say? Grab your munitions and follow me?”

“Maybe.”

The air was thick and sticky, way too muggy for Kansas City in September, especially with the sun below the horizon. Elliott didn’t normally feel any effect from the weather, but he found himself tugging at his jacket collar as if he were suffocating. Perhaps it was the countenance of the girl beside him. “I’m sorry, Cass. But I agreed with what they said. Ain’t no use in barrelin’ in without our bosses just for the sake of maybe.”

“But the evidence is right there! Besides that, I have heard what’s going on in these fresh bloodsuckers’ minds. Daunator is building an army to destroy the world!”

He tried not to let her concerns sound trivial to him. The fact of the matter was, he wasn’t used to working with someone who could infiltrate the enemies’ minds. For all he knew, Vampires had been saying the same thing for thousands of years, and none of the good guys ever knew it until now. “I’m sure it will be a priority as soon as your sister returns, Cass. But there really isn’t too much we can do right now.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he turned his head to look at her. “You cannot possibly be thinking about going over there on your own, are you?”

“No.” Her answer came quickly, too quickly, and he could sense that the thought had at least crossed her mind. If she’d gone any further than that, like actually booking a ticket or packing her suitcase, he wouldn’t be too horribly surprised, unfortunately. Cassidy wasn’t exactly known for taking no for an answer.

Stopping in his tracks, Elliott turned to look at her. “Cassidy Elizabeth, so help me God, if you do anything of the sort, I swear I will fly over there and track you down myself, and when I do, it will not be pretty! The last thing I wanna do is call your sister during the one vacation she’s taken since she started, the first one Aaron has taken in centuries, to tell them that our campus runaway is on the lam again. Don’t you dare!”

Her eyes were practically bulging out of her head as she stared back at him. “I told you, I’m not!”

“Good! You better not be!”

“You’re not my dad, Elliott!”

“Okay, well, if I go have a chat with Mr. Findley, I’m sure he’d say the same thing.”

Cassidy let out a growl and darted across the street toward the apartment building faster than Elliott’s eyes could even track her, leaving him shaking his head and thankful he’d never had a daughter.

The scent of cigarette smoke and the idea that he wasn’t alone had him slowly turning his head toward the shadows next to the building they’d all just emptied out of. Elliott tried not to audibly sigh in discontent as he realized it was the one person in the world he least wanted to see—except for maybe Daunator, or Aurora. “You enjoyin’ the show, Major Henry?”

Christian stamped out his cigarette butt and then picked it up before flinging it into a garbage can at least a hundred yards away. “Not really.”

“Good.” Elliott turned to walk away, wondering what had driven Christian to smoke this time. He couldn’t remember for certain when the last time he’d seen the Guardian light up might’ve been, but he thought it was the night Cadence had tracked down and ended that Vampire Sam had been after, which hadn’t been a very good night for any of them.

“She’s right, you know? By waiting, we’re just making things worse for all of us.”

He paused for a moment to turn and glare in Christian’s direction. “So you think we should just head on over there, too? Try to track down Daunator and destroy him without our Leaders?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean she’s wrong.”

“I don’t recall ever telling her she was wrong, only that there isn’t anything we can do about it. For all we know, Daunator really can kill Guardians, and if that’s the case, we’d be really stupid to go in half-baked with any sort of plan not involving Aaron’s brain.”

Christian’s hands were pushed deep into the pockets of his jeans, and his head was tilted down toward the sidewalk, as if there were something interesting in the cracks. “Couldn’t kill you,” he muttered.

A bushy eyebrow raised over one green eye. “Tell that to Alex.”

“That was different. That was another dimension.”

“Says the guy who goes from it’s not possible for a Guardian to kill a Hunter, to okay maybe it is. Nothing’s wrong with my IACs, okay maybe they’re vulnerable after all. Why don’t you ever just admit you don’t know shit?”

“I don’t know shit. But I know Daunator’s going to make Dracula look like Tinkerbell.”

Elliott smirked, thinking of his team blasting the fairy out of the air with their Glocks. “I thought you said you didn’t know about Daunator.”

“I did say that. Maybe I don’t. Maybe I do. Maybe I know more than anyone else.”

“Oh? You been readin’ up on him? Like you did the Blood Moon Portal?” So far, in the week or so since Elliott had come out of the portal, he’d managed not to break Major Henry’s neck over the fact that he could’ve prevented any of them from being sent to that hellhole.

“Something like that. I already told you I’m sorry I lied to Aaron.”

“Yes, I got your blanket apology letter. It was quite meaningful. I’ll be sure to mention it to Alex the next time I die.” Elliott started to walk away, no longer willing to listen to the rambling of what he could only consider a crazy person.

“What do I need to do to show you I’m sorry? I took Hines into the portal myself. What else can I do?”

“I don’t know, Henry. Maybe find a firing squad of Hunters trained as sharpshooters and volunteer for target practice?” Shaking his head, Elliott headed for the apartment building, wishing Aaron would just transfer Christian once and for all. But his friend would never do that because he felt sorry for the weirdo.

He pushed through the lobby door, not bothering to wave at Juan Diego who was terrified of him anyway, and called the elevator, praying the kids were hanging out in someone else’s apartment this evening. All he wanted to do was chill in front of the TV, eat that Chinese food, and maybe call Amanda later just to hear her voice. He prayed he wouldn’t spend the night trying to talk Cassidy out of leaving the country on her own.

Chapter 2

Frustration coursed through Cassidy Findley’s body like lightning, igniting her skin and setting every nerve ending on fire. Times like this made her glad she’d invested in a treadmill for her apartment because she didn’t want to be around anyone else but still needed to pound it out on the pavement—faux as it might be. If she had something against fakes, she would have to hate half of her team right now, maybe all of them. Even the ones who told her she was right, that Daunator was a problem, didn’t actually want to do anything about it, and their inability to take any action on their own had her blood boiling in ways she hadn’t experienced since she’d moved out of her parents’ apartment months ago.

The night before, after the meeting, she’d attempted to go to her friend Lucy Burke’s apartment just to hang out for a while, but Cassidy’s boyfriend, Brandon Keen, had asked about the meeting—how had it gone? Had she gotten anywhere? She didn’t even want to answer him. The only reason she’d been allowed to attend was because she’d begged Jamie to let her present her findings. Otherwise, it was just the Leadership Council, or whatever they were calling themselves these days. How Christian ever got appointed to that committee was beyond her. At any rate, when she’d told her friends it had been a bust, some of them said it was just as well. Her sister and Aaron would be back soon enough. Cassidy had given it a few minutes so that she didn’t seem to be leaving because of their statements and then dismissed herself. After a restless night spent in other people’s minds, she had gotten up and assaulted her treadmill, Heavy Young Heathens pouring through her earbuds.

She had a few messages from her friends flickering in the corner of her IAC but no one she needed to talk to right away, so she’d been ignoring them. Until the little light that registered new messages started going crazy, and she realized she’d just received about a dozen messages within a few seconds of each other. Grumbling to herself, she looked to see who was frantically trying to get her attention and groused even more when she saw it was Christian. She opened his last message, just out of curiosity, and read, “Open your door!”

“Why the hell is Christian at my door?” she mumbled to herself. It was obvious after she’d ripped his face off in DC that he didn’t want to have anything to do with her, nor did she ever want to see his slimy, little, beady eyes again. So it had to be important for him to be knocking on her door.

Part of her wanted to continue to ignore him, but she had already put in over sixty miles, further than she usually ran in one day, and sweat was pouring down her back. Fatigue had yet to set in, but there were other tasks she needed to attend to that day. Realizing she may regret answering the door, but wanting to know what Christian had to say, Cassidy hit stop on her treadmill, turned off her music, pulled out her earplugs, and unclipped herself from the machine.

He pounded on the door again. “You know I’m coming, idiot! You heard the treadmill stop, didn’t you?”

“That doesn’t mean you aren’t still ignoring me!”

She pulled the door open a crack and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’d be stupid not to. What the hell do you want?”

“What? No hello? No good morning? No come on in and make yourself at home?”

Cassidy considered slamming the door in his face, but even as she glanced at the barrier in her hand, he slid his foot in the opening, his palm pressed just below the peephole. “I could still slam it on you.”

“You could try. Please don’t. Listen, I need to talk to you about something.” He glanced over his shoulder back down the hallway. No one was there, but he’d spent so much time beating on the door, chances were he’d at least gathered a little bit of attention from the other people who lived on floor five. “In private.”

“What in the world could I possibly want to talk to you about in private or otherwise? I hate you, in case that scar on your face doesn’t remind you every day.”

Christian let go of the door for a moment to find the small mark near his mouth on the left side of his face that Jamie hadn’t been able to heal because, by the time he’d returned from the portal, it had already repaired itself to some degree. “I realize that, Cassidy. But considering no one else wants to discuss your findings with you, I thought maybe even I wouldn’t be so completely repulsive that you wouldn’t want to take the opportunity to fill me in on a few things.”

He had her attention now, though she’d hate to admit it. Everyone else she’d brought her concerns to had blown her off. Last night at the meeting, she had hardly glanced in Christian’s direction because she couldn’t care less about what he thought. Now, the fact that he might actually listen to what she had to say, and maybe even do something about it, was enough for her to open the door.

Without hesitating, he made his way in. The faint scent of cigarettes hit her as he walked past, mixed with some sort of mint spray she figured he must assume covered up his nasty habit. She’d never actually seen him smoke before, but it was pretty evident he did, at least occasionally. He spun around in the middle of her living room, and Cassidy considered levitating him right back out the still open door. Instead, she took a deep breath and pushed the door closed behind him.

“Nice place. I wish I’d had digs this spacious when I was your age. Even a roof would’ve been acceptable.”

“Listen, if you’re really here to tell me you’ve decided to jump back into the Blood Moon Portal, and you need a hand, I’ll do whatever I can to help you out. I’ll even float you up there myself.”

“Thanks.” He shook his head, spinning back around to face her. “No, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but that’s not why I’m here.”

“That’s too bad. The six hours you were in there were some of the best of my life.” She folded her arms and leaned back on one foot, her opposite hip jutting out.

“How did we end up this way, Cass? I don’t even remember. It seems like you just hated me right off the bat.”

“I didn’t hate you until you let my boyfriend get swallowed up by a portal. Before that, I just disliked you strongly.”

“But why? Where did we go wrong? I remember that time I came to your house in Shenandoah and installed software on your computer so you could feel like you were helping us out with the whole Giovani thing. We got along fine then.”

“See! It’s that—right there.” She realized she was actually pointing at him and dropped her hand. “Why do you have to say things like that? If you’ll recall, it was Lucy, Emma, and me that found Giovani. Why do you always have to talk to other people like they’re not as important as you are? Like everyone else is a moron, and you’re the smartest person in the world?”

“Oh, I see.” He nodded slowly, his lips pursed together. “I intimidate you.”

Cassidy laughed and choked at the same time. “You are such an idiot.” Against her better judgment, she decided to give him one more chance before she tossed him out on his ear. “Did you say you wanted to hear about my findings?”

“Yeah.” His countenance changed drastically, and he took on a melancholy demeanor, one he’d worn a lot recently. Despite her not caring at all about him, she had noticed he’d been particularly somber since his duplicity had been discovered. She imagined it was because he’d gotten in trouble, but then, since there hadn’t really been any true consequences, that didn’t really make a lot of sense either. Maybe he was just preparing for Aaron to transfer him to another country when he arrived back home. At any rate, he wasn’t the cocky bastard he normally was, standing there with his hands pushed deep into the pockets of his jeans.

“What is it?”

He cleared his throat and turned his head slightly. “You can’t repeat what I’m about to tell you.”

“Oh, good. More secrets.”

“Cassidy, I’m serious. Believe me, you’ll be glad to hear it. But I won’t tell you at all if I can’t trust you, and even though I know you hate me more than you hate Daunator himself, I’m serious. I want your help. I need your help. But I’ll manage without it.”

It occurred to her that she could just jump into his head and find out whatever it was without promising anything, but she didn’t do that. Instead, she repeated her question. “What is it?”

He hesitated again, his eyes shifting up and down a few times, before he finally said, “I think I want to go after him.”

“Great!” Cassidy said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “You’ll help me convince the others?”

Before she even finished the statement, he was already shaking his head. “No, I mean, alone. I think I want to go after him by myself.”

The shock of it took a moment to sink in. How could he possibly think he could take Daunator on by himself? “What? You can’t be serious!”

“I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” Confused, Cassidy stared at him for a long moment, her forehead crinkled. “It’s a.... You know, Airplane?” Waving his hand at her, he continued, “Anyway, Cass, I think I want to go find him myself, see if I can destroy him without having to get anyone else involved. It’s a long-shot, but I’ve got some new weapons I want to try out. If I can’t do it, maybe I can at least keep him busy for a while. When Cadence and Aaron get back, they could get a team together, and we could all attack with whatever knowledge I bring back.”

“Yeah, or he could kill you.”

“I don’t think he can do that.”

“So you’ve said! But Schmitz would disagree, and he knows a lot more about Daunator than you do,” she countered.

“No, he doesn’t.”

“See! There you go again, thinking you’re smarter than everyone else! You didn’t even think of him until Schmitz came into the meeting that time, and even then, you couldn’t tell us anything the rest of us couldn’t have accessed in some Vampire Wikipedia.”

“Cassidy, I can understand why you’d think that, but believe me, I know Daunator better than anyone else.”

There was something about his eyes that told her he wasn’t bluffing. “And you know he can’t kill you?”

“I’m pretty sure.” He shrugged. “Does it matter—I mean, to you?”

“No.” She swallowed hard, feeling meaner than she ever had in her entire life and also knowing what she said wasn’t true. “What do you want to know?”

“Anything and everything you can tell me. If you’re able to access the Vampires he’s recently turned, you must have information about him, what he’s capable of, precisely where he might be, anything that might let me know his weaknesses.”

Cassidy mulled that over. “For the most part, he hasn’t been doing the turning himself, I don’t think. When I jump into one of these newborns’ heads, I see one of a few other Vampires as their parents, not Daunator himself. I think he has minions, bloodsuckers he sends out to do his dirty work.”

“That’s good to know. Do you think it’s just two or three or could there be more? Are they housed with him?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I haven’t done too much digging because everyone seems to think we shouldn’t go.”

“How long would it take you to find out?”

She shrugged. “It depends. Some people’s minds are more accessible than others.”

“But he’s not using a shield or anything to block you, like Holland did, is he?”

“No, but he doesn’t really need it. Whenever I try to get into his mind, it’s like a black wall, like a cave deep in the ground or something. I can’t actually get through any of it to access his thoughts or memories. Even if I did, he would see me coming. That could be dangerous.”

Christian nodded as if he already knew that, or at least it made sense to him. “All right. Just get me as much info as you can. I haven’t decided for sure if I’m leaving, but if I do, I’m going to be completely MIA. The only way you’ll be able to contact me is through telepathy.”

“What about your IAC?” Cassidy asked. “Aaron can force it on.”

He chuckled. “Do you honestly think I’d be stupid enough to put something in my eye that anyone else could track without having a way to disable it?” He started toward the door.

“But I thought only Aaron’s was designed that way.”

Christian shook his head as he pulled the door open. “If I could build one for him, I could build one for me.”

“What about Hannah? Won’t she wonder where you are?”

“I’ve got something like two thousand vacation days saved up. I think I’ll just tell her I’m taking a couple of those.”

“We get vacation days?” Cassidy shook her head to clear it. “Okay, but why would she think you’d need them now if you haven’t taken any in like a decade?”

“At least...” he muttered. “Because... I feel so bad about the entire Blood Moon Portal fiasco I need a few days to chill and recuperate, that’s all.”

She folded her arms. “Yeah right, like you feel bad at all.”

He cocked his head to the side and looked at her for a moment, and Cassidy felt like a brat for being so rude. “I guess there’s only one way to know for sure.” He turned and walked away from her, and Cassidy stepped back inside of her apartment, letting the door close behind him. If he did this, it would be a huge risk, especially if Daunator could kill Guardians. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Part of her wanted to go tell Hannah immediately; the rest of her wanted to give Christian a chance. He was a grown man, after all, capable of making his own decisions, and if no one else was willing to go after the monster before his power and strength was too much for them, at least Christian was willing to give it a try. She’d get him the information he’d requested and then let him make a decision. Unlike the man in question, she’d make sure her information was as complete as possible. If he was walking into a trap that she could detect, she’d let him know. Something told her it wouldn’t change his mind, though.

Chapter 3

The back alleys and cluttered streets of Budapest were as unsightly in the middle of the night as they were when the sun was shining, sometimes even more so if Eliza Wrath couldn’t see what she was stepping in. She’d spent enough time here now to distinguish urine from blood, even without the smell, but that didn’t make her any happier to get either on her expensive boots.

In the past two years, she’d been transferred more times than she could count. From KC to Cali, to Siberia, to Hungary, to Canada, a few stops on the way, back here. She never bothered to question the reasoning anymore, not since she’d learned to keep her mouth shut. Unfortunately, that was a hard-learned lesson, one that had taken at least a year and a half too long.

The alley up ahead of them was dark, but using her IAC, she could cut through most of the shadows. It didn’t appear as if there was anyone up there, though it was possible someone might be crouched behind a group of garbage cans, up on the left. She signaled to the other team member with her, a tall Hunter named Sergio who blended right in with the natives, even though he was originally from Georgia—not the state, she’d found out after asking if he liked the Braves—and slowly approached the obstacle.

It was clear, only a few discarded trash bags and an old blanket maybe one of the homeless people had been curled up on earlier. She took a heat reading and saw that it was cool now, so even if someone had been nearby, they were gone now. “Clear,” she said through her IAC and walked back over to where her tall, dark-haired, partner stood waiting.

“Maybe we should cut a few blocks over. He’s hit this area several times, but not in the last week.”

Eliza agreed and took another glance down the alley before following Sergio. They’d had several sightings of a tall Vampire with nearly translucent skin in the area, lots of reports of people going missing, mostly homeless people who didn’t show up at the soup kitchens or overnight shelters where they often slept, although there had been a few tourists and even a couple of locals who would definitely qualify as Innocents and shouldn’t have been claimed who’d gone missing as well. KC headquarters had been vague with their orders when Eliza had reported to Mila a few weeks ago, and she knew there had been a lot going on with Aaron and Cadence’s wedding, but she thought these missing persons were significant, especially since it began ramping up recently, right after Holland’s demise. Mila, the Area Leader, agreed and had put some teams together to start patrols.

Walking along behind Sergio, Eliza let her mind wander to Aaron a little too long. She hadn’t gone to the wedding. Part of that was because she hadn’t been invited. Who invites their ex-girlfriend to their wedding? But then... even if she had been invited, she wouldn’t have attended. That whole situation had been such a mess; every time she thought about how she’d handled it, her stomach began to churn. Not only had she blown any chance she’d ever have with Aaron by manipulating too much too soon, she’d also ruined a pretty sweet gig in Cali because she hadn’t been exactly forthcoming with the information Aaron needed from Laura. The ex-Hunter had never come right out and told Eliza she was planning to take Cadence out, but she’d hinted at it enough that Eliza could surmise that was the plan. In the end, Laura had pulled one over on her as well, trying to obliterate the whole team. If it had been Aaron who had died instead of Elliott, Eliza would’ve probably found a way to follow him.

But it wasn’t. And even Elliott wasn’t dead anymore. So the only thing Sierraville had really cost anyone was Eliza her role as Area Leader. She’d earned a little bit of her good standing back on that trip to Philly, though she probably shouldn’t have threatened to shoot Zabrina while she was holding Cadence’s sister Cassidy in front of her. Still, she’d been commended for how she’d handled the situation before the rest of the team arrived. That had gotten her transferred to Canada. When Mila asked her to come back a few months ago, about the time whispers of unusual numbers of Vampires in Budapest began to hit their ears, she’d agreed to come because she wanted to feel wanted again.

Searching for Holland had occupied most of her time until the Vampire Queen was ended, and Eliza and the rest of the team in the area assumed they’d be going back to twiddling their thumbs. But when Holland was destroyed, the carnage didn’t stop. In fact, it had picked up quite a bit recently. If anyone had any idea who the new ringleader was, they hadn’t told her. For now, she was searching for a Vampire fitting the description a few of the witnesses had given. Not that she wouldn’t be happy to end any Vampire she happened to come across.

“Any luck?” Mila’s heavily accented voice came across her IAC just as Sergio ducked down another alleyway. Eliza followed, something in the distance catching her eye.

“Not sure,” she replied. “Give us a moment.” Up ahead of them, a high pitched laugh echoed off of the sides of the brick buildings on either side of them. The alley dead-ended into a similar brick façade.

Sergio turned to look at her as another giggle filled their ears. Now, Eliza could see two forms huddled close together near the end of the alley, over on the right side, pressed up against the wall. A fire escape ladder hung twenty feet to the left, almost as many feet above their heads. If one of them happened to be a Vampire, getting to the bottom rung would be no problem.

Her partner moved first, drawing his Glock and clicking the after-market safety off as quietly as possible. It seemed to have no effect on the couple. The woman giggled again, and the other form, certainly a tall man, though Eliza couldn’t see his face because it was turned away from them, let out a low moan. If this was anything other than a Vampire attack or a murder in progress, she and Sergio were going to have a lot of explaining to do for intruding. In fairness, if they really wanted privacy, maybe they could’ve found some place other than a public alley.

Eliza also took out her weapon, readied it, and then followed along behind Sergio, giving him enough space so that, if it was a Vampire and it charged him, she could be the next line of defense. A stirring sensation in her stomach heightened as she drew closer, and it became clearer that one of these two was undead.

The Vampire sensed them, too. Only it wasn’t the man, as Eliza had suspected. Instead, the woman, whose fangs were bared as she leaned toward his neck, spun her ugly head around and roared at them, pushing her would-be lover aside and dodging at Sergio. He fired as the man on the ground screamed in surprise. His bullet went wide, ricocheting off of the brick as the Vampire leapt up into the air and grabbed the bottom rung of the fire escape, pulling herself up to the steps with little effort.

“You go around that way, I’ll follow her!” Eliza shouted as the monster climbed the stairwell on all fours like some sort of an animal. Eliza easily leapt up to the first landing. As soon as she landed, she took careful aim and fired, but the Vampire was too quick and was already several floors above her.

Holstering her Glock, Eliza gave chase, hoping she could corner her on the rooftop. It didn’t look as if the creature was pausing long enough to consider trying any of the windows, so hopefully, she wouldn’t dart inside where people might get in the way. Even with the firing of two bullets, not a single light inside of the building had come on, which didn’t surprise Eliza considering the neighborhood they were in.

The woman reached the roof when Eliza was about to the twentieth floor, at least ten levels below her. She stood at the top for a moment, gazing down, her long blonde hair loose and blowing in the wind. She was dressed like a prostitute, her lips red, her heavy eyeshadow dark blue, and her fangs promising more than a little hickey to anyone who wanted a nibble on the neck. It appeared to Eliza as if she were smiling as she turned and ran away.

Continuing to climb up from one floor to the next as quickly as possible, Eliza tried not to worry too much about what that smile might mean. She also didn’t dwell on the fact that if she had received a second dose of Transformation serum, the way many of her KC area colleagues had, she would’ve already caught the bitch. She reached the rooftop and pulled herself over the top, hopeful there were no adjoining buildings and no places to hide.

The woman wasn’t trying to hide, and neither were the other six Vampires who were roused from their hiding places. Eliza stood on the edge of the wall that ran around the top of the building watching as the seven of them took up a formation about twenty yards away from her.

All shapes and sizes, older, younger, tall, short, male, female, they reminded her a little of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video when the dead come out to play. Except instead of hanging flesh and stuttered steps, these suckers would be fast. And they all had fangs.

She didn’t wait to open fire on them. She shot the prostitute first and then peppered the rest of them with bullets. One of the smaller figures, a pre-teen boy, she thought, fell back slightly. The others didn’t slow at all.

Eliza had heard about this sort of Vampire, the kind that didn’t die from regular silver bullets. Not even the titanium had done too much to stop them when other areas had faced them. She’d been under the impression that should all end when Holland died, but not a single whiff of ash emanated from the six Vampires who continued in her direction, telling her that this was not her mother’s breed of Vampire.

“Sergio,I have a problem.”

“I see.” He had been watching through her IAC. “Maybe you should come back down.”

“And just leave them here? I can’t do that.” They were getting closer. Eliza tried shooting them again, and though there was smoke this time, none of them slowed their pace.

“Why not? We’ll get the rest of the team over here and try again. Mila’s headed this way now.”

Eliza didn’t have time to respond. She needed to move, or she’d end up on the pavement below her. Falling thirty stories didn’t sound like a lot of fun, even if it wouldn’t kill her, and since there wasn’t a Healer anywhere in the city, it wouldn’t feel great either.

Just as the prostitute was about to reach her, Eliza leapt up into the air and did a front flip, flying over the top of all of them and landing behind them. She had a silver tipped knife in her pocket, which she drew out, glad she’d taken that advice from Mila before she left the office earlier. It might not be practical to take a knife to a Vampire show, but it had to do better than the gun, which she stuck back in its holster.

The two that hit her first were an older man with a bald head wearing a ratty suit and a woman who looked like she probably wasn’t much older than Eliza, dressed like a waitress. Eliza kicked the man backward into his friends, knocking several of them to the ground as she jabbed her knife into the woman’s throat. The Vampire sputtered, ash flying everywhere, as Eliza twisted it and then pulled it out, sending her onto her back with a quick shove as the young boy flung himself at her.

She caught him, though he pushed her backward several feet. Since she’d already made a hole in his shoulder, she went there first, sinking in the knife and pulling it straight down. It didn’t take long before he exploded in a puff of ash. But the Guardian didn’t have time to rejoice in her victory. The suit was up again, and he was joined by two others who looked like they may have been homeless before they were turned.

Delivering a roundhouse kick to Suit, she bounced off of him and caught the first homeless guy in the head before her arm met the woman around the neck. When her feet hit the ground, Eliza pulled the woman over into the men, using her as a battering ram to knock them both down. A fourth Vampire was on her now. This one was slow and chubby, as Vampires went. She kicked him in the groin twice before her knee caught his chin, all the while tugging and twisting on the woman’s head as her claws dug into Eliza’s arm. Her head popped off just in time for Eliza to bring her knife back around and catch Chubby in the side of the neck while the other two men stumbled to their feet.

Chubby was out, on the ground, spewing ash like a Vampire volcano. She didn’t need to worry about him anymore. That left four, and the prostitute was hanging in the background, observing, while the other three, all men now, gave Eliza another go.

“You know you can’t kill me, so why bother to try?” she asked them as they came at her again.

Confusion washed over their faces, and she realized they had no idea what she was. Sometimes newborns were difficult to kill because they could be wild, but in this case, it was their confusion and lack of skills that made overpowering them easier. As Eliza sunk her knife into the suit’s chest cavity, she fought off the other two with her legs, wrapping them around the neck of the homeless man as her knife ended the business suit. She squeezed with her thighs as he bucked and tried to get her to let go. Even before he started to disintegrate, she managed to sink her knife into the other guy’s head. That wouldn’t kill him, since it wasn’t his heart, so once her feet were back on the ground, she grabbed hold of his shoulders and spun him around, pressing his back to her chest. It only took a moment to unscrew his head, and all the while, her eyes were locked on the woman near the fire escape who was taking it all in with a smile on her face.

Eliza caught her knife before it hit the ground but she didn’t put it away. Instead, she raised her other hand in front of her and beckoned for Miss Kissy Face to have her turn.

The woman laughed, that same obnoxious giggle they’d caught in the alley below. “For what? I like this life too much to end it so soon.”

“So why did you let your friends die?”

She shrugged. “Who says they were my friends? I just wanted to see what you could do. Impressive.”

Eliza wasn’t used to having anyone admire her work, especially not a Vampire, but she didn’t acknowledge the compliment. “Who are you? Who made you? It wasn’t Holland.”

Once again, the Vampire laughed. “Oh, no dear. Holland was a mere child compared to my father. I can’t tell you anything more, but you should be prepared. The end is upon you.” She smiled sweetly, her fangs no longer visible.

“What does that mean?” Eliza asked. But the Vampire was done answering questions. She turned around and leapt over to the next building with no effort at all, and a bright white fog encompassed her, completely blocking Eliza’s view of both the Vampire and the edge of the building.

Quickly, she crossed to the edge of the roof, contemplating whether or not to calculate making the jump. She hated to see the blonde get away, but without knowing exactly where she might land, she decided to wait and see if the peculiar fog cleared before she jumped. It was beginning to dissipate already, but it took too long to fully clear, and by the time she could see again, the woman was gone.

Reluctantly, Eliza took a few steps toward the fire escaped but realized it was shaking with the weight of someone coming up. Using her IAC, she could see that it was Sergio. His view point showed the side of the building flying by as he leapt up the same way she had moments ago. He pulled himself up over the ledge and stood beside her, catching his breath.

“You’re a little late,” she smirked.

“Hey, you’re the one who told me to go around.” He smiled back at her and surveyed the ash left on the rooftop. No need to bother cleaning it up as it would blend in nicely with the other grime and debris.

“Did anyone run interference with our john in the alley?” Eliza asked, ready to head back down.

“Yeah, Mila sent Andor in to talk to him. I’m not sure what his story was, but I’m certain the guy bought it. He was probably just happy to get out of there without getting shot.”

“Or bitten.” Eliza didn’t really care what the story was either. It seemed like her job here was done, so she climbed back onto the fire escaped and started working her way down, jumping from one landing to the next, sometimes skipping a floor when she could. Once again, she wished she had the superpowers she’d heard a second dose of Transformation serum could bring about so she could just leap all the way to the ground.

Mila was standing at the bottom waiting for her. The Area Leader was a thin woman with a harsh, but not unpretty face. Her black hair was tied behind her neck in a loose ponytail that only reached a few inches down her back. When Eliza came to a rest a few steps away from her, Mila patted her hands together in a silent clap. “Well done, Eliza. That was impressive.”

A few other members of their team were nearby and also agreed. Eliza could feel her cheeks turning almost the same color of deep burgundy as her hair. “It was nothing.”

“That took a lot of skill. I am confused by the entire situation, however. Why would the woman let you kill her colleagues and then just leave? And do you have any idea who she was referring to when she said her father is stronger than Holland?” Mila folded her arms across her chest.

Eliza was shaking her head on all accounts. “I really have no idea. I am hopeful she was just bluffing, but we need to be prepared in case she wasn’t.”

A black SUV pulled to a stop at the end of the alley, and the five Guardians and Hunters who had gathered at the foot of the fire escape headed that direction the second Sergio’s large black boots hit the pavement.

“Well, I shall make inquiry with Hannah and see if she has any ideas. This is something real HQ will want to know about.”

Eliza had gotten used to the KC team being referred to as “real HQ” though while she had been stationed there, she’d had no idea the other teams referred to it that way. “Why Hannah?” she asked.

“She is in charge. Aaron and Cadence are still honeymooning.”

“Right.” A knot formed in the pit of Eliza’s stomach. She should’ve remembered. Part of her was glad she hadn’t because she might’ve been dwelling on it every day, like she had a few weeks leading up to the wedding. When it had been postponed for reasons Eliza still wasn’t clear on, she’d had the faint hope that maybe Aaron had changed his mind. It was dumb. Of course he hadn’t. Now, he was probably off on a beach somewhere with his blushing bride while she was here, in Hungary, killing Vampires on rooftops and pondering how much worse a creature could be than Holland.

“I will let you know if Hannah has any information,” Mila continued as they piled into the vehicle, her heavy accent difficult to understand over the engine. “In the meantime, well done, Eliza.”

A small smile pulled up the corners of her mouth, but now that her mind had been allowed to fall back into that dark place she’d spent so much time in recently, contemplating the mistakes of her past, Eliza couldn’t help but think nothing she ever did really mattered. She’d never make up for the sins of her former life.

Chapter 4

Something was wrong with Cassidy. Sure, she was sitting on the couch next to Brandon, watching a movie with their friends, like it was just a normal Thursday evening, but he could tell by the absent look in her eyes she was really somewhere else.

Asking what was on her mind hadn’t gotten him anywhere. She’d just said she was fine, that she was wrapped up in the movie. But he could tell her eyes weren’t quite focused on the TV. He wished he had her ability to read minds for just a few minutes so he could access whatever was going on in her brain.

She hadn’t been quite herself for the last few weeks, not since Alex had died. Sure, he could also say it was because he had been gone for four days, sucked up inside of a portal. But the real change in her character hadn’t happened until after she read the message from Alex. Brandon should’ve read it before he gave it to her, but he hadn’t, trusting that whatever the ex-Patriot had to say, it was a private message meant only for Cassidy. Now, even though he still felt the same way, he wished he would’ve been a little nosier. Then, maybe he’d have an idea what was wrong with her.

“I’m gonna grab another soda. Anyone need a refill?” their friend, Dax Forest, who had also been in the portal with Brandon, offered.

“I’m game,” Heather said. She was the other Hybrid and had been trapped in the portal for over a century. She was sitting on the floor, leaned back against the couch near Brandon’s legs even though there was plenty of room on the furniture. She said she could never get used to being so comfortable.

Across the room, Dax’s girlfriend, Tara McCall, and Cassidy’s friend from high school, Lucy Burke, who had recently joined their team, had their eyes glued on the screen as Jason Momoa took his shirt off. “Hot damn,” Heather muttered, but all Brandon could see was that Cassidy didn’t even seem to notice at all, and he didn’t think it was because her own boyfriend looked so similar to the actor without his shirt on that she couldn’t care less about Aquaman.

Dax brought Heather a can of Coke and then reclaimed his seat next to Tara. “That’s gotta be CGI or something,” he said, shaking his head. “No one really looks like that.”

“Have you ever seen Aaron without his shirt on?” Lucy asked, only pulling her eyes away from the screen for a moment to look at him.