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
“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
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 be
Eliza’s 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 su
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 m
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
“Okay, okay, okay. I’m sorry. If that’s what you’ve been working on, I can see why that would take a lot of attention. I didn’t mean to be rude. I was just, like I said before, worried about you.”“Don’t be. I’m fine.”Her expression said otherwise. Maybe she was right and he should’ve let her go, but he was afraid he’d only made things worse, and the next time he saw her, maybe she wouldn’t even want to sit by him at all. “I really am sorry I upset you, Cass. That wasn’t what I was trying to do.”“I know.” Her arms were folded again, and he could tell she wanted to run out the door.“It’s just... ever since I got back, I feel like I don’t know what to say to you, how to talk, what you’re thinking about. It’s weird.”“Maybe something happened to your brain while you were in the portal. Maybe you left
Cassidy shot out of the building like it was on fire, searching for fresh air before her lungs exploded. Once she was outside, she took a few gulps and tried to slow her raging pulse. She knew her temper had a way of getting the best of her. It had been that way ever since she Transformed, but since the second round of serum, the symptoms had been even worse. She’d been trying to ignore it for months, but in this sort of a situation, there wasn’t much she could do except to try to get away before she said something she’d regret—or turned into The Incredible Hulk and ripped someone a new one.Which reminded her of Christian. “Where are you? Are you busy?”“I am in the lab, finishing up a few things. Why? What’s up? You thirsty for blood?”She actually laughed, hoping he didn’t hear through the IAC because she didn’t want to give him any credit for being funny. “You wanna
“Assuming all of the people who are missing have been turned,” Christian offered, taking another sip of his coffee.“Right. So I decided to use the reports to look into individual people, see if I could access them that way.”“Brilliant. And what did you find out?”The compliment brought a bit of a blush to her cheeks, but she moved past it, not wanting to let him know she’d taken it that way. “I was able to locate a lot of them, and now my list is close to a hundred.”“Vampires?”“Yeah.”“In that area?”“Yeah,” she nodded wholeheartedly before taking another swig. “So... I went back and watched as many of their memories of being turned as I could, something I’d like to finish but ran out of time.”“Well, that’s a lot of turning,” Christian reminded her.“Exactly. Anyway, most of