Cadence was on a plane. They didn’t know for sure where they were going, but they did know they needed to get across the ocean. When she discovered it would take about fourteen hours to get to Rome and not much less than that to get to England, she decided it was time to head that direction.
She had finally eaten something, taken a shower, and rested for a while before she grabbed a few things and threw them in a suitcase. At the last minute, she’d also decided to take Aaron’s bag with her, the same one he’d packed just a few days ago to take to West Virginia. Everything was already in there, all of the items he usually packed. So she thought she’d be the eternal optimist and take it along. Hopefully, she wasn’t jinxing herself.
Lots of people had insisted on going with her, and she’d given in because she understood they’d want to see the Guardians again as soon as possible. Cassidy and Tara were there of course. Lucy had
Brandon’s leg was shattered, of that much he was sure. He’d done his best to break his fall, lurching for the side of the Colosseum as he fell, but he’d collided with several layers of travertine on his way to the ground, and he was pretty sure he’d scraped off plenty of skin as well. When he finally made contact with the earth, his leg buckled beneath him, and he screamed in agony, thankful Cassidy wasn’t there to see him crying.Except she was. She was in his head and had been for the entire painful plummet. As soon as he realized she could hear him, he sucked in the scream and willed himself to focus on anything else—like the fact that gunfire encircled them, and he had no idea where Dax was.Heather was bleeding from a cut on her head, but other than that, she seemed unharmed. “Are you okay?” she asked before she climbed off of him and took a look at his leg. “Holy hell! The whole bone’s stickin’ plu
“Heather doesn’t know how to throw a shield,” Dax reminded him.“That’s okay. She can do it.”“Why not just ask Cass?” Dax shouted over the sound of gunfire closing in around them.“I’m trying,” Cass answered both of them in their heads. “But it’s hard when I don’t know where she is, and I’m not with you. I’m pretty far away, too. I’ll keep working at it.”Brandon glanced around. Now, several battles were taking place on the interior of the Colosseum grounds instead of just outside the limestone walls. “Dax, you should go. Take Heather and head toward Lex.”“Yeah, I’m gonna leave you sitting here. Don’t be stupid.”“It’s not like they can kill me.”“True, but they can sure have fun trying to shove that bone back into your leg. Besides, if they happen t
With the shield up and the LIGHTS team taking the upper hand, the remaining Vampires realized they could not win and took off, many of them pursued and shot down by Hunters or Guardians before they even left the area surrounding the Colosseum. In the distance, Brandon heard sirens and prayed that someone else was as talented at interference as his dad was. If push came to shove, he could do it himself, but he hoped he’d at least have the chance to wipe the vomit off his lips before he had to convince law enforcement this was nothing, especially since he’d never dealt with Interpol before and had an idea they’d be on the case. He wasn’t even sure if any of them would speak English, though he assumed most agents probably did.“Should I go tell her she can stop?” Dax asked, looking down at him with his hands on his hips before his eyes wandered over to where Heather was still concentrating on keeping up the shield.“Yeah. Tell her
The pilot seemed relieved to finally have a definite header. He assured Cadence they’d get to Rome as quickly as they could, and she went back to the rest of the team, all of them anxiously watching the battle at the Colosseum unfold on their IACs, except for Amanda, who was lost. The worried mother was asking questions of anyone who would answer her, but since she was sitting next to Aurora, who was preoccupied, and Ashley who was crying uncontrollably because Jamie wasn’t among the Guardians who had gotten out, Amanda was left in the dark.About the same time that Antonio ran off for his medical bag, Cadence sat down a row in front of Amanda. Leaning over the seat, she said, “Brandon’s out of the portal. His leg is broken, but our team on the ground in Rome is working to heal him, and he should be just fine. We’ve diverted to Rome to pick him up, along with Dax and Heather.”A look of relief washed over the redhead’s face. &l
“Okay—so if I’ve got this straight,” Elliott was saying from his position across the tunnel from him. “They think the next two times the portal opens, it’ll be into outer space or someplace too tricky for us to get out. So when the portal opens the third time, you expect Jame and I to just plow out of here, full steam ahead, and leave you behind, hoping you can get out. That right?”“Yeah, I’ll bring up the rear. If Cadence’s plan works, Stewart should be in here somewhere, and then I’ll be able to follow you out.” They’d learned from their own abduction by the portal that just because there was one opening that didn’t mean they’d all end up in the same place on the inside.“No, I don’t like it,” Elliott said with his arms crossed. “I don’t think any of us go until all of us can go. Once we see Dr. Stew in here, we go together.”“By
“Welcome!” An older woman with a thick Italian accent greeted them when they walked in the door. She was round and grandmotherly, and Cadence got the impression she was a human. She hugged each of them and kissed them on the cheeks before leading them to the back of the building.“I’m Nessa. Lex and Gia might be the Leaders, but I run this show.” She laughed at her own joke in a jolly chuckle. “They are expecting you.”At the entrance of a conference room, she stood in the doorway with one arm extended. Cadence thanked her and led her team a few steps inside, though there were so many of them, most had to stay in the hallway until Lex and Gia realized they were there.Lex was more attractive in person than he was over the IAC, and Cadence actually heard Aurora gasp behind her as he stood and smiled at them. “Ah, Cadence! It’s so nice to see you in person!” He rushed over and hugged her, and Cadence retu
Avoiding the demon hunters was getting more difficult by the minute, and by the time the portal had opened the second time since Rome, Aaron was ready for the next six hours to be up so he could send his friends along their merry way—hopefully joining them--though he wasn’t holding his breath on that one. He had a feeling he’d be in there a little bit longer.There had been no signal the second time the portal opened, which was what Ward had predicted. It was a huge disappointment, but at least it had opened so that they could get a signal the time before that, and they knew Brandon, Dax, and Heather had gotten out all right. Cadence had warned them that there had been Vampires waiting for the trio when the portal opened, so the three left behind knew to be ready for a fight as soon as they got back to terra firma. Aaron welcomed a fight out in the real world where he knew the chances of him actually getting killed were slim, at least compared to inside the
With the addition of Brandon, Dax, and Heather on the plane from Rome to Southampton Airport, it was a little louder at first, but then it died down as the teens turned to cuddling masses, though Cadence could still hear Heather and Aurora talking about the portal. Part of Cadence wanted to know every detail, but the rest of her thought it was too ghastly to think about it and would wait to hear it from Aaron when he got out in a few hours.She was sitting by herself in the front of the plane and had been for most of the first two hours of the three hour trip. It would’ve been easy to fall asleep if she wasn’t so concerned about how this might go. There was still no sign of Holland, but Cadence could feel it in her gut that the Vampire Queen would make an appearance and try to wreck their plans. She likely hadn’t meant for Dax to be sucked into the portal to begin with, who knew what her thoughts were on Heather, and as much as Holland probably thought it wo