There was a substantial shift in the Ternion. From his hole deep within the earth, Daunator felt it, and it rocked him to his core. Closing his ancient eyes, he felt out with all of his power and knew immediately what had happened. The Queen was gone, their numbers decimated, and the Hunters’ power had increased with the addition of the Hybrids.
For over a hundred years, he had minded his own affairs, locking the rest of the world out of his thoughts and dealings as much as possible. Now, it was evident there was a choice to be made. He could either allow the current trajectory to follow its course, or he could take matters into his own hands, hoping to right the Ternion and bring balance back to the universe.
The idea of becoming involved after all of these years was unsettling—particularly when he considered the idiocy that would draw him out. He’d warned Holland not to overstep, but her reckless self-confidence had been her undoing and nearly wiped
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
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?”
Elliott tried not to let Cassidy’s 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 answ
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