Time wasn’t on her side, though. Before she could recover, there were three more Vampires baring down on her, two musclebound brutes and a woman who reminded her of Aurora because she was huge and probably just as strong as the men. “Did someone call in the brute squad?” she said as she regained her footing.“We are here to destroy you,” the woman said through clenched teeth.“Not today,” Cadence replied, though she didn’t feel quite so confident that that wouldn’t be the case when one of the men grabbed her right arm, her stabbing arm. She reached for her Glock and fired directly into his face, but it did no good, and the other man easily disarmed her as the woman stepped in.She knew this move. She’d performed this move a hundred times before, though the two people she usually worked with were not here. The two men were intending to hold her arms while the woman grabbed her neck and twisted—unti

It hadn’t taken too long for the demons to come out of the corners once the numbering process was over. It seemed as if the portal opening may also have had something to do with it, as Aaron noted they tended to move faster during the time that everything was shifting. This battle was taking longer than the previous ones, probably because there were more assailants, and he reloaded his Glock with the last clip he had on him just as something that looked like a cross between a dust bunny and a Wonder Mop shot out of the shadows, barreling toward him. Trying to conserve ammo, he shot it only once and regretted it immediately as the monster knocked him hard into the lava rock wall behind him.A knee to the groin did nothing to the creature as the monster opened a hole in its face he could only presume was its mouth and bared rows of sharp teeth. Aaron used the heel of his hand to strike the monster right beneath the opening, assuming that would have the same effect as a bl

The flight back to Kansas City was relatively silent. Ashley was asleep on Cassidy’s shoulder, and her sister had little to say. So Cadence spent most of the three hours staring out the window, fingering the locket Elliott had given her, and trying to determine if she was doing the right thing.It would’ve been a great time to get some work done, but everything she needed to do next had to happen in person, and most of the other Hunters had been leaving her alone since Aaron had disappeared. Cadence should’ve been out of commission now anyway, preparing for her wedding, which was supposed to happen the next day. The Area Leaders had already planned on this. There weren’t a lot of Vampires left now, since the raids earlier in the year. Unfortunately, the ones who remained were feisty sons of bitches.Her mind went back over everything that had happened in the last thirty-six hours and then through what she would need to do when she landed. It was

“How much of it is about the portal?” Cassidy asked, jumping right in.Ward carefully opened the book to a point about three-fourths of the way into the volume, which looked to be about three hundred pages long. The sheets were a discolored yellow, and the ink, had clearly changed colors in several places, varying from a dark black to a lighter gray. It was clear the entire tome had been handwritten. Cadence envisioned an ancient Vampire sitting down with squid’s ink or the blood of a freshly beheaded chicken to dip his crooked talon in a well and scratch each letter out on the page.“Only four pages are devoted to the Blood Moon Portal. Though there are other mentions of it elsewhere, they are all in reference to information shared here or not recorded at all.”“Four pages doesn’t seem like much,” Ashley said, and for a moment, Cadence considered sending her someplace else. But it was almost 6:00, and she had a fe

“All right. If the two of you can work on that, I’d appreciate it. Cassidy, can you write up a text to send to Brandon’s phone that says the gist of what we’ve discovered here? Don’t mention Stewart going in yet. I think we need to talk a little more about how that will work before we bring it up. We’ll let them know, though, that we’ll be sending someone in so they can all get out.”“Sure,” Cassidy said, grabbing Cadence’s phone off of the table.“Let me look at it before you send it.” Her sister nodded. “Cale, will you go over to Christian’s lab and check on Tara and Lucy? That’s where they are isn’t it?” Christian nodded, and Cadence continued. “See if they need anything and if Tara is doing okay. If they want you to, stick around and help them with their assignment. I think that would be the best way you can help us. Who do we have on the ground in the