Chapter 329
In the following weeks, the Leadership team did a lot to plan the upcoming attack. My sister was calling it Annihilation, and I knew they intended to take out every Vampire, regardless of official status or what they had or hadn’t done. It was a sort of “let’s get them before they get us.” Holland was aware of it, too, and she and Hines were doing everything they could to try to figure out how a Vampire could kill a Guardian. I saw their experiments through Hines’s head. Sometimes he knew I was there. Other times he didn’t. He thought he had something at one point but had no way of testing it. I’d told my sister, and everyone was on high alert so no one else was taken.
The Guardians from Roatán were amazing to watch. Dr. Levi Morrow, the man who had been working with Christian on the Guardian Retransformation serum, was a genius, and I liked to spend time in the lab just watching him work on projects with Christian, though the latter would often do something creepy and freak me out so that I had to leave earlier than I’d like. But the Retransformation serum was ready to go, and the Roatán Guardians would be able to use it to become human again as soon as Annihilation was complete. For most of them, it was their motivation for involvement in this one last campaign.
Alexander Hamilton was one of them. I played chess with him while he told stories about George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and lots of our other Founding Fathers. He didn’t remember what had happened on the other side of the portal either, but he insisted that he and Elliott had not been the only Guardians to use it, though he couldn’t tell me who the others were or where they might be. I added it to my list of things to research.
I couldn’t find anything else out about Heather. Every time I thought I had pieced something together, I slammed headfirst into a brick wall. It was very frustrating because I needed to find out what had happened to her. Jamie and Christian had brought Dr. Morrow in to work on my tissue samples, and all three of them concluded nothing could kill me, but my cells did show normal age regression like all Hunters. So they believed that’s what killed Heather, but I wasn’t so sure.
My parents had moved in the week after we got back from Melbourne. It really took some getting used to. My curfews changed, I had to finish my homework before Brandon could come over, and I had to move into their apartment, which I didn’t like at all. It wasn’t as big or fancy as my sister’s. I knew it would take some adjustment, but I hoped I’d get used to it.
No Hunters were allowed to leave campus while we geared up for Annihilation, and that included me. So we spent a lot of time at the pizza place in the basement of the new recruits apartment building. It wasn’t nearly as much fun as Pizza Triangle, the place Brandon and I would’ve normally gone, but it was better than nothing. Dax and Tara met us there a few times a week, and it was nice not to have to put up with my parents for a while and just be a kid.
“So… did you ever hear what happened with Ashley on that date with Christian?” Tara asked between bites of a huge slice of pepperoni. For a moment, she reminded me of my friend back home, Lucy, who could eat cheese pizza like no one’s business.
“No, I haven’t heard, but I don’t think it matters much now that she’s dating Jamie.” I was so happy for both of them. It turns out my sister was actually the one who convinced the doc to ask Ash out, and they hit it off immediately. Who wouldn’t like Jamie? And Ashley actually looked a lot like his girlfriend, Ellie, who had died at Pearl Harbor. I had never seen him so happy.
“Well, Addy said that she heard Ashley telling Mickey that Christian is trying to build some sort of alliance against the Leaders, that he’s forming some sort of coup.”
Tara said it like it was the gospel truth, and I almost laughed. I couldn’t imagine that could be what had happened. I imagined he just got a little fresh with her.
“Did she tell Aaron?” Brandon asked once he’d swallowed. Between the three of them, they could easily eat three large pizzas. I was lucky if I got a second slice before it was all gone.
“I don’t know,” Tara admitted. “I think she might have. You should ask him, Cass.”
“Sure, I’ll get right on that as soon as he’s done saving the world from Vampiregeddon.” I couldn’t imagine Aaron would even take such a statement seriously.
“Maybe we could drop Christian off at Holland’s place, and she could do some experiments on him,” Dax joked, and they all snickered, but I was caught up in the part of his statement about Holland’s place and lost the rest. I still didn’t know where that was, and I needed to find out. It was on my list.
“You okay, Cass?” Brandon asked, giving me a nudge.
“Yep. Fine. Just…”
“Stuck in your head?” Tara asked.
“As usual,” I nodded. At least my friends expected it of me.
I was just about to say something else when I realized my cell phone was ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered a FaceTime from Lucy. “Hey, Luce! What’s up?” I said before I took in her expression. It looked very wrong.
“Cass! Something’s happened!” she shouted as she ran through her house. I couldn’t tell where she was going, whether she was running from something or toward someone.
“Calm down, Lucy,” I said, though I felt my heartbeat increase. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. I came home from the basketball game, and I was walking in the door. There was this… thing. It was tall with long claws. I thought it might be a Vampire. I didn’t know what to do, so I screamed. It came at me, and that’s when I saw it’s fangs. It all happened so fast….”
Brandon was leaning over my shoulder now, and I could tell he was just as concerned as I was. “Lucy, did it scratch you?” he asked her.
“No, I don’t think so. I can’t find my parents….”
“Okay. Where is it now?” I asked.
“It’s gone… I… killed it.”
My eyes widened. I would need more information about that, but not now. “I’m sure your parents are fine, Lucy. If the Vampire had gotten them, you’d know.” I thought she’d see blood or something.
“Right,” she said, but I could tell she was still panicked. I could see she was down in the movie room in their basement now. “Mom! Dad! Daniel!” She shouted all of her family members’ names, but there was no answer.
“Lucy, Daniel’s probably still at the basketball game,” I reasoned. “Go back upstairs, and try your mom’s cell.”
She was crying now, but she managed to say, “Okay,” and headed back up the stairs. I handed my phone to Brandon and felt out with my mind, trying to determine if there were any other Vampires in the area. We should’ve known this was going to happen. There are Guardians stationed in Shenandoah, placed there to protect families like the Burks, those whose children are capable of Transforming.
Unable to find anything, I sent an IAC message to my sister and Aaron and then returned my attention to Lucy. I could hear her mom’s cell phone ringing in the background, heard her shouting for her parents, and then she opened the door to their walk in pantry.
Lucy’s screams filled my ears as she dropped the phone. More than anything in the world, I wished I could be there with her at that moment, but all I could do was sit there, helplessly, as the image on the phone turned red… blood red.
END VOLUME 5: VAMPIRE HUNTIG ISN’T FOR MORONS
