Aaron pulled up a map on the projector behind him. “The Xs all mark spots where the recent attacks have occurred—the ones we know about that are certainly ours. This is just America, but a look at other countries and continents would show a similar pattern.”
Cadence turned to study the map. All of the Xs seemed to be in rural locations, all near major highways, and some of them close to each other.
“What do you mean by strange locations?” Christian asked.
The Leader must’ve already been prepared for that question because, using his IAC, he pulled up an overlay that covered the first image with labels. Cadence read a few of them quickly. “Gas station, hotel, rest stop,” she said, her eyes flickering around, finding much of the same. Only a couple were listed as residential or highly populated commercial, which is what they were used to seeing.
“So… I’ll give you that’s weird,” Jamie said. “But what do you think it means?”
“I’m not exactly sure yet,” Aaron admitted, turning from the map to face his team. “But it looks like movement to me.”
Cadence agreed. All of those locations had something to do with traveling. “So where do we think they’re going?” she asked, her eyes still stuck on the red Xs.
“I don’t know.” The feel of Aaron’s gaze made Cadence turn to look at him. “But I think we’ll find out soon.”
His words sounded ominous, and Cadence swallowed hard, holding his eyes with hers.
“We need more information,” Christian concluded. “Maybe we can get Cass to…”
“Maybe,” Cadence said, interrupting before he could finish the sentence since she already knew what he would propose. She let out a sigh. “I’ll talk to her.” Her sister didn’t really like using her Vampiric abilities to probe into the minds of the undead, but in this instance, she might need to.
“Do you think it has something to do with the portal?” Jamie asked, looking directly at Aaron.
“I do,” he nodded.
“We don’t know that,” Cadence interjected. “It could be something else. Is there an Eidolon Festival coming up or anything?”
“Not that they’ve announced.” Aaron shook his head and ran his hand along his jawline. “I don’t think they’d do that without letting us know.”
Eidolon Festivals were tricky, and Cadence was all for getting rid of them altogether. Her friend Drew Peterson had been killed at one, and that’s how she’d gotten dragged into this other world herself. Giving Vampires free reign for one night, so long as no one got hurt against their will, when it was so hard to distinguish what was against a person’s will under the circumstances, seemed like a very bad idea to her. “I’ll see if Cass can find that out, too.”
“All right. I think that’s all for now. I have heard a few rumors that we might have an RV park of our own to investigate soon enough, down near Butler, but I need some more information.” Aaron began to shuffle the papers in front of him.
“Great! Red-neck Vampires,” Jamie muttered.
“You don’t have to be a red-neck to live in an RV,” Hannah reasoned.
“Maybe not, but I’d be willing to wager we’ll find our fair share of NASCAR posters on the walls,” he replied as the three of them stood and sauntered toward the door.
“What do you have against NASCAR?” Christian was asking as they walked out, and Cadence had to chuckle a little bit. She wouldn’t have taken Christian for a racing fan. If Jamie answered, it was out of her earshot.
Aaron swiveled his chair around to look at her. “What do you think this is?” he asked, looking at her like he already knew the answer but wanted to feel her out.
“I don’t know,” she admitted with a shrug. “But I don’t know how it could be portal related.”
His eyes didn’t shift, and she understood that to mean he disagreed. He had kept his word, so far, and hadn’t said anything at all about the portal opening bringing back something evil and it all being her fault. She assumed he was just biding his time. “Are you keeping a close eye on the missing person’s reports?”
“Yep,” she nodded. That was one statistic she had her Area Leaders check on every day and alert her if there was any unusual rise in numbers.
“Nothing so far?”
“Nope.”
He narrowed one eye at her, like he wasn’t sure if he trusted that response. He let out a long sigh and said, “When this all goes to hell, we’re going to have to act fast this time. We can’t let whatever this is get too far ahead of us.”
Bringing up the point that she still didn’t think there was anything to worry about seemed pointless, so she only nodded. “You think the drop in numbers is due to this movement, not an actual decrease in activity?”
Aaron nodded his head.
“Have you ever seen anything like this before? A shift?”
“No, I haven’t,” he admitted. “But then, the portal’s never been opened in a time when we can track it either.”
Cadence was afraid to continue to discuss the portal for fear they really would end up in an argument, so she stood. “All right. I’ll go talk to Cass. When’s Elliott coming back?”
“He wasn’t sure. Tomorrow or the next day.”
“Will we have enough intel on the RV park you spoke of to move by then?”
“I hope so. I’ve got a few Independents scoping it out.”
Independent Hunters and Guardians—people who worked with them but weren’t directly part of the team. “All right,” she said, heading toward the door. “Keep me posted.”
“Will do,” he replied, and Cadence turned to smile at him to remind him that she still loved him even when they were talking business and bordering on the touchy subject of what opening the portal may have brought back. The fact that he returned the smile, and it looked almost genuine, lifted her spirits slightly as she headed out to find her sister.
