Dr. Hamish Stewart straightened a number of artifacts on his desk and peered out through the glass in his office door, trying to decide whether or not to let the students waiting there come in to ask him questions. After receiving the news he’d been looking for, a titillation crept through his skin, and he was afraid his joy might take shape in the form of pointy teeth, something he usually had control over, but given the situation, hiding them might be slightly more difficult.
There was no reason for him to call anyone to let them know the plan had been set in motion. In fact, doing so would be quite dangerous. When he’d originally been contacted, he was told precisely what to do—find out as much information as possible on the blood moon, organize a team that could not be tracked back to him or the man who’d messaged him, and find a way to utilize his discovery to get rid of certain members of LIGHTS once and for all. Now that they had permission for the festival, he would put the rest of the plan in action. Perhaps some of the students waiting outside would be helpful after all, though he’d intended to look for bodybuilder types, those whose strength would be insurmountable once undead.
That would be the most difficult part for him. Figuring out the blood moon would be simple compared to turning a small army of assistance. In the nearly two centuries since he’d first Resurrected, only once had he ever bitten a human who was considered an Innocent, and that had been before he knew what he was doing. Now, if he fed on humans at all, it was rare, and they were always the worst of the species. Murderers. Rapists. Those who sold hardcore drugs to kids. No, Hamish Stewart wasn’t your typical Noncompliant Vampire. But considering the action LIGHTS had taken recently against his kind, he would find a way to accomplish the task at hand.
His eyes flickered back to the ancient book in front of him. Handwritten and hand bound, it was older than any volume he’d ever held before. As far as he knew, there were only two others like it in the world. One was with the doctor who’d contacted him somewhere in Eastern Europe, though he didn’t know where. The other was allegedly in the archives the LIGHTS team housed in Kansas City. If they were even aware of the legends it held, he doubted they’d think to access it for something as simple as an Eidolon Festival. Sure, the evening news would remind everyone that the full moon coming up was special, that it was paired with an eclipse, which would give the moon a red glow over certain parts of the country. But, it wasn’t something as exciting as a solar eclipse. The chances of the team suspecting anything were slim. The book itself was full of all sorts of Vampire lore, the chapters on the blood moon hidden buried within and written in an ancient tongue.
No, he doubted they’d question anything at all. Unless the girl showed up. He’d heard talk of her, knew she could read minds. He knew little else, only that she was some sort of a Hybrid and one needed to be cautious or else she could insert herself into one’s thoughts and even make them do things they wouldn’t normally do. If she were to discover what they were up to, the entire plan would be foiled. Thus the need for a long chain of untraceable contacts and a group of newborns to actually help carry out the plan. Hamish would wait until the very last second to decide whether or not he would travel to Shepherdstown himself, but his people would make the journey from Quebec to West Virginia well-versed in exactly what to say and where to place the necessary tools so that his plan would go through unscathed with little to no effort by him.
Hamish took a deep breath and ran his hands through his long, peppered beard. It all seemed too simple. He thought there would have to be something more complicated than this, something that could go wrong. So far, he was one lucky bastard. Now, if he could manage to keep his name out of it, to get away with murder—or the supernatural equivalent thereof—then he might consider creating a Vampire army of his own. For now, he’d take things one step at a time, careful not to tip anyone off, and thank his lucky stars—and moon—that everything was going according to plan.
Apparently, Eidolon Festivals were popular with immortals of the non-Vampire variety. Either that or Shenandoah, Iowa, was just as boring as Cadence had always thought it was. Every single member of her team that could possibly weasel their way onto the airplane headed for West Virginia had done so with very few exceptions. Meagan had volunteered to stay behind with Aurora since the redhead didn’t want to be anywhere near Elliott, and Shane stayed back with his girlfriend, Meagan. Tara had decided to stay in town with Lucy so she could see her mom, brother, and good friend Emma a few days longer, but other than that, everyone who had made the trip back home with Cadence for the wedding loaded up again on the morning of August 29 to head across the country to the allegedly haunted town of Shepherdstown.
The only other Hunter aboard the plane, besides Cadence herself, was Ashley, and she wouldn’t be attending the festival since Hunters weren’t allowed to. So she would stay back at the bed and breakfast Liz had booked for all of them, along with Cadence and Cassidy. Only not exactly with them as Cadence would’ve rather subjected herself to attack by an entire Vampire army than entertain the blonde while their menfolk were out keeping the Vampires honest. She just hoped Jamie’s girlfriend had something to do so that she wouldn’t be knocking on her bedroom door five minutes into the operation, wanting to see what was going on.
