“Christian, I’ve got this.” Cadence pushed him away, and Ashley immediately started asking him if he had any idea where Jamie was. Cadence realized then that the other Hunter wasn’t up to speed.
“Mika,” Cadence said, taking a deep breath. “Listen, we need your help. I’m not sure what you know, but we have at least four missing Guardians. Are you sure you have no idea what might’ve happened to them?”
“No, I don’t know!” she shouted, shaking her head furiously. “I didn’t do anything. I only called Aaron to organize the festival. I didn’t do anything else.”
“Was there something else to know about?” Cadence asked. “Do you know about the artifacts? The water, mirrors, obsidian?”
“No, I don’t know anything!” the woman insisted.
Before Cadence could press further, Cassidy said, “She’s lying—she knows more. Who is Bruce? Is he here?”
Mika’s eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything. Cadence looked around. There were lots of other Vampires standing nearby, and most of them seemed as if they would cooperate. Only a few were protesting, saying the Guardians had no right to hold them, that the Hunters weren’t even supposed to be here.
“There!” Cassidy shouted, moving across the field toward one of the more agitated men. “That’s him—but it’s not Bruce. It’s Bryce.” She shot off in his direction.
“Wait—Cass!” Cadence’s pleas fell on deaf ears as her sister ran through the crowd. “Who is he?” Cadence asked Mika while looking around for someone else to call over to keep an eye on the woman.
“I don’t know. He only called me twice. He asked me to organize the festival. I swear, I don’t know anything else.”
“Yeah, well you said that once before,” Cadence reminded her. Where were all the people she usually counted on to do stuff like this? “Hey, you!” she yelled to a woman dressed all in black with a Glock on her side. “Come here!”
The brunette looked confused, like she wasn’t sure if she was the one being summoned, but she finally strode over. “Yeah?”
“Hi. I’m Cadence.” The Guardian’s eyes widened in recognition. “This is Mika. Can you keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn’t go anywhere?”
“Sure,” the woman replied. From her IAC, Cadence gathered that this was a local named Shirleen.
“Thanks, Shirleen.” Without waiting for a response, she turned and headed after her sister who had already reached Bryce.
Cassidy wasn’t playing. While two local Guardians held Bryce into place, Cassidy was boring into his eyes with her own, clearly taking in all of the information he had to offer. He was fighting, trying to keep himself closed off, but he wasn’t getting anywhere.
“All right,” Cassidy said, nodding. She looked around. “Over there,” and she was off again.
“Keep him,” Cadence ordered the other two locals and followed her sister.
One Vampire after another was sought out by her little sister until they had at least eight suspects. None of them said a word aloud, but Cassidy pried information out of their minds until she seemed exhausted herself, and not one of them had enough information to disclose where the Guardians had actually disappeared to.
“He’s not here,” Cassidy muttered under her breath, spinning around to survey the field once more. “He’s gone.”
Cadence reached out and put her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Do you mean Brandon?” she asked, afraid of her sister’s response. If Brandon was gone, then so was Aaron. And Elliott. And Jamie.
“No, I mean... yes.... But the person who put all of this in motion, he got out before we arrived. We’ll need to track him down.”
“Who is he?” Cadence asked, not sure she even wanted to hear the answer.
“His name is Dr. Hamish Stewart. I only know that because four of these Vampires are his students. He teaches atmospheric science and physics at McGill University in Quebec. Most of the Vampires I just talked to were turned specifically for this operation.”
“But what is this operation?” Cadence asked, raking her fingers through the hair on the very top of her head.
“I still don’t know. None of them knew what they were doing. Until I find Stewart, I won’t be able to answer that question.”
“Okay—so let’s find him.”
“I can’t!” Cass spat in frustration. “Holland has some shield around him now. I’ll be able to break through it eventually, but nothing I am trying is working!”
“Okay, okay,” Cadence said, pulling her trembling sister to her shoulder. “Take some deep breaths. I’m sure, wherever they are, they’re all fine. Vampires can’t kill Guardians, remember? They’re strong. They’ll be okay.”
Her words weren’t doing much to comfort her sister, and Cassidy began to sob into her shoulder. Cadence looked around her. Without Aaron and the other men she’d come to rely on so completely in the last two years beside her, she felt helpless. They had to be there somewhere, didn’t they? Or at the very least, there had to be some trace of where they’d gone.
Hannah moved over quickly, taking long strides like she was on a mission. Cassidy didn’t even look up at the sound of her approach. “We’ve searched everywhere, Cadence. It’s like they just... disappeared.”
“That’s impossible,” Cadence replied, but she was beginning to wonder whether or not that was the case.
“We have everyone Cassidy identified in custody, and we’ve taken down the names and addresses of every other Vampire. I think we need to go sit down somewhere and lay out everything that we have. We can leave the locals here, let them continue to comb the area.”
“Hannah, we have four missing Guardians! There’s no way in hell I’m leaving here until we figure out where they are!” Cadence shouted.
“Six,” Hannah said, shaking her head slowly. “We have six missing Guardians.”
Chills ran up Cadence’s arms and down her spine. Who had she missed? Cassidy turned slowly to look at the strawberry-blonde haired counselor, and Cadence realized who else she hadn’t seen.
With a deep breath, Hannah confirmed who else was gone. “Dax and Alex are missing, too.”
Cassidy broke out into sobs again, and Cadence felt herself on the brink of breaking, too. But she had to be strong. Aaron wouldn’t want her to crumble--not now. She glanced down at the ring on her finger and swore she’d find every single one of them, even if she had to travel to another galaxy to do it.
