Cadence stood in the field, steering up at the moon for hours. Around her, the LIGHTS team worked to take eight Vampires into custody, verify the information they’d collected from every other Vampire present, and comb the area for anything they’d missed. Vampires worked to tear down the tents and other festival equipment, once LIGHTS had fully searched it and determined there was nothing of value. Even when the moon had worked its way across the sky and was descending beyond the horizon, she stood, watching, thinking, wondering how this had happened.
Most of the team had long since gone back to the B and B, and Cassidy had gone with them because Cadence had insisted she do so. Dragged against her will was basically the best way to describe it. Only Hannah and Job, the local guy Aaron had mentioned the day before, remained behind with her. They pretended to be searching the perimeter again, but she knew they were waiting for her to call it, to give up, to go home—without her husband.
When the sun began to rise, Cadence took a deep breath and wiped away a few tears that had fought their way to the surface despite her determination to keep them inside. Now wasn’t the time to let her emotions get the best of her. She had to keep a logical head about her. Of course, that had never been her strong suit. Whenever she’d start to get off track and stop using her head, it had always been Aaron who would bring her back around. Now, she needed to try to think like him if she was going to find him.
“Cadence?” She turned to see Job, a tall, thin man with dark hair, strolling toward her, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “The Independents I coordinate with have been working for the last several hours to put together a model of what transpired. Why don’t we head back to DC, to our facility, and we’ll see if that helps any? It might not give us all the answers, but we can go through what we have and see what we do know.”
“Christian’s there going through every bit of IAC footage we have from every angle. Maybe someone saw something that will be helpful,” Hannah added.
She nodded. Those both seemed like places to start. “Where’s Cass?” She hadn’t checked in with her sister since she’d been carted away.
“She’s still at the B and B, trying to track down this Dr. Stewart she mentioned. And some of the locals are questioning the eight Vampires we took into custody. They’re back at the facility Job spoke of.” Hannah managed a small smile of reassurance.
Cadence was glad she at least had Hannah around. While she was certain Aaron’s longtime friend was devastated, she was able to keep a cool head, something Cadence appreciated because she felt like she was on the verge of breaking. “Have we let anyone back in Iowa or Kansas City know yet?”
“Not yet. I just told them we were having some IAC issues and to standby,” Hannah said as they started walking toward the one black SUV still parked in the vast field full of ruts from previous vehicles. There were a few other cars and trucks parked there, and she assumed they belonged to the Vampires who had been taken in. If they were ever released, they could worry about their cars later, but as far as Cadence was concerned, all eight of them could kiss their sorry asses goodbye. Even if they had no idea what they were doing, they’d been a part of this.
As she climbed into the back seat and clicked her seatbelt into place robotically, she wondered how long this would last. “I’ll need to call my mom,” she said, thoughts of the wedding coming to mind. Out of town guests would already be arriving. One of Aaron’s friends was flying in from the UK.... “Someone will need to call Amanda.” What would she say to Brandon’s mom? “Sorry, your son is lost—in a portal to another dimension. And also so is his father. How’s class going?” On top of Amanda, Cadence wondered how Aurora would take the information that Elliott was gone.
“Let’s give it some time,” Hannah suggested, and Cadence could feel good vibrations radiating off of her friend from the front seat. Just as Hannah had helped her with her emotions when Jack died, she was doing the same thing now. Cadence wasn’t sure if she should thank her or ask her to stop. So long as she didn’t become complacent, she figured it might help clear her head so she could stay focused on figuring out what had happened and how to reverse it.
“Where did you say Christian was?” It seemed odd that the one Guardian who usually drove her crazy suddenly felt like one of her few lifelines.
“He’s at our facility,” Job repeated.
Cadence wondered why the Independents had a facility. If they worked as a team, why not just stop being Independent? But then she realized there was an actual Washington, DC team, too. A few of its members had attended, though the Leaders were too busy to come. “We need to get Trina and Oswald in on this, too.”
“I’ve contacted them,” Job assured her, catching her eye in the rearview. “They’ll be at the office by the time we get there, and they are bringing some more of their people along. Did you want to stop and pick up your sister?”
“Yes,” Cadence said without hesitation. She was certain Cassidy was just as exhausted as she was by now, maybe more so since she hadn’t been asleep a few minutes before this all started like Cadence had, but they’d need her more than anyone else. If anyone could piece this together, it would be her.
The owner of the B and B, a human woman named Deb, was outside watering her flowers when they pulled up despite the fact that the sun had just come up. Cadence decided she must’ve been putting together the breakfast that the B and B served starting at five in the morning before she realized she’d have no takers. “Ah, there you are,” she said, her friendly tone also sneakily suspicious. “Must’ve had a long night. I haven’t seen many of you around. Interesting outfit for August.” She eyed the all black, mostly leather, including jackets, that Hannah and Job were wearing, confusion all over her wrinkled face.
“Yes, well, sometimes fashion is uncomfortable,” Hannah said with a smile that completely put Deb at ease and made her overlook the weapons they all carried. She nodded and went back to her petunias. It seemed Hannah was even better at manipulating feelings since she’d had her procedure.
Cadence took the staircase steps three at a time and only paused for a second after knocking on Cassidy’s door. Her sister was levitating over the bed several inches in a trance and had to be shaken fairly hard to get her eyes to open. “Come on. We’re going to DC,” Cadence said, tugging on her arm.
“Okay,” Cassidy muttered, coming back around. She landed and slid off of the bed, following her older sister out the door.
