Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Clandestine Saga: Kabanata 481 - Kabanata 490

“I guess our wedding plans will be put on hold for a while,” Cadence said, taking his hand in both of hers. It always surprised her how smooth they were despite decades of battles and other hard work.“I hope, by September, all of this will be put far behind us.” He managed a small smile.“Maybe, but it seems silly to be picking out flowers and cakes when we’re gearing up for… Armageddon.”“True. But I’ve never been a fan of Ben Affleck.”Cadence snickered and tried not to roll her eyes. “Don’t you think it’s crazy to keep planning when the world is crumbling around us?”“Is it? I hadn’t noticed. Seriously, Cadence, we’ve got the upperhand here. Holland is just one person—one very evil, menacing person--but still there’s just one of her. We’re not going to put our wedding plans on hold just because she’s fuming over h

It took Aaron a half-second to answer, and she imagined that was because he was directing the other teams as well. None of them should be merging here as the other tunnels and passages they were using to ferret out similar gangs of docile Vampires didn’t connect, but they were all in close enough proximity that Aaron was able to direct them from a parking garage a few miles from where Cadence was—and a few hundred yards above her head. She didn’t want to think about that, though, being underground. She wondered for a moment if it reminded Elliott of the time he’d been dead for eight months. Even though he had been cremated, she imagined if she’d been the one to die, anything remotely like being buried would make her uneasy. But then, this made her uneasy, and she’d been alive her entire life.“Ready, kid?” Elliott whispered aloud, likely seeing the look on her face, thinking she was either on the verge of panic or about

Cadence used her entire body to fling the creature up and over, holding onto it with her knees, one hand on each jaw. It bucked and tried to pound her into the concrete beneath them, but her efforts were enough for Elliott to plunge the knife into its chest cavity. He took the blade out and stabbed again, several times, and Cadence could feel the animal start to weaken. Silver knives had worked better than anything else on the shapeshifting Vampires they’d encountered both in Melbourne and in Butler, Missouri, when they’d gone on a raid there right before Paul was taken prisoner. It was working here as well. After a few more jabs, the Vampire crocodile let out a loud sigh and crumbled into ash all over Cadence.She lay there stunned for a few seconds, not sure what to make of the entire reptile situation. Eventually, she came to her senses and jumped up, brushing the residue off as Elliott pocketed his weapon. “Never in my life…” she muttered, n

“We’ve got two dozen Guardians there now, back to watching on rooftops, the same sort of procedure we ran when Cadence and Cassidy were at risk,” Hannah continued in her even voice. “I’m certain they’ll be fine in the short term, until we can shut this business with Holland down.”“We don’t seem to be gettin’ a whole lot closer to that,” Elliott muttered, tapping the end of a pencil he probably wouldn’t need for anything against the table.“I don’t think that’s a fair statement,” Aaron said in his calm voice. “We’ve gotten nearly two thousand Guardians to come up from Roatan. We have a good handle on Melbourne now, we’ve taken out eighty-two pockets of Vampires in the last month alone. The ones that are congregating, the ones Holland intends to use to invade our headquarters, are on their heels.”“Yeah, but those are the only ones that ma

When Cadence reached the building that housed the gym, a steady stream of new recruits was headed down the hallway toward the showers. She looked for her sister among them but didn’t see her familiar face.“Hi, Cadence!” Tara said seemingly out of nowhere, though Cadence realized she’d been so busy looking for Cassidy she hadn’t noticed the other girl. Her brown hair was in a ponytail and a few tendrils were matted to her face with sweat, but she didn’t look nearly as tired as the other kids—recruits—and Cadence imagined that was because she wasn’t. Another argument for going through with the procedure.“Hi, Tara,” she said, pressing a smile to her face. “How’s it going?”The other newbies in the hallway seemed to suddenly realize who they’d been walking past and there were some oohs and ahhs. This was an entirely new batch from what Cadence could tell, although she’d