Frustrated, Cassidy sat down, banging her fists on the table hard enough for it to rattle. Elliott’s eyes went to Christian Henry, who hadn’t spoken at all the entire duration of the meeting, an oddity in itself. He had been the last victim of Cassidy’s rage. The table looked much better than Christian’s face had once the half-Vampire, half-Hunter was done with him. Elliott had laughed when he watched the video, and he found himself suppressing a chuckle now.

He was pretty sure he hadn’t made a sound, but Cassidy’s eyes were on him anyway, like she wanted him to say something. With a sigh, he dropped his chair back to the floor. “Aw, hell, Cass. I don’t know. It seems unreasonable to just pour everything we’ve got into a place we aren’t quite sure needs it. Is this Daunator’s work? Maybe. But my understanding is he could take all of us out with one blast from his halitosis. Why would he need all of them?”

Her hazel eyes were narrowed as she replied, “To. Kill. Us.”

Elliott couldn’t hold back the chuckle that slipped past his lips that time. “Then why would we go running over to him?”

Cassidy didn’t think it was funny. “Because it’s our job! How are we supposed to keep people safe from this monster if we’re all the way over here, and he’s in the forests of Hungary building his army?”

“All right, Cass. Give me your notes, and I’ll look them over,” Hannah offered, beckoning for the papers with her hand. Elliott had known the ex-therapist long enough to see when she was placating someone. Cassidy hadn’t known the woman nearly as long, but it was evident as she passed the papers to Jamie and on down to Hannah that she was also aware of the counselor’s motivation.

“What else do we need to discuss?” Jamie asked, looking relieved to be able to move on.

Finally, Major Henry opened his mouth. “Some of the Roatan Guardians are asking when we can start administering the serum. Dr. Morrow and I have been telling them we need to wait until Aaron gets back to approve it. You concur?”

He was speaking directly to Jamie, who’s opinion was far more valuable, in Elliott’s opinion, than Christian’s. “Yes, I think they can wait. It’s only another ten days.”

“They should wait longer than that,” Cassidy muttered. “We haven’t even begun the final battle yet.”

Every face turned her direction, but not a single pair of lips parted to acknowledge her concern. “Anything else?” Hannah wanted to know.

“Yeah, I’m administering the second round of Transformation serum to some team members who didn’t get it last time in an hour or so.” Jamie said as he checked his watch, and Elliott thought about how funny it was some of his older teammates still wore them since they had a clock in their eye. “Several of these people have flown in from other Areas. I’ll need to get them done so they can get back to their stations.”

“Who all is on your list?” Cassidy asked, and Elliott was glad to hear she was interested in something other than Daunator.

“Uh, well Heather, Rusty, Ona, and Martin are the only locals. I’ll do the others before the Healers. Then, Cale, Morgan, Crystal, Daniel, Antonio, Lex, Tessa, Job, Kaycia, Moira, and Gina have flown in. As well as your cousin Paul and a couple of his teammates, Tanner and Patsy.”

“That’s a lot,” Hannah commented. “Can you handle all of that?”

“Yeah, we’re doing it differently than last time. They each have appointments. We’ll get them under one at a time with the entire medical team available in case anyone else goes Shane on us.” The team snickered, though it hadn’t been funny when Shane had tossed Cadence across the room during the administration of his second dose of serum. “We’ll make sure everyone is strapped down first, too.”

“All right, well let me know if there’s anything I can do,” Hannah replied, picking up Cassidy’s stack of papers as if that were the end of the conversation.

“I will,” Jamie nodded. “Probably wouldn’t hurt to have some of your good vibrations headed our way.”

Hannah giggled as if she wasn’t sure whether or not he was serious, though Elliott assumed he was, and they all walked to the doors. Since the happy couple wasn’t there, they’d been using the old conference room, the one that occupied the bottom floor of a building closer to the apartments, and Elliott’s mouth began to water as he thought about the leftover Chinese food he had in the fridge.

“Hey!”

He felt a tug on his sleeve even before he’d pushed completely up to standing and knew Cass was irritated with him just by the tone of that one syllable she shouted at him. “What is it, lil girl?”

Everyone else had vacated the room, and Elliott cursed himself for being so slow. Not that she wouldn’t find another way to track him down. She practically lived in his apartment anyway. At least Brandon wasn’t here so that the two could gang up on him.

“Why didn’t you have my back?”

“Oh, that.” He headed for the door, but she was on his heels. “What did you want me to say? Grab your munitions and follow me?”

“Maybe.”

The air was thick and sticky, way too muggy for Kansas City in September, especially with the sun below the horizon. Elliott didn’t normally feel any effect from the weather, but he found himself tugging at his jacket collar as if he were suffocating. Perhaps it was the countenance of the girl beside him. “I’m sorry, Cass. But I agreed with what they said. Ain’t no use in barrelin’ in without our bosses just for the sake of maybe.”

“But the evidence is right there! Besides that, I have heard what’s going on in these fresh bloodsuckers’ minds. Daunator is building an army to destroy the world!”