Drew’s father had built this treehouse several years ago, intending for his younger sons to play in it. However, every time Cadence and the rest of their group came over, they almost always found themselves climbing the rope ladder and lounging around in the top of the oak that spanned most of the width of the back yard. Even today, though it was a bit chilly and beginning to mist, the treehouse was the place they went to automatically.
Taylor and Sydney were leaning against the wall, snuggled up under a blanket they had brought up so long ago, it now smelled of mildew. The girls never seemed to mind, however, and today was no different. Kash and Jon had also found spots on the floor, while Cadence had positioned herself on one of the windowsills. Though she was still with the group, she was able to gaze out the window and mentally drift away a bit when so inclined.
Jack was not presently with them. Throughout the funeral and the graveside service, he had been acting a little odd. Cadence wasn’t exactly sure what was going on with him, but she was concerned. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but he seemed fidgety, jumpy almost. Hopefully, she would have the opportunity to speak to him soon.
Most of the guests who had accompanied the family back to their home stayed inside where it was warmer and drier, but Cadence could hear a few voices drifting from under the back-porch awning up to the treehouse. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, nor did she care, but she thought her friends all needed to be cautious if they decided to talk about what happened. Other people in town might start to question it, and she had no idea what her friends might say and what others might believe. She knew that their memories had been altered somehow, that Elliott had taken care of that while they were still at the hospital, though she had no idea what the Guardian Passel did in order to alter human memories. She was curious to know exactly what each of her friends thought had happened. For now, however, a code of silence seemed to have descended upon them as no one was saying anything at all.
After several minutes, Jon finally spoke up, saying, “It really was a lovely ceremony, wasn’t it?”
Cadence knew he had found a way to be both tactful and sarcastic at the same time, choosing a canned comment to make that sounded cheesy and condescending, and yet, completely sincere at the same time.
“It really was,” Taylor agreed. “I mean, I know you’re being a jerk and all, but it really was a nice ceremony.”
“I wasn’t being a jerk,” Jon said a bit defensively. “I really thought it was a nice ceremony. That’s all.”
“Well, it sounded sarcastic,” Taylor retorted.
“I’m sorry you felt that way,” he replied.
“All right, children,” Sydney said. “That’s enough. It was a lovely ceremony and…. she really would have loved it,” she added, holding back a fresh batch of tears.
Cadence was just about all cried out. She had spent the majority of the morning sobbing into her father’s shoulder. She could tell by her friends’ faces that most of them had been crying quite a bit as well. Except for Jack. His face showed no tear streaks, and he seemed to be holding up fairly well, which Cadence thought peculiar.
“I just… I just can’t believe she’s gone,” Taylor said, staring up at the ceiling as if she could see right through it.
“I know. Me, too,” Cadence agreed. In an effort to prevent herself from crying again, she decided to do some probing. “Can you believe what happened? It just seems so….”
“Surreal,” Jon said, completing her statement.
“Yes, surreal,” Cadence agreed. “I mean, who would have ever thought that someone would go that way, you know?”
“Can we please not talk about it, okay?” Sydney asked through her tears. “I mean, I can’t even look at rocks now without thinking about poor Drew. It’s just so tragic.” She burst into tears again and hid her face in Taylor’s shoulder.
Cadence was puzzled now. Rocks? She didn’t want to upset Sydney but she needed to know more. “What do you mean?” she asked. “When you see a rock, what do you think of, specifically?”
“Really, Cadence?” Sydney asked. “Don’t you know?”
Taylor sighed. She had been with Sydney every day since Drew’s death. “She’s just so afraid that she is also going to trip and have a rock slice her throat,” she explained, as Sydney’s wails grew louder.
“I see,” Cadence said, nodding her head. “The way that Drew fell and sliced her throat on a rock.” Really? That was the best Elliott could come up with? And yet all of these people truly believed that this is what had happened, including the doctors and nurses he spoke to at the hospital. No one had questioned anything, so they must all, in fact, believe that those were the events that occurred.
Cadence was tempted to ask if any of them remembered anything else from that night, but she knew she was sworn to secrecy. The first rule of Clandestine Ternion was that no human was to know of its existence without reason. Otherwise, all humans would constantly live in fear of being killed by Vampires or caught in the crossfire of a careless Hunter.
Just then, she saw Jack step out into the yard, and she decided to try to talk to him to see if she could figure out why he was acting so strangely. She excused herself and carefully picked her way down the rope ladder, wary of falling in her long dress and high heels.
“Hey,” she said as she approached him. He was talking to one of Drew’s uncles but excused himself when he saw her coming over. “How are you?” she asked. “I haven’t really had a chance to talk to you.”
They walked off toward the side yard, out of earshot of most anyone who could possibly be attempting to listen. “I’m okay,” he said as he stopped near the fence. He was wearing a dark blue suit, and Cadence remembered how that color had always set his eyes off. Today, however, they didn’t seem quite as bright as what she remembered, and she wondered if he had, indeed, been crying after all.
“Good, good,” she said. “I wish I would have been able to spend more time with all of you this week. I just needed some time alone, you know?”
He nodded. “I understand. You went to your grandma’s house for a few days, your mom said?”
“I did. I just went up there and slept, a lot, and visited with my grandma and kind of wrapped my mind around what this would be like, you know, going on without our Drew.”
He continued to nod as she was talking. “And now, your mom says you’re not going to go back to school? She says you took some job in Kansas City or some place? Is that true?”
Cadence actually wasn’t aware that her mom was telling anyone anything at this point, so this was all brand new information, though it did seem to be quite accurate. She quickly decided she would go with that story. “Yes, yes, I’m going to be working in Kansas City. Did my mom tell you what I would be doing?” she asked, hoping not to contradict any story her mother had already concocted.
He shook his head. “Just something about the security field, something like that?”
“Okay, yes, I will be working in security. Yes, that’s what I will be doing.” Although what she would actually be doing was quite the opposite of security, at least from a Vampire’s perspective, she decided it would work. Many of her coworkers were in the security field. As a side note, she wondered if her mother actually understood what she would be doing or if she thought she would, in fact, be protecting someone. Although, technically, she would be protecting humans from Vampires, she tended to focus on the idea that she would be destroying Vampires. That sounded much more exciting to her.
“Well, that really surprises me,” he admitted. “I thought you were just dead set that you were going to be a teacher, and now I hear you’ve changed your mind. It’s really surprising.”
“No, it’s not that I changed my mind,” she clarified. “It’s just that I felt that I should take some time off, get my head back together, and then if I feel like returning to college to work on my education degree, I can do that, you know?”
He nodded, but she wasn’t sure he truly understood what she was trying to say. He rubbed his shoulder absently and stared at the ground. Clearly, he was not his usual self.
“Jack, you look tired. How have you been sleeping since all of this transpired?”
He seemed to think for a moment. He glanced at her, and then his eyes darted away. It was as if he wanted to tell her something, but he was hesitating. Finally, he said, “Listen, Cadence, I’ve been having some really bad nightmares. And maybe it’s because everything that happened that night was so unusual, or maybe I’m losing my mind, but I don’t think Drew really fell down a cliff and cut her neck on a rock.”
Cadence was stunned. She took a moment to collect her thoughts. She turned to her “old reliable” question and asked, “Can you tell me more about that?”
Again, Jack hesitated. It was almost as if he thought someone was spying on them, and if they found out he suspected someone had altered their memories of what happened, they would find him, drag him away, and no one would ever hear from him again. “Well, you see, Cadence, every night I have the same dream. We’re not out climbing hills outside of Villisca; we’re at some festival. I can’t always make all of it out, but I know Drew is missing, and we’re looking for her—but not all of us—just me and you and Kash, you see? And then we find her, and she’s dead. And there’s this mob chasing us. I know they’re not people, but I don’t know what they are. I just know I need to run as fast as I can. I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem like we would be out climbing rocks in the middle of the night, you know? I don’t know.”
Cadence could neither confirm nor deny his suspicions, but she did want to make him feel better. “I do understand what you are saying, Jack. But my advice would be, just try to let it go. At the end of the day, the details of what happened to Drew don’t really matter. The important thing is that we remember her, that we honor her memory, and that we live our lives in a way that would make her proud. That’s really all that matters.”
He nodded as if he agreed, but then he leaned in closer to her ear and whispered, “I think they’re coming for me next.”
She felt a shiver go up and down her spine. “What?” she asked. “Who do you think is coming for your next, Jack?”
“Them… those people…whoever was chasing us… in my dream. I think they killed Drew, and they are going to come after me next.”
At this point, Cadence really wished she had an IAC so that she could contact Aaron for further instruction. She wanted to stick with the story Elliott had created, keep the Ternion a secret, but still find a way to relieve Jack’s fears. She knew the Guardians were watching the entire town, and there was very little chance that a Vampire could make it in to harm Jack without the entire Guardian Passel knowing. “Listen, Jack,” she began, “we’ve all just gone through an extremely traumatic event. I don’t blame you for feeling that way. We’re all sad and fearful. We’re all questioning our own mortality. But try not to think about things like that because, I assure you, you’re perfectly safe. And I work in security,” she said adding a little wink for effect.
He smiled at her, and Cadence thought, perhaps, she had eased his fears a bit. “All right then,” he said. “I guess you’re right. It’s just a silly dream.”
She was just about to excuse herself and start telling everyone goodbye when he added, “I just have one more question though. Why weren’t you at the hospital with us?”
She froze. She had no idea what the correct answer to that question was. She tried stalling. “What do you mean?” she asked, instinctively taking a step back toward the treehouse.
He followed her. “You know, that night, when the rest of us went to the hospital with Drew. You weren’t there. In fact, you never even talked to the police, did you?”
She hadn’t talked to the police. Elliott had taken care of that as well. But she didn’t know what to say in answer to his question. “Oh, don’t you remember why I wasn’t there?” she began, again trying to dig for information or at least buy some time, praying for a miracle. Just then, her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her sweater pocket, and though, she did not recognize the number, she knew she had to answer it. “Just a second,” she said to Jack. “I have to take this.”
“No, wait, Cadence. The phone can wait; just answer me,” he was saying, but she already had the phone up to her ear and had turned away from him. Jack seemed to be growing increasingly angry as each second passed, which seemed extremely unusual to Cadence.
“Hello?” she said, praying that it wasn’t a telemarketer.
“Just look him firmly in the eye and say, very calmly, ‘Elliott explained that to you. Don’t you remember? Remember what Elliott said?’” It was Aaron, and while she was a little shocked that he knew exactly what she had been talking about, she was relieved to have some help.
Despite the fact that she had taken the phone call, Jack was still standing right in front of her, demanding an answer with eyes growing narrower by the second. She pulled the phone away from her ear for a moment, and looking Jack directly in the eyes, she said as calmly as she could, “Elliott explained that to you. Don’t you remember? Remember what Elliott said?” Cadence watched in astonishment as Jack’s expression went from anger to calm serenity.
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Elliott explained that to me. I remember now. Thanks, Cadence,” he said patting her on the shoulder.
If Cadence had thought Angry Jack was odd, Serene Jack was even more peculiar, and she really didn’t want to wait around to see which Jack appeared next. “Okay, Jack,” she said smiling, “I’ll talk to you soon, but I need to take this phone call, okay?”
“Okay,” he said politely. “Talk to you later, Cadence,” and then he turned and walked toward the house, as if the trance had solved all of his problems.
“How the hell did you know what I was talking about?” she asked, pulling the phone back to her ear and walking over toward a corner of the yard away from the house.
“Look up,” he replied.
At first she was confused, knowing he couldn’t mean directly up. Instead, she looked out toward the rooftops. She saw nothing on Drew’s parents’ house, nor did she see anything, or anyone, on the neighbors’ houses. However, when she peered off into the distance, she could see black clad figures on top of houses two and three blocks away. “Your people can hear me from all the way over there?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied, “when we want to. I don’t make it a habit of eavesdropping on you everywhere you go, but some of my contacts are reporting some unusual behavior centered around Jack, and we wanted to see if he would say anything to you.”
“Well then, you already know that he did,” she said.
“Yes, yes, I do,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I really wish I knew when you were spying on me,” she said slightly irritated that who knows how many Guardians had just been listening in on her discussion with her ex-boyfriend but even more so that he was talking to her in the curt little manner he used for business purposes. She found it particularly annoying. She had been looking forward to talking to him this afternoon since he had promised to call her after the funeral. If he was going to talk to her like this, she would rather not talk to him at all.
“You will know in a few days when we implant the IAC,” he responded.
This tone of this answer was a little friendlier, and she began to think perhaps he realized he was being short with her. “Well, why don’t you just bring it over later and put it in yourself?” she asked.
“Ha!” he smirked. “You want me to place an IAC? Are you crazy? You’d end up needing eyeball-removal-surgery.”
She couldn’t help but smile at that remark. “Well, could you at least, please, attempt to find some way of letting me know when your enforcers are scoping me out? I mean, what if I want to tell my girlfriends how mean my new boss is, and you’re spying on me, you know?”
“Then, I guess you will only be able to tell them how awesome your new boss is, just in case I’m listening,” he replied.
“Not saying that right now,” she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry I was blunt earlier. I wasn’t trying to be rude; I was just trying to give concise directions to alleviate a problem. Cadence, you’re going to have to get used to me giving you directives in that tone. It doesn’t mean that I’m angry with you or belittling you; I’m just trying to direct the movement of thousands of individuals all at the same time. Do you understand that?”
She did understand what he was saying, but she didn’t like it. She also didn’t feel like pressing the subject so she said, “Yes, I understand.”
“Good,” he said in a much calmer, sweeter tone. “Now, how did it go today? Are you all right?”
She took a deep sigh. “I’m all right,” she said. And she was. Not good, not perfect but all right.
“I’m glad. It will take time, but you can move on from this. We’ve all lost loved ones, and there’s never an easy way through it, I know, but you’ll make it, one step at a time.”
“I know,” she said quietly. She really wished he were actually there with her and not just on the phone.
“Cadence, I have to go,” he said, “There’s a problem that needs my immediate attention, and I can’t keep flipping between talking to you and IAC.”
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“I’ll talk to you later though, all right?”
“All right, bye.”
“Bye.”
“Good luck with your… thing” she said aloud, even though he’d already hung up the phone. She was beginning to feel a headache coming on and pressed her palm against her forehead. This relationship was getting more difficult by the hour, and she had no idea what she was going to do about it, if there even was anything she could do about it.
She decided to go tell her friends goodbye and head back to her house. Just as she was making her way up the treehouse ladder, she heard her text alert. “You really don’t want me to do that implant, but I can stop by this evening, if you want.”
Taylor and Sydney noticed the grin on her face immediately. “Who’s that from?” Taylor asked.
Cadence could feel herself blushing, but she didn’t want to say too much. “No one,” she replied sheepishly. “It’s just this guy from my new job.”
“Oh!” Sydney said, looking at Taylor and then back to Cadence. “What’s his name?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Cadence answered. “I don’t really think he’s into me anyway.”
Returning her attention to her phone, she typed, “Yes.” She hesitated for a minute wondering if she should say more, but that would do. She sent the message and then returned to the arduous task of saying goodbye to her heavy-hearted friends.
“What are you doing?” Elliott asked, a pleading look on his face. “You know this never ends well!”
Elliott had been standing nearby the entire time Aaron was talking to Cadence on the phone, and he had also seen the text. “I know, I know,” Aaron admitted. “And, I’m not intending to start anything this time,” he said adamantly.
Elliott snorted, “The hell you’re not. I have seen the girl, you know. I am a male. Sorry, gonna have to call bullshit on that one, bossman.”
Aaron sighed. The Nevada sun was beating down on them, despite the fact that it was December. They were attempting to coordinate the destruction of a Rogue Vampire by a veteran Hunter. They believed the Rogue to be holed up somewhere along this particular hillside. “I’m really not,” he insisted. “She just needs someone to talk to right now, that’s all. And,” he added, “as much as I want to run the other direction and hide, I just can’t seem to do that.”
“Which is an indicator to me,” Elliott concluded, “that you are smitten with this girl, and you’re going to end up in the exact same situation you do every single time this happens. You realize you can’t have a relationship with a subordinate because every time you give a directive, she gets her panties in a wad, and then you end up breaking up, and she leaves the team.”
“You make it sound like I’ve dated thousands of team members, Elliott. That particular scenario has only happened twice, and both of those situations were much different than this one. Most recently, let us not forget, she did not leave the team, and she is, in fact, presently a member."
“Yes, and how is that working out for you?” he asked sarcastically.
“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter! Because nothing is going on between Cadence and I, okay?”
“Okay,” Elliott said, not believing him one iota. “If that’s the case, I’m going to see how she feels about men shaped like teddy bears!”
“Go for it,” Aaron said, raising his hand up as if to say he wouldn’t try to stop it. “Now, let’s catch this Vampire so I can get back to Iowa.”
Cadence had taken a nap after she returned from Drew’s house. She had visited with her family and watched some television with her sister. Now, she was sitting on her bed, dressed in comfy pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt, perusing Facebook on her phone and waiting for Aaron to arrive. He had sent her a text earlier that he was still planning on coming over but that his trip to Nevada had been a bit longer than he expected, so it might be a little later than he had hoped. Hopefully, by now, he was at least in the air on his way back to Shenandoah
She knew that it was very unprofessional and risky to have a crush on her boss. In fact, she really wished that she could find a way to completely erase any friendly conversation that had ever taken place between them. She remembered that, just last week, she was completely convinced that he was an ass, and she didn’t want to have anything to do with him. But then, everything else in her life had changed drastically since that time, so why not her feelings toward Aaron as well?
At about ten past ten, she got a text from him. “Are you dressed?”
“Yes”
“Do you mind if I enter your room now?”
“No, go ahead.”
“Via the window.”
“That’s fine.”
“The same one I used last time?”
“YES!”
“Okay—just so we are clear. I’m coming into your room now, through the window, the one I used last time. In your room.
“OKAY!”
As he climbed through the window, she couldn’t help but say, “All right, smartass, I get it. I made a big deal out of the fact that you broke into my home while I was naked in the shower. So sorry!”
“Well, someone is in a touchy mood this evening,” he commented as he entered the room. He glanced at her where she sat on the bed. A step forward indicated to Cadence that he was possibly considering joining her, but he stopped and took a step back. Even though Cadence wouldn’t have protested if he had sat down next to her, she was aware that his way was better.
While she had made a decision that she was not going to pursue this relationship romantically, once he entered the room, she found the act of standing and crossing over to the chairs a little more difficult. Luckily for her, he seemed steadfast in his resolve to stay on the far side of the room, so she mustered all of her strength and pulled herself up off of the bed, careful to walk directly to the chair and not within his vicinity lest she find herself inclined to throw herself upon him.
She sat down in the same chair she had been sitting in the night before, and he sat in the other. There were a few moments of silence again, but this time it did not seem as awkward. She was just happy to see him and finally talk to him in person. He seemed glad to have a long day over.
“How was your day?” she asked. “Did you get everything resolved in Nevada?”
He shook his head. “Not exactly. I don’t think we’ll ever get everything resolved in Nevada, but we were able to locate the Rogue we were looking for.”
“Oh, that’s good,” she responded.
“Yeah, but those ghost towns out there are full of them. It’s just a never-ending battle.”
“What do they do in the ghost towns to make them Rogue?” she asked. “There aren’t any humans out that far are there?”
“No,” he explained, “but they’ll go into one of the larger towns on a Friday or Saturday night, wreak some havoc, and then disappear back out into the ghost towns or the caves. Even when we have a tracker embedded in them, it’s still hard to chase them down out there when there’s so many places to hide.”
“You use trackers on Vampires?” she asked.
“Yes, in fact, every Vampire is required to come to us to get a tracker within the first six months of conversion, and any Vampire who creates another Vampire must report it to us immediately and help us ensure that the new Vampire reports to us to get their tracker implanted.”
“Well, if that’s the case, why is hunting them down so difficult? Shouldn’t we just be able to GPS all of them?”
“If they all reported it wouldn’t be so hard, but a lot of times the ones that end up going Rogue are the ones who never cared about following the rules in the first place. Or they’ll rip out their trackers.”
“Yuck,” Cadence exclaimed, visions of Rogue Vampires slicing their arms open and digging out little silicon chips filling her head.
“It’s not that painful for them. They have a pretty high tolerance for pain, as you will see. It’s just that it leaves a pretty nasty scar on their foreheads, and it’s kind of a dead giveaway to any of us that something is going on.”
“On their heads? Gross.” Cadence stated, the visions becoming even more grotesque. “Who has to put those in?”
“You do,” he teased.
“Say what?” she said, though she could tell from his tone that he was kidding. “I ain’t puttin’ no tracker in no Vampire’s forehead, no way. Not happening.”
He smiled at her for a long moment. “Your sense of humor is quite unlike anyone else’s I’ve ever met,” he said quietly before responding to her statement. “We have a sub-team who is responsible for that,” he replied.
She wasn't sure how to respond to his first remark, though she assumed he must have met a lot of people in his day. Instead, she focused on his second comment. “Well, don’t put me on that team,” she said sternly. “Because I will be quitting!”
“Okay. Duly noted.”
He was leaning on the armrest nearest her chair, and despite the fact that she was curled up and leaning against the opposite armrest, trying to keep her distance, there was definitely some tension between them. Cadence rarely noticed such things, but she was fairly certain that Aaron felt it, too.
“How did it go this morning?” he asked somberly, stirring her out of her thoughts.
“The funeral was depressing, of course. But I managed to get through it. Other than Jack’s inquisition, everything else was okay. I mean, there’s never anything easy about any of this, but like you said earlier, we’ve all been there. We just have to keep moving forward, you know?”
He nodded in agreement. “I do know. I know very well,” he said. He looked away from her for a moment, and briefly, it was as if he was no longer there, like he was lost in a memory. Cadence had the urge to dig deeper into whatever loss had brought that sort of reaction, but she realized now was not the time or place.
“It was nice to see my friends, but everyone seemed so different now, so…” she was searching for the correct word, and the one that initially came to mind seemed so wrong, but it truly was the best word to describe the situation. “They seem naïve. Does that make any sense at all?”
“It does to me,” he concurred. “They are naïve from your perspective. You have a lot more valuable information than they do, and they will never know the things that you know. It will always be more difficult for you to speak to them, to interact with them, to relate to them, now that your eyes have been opened while theirs remain closed.”
“I understand,” she said. It actually made perfect sense. She had almost wanted to treat her friends like children at points during the day because they seemed to understand so little. Though she had attributed some of it to whatever spell it was Elliott had put them under, perhaps it was also her new perspective.
The thought of Elliott prompted her next question. “By the way,” she asked, “could Elliott come up with no better story than a rock slit her throat? ‘Cause, if not, perhaps you need a new hypnotist.”
Aaron laughed, and the sound of his laughter became infectious. Cadence couldn’t help but join in. Even though it truly wasn’t that funny, she was happy for the opportunity to laugh again; everything lately had been so somber and serious.
Upon catching his breath, Aaron stated, “It really wasn’t his fault. On the way to the hospital, your friends had been discussing what they were willing to let the police know and what they didn’t want to disclose. Basically, everything about the festival needed a cover up. Jack told the rest of your friends that you killed Drew’s murderer, so they wanted to hide that as well. They determined the only way to do that was to say that a person didn’t kill Drew, but that she fell. Well, with a gaping neck wound, that made Elliott’s job a little more difficult than usual. It worked though; everyone directly related to the incident believes it. There are plenty of other people asking the obvious questions, such as ‘where does one go rock climbing in Shenandoah,’ that sort of thing. But none of those people have anything to do with the investigation, so it doesn’t really matter.”
“And will they continue to believe this forever?”
“Most people do,” Aaron confirmed. “There are occasional situations like the one with Jack where something else triggers a memory, and they start to lose their belief in the façade Elliott has created, but for the most part they believe long enough that it just becomes part of their memory system. You know how older memories start to become fuzzier as time passes? Sort of like that.”
“How does he do it?” she asked, wondering what else she didn’t know about yet.
“Well,” he began, “if we’d told you everything about the different Passels right up front, it would’ve been even more overwhelming, so you should expect to find some things out as time goes on. But as for this, here’s the situation. Many Guardians, and a few Hunters, have specific gifts. These are usually enhancements based upon something they either really enjoyed or were especially good at in life. So, once they Transform, they become even better at that skill, and it sometimes becomes almost like a superpower.”
“So, a superpower amongst the other basic superpowers they already have?” Cadence clarified.
“Sure, you could put it that way,” he agreed. “Well, in his human life, Elliott was a used car salesman.” He grinned at her, and she couldn’t help but giggle. “So, he’s very, very good at telling ridiculous stories and getting others to believe them. He really does know how to hypnotize the person he is talking to so that they will believe just about anything he says.”
“Wow!” she said, still laughing. “That’s crazy! I never would have pictured him as a used car salesman! And so, I was able to reactivate Jack somehow?”
“Yes,” Aaron nodded. “The spell was so powerful that you were able to get Jack back on track just by the power of suggestion and a few trigger words.”
“Amazing,” Cadence said, shaking her head in disbelief. “So, who else has a superpower?”
“Well, I don’t know how much you remember from your Transformation, but Jamie was an outstanding doctor before his Transformation. He was one of the youngest doctors to ever graduate from Harvard Med. He is what we refer to as a Healer. I’ve seen a few in my time, but he is definitely the most powerful one I’m aware of. His gift is pretty incredible.”
“That’s right!” Cadence proclaimed, the memory just coming back to her now. “He did some sort of healing thing for me when I was in such excruciating pain!”
“Yes, he was able to get you calmed down long enough for the medication to be administered. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t have been able to get it in, and then, well, I don’t know what might have happened. But it was crucial that we get that second shot in to your system, and his healing allowed that to happen.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t remember that!” she exclaimed. She made a mental note to make sure and thank Jamie the next time she saw him.
“That’s pretty typical,” Aaron explained. “Now that we use this accelerated method, most individuals tend to suppress the entire Transformation process, so the fact that you remembered any of it on your own is pretty amazing, actually.”
She nodded her understanding. “And you gave me the shot of medication,” she remembered.
“That’s right, I did. First shot I’ve ever given anyone, and I’m extremely thankful I hit a vein or else, who knows where you might be right now.”
“That’s nice to know,” she muttered. “Speaking of where I might end up, I’ve been wanting to ask you, should my knowledge of the Clandestine Ternion change my religious beliefs at all?”
“I get that question a lot, and all I can truly say is, if anything, in my experience, it should make them stronger. You just went from a God you believed had somehow managed to create one amazing species of free-willed beings when now, as you know, it’s really four—at least four that we’re aware of. So, I would say that, if you were a religious person before, this shouldn’t change that.”
That was a relief for Cadence. She had been brought up attending church, and while she knew she was a sinner like everyone else, she felt better knowing that there was an omnipotent being out there watching over her.
They were both quiet for a moment as she pondered his response. He was looking away from her, and she was content to study his profile, admiring his flawlessly structured jawline, the way his nose was perfectly proportioned to the rest of his features. She knew he could feel her staring, and she chose not to care. He glanced in her direction and then looked away again, that shade of light pink that always took over when he was embarrassed just starting to make itself known. Her mother had always told her it was rude to stare, but she thought she could make an exception under these circumstances. She leaned forward just a bit as she quietly asked, “So, what’s your superpower? I know you must have one.”
He looked back in her general direction and gave her a small, shy smile. “You’d never believe me if I told you,” he said.
“Why do you say that?” she asked a little offended.
“Because, you don’t seem to think I have even the slightest amount of talent in this particular area, so there’s no way you’d ever believe that I’m actually better at it than practically every other individual ever born.”
She had to know what he was talking about. “Try me,” she said leaning even farther toward him.
Talking about his gift must’ve made him uncomfortable because he was changing colors again. She was surprised at how easily she could cause him to blush. Someone as powerful and experienced at life as him should’ve been less self-conscious, she thought.
Eventually, he cautiously replied, “Well, I can actually read other people’s thoughts based on their emotions. I’m what is referred to as a Sensitive.”
Her eyebrows flew up. “Really?” she asked a little surprised.
“Yes, it comes in very handy. Often."
“So, if you can read people’s minds why do you need the IAC?”
“It’s not quite the same thing,” he explained. “I can’t read minds; I can build understanding based on the perceptions of others. So, I can’t climb into your head and know Cadence is thinking 'Elliott is the most attractive man I’ve ever laid eyes on,’ for example. The snickering and eye rolling is noted, by the way.” She couldn’t help but laugh at that interjection. “It’s more like, I know you’re thinking about love—or lust—based on the emotions I can read coming from you, and then, build a scenario for what you are actually thinking about. Chances are if you’re looking at a puppy, and I get emotions of joy and nostalgia, you’re not thinking about what you had for lunch. Does that make sense?”
“It does,” she confirmed. “Especially the part about me lusting after Elliott.”
“Oh, well, then I’ll let him know,” he said grinning as she rolled her eyes again.
“So, when I first met you, and I thought you were an unbelievable prick, you knew that?”
“Actually, no, I didn’t. See, that’s the funny thing, Cadence, I have a hard time reading you. I can’t quite figure out what it is. Sometimes I know exactly what you’re thinking—almost to the mental picture in your head—and then other times you surprise me. Like when you said I was ‘creepy.’ I did not see that coming.”
“Ha!” she laughed. She wanted to say that was a long time ago, but in reality, it just seemed like a long time. It was really just a few days ago. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t think you’re creepy anymore. And, honestly, I thought everything was creepy that night. Because it was.”
“I’m not sure about that. I’m pretty sure you really did think I was creepy when we first met. But I’ll let it slide.” It was her turn to blush now. He was leaning a bit closer
“So, do you think I still consider you creepy?” she asked, sticking her toes into the proverbial water.
He stared at her for a moment and bit his bottom lip, which made Cadence’s heart flutter a bit. “No, I don’t think you think I’m creepy.” She nodded, realizing she was beginning to sink into those piercing blue eyes.
As if he could sense they were treading on thin ice, he leaned away from her and added. “I do know when you’re mad at me though; that’s for damn sure.”
Cadence burst into laughter, happy to relieve the tension. After she caught her breath, she said, “Well, stop sneaking up on me! Seriously, you do that after you train me and I might hurt you!”
“Oh, really?” he asked, “You think you could do that?” She could tell he was teasing her, and she played along, nodding her head in agreement. “Actually, you probably could. I’m anxious to see what we discover once we get you out on the training field. I have a feeling, which is my superpower, that you’re going to be able to do things like we’ve never seen before.”
“Well, I hope I don’t disappoint you,” she said quietly.
“You won’t,” he said shaking his head. “I’m certain of that.”
It was getting late, and they both knew it. Aaron didn’t have to sleep like Cadence did, and her need to sleep would lessen over time as her body figured out what to do with all of the new energy she was able to produce. He glanced over his shoulder at the window, and she assumed he was thinking about leaving.
She felt like maybe she was the mind reader now, as she stifled a yawn. “I think it’s just about time for me to go to bed.”
“Okay,” he nodded. “What are your plans for tomorrow? Do you want to stay with your family a bit longer, or are you ready to go to headquarters?”
She pondered that question. She wouldn’t have minded staying with her family a while longer, but she knew some time away from her friends would be for the better. “Well, Eliza wanted to take me shopping before we went, but whatever you think is best is fine with me. I’m ready to get started.”
He absorbed that information momentarily. “Why don’t you go shopping with Eliza in the morning and then come to LIGHTS tomorrow afternoon? Do you know where she was going to take you?”
“No,” Cadence stated, “but she did say to ‘trust her.’”
“Oh, Lord,” he said, “You’re going to need a plane. All right, I’ll set that up. I’ll also get her your phone number so she can let you know when she’s here. Sound like a plan?”
She nodded in agreement. Now would come that really awkward goodbye routine that neither of them wanted to confront. He stood first, the window he used to get in and out just a few steps behind him. She stood also, but she didn’t step toward him; in fact, she didn’t move at all. She was wondering if he could tell how badly she wished he would kiss her.
It was almost as if she was transmitting the thought directly out of her head and into his, like she was using an IAC, it was so strong. Aaron opened his arms slightly, and took one cautious step toward her. Before she knew what she was doing, her hands were on his chest, the feel of his chiseled pecs evident as she slowly slid her arms around him. She leaned her head on his chest and melted into his embrace. Something told her that, if she turned her face toward his, he would probably kiss her. However, she’d given him more than one chance before now, and since he had not done so, she thought there must be a reason he did not want to do it. Hopefully, it was just a matter of time. He was smoothing her hair with his right hand, his left rubbing her back, and she would have stood that way for a very long time if he had let her. After a few minutes, however, he released her, and she stepped back, looking up at him intensely.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
She nodded.
“Please try to remember that, when I am your boss, I can’t be your friend. When I am a friend instead of a Leader, individuals die. Do you know what I mean?”
Again, she nodded, though she wasn’t quite sure what he was trying to say. And maybe she didn’t want to know.
“Good night, Cadence” he said, gently stroking her cheek before stepping toward the window once more.
“Good night,” she said as she watched him disappear from view. She walked over to her bed and flung herself onto it, elated and dismayed all at the same time. At least tomorrow morning should be fun before the real work began. She was looking forward to training, but she was also a bit terrified that she wouldn’t live up to everyone’s expectations. She knew they would all find out soon enough.
Aaron had parked his motorcycle several blocks away from Cadence’s house so as not to disturb her parents, but as he made his way back to it, he couldn’t help but think about how close he’d been to kissing her just now. Despite what he’d said to Elliott, there was something there he couldn’t deny. Cadence roused feelings in him he couldn’t remember having felt for decades, and with standing there looking up at him between those long eyelashes, it was almost impossible for him to keep from leaning over and pressing his lips against hers.
Luckily for him, self-control was another of his superpowers, or at least it was tonight, and he was able to resist the urge to kiss her, once again. Even hugging her had been more emotional than expected, though, and he wondered how long he could keep this up. Clearly, it was too early into their relationship for him to complicate matters by pursuing a romantic relationship. But his pull to her was undeniable. He’d have to find a way to fight it, although, as he headed back to the airport, it seemed like defeating a legion of Vampires would be easier.