by ID Johnson
After a few moments of consideration, she managed, “I guess I just feel like I have to have his permission to do everything. Like, he’s still my boss, even though, technically, that’s not the case. And I needed him to approve of this.”
Jamie nodded, as if he finally fully understood what she was going through, or perhaps he had known that was the reason all along and just wanted to hear her say it. “Well, fortunately for you, you are the only one here that could get away with doing this without his permission. If it were anyone else, he could just tell them ‘no’ and that would be the end of it.”
While that may be true, she could think of plenty of people who would likely have gone ahead and done it anyway. And there were lots of people who were helping her who could potentially get themselves into trouble if they didn’t have faith in her that she could protect them. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter now,” she admitted.
“True,” he agreed with her. Releasing her hands, he leaned back on the couch. “So what is your plan?”
Cadence pulled herself off of the uncomfortable coffee table and collapsed next to him, grabbing a pillow and hugging it against her chest. “I don’t want to tell you because I don’t want him to be able to force you into telling him where I’m at.”
One corner of his mouth pulled up into a crooked smile. “He’s not the Gestapo.”
Shrugging, Cadence said, “I know. But I’d feel better if no one knew where I am exactly.”
“Fair enough. When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow morning, I guess,” she said running a hand through her hair. “I think you were right about just getting out of here, so if he comes back early or something, I’m already on the road.”
“Are you going to tell him you’re leaving?”
“Probably not. Not until I have to,” she replied.
Jamie nodded. “Whatever happens, Cadence, it’ll be all right.”
“I know. Thanks for coming over.”
“Any time,” he smiled, patting her on the leg. “What are friends for?”
“And, hey, when I come back, I’d like to hear more about Hawaii, if you want to talk about it. I mean, not the parts you don’t want to remember, but I’d like to hear about… you know… the happy parts.”
His face lit up a bit, as if a faded memory was playing across his mind. “Sounds like a plan. Be careful out there.”
“I will,” she assured him.
“And Cadence, remember, if that portal actually opens this time, it will likely open again someday. There’s no reason to rush into anything or make any decisions you—or Elliott—are going to regret.”
“Right,” she nodded. He had a point, and that was something she needed to try and focus on. Just because she had a chance to talk to Elliott didn’t mean she had to try and convince him to come through.
“Well, I’ve got important doctor stuff to do,” he said, standing. “If you’re sure you’re okay.”
“I think so,” she said, untangling her legs and rising. As Jamie walked toward the door she followed. “Thanks again.”
“You bet.” He hugged her and then left, leaving her alone with her thoughts. In times like this, there was really only one person she could count on to give sound advice. But this time, calling would require a phone.
Returning to the sofa, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed her grandmother’s number. She answered on the second ring. “Grandma?” she asked.
“Cadence?” came the familiar voice. “Hi, honey. How are you?”
“Confused,” she admitted.
Her grandma laughed softly. “That’s okay. I spend most of my day in a state of confusion anymore.”
Trying not to chuckle, Cadence said, “Grandma, I asked Aaron about the portal, and he is very much against me talking to Elliott.”
The line was quiet for a second. At last, her grandmother replied, “Well, honey, that doesn’t really surprise me.”
“Why? Because of Dracula?”
“No, because of Aaron,” she began. “I know all of that about the evil, demonic Vampires. And I think he’s probably right. But I don’t think that’s the bigger issue here, darling.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Cadence, something you’ve probably learned about him by now is that he is very much a rule follower. He wants everything to stay the same as it has always been. He wants to do things the way he was taught. Your grandfather was a lot like that. I’m not talking about innovations, of course, but when it comes to the way that things have always been, Aaron wants them to stay the way they’ve always been. Jordan was like that. All of these changes—with the titanium and the Vampire/Vampire Hunter business your sister’s gotten herself into—it would drive your grandfather batty to see it.”
Cadence listened intently to what she was saying. “So do you think that Aaron was told no one is to use the portal, so he is just ‘following protocol’ as he would say, and he doesn’t even realize he’s being unreasonable?”
“Something like that,” Grandma Janette agreed. “I would assume, ironically, the person who told him not to use it was likely your grandfather. And now he’s using it fairly regularly,” she chuckled.
Cadence saw the irony but not the humor. “But Aaron knows that, and he still says not to use it.”
“And he will continue to say that, darling. There’s nothing you can say to change his mind.”
“Do you think he’ll forgive me if I do it anyway?”
“Oh, yes. He’ll forgive you. And if Elliott comes through, what will he do? Say he wishes you hadn’t done it?”
Cadence had been thinking about that for days. “I don’t think so.”
“Of course not. Even if he is right about these awful Vampires that can come through, he’ll see that you were right—eventually. That doesn’t mean he will admit it, but seeing it is sometimes much more important than admitting it.”
She agreed with everything her grandmother had said so far. “All right. So what do you think I should do?”
There was a pause before the answer came. “You do whatever your heart tells you to do. Nothing in this world will ever be truer than your own heart.”
Despite the cryptic response, Cadence knew now exactly what she needed to do. “Thank you, Grandma.”
“I love you, Cadence,” Grandma Janette replied. “You have made an old lady so proud. I couldn’t have chosen a better successor.”
“Thanks, Grandma,” Cadence began, and then catching exactly what she had said, she asked, “Wait—did you say you chose me, Gram?”
“Yes, darling. Many years ago. I saw what you were from the time you were just a little bundle in your daddy’s arms.”
The realization of what her grandmother was saying left Cadence breathless. “Grandma, did Aaron know that?”
“Not exactly,” she started, “I suppose he had it figured out some time ago, though. Like most things.”
“Right,” Cadence replied.
“I’ll let you go now, darling. Have a good night, dear.”
“You, too, Grandma. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Cadence. Always.”
Cadence disconnected the call, her head spinning. When had Aaron realized what her grandmother intended? Had she been engineering this all along? Had she somehow led Drew to the Eidolon Festival? What if this entire time, her grandma had been manipulating the whole situation so that Cadence would end up the Hunter Leader—and, therefore, Aaron’s wife?
It was all too much, and before she could stop herself, Cadence broke into tears. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she sat on the couch, thinking of all the people she’d lost, including her old self, and the possibility of all she could lose if she went through with her plan. Could this be enough to shake Aaron free from the fate her own grandmother had forced upon him?
***
“All right, we’ll do rock, paper, scissors, and whoever loses has to go in first, got it?” Mike O’Shea said in a sharp whisper, his
pale face barely visible in the streetlights beneath his dark green hoody.
“There’s no way I’m going down there at all,” his girlfriend, Tiffany Dickens, cried. She was wearing a faux fur coat and no hood, leaving her standing in the shadow of the brick wall shivering.
“All right, let’s do it,” Jo Benson, Mike’s best friend replied, his voice a little louder.
“Okay, but what about Tina?” Mike asked, eyeing Jo’s girlfriend who was standing next to Tiffany.
“Nah, let’s leave the girls out of it. If they don’t wanna do it, they don’t have to. This was our bet anyway.”
Mike accepted that response, and three shoots later, he smirked in Jo’s face. “Looks like you’re going first!”
Jo shrugged his shoulders and acted nonchalant, like it wasn’t a big deal. He’d been here before anyway, back in October, during the Halloween festivities, and he’d gone down there then, so it really wasn’t a big deal. Just because it was the middle of the night and he’d be alone this time, likely in the dark, that didn’t make it so different. After all, they’d taken the bus all the way over here just for the thrill of sneaking in and not getting caught. He couldn’t hardly chicken out now.
With a deep breath, Jo approached the opening to the stairwell. There was a metal grate over the top, and it took him a few seconds to get it off. He looked over his shoulder at Mike, thinking he might come and help, but he was standing a ways off, back with the girls, and he didn’t even step forward when he saw Jo struggling with it. Finally, the metal grate popped up, and he was able to sling it over to the side.
Jo looked down into darkness. He could barely see past the second step. “No wonder they called this The Hole,” he mumbled. He took another deep breath and cautiously put his foot on the top step.
He was tempted to laugh at himself. After all, what was there to be scared of? Ghosts? Goblins? Even if this place really was haunted the way everyone said, what were the chances he would actually see a ghost? Not likely. With another deep breath, he took another step, and before long, he was halfway down the steep staircase.
The only light down here was the faint glow of the distant streetlight and the few stars that hung in the sky. Even the moon was hidden behind some clouds as if it were frightened to see what might happen. Careful not to lose his footing, Jo took another step, seeing nothing in front of him except for black.
He came to what must be the bottom of the stairs, as he felt with his foot and could only find what seemed to be floor with no more drop offs. He wondered how far in he’d have to go to make Mike believe he’d done it, and figuring this was far enough, he turned to leave, but just as he began to place his foot back on the bottom step, a noise caught his attention.
It sounded like a growl, a low reverberation, off in the distance. Jo turned back around and peered into the darkness, but he still couldn’t see anything. He took a step forward. A flicker of motion caught his eye, like a shadow in the dark, making one spot even darker, and Jo felt the fear begin to well up inside of him. “Who… who is there?” he stammered, stepping backward up the bottom two steps.
The only answer was that low growl again, but this time it was closer. Without wasting another second, Jo turned and took off up the stairs, screaming as he did so, “Run!” but before he even reached halfway to the top, something grabbed his pant leg from behind. He felt claws gouge into his skin. He heard screaming echoing through the darkness and realized the voice he heard was his own as a second hand grabbed his chest and pulled him back down the stairs, spinning him around as it did so.
Jo looked into the steely gray eyes, the whites illuminated in the faint light, bared razor sharp teeth gleaming as the moon showed itself. “Oh, God!” Jo moaned as the monster’s teeth sank into his neck. The pain was sharp at first, as if he’d been stabbed, but the sensation subsided as he felt his lifeblood flowing out of him. His last thought was of his girlfriend, Tina. He hoped she’d heard his cry and that she had taken off when he screamed for her to run.
Chapter Nine
Cadence had fallen asleep on the couch and awoke in the middle of the night, realizing her IAC was going nuts with messages from hunts she’d intended to monitor from across the country. Her eyes were swollen from crying and her hair stuck to her cheek. She went to the bathroom to wash her face and avoided the mirror, certain she wouldn’t like what she saw, as she began to answer the messages she’d missed.
Luckily, there was nothing important, and everything was under control, which was one of the positives about having competent people in the field. She’d also missed a message from Aaron but didn’t bother to contact him now since she was sure he’d be out in the field with the Connecticut team. He was just letting her know he’d arrived safely. And that he loved her, which made her start asking questions all over again. Eventually, she decided to call it a night and changed into pajamas and crawled into bed, hopeful that the next morning would bring the clarity she so desperately needed.
Most nights, she either dreamt that Jack was chasing her or had no dreams at all. This night, however, she dreamt that she was with Elliott. They were at a basketball game, and though she had very little interest in the sport, she recognized Larry Bird and Magic Johnson on the court. He was sitting next to her, clapping and cheering, and soon she found herself cheering right along with him. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him so happy. Every time the Lakers scored, he jumped out of his seat, applauding and whooping along with the other Los Angeles fans.
Eventually, she leaned over, and shouting over the crowd into his ear, she asked, “Why do you like the Lakers?”
He turned to face her and said, “I’ve always believed in Magic.”
Cadence woke up to the sound of her alarm, not even realizing she had one set, and fumbling for her phone, finally managed to turn it off. It was past nine, which meant she’d slept for over twelve hours, even if she didn’t count the time she’d spent checking in last night. Despite getting so much sleep, she still felt like a train had hit her.
It wasn’t until she was in the shower that the strange dream returned to her. She distinctly remembered hearing her father and Elliott discussing Bird and Johnson on at least one occasion, but she couldn’t remember who Elliott had been cheering for. By the time she was drying off, she determined that her subconscious mind was telling her she needed to go through with her plan, that Elliott wanted her to. After all, he had written the note. Regardless of what Aaron thought might happen, she needed to push those concerns aside and journey on.
The humans who worked with them did not have IACs; one had to actually use the telephone to contact them,so as soon as she was dressed, she placed a phone call to Juan Diego, asking him to get her bike ready and specifying one very important task he needed to complete.
She would have to pack light, but she was used to that. Having traveled across most of the country and some of Canada on her bike with Aurora and Meagan for almost half a year, they learned how to be selective in what they packed. She messaged Christian to make sure that she wouldn’t need to pack anything for Elliott—and to make sure Aaron was still in Connecticut—and then tossed her toiletries into a little bag, grabbed her clothes, some cash she had on hand, her Glock, ammo, ID, and her phone, before taking one last look around the apartment on her way to the door.
The urn.
Though her hands were growing a bit full at this point, she managed to grab that, too, and made her way to the elevator.
Praying that no one got on the elevator with her and asked questions, she made her way to Christian’s apartment unhindered. It took her a moment to remember what he had changed the code to, but she got it on the first try and made her way back to the safe.
Relieved to have her hands free again, she dropped everything on the ground and pulled the closet door open. She typed in the code and waited for the safe to beep. Swinging the door open, she was relieved to see the backpack was inside. Elliott was still there, safely taped into his new container.<
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She temporarily removed him from the backpack, putting him in the smaller compartment alone, and then put her clothes and toiletries into the bigger one. She was wearing her gun, but she had extra ammo that wouldn’t fit in her holster, so she put that in the backpack. Her badge was in her jacket pocket along with a few driver’s licenses in case she needed to temporarily be someone else.
Once she was sure she had everything she needed, she turned her phone completely off and put it in the safe, along with the urn. Then she locked them both inside.
By the time she got downstairs, Juan Diego had her bike all ready to go, pulled up in front of the building.
“Buenos dias, Senorita Cadence,” he smiled as she came out.
“Hola,” she said, returning the smile.
“I have your bike for you.”
“Yes, I see. Gracias. And were you able to remove the GPS tracker?”
“Oh, yes,” Juan Diego confirmed. “It is in my pocket now, and I will make sure it goes out on the next vehicle that leaves. Just like you said.”
“You’re a good man, Juan Diego,” Cadence said, patting him on the shoulder.
He beamed. “You be careful, Senorita Cadence.”
“I will,” she assured him. “Gracias.”
Juan Diego waved and went on about his way as Cadence threw her leg over her bike and settled into the seat. Reaching for her helmet, she realized Jamie was walking over from his office, so she waited.
“Leaving then?” he asked once he’d reached her.
“Yep,” she nodded, her helmet in her hand.
“Be careful.”
“I will be. Take care of things around here?”
“Sure. What could possibly go wrong?” he laughed.
“Hey, Jame, do you happen to know who Elliott’s favorite basketball team was?” she asked.
His forehead puckered for a second, as if he wasn’t sure what she’d asked. “Uh, yeah. The Lakers. Why?”