by ID Johnson
“Sure.”
“But this will be the first place he’ll guess.”
“Then why are you here?” he asked, one hand on the doorjamb.
“You’re the only one I trusted,” she shrugged.
He gave her a small smile. “It probably didn’t hurt that I also happen to have a desert in my back yard.”
“Well, there’s that,” she laughed, nodding. “Still, I know I can trust you.”
“You can,” he assured her. With another smile, he took a step into the hall. “See you in a little while.”
She returned his smile and then waited for him to shut the door before she collapsed on the bed.
A shower and a nap later, and Cadence woke up feeling refreshed—and famished. She sent a message to Cale to ask if he would mind if she raided his refrigerator, and since he was well aware of how she could pack it away, she didn’t feel at all bad cleaning out most of his foodstuffs once he’d given his permission to do so.
When she was done eating everything she could find that was reasonable to make or cook, she realized she’d left his kitchen a mess, so she did the dishes and changed out the trash bag, though she wasn’t willing to actually chance running into someone by taking it out to the chute. She sat it in the corner of the pantry instead.
Making herself comfortable back in the guest room bed—which she felt less likely to ruin than the pristine white sofa—she went through a series of checks to make sure everything was as it should be. Aaron was still in Connecticut, preparing for that night’s hunt. Christian was doing his best to make sure that he stayed as long as possible, and Jamie assured her everything was just fine at headquarters. So far, he’d even been able to dupe Hannah into thinking Cadence was still there. This was important because if anyone would sell her out to Aaron, it would be Hannah. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Cadence; she was just extremely loyal to her boss.
Cassidy was out of school now, and when Cadence contacted her, she was shocked to find that she was actually out on a date—until she realized it was with Brandon. She hadn’t grasped he’d been able to get there to pick her up and get back so quickly. “Where did he take you?” Cadence asked. “Some place fancy, I hope.”
“The fanciest,” Cassidy replied. “Pizza Triangle.”
“The pizza place with the arcade games at the Plaza?” Cadence asked, not sure if she should be disgusted or charmed.
“Yep,” Cassidy said. “But it’s actually kind of fun. I think watching him shovel pizza into his mouth is more entertaining than watching him lose all the games.”
“Surely he can beat some of them. He’s a superhero, after all.”
“No one can beat these games,” Cassidy reminded her. Everyone knew the games at Pizza Triangle were rigged.
“Maybe he is the chosen one,” Cadence said in a creepy, sci-fi voice.
Cassidy laughed, a sound Cadence hadn’t heard enough of recently. “Maybe.”
“Hey, I don’t want to interrupt, but I had a question. I’ve seen some weirdo Vampire behavior in the last couple of days. You wouldn’t happen to be picking up on anything bizarre would you?” She knew Cassidy didn’t particularly like to acknowledge the Vampire part of herself, but Cadence felt that, the more quickly they could show her how invaluable she could be to their team, the better.
“Well, actually, I have been feeling a little odd lately,” Cassidy admitted. “I feel like something is… about to happen.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s hard to explain. I feel, like, a tingly sensation in my gut, you know? Like when you’re waiting for Christmas or on a roller coaster and you can see the big drop ahead, but you’re still just poised at the top. Sort of like that.”
Cadence considered her answer. “That’s really interesting.”
“Yeah, and it’s been making me a little irrational, I think.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“I don’t know. Like, a few days,” Cassidy replied.
“And you’ve never felt like this before?”
“Nope.”
“Hmmm,” Cadence said, thinking. “Do you think it might be because of the full moon?”
“Maybe. But I’ve been through full moons before, and they just made me have more energy. This is different, I think.”
Mulling everything over in her mind, Cadence pondered whether or not to ask a favor of her sister that she was pretty sure might offend her. If she could do it, it might be quite helpful, though, and she felt like it might be worth it. “Look, Cass, you can do something the rest of us can’t do,” she reminded her.
There was a groan of disgust. “Caaaadence…”
“Just listen. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, but if you could start actually listening to those voices you hear in your head, maybe you could see what the real Vampires are saying. Maybe they know what’s happening.” She had intentionally chosen the word “real” as a way to distinguish her sister from the dangerous bloodsuckers she was made to kill.
“You know I can’t understand them,” her sister replied quickly.
“I know. But maybe you’re not close enough. Or maybe you’re not concentrating. Or maybe you have to hold your mouth a certain way. I don’t know. But would you consider trying?”
There was a very long pause, and Cadence would have assumed her sister had cut her off if she didn’t still see her name flashing in her IAC, which meant she was still there. Finally, she came back with a quick, “Fine.”
Cadence wanted to pretend like it wasn’t a big deal that she’d agreed to this, something they’d been asking for a while now, so she just said, “Thanks.” If she made a major thing of it, Cassidy might change her mind. “Okay, I’ll let you get back to quality time with what’s his name.”
“We’re just friends,” Cassidy reminded her.
“Yep. Me and Aaron are just friends, too,” Cadence shot back, including a winky face emoji.
A moment later, there was an eye roll emoji in her field of vision, followed by her sister’s distinct, “Whatev.”
“I love you, little sis,” Cadence gushed in as sickening a voice as she could choke up.
“Ditto,” she replied, still pretending to be put out.
“I’ll see you soon. Promise,” Cadence said as she disconnected and let her sister get back to her not-a-date with her not-my-boyfriend whom she obviously adored. She was perfectly fine with the idea of her little sister dating him, though. Cass could do a lot worse than Brandon Keen. She did wonder, however, what his father might think about it. Would he be proud of his son for finding such a hot girlfriend, or would he be the over-protective big brother trying to keep his little sis safe? Cadence wasn’t sure, but she secretly hoped she would find out soon enough. Despite her promise not to ask him to come through, she definitely wished that he would decide to do so on his own accord.
Chapter Eleven
Cadence had gone to bed early Saturday night. After a brief discussion with Cale, where he offered to take her on his team’s hunt that night, and she declined because his team would know she was there, and also she’d had enough crazy Vampires for a few days, she’d fallen asleep. Not having checked in with Aaron beforehand made her wake up in a panic at 6:30 the next morning only to find he was still in Connecticut, and she was safe--at least for a few more hours.
It was tempting to spend another day or two in Cale’s comfortable, sparkly clean apartment. But she knew it wasn’t safe, so that morning, she was on her way again. He recommended Forty Mile Desert as a good place to get lost and be assured of clear skies for portal opening. She didn’t really feel like spending the better part of four days in the desert, so she decided to explore the area a little bit before she headed out into the wasteland.
Aaron arrived back at headquarters Sunday evening while Cadence was eating dinner in a diner in a small town on the outskirts of Forty Mile. She’d decided it might be fun to take Elliott on a little exploration, so she’d bought a disposable camera at a pharmacy,
and every time they stopped anywhere at all, she took a selfie with the backpack. She was in the process of taking just such a pic at the greasy spoon when Christian let her know, “The eagle has landed.”
They both knew this was an Elliott-ism, and the familiarity of the phrase caught her off guard enough that it took her a second to answer. She let him know she appreciated his assistance the entire time and tried to connect with her fiancé before he realized she was gone.
It took him a while to respond, and she assumed he was probably pretty busy getting everything squared away with the plane and getting back to headquarters, but eventually, he replied. “Hey, we just landed,” he said, still a bit distracted.
“Oh, really?” she asked, fake surprised. “I thought you’d be back later.”
“We got things squared away. I tried to let you know we were taking off, but you didn’t answer.”
“Sorry,” she muttered. She had chosen to ignore him. The waitress came by and offered her dessert, and since this was a vacation of sorts, she ordered a slice of apple pie a la mode, and totally missed everything Aaron was saying.
“Cadence?”
“Sorry,” she said again. “I was talking to someone. You know how that goes.” He was amazing at multitasking. She couldn’t talk with her mouth to one person and her eye to someone else at the same time just yet.
“I asked where you are. I said I’ll be home in twenty minutes or so.”
“Right,” she said running her finger through the condensation circle left from her tea glass. “I’m actually not there.”
There was a pause, and she could tell by his silence that he knew something was up. “Where are you?”
“Out.”
“Out where?”
“Out of town.”
Another pause. “Why? Where?”
The waitress set a hefty piece of steaming apple pie before her with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream melting all down the sides. She thanked her and asked for the check before she returned to the unpleasantness. “I just thought it would be easier on both of us if I did what I needed to do while you weren’t there to try to stop me.”
“So you left?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re not planning to tell me where you went?”
“No.”
“Does anyone know where you are?”
“No.”
“Did you tell Hannah you were leaving?”
“No, but I told Jamie, and he said he’d make sure that she knew she was in charge if anything came up. Nothing did.” She decided his pregnant pause of disapproval would be the perfect opportunity to try the pie. It was delicious.
“Cadence, we can’t just both leave and not let Hannah know we’re gone. Somebody’s got to be in charge.”
“True. But I trusted Jamie to take care of it.”
“Jamie’s not third in command,” he reminded her.
“He’s fourth. It was fine.”
“So you’re not going to tell me where you are?” he asked.
“No,” she replied, envisioning him likely driving home now, Christian beside him, silently staring out the window wanting to be privy to the conversation but not being allowed to know what they were talking about.
“What if something happens and you need help?”
She thought he might try that tactic. “I’m close enough to another area headquarters that I can have back up nearby if I need it,” she assured him.
“Do you have the urn?”
Oh, the tricky part. She hated outright lying to him, but if she said no, he would grow more suspicious. If he thought she had it, and she just hadn’t checked it, then he would assume she didn’t yet realize what he had done. Rather than give him an opportunity to start hunting for her, she replied, “Yes.” Besides, he didn’t really care if she had the urn—he only cared if she had Elliott. And she did. Of that, she was certain.
“Really? You do?”
She could hear in his voice the question he wasn’t asking—was she so stupid that she didn’t check to see if there was anything in it? Did she not realize it was lighter? “Yes, I have Elliott with me. Do you think I’d leave headquarters without him?”
“Okay,” Aaron replied. “I just… I don’t know how you carry an urn on a motorcycle.”
“And I don’t remember telling you I was on my motorcycle.” An attempt to figure out what she was driving and possibly get the GPS. Nice try. Not that the tracker was still installed.
“Cadence, I think this is a really bad idea that is doomed to fail. I think you should come home now, and let’s talk about it again. You’re going to really hate the fact that you’ve spent four days on a failed task when the blue moon comes and goes and nothing happens.”
“How do you know nothing is going to happen?” She dared him to tell her the truth.
“I just don’t think it’s going to work,” he replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Well, I think you’re wrong. And I’m going to see this through. Besides, I’ve already promised Jamie I won’t tell Elliott anything about Cass or Brandon. I won’t even ask him if he wants to come back. I just want to see him again. That’s all,” she explained. She took one last bite of pie and pushed the plate away.
The waitress slipped the check on the table with a smile and Cadence dug cash out of her back pocket as Aaron said, “Cadence, why won’t you listen to what I’m saying? This is a very bad idea.”
“I know how you feel. I know what you said. I know what you think will happen. You’re not going to change my mind.”
“Okay. Well, since it won’t work anyway, I guess I’ll save my breath.”
“Just remember, we promised not to get mad at each other when this is all over.”
“I know.”
“All right. I’ll let you get back to it.”
“Be careful. Love you, Cadence.”
“Love you, too,” she said before disconnecting. Part of her wanted to add, “even though you’re lying to me about the ashes,” but she couldn’t. She had started to let that go anyway. She had double-crossed him first, after all.
Check paid and tip left, she grabbed the backpack and her helmet and headed out into the night. She’d found another motel that would take cash, and she hoped this one would be better than the first one. Her money was starting to run out, however, and since she couldn’t risk an ATM withdrawal—even though she was convinced by this point that Aaron wouldn’t come looking for her anyway since he thought she didn’t have Elliott with her—she decided that she’d go ahead and spend the next couple of nights after this one out in the desert exploring. It would give her an opportunity to find a good spot to bring Elliott back, clear her head, and stay off of everyone’s radar.
Monday evening, she headed out into the Forty Mile Desert and eventually found a place she liked. It was at the foot of a fairly tall plateau, and the shadow kept her in the shade as the sun was going down. She wasn’t sure how hot it might feel out here during the daytime, especially since her body didn’t react to temperatures quite the way it used to before she Transformed, but she was willing to give it a try. She’d brought plenty of water, some extra gasoline, and enough protein bars and other snacks to last until Thursday morning. She hoped she’d be out of there Wednesday night, but she didn’t know for sure if she’d feel like leaving if the portal didn’t open or Elliott didn’t decide to come through.
She’d made sure with Christian that Elliott would come back fully clothed. The last thing she wanted to do was ride into town with her naked friend. There was just one other item she’d needed to collect before heading into the desert, and she had that now, too. It occurred to her that she might need some sort of a container to keep an open bag full of ashes in, so she chose something she thought Elliott would find both significant and hilarious, should he choose to join her.
Being out there alone gave her plenty of time to check in with her teammates and area leaders, and by late Wednesday afternoon, she’d gotten a lot
of work accomplished as well as actually spending some free time reading a book she’d picked up in one of the towns she’d passed through. It wasn’t often she had time to do anything for pleasure anymore—movies, TV, reading—all of those leisure activities got pushed aside when she took over this assignment. Now, she finally had time to read The Girl on the Train, and she was just getting to one of the good parts when her sister requested a convo.
Annoyed but still happy to see what Cassidy had to say, Cadence set the book aside so she could find out what Cass had discovered about the crazy Vampire activity, if anything. “What’s up, Sis?”
“Hey, are you still out doing whatever you were doing?” Cassidy asked, her voice sounding oddly chipper.
“I am. What are you up to?”
“I just got out of school. I wanted to talk to you last night, but I got busy… studying.”
“By studying do you mean talking to Brandon?”
“Anyway,” she said, her change of subject a positive answer to Cadence’s question, “I did what you said, and I tried to listen. It was really hard to actually make out anything while I was at home or at school…”
“Not at school. You should be listening to your teachers when you’re at school.”
“Pre-AP History is so easy!” The attitude was back, and Cadence was also a little irritated that her sister found history easy. “I didn’t spend the whole day listening.”
“Okay, so what happened?”
“Well, none of that worked very well. So Brandon suggested I try going to a more crowded area. I got Mom to take me to the mall in Council Bluffs, and I was able to pick up some more chatter there.”
“Cool. What did you find out?”
“It was bizarre, Cadence. They were talking about normal, everyday things to each other, and it was like they didn’t even know I was listening. Most of it was nothing. A few of them were talking about ‘hits’ and ‘marks.’ But quite a few of them kept referring to something else.”
“What else?” Cadence asked, hanging on every word.
Cassidy hesitated, “They just kept saying things like, ‘It’s almost time.,’ and ‘The day draws near.’ The way that I hear them, it’s just strands of words, like, with no context. There’s no way for me to connect conversations and tell who is talking to who. So… those are the phrases that stood out to me.”