by ID Johnson
“Oh, sure it is, Mom. That’s exactly what you were going to say. Everything was just fine until I came along. I know, Mom. I get it.”
“Damn it, Brandon,” she exclaimed, pounding her fist on the table. “You are so ungrateful! I gave up everything for you! Everything! I was going to go to medical school. I was going to be a doctor. And your father….”
“Didn’t even know I existed!”
She flew out of her chair, swaying unsteadily. “He abandoned his other children, Brandon! He would have done the same to you!”
He stepped back, trying his best not to get into a physical altercation with her, not today. He wasn’t sure he could put up with it again, not right now, and the last thing he wanted to do was inadvertently hurt her. “Mom, I don’t want to argue with you, okay?”
Amanda didn’t back down. She stepped towards him. “You ungrateful little son of a bitch,” she snarled, her hand flying back.
“Mom, stop,” he warned her. “I’m not in any mood to take that from you today.”
She brought her hand around, which he easily caught before she made contact with his face. The surprise at his counteraction threw her off balance, and he grabbed her shoulder to steady her. “Mom, I mean it, stop,” he said as she jerked away from him.
“Don’t touch me!” she screamed. “I’m your mother! How dare you put your hands on me!”
“I’m not trying to hurt you, Mom, but I’m not going to be your punching bag anymore!” Brandon insisted, letting go and stepping back.
She came at him swinging with both arms this time. She was clearly hung-over and exhausted, and while it had been her fists that hurt the most at times in the past, it was the trail of obscenities and names she delivered with each blow that stung the most now. After a few moments, she wore herself out, and he was able to corral her swinging arms as she collapsed in a fit of tears, mumbling, “You unappreciative bastard.”
“Let’s get you back to bed,” he said quietly, steering her in the direction of her room.
Swinging at him one more time, she complied and staggered into her bedroom, tossing herself onto her bed, still mumbling about how she had given up everything to raise him.
The tears in his eyes had nothing to do with the pain in his arms as he tossed a blanket over her and walked quietly to the door. He paused for a moment to look at her. The muttering had stopped, and she was beginning to snore. With a deep sigh, he said, “Goodbye, Mom,” and stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
***
Though Cadence and Aaron could have made the drive from Kansas City to Shenandoah fairly quickly, flying was even faster, and it allowed them to get to Iowa, briefly visit her family, and return to headquarters all before 2:00. Still, the trip had eaten up a fair amount of their Saturday, and Cadence was pondering whether or not to go with the rest of the team on the assigned hunt that night or spend it with her sister. She hadn’t missed a local hunt since she became the Hunter Leader, and while the rest of the team assured her they could handle it without her, she was hesitant to sit one out. Nevertheless, Cassidy had a lot of questions and wanted to see everything, so eventually she decided to turn it over to Aurora and spend as much time with Cassidy as she could. After all, they had always been close, and now that Cadence was no longer at home, they needed some time to catch up.
Cadence unlocked the door to her apartment using her IAC. She had gone back to sleep for a little while, but she was still exhausted, and she stifled a yawn as she gestured for her sister to come in. “Make yourself at home,” she said as Cassidy wandered in, followed by Aaron who had her overnight bag.
“Your apartment is so cool,” Cassidy said in awe as she walked over to look out the window. She had been there once before, when she came down for Elliott’s funeral, but that had been several months ago. “I love your view. That fountain is huge.”
Cadence also enjoyed the view of the courtyard and the surrounding open fields from her window. She had a nice view of a few fountains that dotted the landscape, but the only she liked most was the one Elliott had specially ordered for Aaron, the one that looked like his daughter Aarolyn. “It is pretty nice,” Cadence agreed, plopping down on the sofa. “If you’re hungry, there’s plenty of food in there,” she added, gesturing towards the kitchen.
“I’m fine,” Cassidy assured her, joining her on the couch. “When do I get to see everything and meet everyone?”
“Uh, well, soon,” Cadence replied. “You’ve already met just about everyone. And there’s a hunt tonight, so they’ll be planning that within a few hours.”
“Can I go?” Cassidy asked, a sappy smile on her face.
“Absolutely not,” Cadence answered quickly.
“Your bag is in the guest room,” Aaron told her as he came back down the hallway. “And I need to go check in with Jamie. He said he needs to see me in person. So….”
“What’s that all about?” Cadence asked, a very curious expression on her face.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I have an idea--but I’m not going to speculate.”
“Okay,” Cadence replied, letting it go even though she had a dozen other questions she was dying to ask. “Well, let me know what’s going on.”
“I will,” he said as he stooped down to kiss her quickly on the cheek, sparing her sister any unwelcome PDA.
“Aaron, can I go on the hunt tonight?” Cassidy asked, the same ridiculously hopeful expression on her face.
He looked at her with his eyebrows raised before asking, “Do I really need to respond to that question?”
“It was worth a shot,” Cassidy muttered.
“Not today, girlfriend,” Aaron said over his shoulder as he crossed to the door. “You’ve got a couple more years before you’re ready for that.”
“See you later,” Cadence called after him as he left, nodding in response. “Here’s the remote,” she said to her little sister, tossing it in her general direction. “I’ll be back in a minute, and then we can talk about what you wanna do.”
“Where are you going?” Cassidy asked as her sister stood.
“Must you know everything?” Cadence replied. “To the bathroom.”
“Oh,” Cassidy said, turning the TV on. “I didn’t know you still had to do that.”
“Yeah. I do.” She exited the room shaking her head but trying to stay patient. Cassidy didn’t know what she didn’t know.
The TV came to life in the middle of a news report. “CNN? Bluck,” Cassidy mumbled, looking closely at the remote in an attempt to figure out how to change the channel, but before she could manage to do so, she realized what the reporter was saying.
“A person of interest in connection with the Jogging Path Killings was arrested today in Philadelphia. Steven Gibbon, 32, was transferred to an area hospital after he was critically wounded in a standoff with police outside of Rocky’s Gym this morning. While police are not confirming exactly what evidence they have that Gibbon is connected to the murders of seven women in the Philadelphia area, they did say that his wounds are not life threatening and that he will be taken into custody as soon as he is discharged.”
“Cadence!” Cassidy yelled, as she heard her sister coming back down the hallway. “Did you see this?”
“What is it?” Cadence asked pulling down her sleeves. “They caught the Jogging Path Killer?”
“Looks like it. He’s creepy!” Cassidy replied, looking at the mug shot they had posted. “Is he a Vampire?”
“No,” Cadence assured her. “Not all bad people are Vampires. Some of them are just bad people.”
“Well, I’m glad. Because something tells me he would be even worse if he was a Vampire.”
Looking into his eyes, Cadence couldn’t help but agree. There was something about Steven Gibbon that just looked… evil. “Hey, Aaron wants us to meet him at Jamie’s office. Let’s head over there, okay?”
“Okay,” Cassidy agreed, flipping the TV off again. “Which one is Jamie?”
“He’s the Healer,” Cadence reminded her as they walked out the door.
“The one with the spikey hair?”
“That’s him.” They had to wait a moment for the elevator to reach their floor.
“And I remember Meagan and Aurora. What’s that other guys name? The one with the weird accent?”
“That’s Christian,” Cadence replied as they stepped into the elevator. “He’s not here right now, though.”
“Oh, where’s he at?”
“He is working on a special project with some doctor in one of the Guardian settlements. He’s trying to figure out a way so that Guardians can turn back into humans if they want to,” Cadence attempted to explain as the elevator reached the bottom floor.
“Why would they want to do that?” Cassidy asked as she followed her out into the lobby.
“Well, it’s kind of exhausting living forever,” Cadence explained. “Some of them have been around for thousands of years, and they don’t have a lot of options. If they could turn back into people, then they would die, eventually. As Guardians, they’ll just keep on going forever.”
“Unless a Hunter kills them, right?”
“Right. But we hope that doesn’t happen, for obvious reasons,” Cadence agreed. “So this will make it easier for them to be… normal again.”
It was a little chilly out with a nice autumn breeze, and Cassidy was glad she’d brought a jacket. The cold weather didn't bother Cadence at all now that she had Transformed. As they approached the parking lot near Jamie’s office, Cadence froze in her tracks, her hand shooting out to grab Cassidy’s arm. “Oh. My. God.”
“What? What is it?” Cassidy asked, not sure if she should be scared of a Vampire, or a monster, or something else entirely.
Cadence broke out in a fit of laughter, smiling with glee. “He’s here! He actually came! Come on!” She took off running so fast, she left her sister, mouth agape, still standing several yards behind. Once she realized there was no way Cassidy could keep up with her, she stopped and backtracked, grabbing her sister by the arm, and slowing her pace to a more manageable, human speed.
“But where are we going?” Cassidy asked as she sprinted to keep up with her sister who appeared to be only jogging.
Cadence was too excited to answer, and as she burst through the office building door, it was all Cassidy could do to keep from smacking into it. Jamie’s office was close to the front entrance, and his door was open. It only took Cassidy a second to realize why her sister was so happy.
“Brandon!” Cadence exclaimed, flinging herself at him. He barely had time to open his arms before she wrapped him up in a huge hug. “You came! You’re here.”
“Surprise! It’s me!” he said, less than enthusiastically. “Hope you weren’t expecting the pizza guy.”
“No, some of us don’t like pizza,” Cadence said, finally letting him go and shooting Aaron a flirtatious look. “Why are you here?”
But Brandon wasn’t paying any attention to her anymore. He was staring over her shoulder. “Hey,” he said quietly.
“Hello,” Cassidy replied, entering the room cautiously, as if she wasn’t quite sure what might happen once she stepped across the threshold.
Cadence looked from Aaron to Jamie, a confused expression on her face. Jamie shrugged and Aaron smiled as if to say, “I told you so.” Suddenly, Cadence began to put together the pieces of the puzzle he had solved months ago.
“Cass, this is Brandon,” Aaron said, standing up from his spot on Jamie’s desk. “Brandon, this is Cassidy.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you in person,” Brandon said, offering her his hand.
“Oh, yeah, you too,” she agreed, looking at his hand curiously before she finally shook it. “Why are you here?” she asked, repeating Cadence’s question.
Brandon was staring at her like he was meeting a celebrity for the first time. It took him a moment to process the question, but eventually he said, “Oh, uh, well, after I went on the hunt the other night, I decided it was time to go through with the Transformation.”
“The what?” Cassidy shrieked, no longer interested in who Brandon was exactly or why he was here. “Cadence! You said humans couldn’t go on hunts!”
“That’s true,” Cadence replied, defensively. “Humans are not allowed to go on hunts. Most of the time.” She looked at Brandon as if to say she would kill him just as soon as she got the chance. “There was a situation, and we needed his assistance. Remember what I told you about how good of a liar he is?”
“Not as good as you, apparently,” Cassidy exclaimed, crossing her arms in a huff.
“All right, Cass,” Cadence said, putting her arms out in an attempt to calm her sister. “We needed someone to run interference, and we thought Brandon could do it, so we let him come along. But we never do that. And you’re not old enough to come on a hunt anyway.”
“This is bull… crap,” Cassidy said, stomping her foot.
“Wow,” Aaron spoke up, “you’re not quite being the sweet little Cassidy we all know and love right now. What has gotten into you?”
Cadence looked at him as if to say, “She’s my sister, let me handle it,” but she wasn’t really sure what to say either. Finally, she took a deep breath and said, “Look, Cass, you’re not always going to understand everything I do as the Leader, but sometimes you just have to follow directives and do what I say. I always have a good reason, and most of the time it’s based on information that you don’t have available to you, okay?”
“Fine,” Cassidy agreed, shaking her head. “I just… really want to be a part of all of this, and it’s hard to wait.”
Cadence crossed the room and put her arm around her sister. “I know. But you will have the rest of your life to be a Vampire Hunter. You’re young. You still have a lot to learn. Give it some time, and you’ll be ready. But not yet.”
“Well, as much fun as this has been,” Jamie said, jumping up from his position behind his desk, “some of us have some work to do. So… Brandon, I’ll see you in a few hours. Let me get some stuff together, and then we’ll be ready to start the process.”
“Okay,” Brandon said, anxiousness showing on his face. “I appreciate it,” he added, offering Jamie his hand.
“No problem,” the doctor assured him, taking it. “Welcome to the team.”
“Let’s head over to the gym and we’ll show you around the facilities,” Aaron suggested ushering them to the door.
“After you,” Brandon said, pushing the door open for Cassidy, who smiled at him meekly, and Cadence to go through. Aaron patted him on the shoulder as they made their way out into the hallway.
“Do you realize what you just said to your sister?” Aaron asked, taking Cadence’s hand.
“What do you mean?” she replied, a questioning expression on her face.
“Basically the same thing I said to you the first two or three times I had to tell you information you didn’t like.”
Cadence considered the statement. He was so right. “Wow,” she said. “I guess now I know just enough about how we operate to be dangerous.”
“You know more than you think you do,” he assured her, squeezing her hand.
“What do you think made him show up? Does his mom know he’s here?”
“I don’t think so,” Aaron admitted. “I’m not sure, but I guess he’ll tell us when he’s ready. I’m sure we’ll hear from Amanda sooner or later.”
Cadence nodded. “And you had this all figured out from the beginning, huh?” she asked, gesturing at Brandon with her head as he stared at Cassidy.
“Oh, yeah. From the second he saw her picture. He was smitten.”
“Hmmm….” Cadence hadn’t noticed at all. “How did I miss that?”
“I don’t know. But you Findley girls are hard to ignore.”
She smiled and wrapped her arm around him. If her sister was going to be pursued by a boy, she could do worse than Brandon Keen.
***
&n
bsp; Robert, whose last name had been Cavanaugh at one point, decades ago when he came into this world--now he had so many aliases, he couldn’t keep them all straight--was a tracker. He had honed his skills as such over the years while existing as a Rogue Vampire. Long before he met Giovani, he had survived off the streets of Omaha, finding his victims, hunting them down, and when the time was right, pouncing on them. In all of those years, he’d never drawn unwanted attention to himself from Hunters or Guardians. Even though he was certain he’d probably claimed a few Innocents at one time or another, they’d never bothered to try and find him. Once he met Giovani, however, things had changed a bit. He knew his friend was a wanted man. Robert had to become even more stealthy to keep the attention on the Italian and not on him. Now that LIGHTS was on an international manhunt for Giovani and Zabrina, things had gone back to normal for him; no one seemed at all concerned about Robert. Well, they should have been because he was every bit as much the monster as his former neighbor.
The problem with tracking prey in a position so close to Vampire Hunters and Guardians was that some of them were hypersensitive to Vampires. Coming within a few miles of them could alert his enemies that something was going on. If his target had stayed at home as he had hoped, this wouldn’t have been so difficult. There were Hunters and Guardians in the area but no one of consequence. His plan had been to get in, extract her, and get out as quickly as possible. Now, however, things were slightly more complicated. She was no longer in an area he could easily access, and she had better protection than even the President of the United States. No, there was no way he was going to be able to break into LIGHTS Headquarters and walk out alive. He’d have to wait.
Riding his motorcycle from Shenandoah to Kansas City had been invigorating, but it also put him out of direct contact with the mark. Once he arrived at his destination, however, his senses told him she was nearby. He was confident she was holed up in the compound. He had to keep his distance, and so he took a position outside. Using binoculars, he was able to keep visuals on the front gate of the establishment from his post atop an office building a few blocks away. Several people came and went throughout the day, and this made it difficult to determine whether or not she was one of them. This is when that sixth sense of sorts came into play. He had to feel for her presence; as long as he kept her within his overly-sensitive range of proximity, he should be able to lay in wait and bide his time. Then, once she emerged, he could use the fire escape to access his bike and trail her, also being very careful to keep his distance. He was lucky that he had such an instinctual tracking mechanism that allowed him to keep in contact with his target even from such a distance. Such a gift was rare. Robert would use his to help bring LIGHTS to its knees once and for all.