by ID Johnson
Cadence looked at her inquisitively. “What do you mean?” she asked. “I thought Aaron was training me.”
Eliza laughed again and this time it came out as a snort. “Aaron doesn’t actually train anyone,” she said.
“He doesn’t?” Cadence asked, surprise. “But I asked him specifically if he would be training me and he said yes.”
“Well, he used to train people but that was a long time ago. He usually just checks in with the training supervisors. He’s so busy; I don’t know how he even has time to do that. And as much time as he spent not working this past week, well, he’s probably got a shitload to get caught up on, that’s for sure.”
Cadence crossed her arms and sat back in her chair, feeling a bit betrayed again. She had asked specific questions before her Transformation in hopes to alleviate any of these surprises. “Well, can you just ask him who he planning on having train me?”
“I can,” Eliza said, wondering why she was making such a big deal out who her trainer would be. “I will, if you want.”
“Okay,” Cadence nodded. “Are you?”
“Now? Oh, no. My IAC’s not even on right now,” Eliza explained.
“What?” Cadence was really shocked now. “What do you mean? You can urn that thing off?”
“Well, yeah,” Eliza said, taking her eyes off of the road for a second to glance across the seat at her friend. “How else are we going to do, you know, bodily functions. We do still have to go to the bathroom occasionally, you know?”
“Oh,” Cadence hadn’t realized there was a way to turn it off. She just assumed everyone got used to seeing what everyone else was doing all the time.
“Christian will go over all of that with you when you get to LIGHTS,” she continued.
“And what does LIGHTS stand for again?”
“Lincoln International Guardian and Hunter Training Station.”
Cadence found herself confused once more. “But I thought it was in Missouri, not Nebraska?”
“It is, princess. It’s named after Abraham Lincoln, too, for obvious reasons.”
“What?” Cadence said, stunned. “Sweet Baby Jesus, you’ve got to be kidding me?”
“Nope. Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.”
“Unbelievable,” Cadence muttered. Who would have thought it? Abraham Lincoln really was a Vampire Hunter. “Next thing you know, I’ll be seeing flying monkeys and horses that change color.”
“Possibly,” Eliza nodded. “Possibly.”
They were almost to her house now and Cadence was growing anxious to see her parents and her younger sister. She had originally planned on a nice relaxing week with her family. She had no idea the twists and turns her journey would make in this single, solitary life and something told her, based on this conversation, the surprises were not yet over.
As Eliza brought the car to a stop in front of her house, Cadence could hardly keep herself from leaping out of the vehicle and sprinting to the door. She wanted to be polite and thank Eliza for all she had done, but she also could not wait to see her parents.
As if reading her mind, Eliza said simply, “Go! Get out of here! I’ll see you soon!”
Cadence nodded. She gave Eliza’s arm a little squeeze before pulling her overnight bag out of the back and running to the door. She was not used to this speed, however, that was for sure, and she had so much trouble stopping, she almost ran into the door. “Woe!” she said aloud. “Got to get these brakes checked!”
Her parents had heard the car out front and were waiting for her. Her father flung open the door. “Cadence!” he exclaimed, giving her a hug. She heard her mom yell for Cassidy to come downstairs before she, too, embraced their first-born.
“Oh, Cadence! We are so glad you’re home,” her mother exclaimed, leading her in to the living room. “How are you honey?” she asked, motioning for her to join her on the couch. “Do you need anything, darling? Water? Soda?”
“No, I’m fine,” Cadence assure them. “I’m really fine, Mom, I promise.”
“Well, you look good, kiddo,” her dad exclaimed, sitting down in his recliner next to the couch. “You look like you’ve had a nice long nap. You look refreshed.”
Cadence couldn’t help but smile at her father’s attempt at humor. “I guess you could call it a nap,” she said, “But I don’t think it was that refreshing. More like recovering from surgery, I guess.”
“Now, was it painful?” her mother asked. “Because, we had always heard that Transformation was extremely painful, but now I guess they have some new method or something, and it’s not so bad? Is that right or was Aaron just trying to make us feel better?”
Just then, Cadence’s sister Cassidy walked down the stairs and entered the room, preventing Cadence from asking the question burning in her mind—when had her parents talked to Aaron?
Cassidy was fifteen and looked very much like her sister, though she wasn’t as tall and she was a bit less muscular. The girls had always been close, and seeing Cadence go off to college had been hard on her younger sister. Cadence stood, too, and threw her arms around her. “Hey, Cass! How are you?”
“Good,” she said in her shy and reserved manner. “Are you feeling okay?”
Cadence wasn’t sure what Cassidy had been told but this remark made her think, perhaps, she knew everything. She looked questioningly at her parents.
Her mother spoke up, “Cadence is feeling much better, Cass. You’re so sweet to ask. Cadence, we explained that you needed some time away from town to process your friend’s passing, and so you went to stay with Grandma for a few days.”
Cadence was nodding along. “Yes, that’s right. I just needed some time. But I’ll be fine. Thanks, Sis.”
As much as Cadence wanted to spend time with her sister, the questions she wanted to ask her parents were mounting, and she needed time without Cassidy in the room so that she could do so. Her father seemed to realize this as well and he said quietly, “Cass, honey, we’re going to talk to Cadence a little more about what happened that night when she was out with her friends. I really think its best if you just join us for dinner in a bit, alright, honey?”
Cassidy was always extremely obedient. She nodded her head in understanding. “Alright. I’ll see you later, Sis,” she said to Cadence.
“For sure," she replied, sitting back down on the couch next to her mother.
As soon as Cassidy was out of earshot, her mother continued. “Well, honey, we hope it wasn’t too terribly painful.”
“No, it was fine,” she lied. They didn’t need to know that the pain had been so intense that just the slightest bit of concentration could bring back that sensation, though a much milder version, in her extremities. “Jamie’s system is great. It worked really well.”
“That’s a relief,” her mother said, sighing and leaning back on the couch a bit. “We were so worried that you had gone through a traumatic experience. When we heard that you had decided to go through with it, well, it was just too frightening for me to think about, honestly,” she continued.
“Your mother has a wild imagination,” her father concluded. “She had visions of you screaming in pain, writhing around on a hospital bed, you know, the type of thing you see on horror films.”
“Well, I didn’t know,” Liz chimed in defensively. “I just didn’t know. That Aaron is a nice boy but for all I knew he was telling us what he thought we wanted to hear.”
Cadence had to stifle a laugh at her mother’s word choice. The idea of referring to someone at least three times your age as a “boy” seemed humorous to her. “When was Aaron here?” she asked, attempting to be nonchalant.
“Oh, when was that?” her mom said, thinking back. “I think it was Friday afternoon, maybe. Or was it Saturday. Could it have been yesterday?”
“Yesterday I think,” Eli agreed. “Yes, Saturday.”
“No, I think it was actually Friday,” her mother stated, correcting herself. “Because Becky had just stopped by and she wanted m
e to look at the deals she had gotten on Black Friday shopping. I’m fairly certain it was Friday.”
Cadence was sorry she had asked. When Aaron had been there was actually irrelevant, she just wanted to know why he was there and what he had said and if he had seen any embarrassing pictures of her from junior high. “Mom, it doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter. I just wanted to know if . . .if he, uh, what he had to say, that’s all.”
“Oh, well, let me think,” her mom took a moment to recollect the conversation. “He just told us that you had spoken to Grandma, that she had explained everything to you, or most everything, I mean, you really can’t know everything about the Clandestine Ternion in just a few days. Or really even a few years for that matter . . .”
“Mom?”
“Right, well, he just told us that you understood everything and that you wanted to go through the Transformation process so that you could help catch the Vampires that had killed your friend. That’s all, really dear. Isn’t it?”
Her father nodded his head in agreement. “Yes, now that’s what he said when he stopped by Thursday morning, Liz, because it wasn’t until after that conversation that Cadence actually went through with the procedure, right honey?” he asked Cadence.
“So he came by twice?” she asked, completely confused at this point.
“Yes, yes, that’s right. You’re right Eli. It was Thursday morning when I was working on the turkey. Oh, honey, it’s such a shame that you missed such a lovely turkey this year. It really was something else. And then he came by, uh, Saturday morning and told us everything had gone well. They were just waiting for you to wake up. And now, here you are! All Transformed and ready to start your training. Oh, honey, we’re so proud of you!” She reached her arm out and gave her daughter’s leg a squeeze.
“And a bit scared, too, you know, Cadence, to be honest,” her father chimed in. “We’re proud of you for choosing a path neither of us was ever willing to follow, but we would be lying if we said we weren’t a little, uh, circumspect.”
“Oh, circumspect, yes, I like that word.”
“It’s a good one, isn’t it?”
“Mom, Dad, can we try to focus here, please?” Cadence begged, their typical banter growing increasingly frustrated under the circumstances.
“Sorry, honey,” her dad apologized. “We just want you to know that we will always be here for you, no matter what you decide to do.”
“And please be careful, darling,” her mother added. “We understand that you’re some kind of super-Hunter or something, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get hurt. Please, just make sure you always listen to your commander and do exactly as you are told, okay, honey?”
Though this request seemed to go against what her grandmother had requested earlier, Cadence agreed. “Okay, Mom, you know I’ll be careful.”
Cadence spent the rest of the day hanging out with her little sister listening to music and attempting to illicit whether or not Cassidy currently had a boyfriend. By the time 9:00 hit, she was exhausted. She told her sister good night and went in to her own room, exited to have the opportunity to sleep in her own bed again for a change. Though she was tired, she decided it might be a good idea to take a shower before she went to bed. The possibility of using her own soaps and shampoos made her happy. As she approached her bathroom, the pink beanbag chair on the floor next to her window caught her attention. She stared at it for a moment, contemplating whether it would be easier to keep the things that reminded her of Drew or get rid of them. She sighed, knowing this was just the first of many instances where she would suddenly be reminded that Drew was no longer here and nothing would bring her back.
She took her time in the shower, letting the hot water wash away as many worries as she could flush down the drain. Though it was difficult to be home with so many reminders of Drew, at least she knew for sure her family was safe. Though she hadn’t spotted any Guardians in the area when she made the drive in, she was assured that they were nearby, and she felt confident that her presence had not placed her family in any danger.
She turned the water off, wrapped her hair in a towel, and began dry off. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror and noted that she looked even more muscular than usual. Not “body-builder” muscular but definitely more chiseled than she had remembered. She wondered, if a simple transformation could do this, what would a few weeks of training produce? She was looking forward to grabbing a fresh pair of pajamas out of her drawer as she had been wearing the same ones at her grandma’s house for the last several days. Since she was in her own room, she didn’t usually find it necessary to cover up before she went out to get her pajamas. However, since her house was under surveillance and she wasn’t exactly sure whether or not the curtains had been drawn, she decided to wrap another towel around her body before she walked out the door.
She literally jumped back, into the door jam, the towel around her head the only cushion she had from what would have otherwise been a ridiculous blow to the head. “What are you doing in my bedroom again?” she demanded.
“Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” Aaron began. “I just climbed in the window, I had no idea you were in the shower. If I had known I wouldn’t have come in.”
“That doesn’t excuse the fact that you keep climbing in my bedroom window!” she exclaimed, adjusting the towel around her body to make sure everything was covered and suddenly fully aware that she had a large turban like fixture wrapped around her head.
“I know, you’re right. It doesn’t. I just needed to talk to you. And I didn’t want to bother your parents. And you don’t have the IAC yet . . . . ” He knew piling on excuses made it seem worse so he finally stopped. He also realized he was staring at her and turned away, his hand automatically flying to his hair as he did so.
“Have you ever heard of a cell phone?” she asked, picking her iPhone up off of the nightstand and shaking it at him. “Or perhaps an email? Surely your people can get their hands on any phone number or email address they need.” She was beginning to calm down now, even though she was still upset that he had almost walked in on her completely naked.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again, I promise,” he said, still refusing to look at her.
“Alright then,” she said, walking around her bed towards her dresser, having to squeeze by him in the process. She grabbed her cutest pajamas out of the drawer, slid back by and made her way back to the bathroom. Now that her initial shock was over, she was actually quite enjoying watching him turn from pink to red to some sort of maroon color as he became more and more embarrassed. “I’ll be out in a second,” she shouted, hoping he didn’t disappear while she was in the bathroom. She took a moment to run a brush through her hair and tie it back before she came out. She couldn’t hear him so she was wondering if he might have ducked back out the window
When she opened the door, he was still there, though he was sitting in one of her chairs across the room now. Despite the fact that it was almost winter, she was wearing a camisole top and boy cut shorts in a light pink that she felt really complimented her skin tone. Since the Transformation, she hadn’t been affected by the weather the same way she was as a human. In fact, she almost felt as if she were generating her own source of body heat.
He seemed to notice what she was wearing but he didn’t make any remarks. She sat down in the chair next to him, picking up a throw pillow and hugging it to her chest. “So, what brings you by?” she asked.
He still hesitated to look at her, even though she was somewhat clothed now. He glanced in her direction and then back at the floor. He had spent the majority of the day trying to determine whether or not he should come by. He had finally resolved not to come at all, that it was ridiculous and he could just talk to her over the phone or wait until the next time he saw her. And yet, here he was. Of course he knew her cell phone number and her email address. He also could have been able to tell if she was in the shower or not, using his infrared capabilitie
s, had it occurred to him to check.
“Well, I wanted to see how you were feeling,” he began. “I haven’t seen you since the procedure and I wanted to check in with you.”
“I’m good,” she said, nodding her head. “It took me a while to come around, you know, after the process,” she explained and he nodded that he was aware of that situation. “But now, I’m good. I’m getting used to things, changes. I think that will take a little time but I’ll get there.”
“That’s good. So, what have you noticed so far?” he asked, finally becoming a little more capable of looking in her direction.
“Oh, just the way things move, mostly. It’s almost like I can control it, you know? Like speed it up or down. It’s weird. That’s going to take some adjustment.”
“It does,” he said remembering having similar experiences early after his own transformation. “You will get used to it and it will really help you when you are in battle,” he added.
“Right, battle,” she said widening her eyes as if that was something she did every day.
“That is part of the job description, you know,” he said smiling.
“Oh, I know. Trust me, I know. Just not sure I’m ready for that yet.”
“No, you’re not,” he agreed. “But we’ll get you over to LIGHTS in the next couple of days, and within a few weeks you’ll be ready to go.”
He had opened the door for her question of earlier that day regarding who exactly would be training her. Now, with the topic hanging between them, she was hesitant to ask.
He seemed to know what she was thinking, however, so he broached the topic himself. “I spoke to Eliza earlier today,” he said choosing his words carefully.
“Did you?” she asked. She kind of had a feeling Eliza would be asking if he was planning on training her or not, wanting to know for her own purposes. Something seemed to be going on there but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. Eliza just seemed very protective of Aaron, like she didn’t want Cadence to get too close.