by ID Johnson
"All right, let's go home," Elliott sighed, climbing behind the steering wheel.
As he began to head back towards LIGHTS, Cadence asked, "Can we go home, home?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, aware that she was speaking only to him.
"I want to go home for Christmas. Will you take me?"
Catching her eye in the rearview mirror, he said, "You got it, kid."
***
By the time Eliza awoke, the hunt was over. Aaron had his IAC fully up and operational and was sitting on her couch, answering messages and monitoring the newsfeed. As much as he wanted to go home, he knew he couldn't do that. So, he sat and waited for her to make her way into the living room, not sure where they would go from there.
"Hey," she said yawning. She was wearing only a T-shirt which hit at the top of her thighs, her hair still disheveled, clearly still groggy. "Working away as usual?" she asked with a coy smile.
He glanced in her direction. With the return of his composure had also come the realization that he had given into her solely because of her special qualities. He was thinking more clearly now, and logic was reminding him that he was not interested in Eliza. Nevertheless, she clearly still had strong feelings for him, and he was not one to intentionally trample on the heart of what could easily be considered an innocent bystander. Despite Cadence's accusations, it was not Eliza who had lied to him. On the contrary, she was one of the few people who had been bold enough to tell him the truth.
"I am working," he replied, mustering a small smile. "You feel better?" he asked as she plopped down beside him on the couch.
A broad smile filled her face. "I feel remarkable," she said raising her eyebrows. "I'm ecstatic that we are finally back together," she added, looping her arm through his. "You see, baby, sometimes it takes walking through the fire to know just how good we've got it, you know?"
Aaron wasn't sure how to reply to that. Obviously, she saw them as a couple again already. "It's been a really...crazy day," he finally remarked.
"Mmm," she agreed, sliding her hand down into his. "Why don't you come back to bed, and I'll make it a little more sane," she coaxed, a shy smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
"Maybe later," Aaron said, as a new message popped up regarding the devastation in the Caribbean. "I need to see what's going on with Jack and Giovani," he pulled his hand away from her and stood. "In fact, I need to go back to my apartment so I can use my laptop."
Eliza pouted. "Can't that wait?"
"I'm afraid not," he replied, talking to her while communicating with several Hunters stationed along the Caribbean coast. "Body count is rising, Eliza. I need to get on this."
She stood, making no attempt to pull down the T-shirt that was creeping up her thighs. "You're not trying to avoid me, are you?" she asked as she slid her hands up his chest, her mouth just inches from his.
"No," he replied, trying not to meet her eyes.
"Good," she replied, sliding her tongue into his mouth. Through the IAC she added, "Because now that I have you back, I'm never going to let you go."
***
It should have taken them about two hours to get from LIGHTS to Cadence's parent' house but with Elliott driving, they were there in just over an hour. After heading back to LIGHTS, tossing together a bag, and heading out, it was still almost 3:00 AM before they pulled up in front of the familiar two-story structure. Cadence had fallen asleep in the backseat, and Elliott was able to pick her up without fully waking her and carry her inside. He had heard her crying earlier and knew she had to be emotionally exhausted.
He was able to get into the house without any difficulty and placed her gently on the couch in the living room, grabbing her mother's throw and putting it on top of her. She had changed out of her hunting clothes and was at least wearing something semi-comfortable. He slipped her shoes off of her in the light of the dimly glowing Christmas tree that stood guard next to the bay window across the room, and then he plopped down in her father's chair, the exhaustion catching up with him as well. He hadn't slept in weeks, but as he reflected on the unbelievable events of the day, he slowly drifted off.
A few hours later, they both awoke to stifled shrieks of glee from Cassidy. She had made her way down the stairs expecting to see only Christmas presents but had found something much more valuable. Her sister had made it home for Christmas after all. "I'm sorry," Cassidy said, watching Cadence shoot up, survey the room, and then wipe absently at her eyes. "I didn't mean to wake you up. I just didn't know you were coming."
Cadence checked the time on her IAC. "I see you haven't outgrown getting up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning," she said yawning.
"Nope! I had to see what Santa brought me," Cassidy replied winking.
"You believe in Santa?" Elliott asked stretching.
"You never know," Cassidy replied, crossing the room and flinging herself into his open arms.
"That's true," Elliott agreed, smiling at the sweet girl he was holding.
"Hey, where's my hug?" Cadence asked a bit dejected.
The younger sister laughed and pounced on Cadence, giving her a big squeeze and a sloppy kiss on the cheek. "I am so glad you're here! You missed everything last night."
"I know," Cadence said sadly as Cassidy slid off of her legs and sat down next to her. "I should have been here. I'm sorry."
"That's okay," Cassidy smiled. It occurred to her exactly why it was that Cadence wasn't supposed to be able to make it home. "Where's Aaron?" she asked.
Cadence glanced at Elliott who gave her an empathetic little smile. "With Eliza," Cadence admitted, turning back to her sister.
"Huh?" Cassidy asked. "The girl with the purple hair? Really?"
"Yep," Cadence admitted, holding back her tears for the sake of her sister.
"Well, that's stupid," Cassidy blurted. However, the fact that Elliott was there instead made her very happy, and she couldn't help but mentally give Team Elliott a tally mark. "Screw him," she said. "Totally not worth it."
Cadence was a little shocked at her sister's choice of words since she rarely heard her use any language that strong, but she couldn't help but chuckle. "Indeed," she said. "Screw him, indeed."
Despite Cadence's mood, it was a wonderful holiday. Her parents had been ecstatic to see both Cadence and Elliott. Grandma Janette had made it down in time for Christmas dinner. There had been presents and caroling, and it turned out to be one of the most festive holidays Cadence had ever experienced. They had even played a few board games, and Elliott got to see first hand just how ruthless Cadence was when it came to Monopoly. It became clear that Vampires and renters alike should fear the brown-haired beauty.
That evening, Cadence was helping her mom load the dishwasher when Liz finally decided to ask the question she'd been longing to voice all day long. "So, what happened, darling?"
Cadence was in the middle of placing a plate in the bottom rack of the washer and waited until it was in position before she turned back to address her mother. "He thinks I lied to him. He doesn't trust me anymore."
Liz seemed to consider the response, continuing to rinse the plates and hand them over to her daughter. "Did you?" she finally asked, quietly.
"Not exactly," Cadence explained. "I omitted some information that he found to be pertinent. I still disagree. But it doesn't matter now. He's with Eliza."
Liz looked at Cadence in shock. "Already?"
Cadence nodded, taking the last plate from her mom and putting it in the dishwasher. "She has some sort of superpower of persuasion over men, I guess," she added.
Leaning back against the sink, Liz sighed, watching Cadence put the soap in the machine and turn it on. "If you don't mind me asking, what is it he thinks you lied about?"
Cadence thought for a second. It was all so complicated and it really didn't matter anymore. Finally she said, "Christian kissed me a few weeks ago. Aaron found out. Eliza told him. She was trying to get back together with him all along, Mom. You were right, I shou
ld have listened to you."
Liz was wiping her hands on a dishtowel, clearly deep in thought. "Well, at least you didn't tell him you loved him, darling," she said, hoping to point out something positive.
Cadence looked down at the ground. "I did, Mom."
"What?" Liz said, finding herself in disbelief again.
"By the time you warned me not to, it was already too late."
"Oh, well, honey, that's the problem," Liz replied, resting her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Baby, I'm so sorry."
Cadence shook her head. "Mom, that's not why. I told you, he said he couldn't trust me...."
"Darling," Liz interrupted, brushing the hair out of Cadence's eyes, "it doesn't matter what he said. He got scared. That doesn't mean that he doesn't love you, too, it jut means he doesn't know how to handle it."
Shaking her head, Cadence said, "Mom, he doesn't love me. If he loved me, he would never do something like this to me."
Liz pulled her in and wrapped her arms around her. "Maybe not, sweetheart, and I don't want to give you false hope, but I don't think this is over yet."
"Oh, it's over," Cadence assured her, the tears stinging her eyes again. "I'm quite certain that it's over."
***
When Giovani and Zabrina had ran out of new places to hit along the Carbbean coast and the Mexican shoreline, they had returned to Cabo San Lucas, Jack in tow. They had long sense given up on counting the number of victims. No one could touch them--the authorities thought they were chasing some sort of terrorist group. Every night, they took multiple victims, no longer caring about the possibility of being detected by either witnesses or recording devices. In fact, they were getting a little sloppy, and Jack was the only reasonable voice amongst them. He continued to caution that they needed to wrap it up and get back to the states so he could see Cadence, but by mid-January, Giovani was on such a high, Jack wasn't sure he was ever going to come back down.
It wasn't until they saw themselves on amateur video on the news one morning that they realized they needed to get back to the states before it was too late. On the particular video, there were no clear views of their facial features. Basically, the recording showed Zabrina dancing with a man in a bar. She lures him to the back of the building, into a shadowy section and the three of them pounce on him. After a few minutes of sporadic movement, the three "suspects" walk away, and the victim, later identified as Lynn Pitts, 27 of San Diego, California, is left lying in a shallow pool of his own blood. The footage was collected via the cellphone of a stealthy yet-to-be-identified witness.
While the media was begging the witness to come forward, LIGHTS was assuring there was no need for that. The same young Vampire Hunter who had observed the trio on their first trip had taken this footage as well. The girl, Priscilla, was not old enough to legally gain entry into the bar, but when Aaron had asked her to see if she could get some footage, she had done whatever she could. At 17 and untrained, she was too terrified to confront the trio on her own but wanted to contribute as much as she could. She was shocked to see that Giovani and his siblings had even returned to her hometown. She took it to be fate when she spotted them in the market one afternoon and decided to stop at nothing to get the requested video. She wasn't sure why Aaron needed it, but if he asked for it, she was going to get it for him.
"I do believe it is time to get out of Dodge--wherever the hell that is," Giovanni said, clicking off the remote to the television.
"I agree," Jack said. The sight of seeing himself on the news sucking the blood out of an innocent human being was pulling at what was left of his conscience. "Sooner rather than later. Just in case they try to take our passports or something."
Zabrina snorted. "Who? Do you really think there's any government that is more powerful than us?"
"I don't know," Jack admitted. "But I don't want to find out. Seriously, I want to be back on the next flight to the US. I don't even care where it's headed so long as I'm back where I belong on American soil."
Giovani crossed over to the laptop sitting on the counter in the adjoining kitchen area. They had rented a very nice cabana with all of the amenities, just steps from the Caribbean Sea. "We can get a direct flight to DFW tomorrow and then connect to a flight to Omaha from there."
"Perfect," Jack said. "Book it."
***
Cadence did what most broken-hearted women tend to do; she threw herself into her work, hung out with her friends, and avoided the object of her disdain as much as possible. Of course, that was a little difficult to do when he just happened to be her boss. In the few weeks of the new year, she had managed to avoid going on very many hunts with him, preferring to go on alternate missions with other people. The two she had attended with Aaron had been awkward, and she had gotten them over as quickly as she could. She still refused to go out if Eliza was there, which put Aaron in a difficult position when he had to tell his girlfriend she was staying home so that they could take out their number one asset, but he made it work, and Cadence managed to get lots of kills without ever speaking a word to her leader.
She had somehow convinced Laura and Laney to stick around for a while as well. It had been much easier to convince the younger sister to stay, what with the older wanting to track down Giovani as soon as possible, but the events of Christmas Eve had endeared Cadence to Laura a bit, and she was willing to give it some time. Cadence hadn't heard from Jack, but she was able to use the promise of luring him in to keep Laura patient.
Elliott was playing middle-man between the sparing ex-couple, which was a bit exhausting for him, but he was willing to do it to keep Cadence happy--or as happy as possible, anyway. After a detailed recount of events from Aaron's perspective, Elliott had concluded that his best friend was an "idiot," and he had relayed to Cadence that he strongly suggested to his long time compadre that he needed to get his shit together and get rid of Eliza "yesterday." While Aaron insisted the situation was complicated, Elliott was resolute in his stance that Aaron had made a huge mistake and needed to do what he could to correct it. In the meantime, he continued to pass along messages when called upon to do so.
The rest of the team had tried to stay as neutral as possible, for the most part. Of course, Christian was refusing to speak to Eliza, and even those other team members who generally considered her a friend tended to avoid her now, including Jamie who had told Cadence from the beginning he, "had her back." Nevertheless, in order to keep the team together, most of the members tried to play nice. The only true exceptions were Aurora and Meaghan who had taken Cadence's side from the very beginning. The three girls began training together nearly everyday and whenever Cadence needed to air her grievances, the other two were there to listen and assure her that Eliza was a bitch, and Aaron was acting like a complete moron.
On the treadmills at the gym, Cadence often let her frustration out by pounding the hell out of the track. She could now easily maintain 40 miles per hour for about two hours. There were times, however, when she wished she could just go outside and run, even though it would have to be slower so as not to draw attention to herself, because often Eliza would end up working out at the same time, and even looking at her ex-friend made her sick to her stomach.
"God, look at her over there," Aurora said, stomping it out next to Cadence as Eliza came in and made herself comfortable on the elliptical machine across the room. "I could just go punch her in that smug little face."
"I could literally kill her," Meaghan agreed. "No really--and she couldn't kill me back. Has that occurred to you Cadence?"
Cadence wanted to play the bigger person but chose honesty instead. "Of course it has occurred to me. But, I'd have to make it look like an accident and that would be too difficult..." she joked.
"True. It's not very often that a Hunter kills a Guardian anyway," Aurora added. Realizing Cadence had a personal connection to such an incident, she quickly said, "Oh, sorry, Cadence. I didn't mean to offend you."
"It's okay. No offense taken. I didn't kno
w my grandfather," Cadence replied, knowing her friend meant no harm. "I think I've had all I can take of this situation," she added, turning the treadmill off and waiting for it to slow down before jumping to the sides of the machine so her feet were off of the tread as it came to a stop. She took a long drink from her water bottle as her friends also stopped their machines, and grabbing her towel, she turned to walk out of the room, almost colliding with Aaron.
"Sorry," he muttered, taking a step back. "I didn't mean to.... I need to talk to you about Jack."
She was momentarily paralyzed, temporarily forgetting that she was not speaking to him. However, it did not take her long to remember the situation, despite the fact that she was caught in those blue eyes. "I think you mean you need to talk to Elliott about Jack, don't you?"
He ran his hand through his hair the way he always did when he was nervous. "No, I need to talk to you."
Cadence stepped around him, not waiting for her friends who were watching with open mouths. "But I'm not talking to you," she replied over her shoulder. She saw him glance over in Eliza's direction and pushed open the door that led to the small hallway between the room where the treadmills were housed and the main gym. Of course, he followed.
"Cadence, the body count is increasing everyday. We've got to do something."
"So, do something," she replied not looking back this time, making her way to the nearest exit.
Once again, Aaron was following. "You know we can't get him without your help."
"Why don't you give the little temptress a try? She's pretty good at leading men to their demise," she quipped, pushing open the door that led out into the cold January wind.
Aaron ignored her remark. "Cadence, please, just talk to me. We need to come up with a plan. You know you have to be part of this. It has nothing to do with me..."
She turned to look at him, not at all bothered by the two inches of snow she was standing in, or the icy breeze, despite her shorts and sleeveless tank. "I don't talk to you anymore. If you want to devise a plan, talk to Elliott. He'll get the information to me. Now, leave me the hell alone."