Resurrection: The Clandestine Saga Book 2

by ID Johnson

  "It was more than the suitcase, brother. You can't treat people like that, you know? And even when you told her you lost Cadence's ring--a ring you fought hard to procure--she didn't give a rat's ass. No, she definitely deserved to die!"

  Even as Giovani was speaking, Jack heard his cell phone going off. He was hopeful that it was Cadence, that she had finally gotten around to calling him, but when he glanced down, it was a local number. "Hello?" he asked, his superhuman reflexes easily allowing him to drive and answer the phone at the same time.

  "Yes, may I speak to Mr. Jack Carol, please?" came the voice on the other side.

  "This is he," he replied.

  "Mr. Carol, this is Phil Reutlinger with the DFW Airport lost baggage department. I wanted to let you know that your suitcase has been recovered, and we are able to deliver it tomorrow morning. Can you let me know the address of the hotel or residence where you are staying?"

  "Son of a bitch..." Jack muttered. They had wiped out an entire family for no reason whatsoever.

  ***

  Cadence was done running in the team workout facility. After yesterday's encounter with Aaron and the merciless gleeful expression always plastered on her ex-friend's face as she trotted along on the elliptical, she decided to take her run outside. Even if it meant working on endurance instead of speed, she was not willing to run into the same problem two days in a row.

  And yet, as she rounded a corner nearly 15 miles from headquarters, she found herself running exactly into said problem. "Son of a bitch," she muttered, bringing her sprint to a halt in front of where Aaron sat on a brick wall near a busy intersection. At first, the idea of pretending he was trying to mug her crossed her mind; there were a lot of passing cars after all,, and it might be good for a laugh, but there was something ridiculously un-humorous about the expression on his face so she decided to address him instead. With one hand on her hip, she paused, a bit out of breath. "How the hell did you know where I was?" she asked, her breathing quickly returning to normal.

  "It's my job to know where you are," he replied, not really looking at her. He was wearing dark glasses with his coat collar pulled up, as if he was trying not to be recognized, although she would have known him anywhere.

  "What do you want?" she inquired, still standing several feet away from him. She was actually glad he was wearing glasses. Otherwise, those piercing blue eyes may have been enough to trick her into forgetting that she was angry with him.

  "You know what I want," he replied, and as if on cue, he pulled the glasses down to make eye contact with her.

  "Take it up with my handler," she replied, turning on her heels.

  "Cadence," he said just loud enough for her to hear, his voice raising in volume as she furthered her distance. "We've got four bodies in a suburb of Dallas. Two of them are kids, Cadence!"

  With that, she stopped, a good 50 feet away from him. She looked up at the sky for a moment, absorbing the message and contemplating the implications. Finally, she said over her shoulder, "Then we know it wasn't Jack. He would never..." "It was Jack. For sure," Aaron replied, standing.

  She turned back to face him now. "How do you know?" she asked, her tone taking on more of a challenge than anything else.

  "We have video footage of Jack arguing with the woman who happened to work in the lost baggage department at DFW Airport earlier that day," he replied taking a few steps toward her.

  "That doesn't mean..."

  "We have several pieces of video implicating Jack was involved in the string of murders taking place up and down the Caribbean coast." He continued to slowly walk towards her but stopped a good distance away, not wanting to make her turn to leave again.

  Cadence looked down at the ground. "Just because he was there, doesn't mean..."

  "Cadence, we have to bring him in," he said quietly. He waited for her reaction before continuing. "I can't do it without you."

  She took a deep breath, and even though she knew he was right, she didn't want to cooperate, not after what he had put her through. Nevertheless, she recognized she had a job to do, and even if Jack hadn't directly taken the lives of those two kids, the monsters he was currently keeping company with were responsible. Perhaps, if she could get Jack, she could get Giovani. "And once you get him?" she asked hesitantly, not wanting to hear his answer.

  "You know what must be done," he replied quietly.

  Her eyes widened. "You want me to lure Jack in so you can destroy him? Are you crazy?" she asked her arms flailing.

  "No," Aaron replied, his tone still as calm and even as ever. "I want you to lure Jack in so that you can destroy him."

  The look of horror on Cadence's face became even more prominent as she took in his words. Closing her eyes and attempting to gather her thoughts, she placed her hand on her forehead and took a deep breath. "You're even crazier than I thought you were," she finally replied. "There is no way that is happening." She turned to go, but this time he didn't let her walk away.

  "Cadence" he said on her heels. "You don't understand. You have to do this. It has to be you!"

  She spun to face him. "Why? Why in the world does it have to be me? I'm the last person you should be asking to do this!"

  "Would you please let me explain?"

  "No! There's nothing you can say that could possibly make me understand why you would ask me to do such an unthinkable, barbarous act."

  Stopping short of the corner, he watched her take a few more steps before saying, "Look, Cadence, I know that you hate me..."

  She froze two steps into the street and whirled around to face him. "Hate you?" she asked, the tone of disbelief in her voice even more obvious now than before. "Hate you? No, Aaron, I don't hate you," she explained, walking towards him now, causing him to retreat a few steps. "I love you, remember?" She was right in his face now, just inches away. "Or have you forgotten? You see, despite your alarmingly poor lack of sound judgment when it comes to character and your incessant need to find fault in everything that I do, I still love you. So, believe me when I say my refusal to destroy the one man who has ever truly loved me has little, to nothing, to do with you!"

  As she turned to walk away yet again, he caught his breath, the full meaning of all that she had said taking a moment to sink in. Finally he said, "Cadence, I know how you feel."

  Again she stopped, this time in the middle of the street. "How can you possibly know how I feel? How could you have any idea what it must be like to have someone ask you to destroy the one person who loves you unconditionally?"

  A car came around the corner then and almost collided with the extremely agitated Vampire Hunter. The driver blew her horn in irritation and Cadence flipped her the bird before making the same gesture at her boss and taking off in a sprint that left the woman behind the steering wheel wondering what in the world she had just witnessed. She looked at Aaron as if to ask what just happened, but he turned to walk away, leaving the woman shaking her head.

  Cadence made it back to her apartment in record time. She had cried so often in the last few weeks that she honestly didn't think she had anything left in her. Yet, as she locked the door and leaned back on it momentarily to catch her breath, she felt the tears stinging her eyes once again. Wiping at them absently, she resolved herself not to let him get to her, not to even entertain the notion of what it would be like to have to face Jack in combat, and taking her phone out of her pocket and sitting it on the coffee table, she went to take a shower.

  Despite her hopes that the shower would wash away her worries, it did little to nothing to make her feel better. Her IAC off, cut-off from everyone, she took a few minutes to reflect on everything Aaron had said to her. She knew him to be both intelligent and fair. She had no idea what his reasoning in asking her to take out Jack could possibly be. It wouldn't be because he was jealous of Jack, that was certain. Nor could it be a bizarre form of punishment for her. The idea of simply asking him to explain himself entered her mind, but that would mean carrying on another conversati
on with him, and she just didn't think she was ready for that. Meanwhile, people would continue to die.

  Cadence turned the water off and grabbed a towel. She squeezed the excess water out of her hair, wrapped a towel around it, grabbed another towel, and finished drying off. She had no idea what time it was and didn't want to turn her IAC on, but she begin to think that taking a nap might be a good idea. She wrapped the second towel around herself and took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. As she exited the bathroom, she decided to go grab her phone off of the coffee table before heading to her bedroom. Considering that she was alone in her own apartment, she was not truly paying attention to anything other than the thoughts in her head as she entered the living room. "Holy shit!" she yelled jumping backwards, startled beyond words. "What the hell are you doing in my living room?"

  "Your IAC was off," Aaron replied from where he sat in the corner in the dimly lit room.

  Grasping the towel around her even more tightly she said, "We talked about this before..."

  "I sent you a text," he replied, nodding at the phone on the coffee table.

  Shaking her head, she picked it up and saw that he had, in fact, sent her a text that he was coming in. "A lot of good that did me!" she replied, contemplating throwing the phone at him. "How did you even get in here?" she asked glancing at the door that still appeared to be locked.

  "Does it matter?" he asked, his tone as calm as ever.

  He had one foot resting on the opposite knee, his hands bridged in front of his face. Cadence could tell by his demeanor that she wasn't going to be able to simply toss him out this time. "What do you want?" she asked, a degree of tranquility beginning to return to her voice.

  "Why don't you go get dressed, and I'll explain," he said, peering at her over his hands.

  Cadence sighed deeply before turning to make her way to the bedroom. She hastily pulled on a suitable outfit and ran a brush through her hair, all the while cursing his name, despite the fact that she was subconsciously elated to have him in her apartment again.

  Returning to the living room, she plopped down on the couch, as far away from him as she could possibly be, her air of disgust returning and showing itself at the highest degree possible. "Are you going to explain to me why I must be the one to kill Jack?" she asked, resting her head against her hand, her wet hair cascading down her back.

  There was a lengthy pause while Aaron took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. Cadence watched in silence as he shifted in the chair, leaning forward, resting both elbows on his knees, and staring at the floor. When he began to speak, it was in an accent she had never heard before, an Irish brogue, and she thought for a few moments that he had suddenly become someone else.

  "I was born in a little village near the town of Killarney, Ireland in 1829," he began. Cadence inhaled deeply, causing him to pause only momentarily before continuing. "We were farmers, all of us, well, all of us that were still alive. You see, long before there was a potato famine in Ireland, there was a holocaust of another sort. You may recall that I mentioned to you before that I had once lived in a situation where Vampires ruled, and the rest of us did what we could to survive. Do you remember that conversation?" He looked up at her momentarily and Cadence nodded, the look of bewilderment still on her face. Dropping his eyes, he continued. "At the time, we survived day to day, just trying to keep from becoming a victim. I was one of the lucky ones. The Vampires had an agreement of sorts with those of us who came from Hunter and Guardian families. As long as we agreed not to Transform, they would leave our families alone. And so my parents and my grandparents before them managed to keep our family intact, all on the promise that we wouldn't use our God given talents to defeat or threaten the ruling class of Vampires.

  "Ever since I was a small lad, I had been fascinated with a beautiful young girl who lived in my village. She had fiery, curly red hair that hung down her back like a horse's main, sparkling green eyes, and a smile that could make you forget all of your sorrows. When I was seventeen, I finally got up the courage to ask Aislyn for her hand in marriage. She was only fifteen, but she had no means of protection. She was human and could be taken at any time. I thought that, if I married her, she would be safe. I knew from the first moment I laid eyes on her that I wanted to spend my whole life with her. Back then, there was no thought of ever having anything. I envisioned my life as a potato farmer, tilling the land day in and day out, while Aislyn took care of our brood of children. I'd die at the ripe old age of forty-something, content that I'd spent my better years with a beautiful wife, having provided the best life possible for my children.

  "Obviously, you know she said, yes and we were happily married for just over a year before life threw a fatal curve in the road. By then, the British government had seen the Vampires were no longer content to stay in their corner of Ireland. They were spreading out, some even claiming victims in mainland England and Wales. The British government made the ridiculous decision that they could somehow wipe out the Vampire population by getting rid of their feeding source. Thus, the Irish Potato Famine. Kill off the Irish, kill of the Vampires--or at least that was the ridiculous political idea at the time."

  Cadence's eyes widened as she listened to a first hand opinion about the cause of the Irish Potato Famine. She had always had a keen interest in history, and now, listening to him describe it as an eye-witness was fascinating beyond description.

  "One day, in 1846, my best friend Kian O'Braonain and I were returning from a trip to a neighboring village. In an attempt to find some food to take home to our wives, we came across a ghastly scene. A pair of Vampires had captured three little girls and were about to feed on them. The girls were screaming, clearly terrified at the sight of the monstrous beasts before them. Well, Kian and I couldn't simply stand by and watch, so we did our best to fight off the bloodsuckers. Just the act of rushing the Vampires was enough to make each of us begin the Transformation process. Unlike me, however, he was of Hunter stock. While we were not able to kill either of the Vampires, we did rescue the girls and took them safely home."

  Cadence took a deep sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God," she whispered.

  "They were killed the next day in retaliation," he added, and Cadence's face fell. "Well, I say killed. They were actually claimed by the Vampires. They appeared a few days later in their own village, Resurrected, thirsty, and unyielding in their quest for blood. So, by saving them, we actually damned them. "

  Cadence slowly nodded her head. How could he possibly be angry at himself for attempting to save three little girls from the clutches of pure evil? Anyone with a conscience would have done the same.

  "As you know, once the Transformation process had been set in motion, there is nothing one can do to stop it. Over the course of the next few months, Kian and I underwent the excruciating act of following our inner path to immortality, if you will. At first, we went on about our daily routine, ignoring the pain and struggling to maintain normalcy. We said nothing to our wives, though I suspected Aislyn knew. His wife, Shannon, seemed slightly more ignorant of the situation. And all the while, we kept one eye peeled for the Vampires that had gotten away. Though they would not be able to cause me any harm, they could certainly annihilate Kian if they caught him off guard and unarmed. It was enough trouble trying to farm diseased land and take care of our small families without living in fear of Vampires, but now we had a taste of how the rest of the villagers lived each day of their lives.

  "It wasn't until I was almost completely Transformed that Kian approached me one morning with fear in his voice. His wife was acting strange. He couldn't quite explain it. She seemed ill. At first, he had thought, perhaps, she was pregnant. But then he feared she'd come down with some disease, possibly some illness caused by eating the rotten potatoes. I watched Shannon deteriorate, secretly thankful that Aislyn seemed to be herself. Then, one day I found my own wife doubled-over in the garden. Terrified that she had also taken ill, I begged her to go to bed at once while I fetched
the medicine woman from the village. She laughed at me. She wasn't sick, she explained..."

  "She was pregnant?" Cadence asked, her eyes wide, her hands covering her mouth even as the words spilled out.

  Aaron nodded, the far away look clouding his eyes even more so. It took him a moment and a few deep breaths before he continued. "But Shannon wasn't pregnant. In fact, it soon became quite evident exactly what was ailing Shannon. One night, Kian caught her sneaking back in at around 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, wiping a red liquid from her mouth. He knew then what had to be done."

  Another audible gasp escaped Cadence's lips as she shifted on the sofa.

  "Except, he couldn't do it himself. How could he? He begged me to do it for him, knowing that, as long as he continued to let Shannon feed off of the villagers, our friends and neighbors, he could never truly call himself a Vampire Hunter. Of course, I declined. I'd never destroyed anything, never taken a life. How could I kill my best friend's wife? After days of endless pleading, I finally gave in. He procured a silver-tipped wooden stake from somewhere; I never asked where it came from, and one evening as she slept, I snuck into their bedroom and shoved the stake into her heart. She let out a gut-wrenching scream, the first Vampire yell I'd ever heard, and then faded away to a pile of ashes. I turned to face Kian who was standing at the door, and with tears in his eyes, he told me to get out. I was confused at first, but it didn't take me long to understand. Taking the stake, I left, knowing we would never speak again."

  "Oh my gosh," Cadence whispered. "He never forgave you for killing his wife? Even though he'd asked you to?"

  Aaron simply nodded, and from his silence, Cadence could tell there was more to the story. After another long pause, he continued. "It was another week or so before I began to realize that Aislyn was acting peculiar..."

  "No!" Cadence gasped.