by ID Johnson
I wouldn’t have been shocked if Cadence made me wait an hour or two. Trying to calm my anxiety over what she might have to say and head off my agitation, I picked up my laptop and scanned the news sites, something I’d been doing basically every day since Elliott had mentioned this to me around the time of the killings in Cabo. The headlines jumped out at me. Two plane crashes near Dallas, a school nearby having some sort of vague intruder scare, a truck wreck leaving a man dead. Apparently, my sister had been in Texas.
My phone rang, startling me. I set my laptop aside and answered it. “Hello?”
“Well, hello there, dear sister. You sound irritated.”
“I tried to call you, and you didn’t answer.” I did my best to keep my tone even.
“You said five minutes. That was like… three.”
Groaning in frustration, I said, “What happened in Dallas?”
“Boy, you really are on top of things, aren’t you?”
“Cadence?”
“Fine. We got Sam.”
I was quiet for a long moment, processing that. “How?”
“Long story…”
“How?” I demanded. No one else on the team would’ve tried to skirt answering that question the way my sister did. I thought about saying, “Okay, thanks,” hanging up, and calling Jamie.
“Calm down. Jeez,” Cadence said. “Someone in a little town outside of Dallas used a cell phone we knew had been in Sam’s possession. We did some research and found out he’s been working as a custodian at an elementary school under an assumed name for a while, living in an abandoned house. When we got there, he was fleeing. He’d gotten some help from a friend in the area.”
“A Hunter?” I asked, wondering where the betrayal would end.
“Yes. So… we parachuted out of the plane after him, and then gave chase on motorcycles we’d had the Dallas team bring to us. Aaron stayed in the plane and directed us. But Sam knows how to fly, too. He stole an old airplane from some farmers and took off. Aaron ended up causing him to crash into some sort of wind turbine thing, but Aaron crashed, too.”
“Is he okay?” I asked, thinking she would’ve led with that if he was hurt.
“He’s fine. Not a scratch. But Sam’s not so lucky. He’s pretty beat up. He’s got his own cell down near Laura now, and we’re just letting him simmer for a while until we can figure out what to do with him. But he is seriously in a lot of pain. He was begging for us to kill him.”
I had to think about that for a minute. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because that’s what he wanted. To be put out of his misery.”
“And that’s what we all want, too, isn’t it? For him to be dead?”
“Not if he can suffer for a little while.”
I thought about that and realized I had no idea my sister had this side to her. “Do you think that’s what Elliott would’ve wanted?”
“Yes, I do,” she replied quickly.
I disagreed. I don’t think Elliott would want anyone to suffer like that, but I knew it wouldn’t do me any good to say so. “Well, I guess it’s good that you have him.”
“Yeah, it’s great,” she said. “Why are you not thrilled?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe I just need some time to process this. Besides, Giovani is still out there. He’s the one that started the whole thing with Jack and Laura. He needs to pay, too.”
“Right. We’re concentrating everything on looking for him right now.”
“Me, too,” I reminded her, not sure if her “we” was inclusive of me or not.
“I know. You’re doing a great job. Oh, and by the way, just so you know, I hear Elijah Wood lives in England now, so in case any of his friends come to visit him, you can go ahead and vet that footage.”
“God, you’re a jerk, Cadence!” I practically growled at her.
“Cass! I’m just joking around.” She sounded genuinely startled by my tone.
“Yeah, I know, but it’s getting a little old. I really want to be a part of this, Cadence, and you just keep putting me off. You said I could come and visit soon, and then you didn’t come and get me, and now school is back in session….” My frustration took the form of verbal diarrhea.
“I know, Cass. I’m sorry. I’ll make it happen soon. I promise. Just keep looking for Giovani. We are pretty sure he’s in Europe now, and there’s a good chance it’s Eastern Europe.”
I didn’t believe her when she said it might happen soon, and I already knew where to look, thanks to a conversation I’d had with Aurora, not her. I let out another huff, assuming she was going to tell me in a second that she had to go. Another thought popped into my head. “Have you been seeing these headlines from Philly? This Jogging Path Killer guy?” In the back of my mind, ever since I’d heard about this guy, I wondered if he could be a Vampire. There was just something about him.
“Cass, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.”
I doubted she’d even heard my question. “Okay,” I muttered. “Have fun killing Vampires.” While I sit here and stare at my computer wishing I was the one doing the killing.
“You, too,” she said, and I knew for a fact she was distracted now. She must not have even been listening to me at all. “Love you.”
She hung up before I could respond. Frustrated, I tossed the phone aside. She had no idea how important this was to me or how lucky I thought she was to be older and have already Transformed. It just wasn’t fair, and I found it quite annoying.
Half of me wished Elliott was here so that he could brainwash my obsession with watching the footage out of my mind, but I knew even if he was available to do that, I wouldn’t let him. As much as I felt like it was slowly killing me, I was also compelled to keep looking. At least now, I could concentrate on Giovani and Zabrina. I hoped they would be together when we finally found them because I had a good feeling I’d spot them if they were right next to each other. And it wouldn’t be any celebrity sighting the next time I made the call to my sister.
Chapter 8
“Look, Cass, you’re killing yourself with this,” Lucy said over lunch in the cafeteria the next morning. “Why don’t we all just agree not to do anymore searches unless we are together. That way, we can keep an eye on our mental health?”
“But when can we even get together?” I replied, not very interested in the overcooked burrito on my tray. How can you ruin a burrito? “With school and cheerleading, my stupid piano lessons, and football games….”
“Well, we play at home on Friday, and Emma is going this week. Why don’t we all come over to your house after the game, and we can work for a few hours then?”
I thought about it. That made sense. We all liked to stay up late on Friday nights anyway, and Lucy would be particularly wired after the football game as she always was. “I guess that will work,” I muttered.
“Great. Until then, no more footage. No more news. Nothing. I want you to think about something else. If your sister has the guy who killed Elliott in custody, then trust her and the rest of the team to take care of it appropriately. Finding Giovani is important, but he’s not the one who pulled the trigger.”
“He shot my sister.”
“The way you sound when you talk about Cadence lately, I’m thinking you might do that next,” Emma said, before taking a sip of her water.
“Thanks,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at her. She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t want to kill her. I’m just… jealous.
“We know,” Lucy said, her voice slightly sympathetic. “We wish we could be out there, too, Cass. It would be a heck of a lot more exciting of a life than what we’ve got going on here.” She looked around the cafeteria at all of the students who seemed like a bunch of immature children to me. “But Elliott said seventeen.”
“And we don’t even know if we are part of this yet,” Emma reminded me.
“I know. But I’ve gotten the impression you are.”
“Even if we can’t Transform, you said humans work there, t
oo, right? At headquarters?” Lucy asked.
I nodded. “They don’t get to do any of the fun stuff, though, like hunting down Vampires.”
“I think I’m better suited to an office job anyway,” Emma said, pushing her glasses up.
“Not me,” Lucy replied, shaking her head. “I want a piece of the action, too. And we’ll get there. We just have to be patient.”
“I wish I could be,” I sighed, pushing my tray away.
“It starts with moderation and paying attention to other things,” my sage of a friend reminded me. “You’ve just got to find something to take your mind off of it. Take up cross stitch. Or biking.”
“Or read a book,” Emma suggested.
“Great. How about Twilight?” She rolled her eyes at me. “A Shade of Vampire?”
“Cass?” Lucy was using her stern mother voice.
“Okay,” I repeated. “I will try.”
“No research until Friday night.” Her blue eyes looked serious.
“Fine.”
Not picking up my laptop to watch footage of Giovani was hard for the next couple of days, but I somehow managed to keep away from it and from the headlines. When my dad turned on the evening news after diner, I found a way to move myself to another room. I decided reading a book was a good idea, so I tried to lose myself in a space fantasy series I’d been wanting to read but then ended up picking up a vampire romance instead. It was compromise, and I was actually beginning to feel a little more like myself. For once, I actually wanted to practice the piano instead of rushing through my lessons and heading upstairs to stalk the interwebs.
But the entire time I was cheering Friday evening, my mind was heavy. I knew I’d be searching the cameras for Giovani’s face soon enough, and like a dieter craving sugar, I could hardly stand to wait until the game was over. While I still enjoyed cheerleading, I realized if I got my wish and moved to Kansas City early, I’d have to give it up anyway, so there really was no point in putting my whole heart into it anymore, and like most things, it turned out to be easily replaceable as I started to focus on the search.
Lucy drove the three of us to my house, and we both hurried and showered so we didn’t smell like sweaty cheerleading uniforms anymore. I used Cadence’s shower so we could get done even faster, and when we all assembled on my bed, laptops at the ready, my hands started shaking a little bit. It should’ve been a signal that I seriously needed some help, but I ignored it and got to work.
We’d been watching footage for a couple of hours straight, and the clock on my nightstand showed it was past 11:00. I sighed and stretched my back.
Lucy must’ve been feeling it, too. “My eyes are seriously starting to burn,” she complained, rubbing both eyes with her fists. “I don’t know how much longer I can stare at this grainy footage.”
I agreed. Even after only two hours, it was getting rough. “Take a break.” I tossed a pillow at her head, tired of hearing her whine. “We aren’t going to be any use to anyone blind.”
“I’ve been taking a break for the last fifteen minutes,” Emma admitted, “and I still can’t see straight.”
Lucy threw the pillow back across the room, just missing Emma as she dodged out of the way. “Maybe that’s why you thought that dude looked like a lady,” I teased, remembering when Emma had pointed at a person with long, dark hair, similar to Zabrina’s. When he’d turned around and had a full beard, we’d gotten our only laugh of the evening.
“I didn’t have my glasses on, remember?” Emma said, narrowing her eyes at me.
“Look, the guy’s not stupid, right?” Lucy rationalized, spinning to face me, her long blonde ponytail whipping around as she did so. “We’ve already checked all of the major airports, all of the major airlines. Maybe he took a private plane. Wouldn’t that make more sense?”
“Sure it would, but most people who fly in private planes don’t ever come inside the airport. They wouldn’t be on the security cameras,” I shrugged at her. The thought had occurred to me before over the last few months I’d been poring through this footage. How would I even check for that sort of thing?
“Maybe not those security cameras,” Emma agreed, “but the tarmac is still under surveillance. Didn’t Christian give us that footage, too?”
I thought about the program Christian had installed on my laptop. I didn’t remember him mentioning anything about checking those cameras, only the ones inside the airport itself. But what she said made sense. “I guess so.” I pulled up the original files on my MacBook. After a few minutes of searching, I found an entire set of files labeled “Exterior Cameras.” I unzipped the file, and then opened the first folder which contained a link that opened up a new window in my browser. It took me a moment to figure out what I was looking at. “This one is from London Heathrow,” I explained and my friends moved in closer where they could see. Sure enough, we had a clear view of the tarmac and could even see a small plane deboarding in the background.
“Let’s take a look at those files,” Lucy suggested. “And let’s not start with the big airports; that seems too obvious.”
“Okay. What do you suggest?” Cassidy asked as I shared the files with my friends. Since Emma had installed the program on their laptops, they would be able to access the same footage I was once they unzipped them.
“We could just go through in alphabetical order and skip any airport in a major city,” Emma suggested.
“Sounds good. Should we start in Austria, then, since Cadence thinks he’s in Europe?”
“Yep,” Lucy agreed. “I’ll take Vienna.”
“I’ll take Salzburg,” I said.
“I’ll try Linz,” Emma replied thoughtfully. “It’s pretty close to the Czech Republic, too. Kill two birds with one stone.”
“Or two Vampire bats,” I muttered under my breath. With a deep breath, I said, “Good luck, ladies!” and jumped back into it, invigorated by having a new path to explore.
It seemed as if we had been searching forever with not even a glimpse of a couple who fit the description of Giovani and Zabrina, when suddenly Emma sat up straight. “You guys,” she said, frantically hitting Lucy’s leg beside her, “what did Cadence say the first letters of a plane out of Brazil would be?”
“She said to keep an eye out for anything that started with PP,” I reminded her, wondering if she was actually on to something. A quick glance at the clock told me it had only been about an hour.
Emma was nodding slowly. “Take a look at this…” she said pivoting her laptop around so Lucy and I could see it.
“What am I looking at?” Lucy asked, shaking her head and rubbing her eyes yet again.
Pointing to the far back corner of the screen, Emma said, “It’s hard to see, but there’s a small plane back here, and you can clearly see the PP, though I can’t tell what the rest of it says.”
“Okay…” I said slowly. “And?” not sure what she was getting at just yet.
“And then watch this,” Emma continued. The footage continued to play, and a few seconds later, a couple stepped out of the back of the plane. For a split second, the man turned so that his face could be picked up by the camera before a baggage handler blocked the view.
“Shut up!” Lucy screamed, covering her mouth. “I have goosebumps! Look at my arm! Look at it!”
“I think that’s him,” Emma said, much more calmly, rewinding the footage so she could look at it again. “What do you think, Cass?”
I watched the footage again, my mouth agape, unable to speak. After all of these months of searching, it turns out I was just looking in the wrong place. Finally, shaking my head to clear my thoughts I said, “I think… I’d better call my sister.”
Chapter 9
I was glad calling my sister didn’t actually require any dialing because I imagined I’d be like one of those nervous women in one of those old films, trying to get her shaking finger to make the rotary dial go all the way around in a circle. Instead, I only had to press a few buttons to get my si
ster on the phone. For some reason, I decided to FaceTime her. Probably not the best idea since Lucy and Emma were there, and I didn’t know if Cadence was aware they’d been helping me. I had a feeling Aaron knew—he seemed to know a lot of things he shouldn’t be aware of—but at the time, I didn’t care. I just needed my sister to see the sincerity in my expression when I told her the big news. We’d actually found Giovani.
“Cassidy? What’s up?”
Cadence looked relieved to see I was calling for some reason. Though her greeting was nonchalant, I could tell by her tone something was going on. I tried to figure out where she was by what was behind her, but it looked like a restaurant I’d never been to before. “Cadence you are never going to believe what I found!” I blurted, remembering why I’d called in the first place.
“We--we found him,” Lucy chimed in, sticking her head in front of the screen.
Two seconds before I dialed, I’d reminded them to stay out of the shot “Luce! I told you not to let her know you were here!” I shoved her out of the way, maybe a little harder than I meant to. I didn’t even get to tell my sister the good news. Granted, Emma had been the one to find him, but after months of searching… I wanted the chance.
I was more than a little surprised to see Cadence sigh and roll her eyes. That was not the reaction I was expecting.
“Relax, Cass. Jeez!” Lucy said rubbing her arm. “I didn’t tell her anything else!” she whispered sharply, and I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes at her.
“What is it, Cass?” Cadence asked, almost like we were interrupting something important, or she didn’t know what we were even talking about.
“It’s footage of Giovani getting off a small private plane in Austria!” I explained. “And his girlfriend is with him. And don’t worry--my friends have no idea why we were looking for him. They just wanted to help.” I hoped my fast thinking didn’t sound too obviously like a lie, although it probably did. But then, at this point, I guess I didn’t really care anymore.
Rather than responding to me, Cadence said “Hey, Emma. How are you?”