by ID Johnson
“It just seems out of the ordinary to me.” Since she was talking to Eliza, I didn’t mind her snide attitude for once.
“It is,” Aaron agreed. “This whole situation is unlike anything we have encountered for a really long time, although it is not unprecedented. We had a similar situation in the 1880s in London, some of you will recall. So, in an effort to keep history from repeating itself, let’s try to stop Gibbon before we have another Ripper on our hands.” This was the second time he’d mentioned Jack the Ripper, and I really wanted to know that story, but obviously now was not the time to ask.
“So, what is our next move?” Jamie asked, looking at Aaron intently.
“We need to get to Philadelphia as quickly as we can, see if we can figure out where Giovani is hiding, and make a move on him before Gibbon has completely pledged his loyalty. If we can get between them, we may have a chance at spoiling Giovani’s plan,” Aaron replied, leaning back in his chair, his fists clenched. That sounded like a very good plan to me, and I remembered how long it had taken Jack to turn. Maybe we could get to Gibbon before he became a Vampire. Then I remembered there would be no we. I wasn’t going anywhere….
Cadence seemed to pick up where Aaron left off. “But finding him isn’t going to be easy, unless and until he wants to be found. Andrew, it seems like that back door, the one that Giovani entered the hospital through, was intentionally left unlocked. When you interviewed the patients and staff members last night, did it seem like any of them may have been Vampires?”
“Not that I could tell,” Andrew said, shaking his head.
“Wouldn’t you be able to figure that easily?” This time, Morgan actually rolled her eyes.
Andrew’s tone became a little defensive. I couldn’t blame him. This Morgan was a bit of a firecracker. “Well, we didn’t interview everyone. We just talked to a few of the patients and staff members. We mostly just tried to stay out of the police officers’ way.”
“Seriously?” Morgan asked.
My sister cut her off. “Andrew, I want you to get a list of everyone who was working last night. Make contact with any of the staff members who may have had access to that back door. If we can establish it was an inside job, that may give us a lead as to where Giovani is hiding.” I wondered if anyone was actually going to address Morgan’s tone but decided it wasn’t my business.
“We can do that,” Andrew nodded.
“We will be loading up to head that direction in just few minutes,” Aaron told him, “so once we get there, we’ll meet with your team and determine what our next step is.” That news made my stomach sink. Once again “we” did not include me. They were going on this great adventure, and I’d be spending the rest of the weekend in my sister’s apartment.
Cadence continued, “If you hear anything else, get any more leads, contact us immediately, all right, Andrew?”
“I definitely will,” he agreed. He looked relieved to not be in charge of this anymore, and I bet he was truly happy Aaron and Cadence were on their way to head it up.
“Morgan, Cale, get to Philly as soon as you can. Bring whichever team members you need and that you know you can completely trust. Cale, we’ll need your choppers as well,” Aaron instructed.
“They are fully armed and ready to go,” Cale assured him. “See you all shortly!”
“See you in a few hours!” Morgan said, waving as she and Cale disconnected their feeds. I was sort of sad to see Cale fade away but glad to see Morgan go. I felt like I could pull air fully into my lungs again, at least for a few moments, until I remembered I was uninvited.
“Andrew, I know this has been stressful, but we appreciate your efforts,” Aaron assured the other Guardian. Aaron certainly has a way of letting someone know they’ve made a mistake or two without telling them they are a total screw up. I admire that about him. It seemed to me that Andrew should’ve gotten Giovani and Gibbon last night, and everyone knew it, including him.
Andrew looked happy to still have a job. “I really appreciate that. We’ll do everything we can to support you while you’re here.” I supposed that was his way of handing off the torch.
“We know you will,” Aaron said as Andrew faded away.
The room was quiet for a moment before Aurora broke it with the statement, “Well, they sure did botch that whole thing from start to finish.” I assumed that meant the only people in on this conversation now were the people I could see, but I wondered if Christian was still listening since he belonged here.
“It didn’t go well,” Aaron agreed, “but, in fairness, they really weren’t prepared for something like this. And I have to take responsibility for that.”
“Well, that’s very noble of you,” Jamie said quietly. I agreed with Jamie’s sentiment—that this wasn’t Aaron’s fault in any way, shape, or form. “So…shall we load up?”
“I think so,” Aaron said, “unless any of you have questions.”
I was honestly shocked that no one seemed to have any questions. I had a million. What would they do when they got to Philly? How would they find Giovani and Gibbon? Once they found him, what would they do about him? But not a single one of them had any questions at all.
“Very well then. It’s 8:32. The plane is ready to go, so let’s plan on departing at 9:00. Does that give everyone enough time?” Aaron still seemed tired, and he sighed really loudly as he finished his question. Perhaps he realized this would not be an easy job.
“You got it, boss.” Shane stood, pushed in his chair, and banged the table with his fist. He had a huge smile on his face. I wondered why he was so happy, but had no one to ask, so I just stared at him.
Meagan, Aurora, and Hannah all stood, too. “It was nice to see you guys,” Meagan said, patting Brandon on the shoulder and smiling at me.
“Yeah, take care,” Aurora agreed.
“Be careful,” Hannah said as she backed toward the door. “Hope to see you soon.”
Once they were gone, that just left my sister, her fiancé, and the doctor who looked at Brandon and asked, “You still feeling okay?”
“I feel like a million bucks.” A quick glance in his direction told me he was as bewildered as I was, but he was good at pretending otherwise. I could see what my sister meant when she said he was a good liar.
“Good. I won’t be here to check in on you, so I want to make sure you’re all set before I go. If you do need something, though, just come up here and let Mrs. Carminati know, and she can find someone who can help you,” the doctor explained.
“Sounds like a plan,” Brandon nodded.
I folded my arms and took a few deep breaths. The fact that they were all getting on a plane to go to Philly to end all of this set a fire burning inside of me. How I longed to be going with them.
Quietly, my sister said, “Cass, don’t even bother to ask, please,” and I realized just how transparent I am, unlike Brandon.
“Okay.” My voice broke over the word. I knew there was no way in God’s green Earth my sister was letting me get on that airplane. I would have to come up with something else.
“Brandon, would you mind driving Cassidy back to Shenandoah? You can take the Enclave,” Cadence asked over top of my head.
“No, I don’t mind at all.” Brandon sounded surprised that she’d even asked him, but I was even more shocked.
“I have to go home?” I asked, staring at my sister like that was even more ridiculous than undead military Vampires.
“Well, you can’t really stay here until I get back,” Cadence explained. “I have no idea when that will be.”
There were tears threatening to spill down my cheeks, and I refused to cry in front of this group of grownups. “Fine,” I managed, feeling less than a person at this point, like my contributions hadn’t even mattered, and neither did I.
“Just be careful,” Cadence warned. I think she was talking to Brandon more than me at this point. “There are plenty of Hunters and Guardians in Shenandoah to keep you safe, but who knows what might
happen to you if you stop along the way.”
“Brandon can take care of me. He’s a Guardian now, you know?” I narrowed my eyes at her, wondering why she even cared if anything happened to me.
“I know,” Cadence agreed. “But he hasn’t been trained. So just be precautious, all right? Both of you are very important to me, so be careful, and don’t do anything risky.” I said nothing. She could claim I was important to her until she was blue in the face, but actions spoke louder than words, and it was clear to me at this point that she didn’t want me to be a part of any of this for a reason. I shook my head, feeling like a baby and not wanting to look like one.
Aaron was stacking his papers up carefully and putting them into an accordion file. “I’ll have them bring the Enclave around and leave it in front of your building, Brandon.”
Brandon nodded, and Cadence continued with her motherly instructions. “All right. We’ll go straight from here to the airport, so you guys are okay to head back to the apartments for a while? You don’t have to leave right now, if you don’t want to, but make sure you’re back here before dark, Brandon, and try to go the speed limit, which will be hard. You’ll want to go a lot faster,” Cadence explained as she stood to go out the door.
“Yes, ma’am,” Brandon agreed. Standing, he gave her a hug, and said, “I’ll keep her safe.”
“I know you will. I trust you,” Cadence said as she hugged him back.
I stood and turned to face my sister. I tried to remember that what she was about to do was very dangerous, and I loved her and didn’t want her to become Vampire food. “Be careful. I’ll see you soon.”
“You be careful, too,” Cadence said, looking pointedly into my eyes. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly as if she were trying to apologize for being the bossiest person I’ve ever met. “I don’t know what I’d do if anything ever happened to you.”
I almost laughed. “Don’t worry about me. Nothing remotely exciting ever happens to me.” I let her go, and my sister raised an eyebrow. It was true, though. Exciting things might happen to the people around me, but not to me. I was beginning to formulate a plan, however, and with any luck, that was about to change.
Chapter 15
Brandon walked me back over to Cadence’s apartment in silence. I wanted to go over everything we’d heard with him, but my mind was preoccupied with something else, and I could see he didn’t really want to talk either. We walked in and sat down on the sofa fairly far apart from each other, and I glanced at the time. The plane wouldn’t be leaving for another twenty minutes. I contemplated calling Lucy but decided against it. I needed to be off the grid entirely for this to work, and that meant none of my friends could know where I was.
“Well, that Andrew sure is a screw up,” Brandon finally said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “And Morgan is… not shy.”
He chuckled. “That’s a nice way of putting it. You think your sister has any food?”
I realized I hadn’t eaten anything either, but I wasn’t hungry. “Help yourself,” I replied nodding at the kitchen. He didn’t wait to be told twice and disappeared behind the sofa into the attached kitchen. I heard the refrigerator door open and the clanking of dishes and thought he was his father’s son. “You want anything?” he shouted.
“No thanks.”
“Cereal, banana, apple, ooh, strawberry Pop-Tarts.”
“No thank you,” I repeated.
“I make a mean toast with butter.”
“Is it toast if it doesn’t have butter?” I asked.
“Sure. It’s called dry toast then.”
“I’m good.”
He was gone for a few minutes, and I checked the time again. Fifteen more minutes until the plane took off. Brandon came back with a bottle of water, a bowl of cereal, a banana, and the aforementioned Pop-Tarts. He grabbed the remote and clicked the TV on as I shook my head at him and decided it was time to move along on my plan. I went into the kitchen and opened the freezer door. It only took me a second to find what I was looking for. I pulled out my phone and took a deep breath. If I got caught, my sister and my parents would kill me. Thank goodness I knew a good doctor.
“Whatcha doin’?” Brandon shouted. I turned to see him peering over the counter from his seat in the chair, loaded spoon approaching his mouth.
“Nothing,” I assured him. I took a drink from the bottle of water so as to hide my deceit and went back into the living room. Ten more minutes until that plane took off. Surely, she wouldn’t notice what I had just done in the meantime.
As I sat back down on the couch, I noticed Brandon was watching a report about Gibbon’s abduction, and even though I knew Andrew’s team had screwed up on every other front, it seemed like whoever he used to run interference, which is what I’d learned they call lying to everyone about the existence of Vampires, seemed to have done a good job. There was no mention of anything supernatural as the reporters talked about the break in at the hospital. The news that some people had died and that a nurse and detective were missing was heartbreaking. I wondered what Giovani had in store for those poor people and prayed he wasn’t planning on turning them, too. Since Jack’s Resurrection, I’d been thinking a lot about what it must feel like to realize you’ve become a Vampire, and I honestly think it would be worse than dying.
Brandon must’ve been thinking about the same thing. “So… you sister’s ex-boyfriend was turned into a Vampire? And she had to kill him?”
“Uh, yeah. She didn’t mean to kill him. She was trying to shoot Giovani, and Jack got in the way.”
“That’s crazy,” Brandon said, finishing up his cereal. “She must feel really bad about that, whether she thinks it was him or not.”
I nodded. I realized I shouldn’t have asked her that question when I had, but I had acted impulsively. That was something I needed to fix.
“I wonder what that’s like,” Brandon continued, “to find out you’re a Vampire. Is it slow? Do you just realize it one day, or do you just all of a sudden recognize you need to drink blood?”
“I have no idea.” I didn’t want to know. I ran my tongue over my teeth. What if I just suddenly had fangs? I shook my head. “You don’t need to worry about it anymore.”
“True,” he said, finishing his Pop-Tarts. All of the food was gone now. He leaned back in his chair and rested his hand on his stomach. I looked at him and shook my head once more. “What? I’m a growing boy. A growing man.”
“You’re… something,” I agreed.
He winked at me, which reminded me of his dad, gathered up his trash, and headed around the corner. The sound of running water made me think he was actually washing his dirty dishes, which scored him a few more points. At least he wasn’t a slob.
It was 9:00. The plane should be leaving. I would give it a few more minutes.
Brandon came back, sat in the chair, and asked, “What would you like to do?”
I couldn’t answer that question, so I only shrugged at him.
“We could go back to the gym. Or watch a movie. Or go see if Jamie’s office is unlocked and mess with his stuff.”
“Why would we want to do that?” I asked.
“Why not?”
I shook my head at him. “Yep, growing man, all right.” It was 9:05. I couldn’t wait much longer. I had an appointment. I would give it five more minutes.
“Jamie’s cool,” he said. “He seems like he’d be fun to mess with, though.”
“He got us into that meeting. He made you what you are today,” I reminded him. I didn’t think he was being malicious, just looking for some fun. “Maybe you could sneak into Aaron’s office and rearrange his pens.”
“No way,” he said quickly. “Something tells me you don’t mess with Aaron’s pens. Or anything else of his.”
I giggled. Brandon was a fun kid. It was too bad I couldn’t trust him. I half-smiled at him and decided the time had come. “I’ll be back,” I said and got up, headed for the guest room.
&
nbsp; I hadn’t brought much stuff, so it shouldn’t take me long to pack. I pulled out my phone and requested an Uber, wondering if it would even be able to get in through that gate. I thought about dropping the pin outside of the gate, but then, it would take so long to walk out there. I decided to see what would happen. Then, I went about packing.
Brandon came into the room just as I was throwing in the last of my stuff. “What are you doing?” he asked. “We don’t have to leave right now, and we certainly don’t have to be in such a hurry.”
“You may not have to, but I do.” I realized there was no way I could get out of there without telling him something. He was staring at me like I was nuts as I zipped up my bag.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, his hands on his hips. “I’m your ride.”
“No, you’re not.” I took a deep breath. “I’m not going back to Shenandoah, not now.”
“Whoa—what are you talking about?” He grabbed my hand and pulled it away from my bag. I didn’t overlook the fact that this was the first time he’d touched my hand, even though I was irritated that he was trying to stop me. I shouldn’t have said anything. “Cassidy, what’s going on?”
I looked into his eyes, and for some reason, I felt like I could trust him. I had no idea why. I dropped onto the bed with a sigh and inspected him closely before I said, “You have to promise me you won’t say anything to anyone—at all. Or else I won’t tell you.”
He dropped down on the bed next to me, right next to me, his forehead creased in concern. “Okay….”
“Promise, Brandon.” I made my voice as stern as possible. Cadence stern. Liz Findley on a bad day stern.
“I promise,” he said. “Now, what are you doing?”
I couldn’t look at him while I said it. I did believe he wouldn’t tell on me, though I don’t know why. “I’m going to the train station,” I explained. I looked back at him for a second and said, “I’m going to Philadelphia.”
“What? Are you crazy?” Brandon jumped up off the bed. “You can’t do that.”