by ID Johnson
“Huh?” She was looking at me like she didn’t know what I was talking about. “Oh, no one. I mean… it didn’t say. Secret admirer.”
Something about her tone let me know that wasn’t true. “Really?” I asked. “Someone went to that kinda expense and didn’t write his name?”
“Or her name,” Lucy corrected me, hoisting up the vase. “Yep, didn’t say.”
I started to walk away, following Lucy, when Ms. Penny said, “Oh, hold on Cassidy!” She winked at me and picked up the phone the office staff uses to make announcements. She apologized for interrupting for, like, the hundredth time that day, and then rattled off a bunch more student names, including mine. It was nice of her to go ahead and call my name for a third time when I was standing right there so that the other kids would know I’d been called for a third time, if anyone was keeping track. And I knew they were.
After she hung up the phone, she said, “These are yours,” and handed me a basket of pink roses with a large teddy bear and several mylar balloons.
“Holy Toledo,” I muttered. “Thanks.” While I was hopeful that this might be from Liam, something told me he couldn’t afford something like this on his part-time lawn mowing gig, especially not in the winter. I took off the card and wasn’t at all surprised to see this was from Elliott. He wished me a Happy Valentine’s Day and said I was the sweetest “lil girl” he’d ever met, and that’s “no lie.” I got what he was saying, because almost everything that came out of his mouth seemed to be a lie, and thought it was cute. Moving the mammoth gift to the table took me a few minutes, and it was hard to find a spot big enough for it without moving some things around. By the time I was done, Lucy was long gone.
By lunch, I hadn’t been called to the office again, but three times was much better than my usual once from my parents. Lucy was very quiet while she picked the pepperonis off of her pizza, and Emma was usually not inclined to talk unless we were, so our table was pretty silent. I spent my time staring at the back of Liam’s head. He wasn’t sitting in his chair that faced our table today, and I wondered if it had anything to do with it being Valentine’s Day. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure him out.
“Who was that fourth bouquet from” Emma finally asked, looking at Lucy.
“You got called a fourth time?” I asked. I must’ve missed that.
“Yeah,” she replied quietly. “It was from… a guy who likes me. But… I’m not sure what to do about it. Because I have a friend who likes him.”
My blood ran cold. Could it have been from Liam? She must’ve seen my eyes bulge. “Which friend?” Emma asked, completely missing my reaction.
“Jessica,” Lucy said, exhaling loudly. “It was just a single rose. From Jason. Asking me to homecoming.”
“Aw, that’s nice,” Emma said, and we both gave her points for trying, even though we could tell she couldn’t care less.
“And you don’t know what you’re going to say because of Jess?” I asked.
“Yeah, I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”
“I thought you liked Jason,” Emma said, noisily biting into a rather long Cheeto.
“I do like him, but I don’t want her to be angry at me. I mean, it’s not my fault he likes me. I didn’t try to make him ask me out.”
“Jessica’s feelings might get hurt,” I said, shrugging, “but if you like him, you should go out with him. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“Do you think so?” she asked.
Jessica wasn’t quite playing with a full deck, so I honestly didn’t know for sure if she would understand or not, but I didn’t think it should matter at this point. It’s not like Lucy and Jess were best friends. “I think so.”
“What if…” Lucy began and then stopped, biting her lip for a second before she continued, “what if I didn’t like Jason, and I said no. Do you think Jess would be mad at me because the guy she likes asked me out?”
I scrunched up my forehead and stared at her for a long while. “No,” I said. “How would that be your fault? You can’t help it that you’re gorgeous and awesome.”
She gave me a cynical smile. “Still, I think she’d be mad. It’d be human nature to be jealous.”
“I agree,” Emma said, nodding. “I think she’ll be mad at you no matter what you say.”
“You think?” I asked, turning my gaze to Emma.
“Yeah, I mean, if Liam asked Lucy out, you’d be mad, wouldn’t you? Even if she said no?”
I expected Lucy to say her usual comment when it came to Liam, “barf,” but she was only staring at Emma like she had two heads or something. “What’s the matter, Lucy?”
“Nothing,” she said. “You wouldn’t get mad at me over that, would you?”
“Mad at you?” I repeated, weighing my response for a moment. “No, of course not. It wouldn’t be your fault.” I didn’t know if that was true, though. Part of me understood the logic; it really wouldn’t be Lucy’s fault if Liam asked her out. She did everything she could to try to repel him. Not that she needed to, because he didn’t like her. But then—if he did, would that make me mad at her? Or him? Or both? “No, I wouldn’t be,” I assured her.
“Lying,” Emma said, popping another Cheeto.
“What?” I asked incredulously. “No, I’m not.”
“I think you might be,” Lucy said. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t have to worry about it. I’m gonna go talk to Jess.”
“You are?” I asked, watching her gather up her tray of half eaten food. “Why?”
“I need to tell her myself,” Lucy shrugged. She walked off toward the trash can, and I glanced around the room. Jessica sat with Rachel, Jenny, and some of the other cheerleaders on the other side of the cafeteria. Luckily, Jason didn’t have this lunch period, so he would have no idea this was going down. Lucy pulled Jess to the side, and they talked for a few minutes. Lucy put her hand on Jessica’s shoulder, and the next thing I knew, Jessica was crying. She said something very animated to Lucy and then took off toward the bathroom.
Lucy stood there for a moment with her hands on her hips before heading back to us. She sat down and neither of us said a word to her until she finally said, “Well, that went well.”
“Sorry,” I said.
“Told you,” Emma said.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Lucy shrugged. “I guess… I’ll just tell him no.”
“Give her some time,” I suggested. “She might come around and decide it’s dumb for her to keep the two of you from going together if he really doesn’t like her.”
“Maybe,” Lucy said, but she didn’t look convinced. “We need to go get our dresses next weekend.”
Homecoming was in three weeks. “Why so soon?”
“So, we get the best ones.”
I knew her dress budget would be significantly higher than mine, but going with her mom would be more fun than mine. “Okay,” I said. “You going Emma?” I knew the answer before I asked the question. She just wrinkled her nose at me. We both already knew that Emma wouldn’t be going to the dance or to pick out dresses with us.
“You had fun at the basketball game,” Lucy reminded her as Emma and I gathered up our trash.
“Yeah, because Elliott was there. Do you think he’ll go to the dance?”
“He could be a chaperone,” I offered, although it was weird to think of him attending the dance. I may as well volunteer my parents.
“Has he said anything else to you about, you know, anything?” Lucy asked.
“Not a thing,” I assured her. It’d been a while since we’d even talked about vampires, LIGHTS, Jack, any of it, because there was nothing new to tell. I hadn’t even done any more searches recently. CHENRY77 was much quicker than I was at finding, and destroying, anything anyone might post.
“Well, if he updates you on anything, let us know,” Lucy said. “I’m going to head to class.”
I checked the clock and agreed it was time to head out. Emma and I walked toward the trash c
ans. While Valentine’s Day was one of the more exciting days of the year, I was ready to call it a day. Hopefully, the rest of the afternoon would be mellow, and the only thing I’d have to worry about was how to get that giant balloon bouquet into my mom’s minivan.
My mom was quiet on the way home, and I could tell something was really bothering her. I had an idea it was more than my dad forgetting to order flowers or something silly like that. But I didn’t ask. I was sure she’d tell me when she was good and ready, and if that meant I had to wait until I was seventeen, well that birthday was going to be one heck of an update session.
As soon as our house came into view, I noticed Elliott’s motorcycle sitting in front of it. “Why is…?” I began, but my mom cut me off.
“He has some things he needs to explain to you,” she said, pushing the button to open the garage. “Your father and I agreed it would be best if you heard it from him.”
“Is everything okay?” I asked, my blood beginning to run cold. Surely, if something had happened to Cadence, my mom would be crying.
“Everything is fine,” she assured me, but I didn’t believe her. “I’ll get your flowers. You go on inside.”
I nodded, thinking my mom likely assumed Elliott was going to brainwash me into believing that whatever had happened wasn’t so bad, and maybe, if it was as awful as she had me thinking it might be, he’d have to. He was sitting in her chair when I walked in, though he stood up as soon as he saw me. “Hi,” I said, hearing my mom fumbling with flowers and balloons behind me but not stopping to help her. “What’s going on?”
“Let’s go outside,” he said, heading toward the backyard. I turned to see my mom making what would apparently be the first of a few trips inside, dropped my backpack by the door, and followed behind him.
Despite the fact that it was still February, it was a fairly nice day. The sun was out, there was no snow on the ground, and only a light breeze rustled the remaining crinkled leaves in the yard. Elliott dropped into a chair on our back deck, and I sat next to him, doing my best to give him time to start speaking before my diarrhea of the mouth began and I couldn’t hold back the questions.
He cleared his throat. “How was your day?”
“Great. Thanks for the balloons. They sure were nice. What the crap is going on?” I asked, all in one breath. I had known that would happen….
He raised an eyebrow at me and seemed to hold back a laugh before he took a deep breath and said, “Your sister is fine… but she was shot the other night.”
My mouth fell open and I stared at him in disbelief, not sure what to say in response. After a few moments, when he realized I now had constipation of the mouth, he continued. “We were out on a hunt and got ambushed. She really is okay, thanks to Jamie, but she wanted me to come and talk to your parents. She doesn’t know that you have any idea about any of this, so I had to convince your mom to let me talk to you. She thinks I’m just telling you that Cadence has left headquarters and is heading out on her own, along with two other Hunters.”
That, too, was a little difficult for me to believe. I looked away from him for a moment. I knew that Cadence had been thinking about doing that, but it was hard for me to understand why. She’d only been there a couple of months and was already done? My hatred for Aaron began to burn in my gut again. After a lengthy pause, I turned my head back to look at Elliott. “What happened?”
“Well,” he began, rubbing his hands together and leaning forward in his chair, “we were after Jack. Your sister lured him in, the way she was instructed to, and… Giovani showed up unexpectedly.”
“So, Giovani shot my sister?”
“Yes, but only in the leg. That’s not the one we were concerned about,” he replied, shaking his head.
I narrowed my eyes at him, reaching for understanding. “Jack shot my sister?” I couldn’t believe that—it sounded absolutely impossible to me.
“No.” Relief washed over me. “It was another Hunter, a woman by the name of Laura. We still don’t know what happened, but anyway, normally when a Hunter shoots another Hunter, the bullet just bounces off. She was using some sort of special bullet. We don’t know exactly what it is or where it came from yet. Christian is working on it.”
It took me another minute to process all of that. “So, this Laura woman shot Cadence? And she was badly wounded?”
“Yeah, Giovani shot her first. I doubt he was aiming for her leg….” He let out a loud sigh, and I could tell this was hard for him. He was quiet, staring off in the distance for a minute, and I put my hand on his arm, letting him know to take his time. Elliott ran a hand through his hair, and still not looking at me, he said, “I should’ve never been in charge of this. It wouldn’t have been such a mess if Aaron had been there.”
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but it seemed like he had been calling the hunt, something Aaron probably usually did, since he was the boss. “I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe not.” He finally turned back around to look me in the eyes. “Your sister met Jack at the Plaza downtown, you know where that is?”
I nodded. I remembered visiting it once or twice when I was little. It was like a large mall, only with lots of different buildings.
“They were standing on the sidewalk, and there was about a one-story drop down to this parking lot below. I was in the pharmacy building, about two stories higher than them, and we had plenty of people on the ground, but somehow, they missed Giovani until it was too late. He caught her by surprise, shot her in the leg, and she fell. Or maybe Jack pushed her, trying to protect her. Anyway, she landed on the ground down below. Jack, too. And then Giovani dropped down and tried to shoot her again, but Jack jumped in the way, and when your sister went to shoot Giovani… she hit Jack instead.”
“Oh, my God,” I mumbled, both of my hands over my mouth. I couldn’t imagine how Cadence had to have felt in that moment, realizing she’d shot Jack. “She must’ve been devastated.”
“She was,” Elliott agreed. “She’d gone there to take him out, but I don’t think she was really planning to do it. I think she thought I’d do it, and I would have, but… I didn’t get the chance, and your sister was so upset by what had happened with Jack, Giovani grabbed her and used her as a shield when Hannah, Laura, and Laura’s sister, Laney, closed in on him. Jamie was there, too, but he stayed back. So… Laura was trying to shoot Giovani and hit your sister. At least, that’s what we think, but as soon as Cadence was shot, Giovani used that as a distraction and got away. He and Zabrina took off in a sports car, and Laura chased after him. We’re not even sure where she’s at.”
“What about her eye thingy? Her IAC?”
“Yeah, we could trace that, but she doesn’t have it on, and Aaron hasn’t forced it on yet. I think he needs some time to figure all of this out, too.”
“So… Cadence was badly injured?” I could feel tears in my eyes, thinking of my sister being shot, and the fact that Jack was actually gone for good now was also eating at my mind.
Elliott nodded. “She was.” He ran his hands through his hair again and dropped his eyes to the porch. “At first, I thought I’d shot her. We’d been talking about her dodging out of the way so I could hit Giovani, but Laura shot first. It hit her pretty near the heart. Jamie was able to keep her from dying, but this titanium bullet wasn’t acting like the regular silver ones we use, and he had to get her to surgery to take it out.” He was shaking his head again, like he was reliving it. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my whole life.”
“Thank God Jamie was there,” I said. I still had my hand on Elliott’s arm, and I squeezed it. “So… she was okay then?”
“Yeah, as soon as he dug the bullet out of her chest, and took care of her leg wound from Giovani, she was fine. In a matter of hours, she was back to normal.”
I made a mental note to thank Jamie as soon as I had the chance. Of course, that would have to wait until everyone was allowed to know
that I was aware of this clandestine life. “And then… she left?”
“Pretty much,” he nodded. “We went to return a ring to the parents of a girl who’d been a victim of Jack and Giovani’s. Your sister came back to headquarters and hopped on her motorcycle and rode away, Meagan and Aurora with her.”
I couldn’t even imagine my sister on a motorcycle, let alone riding off into the sunset with her friends. “I wonder why she didn’t tell me herself,” I muttered, folding my arms.
“I think… all of this has been so hard on her. She’s trying to figure out who she is now, and thinking of home, who she used to be, when Jack and Drew were alive and she was a college student hoping to become a kindergarten teacher, is all light years away from where she is now. I’m sure she’ll call you eventually, but I just thought you should know what happened.”
“I really appreciate it,” I said, hoping he could hear the honesty in my voice. “I appreciate that you talk to me like I’m an adult who can handle this sort of information.” I thought about my parents, who probably thought he was just brainwashing me into thinking Cadence was happier out on the road right now.
He managed a small smile and then leaned a little closer to me. “This isn’t over yet, though, Cass. Your sister might be out there hunting down other demons, but eventually, we will have to find Giovani and figure out what’s going on with Laura. If she did that on purpose, well, then….”
“She needs to pay,” I finished for him. “Absolutely. Do you think there’s a chance she meant to hit Cadence?” My voice nearly cracked at the end of the question, it went up so high.
“I don’t know,” he said quickly. “But… the fact that she used to date Aaron makes me think there’s a possibility.”
“What?” I almost flew out of my chair. “Just how many ex-girlfriends does this man have? And are they all nuts?”
“I know,” he agreed, putting his hands out as if to tell me to calm down. “I don’t know that it was on purpose.”
“Why didn’t she shoot Eliza then?” I asked. “She’s his current girlfriend.”