Chapter 17: Chapter 17

As Aaron stood to walk toward where my sister was sitting, I blurted out, “Thanks for telling me,” like I was afraid he might slip away before I got a chance to say anything. “I really appreciate it.”

“Sure,” he replied, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Once we figure out what’s going on around here, we’ll coordinate a time for someone to meet you at your grandma’s. I think it’ll go over better if a member of our team can be there with you in case you have questions your grandma can’t answer. She’s not that knowledgeable about the way we do things now.”

“Uh, excuse me,” Cadence said, nudging him with her elbow. “What about me? I can tell her the technology stuff.”

Aaron looked at her for a moment and kind of made a half-guffaw sound in the back of his throat before he turned back to me and said, “I have your number. I’ll be in touch.”

Cadence literally smacked him on the bicep and they switched their conversation to IAC I assumed as she walked beside him to the door. His expression was of slight amusement and unwavering confidence in his decision. She stepped out into the hallway, and I attempted to plug my ears against any other bodily harm or potential goodnight kissing, should she find it in her heart to forgive her fiancé for implying she wasn’t the best person to go with me. In fairness. I had to agree with Aaron that Cadence wouldn’t be good at that job. She had other strengths, but if she had been the one to tell me what happened to Elliott, I think I would still feel like I had no idea what had transpired. She just doesn’t tend to see the details in those types of situations. However, if Aaron arranged for Christian to go with me, I might develop an illness that prevented me from stepping out of the house.

Once my sister came back in, she appeared to be in a better mood. “What happens in the hallway stays in the hallway,” I said, squinting my eyes at her. She turned a slight shade of pink, and I let her keep wondering what I may have overheard, which turned out to be nothing.

“I think we should probably head to bed,” she said, stifling a yawn. “Guardians don’t have to sleep much at all, and the longer I am a Hunter, they say the less sleep I’ll need, too, but so far, I need just as much as I did when I was a human.”

I stood, but stared at her for a moment. “What is it like to no longer refer to yourself as a human?” I asked, contemplating what that would be like.

“It’s a little surreal at first,” she admitted, heading toward the hallway where the bedrooms were, “but you get used to it.”

Finding out was a priority for me at this point. “Thanks for asking Aaron to tell me all of that,” I said, stopping outside of the guest bedroom.

“Sure,” she nodded. “I knew he’d know exactly what to tell you so you’d understand.”

“Which may be why he thinks someone else can better help Grandma,” I pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. “But you’re my baby sister.”

“I’m not a baby.” I folded my arms and gave her a pointed look.

“You’ll always be a baby to me.” She tussled my hair and I went to smack her hand away, but she was so much quicker than me now, I almost fell over in my attempt, which made her laugh at me.

“You’re such a dork,” I muttered.

Before I’d even finished the insult, Cadence wrapped her arms around me, pinning my crossed arms against my chest. “I love you, Cassidy,” she said, her grip a lot tighter than I remembered it ever being before.

“I love you, too,” I admitted, even if I had been super annoyed at her a few seconds ago. She kissed the top of my head and told me goodnight before she headed off to her bedroom.

I went in the nicely decorated guest room and got ready for bed myself, ducking out into the hall bathroom to brush my teeth and other necessities. Being in her apartment seemed strangely familiar already, like I was meant to be there. I wasn’t sure if it was because of my family’s history with the place or if it was something else, but if they would’ve let me move in the next morning, I would’ve been happy to.

When the room was dark, the unfamiliarity was a little more unsettling, even though the bed was comfy and there weren’t any annoying noises coming from any of the other apartments or outside. My mind flipped back through a photo album of the day’s events and landed squarely on the picture of Elliott, Cadey, and I at Christmas, and I felt tears in my eyes. I tried to concentrate on that image, though, instead of the one my unconscious kept trying to conjure of Elliott out in the woods at night, standing between a deranged cowboy and poor Meagan. I think I understand now what my sister meant when she said up until that point, seeing Aaron’s blood all over the floor in Paris was the messiest experience she’d had of the kind. I didn’t want to see Elliott that way, but my sister had been there. I’m sure she could never get that image out of her mind.

Eventually, I started to drift off to sleep, my weary body finally giving in and shutting my brain down for me. In my mind, Elliott was somewhere else, somewhere better, driving a Lamborghini large enough to fit him, with that big goofy smile on his face, and I grinned at the thought, despite the fact that in the back of my mind, I registered the sound of my sister in the adjoining bedroom sobbing uncontrollably.

***

My whole life, I’ve thought my sister was pretty darn amazing. She’s gorgeous, smart, but totally down to earth. Hanging out in her apartment, even for a brief amount of time, listening to her friends talk about how awesome she is at her new job, seeing those photos of her kicking Vampire booty, just solidified the idea even more in my mind. But as I sat at home on my bed pondering everything that had gone on over the past few days, that wasn’t the Cadence that was on my mind. It was the vulnerable one, the one who’d sat in the chair and stared at the wall as her fiancé repeated the story of her best friend’s demise to me, the sister I’d heard in the bedroom next to mine so distraught she couldn’t sleep. As much as I missed Elliott myself, when I closed my eyes, I could believe he was out there somewhere, just off on a mission, and that he’d check in soon enough. Cadence didn’t have the luxury of pretend. Every time she turned around expecting to see him, there was an empty place. An empty chair in the conference room, perhaps, an empty apartment door to walk past. An empty spot on her sofa where he used to sit.

I’d told my friends everything I’d learned on my adventure, and they were equal parts amazed and astonished. There were a few things Emma refused to accept, and I decided she could just go ahead and think I’d made them up. It didn’t matter. If what I’d learned was accurate, she’d be there herself eventually. I was still missing some details on that.

It was a summer evening a few days after I’d gotten back from KC, and some people were going to my friend Wes’s house to hang out. I’d been invited, of course, because Wes and I are pretty tight when he’s not annoying the crap out of me with immature bodily function jokes, but I had decided at the last minute not to go. There were lots of rumors going around about Dr. Sanderson—that he’d died in a car wreck, been murdered by the mafia, even that he’d been on a recent airliner that crashed in Eurasia. I knew if I was there, people would start asking me questions, and I didn’t want to tell anyone anything else. I figured if my sister had to keep everything she knew a secret from the majority of the world, I should get used to that myself. Even though I hadn’t met with my grandma yet, I thought that would probably be one of the things she told me.

I had just started watching a movie on Netflix on my laptop when my phone began to ring. It was an unknown number, but I figured I’d better answer it, and I hoped it was the phone call I’d been waiting for the past couple of days.

Clearing my voice as I paused the comedy, I said, “Hello?” praying that the voice on the other end was familiar.

“Hey, Cass. How are you? It’s Aaron.”

Like I wouldn’t recognize his voice. “Oh, hi,” I said, trying to be completely cas and hoping I wasn’t coming across like a complete dork. “What’s up?”

He chuckled a little bit, and I assumed that meant that my attempt was foiled. “A lot, honestly,” he replied, and I imagined no one ever believed him if he gave the standard “not much” answer since he seemed to be orchestrating the world. “I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things if you’ve got a second.”

“Uh, sure,” I replied, pretending like I was checking something or excusing myself from a prior engaging situation. “I’ve got a few minutes.” I rolled my eyes at myself. He could probably see me through the IAC of a strategically placed Guardian on the neighbor’s roof or something.

“Great. First of all, I’ve talked to your grandma, and she said anytime you wanna come up to talk to her is fine, so I’m going to send Jamie to get you on Thursday, and he’ll go with you. Are you comfortable with that, or would you rather I had your sister accompany you? I’d send Aurora, too, but she’s on a special assignment.”

He really seemed to know everything. How did he have any idea that I’d even spoken to Aurora? “Oh, no, Jamie seems like a nice guy,” I stammered. “I mean… not that I don’t want to see Cadence. It’s just….” How would I establish myself as an independent Hunter if my big sister was with me all the time? I didn’t know how to explain it to him.

“I understand,” he said confidently, and I got the impression that he really did know exactly how I felt about the situation. “Perfect. He’ll be at your house around 10:00 on Thursday morning if that time works for you, and he’ll get you to Des Moines.”

“Cool.” It was Tuesday so that meant I’d only have two days to make myself nauseous with excitement and worried. That seemed sufficient.

“Also, Christian is going to come and install some software on your laptop that will allow you to access some sites you wouldn’t normally be able to. He’ll explain to you how to use them to look for the type of information that will be useful to our cause. If you can help him out with surveillance footage and other routine website scanning, that will be very helpful. You still up for that?”

“Of course,” I said, even though the thought of Christian sitting at the desk in my bedroom with my laptop creeped me out. I hoped he didn’t install any spyware or anything like that. I remembered what Elliott said about his bizarre recording habits.

“Great. I’ll have him come with Jamie, and he can work on the installation while you’re in Des Moines.”

“Will it take that long?” I asked, a little surprised.

“Probably not, but there are other things he can do from there if it doesn’t. There are actually a lot of Hunters and Guardians stationed around Shenandoah. Your grandparents started it as a community for families like yours to be well protected from Vampires before they Transformed or if they decided not to.”

“Oh, that explains a lot.”

“Yeah, so I’m sure Christian can find enough to keep himself busy.”

“Awesome.” I felt like I needed to say something else, but my mind went blank. He paused for a long moment, like he thought I should say something else, too. This is why texting is so much better than talking on the phone. Awkwardness can be deleted.