Chapter 65: Chapter 65

"Hey," Aaron said, stopping in the row next to Cadence.

She looked up, smiling. "Hey! How are you?" she asked, happy that he had come up to talk to her.

"Good. Sorry to interrupt," he said, looking at Jamie.

"No, it's fine," Jamie replied. "Actually, I needed to go ask Elliott about that new safety we were thinking about putting on the Glocks. Do you want to sit here?"

It was obvious that Jamie was being polite. He would have nothing to do with the after-market safety they added to their most popular weapons choice, but Aaron appreciated his politeness. "That would be great. Thanks, Jamie," he said.

Jamie slid out of the seat and over Cadence, who then slid over next to the window so that Aaron could have her seat. It was a bit awkward, but they made it work.

"Sorry I didn't pick you up this morning," Aaron said quietly, aware that Laney and Laura could probably hear if either one of them really wanted to listen in.

"It's okay," Cadence said, folding her hands in her lap. "I know you're busy."

"I just wanted to make sure you knew it had nothing to do with... anything that you said last night," he said, cautiously.

Cadence looked down at her hands. "No, of course not," she said shrugging.

"Because it didn't," he continued. "I didn't even get a chance to tell you good night, you were out of there so fast."

"It's not a big deal," Cadence replied shortly.

"It is a big deal," Aaron replied, leaning on the arm rest between them.

"No, it's really not," Cadence said, remembering her mother's words and wishing she could take her statement back.

"It is. And I want you to know you can say anything to me and not have to worry about how I'll react. You really didn't have to take off," he insisted, finally catching her eyes.

Cadence stared into his piercing blue eyes for a moment before saying, "Okay. Thanks."

Aaron nodded. "Any idea where you want to go Wednesday?" he asked, changing the subject.

Cadence was glad to have something else to talk about. "No," she admitted. "Are places open on Christmas Eve in Kansas City? Are we going to end up at a Denny's?"

Aaron laughed "Places are open on Christmas Eve in Kansas City. I've got a few ideas though."

"Well, I'll let you --and Grandma--handle that, then," she said.

"Okay, sounds like a plan. We'll figure it out," he said, leaning back in his seat.

"Just let me know what I need to wear. You know, jeans or something formal. I don't want to wear heels to a rodeo."

He laughed. "Do I look like I go to many rodeos?"

"No, not even a little bit," she chuckled. "But you know what I mean. I want to be prepared."

"Okay, well, whatever you wear, I'm sure you'll look amazing," he said, glancing over at her.

"Thanks," she smiled. "It's been a long time since I've been on a real date."

"Me, too," he admitted. Her hand was right next to his on the arm rest now, and so he gave in and placed his hand on top of hers, despite the fact that he was trying to be discreet in front of the rest of the team.

"Yeah?" she asked a bit surprised by his reply.

"Yeah, Eliza and I didn't really go out much, honestly. Maybe that was part of the problem," he said looking away, for a moment, this being the first time he had considered the possibility. "Anyway, I haven't been out with anyone since we broke up either, and that's been... a while."

"Jack wasn't much for formal dating either. He'd rather just stay home and watch a movie. I went out with a couple of dudes in college, but hanging out at Taco Bell on a Friday night is not exactly my idea of a romantic time," Cadence explained.

"How about on a Wednesday night?" Aaron asked, looking at her, a mock expression of hope on his face. She shook her head. "Damn, plan B it is."

She couldn't help but laugh. "If you take me to Taco Bell, I'm afraid I might have to spend New Year's Eve with someone a little classier," Cadence teased.

"Is that a threat?" he asked leaning toward her. She nodded, not saying anything, and he was very aware of how easy it would be to lean in and kiss her. "Okay, I'll find something better, like a KFC."

"Oh, thank God!" Cadence said, smiling.

Aaron collected his thoughts for a second before broaching the next subject. He was still holding her hand and was hopeful that it would be enough to assure her that what he was going to tell her next really was no big deal. "So, Eliza is going with me tonight," he said, only looking at her when he was done speaking.

Cadence's eyebrows went up. "Oh?" she asked.

"Yeah, I know. I didn't want her to come, but she made some good arguments, so I decided to take her."

"Okay," Cadence replied. She was quiet for a few moments before she finally said, "Tell me why it is that I can't go?"

Aaron had known she would ask, one way or another. "Mostly because I think you'll get involved. And they don't want us involved. Not directly. And I really want you back at LIGHTS, trying to talk some sense into Laura."

"What does Laura want to do?" Cadence asked, a questioning expression on her face.

"Leave," Aaron replied, honestly.

"Oh," Cadence said. "What about Giovani?"

"She thinks she can get him on her own," he replied.

"What about Jack?"

"Him, too."

"And do what with him?"

"I think you know the answer to that question," Aaron stated.

Cadence was quiet in thought again. "What makes her think that they can do it alone when there's two of them when they haven't been able to catch just Giovani?"

"I don't know. But I need you to convince them to stay and work with us on this, okay?"

Cadence nodded. If anyone was going to bring in Jack, it was going to be her, and no one else.

***

The weather in Cabo San Lucas was perfect; perfect for swimming, sunning, and picking off unsuspecting tourists stumbling back from the bars late at night. At first, Jack had been hesitant to participate, especially when it came to targeting Americans, though that seemed a bit ridiculous, considering all of his other victims had obviously been Americans. He wanted to look for locals, those who lived on the street, similar to the way the Compliant Vampires operated back home. But Zabrina and Giovani made him feel like a loser pretty quickly, and before he knew it, he was just as much a part of the operation as the other two. Quite often, Zabrina would lure an unsuspecting male tourist into a dark alley, and then the other two would pounce on him. Occasionally, Jack or Giovani would act as the bait. However, they sliced it, even their first night there, they had consumed more human blood than most Vampires drank in a month. After a while, it became more of a thrill for Jack, and he was sad to see the night come to an end.

"In the morning, we'll have to move along," Giovani explained. "We don't want to be here long enough for anyone to suspect we had anything to do with this."

"Where will we go, then?" Jack asked.

Giovani smiled. "Let's go swimming with the dolphins in Cozumel. What do you say?"

Jack grinned. "This is so much better than college," he replied. He glanced at the pile of bodies their little escapade had accumulated. "What do we do with those?" he asked.

"Leave them," Zabrina replied. "I slit all of their throats. There are no cameras here like in the states. No one will have any idea what happened to them. They'll think a serial killer is on the loose."

They had no way of knowing that, across the street, perched atop a building with a spectacular view of the city a lone Vampire Hunter watched their every movement. Too young to act, and all alone, the best she could do was call in what she had observed.

* * *

Eliza was growing more and more frustrated. She had been attempting to find a way to broach the topic of Christian and Cadence's little escapade ever since they'd left Kansas City, and every time she thought she had worked in a segue, Aaron would find a way to completely change the topic. Though, she honestly hadn't even gotten to talk to him too much on this trip. Last time, faking food poisoning had bought her a few hours alone with him, but she couldn't do that again, and who wanted to pretend to be puking just so someone would sit with them on a bed while they were in fake misery? She had been able to rely on her special talents to draw him in the first time around, so many years ago, but ever since they had broken up, he seemed immune to her advances, and so she'd been trying every other trick she could think of to no avail. Surely, this would work. It just had to....

Finally, Wednesday morning, she realized it was do or die. His date with Cadence was that night, and she had the feeling that if they actually went on that date, it would be lights out for her. He was sitting in the hotel room they were sharing, working on his laptop, when she finally decided to just spill. Rather than dancing around the topic, as he had been for days, she was going to lay it all out on the table. "Aaron, I need to talk to you," she said, sitting down on the end of the couch near the chair he was sitting in.

He had been up working all night, even after they had returned from the hunt around 4:00 AM, while she had caught a few hours of sleep. He looked tired--but she could also tell he was avoiding her. He finally stopped typing long enough to look at her. "What's up?" he asked, a distracted tone in his voice.

Eliza took a deep breath, knowing she needed to be careful. She didn't want to make him mad or put him on the defensive, although she did realize she was likely about to make him extremely upset. "Well," she began slowly. "I've been trying to figure out how to tell you this for the last few days, and I don't think there's any other way to approach it than to just tell you." She waited to make sure he was listening. "Cadence is fooling around with Christian."

At first, Eliza thought he would either laugh or accuse her of lying to him. But he didn't. A puzzled expression formed on his handsome face, and he just stared at her silently for a long moment. She finally decided to continue. "I know you probably don't want to hear that--or maybe you don't believe me--but I don't think she's been completely honest with you. I just thought you should know."

Aaron scooted back in his chair. He opened his mouth and then closed it before resting his chin on his hands, his elbows buried in his knees. He sat there speechless for several minutes before finally asking, "How do you know?"

Eliza was confused. This wasn't the response she expected, but it was working in her favor, so she continued. "He told me," she replied. Watching his expression change and seeing a bit of skepticism start to take over, she quickly added, "And then he showed me."

Once again, Aaron was speechless. After a long pause he asked, "What do you mean?"

"You know how people say Christian likes to record crazy shit, right?" she asked. He nodded so she continued. "Do you want to see, or do you want me to tell you?"

He didn't hesitate this time. "Show me," he replied with conviction.

Eliza used the band on her wrist to pull up the footage she had secretly recorded when Christian showed it to her on the airplane. She had edited it a bit however. The portion where Cadence told Christian to stop and then pushed him off of her was suddenly missing. She watched Aaron as he observed his would-be-girlfriend making out with another man. While it was a bit painful to watch, she couldn't help but feel as if she was winning a war. When the video was over, she shut it down and waited for him to speak.

"I'm going to need a copy of that," he said, closing his laptop and walking out of the room.