Cadence had gone to bed early Saturday night. After a brief discussion with Cale, where he offered to take her on his team’s hunt that night, and she declined because his team would know she was there, and also she’d had enough crazy Vampires for a few days, she’d fallen asleep. Not having checked in with Aaron beforehand made her wake up in a panic at 6:30 the next morning only to find he was still in Connecticut, and she was safe--at least for a few more hours.
It was tempting to spend another day or two in Cale’s comfortable, sparkly clean apartment. But she knew it wasn’t safe, so that morning, she was on her way again. He recommended Forty Mile Desert as a good place to get lost and be assured of clear skies for portal opening. She didn’t really feel like spending the better part of four days in the desert, so she decided to explore the area a little bit before she headed out into the wasteland.
Aaron arrived back at headquarters Sunday evening while Cadence was eating dinner in a diner in a small town on the outskirts of Forty Mile. She’d decided it might be fun to take Elliott on a little exploration, so she’d bought a disposable camera at a pharmacy, and every time they stopped anywhere at all, she took a selfie with the backpack. She was in the process of taking just such a pic at the greasy spoon when Christian let her know, “The eagle has landed.”
They both knew this was an Elliott-ism, and the familiarity of the phrase caught her off guard enough that it took her a second to answer. She let him know she appreciated his assistance the entire time and tried to connect with her fiancé before he realized she was gone.
It took him a while to respond, and she assumed he was probably pretty busy getting everything squared away with the plane and getting back to headquarters, but eventually, he replied. “Hey, we just landed.” He sounded a bit distracted.
“Oh, really?” she asked, fake surprised. “I thought you’d be back later.”
“We got things squared away. I tried to let you know we were taking off, but you didn’t answer.”
“Sorry,” she muttered. She had chosen to ignore him. The waitress came by and offered her dessert, and since this was a vacation of sorts, she ordered a slice of apple pie a la mode, and totally missed everything Aaron was saying.
“Cadence?”
“Sorry,” she said again. “I was talking to someone. You know how that goes.” He was amazing at multitasking. She couldn’t talk with her mouth to one person and her eye to someone else at the same time just yet.
“I asked where you are. I said I’ll be home in twenty minutes or so.”
“Right,” she said running her finger through the condensation circle left from her tea glass. “I’m actually not there.”
There was a pause, and she could tell by his silence that he knew something was up. “Where are you?”
“Out.”
“Out where?”
“Out of town.”
Another pause. “Why? Where?”
The waitress set a hefty piece of steaming apple pie before her with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream melting all down the sides. She thanked her and asked for the check before she returned to the unpleasantness. “I just thought it would be easier on both of us if I did what I needed to do while you weren’t there to try to stop me.”
“So you left?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re not planning to tell me where you went?”
“No.”
“Does anyone know where you are?”
“No.”
“Did you tell Hannah you were leaving?”
“No, but I told Jamie, and he said he’d make sure that she knew she was in charge if anything came up. Nothing did.” She decided his pregnant pause of disapproval would be the perfect opportunity to try the pie. It was delicious.
“Cadence, we can’t just both leave and not let Hannah know we’re gone. Somebody’s got to be in charge.”
“True. But I trusted Jamie to take care of it.”
“Jamie’s not third in command,” he reminded her.
“He’s fourth. It was fine.”
“So you’re not going to tell me where you are?” he asked.
“No,” she replied, envisioning him likely driving home now, Christian beside him, silently staring out the window wanting to be privy to the conversation but not being allowed to know what they were talking about.
“What if something happens and you need help?”
She thought he might try that tactic. “I’m close enough to another area headquarters that I can have back up nearby if I need it,” she assured him.
“Do you have the urn?”
Oh, the tricky part. She hated outright lying to him, but if she said no, he would grow more suspicious. If he thought she had it, and she just hadn’t checked it, then he would assume she didn’t yet realize what he had done. Rather than give him an opportunity to start hunting for her, she replied, “Yes.” Besides, he didn’t really care if she had the urn—he only cared if she had Elliott. And she did. Of that, she was certain.
“Really? You do?”
She could hear in his voice the question he wasn’t asking—was she so stupid that she didn’t check to see if there was anything in it? Did she not realize it was lighter? “Yes, I have Elliott with me. Do you think I’d leave headquarters without him?”
“Okay,” Aaron replied. “I just… I don’t know how you carry an urn on a motorcycle.”
“And I don’t remember telling you I was on my motorcycle.” An attempt to figure out what she was driving and possibly get the GPS. Nice try. Not that the tracker was still installed.
“Cadence, I think this is a really bad idea that is doomed to fail. I think you should come home now, and let’s talk about it again. You’re going to really hate the fact that you’ve spent four days on a failed task when the blue moon comes and goes and nothing happens.”
“How do you know nothing is going to happen?” She dared him to tell her the truth.
“I just don’t think it’s going to work,” he replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Well, I think you’re wrong. And I’m going to see this through. Besides, I’ve already promised Jamie I won’t tell Elliott anything about Cass or Brandon. I won’t even ask him if he wants to come back. I just want to see him again. That’s all,” she explained. She took one last bite of pie and pushed the plate away.
The waitress slipped the check on the table with a smile and Cadence dug cash out of her back pocket as Aaron said, “Cadence, why won’t you listen to what I’m saying? This is a very bad idea.”
“I know how you feel. I know what you said. I know what you think will happen. You’re not going to change my mind.”
“Okay. Well, since it won’t work anyway, I guess I’ll save my breath.”
“Just remember, we promised not to get mad at each other when this is all over.”
“I know.”
“All right. I’ll let you get back to it.”
“Be careful. Love you, Cadence.”
“Love you, too,” she said before disconnecting. Part of her wanted to add, “even though you’re lying to me about the ashes,” but she couldn’t. She had started to let that go anyway. She had double-crossed him first, after all.
Check paid and tip left, she grabbed the backpack and her helmet and headed out into the night. She’d found another motel that would take cash, and she hoped this one would be better than the first one. Her money was starting to run out, however, and since she couldn’t risk an ATM withdrawal—even though she was convinced by this point that Aaron wouldn’t come looking for her anyway since he thought she didn’t have Elliott with her—she decided that she’d go ahead and spend the next couple of nights after this one out in the desert exploring. It would give her an opportunity to find a good spot to bring Elliott back, clear her head, and stay off of everyone’s radar.
