Giovani hadn't waited to see if they were being trailed. Once he had Jack and was told to get out, he did so. He had been shot a few times before and knew how painful it could be. He didn't stop to examine his brother's injury, rather threw the car into reverse and started on the journey back to Omaha without even returning to the hotel to gather the items they had left behind.
"How are you doing?" Giovani asked, pulling the car onto the highway.
Jack grimaced. He had pulled the leg of his jeans up to survey the damage. The wound looked so very odd to him. The bullet had been a silver one, but because of the location of the wound and the velocity, the bullet had not lodged in his leg, which prevented him from dying from silver poisoning. Rather, the bullet simply tore a mangled hole at the entry point, the flesh now hanging in jagged flaps, singed from the burning metal. The wound itself was black and charred. The exit wound was similar, but rather than hanging in flaps, the blackened skin was pushed up, like a mountain. The strangest part for Jack was the complete and utter absence of blood. "It hurts like a son of a bitch," Jack admitted.
"It'll be all right, I promise. We'll get you to Zabrina, and she'll patch it up. She's great at nursing. You'll see," Giovani assured him, going as quickly as he dared, which was well above the speed limit.
Jack was in a lot of pain, but he was still upset that Cadence was not with them. "Who the hell were all of those people?" he asked. "Did you know they were all going to be there?"
Giovani considered the question. "Not exactly," he admitted. "I knew she wouldn't be alone, and I knew the Bobbsey Twins were on our tail. But I didn't think there'd be that many Guardians."
"Is that guy really her boyfriend, or were you just being pissy?" he asked, pulling his pant leg back down, no longer caring to see or smell the wound.
"I don't know," Giovani admitted. "I was trying to make them all mad, you know, make them come out shooting, so we could pick a few of them off."
"That would have been easier if I had a gun!" Jack exclaimed.
"Yeah, true," Giovani conceded. "I didn't know if you had ever used one."
"I would have figured it out. Standing there completely defenseless sucked, man," Jack explained. "By the way, why did you say you wanted to shoot Cadence?"
"Brother, I was just trying to make him mad. And it worked," Giovani stated emphatically.
"Sure did," Jack agreed. "Pissed him off well enough to get me shot."
"Look, we'll go get you healed up. Then, you can call her and arrange to meet in private. The two of you can talk, and you can convince her to run away with you. That'll be that. You saw how upset she was when that ass shot you, right? She obviously still loves you," Giovani said as convincingly as he could. If he were ever to get another shot at taking out Cadence Findley, he would definitely need his brother's help.
Jack considered all that his brother had to say. "I don't know," he said quietly. "She's a Hunter now, something you also should have told me. I'm not sure we can make that work, Giovani."
"What?" the older brother proclaimed, trying to sound as shocked as he possibly could. "True love is true love, man, you know?"
Jack nodded his head. Giovani had a point. He definitely still loved Cadence. And she had told him that she loved him, as well. Perhaps he should try again. This time, maybe she would leave the prick who shot him at home. Then, she would remember just how much she wanted to be with Jack. It was too bad he couldn't kill that asshole, Aaron. Maybe there was another way to get him killed. He would have to do some more research on that topic, just as soon as Zabrina fixed this hole in his leg.
* * *
"How is she doing?" Aaron asked Eliza, standing across the room from where Jamie was doing his best to heal Laura.
Eliza was closer, standing at the foot of the hotel bed. Jamie was lying next to the wounded Hunter, his arms wrapped around her at the points of impact. He was clearly draining quickly, and it seemed he might need more than one opportunity to completely fix whatever damage had been done. Laney was sitting on the edge of the bed, her hand on her sister's leg. Hannah was also nearby, doing her best to keep Laney calm. Christian was in the room as well, seated and out of the way.
"She's doing better, I think," Eliza said aloud, crossing over to where Aaron was standing. "It'll probably completely drain him and then some," she admitted, referring to Jamie. "But he'll fix her. He always does."
"How are you?" he asked, wondering how Eliza was feeling since she had also taken a few bullets.
"I'm fine," she replied, feeling her stomach where Giovani had shot her. The other wound was in her shoulder. "You know, it takes a while to get over the pain, but no damage was done." When a Vampire shot a Guardian, the bullet essentially just bounced off, but the pain from the impact was still very real. If it had been a Hunter firing, Eliza would likely be dead.
"Good," he nodded, turning away from her a bit, his hands on his hips. "You should have told me they were there," he said as calmly as he could. He didn't want to alarm the rest of the team as they were working on Laura, but he knew the problem with Eliza needed to be addressed.
"You're right," she agreed. "I'm sorry. I was trying to get into position myself, so I just told them to check in. You were talking to Cadence; I didn't want to interrupt. Still, I should have told you."
"If I had known they were trailing him, I could've prevented this," he said, gesturing toward Laura.
Eliza began to grow a bit defensive. "Maybe," she said, trying to stay calm. "But it's not my fault you didn't know they were there."
Aaron decided to switch to IAC before they started yelling at each other, something they were notorious for. "How do you figure it's not your fault I didn't know we had two additional Hunters on the field when you knew about it well before I saw either one of them?"
Eliza crossed her arms and glared at him. "Who scouted the location? Who placed all of us? Who was working observation? Not me!"
"So you think this is Elliott's fault?" Aaron speculated.
"He should have seen them. It's not like they didn't drive up and park."
Aaron was quiet for a moment. "Okay, fine, I'll give you that. Maybe he should have seen the car. But they told you they were there, and you said nothing."
"Fine," Eliza shot back. "It's all my fault. It's always my fault."
"I didn't say that," Aaron said, realizing a bit too late that he had activated Eliza's famous tantrum side.
"Sure you did," she shot back, glaring at him. "You know, this is just as much Cadence's fault as anyone else's," she declared.
"What? How is this Cadence's fault?" he asked, his facial expression showing his confusion.
"If she had followed your orders and stopped trying to get Jack to come with her, then Giovani wouldn't have had a chance to shoot Laura. Or if she had taken the gun when you tried to give it to her, she could have shot Giovani first."
Aaron scoffed, shaking his head. "That's absurd. She followed orders; she's not required to carry a weapon. Who knows what Giovani would have done if she had a gun? You're completely speculating, Eliza."
"Okay, sure, defend her, like you always do," she said, turning her back to him. "She's not as perfect as you think she is, you know. She just chose Jack over you."
"This is ridiculous," Aaron said, tossing his hands up in the air, despite the fact that no one else could even hear their conversation. "I don't have time for this, Eliza. This is not a contest, okay? I'm just asking that, in the future, if you become aware of anyone else--Vampire, Hunter, Guardian, human--within the perimeter, please let me know. All right?"
"Fine," Eliza said, walking back over to the bedside.
