One look at Brandon’s face made Cassidy stop talking. She had clearly said enough to upset him. After a moment of silence, she said, “I’m sorry. That was rude.”
“It’s okay,” he shrugged. “You’re right. I never got a chance to meet him. I’m glad you did though. You can tell me stories about him. All three of you can. I just wanted to see Sam before I Transform, to say that I faced him as a man, that’s all. He’s a big part of my motivation to be here, after all. It might make it a little easier if the Transformation gets painful, like you were saying, Cadence.”
Cadence sighed, still absently massaging her stomach. “What do you think?”
“I think we should let them go in. We’ll be in there with them, too. Sam’s so out of it, he probably won’t even say anything,” Aaron replied.
“It’s Sam. What if he says something vulgar or disgusting?” Cadence countered.
“Then we unplug his oxygen machine for a few minutes.” She could tell by his expression that he was joking. “I haven’t heard him say two words in the last few days. We’ll keep Cassidy back out of his line of vision, and maybe he’ll leave her alone.”
“Fine,” Cadence finally said aloud. “But you have to follow our directions completely. You have to stay back away from him. Got it?”
“Got it,” Brandon agreed, and Cassidy nodded.
“All right, let’s go before Jamie calls us to let us know he’s ready. I still think this is a bad idea….”
Cadence and Aaron led the way, holding hands and walking a good bit in front of the younger two, who seemed to be purposely straggling. As soon as they walked outside, Cadence’s stomach flipped over again, but she tried to ignore it, not sure what could possibly be making her feel as if a Vampire were nearby. There was no way a Vampire could be in their facilities undetected, and the ones that were there had never had her knotted up like this before. She didn’t want to alarm anyone, or be the butt of any more jokes--she was certain she was not pregnant. This felt exactly like a powerful Vampire, but she had no explanation for where it might be coming from.
“You okay?” Aaron asked, looking at her with that concerned look again.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just worried about Cassidy,” Cadence offered, which was true, although that’s not what her current unpleasant expression was really about.
“She’ll be fine,” he assured her.
“I know. It’s just… if anything ever happened to her. I mean, is this how it’s going to be on the hunts? Me always distracted, worried about her getting hurt?” Cadence asked.
“Possibly,” Aaron admitted. “I was pretty worried about you when you went on your observation hunt. Luckily, that was unfounded and nothing out of the ordinary occurred,” he joked.
“God, if Cass ever did what I did--went off after a Vampire by herself--I’d lose it,” Cadence admitted.
“Welcome to my world,” Aaron replied.
They crossed one of the streets that ran between the buildings, and Cadence couldn’t help but look around a little bit, as if she thought a Vampire might leap out at them. But she saw nothing out of the ordinary, so she continued the conversation. “I guess I never really thought about what it must be like to have someone you love in harm’s way every night until Cass and Brandon started talking about actually Transforming.”
“Thanks,” Aaron snickered.
“Oh, you know what I mean. I don’t worry about you. I mean, I do. But I don’t. Not like I would them. I know you can take care of yourself--short of some crazy renegade Hunter. And I know how to spot them now. I think. Anyway, she’s my baby sister, and he’s like a little brother. I just worry about them getting hurt.”
“I understand,” Aaron agreed, squeezing her hand. “We’ll just have to train them the best we can and do our best to keep them safe.”
Cadence nodded, hoping that would be sufficient. Her sister had always been so compliant, but lately, she seemed to be voicing her own opinion more, trying to be more of an adult than she really was. She was sixteen now, but she hadn’t even gotten her driver’s license yet, and Cadence couldn’t help but think of her as a child. When it came to Vampire hunting, she knew Cassidy would probably end up being very good at it--eventually. But she wasn’t ready to find out right now. She was afraid her sister was getting into something she just didn’t understand. “I guess it’s not likely she’d be willing to settle for a desk job.”
“Uh, no. She is your sister after all.”
“You got that right,” Cadence muttered. They had reached the building that contained the underground cells where Laura and Sam were being kept. Laura had been there for several months as they still tried to determine exactly what should be done with her. Sam was moved here a few days before, after Jamie decided he was stable enough to leave the hospital rooms he had near his office. Though they had not done much to help Sam heal, they did give him an oxygen machine to make it easier for him to breath and some mildly effective pain medicine.
Aaron pulled the door open and led the way down the stairs. “By the way, do you know what Eliza and her team are up to?”
“I have heard rumors that she is leading a raid tonight, though I’m not sure how good her intel is. Do you really think that she’s found Giovani’s lair?”
“I have no idea,” Aaron admitted. “She seems to think she’s got some good eye-witness reports that he’s there, though.”
“Well, if she manages to bring him in or destroy him, I say we put her back on our team,” Cadence replied as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
“I take it you don’t have a lot of faith in her ability to do either of those things?” he laughed.
“Should I?” Cadence asked as they stopped outside of Sam’s cell.
“She might just surprise us,” he offered.
“Sure. Who knows? Maybe he’ll just surrender and we can all call it a day!”
“That may be more probable than Eliza actually catching him or destroying him,” Aaron replied.
“I agree. Now, let’s get this over with.”
