“So what happened after that?” Elliott asked, finally having processed all that she’d already told him.
“Well,” Cadence began, taking the lid off of a bottle of water, “I beat the shit out of Laura, and we chased Camille down with the help of Cale’s choppers. Aaron shot her with one of the titanium bullets they’d used on us.”
“Really?” Elliott asked, perking back up. “A Guardian killed a Hunter?”
“Yep,” Cadence confirmed. “There’s been a few changes since you died.”
“I’ll say,” Cale muttered, and Cadence elbowed him, not wanting to dump everything on Elliott all at once.
The dead man had recovered his appetite and dug into Cale’s sushi. “What happened to the rest of them?”
“Finn got away for a few months, but we tracked him down, and Jamie and Christian both got a shot in on him. So he’s out of the picture. It was harder to get to Sam, but we found him in Texas back in September. After an airplane chase that resulted in two crashed airplanes, let’s just say he’s a little broken up about the whole thing.”
Elliott looked at her for a moment, as if he didn’t quite understand, and then his deep laughter filled the room. “You mean, he was in a plane crash, and Jamie wouldn’t fix him?”
“Yep.”
Still laughing, and shoveling sushi into his mouth, Elliott managed, “Now that’s funny. Where’s he at now?”
“In a jail cell beneath one of the office buildings at headquarters. Next to Laura.”
“And who crashed the other plane?”
“Aaron did,” Cadence replied, thoughts of those few moments when she wasn’t sure if he was all right making her shudder. “He walked away.”
Elliott nodded. “Well, that’s quite a story. What else did I miss? You still haven’t told me what’s going on with Cass.”
Cadence and Cale exchanged knowing glances, and she swallowed the lump in her throat. “Well, that’s kind of a long story. I was thinking maybe you should borrow Cale’s phone and give Aaron a call. Maybe you should do that first.”
Elliott was serious now. He wiped his hands on a napkin and leaned back in his chair. “Cadence, what happened to your sister?”
Chewing the inside of her mouth for a moment, Cadence considered how best to explain what had happened in Philadelphia only a few months before. His green eyes continued to pierce through her until she could take it no more. With a deep breath, she began. “We were tracking Giovani. Cass and her friends helped us figure out that he was actually in Philadelphia. He’d kidnapped a serial killer named Gibbon, and we thought he was in the process of turning him. So… Aaron and I assembled our best team and went to Philadelphia to get Giovani, Zabrina, and Gibbon. I left Cassidy at headquarters with… a new Guardian.” She couldn’t spring everything on him all at once; Brandon would have to wait a few minutes more. “She somehow managed to convince this guy to take her to Philly via train. So when we got there, and we’d pinpointed Giovani’s location, we found out Giovani had actually had one of his minions track Cass to the station, and Zabrina grabbed her. They were holding her until I got there so they could trade. Which I did—immediately. But… she got scratched in the process.”
Elliott’s face was ashen, his eyes doubled in size. “Oh, my God!” he whispered. “Is Cass… a Vampire?”
“No,” Cadence interjected quickly.
“Jamie was able to save her, sort of,” Cale spoke up, his hand resting on Cadence’s arm.
“What do you mean sort of?” Elliott asked, the color still evading his face.
With another deep breath, Cadence continued. “Jamie started the Transformation process, and Cassidy only took on a few characteristics of a Vampire.”
Nearly tipping the chair over, Elliott leaned back abruptly. “A few? Like what? What the hell, Cadence?”
“I know you’re upset. We are all upset, but she’s really okay. She’s mostly her old self. She has one gray eye…”
“One gray eye?” he interrupted. “Seriously?”
“Yes, but the other one is normal. And she doesn’t drink blood or anything. She hardly ever even has fangs.”
“Are you shitting me? You have got to be joking.” He ran his hand through his hair so tensely several strands came out in his grasp.
“Elliott, she’s fine. I promise. And she’s going to be so happy to see you.” Cadence leaned forward so she could put her hand on his arm. “She’s actually going to be able to help us out quite a bit. She can hear what they are thinking now.”
“Oh, well, that’s just fabulous,” Elliott replied, sarcasm dripping from each word. “Hell, let’s create a whole legion of these Hybrid Hunter-Vampire creatures and use them to defeat the bloodsuckers once and for all.”
“As upset as you are, it really doesn’t make a difference now,” Cale said, his calm voice attempting to speak reason. “There’s nothing we can do to change the past.”
“That’s what I used to think, too,” Elliott replied, leaning forward again, “until I awoke from death.”
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do to change this,” Cadence agreed, although she wasn’t sure now. She wasn’t sure of anything. “Jamie is looking into it though.”
“If anyone could find a way to change it, Jamie can,” Cale nodded.
“Yeah, well, regardless of how Cassidy is adjusting to her new life, I want to meet the bastard that let her talk him into taking her to Philly in the first place. What kind of an idiot would let a sixteen-year-old girl convince him into walking into such a dangerous situation? He’s going to have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.”
Once again, Cadence and Cale exchanged nervous glances, and his hand slipped up to rest around the back of her neck, a gesture of reassurance, she assumed. “Well, Elliott, that’s the other huge, gigantic news I needed to tell you,” she explained.
Elliott looked at her face, to the calm doctor, and then back again. “What huge, gigantic news is that?”
Smoothing her hair back with both hands, Cadence sighed. “He’s also a teenager. He’s only eighteen. And he’s a great kid. Funny, very talented. About the only Guardian I’ll let run with me now, besides Aaron. You’re really going to like him….”
“Yeah, I’m sure we’ll get along just fine after I tear his head off.”
“We already went through all of that, and he feels just terrible. He really cares a lot about Cass,” Cadence attempted to assure him.
“I’m sure he got a fine lecture from Mr. Responsibility,” he guffawed, clearly meaning Aaron, “but my lectures have a little more force behind them.” He was pounding his fist so hard on the armrest of Cale’s chair by the time he finished the statement, Cadence was thinking they may need to go furniture shopping next.
“Listen, Elliott, Brandon’s a really good kid. You are literally going to love him.” She wasn’t sure if he was listening as he continued to mumble threats under his breath. Once again, she placed her hand on his leg, an attempt to get his attention. “Elliott, his name is Brandon Keen.” She waited for him to begin to process. “Keen. As in Amanda Keen.”
She had him now. Once again, his eyes were large, and his face began to lighten. “Keen?” he repeated. “He’s… Amanda’s kid?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “And yours.”
