The lights were bright, and since Vampires didn’t generally care for illumination anyway, Bonnie resumed her position, hiding her head in Cassidy’s shoulder. Cadence assumed she felt most comfortable that way anyway. The remaining female Guardian opened the door and Cadence walked in, followed by Cassidy. The rest of the women stayed in the vehicle.
Cadence had no idea where she was going, so she was thankful when Aaron began to guide her without even having to be asked. He told her how to get to the intake center from there and to ask for Faye once she reached it. Cadence also didn’t think it was likely a coincidence that all of the other Guardians they encountered along the way were women.
Eventually, they came to a set of double doors that had “Intake” written on the glass in the same sort of black bold letters one might expect to see at a doctor’s office. The butterflies in Cadence’s stomach, the kind she always felt when Vampires were around, ramped up beyond what Bonnie had been causing on the ride over. She put them out of her mind, sure it was because of her location and pushed the door open to find what looked like a waiting room. None of the chairs were occupied, which Cadence found odd this time of night.
She made her way to the little window where one might encounter a nurse if this really was a doctor’s office and waited a moment. A friendly looking woman dressed all in white with short brown hair appeared a moment later. “Hello there,” she said, and Cadence would’ve thought she was an actual nurse, and possibly a human, if she didn’t realize no mortal in their right mind would’ve taken this gig. “How can I help you?”
“Hi, we need to see Faye, please,” Cadence said, smiling, though it was the last thing she wanted to do. She could only imagine how she looked in comparison to this cheery, clean woman dressed in white. Cadence was covered in dirt and grime, probably a whole lotta Vampire, too, and she felt like she’d been hit by a train. Her arm hadn’t completely healed, though the scratches on her neck were a lot better. Her shoulder smarted a little where Elliott had accidentally shot her. Cassidy, on the other hand, looked like a fairy who had just flittered down from a tree.
“Sure thing, hon,” the woman said, still grinning like a Cheshire cat. She picked up a phone and pushed a button. “Faye? Someone’s here to see you. Okay.” She put the receiver down and said, “She’ll be right here.”
“Thank you,” Cadence said, stepping back. It seemed this woman had no idea who she was, which she would’ve found odd if she’d ever spent any time on this side of campus at all. She wondered if Aaron would’ve been recognized and decided the answer was a resounding yes. You only needed to see him one time to know who he was the next time you encountered him.
The door to their left opened and a woman wearing a long white coat, like a doctor, stepped through. She appeared to be in her mid-to-late forties, with short white-blonde hair. “Cadence, Cassidy,” she said, smiling. “I was expecting you. Who is this little one?” She stepped forward and gently put her hand on Bonnie’s back. The child turned her head slightly to look but didn’t lose her grip on Cassidy’s neck.
“This is Bonnie,” Cass said, tears threatening again. “She, uh, she’s had a tough night.”
“Poor baby,” Faye said. “Why don’t you ladies come on back, and we’ll see if we can find you a snack, okay, precious?”
Bonnie nodded, but didn’t let go, and Faye headed back to the door, waiting for a moment with her hand on the knob before she opened it, and Cadence assumed she was putting in an IAC code.
They walked down a long hallway that looked like any other doctor’s office and turned left into a wider space that was full of toys, games, coloring books, all sorts of things that might be interesting to a little Vampire. Cadence gasped. If she’d seen this the first time she’d come over, she didn’t remember it. “So… how often do we get kids?”
“Not often,” Faye replied. “But it does happen. Usually, it’s parents who don’t want to go on without their babies,” she explained, making Cadence’s heart feel heavy again and getting another whimper out of Cass. “We can’t really hold that against them. Sometimes, non-compliant Vampires will turn a child, and another Vampire will help us find them.”
“Bonnie, do you want to play with the toys?” Cassidy asked. “There’s a doll.”
The child pushed back a little bit, and seeing the toys for the first time, her eyes widened. Immediately, she wiggled down from Cassidy’s grip.
Faye smiled and walked over to a mini-refrigerator posed high on a shelf where the little ones likely wouldn’t be able to reach it, although they might have been able to use their superhuman powers to jump up and access it if they wanted to. There seemed to be a code on that, too. Faye reached in and pulled open what looked like a clear juice box filled with strawberry or cherry flavored juice. She took a few steps over to a microwave and a few seconds later pulled out the beverage. “Bonnie, you want a snack?”
The little girl’s attention flickered away from the doll, and she practically ran to Faye, like she was starving. Cadence watched in amazement, and slight horror, as she downed it through the straw-like top.
“Where does—” Cadence began.
“Donations,” Faye assured her. “We encourage the humans who work at headquarters to donate. We also purchase blood that is about to go bad from blood banks.”
“Fascinating,” Cadence muttered.
“So what happens now?” Cassidy asked as Bonnie handed her the empty container and went back to the doll. The child’s face wasn’t nearly as pale now, and she seemed reenergized. Cassidy stepped over to a trash can and tossed in the used dispenser.
“We will keep her in here for as long as she wants to play, and then when she gets tired, we’ll take her to a room. In the morning, we’ll look at a permanent arrangement for her. As you know, we have Compliants that we work with on a regular basis. It’s possible one of them may be willing to take her.”
