“You—guy whose name I can’t remember….” Cadence continued.
“Dax.”
“Right. Find a phone. Dial extension 011. You should get Aurora. Tell her to arm herself, get Meagan, and go to the trainee apartment complex. Tell her we need Ona Pierce and, uh….”
“Martin Green!” Jamie shouted in a whisper.
“Martin Green. As soon as possible. Tell them to be extremely careful.”
“Okay. A phone….” Dax looked around. Since everyone had an IAC, there weren’t too many of them in all of headquarters.
“I’ll go with you,” Cassidy said, placing her hand gently on Tara’s arm before she stood. “There’s a phone at Lena’s desk, and I think I might be able to use her computer to fix the IAC problem.”
“You do?” Cadence asked, eyeing her sister suspiciously. She knew she was very techy, but this seemed like something only Christian would be able to fix.
“Yeah. I saw what happened to it, and I think I can reverse it,” Cassidy replied. Glancing over her shoulder at Jamie, she said, “Is his name really Spittle?”
“That’s what they call him, yeah,” he replied, his eyes wide.
Cadence turned back to face her sister, assuming that wasn’t something she and the Healer had discussed. “Who is… Spittle?”
“A Vampire. He did something to make the alarm system jam the IACs. It’s running some sort of interference signal. If I can get into it, I might be able to turn it off. That one alarm, the one that’s still going off, it didn’t work, and I think that’s why my IAC worked when I was standing over there.”
“But Cass, Brandon wasn’t even in here, and he couldn’t reach any of us.”
Her sister’s forehead crinkled. “That’s… weird.”
“This whole damn thing is weird,” Cadence replied, knowing it went without saying. “Go. Do your best. Be careful.”
Cassidy nodded and put her arm on Dax’s shoulder, pushing him out the door in front of her, and they both took off sprinting for Lena’s desk.
“Okay, Doc, what do you need?”
“I don’t think you can get it.”
Cadence pursed her lips at him and folded her arms.
“No offense, it’s just… complicated.”
“Can you even walk?”
Jamie took a deep breath and pulled his hands away from Tara who let out a groan of pain. His fingers were caked in dried blood, both his own from the scratches he’d received from Bonnie, though those were healed by now as he had no control over healing himself, but most of the blood was from the girl who still lay dying, slowly, on the floor. Cadence rushed over and helped him get to his feet. He swayed slightly, but she steadied him, and he inhaled through his nose. “There, yeah, not so bad.” He promptly took a few steps like a drunkard leaving a bar, and Cadence kept ahold of him so he wouldn’t fall.
“Jame, let me help you,” she said as he pressed her to release him.
“You stay here with them,” he insisted, seeming to get a slight bit of color back in his cheeks the longer he was away from the injured Hunter. “I’ll be back.”
Knowing there was little point in arguing, Cadence watched him steady himself as he crossed to the door, moving so slowly he looked almost human.
Tara was clearly in pain now that Jamie had left. She was making a shallow moaning noise, and Cadence wished there was something she could do to make her feel better, but nothing much came to mind. With a sigh, she sunk to the floor and took Cassidy’s spot, facing the door with her Glock on her lap. She reached down and picked up Tara’s hand and held it.
If she’d ever met the girl, she didn’t remember her, which was sad. For all Cadence knew, she might turn out to be a really good Hunter, one they’d want to keep around. And she hadn’t bothered to learn her name yet. While Cadence realized it would be impossible to keep up with every single Hunter in the world, she knew she needed to work on this. Now.
She noticed that Tara was beginning to shiver, and she assumed she must be going into shock. Normally, she would have thought that would happen more quickly, but who knows what processes Jamie had restarted by healing her as much as he could. The flesh on her neck was put back together almost completely now, and her shoulder looked better. No fresh blood appeared to be seeping out, though it was hard to tell with what was already caked on there.
Cadence looked around the room, wondering if there might be any blankets in any of the cabinets that she could toss over the girl. She didn’t see any, but a lab coat was hanging on a hook by the door, so she got up and went over to get it. Spreading it across the girl’s arms and chest, she smoothed back her hair. “You’re okay, Tara,” she whispered quietly. “You’re going to be fine. Jamie will be right back.”
Tara’s lips were trembling, but Cadence thought she was trying to speak. “It’s okay. Don’t say anything. Just rest. Think about breathing.” She brushed back her thick brown hair again and ran her hand down her face, trying to comfort her.
Undeterred a hoarse whisper forced its way through Tara’s taut lips. “M-m-mom?”
It was a question, and it brought tears to Cadence’s eyes. Even though she was no child, here on the floor, in a pool of her own blood, the teenager was a little girl again, and Cadence briefly thought of the child she’d helped destroy earlier, the same child that had clung to her sister the night before. It all seemed surreal. Once this was all over, Cadence was certain that Cassidy would come undone.
“M-m-mom?”
“Yes, sweetie,” Cadence found herself saying. “I’m here. It’s… it’s okay. You’re fine. Shush, now. It’s okay.”
Tara’s face seemed to relax then, as if she thought her mom was truly there, and Cadence continued to smooth her hair, whispering quietly, praying Jamie hurried the hell up.
