“Cassidy unjammed it, whatever it was. Maybe she can walk you through it so you can make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Cadence’s sister glanced up briefly but then returned her attention to her friend who appeared to be sleeping again.
“I’m sure I can figure it out,” Christian replied, obviously unwilling to admit he might need help at all, much less from a sixteen-year-old girl. “Anyway, Jamie said once we administered the serum, we could move her over to the operating room. How long do you think it’ll take?”
“Me?” Cadence asked, not sure what he meant. “How long do I think it’ll take to work? I have no idea. For Aaron, it was overnight. But… he died first. So… there’s that.”
“Yeah, Jamie said he hoped he was awake before that happened so he could keep it under wraps.” He looked at the two teenagers in the room suspiciously, as if it was just now donning on him that his nefarious act had witnesses. “You guys can’t mention this to anyone, got it? Nobody.”
“Mention what?” Dax asked, clearly confused.
“Exactly,” Christian said, winking at him. Cadence felt her stomach lurch a little bit and wasn’t sure if it was because she was queasy from giving blood or if it was the creepy look on the Revolutionary War hero’s face.
“No, really, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” Dax said, running his hand through his hair. He looked more overwhelmed than anyone else, which was saying something, and Cadence couldn’t blame him.
“Dax, you have had one hell of a first day,” she said, stepping over to where he had resumed his pacing and putting her hand on his shoulder. “I promise you, most days around here are nothing like this.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not sure I wanna stick around to find out. Crazy kid Vampires ripping people’s throats out, people talking to each other through their eyes, doctors who fall asleep on the job, weird winking guys who appear and drug people while they’re passed out. I’m not really sure this is all for me.”
Cadence stifled a laugh. “Well when you put it like that….” She could see in his eyes he didn’t find it humorous. At all. “Look, I think the excitement is done for now. Why don’t you head back to your apartment, take a shower, get some sleep, and we’ll see you sometime tomorrow. As late in the day as you want.”
“What about Tara?” he asked, his voice softened. “She was my friend, if only for a few hours. I don’t want to abandon her. You guys said something about her dying.”
Taking a deep breath, Cadence glanced at the girl on the floor, who looked like she was in a peaceful slumber now, despite her blood soaked shirt. “Look, Jamie didn’t know what else he could do to save her, so he asked Christian,” she gestured at the Guardian who stood with his hands in his pockets between Jamie and Tara, rocking back and forth on his heels, “to administer some Transformation serum to see if that might save her. We’ve never really done that before, not under these circumstances anyway, so we don’t know if it will work or not. The only other time something remotely like this has happened to any of us was last year when something happened with Aaron, and I gave him another dose of the serum. He… died… for a little while. Obviously, he’s alive now.”
“And he has superpowers even above ours,” Christian chimed in.
Giving him a hard look, Cadence silenced him, wishing he’d just shut his mouth and let her explain. “We did this to try to save her, but not everyone might think it was a good idea. So… we’d appreciate it if you don’t mention it to anyone else, okay?”
“Okay,” Dax nodded. “But… are you saying she might die and then come back to life?”
“I honestly don’t have any idea what might happen to her,” Cadence admitted, “but Jamie wouldn’t have done this unless he knew it was her only chance. Jamie is an exceptional Healer, maybe the most powerful one who’s ever lived. If he couldn’t put her back together, it couldn’t be done. He knows what he’s doing.”
Dax nodded, though he still looked confused.
Turning back to Christian, Cadence asked, “Did you drive over here?”
“I did,” he nodded.
“Okay. Why don’t you grab Doc, and Dax and I will carefully carry out Tara, and we’ll move them to your office building?”
“I can help,” Cassidy reminded them.
With a deep breath, Cadence forced a smile and said, “Okay, you and I will move Tara. Dax, if you’ll take Jamie’s medical bag to the car, that would be most helpful.”
Carefully, Cadence lifted Tara’s upper torso off of the ground, trying not to jar her, waited for Cassidy to take her legs, and followed Christian out of the building. He had Jamie slung over his shoulder like a small child. While the thought that Aaron would potentially kill her if he found out what they’d done filled her head, she decided that was the least of their worries. What had happened here tonight was something out of a nightmare, and it was her fault. There had to be a way to determine what had come through those portals and stop it before anything worse happened. If the Vampires had succeeded in the plan Cassidy had explained to all of them, hundreds of Hunters could’ve lost their lives, and since the maps indicated the plan was to attack each of the major headquarter buildings, it seemed like it was just a matter of time until they were back--in force. LIGHTS had to be ready.
The girls carefully slid Tara into the back of the SUV Christian had taken on his date with Ashley, and once Jamie was buckled into the passenger seat, Christian came around and got behind the wheel. “Drive carefully,” Cadence warned. “You don’t need to give Jamie a concussion.”
Christian smiled mischievously and took off, and Cadence wished she could be in the vehicle, too. Her legs felt heavy and the thought of trudging back across campus seemed exhausting. But the night wasn’t over yet. With her arm around her sister, and Dax at her side, she followed the fading taillights of the SUV praying the worst was over and the next day would be a typical, ordinary day.
