Standing in a makeshift hospital room surrounded by twenty-some-odd Guardians whose bodies were struggling to put themselves back together, Cadence tried to concentrate on what the doctor was explaining to her, but too many distractions filled her mind, and she ended up just nodding along.
It should’ve helped that Dr. Cale Ryan was the second hottest guy that she’d ever met in real life. With his wavy blond hair and light blue eyes, he was tall and dreamy. And his British accent was to die for. When they’d first met the year before, she’d fallen for him almost immediately. Her anger at Aaron had driven her on a self-discovery tour that eventually took her to Cale’s territory—Nevada—and while their relationship had been short-lived thanks to the ambush and tragedy at Sierraville, she still counted the doctor as a friend. So paying attention to him shouldn’t have been this difficult. When Aaron had asked him to catch a plane the night before and come help out, he hadn’t hesitated, even though he was aware there was a possibility something similar could happen on his own turf while he was gone. Luckily, he’d left Reno in capable hands since Morgan, previously the Area Leader of Billings, Montana, had recently joined Cale in Nevada. And in his bedroom, which was none of Cadence’s business but still stung her a little. She’d never really cared for the bossy brunette and thought her ex could do better.
“So really, morphine and time is all we have until the other Healers recover,” Cale said, stopping in front of yet another hospital bed, checking the clipboard in his hand and then the chart at the end of the bed. This one was occupied by a female Guardian who appeared to be sleeping, though Cadence wasn’t sure if that was medically induced or a product of the horrendous night they’d all been through.
“Well, if that’s all we can do,” she said quietly, trying to pretend she’d heard everything he said. Of all the injured Guardians in this room, the only one she could name was Faye, who was likely the worst off. By the time the Healers-in-training had gotten to her the night before, they’d been mostly depleted. Cadence had assumed Faye would have some healing powers herself since she was a doctor, but it turns out she was not that sort of talented, and so she lay bandaged up under a white sheet with her swollen eyes closed, deep blue circles beneath them.
Cadence also recognized the Guardian who’d opened the gate for her, Cassidy, and Bonnie the night they’d brought the little devil in. He’d been treated by one of the Healers and was on the mend, but she could tell by his expression he blamed himself as much as she did for what had transpired. While there was no way any of them could’ve possibly known what was going to happen, Cadence felt the bulk of the blame lay on her shoulders. Never mind the fact that she’d opened the portal….
“Cadence?” Cale said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head slightly. “Yeah, sorry. I just… I, uh, was just thinking about… everything.”
Cale nodded, his kind eyes crinkling in understanding. “It’s been a long week for you. Did you sleep last night?”
“Not much,” she admitted. She ran a hand through her long brown hair. “After we got everything under control, I helped Christian get Tara settled and Jamie in a place where he could rest. Then, Aaron called an emergency meeting, so I had to go to that, of course.” The memory of him standing in front of all of them in that blood soaked lavender shirt, the one he hated but wore anyway because he knew how much she liked it, made her already queasy stomach roll over. At least his neck had mostly healed, and even though she’d hardly seen him at all that day, and it was nearly 3:00 in the afternoon, she was certain he would be all right.
“There was so much going on when I got here,” Cale nodded. “Cleaning up this place practically took an army. And so many people needed medical attention, hours after the attack.”
Attack was a pretty good word for it, she thought. “Yeah, once we’d calmed everyone down and figured out how to make sure we didn’t end up with any bloodsucking visitors in the middle of the night with so many Guardians down, I finally headed back to our apartment to take a shower and collapse.” She knew Aaron had come in a little later to shower and toss his clothes in the trash, but she hadn’t spoken to him, and this morning he’d been so busy, there hadn’t been much more than a brief check in She’d also been busy talking with Hunter Leaders around the globe. So far, it seemed like everything was back to normal, although slow, and now she was certain that was because the Vampires were planning similar attacks as to the one that had happened here.
“Well, that’s all I wanted to explain to you,” Cale said as a woman Cadence didn’t recognize came in and started checking the patients. “That’s Inga. She’s a nurse. I brought her with me.”
“Right,” Cadence nodded. She was glad he’d been so diligent. “Okay. I’m going to go check on Tara and Cass.”
“Thanks for stopping by,” Cale said, giving her a sympathetic smile that let her know he didn’t envy everything she was dealing with.
“Are you kidding?” she replied, already walking backward toward the door. “Thank you for coming. You’re a lifesaver. Literally. You save lives.”
His rich chuckle was soft so as not to bother the sleeping patients. “See you, Cadence.”
She surveyed the wounded one more time before stepping out into the hallway, one of the many she’d sprinted down the night before dodging puddles of blood, and headed back toward Jamie’s office, hoping there’d be some sort of progress with their secret project but thinking there probably wasn’t or else Christian would’ve let her know by now. At least Aaron hadn’t seemed to figure it out yet, which was something. While she hated what had happened, it did serve as the perfect distraction for her covert operations, not that she didn’t wish she could go back and change it. The irony in the idea that this whole thing had started because she had wished to go back and change something that had gone horribly wrong wasn’t lost on her as she pushed open the shiny new exterior door that had just been replaced that morning. Too bad there was no one left to man it.
