“We’ve got two dozen Guardians there now, back to watching on rooftops, the same sort of procedure we ran when Cadence and Cassidy were at risk,” Hannah continued in her even voice. “I’m certain they’ll be fine in the short term, until we can shut this business with Holland down.”
“We don’t seem to be gettin’ a whole lot closer to that,” Elliott muttered, tapping the end of a pencil he probably wouldn’t need for anything against the table.
“I don’t think that’s a fair statement,” Aaron said in his calm voice. “We’ve gotten nearly two thousand Guardians to come up from Roatan. We have a good handle on Melbourne now, we’ve taken out eighty-two pockets of Vampires in the last month alone. The ones that are congregating, the ones Holland intends to use to invade our headquarters, are on their heels.”
“Yeah, but those are the only ones that matter.” Cadence was surprised to hear Jamie disagree so openly with Aaron. He was usually more agreeable. “If we can’t get a handle on them soon, then the rest of these Vampires who really aren’t involved aren’t going to make a difference.”
“They are involved,” Aaron argued, his voice a slight bit sharper than usual. “They just haven’t cooperated fully with Holland’s initiative yet. That doesn’t mean they won’t.”
“So… what do we do?” Aurora asked, obviously as frustrated as everyone else. Her hands were folded on the table in front of her. Cadence saw a flicker of a look between Aurora and Elliott, who was seated to Cadence’s left, and for a moment, she thought it might mean something. Or maybe it was nothing…. “Remind me what we’re doing—waiting for them to—what?”
A sigh of exasperation left her fiancé, and Cadence wished there was a way to tell a person to calm down that actually caused the person to do so. “We need to know for sure what Holland’s numbers are, whether or not that formula she came up with in late February that she thinks will allow her to kill Guardians is effective, and now, what this new shifter business is. I don’t like going in against dozens of Vampires that can do who knows what without that sort of information.”
“But—if Cassidy can’t get it,” Aurora argued, “then we don’t have a choice do we?”
“I think she can get it,” Aaron assured everyone, but really no one.
Cadence wanted to shake her head. She had more faith in her sister’s ability than anyone, but her potential to see into Holland’s head had almost become a vice. Aaron was afraid to act if he didn’t know exactly what Holland was doing, and Cassidy couldn’t be completely sure of anything she thought she knew since Holland was aware that Cassidy had these capabilities. “I will talk to my sister again, right now, see what she can find out what Holland is up to, but in the meantime, we also need visuals on Spittle’s group. If we get a location on him and go in there full force, we’ll get rid of the direct threat of another invasion here. We should be able to do that.”
“What about the procedures?” Elliott asked, his eyes meeting Aurora’s again before he looked at Jamie. “When can we do that?”
“Well, if you guys want to attack right away….” Aaron was clearly using Cadence and Elliott’s decision to use the Transformation serum to strengthen themselves as a weapon against them, and she had no idea why.
“I have no problem doing it whenever Aaron gives the okay,” Jamie said implying he was not the one hanging up the operation. He shrugged and spread his hands on the table palm up.
Cadence’s eyes fell on her fiancé. She had been under the impression Jamie wasn’t done with the tissue sample trials. She wondered how many days Aaron had been putting it off, assuming everyone thought Jamie was still working.
“Great. Let’s do it. Today,” Aaron said, standing and heading toward the door.
Her mouth open, Cadence watched him go--like everyone else. But she didn’t get up and run after him as she imagined she might. Instead, she shifted her eyes to Jamie who looked as exasperated as she felt.
“What the hell?” Elliott asked for all of them.
She felt the weight of his eyes on her and turned her head. “Don’t ask me. I have no idea.”
“Well, clearly, something is bothering him,” Hannah stated in her serene voice that usually kept Cadence calm but at the moment it made her want to throat punch someone.
“Maybe you should go see what it is,” Cadence suggested. “He’s more likely to talk to you than anyone else.”
“Me?” Hannah seemed surprised at Cadence’s assessment. “I would think you should do that.”
“Nah, I’m just his fiancée. You’re his right hand girl.”
Hannah looked around, and once she could see that she had the consensus of the rest of the table, she stood and quietly walked out the door. Cadence wished she hadn’t made the suggestion as a pang of jealousy hit her in the gut, but she knew there was nothing between Hannah and Aaron except a decades long friendship and years of working together. Still, she probably should’ve gone herself. She just didn’t know what else to say…. She’s already tried so many times to get through to him with no success.
“So we jump on this before he changes his mind?” Elliott asked Jamie, as if it wasn’t a question.
“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Christian said, standing and heading out the door himself. Cadence was relieved to see him go. Even though the tissue samples he’d tested himself showed nothing to be concerned about, he’d been against it, and she assumed that was because he was not on Aaron’s short list to undergo the procedure.
“Yeah, I guess so.” Jamie didn’t sound so confident. “But let’s do it in the morning. Cadence, that will give you a chance to finish up everything you were working on, get Aurora up to speed on everything, since I assume she’ll be in charge of the Hunters while you’re out.” He gestured to the Amazonian redhead to his right, now that Christian’s chair was vacant. “And Elliott, it will give you a chance to… do whatever you do when you’re not hunting.”
A smirk spread across Elliott’s face. “All right. More Cheetos and basketball.”
