“Earth to Cassidy?” Cadence said, once they were away from the historical figure.
“What?” Cass asked in a tone reserved for teenage girls. “I’m not deaf!”
“Uh, you are infatuated, though. Does Brandon know about this?”
Cassidy narrowed her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. “I am not infatuated. I just happen to take an interest in US history, unlike someone I know who totally takes it for granted and only got As because she sucked up to the teacher.”
Cadence decided now was not the time to argue with her sister about her schooling or try to let her know she was gushing all over a man old enough to be her great-great-who-knows-how-many-greats-grandfather, particularly when the age difference between herself and Aaron flickered through her mind. Instead, she said, “Look, we need to chat. How long will it take you to hit the showers and meet me over at mom and dad’s?”
“Ugh,” Cassidy groaned. “Can we go somewhere else? Mom is driving me crazy lately. Do you know my curfew is 10:00—on the weekend—unless I’m on a hunt? It’s 8:00 during the week. That’s so stupid. Brandon’s apartment is literally a floor above ours.”
“Okay… how about Brandon’s apartment then? Meet me there?”
“I have my schoolwork to finish still.”
“I’ll tell Mom.” She knew her mother would want to make sure Cassidy got her academic work done before anything else, but Cadence thought if she explained they needed to talk about the end of the world as they knew it, perhaps her mother would make an exception, just this once.
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “See you in twenty minutes?”
“Sounds good.” Cadence smiled, though once again it wasn’t genuine, and headed out of the simulator room. On the way, she passed by the gym and several smaller fitness areas. Normally, she wouldn’t have even turned her head, but the sound of familiar laughing caught her attention, and she peered into one of the training rooms to see Aurora and Elliott standing unusually close to each other—much closer than they would need to be in order to carry on a conversation. She ducked out of the way before either one of them noticed, but the sight struck her as odd. Why would Elliott even be at the gym right now? If he worked out, which was infrequent at best, it was usually late at night. Aurora was the head trainer, so it would make sense she’d be over here, but… something was going on, and neither of them had mentioned it, which was bothersome since she considered both of them to be extremely good friends.
She couldn’t think about that at the moment, though. There were far too many other pressing thoughts on her mind. The hall outside of the locker room was full of chattering kids again—she said kids, even though a lot of the new recruits were her age or older. Aaron said it didn’t really matter how old you were once you Transformed; it was experience that mattered most of all, and she got that in a real big way now. These people all looked like novices, teens who had no idea what they didn’t know, even if she wasn’t quite twenty-one yet and some of them could’ve been almost twenty-two. She could’ve been their grandma when it came to experience.
“Cadence!”
She heard Tara’s voice behind her as she hit the exit door and only slowed slightly. As much as she liked the new Hunter, she did act like an eighteen-year-old much of the time. Despite being much stronger and faster than any other Hunter now that she’d been brought back from death by a second dose of Transformation serum, Tara hadn’t been on any official hunts yet. She was almost through with her training and would start observations soon, but her only actual experience in the field had been the night Bonnie, a toddler Vampire Cassidy had brought home a few weeks ago, ripped Tara’s throat out. She also didn’t know jack.
“Hey, Tara.” The other girl fell into step alongside Cadence. “Where’s Dax?” As far as Cadence knew, the two were nearly inseparable since Dax had sat up all night waiting to see if Tara was going to survive the attack.
“He’s meeting me at the pizza place. Lucy’s supposed to meet us there, too. She’s so much fun. It’s too bad, what happened to her dad.”
Cadence heard a question coming in the lilt of Tara’s voice. It was too bad—what happened to Lucy Burk’s dad. And the sixteen-year-old wouldn’t be able to Transform and start her training until her seventeenth birthday, which wasn’t for another few weeks. How she’d managed to kill the Vampire was still a mystery. While she’d chosen to go ahead and come here, her mother and older brother had decided to ride it out, staying in Shenandoah. Cadence often wondered if she’d be able to do the same, if something happened to a loved one, could she still live in the house where they’d died? Mr. Burk had saved the rest of his family by sacrificing himself to the Vampire who invaded their home that night, but he’d suffered and died just the same.
“So… I was wondering… do we know… when we’re going after her again?”
There it was. The question of the day. When would they organize on Holland? She had wondered the same thing. “No, not right now,” Cadence replied, trying to keep her voice light, as if it was all being handled. “I’m sure we’ll go after the smaller pockets first, then move up to the larger ones before we move on her.”
Cadence turned the corner. They were almost to the apartment building where the new recruits stayed. Even though it had been decided that Tara and Dax would be staying in KC, they hadn’t been given new rooms in the other building yet, and for now, Lucy was staying with Tara because Cadence’s own mother had been too much for the girl; staying with Cassidy and her parents in a two bedroom apartment hadn’t lasted past a two week trial.
“Right,” Tara said, turning onto the sidewalk that led to the building. The pizza parlor was in the basement. “It’s just… I was thinking…. Alex said, ‘Cut off the head to kill the snake.’”
Her patience all but gone, Cadence asked, “And?”
Tara took a step backward, as if she was now afraid of her Leader for her not-so-sweet question. “And… I was thinking, if we took out Holland, we might be able to handle the rest of them more easily.”
Of course, the same argument had been made several times both to and by Cadence several times over the last few weeks, but when she was making the argument, she was overruled, and when she was listening to the argument be made to her, she was bound by loyalty. “Yes, it’s been discussed. We are still… discussing.” It was about all she could say at the time, considering so much was still up in the air. She was beginning to feel more than a little overwhelmed herself.
Tara had a look on her face that told her that she wished she’d never mentioned it in the first place. “Oh, good.” She smiled and began to walk backward. “Okay. Well, if there’s anything I can do….”
“I will let you know.” Cadence’s face hurt from fake smiling. Tara turned and hurried away in a blur, and Cadence was glad for her speed so she could concentrate on something other than why they were not going after Holland first.
