“I actually haven’t had the opportunity to examine her yet,” the doctor explained. “I know you have all been here for an eternity waiting for her to wake up, but I think it might be best if I checked her over alone, and then I’ll let you all back in the room, okay?”
Cadence knew what he wanted to see, if she had control over her ability to levitate, and if there was anything else unusual, but she could hardly say anything in front of their mom. “Come on. Let’s go wait outside.” Cadence stepped around the end of the bed and took her mother by the arm, having to pull a little harder than she expected, but Liz’s feet started moving after the second tug. Brandon kissed Cassidy on the cheek. Elliott put his hand on his son’s shoulder and followed Cadence out into the hall.
Immediately, Cadence requested visuals from Jamie, and he said he’d rather not, which irritated her to no end, so she tried her sister instead, and Cassidy turned them on. Jamie was checking her heart and all the other things he’d done for the rest of the team as they’d come to. “Your pulse is a little slower than usual, but everything sounds okay. How do you feel?” he asked.
“Weird,” she said, her hand fluttering around like everyone else’s had, though hers seemed slightly different. Rather than just moving faster, it seemed to ripple in the air.
Jamie noticed it too. “Why don’t you stand up for me for a minute? Be careful getting up.” He offered his hand, and she took it, but she seemed steady on her feet. He led her around the edge of the bed to the open part of the room, where Brandon had been pacing. “Do you feel okay?”
“Yeah. Just a little fuzzy. It’s weird. It’s like I’m vibrating on a different plane. I don’t think that probably makes much sense, but it’s like I’m moving through the air differently.”
“I think I understand,” he said, though Cadence was pretty sure she didn’t. “Take a few steps.”
Cassidy did as instructed, and then picked up her pace so that she was running. Her speed seemed to mirror the others who had gone through the process, but she was definitely moving the air differently. She turned at the wall and came back to Jamie, all in the blink of an eye.
“Do you think you can levitate just by thinking about it?”
“I can try.” She took a deep breath, like the idea of it made her nervous. As she exhaled, she slowly came up off of the floor and hung in front of the Healer for a few seconds before gently coming back to the ground. She didn’t look at all surprised that she was able to do it, despite her shock at waking up to find herself hovering above the bed.
“Interesting,” Jamie said, making a note on her chart. “Did you come down because you wanted to?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think you could go higher or stay up longer?”
“I’m pretty sure I can.”
“Okay.” He made another note. “Why don’t you sit back down on the bed for a second? There’s something else I’d like to check.”
Cassidy walked over to the bed she’s spent almost an entire day in and sat on the edge without any flying. She waited patiently for Jamie to finish writing on her chart, and Cadence wondered if he was going to ask her the same thing she would if she were in the room.
“Okay, I want you to try reaching out to Holland. I want to see if it’s the same or if it’s easier now.”
She nodded, as if she’d been expecting the same thing, and then closed her eyes, leaving Cadence in the dark. She wouldn’t be able to see what Cassidy saw, so she turned her attention to the other occupants of the hallway. Brandon was walking back and forth, like he always did when he was worried about Cassidy. Elliott was slumped against the wall, the look on his face telling her he wanted to tear someone’s head off, though it couldn’t be Cassidy’s, and this time she was the only one to blame, and Liz was crying softly.
Cadence felt bad that she hadn’t even noticed her mom’s tears and quickly wrapped her arm around her mom’s shoulders. “Mom, it’s okay. She’s fine.”
“Is she?” Liz sobbed. “I came to Kansas City so that I could be here for her, and… and… she still ends up getting herself into these terrible positions. I am… an awful mother!”
Pulling her mom’s head against her shoulder, Cadence stroked her hair. “No, Mom, no you’re not. You’re a wonderful mother. It’s not easy raising a half-Vampire child, that’s all.” She thought about Bonnie and how that experiment had ended in disaster only a few hours after the girl reached the facility. “Mom, don’t cry. Cass is fine. She just needs to learn some discipline.”
“You know, she reminds me of another new Hunter from a couple years ago, give or take a few months,” Elliott said, and Cadence turned to see his eyes still locked on the door across from them. “She almost got herself killed on the first hunt by doing something really, really stupid. But she learned from it, and she’s not half bad now.”
Liz looked over at him, having no idea what he was talking about, and Cadence wished she had a free arm so she could throw an elbow in his direction since he was clearly talking about her. But he did have a point. While Cadence still had to follow her instincts in a hunt, she’d learned a lot in a short amount of time. Part of it had come from getting shot, some from seeing people she loved get killed—like Jack and Elliott—but then she’d just grown up a little bit. Experience seemed to be everything, and maybe Cassidy really needed more of it, not to be excluded from the upcoming hunt because she’d done something rash and stupid once again.
