Chapter 145
“Well, I’m not staying up for all that,” I said, yawning. “I say, we go to sleep, and we can work on that tomorrow. And if I can talk my sister into letting me go to KC tomorrow, then I’m doing it, and you two can fend for yourselves.”
“Like you were any help anyway,” Lucy teased, and I glared at her before she started giggling. “Okay, I agree. And I must say, I’m very proud of you for staying off of there without us the last few days as we agreed. And for staying away from the news headlines.”
“Thank you,” I said, getting up to grab my pajamas out of my dresser drawer. Emma had brought her sleeping bag and would crash on the floor, and while Lucy and I would both fit in the bed, I thought I might go sleep in Cadence’s room just because I kinda wanted some quiet, and Lucy had a tendency to talk until she passed out. “I have to say, though, this is truly killing me, you guys.” I turned and looked at them, and both of my friends wore sympathetic expressions. “I just… want to be part of it so bad.”
“I know,” Lucy nodded. “And you will be. Hopefully, we all will be, but if Jamie says we have to wait, I know you can trust that. He would know.”
“And… my parents still act like they have no idea any of this could be real even when I even slightly hint around at it,” Emma pointed out. She is not a subtle person, so I could only imagine what kind of clues she might be dropping. Maybe her parents didn’t even really know about the Clandestine Ternion.
“Well, all I know is, if they don’t let me do something more than look at security cameras soon, I’m gonna lose my mind,” I said, thinking that I might go stir crazy if Cadence didn’t take me to Kansas City the next day.
There wasn’t much for either of them to say, so they just nodded sympathetically again, and I headed down the hall to get ready for bed.
Later that night, I tossed and turned in Cadence’s room, thinking about how much my life had changed in the last ten months or so. I could imagine her friends from high school sitting in here that night, planning to go to the Eidolon Festival, Drew in the pink bean bag chair, no doubt. I thought about Aaron sneaking through the window later that night, one of my first clues that something weird was going on, and then the other times he’d snuck in. Elliott had come through that window, too. Who knows who else? My sister had slept here, dreaming of being a teacher, thinking Jack was dead, crying over Aaron. And now, here I was, wishing my life could be like hers.
I was ready. I knew it in my heart. I know Jamie had said more than once that the Transformation serum wouldn’t take until I was seventeen, but I could feel it in my bones. Not only would it take, I could be just as great as Cadence if only they’d give me a chance. When I thought about all the adventures she was having, all the people she was meeting, the places she’d visited, I couldn’t imagine staying in this tiny Podunk town for another year, not even for another minute. I could take some sort of accelerated courses and finish high school early, or get my GED, whatever I needed to get out of here.
Of course, my parents would never allow it. I wondered how old Brandon was, if he was actually going on that hunt tonight, if he was thinking of Transforming, or if he had already done so. Where did he grow up? How well did he know his dad? Why hadn’t Elliott even mentioned him to me? It was that last question that bothered me most of all. It wouldn’t be the first time someone shocked the crap out of me, but despite the fact that Elliott had mentioned he didn’t have a very good relationship with his grown children, I couldn’t see him walking away from Brandon. It just didn’t make sense. And I fell asleep thinking of the two of them together.
It was homecoming. I could tell by the lights and decorations. Everything looked the same as it had a few months ago when Elliott had chaperoned our spring dance. There he was, standing across the way, wearing a three-piece suit, a broad smile on his face. I saw a few of my friends, but it wasn’t Milo’s or Wes’s hand I reached for. It was Brandon’s. He had his hair slicked back, unlike his father, whose curls went whichever way they wished, and he, too, was dressed to impress in a pinstripe gray suit.
We twirled around the dance floor, not to a popular song but to some sort of waltz, and no matter how fast we spun or how high he lifted me up off the ground, I felt perfectly safe and calm, the way I always did when his dad was nearby, though I knew this feeling of protection wasn’t coming from Elliott. It was Brandon who made me feel like nothing could ever harm me.
That’s why, when I saw Giovani and Zabrina spinning across the dance floor, coming closer and closer, I didn’t panic. Not only was I certain Brandon would keep me safe, I felt perfectly confident in my own abilities as a Vampire Hunter. As Giovani’s maniacal smile filled my vision, I reached down and plucked a dagger off of my calf, ready to plunge it into his heartless chest.
I sat upright in Cadence’s bed, sweat pouring down my face, despite the fact that it was rather cold in her room. The sun was just poking through the slats on her blinds, and a quick glance at her nightstand told me it wasn’t quite 7:00 yet. I took a few deep breaths and reminded myself it was just a dream. I realized I wasn’t sweating or breathing hard because I had been afraid of the Vampires. I was feeling this way because I hadn’t gotten a chance to dispatch them the way I wanted to. I fell backward on to the pillows and tried to slow my pulse. Whatever it was inside my blood that was supposed to wait until I was seventeen to activate was clearly unaware of this stipulation. I was ready to Transform, and I felt like every fiber of my being was begging for the change. I had no idea how I could possibly last another year.
