Chapter 164
The sounds of whispering woke me, and when I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see light pouring in the windows. It seemed like I’d only been asleep for a couple of minutes. I rubbed my eyes and stretched, only vaguely remembering where I should be.
“Oh, no,” Brandon said loudly enough to let me know he was no longer worried he’d wake me. “We’ve awoken the sleeping princess.”
“Just as well,” I heard another familiar voice say as I turned over to see what was going on. I knew before I looked at him that it was Jamie. “We have a meeting in a little while, so….”
“We do?” I asked, sitting up, hopeful. “You managed to talk them in to letting us go?” I smiled at Brandon, not even thinking of what I might look like.
“What?” Jamie asked, looking from Brandon to me and then back again.
“Uh, not yet,” Brandon said in a voice that let me know I may have blown his plan. “But I was about to mention it.”
“What’s going on?” the doctor asked, putting his hands on his hips. He was standing close to Brandon’s bed, his stethoscope around his neck, and I could only assume he’d been checking the new Guardian’s vitals. Jamie was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved blue polo shirt. For some reason, it still seemed odd to me to see any of them not wearing all black leather, though by now, I’d definitely seen them in street clothes much more frequently than their hunting garb.
“Well,” Brandon began, “I understand that I haven’t completed my training, so there’s no way they’ll take me to Philadelphia, assuming that’s where everyone is going. But… we just thought it might be good experience to sit in on the planning meeting so we can get an idea of how it goes down.”
“For both of us,” I emphasized, sitting up and brushing my hair down with my fingers, like that was going to help.
“Right, both of us,” Brandon nodded. I knew he’d said “we” but I wanted to make sure Jamie knew it wouldn’t be cool if they let Brandon go and not me.
“Are you asking me to stick my neck out for you again, Cass?” he asked. “I went out of my way to get you access to those cameras the other night.”
I wrinkled my brow at him. “Cadence said we could have that access.”
“That’s not what she told Christian, actually.”
“What?”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. My point is, I’m not sure I can get this done.”
I wondered what he was talking about but could only assume Cadence had told us one thing and planned on blaming Christian for not being able to get us access to the external cameras, but Jamie had talked him into it. “Listen, don’t ask Cadence,” I said, scooting to the edge of my bed. “Ask Aaron. He’ll say yes.” I knew he would, for some reason. Jamie was right to think Cadence would say no, though. It was beginning to be her favorite word.
“You want me to ask Aaron?” Jamie had his arms crossed and was staring at me like I was nuts.
“Yeah, just tell him you think it would be a good training experience for us…”
“Like I said,” Brandon added.
Jamie let out a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Great.” We both stared at him, like we meant right now, and he rolled his eyes. His expression shifted, and we could both tell he was talking to Aaron over the IAC.
About a minute later, he said, “So long as neither of you make a peep the entire time… he has agreed.”
I couldn’t control my excitement. “Yes!” I exclaimed.
“So long as you are quiet!” Jamie reminded us.
I jumped off of the bed and ran around Brandon’s, wrapping my arms around Jamie, who opened his in time, but still took a few steps backward. “I knew you were the right one!” I mumbled.
“What’s that?” he asked, lightly wrapping his arms around me.
“Nothing,” I said, wishing I knew how to keep my mouth shut. I let go of him and turned to look at Brandon who had one eyebrow raised.
“We should go get changed,” I suggested.
“And showered,” Brandon nodded, and I wondered if he thought I smelled bad. I looked at him intently for a moment, and he said, “Me. I need a shower.”
I nodded but didn’t know if I believed him. I crossed back over to my bed and slipped on my shoes and shoved my phone in my pocket. “Should I make the bed?”
“No, it’s fine,” Jamie said. When I turned back around, he had Brandon’s chart in his hands and was making some notes. I headed over to the chair where I’d left my jacket the night before and slipped it on, grabbing Brandon’s to hand to him. Jamie continued. “You are fine, as well, Brandon. You’re free to go. Do you remember where your temporary room is?” he asked, and I wondered when they’d even discussed that, but I thought maybe Brandon had been there longer yesterday than Cadence and I knew about, and also it was none of my business.
“Yeah, I remember,” he nodded, putting his shoes on and then his jacket.
“Okay. I’ll meet you guys in the lobby in our building,” he gestured at himself and me, “in half an hour. Cass, your sister will probably be gone by the time you get to her apartment, so I’ll make sure the door is unlocked for you.”
“Thanks,” I said, wondering where Cadence would be but once again thinking it was none of my business.
“See you in a bit.” Jamie turned and left the room, and I stared at Brandon for a second, still smiling about getting to attend the meeting.
“Well, we better hurry if we’re going to meet Jamie on time,” he said, slowly walking toward the door.
“Right,” I agreed, as he held it open for me. We walked down the hallway together in silence, and he opened the other door for me, too.
