Chapter 253
I walked into the dining room to find Brandon lighting a candle, two plates of chicken and pasta ready to eat, with cloth napkins and the good silverware. “Would you like your pop in the can or on ice, my lady?” he asked, taking the stance of a waiter with his arm out in front of him.
Laughter pealed out of my mouth before I could even thank him for going to so much trouble. “You really didn’t have to do all of this,” I said, shaking my head.
“My pleasure, my lady,” he replied in some odd British-ish sounding accent. Then he cleared his throat and said, “Can or ice?”
“Oh, the can’s fine,” I replied, taking a seat. I spread the napkin over my lap and waited for him to return before digging in. I really was starving. The pasta was a little overcooked for my liking, but other than that, it was great. I remembered the first time he’d cooked for me, for my whole family actually, when he and Elliott had made pancakes, bacon, and eggs. That had not tasted quite as good. I think it may have had more to do with two squabbling chefs than talent on either of their parts now that I’ve had more meals cooked by one or the other of them, though
“How’d the quiz go?” he asked when he was about halfway through eating. I could only imagine this was his second lunch today, at least, and my mother’s voice in my mind said something about “growing boys….”
“Uh, it was okay. I didn’t check my score,” I admitted. I was just about full. He always put way too much on my plate, more than I could possibly eat.
“Why not?” he asked, tipping his head to the side like he was studying an insect.
Shrugging, I pushed my plate forward a bit, a signal I was no longer hungry. He looked at my food, and I assumed he’d eat at least the chicken out of it once he was done with his own meal. “I don’t know. I’m not really in the mood for disappointment today.”
Brandon stared at me for a few more seconds and then returned his gaze to his plate, and I realized what he was doing. After a few more bites, he asked, “Would an eighty-five be disappointing?”
My eyebrows shot up. I was used to getting As in other subjects, but considering we were talking about a college prep course in my worst area, I’d take it. “No, that would be fine.”
“Good. Because you got a ninety.” He smiled broadly at me, and I couldn’t help but grin back at him.
“Are you serious?” I asked, certain he wouldn’t tell me if he hadn’t gone in and checked.
“Yeah. You made the same rounding error I did on the third problem, but she gave us partial credit. And on the fifth one, you forgot to move your decimal point.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what decimal point he was talking about since I’d sort of already blocked all of it out, but I was proud of myself. I hadn’t even cheated. It was kind of hard to cheat with my IAC when it was math. I sat back in my chair and just smiled for a few seconds, until he was laughing and reaching across the table for my food.
The front door opened, and I immediately remembered I’d forgotten to bring my laptop back to my room. It was still sitting on Aaron’s desk. I didn’t think he’d be too upset about that, if it was even him, but I needed to remember to get it so it wasn’t in his way.
My sister’s voice came down the hallway a few seconds before she did. I could tell immediately that she was concerned about something. I caught Brandon’s eyes and then looked at my sister, who had been calling my name but was now standing at the end of the dining room table looking at me expectantly.
“Cadence?” I said, waiting for her to go on now that it’d taken her all of five seconds to find me.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt your lunch. Or Brandon’s lunch anyway….”
His mouth was full, so I answered, “It was my lunch, too. I’m just finished. What’s up?”
She sighed and pulled out the chair next to me, and I knew whatever it was, I wasn’t going to like it. She sat in it sideways and put one of her feet on the rail to my chair so that her knee was bumped up against my leg. I turned to face her but didn’t shift all the way around. “Okay, so we think something pretty major is going on….”
Anytime my sister starts a sentence the way one of my friends would start it, I know she’s been going over what she was going to say to me for a while, trying to word it in a way my teenaged brain would best absorb it.
“Does this involve me, too, or should I go?” Brandon asked. “I mean… if you’re talking about hogging the bathroom or using too much hot water….”
“You can stay,” Cadence replied, rolling her eyes. I knew this was a work problem as soon as she sat down, and I figured he did, too.
“Cadence, just tell me what happened. I saw Aaron come and grab you out of the gym, so I know whatever it was, it had to be important.” I wondered if that was one of the reasons I’d been so uncomfortable all morning. In the back of my mind, I had a feeling something was going on, and while I am glad when big picture problems of the Clandestine Ternion—our two branches of it, anyway, Vampire Hunters and Guardians—affect me, it almost always means I will have to do something uncomfortable.
“All right. There was a Vampire attack last night at a campground in California. A girl about your age and her dad were camping, and a Vampire attacked him. He didn’t make, it but she ran and was able to get help from a park ranger.”
“That must be some fierce park ranger,” Brandon noted.
“Right. He’s one of us. He hadn’t Transformed yet, but he’s likely in the process of it now. We hope he’ll join us.” She shook her head, and her brown hair, which is almost exactly the same shade as mine, rocked back and forth. “Anyway, the fact that the attack happened in a national park got us looking more closely at the decline in Vampire sightings lately. As you both know, we haven’t heard much out of our foes in the last few weeks. Aaron has created a diagram that marks all of the locations of attacks, and we saw a pattern. They all have something to do with travel.”
“So you think they’re moving?” I asked, wondering where she might be going with this.
“Possibly,” she nodded. “But we don’t know where they would be going.”
“Are there any Eidolon Festivals happening?” Brandon asked, now finished eating and swiping the napkin back and forth in his hands over and over again as he contemplated Cadence’s words.
“Not that we know of,” she said with a shake of her head. An Eidolon Festival is basically a Vampire party where they are allowed to do whatever they want to so long as no innocent people are taken without the person’s consent. It had been what got us all in this situation in the first place since Cadence had attended one with her friend Drew who let a Vampire lead her into the woods. My sister started her Transformation process that night when she beheaded that monster named Carter, and his girlfriend, Holland, came after my sister. Luckily, Cadence was able to kill her, too. I only knew about all of this well after it was over since that was back when they were all trying to keep me in the dark.
“Okay. So, what is it you need from me?” I asked, knowing there was more to this story than she’d revealed.
“We need you to try to make contact.” Each word was measured, like she thought I might spring out of my chair and scratch her eyes out for suggesting it. “If you can find out more about what might be going on….”
She didn’t finish her sentence, but she didn’t have to. I was nodding. I would do what she wanted me to do and figure out why the Vampires were moving, where they were going, and if we were in more danger than usual.
