Chapter 269
The drive meandered around a little bit, but Aurora seemed to know where she was going. She finally stopped by what I assumed was an intake door. There were two Guardians there, one a short woman with a scowl on her face and the other a man, which I knew would scare Bonnie.
My sister turned to look at me, and I decided to play nice. I wasn’t handing this baby over for anything, but I asked, “Can I go?” and was relieved when my sister said, “Of course.”
Bonnie sat up now, and her voice was timid as she asked, “Where are we going?”
Her face wasn’t streaked by tears since Vampires can’t make them. I smoothed her hair. I knew she was scared. This was a lot of change for such a small person.
Cadence answered her. “We are going to a place where there are more people like you,” she said, her voice infused with fake joy.
Bonnie immediately caught a glimpse of the Guardian at the door, the man who looked a thousand times more friendly than the scowling woman next to him, but she had been programed to fear males somehow, and she pointed at him and shouted, “But he’s a bad man!”
“No, no, not a bad man,” I found myself saying, still stroking her hair. “He’s not going to hurt you.”
She wasn’t convinced, and my sister jumped out of the car and asked him to step away for a moment.
He looked confused, and I thought both of them might start rattling something off about protocol. Unlike Gerald, these Guardians must not have recognized her at first, but as soon as my sister said, “Don’t make me bother Aaron with this,” I saw the woman’s eyes flicker to my sister’s finger. Seeing her ring, she said something to the man who disappeared around the corner of the building for a minute, and then my sister opened the back door of the SUV, and in a cooing voice said to Bonnie, “See? Man all gone.”
I was surprised at how skittish Bonnie was. Generally speaking, Vampires are not frightened of much of anything, at least not in my experience, but she held onto me tightly, and it took me a second to pry her loose so I could hand her to Cadence long enough to extract myself from the vehicle. As soon as I was out, I wanted her back, and I could see the disapproval in my sister’s eyes, like she just couldn’t believe me, as Bonnie came back to me.
We walked through the double doors that seemed to open automatically, though I assumed someone had used their IAC for that trick. The lights were very bright, and Bonnie hid her head in my shoulder. I glanced behind me and saw the rest of the women were staying in the vehicle. The Vampire in me did not like this place at all, but my feet trudged forward, slightly behind my sister who seemed to know exactly where she was going, so I could only assume Aaron was directing her. Even the thought of him made my stomach gurgle. He had been the one to kill Mina, after all.
Bonnie was light in my arms, and she was still, so even though it seemed to take forever to reach our location, at least she wasn’t heavy. Eventually, we reached a set of double glass doors that had “Intake” written on them in bold, black letters, and I turned and looked straight across from them, vaguely remembering having come in from this other direction when I’d had a short tour of this facility a few weeks ago. We didn’t go in here, but I remembered the room.
I could see my sister was uneasy and I knew immediately why. As soon as we approached the woman dressed as a nurse who was sitting behind a counter across the empty reception area, it was obvious to me she was a Vampire. She had a friendly smile and stood up as we approached. “Hello there,” she said in a Southern accent. “How can I help you?”
“Hi, we need to see Faye, please,” Cadence replied, and I could tell my sister was nearing exhaustion. She was dirty, bloody, and probably had some ash on her. I wondered if the woman across the counter could see our brethren splattered on my sister’s white T-shirt and dark leather jacket.
If she did, she said nothing. “Sure thing, hon,” was her response. She picked up a phone and pushed a button, still smiling. “Faye? Someone’s here to see you.” I thought it odd she didn’t know who my sister was, but then, Cadence didn’t spend a lot of time over here. I bet she hadn’t been here any more than I had. I checked the name tag and saw the nurse was called Lena. She caught my eye, and there was a moment of kindred feelings before she said, “She’ll be right here,” mostly to my sister, and Cadence thanked her, stepping back from the table.
It was so quiet in there, I thought it was odd that nothing was happening. I had no idea how many Vampires usually came in on a given day, but the place seemed deserted. I wondered if it had anything to do with what was going on with the portal or if that was normal for this time of night.
A few minutes later, a door across the room opened, and a middle-aged woman with short blonde hair wearing a lab coat walked in. She was a Guardian. I could tell immediately. I was under the impression no Hunters were allowed to work over here for obvious reasons, and thought my grandparents were pretty smart when they set this place up.
She was smiling as she said our names. “Cadence, Cassidy. I was expecting you.” She shook my sister’s hand but mine were full. “Who is this little one?” she asked, resting her hand on Bonnie’s back.
The girl turned her head slightly but increased her grip on my neck. “This is Bonnie,” I stammered. “She, uh, she’s had a tough night.” That was putting it mildly.
“Poor baby,” Faye said, still patting her. “Why don’t you ladies come on back, and we’ll see if we can find a snack, okay, precious?”
Bonnie’s head rocked back and forth, but she wasn’t letting go of me, so we followed Faye back down a narrow hallway with lots of offices and what appeared to be doctors’ waiting rooms on either side. At the end of the hall, on the left, there was a large room full of toys, books, games, and other things baby Vampires might enjoy.
“So how often do we get kids?” my sister asked, clearly surprised to see this place.
“Not often,” Faye said in her clinical voice. “But it does happen. Usually, it’s parents who don’t want to go on without their babies. We can’t really hold that against them. Sometimes, non-compliant Vampires will turn a child, and another Vampire will help us find them.”
I couldn’t imagine being turned and then turning my own children, but I could understand why a parent would want to do that, sick as it sounds. My sister had a snarl on her face at the words, and I realized there was a lot about Vampires Cadence wasn’t capable of understanding.
“Bonnie, do you want to play with the toys?” I asked. She released her grip slightly. “There’s a doll.”
When Bonnie lifted her head enough to see the toys, she immediately wiggled down from my grasp and began to take it all in.
Faye reached up to a mini-refrigerator attached to the wall that would’ve been out of a normal child’s reach, but I knew any Vampire worth their weight could’ve accessed it. She used her IAC to punch in a code and then took out a juice box. The red coloring let me know exactly what it was. She heated it in a microwave before offering it to Bonnie.
The child ran to Faye and grabbed it out of her hands like she hadn’t eaten in ages. She sucked the blood down through the straw almost in one gulp.
