Chapter 271
Faye pulled a pink gown out of the closet across the room, and then a light green one. Bonnie’s eyes twinkled as she looked at them.
“You wanna come see?” Lena asked her, standing.
“Yeah!” Bonnie had her hands in her mouth, but she was still smiling as Bonnie offered her lots of snacks when they got to her house.
The little girl had both baby dolls under her arm as she took Lena’s outstretched hand and followed her across the room to Faye who handed Lena the dresses and some other clothes.
The door opened, and Bonnie made it a step or two into the hallway before she turned and looked at me. I was watching her go, with a smile on my face, glad she’d have a new mama who would no doubt love her to death, but when she turned back to look at me, my heart broke a little bit. She had been mine, for a few moments. For a little while, I’d known what it was to love a child with all of my heart, and I didn’t think anything could erase that.
“Bye, Bonnie,” I managed through my tears. I was on my feet and took a few steps toward her. “I’ll come and visit you really soon, okay?”
Bonnie broke free and came flying at me so fast I almost couldn’t get my arms open in time. I dropped down just and wrapped her up. It was quick, and in an instant, she wanted free again. She shot back to Lena, taking her hand, and the nurse mouthed to me, “Thank you,” before she led Bonnie out of the room.
“As soon as I mentioned it to her, she got emotional,” Faye was explaining as I wiped away a few wayward tears. “In all this time we’ve been working together, she’d never revealed how badly she and her husband wanted a child.”
“Her husband?” Cadence questioned.
“Yes. His name is Marcos. He’s one of our custodians,” Faye replied.
“Wait—how many Vampires do we have working here?” Cadence asked, and I wondered if they would count me. At that moment, I would have.
“Only two,” Faye said, shrugging. “Lena is the receptionist while Marcos does all of the cleaning and most of the maintenance.”
“But how is that safe?” Cadence countered. “We have new Hunters on campus.”
I couldn’t tell if Faye was offended, irritated, or both. “We take all the necessary precautions to make sure the Vampires we employ never leave the appropriate areas of this facility, but I can assure you neither of them are dangerous. They are both former Informants who we brought here over the years to protect.”
My sister nodded and said, “I’m sure they’re perfectly safe,” but I thought she was just done with the discussion because she was too tired to carry on. “I’m just… surprised.”
Faye forced a smile. “That’s okay. You stick around this business long enough, nothing will surprise you.” And then she looked at me.
I ignored her. I didn’t have the time or patience to try to figure out whether or not she was referring to what I was. Cadence seemed bothered by the remark, but she didn’t call her out either. “Well, thanks again. We’ll be back to check on her soon.”
Faye ushered us to the door, and we headed down the hallway. “Certainly. It’s not like we’ve had anything else to do recently.”
“What do you mean?” I asked as we entered the reception area again. I noticed the door seemed to open from this direction without an IAC code, unlike the other direction, unless, of course, Faye just put it in so discreetly I didn’t notice her eyes moving.
“We haven’t had any Compliants come in for days—maybe three?”
Cadence froze in her tracks and looked at Faye for a moment before asking, “Isn’t that unusual?”
“Highly,” she replied.
“Have you mentioned it to Aaron?” I could tell she hadn’t heard anything about it, and that was probably bothering her.
“Yes, of course. But he said he wasn’t surprised,” Faye replied. “I have no idea why.”
Cadence admitted, “Me neither,” and then, taking a deep breath, she turned back toward the exit. “Thank you, Faye. You’ve been most helpful.” My sister conjured up a smile and I followed her into the hallway.
I didn’t think Cadence had any answers, but I had to ask anyway. “Why do you think Aaron wasn’t surprised?” I asked as we wound our way back the way we’d come.
It wasn’t Cadence who answered me, though, and when I first heard Aaron’s voice in my head, I sort of forgot that he could hear everything through my sister’s IAC. I was glad I’d phrased the question neutrally and not let my feelings about the person who had beheaded Mina show. He said, “They are planning something. Whatever it is, they don’t want to be tagged.”
Cadence replied, “And you were going to tell me about this… when?” and I wished I could ask the same thing. I wondered how he even knew that was the case.
“At the meeting we need to be having right now. So get your butts over here.”
I knew he was trying to lighten the mood, but at the moment, all I felt was exhaustion, grief, and anger. Cadence and I met eyes, and she reached over and took my hand. For a moment, I drew on her strength, realizing I was about to face the people I wanted to avoid most, and I let my feet keep moving in the direction we needed to go, even though part of me was still longing to go back and take Bonnie in my arms. Somehow, I had to find a way to be strong and let her go. It was what was best for her. At the same time, I had a new set of monsters to face, and unfortunately, they were the same set of bad men that had killed her mother.
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