Chapter 294
A stronger voice began to overpower the others that I was hearing in my head, and I realized it was calling to me. The female voice seemed familiar in a way I couldn’t quite understand, and as her melodic voice filled my mind, I realized she was saying words I’d heard before, something that had been echoing in Mina’s mind. “Born of the desert,” she said, and I didn’t know if she meant me, herself, or whatever it was that the Vampires had been trying to put together. And then, as if making an announcement to everyone, this same feminine voice said, “Come together soon.” Suddenly, I realized there was a link between the voice in my head and Mina’s words earlier about the Vampires moving. They were being called by whoever this woman was. She had to have come through the portal.
“Okay!” Dax startled me back to reality, and I opened my eyes, turning to see him flying up behind me. “It was really hard to understand her, but I think she said the code is 10290315.”
I grabbed a pencil and a Post-It note to write it down before we forgot what he’d just said. As soon as I had it on the paper, I turned and punched it into the computer. “Access denied. Dang it!” I slammed my hand down on Lena’s desk, frustrated nothing seemed to be working.
Also puzzled, Dax looked over the numbers and confirmed, “I’m pretty sure that’s what she said.”
Obviously, that wasn’t right. I doubted Faye wouldn’t know what the passcode was for the security system in a place she seemed to run. “Did she say anything else at all?” I asked, wondering if maybe she’d given him a clue as to what the passcodes might mean.
He seemed hesitant to reply for some reason but eventually said, “Uh, she was trying to say something else, but I couldn’t understand her.”
I looked him in the eyes. Maybe he could give me a clue, and I could figure it out. “Like what? What did it sort of sound like?”
“I don’t know,” was his instant response. But when I continued to stare at him, he started messing with his hair and then said, “Uh, maybe bird ways. Bird says? It didn’t make any sense.”
“Bird says?” I repeated, agreeing that made no sense at all. I stared at the numbers on the paper. There was no correlation with birds. “What does a bird say?” I asked, but that didn’t help me. “Bird… bert… birth… birthdays? Could she have said birthdays?”
“Yes! I bet that’s it!” Dax exclaimed, patting my arm. “But whose?”
“Good question,” I agreed. I took a deep breath and thought about what I knew concerning the facility and the Ternion in general before I started thinking out loud. “Well, I’m guessing October and March are probably right. Because no other numbers really sound like zero or three.” I pointed to the numbers I was referring to on the paper. “So… who has birthdays in October and March that would have anything at all to do with this place?”
Dax offered a few names of people he had met. “Aaron? Your sister?”
“I have no idea when Aaron’s birthday is,” I admitted. “And Cadence’s birthday is in September. But…” I thought he was on the right track. “Wait a minute! This place has been here since before my dad was born.”
“So?” Dax asked, confused once again.
“So it might not be Aaron’s and Cadence’s birthdays—it might be my grandparents’ birthdays! October 29 was my grandma’s birthday, and I think my grandpa’s birthday was March 19.”
The enthusiasm in Dax’s voice matched my own. “Okay, well let’s try it.”
I spun the chair around and entered the new numbers and waited. Holding my breath, I watched the computer seem to process the entry as slowly as possible. Dax came behind me and rested both hands on my shoulders, which might’ve made me uncomfortable if we weren’t totally in this together. “Come on, come on!” I demanded.
“Alarm system off!” Dax read, and I could hardly believe my eyes. I jumped up and spun around, hugging him as we hopped up and down. The buzzing from the alarm stopped, and my IAC flickered to life.
“We did it!” I shouted, finally stepping back and raising both of my hands in the air.
“You did it,” Dax countered. “That was awesome, Cass!”
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” I assured him, not quite able to stand still as I smiled up at my new friend.
A noise from the waiting area caught my attention, and I turned to see Brandon standing there, his face pale and his eyes wide, and I wondered how long he’d been watching us. Had he seen us jumping up and down and misinterpreted it? “Congratulations,” he muttered and then headed back the way he’d come.
“Brandon, wait!” I shouted. I wanted to chase him down, but I also needed to get back to Tara. He was gone before I had a chance to run after him anyway.
“Sorry,” Dax mumbled. He must’ve realized what Brandon had thought he’d seen.
“No, it’s not your fault,” I assured him. “I’m going to go check on Tara.” As much as I wanted to talk to Brandon, it would have to wait. Why not push it off another day? I’d already succeeded in ruining this one.
“Mind if I come with you?” Dax asked, which I thought was a little odd. Of course, he didn’t need my permission, but then, he might’ve thought I wouldn’t want him around me anymore since Brandon didn’t seem to like it.
Since I thought Brandon was acting a little ridiculous worrying about Dax, I told the new guy, “No, not at all,” and we headed down the hallway to see how Tara was doing. I hoped she was better than she had been when I left about fifteen minutes ago. It seemed like forever since I’d checked on her, and this was quickly turning into the longest day ever.
