Chapter 298
When we got to the building where Jamie’s and Christian’s offices were, Christian already had Tara on a bed in the same room where I’d recently had my procedure, and where Brandon had undergone his Transformation. Jamie was on a bed next to her, but it looked like Christian hadn’t been quite as careful with him, and as Cadence walked over to check on Tara, I went over to straighten Jamie out a little bit, put his head on the pillow instead of near it, and pull a sheet over him. He was just as out of it as Tara, but I could imagine he would’ve done the same thing for me.
Dax stood at the foot of Tara’s bed and watched as Christian hooked her up to a heart monitor. I had no idea how he had learned to do that, but I guessed if you live long enough, you pick things up. “Okay, now we wait,” he said with a shrug. The tech guy looked around at all of us and then headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I have things to do,” he shrugged, and I watched him exit, actually feeling glad he wasn’t going to be in there with us, but I still thought it was odd. Everything about Christian is odd.
Cadence looked as exhausted as I felt. “Aaron wants to meet with me and a few others in about a half an hour just to check statuses really quickly. There’s too much going on and too many variables to actually have a full-fledged meeting about this yet, but if you wanna go take a shower really quickly, I can stay with her.”
“No, it’s okay,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t want to leave yet.” I wanted to make sure that Tara was stable before I even went to find a bathroom.
“I’ll stay with her, too,” Dax said, his hands on his hips. That took some dedication, in my opinion. He hadn’t even been here a full day yet, but he wasn’t willing to leave her side.
Cadence let out a deep breath before saying, “Okay. I’m going to go check on a few things, meet with Aaron, and then I’ll be back.”
“You should go take a shower,” I suggested, and she looked down at herself and wrinkled her nose. Before she left, she came over and hugged me, and I kissed her cheek. My sister is amazing, even if she makes me crazy sometimes. I knew it would be a long time before she got any rest as she continued to try to figure out what was going on and make sure everyone was safe.
There were a few chairs across the room, so Dax and I dragged them over between the beds and sat down. I could reach Tara’s hand from here, so I did, making sure it was still warm.
Dax was really quiet, and I couldn’t blame him. I imagined he had a million questions and just didn’t know where to start. I checked the time to see it wasn’t even 10:00 yet, which shocked me. It felt like it should be about 3:00 in the morning. I rested my chin in my hand and stared at the floor, still holding my friend’s hand and praying she’d be okay.
I must’ve dozed off because when I opened my eyes again, my IAC said it was almost midnight. Dax was wide awake though. I was still holding Tara’s hand, but my arm hurt from the angle I was reaching with. “Sorry,” I muttered to him, finally letting go of Tara and stretching, stifling a yawn.
“It’s okay,” Dax said quietly. “Why don’t you go take a shower, get some rest if you want, and I’ll wait here.”
I turned to look at Jamie and saw that he had rolled over, so he must be getting some energy back. Tara’s heart rate was slow but steady. Someone had washed the blood off of her neck and face and gotten most of it out of her hair. I imagined that must’ve been Dax. Since he was a Guardian, he wouldn’t need as much sleep as me, even though he was brand new to the profession. Still, I hated to leave him alone when he had no IAC. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, that weird guy came in a little while ago and said that if I needed him, he was down the hall, first door on the left.”
I imagined he meant Christian. The blood was caked on me so thickly, I thought it might never come off, so I decided if Christian was in his office, and Jamie was likely to be awake again at least for a little while in an hour or so, now was my time. “Okay, if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure,” Dax nodded, and I stood, patting his shoulder and giving Tara another glance. “Do you need anything before I go?”
“Nope,” the park ranger said with confidence, and I decided I needed to hurry and get back so that he could go take a break as well.
I hurried down the hallway but stopped at Christian’s office. He was inside behind his giant computer. “Hey,” I said, startling him. I thought it was kind of funny since I doubted I could sneak up on him but had somehow managed to do so. He must’ve been concentrating pretty hard on whatever he was doing. “I’m going to run home and clean up really quickly. Dax is still in there with Tara.”
“Okay.” He looked at me like he had no idea why I was telling him this.
“He doesn’t have an IAC, so please don’t go anywhere until I get back, in case he needs help, all right?”
Christian looked at me like he wanted to tell me I wasn’t the boss of him, but he said, “Fine. I’m looking at this IAC problem anyway.”
“They used the alarm system to jam it somehow,” I explained, not sure if anyone had mentioned it to him. “Spittle ran some sort of interface. I can show you the steps if you need it.”
“I’ve got all that,” he said as if I was wasting his time. “I just don’t know where this interface came from. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It just interrupted the alarm sequence. It wasn’t what actually disabled the IACs.”
He looked at me like I was crazy, and I realized he wasn’t going to listen to a word I said anyway. So I decided to go before Dax or Tara needed me. “The interference signal came from somewhere else,” I said over my shoulder. “Please keep an ear out for Dax.”
Christian ignored me, and I took off for home, thinking I’d better hurry.
