Chapter 316
Cadence continued giving directions. “Aurora, you’ll be in charge of all of the Hunters while I’m gone, but you’ll ultimately answer to Hannah. I want you to get with Ashley and Meagan and discuss the tactics and weaponry we saw work the other night and the things that didn’t.”
Aurora nodded, but she looked a little nervous, like she wasn’t sure she was the best woman for the job. “Right.”
“You will also want to step up Tara’s training,” Aaron interjected. “She’s much faster and stronger than the rest of you now.”
That raised some eyebrows, but no one asked exactly why that might be, so the Guardian Leader went on. “Shane has experience with these beasts, as does Dax. So ready them. I’ll be sending Cale home because I don’t want to leave Reno up in the air. They’re practically surrounded as well. Morgan will need his help.”
“So that means, if anyone gets hurt while Jamie is with us, it’ll be up to the trainees to make sure they’re healed properly.” Cadence looked around the table to make sure she was understood.
“You’re taking Jamie?” Christian asked, surprised. “Don’t you think chances are we’ll need him here before you’ll need him there?”
Christian sure was pushing the limits with his questions today. My sister looked annoyed as she replied, “I’m not taking my little sister anywhere near Holland without Jamie.”
The tech guy didn’t seem to like that answer. “But all of the experiments I’ve run have shown nothing can kill her.”
I raised my eyebrows; I hadn’t heard that yet. I didn’t think it was right, though. “Something must be able to. Heather died.” An image of the blonde girl I’d seen in Mina’s mind filled my head.
“It’s possible that she died of old age, like all Hunters will if they aren’t killed by Vampires,” Jamie reminded me. I was more likely to accept an answer coming from him than Christian, but I didn’t quite think that’s what happened to her. I had a feeling it was something else, though I had no idea why.
Cadence steered the conversation back on track. “It honestly doesn’t matter because Jamie is coming with us. I’m not comfortable going in there myself without him.”
Maybe if she would’ve given that explanation first, Christian would’ve accepted it, but now he had his dander up. “That seems selfish to me.”
Jamie jumped in. “They’re ready. Sicilia, Ona, Martin. They did great the other night. You’ll be in good hands.”
Christian’s mouth drew into a thin line as he shook his head. I had no idea what he was so worried about. Maybe he was afraid the Vampires would take him prisoner. They would bring him right back after he opened his mouth a few times.
“So… I’m coming too, right?” Brandon asked.
Something about his tone almost had me giggling. Cadence looked around both of us again, like she was checking with Elliott, which was kind of amusing since Elliott’s only been Brandon’s dad for a few weeks. “Yes, but like Cass, you will not be anywhere near the actual hunt.” I didn’t bother to argue with that because I already knew it wasn’t true. My sister could do whatever she wanted to try to keep me safe, but she wouldn’t be able to keep the fight from me. The less she knew, the better off I’d be, though, so I didn’t argue. “We need Cass there to show us where to go, and we need you there to protect her and to give her moral support.”
“Works for me,” Brandon said, his face lighting up. Neither one of us had ever left the country, so Australia would be a new adventure, even if we were going there to fight Vampires.
“And what about you, kid?” Elliott asked, leaning around us. I scooted back out of his way. “Who’s going with you?”
“Oh, well, I’m still interviewing candidates,” my sister joked, winking at him. We all knew that she’d already decided who she wanted to protect her.
“For some reason, she seems to think having you around is a good idea,” Aaron teased. “I’ve been trying to talk her out of it.” I was glad Elliott was amused and didn’t consider the fact that Aaron had actually tried to keep my sister from bringing him back. They seemed to be well past that.
Christian groaned. I assumed he was no longer satisfied with Aaron’s reasoning for why he needed to stay behind. “Are we done then?
“For now. As long as no one has any questions,” Aaron replied.
“When do we leave?” Jamie asked. “I need to go check on my patients one more time.”
I wanted to go check on Tara, too. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her or Dax since I’d left earlier, but I didn’t know if I’d have time.
“It’s 10:30. Can we all be ready by midnight?” Aaron asked, looking at each of us.
I thought that would give me time to stop by and see how she was doing. “Can I sleep on the plane?” I asked. I was exhausted.
“Flying to Australia is a lot like taking a steamship across the Atlantic. You’ll have plenty of time to sleep,” Jamie joked. I imagined he’d probably done both of those things. I would welcome a long flight with nothing to do but sleep.
“We should call in your sister to help,” Cadence suggested. “Perth isn’t one of the places Holland has concentrated on.”
Jamie looked thoughtful for a second before he said, “That’s not a bad idea, actually. I mean, not Margie. I don’t care if you bring in my sister or not. But, now that we know where the Vampires are for certain….”
“We can shift personnel.” Something told me Aaron was already doing that by the casual way he finished Jamie’s sentence.
The doctor sighed. “If someone else could come up with something—just once….”
Aaron snickered but he didn’t say anything.
Christian did. “I figured out Eastern State before he did,” he said, standing and heading for the door.
That really ruffled my feathers. “I spoon fed that to all of you!” I shouted after him, and Cadence and Brandon both held my arms down so I didn’t come flying out of my chair. Smartly, Christian kept walking.
“I’ll get with Shane,” Hannah said also standing. “We’ll go over inventory. I’ll need some of those titanium bullets, though.” Aaron nodded, and I was shocked. I’d thought those were permanently banned. I saw an exchange of glances between Cadence, Elliott, and Jamie, like they were jealous of Hannah’s ability to get Aaron to do what she wanted.
Aurora stood up next. “I guess I’ll go get my girls and check in on Tara. Is she still in your operating room?” she asked Jamie.
“No, Dax took her to her apartment.”
“All righty. I guess she’s much better than she was the last time I saw her,” Aurora concluded. I was glad to hear that, too. I should have a few minutes to swing by if I packed extra quickly.
“Thanks, Roar,” Cadence said to my trainer as she headed toward the door.
“Hey, no problem,” the redhead answered, turning to look at her boss. “I can’t wait to talk to Ashley anyway. I heard things were a little… odd last night. And she wasn’t even in the vicinity of killer baby Vampires.” She made a strange face, but when she met my eyes, she turned around to leave, like the mention of killer baby Vampires would offend me. It didn’t, but it did make me a little sad. I also wanted to hear what had happened on Ashley’s date with Christian. How that had come about, I couldn’t guess. I wondered if we needed to have some sort of an intervention for her. She was way too pretty and nice to be dating Christian.
