Chapter 344
Cadence didn’t want to seem rude to my friends, I guess, but they weren’t giving her much of a chance to talk. “Cass, Mom wants you home soon, so can I interrupt?”
“Sorry,” I mumbled as Dax said something about trying to navigate a canoe with a blindfold on. “What is it?”
Cadence took a seat on the armrest, Brandon between us. I scooted up a little bit so I could see her. My sister looked around to see exactly who would be privy to this information and seemed to decide she could carry on without telling anyone to get out. “You remember I told you Elliott and I encountered some sort of crocapire?”
“Yeah?” I wondered where she was going with this. It wasn’t what I was expecting her to want to talk to me about.
“We want you to see if you can figure out what that was all about. Can they shift into whatever they want to now, or was that just a one-time deal? Also, can you check and make sure Hines still hasn’t perfected his solution? We need to make sure Holland hasn’t made any progress on anything. It’s been a few days since you’ve checked in, hasn’t it?”
“No,” I said quickly. Did she really think I’d let the Vampires go for that length of time without dropping by to see what they’re up to? After the funeral, I was on it again, like always. “I check in all the time. Hines is confusing me. He seems to think he’s found something, and then he’s certain he hasn’t. I’ll check again.” She nodded; we’d discussed this before. “Also, something odd is going on with Holland.” My sister’s eyes widened. I had also mentioned this to her briefly before as well, but she didn’t quite seem to remember. “It’s like she’s sick or something. It’s weird. When I was in her head last night, she knew I was there, but she was ignoring me, and I felt... like sick to my stomach or something. Can Vampires be sick?” The more I talked about it aloud, the more I was reminded of the nauseous feeling I’d gotten the night before when I’d checked in on the Vampire queen. At the time, I was still upset about missing out on the hunt and sort of thought maybe it was my own stomach cramping up on me. But now that I mentioned it to Cadence, I realized I hadn’t been sick at all except for when I was roaming around in Holland’s mind for that brief time.
“I don’t think they can be. That is weird. Was she wounded or anything?” Cadence asked.
I thought surely she would know if Holland had been wounded but kept my snarkiness to myself. “Nah, I don’t think so.” I looked around to see everyone staring at me, hanging on my every word and remembered I was the only one who could do this, drop in on the enemy. “Maybe she’s just anxious. She still cries about Carter all the time.” I thought about how many sob sessions I’d eavesdropped on and added, “All. The. Time.” My sister just stared at me, so I shrugged. “It’s annoying.”
“Sorry,” Cadence muttered, like she thought I was accusing her of killing Carter just to ruin my day. “Anything else?”
I blew out a long sigh. “Just the same thing I’ve been telling you and Aaron both for the past few weeks.” Now she was the one who looked annoyed. Granted, she’d gotten the bulk of my complaints since I didn’t see Aaron as often, and when I did he seemed so unlike himself I was a little leery of talking to him about anything he didn’t specifically ask me about. I continued with my pleasant reminder that I felt we needed to do something. And go on another hunt, one where I could be included. “I know I can get a location on Spittle and the rest of the escapees whenever you’re ready to go. I think they’ve split into two groups, though. Maybe more. But I think I know where he is.” I hadn’t probed too deeply into the ex-biker dude’s head because I didn’t see the point in spending a lot of time on something I hadn’t been approved to do, but I knew I could access the information quickly if needed. I hoped she’d say something positive—like they were organizing a hunt to bring Spittle in that very morning.
“We’re talking about it,” Cadence said, but I could tell by the way she was breathing that wasn’t quite accurate. I literally bit my tongue to keep from demanding she take on more of a leadership role and tell Aaron she was moving forward, whether he wanted to continue to drag his feet or not. I was certain there was something going on with him, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, and no one else seemed to want to talk about it.
My sister continued. “See if you can get some more info on Spittle, too, I guess.”
“Okay,” I nodded, thinking it wouldn’t do me any good to push her too hard in front of my friends. “When? Tonight? Does Mom know?” While I could drop in on them at any time, I really needed to go up to the rooftop of the other apartment building to get the best reception. I wasn’t sure why that was, but it hadn’t failed me yet.
“I told her I needed your help tonight. She said that meant you’d have less time to spend with your friends.”
Something about the way my sister said that made me think that wasn’t quite what my mom had said. I figured she’d said something ridiculous, like less time to “play” with my friends. I rolled my eyes, and Brandon squeezed my hand. He probably hated the fact that my parents had moved here almost as much as I did. I returned my attention to my pizza, glad that I’d at least get a little freedom that evening. I had a little bit of schoolwork to do, but I didn’t think it would take too long.
