Chapter 353
“I guess the Transformation serum took, then?” Elliott asked, still a little dazed from just waking up.
“I think so,” Jamie nodded, clearly relieved and glad that he’d figured this process out. “Everything seems relatively normal.”
“Relatively?” Elliott asked, sitting up completely as Jamie stepped back.
“Yeah, your heartbeat is a little faster than it was before, but that’s to be expected.” I saw Elliott glance around Jamie at Aaron who had only a small grin for his best friend. “Aaron’s heart rate is always elevated.”
Elliott seemed to accept that. He slid over to the edge of the bed so that his legs were dangling for a minute before his feet touched the floor. “Can I go then? I’m starving.”
“What else is new?” I muttered, smiling at him. At least one of them had woken up with no horrible side effects.
“Sure,” Jamie said with a shrug. “Just let me know if you notice anything out of the ordinary.”
Elliott grabbed his shoes and stuffed his feet into them, in a huge hurry to get some food in his stomach. “Thanks a lot, Doc,” he said before shooting out the door like a rocket without much more than a wave at us.
Brandon looked at me for a second before he stammered, “I think I’ll go with him, make sure he’s all right. I’ll come back, though. And I’ll grab your laptop so you can do your homework.” He glanced over at Cadence, and it seemed pretty obvious that she wasn’t going to wake up any time soon.
“Okay,” I nodded, and Brandon left, too, though not nearly as quickly as his dad. Jamie was changing the sheets on the bed that Elliott had just vacated, and I stood to help him, thinking I bet he wished he had an orderly. “If you leave me here alone with Aaron when he’s being so weird, I’m not gonna be your friend anymore.”
Jamie smirked at me, but he didn’t respond. Once we had the bed changed, he took Brandon’s chair, and I knew he wasn’t going to abandon me.
A few minutes later, the door opened. I didn’t think it could be Brandon back so quickly, but when I saw that it was Christian, I snarled. I had to turn around and hide my face. I was still angry at him over the whole thing with Tara. And a million other things.
Jamie snickered. “Well, technically, if I left now, you wouldn’t be alone.”
My eyes were daggers, but I knew he was just teasing me. I imagined the reason Christian waited until now to come in was because Elliott was gone. “So... Sanderson even more of a freak now?” the tech guy asked, standing at the foot of my sister’s bed.
“Not as much as you,” I jabbed. Christian turned and looked at me but didn’t say anything.
“The procedure took, if that’s what you’re getting at,” Jamie replied, much more civilly than my attempt. “Cadence hasn’t moved a muscle, though.”
“Hmmm.” Christian folded his arms and studied my sister. I could only imagine what he might be thinking. Probably coming up with different experiments he could run on her while she was asleep. Aaron looked at him out of the side of his eye but didn’t otherwise acknowledge Christian was there, and I couldn’t tell if he was warning him to keep his comments to himself through his IAC or had just decided to pretend Christian didn’t exist.
The tech guy continued to stand there for a few moments before he said, “You need to block signals for me. It’s been hours.”
I sat up in my chair, wanting to say something snide back to him, like since when did I take orders from him, but Jamie bumped his knee into mine, and I realized it would be easier for me to just comply. Technically, it was one of my responsibilities, and I had been neglecting it. Since it would only take a minute or so to intercept Holland’s signal that interfered with our trackers, I closed my eyes and concentrated on blocking it. I had gotten really good at it and didn’t even need to have it quiet or anything anymore.
When I opened my eyes to tell Christian I’d gotten him the data he needed, I realized he and Aaron were talking about something, and Aaron was actually smiling. It was strange and caught me off guard, but as quickly as it was there, it was gone again. I looked at Jamie, but he didn’t seem to notice the oddity, so I kept it to myself. “Got it,” I said to Christian, who could go ahead and leave now.
“Good.” He did not say thank you. I narrowed my eyes at him, and once again, Jamie nudged me in the knee. I am lucky I have so many people looking out for me, or who knows what kind of trouble I might get myself into. “I’ll go run it through.”
“Let me know if there’s any movement,” Aaron muttered, staring at something between my sister’s bed and the floor. I swear he was fine for a few seconds, but now he was gone again.
I wanted to say something rude, like, “As if it makes any difference,” because so far we hadn’t attacked any of the cells I had been monitoring. Only Compliant Vampires had been targeted since we returned from Melbourne, but I decided to cut the bossman some slack since his fiancée appeared to be lifeless, and I figured Jamie was getting tired of nudging me.
“Will do,” Christian said in that annoying brown-noser voice that makes me nauseated. He walked out without saying anything at all to me—I still didn’t get my thank you—or to Jamie. But then, I was just happy he was gone.
The quietness of the room was suffocating. I shifted in my chair, wondering if Jamie was talking to Ashley or someone else because his eyelids were dancing around. I didn’t even bother to look at Aaron because whether he was busy or not, I likely wouldn’t be able to tell. And he was so unlike himself, it made me sad for my sister every time I noticed how distant he had become.
I waited until Jamie seemed to have finished his conversation before I asked, “Do you think we are going back to Melbourne soon? I’ve been checking in with Paul, and he seems antsy. I can’t blame him.” Paul, the Melbourne Area Leader, also happened to be a distant cousin of mine, and while I hadn’t known him before the rescue mission I’d participated in, the one where I’d been able to locate him and get him back from Holland and Carter, we had stayed in contact the last few weeks. He’d mentioned how much of a help it had been to him that I’d been able to assure him he was going to be okay using my telepathy when Hines was doing all kinds of experiments on him I didn’t even want to think about.
“I don’t know,” Jamie said, and there was a lilt to his voice that told me he certainly knew more than he was saying. “For now, we’re just.. keeping an eye on things.”
It was a non-answer, the kind a person gives when they’re talking to someone who isn’t privileged enough to know all of the information. I folded my arms, wanting to tell Brandon to hurry up and get back. Even if it meant I’d have to spend the next few hours doing my homework, it would be better than sitting here with these two people who didn’t want to tell me anything.
I looked at my sister and felt a little jealous that she was out of it. Sure, she had a million responsibilities when she was awake. Her fiancé had changed into someone almost unrecognizable in a matter of weeks, and the Vampire queen she’d already killed once wanted her dead again. Not to mention said queen was now carrying some sort of evil entity in her womb. But at least Cadence knew what was going on. I often think about how close I was to being the Hunter Leader myself. If Cadence wasn’t older than me, I’d be the one with all of that weight on my shoulders. Instead, I am the younger sister who is only told what she needs to know and tasked with doing whatever needs to be done that no one else can do. Lucky me.
“Cass?”
I hadn’t even realized Brandon was back until I felt his hand on my shoulder, so I jumped a little. Maybe I’d dozed off for a minute. It was unsettling to think he could sneak up on me. I turned and looked at him, and he smiled at me but didn’t point out that he could’ve wrung my neck if he were a Vampire. He handed me my laptop and a pizza box. The scent of pepperoni filled my lungs and I noted that I have the best boyfriend in the world. He proved himself further by handing me a Dr. Pepper bottle.
Jamie got out of his seat. “Well, now that Brandon’s back, I think I’ll head over to my office. You need anything, Aaron?”
“Huh? No.” At least I wasn’t the only one out of it. If the Leader thought it was odd that Jamie had only been waiting for Brandon’s return, he didn’t say anything.
“This may take a while.” Jamie checked Cadence’s pulse one more time before he started walking to the door. “Hopefully, she’ll wake up before your curfew, Cass, but I’m not sure at this point.”
I thought about asking him what had changed his mind but didn’t bother. I dug into the pizza Brandon had brought me without bothering to offer any to Aaron, who would decline anyway, or to Brandon who had likely already eaten. If I was going to be staring at my sister for the next several hours, then I may as well be full. I hoped Jamie was wrong, and she’d pop up any second, but something told me it was going to be a long night.
