Chapter 356
Hines was such a weirdo. His hair was dark black except for a white stripe, and it stood up on top of his head about two feet. He had black rimmed glasses thick enough to be double paned windows, and he was as nervous as a skittish kitten anytime he got anywhere near danger. It didn’t take me too long to see him in my mind.
He was on an airplane, and he wasn’t paying me any attention at all. I walked around in his mind for a few minutes and picked up all sorts of absent thoughts and memories, though I couldn’t exactly tell where he was going. I saw an image of the Eiffel Tower in his memory and decided it might be Europe, but I didn’t think it was France. And then he turned his head.
It took me a moment to recognize what I was looking at—or who I was looking at, I might say. “Oh, no,” I muttered as I realized what must’ve happened. I hadn’t known I’d even spoken aloud until I said it again. “Oh, no!”
“Cass, are you okay?” I felt Brandon’s hand on my shoulder, but I didn’t open my eyes.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing was real; at first I thought maybe Hines had just figured out a way to mess with me. “Hold on. Let me check something.” With a deep breath, I head hopped into the figure across the aisle from Hines. Horrible images entered my mind as I went through the memories of a creature who should’ve died for his crimes last year. I shook my head, unable to figure out why in the world Hines had Cowboy Sam on his airplane and how he’d gotten to be a Vampire.
Once the shock began to wear off, I transferred one more time. In Laura Comer’s mind, I found images of her shooting my sister, of her trying to take both Cadence and Aaron out at Sierraville, and of her long and fruitless efforts to catch Giovani.
No longer able to keep my emotions in check, I opened my eyes and found both Cadence and Brandon peering at me in concern. I couldn’t tell by my sister’s expression if she had a clue as to what I had just seen, so I asked, “Do you know who I saw?”
She inhaled through her nose before saying, “Sam? Maybe Laura?”
“Yeah.”
She wasn’t surprised after all. Cadence’s head bobbed up and down a few times before she admitted, “I guess I should’ve told you about that.”
Brandon was completely shocked. “What?” he asked, looking from me to my sister and then back again. “The Sam? As in Cowboy Sam?” I couldn’t blame him for being stunned. Sam had been turned back into a human before going to prison. We thought we’d never hear from him again, and he’d rot behind bars for what he did. Personally, for killing Elliott, I thought the old jerk should’ve been put to death, but that’s not what was decided. Likewise, Laura had been turned back into a human and locked up in prison, too. But neither one of them were there now. Instead, they were both flying in a private jet to Europe. At least they were both Vampires now, so if I ever did see either one of them again in real life, I’d make sure they didn’t get another second chance.
“Hines broke in and turned them last night,” Cadence explained, her voice as calm as it had been since she first walked in. “Took them with him.”
Brandon muttered a few swear words under his breath and ran his hand through his hair, leaving his curls disheveled. I’d fix them later. “He’s on his way to some place in Europe,” I told my sister. “I couldn’t get a direct read on it. I’ll check in later. Maybe he will have landed by then.”
Cadence nodded at me, but she didn’t speak. I felt compelled to continue. “I looked in on Holland, too, and regardless of what the big bossman thinks, she is pregnant. It wasn’t her idea to get Sam and Laura, but she approved it.” Now that I realized what it was that Hines had done, I could piece her thoughts together better. “I shut her down for a few seconds while I was in there, too, so Christian can get his data. She didn’t like it this time, not at all. She fought me the whole way. It was like she was really concentrating on something.” The more I spoke aloud about what had transpired, the more peculiar it seemed—even for Holland. What was she pushing me so hard for?
“Like what?” Cadence asked, just as puzzled as I was. “You mean more than just messing with the Vampires’ trackers?”
I nodded, poring back over what had happened while I was in Holland’s head. I had left pretty quickly once she started to shove on me since it was Hines my sister was interested in at the moment, but Holland had been insistent I get out. “It was weird. She basically shoved me out of her head, something she’s never done before. She usually wants me to hang out there so she can try to talk me into joining them. I got the feeling she might be traveling, too. She might be going to meet Hines.”
“Could that be why she didn’t want you in her head?” Brandon asked me, taking my hand in his.
It was a possibility, so I mulled it over for a second. It didn’t seem exactly right, but it could be. “I don’t know. She’s so weird. It’s hard to tell what she’s thinking. I’m sure it’s going to be worse now that she’s pregnant. Preggo brain in a crazy Vampire.” I shook my head, wondering exactly how long the gestation period might be. Since no one even knew this was possible, I decided it would be pointless to ask aloud.
My sister looked exhausted all of a sudden, and I wondered if she’d slept any after her procedure. “Okay, well get me that info this afternoon, if you can, all right?” she said, referring to Lexington.
I nodded, but before I could say anything, Brandon interjected. “I wanna go.”
Cadence screwed her mouth up to one side of her face before she replied, “At the risk of you being transferred, I’m going to have to say no.”
Before Brandon could get out more than a long drawn out, “But....” the front door opened and Elliott stepped in, a sappy smile on his face. It seemed odd to me. My eyes flickered from him to my sister, who had a strange look on her face as well. When I looked at Brandon he looked suspiciously... suspicious. I thought of the conversation we’d had about Elliott the other night.
