Chapter 373
Aaron paused for a moment, obviously as caught off guard as the rest of us. But he continued like he knew exactly where he meant to take the conversation next, even if he didn’t. “Cadence and I are going to go ahead and let the other areas move out and destroy those pockets Holland was organizing around the eight largest headquarters.” There was a collective sigh of relief. Everyone had been waiting for this announcement since the Roatan Guardians had arrived and been distributed to said headquarters. “We will be treating Melbourne separately, considering the stakes there, but the other eight will be left in the hands of the Area Leaders. They have all been heavily reinforced with Guardians from Roatan, and thanks to Cassidy’s surveillance and the eyes we have on the ground, mostly Independent Hunters and Guardians, we have enough information available for our teams to move in and destroy them.” I appreciated the shout out, but I didn’t really feel like I’d done that much to help, not recently anyway.
He continued, “We are asking that those who can coordinate in similar time zones do so since it should be more difficult for Holland to control that way.”
“And it will be harder for her to strengthen everyone at the same time,” my sister added.
It made sense to me. Holland seemed distracted now anyway, what with her expanding abdomen and being away from home searching for something.... Maybe Schmitz could let us know what that might be.
“So they have permission to attack whenever they feel ready,” Aaron concluded. Everyone seemed happy to hear that, but there was more that needed to be said.
Surprisingly, it was Meagan who asked the million dollar question. “And us?”
My eyes didn’t leave Aaron’s face even when Meagan’s voice hit my ears. Thankfully, he didn’t waiver. “And we will be moving forward as well.” Again, there was a collective sigh of relief. “There are four pockets of concern to us, now that Spittle and his men have been taken out. Something else we need to decide in this meeting is how to go about attacking all of them at the same time.”
“We’ve got a few ideas,” Cadence chimed in. I had a feeling she had more than that—they’d been talking about this for most of the time that Aaron had been back, I imagined. “But we wanted to run it by all of you first.”
The team seemed happy that they’d get to have some input. Aaron leaned back in his chair and tapped a pen on the table a few times, a signal to me that he didn’t necessarily want to bring up the next topic yet, but without Alex and/or Schmitz to resume the previous conversation, we were moving on. “The other topic we need to discuss is who else, if anyone, is going to go through the process Elliott and Cadence just underwent.”
Tingles spread up my arms as I thought about the possibility. If I had the sort of power that Cadence and Tara had, who knows what I might be able to do? I was sure it would enhance my ability to access Holland’s thoughts and see what the Vampires were planning even more clearly. Before I could speak, Christian’s irritating voice assaulted my ears.
“I am,” he said, like he didn’t need permission. “I worked a long time on the Retransformation serum, so I figure I’ve earned an enhancement.”
I stifled a guffaw. As far as I was concerned, there was no connection between the Retransformation serum and the “enhancement” as Christian put it. And it was Christian who had screwed everything up so royally. But it wasn’t my call. Aaron said, “That’s fine with me. But we’ll need to schedule it quickly so that you don’t miss the attack, assuming you want to be part of that.”
“Of course I do. I’m ready when Jamie is.” Christian looked past me at Jamie, who didn’t turn to make eye contact with the tech guy.
“Actually,” Jamie said, staring at Aaron, “I want to do it, too.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Aaron’s eyes any wider. “Jamie....” he began, and I quickly imagined a world where Jamie was broken and couldn’t fix me should something go wrong. Panic set in for a moment until I reminded myself I was being silly. Surely, Aaron wouldn’t let him go through with it. He’d already told him no once before.
“I know you’re worried I’ll lose something in the transition,” the Healer said, his hands folded in front of him, and it was obvious he’d gone over what he was going to say before the topic had even come up. “But that doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t think that will be the case. What if it allows me to heal faster or without wiping myself out? I trust Martin enough to keep me safe while I’m under.”
Jamie’s argument was convincing, and we all turned to the Guardian Leader to see how he might respond. It actually looked to me like Aaron was considering approving the request, but he only said, “Let me think about it, okay?”
Reluctantly, Jamie nodded and said, “Okay.” I felt like the request had gotten further than expected. Maybe there was a chance that Aaron would let Jamie go through with the procedure after all.
Hannah’s quiet voice caught me by surprise. “I want to do it, too.” Our heads all flipped around to face her. I was surprised. She does more directing than actual fighting most of the time, being the second in command and all, but I could see why the speed might help her.
Aaron agreed, and then it seemed like everyone wanted in. Aurora said she wanted to do it, and then Meagan said both her and Shane were ready as well. I thought about the possibility of something going horribly wrong and Shane ending up a mutated troll on the outside, like he is on the inside, and I was okay with this. I kept my imagination to myself.
Feeling brave, I decided to jump in as well. “Can I?” I asked my sister. Obviously, I already knew what the answer was going to be, but when she just glared at me, I shrugged and said, “Worth a shot.” My sister and Aaron had already both told me no. I should’ve known better than to ask, but since everyone else was throwing their names in the hat, why not?
“Dad?” Brandon asked, and Elliott’s eyes widened. He, too, had already said no to his offspring. Brandon made a better argument than I had. “You know it’s safe. You did it.”
“I’m willing to gamble a little bit with my own rear end, Son, but not with yours,” Elliott replied, shaking his head. But I could see in his eyes he was actually contemplating the possibility. I wasn’t sure what to think about this. What if Brandon did it—and he’s the one that turned into the mutated troll?
“It’s not a gamble, Dad,” Brandon pressed on. “Jamie won’t let anything happen to me.”
Even though I was turned toward Brandon, I could feel Jamie’s eyes on the back of my head. I didn’t think he liked being brought into the conversation, but Brandon had a good point. Jamie wouldn’t let anything happen to me either.
“What if it enhances my powers?” I asked. I felt sort of like Ralphie blurting out that he wants a Red Ryder BB gun in A Christmas Story. That was the last argument I had for myself. I really felt like I would be so much better at contacting Vampires, building shields, everything, if only they’d let me go through with it.
I should’ve held onto my cards a little longer, gotten Aaron alone—or Jamie—where I could reason with them without an audience. It was much too easy for them to say no in front of everyone else. I had tried to build on Brandon’s momentum and failed. Aaron said, “Tell you what, Cass, you get Liz Findley to sign a release form, and we’ll chat.”
Dead in the water, I dropped my head. My dad, maybe. My mom? No way.
