Chapter 376
This meeting had already been a long one, and clearly there was more on the agenda, so we left the topic of Daunator in my hands, and Aaron suggested we look at attack groups for the upcoming infiltration. “Let’s assume this whole Transformation serum process takes two days. That means we can plan on moving in on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Unless something goes wrong with this serum situation, in which case we may need more time to make some alterations to the plan. I’ll let all four of the teams handle getting their people together for the pre-hunt meeting, unless you feel like you need me or Cadence there.”
He looked around at the other three designated leaders—Elliott, Hannah, and Aurora—and all three of them shook their heads. I had no doubt Elliott and Hannah could handle their teams, but I didn’t think Aurora had ever done anything like this before. She looked a little nervous. I assumed my sister had pulled for one of the leaders to be a Hunter, and that was the only reason it was her and not, say, Christian, who was obviously irritated that he hadn’t gotten the call.
“You’ll be working with a lot of people you’re not used to hunting with, so make sure you know who you’ve got,” Aaron said, still checking with each of the three of them visually as he spoke.
I wondered who I was assigned to. I hadn’t been told, and I couldn’t read Aaron’s papers from here, assuming one of them said who was with who. I figured someone would tell me eventually. They had to be taking me. They couldn’t pull this off without me.
“You’ll all have plenty of Christian’s grenades and titanium bullets,” Cadence added. “The grenades worked great the other night when we went after Spittle.” She smiled at the tech guy, but he continued to glower. I had to give my sister credit for trying, but in my opinion, Christian was a lost cause.
Aurora asked, “Will you be shipping any of them to the other areas? They might need them, too.”
“The grenades, yes,” Aaron answered her. “But not the titanium bullets. There’s too much of a risk with them. Melbourne still has some from when we were there a few months ago, though.”
“Oh, goody,” Elliott said sarcastically. “We’re the only ones who might accidentally blow each other’s brains out.”
I didn’t think it was so funny since he’d already been through that. My sister said, “Seems ironic coming from you, considering that’s happened to you before.”
Before I could even agree, Christian muttered, “And no one ever put them back.”
The room went quiet again, and my eyes doubled in size as I prepared to hurl myself over Brandon and grab Christian by the throat. But I didn’t get a chance to do that because Elliott burst out laughing. We all stared at him, confused. “Now, that was a good one, Henry,” he said, literally holding his side as he continued to laugh. “We set you up pretty good on that one.”
While it was nice to hear Elliott actually able to laugh at such a rude comment, I was still angry at Christian. He didn’t get to say things like that to my Elliott.
Shaking his head in disbelief, Aaron said, “Let’s just all be cautious, okay? We don’t want to have to put anyone’s internal organs back inside of them.”
Without missing a beat, Jamie said, “Yeah, with this dry weather we’re having, my hands are all chapped.” I gawked at him for a moment, taking in his deadpan expression, before we all started laughing again.
I think Aaron was over it, though. “All right. You all go assemble your teams. Let me know if you have any questions.” At his nod of dismissal, practically everyone jumped out of their seats. I didn’t move, though. There was a tiny thread of hope I was hanging on to that I could somehow talk them into letting me go through with the procedure.
Brandon and Elliott were still glued to their seats, too. My boyfriend said, “Did you hear him, Dad? Go get your team together. And call Mom.”
“I will, I will,” Elliott said, still not getting up. “I just want to make sure we are all on the same page, that’s all.”
“I believe that’s something you’re supposed to do during the meeting,” I teased, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Listen, lil girl, I don’t remember asking you. Don’t you have some Vampires to spy on or something?”
He was right—I did. I was eager to see what I could discover about this Daunator. And it was pretty clear I wasn’t getting anywhere with the procedure. I’d have to regroup and think of something else. “Sadly, yes. Let me see what I can find out about Larundel and Daunator.”
“You’re going to be busy,” Cadence said with a smile that let me know she appreciated me.
She’d appreciate me more if I had super powers. I didn’t remark on that, though, only muttered, “Story of my life.” I pushed my chair back, and Brandon stood as well. Another thought occurred to me. “This will count as my last observation, right? So after this hunt, I don’t have to train with Roar anymore? I’m good on my own?”
“That’s right,” Cadence said, looking a little frightened by the possibility.
“Good.” I didn’t know how much more I could take of training, particularly with Shane. I was not a fan.
“Let me know what you find out,” Cadence said as Brandon and I walked out the door. I nodded over my shoulder and headed out of there, hoping I could find time to do everything she’d asked and still get my stupid homework done.
We waited for the elevator, which took a moment because it had just gone down with the others. “You think your dad’s gonna let you do it?” I asked, nervous to hear Brandon’s answer.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said optimistically. “I’m pretty sure my mom will say he can do whatever he thinks is best, and he’ll cave.”
I nodded in agreement. I thought he was on track with that thinking. A pang of jealousy hit me as we boarded the elevator.
“It’s too bad you can’t do it, too,” Brandon added. “But I think it’s for the best I go through it first. I’m not sure I could handle watching you lie there again so soon.”
Once again, I agreed nonverbally. Even though we hadn’t been a couple when I’d Transformed, Brandon hadn’t left my side the entire time I was out. I squeezed his hand now. I knew it would be hard on him to watch me go through this, too, and it would be difficult for me to watch him. But that was likely going to happen soon.
If only I could find a way to join him. Maybe if I gave it further thought, I could think of a convincing argument. I took a deep breath and walked out of the elevator, wishing I could find the words to convince my mother, but I had nothing, and with homework and assignments, I doubted anything would come to me. That wouldn’t stop me from trying.
