Chapter 387
Speaking of seriousness, I was reminded of Hines’s other idea. “By the way, Hines thinks he’s come up with something else, some sort of passage he can use somehow to transport Guardians. He didn’t explain it to her, so I’m not sure what he’s talking about, but he said it won’t work until late summer, and walking around in his head is kind of like sorting spaghetti noodles. It’s slippery, and it doesn’t ever lead where you think it should.”
Cadence raised an eyebrow at me, like she was imagining me with said pasta. “Well, we can worry about that later.” I agreed, but I felt like I needed to tell her now before it slipped my mind. “Can you relay everything you just told me to Aaron? I’m going to go check on Jamie, and then I’ll hunt Aaron down and see what we need to do.”
I remembered that Jamie was having his procedure after mine and thought I should’ve checked on him by now, too. “Yeah, I’ll let Aaron know, but listen, Sam and Laura are on a plane, and I think they’re on their way back here.”
“Perfect,” my sister said, though I could tell by her tone she didn’t mean that.
I did something I’d just as soon avoid for the rest of my life and popped in on Christian. I wasn’t surprised to see he’d just discovered Holland’s plane was moving. He was in his lab with Dr. Morrow, staring at blips on a screen. I had what I needed and got out. “Christian is tracking the tail number. Why would they bother? Do they really want us to kill them again?”
Clearly, my sister was done with me. “I don’t really have an answer for that, Cass.” Her tone was dismissive. I felt like I needed to rush to tell her everything else I’d discovered before she took off.
“Holland’s baby is a disgusting demon who looks a lot like a blood-red version of Sméagol.”
That had her attention. “Say what now?”
“Yeah, she thinks that being a demonic Vampire allowed her and Carter to create a demon baby. It’s really gross and could probably do a lot of damage if it gets out of its cage.”
“She’s keeping her baby in a cage?”
I nodded. “The other Vampires locked him up while she was still out of it. It had to be a C-section because he was so ginormous.”
Cadence opened her mouth but then closed it before she said anything, and I could get where she was coming from. Eventually, she said, “Thank you for all of the information.” She patted my knee like I was a good girl. I thought she was leaving, but she didn’t get up yet. She glanced at her hand as she pulled it away, like something was wrong with it since she touched me. I expected her next statement to explain her expression, but it didn’t. She just said, “You know, you’re freaking Mom and Dad out, though, right?”
I was a little startled that she’d gone there. I was hoping she was planning on letting our parental units handle the whole discipline thing, which so far had just been a grounding. “I know,” I replied. “I can’t help it. I’m not trying to.” It was true—I wasn’t intentionally trying to worry them.
“Why did you....” Cadence didn’t finish the question.
I didn’t have an answer beyond what I’d already said. With a deep breath, I tried to explain my rationale in as abstract a statement as possible. “Sometimes, my impulses outweigh my ability to make rational decisions.” That would have to do for now.
“And what is your consequence?” my sister asked, not that it was any of her business.
I thought about some of the things my mother had yelled at me and accidentally entered her mind for a few moments. She was still irate. I hopped back out. “I mean, what can they do, really?” I asked, not trying to sound like a brat but realizing that’s exactly what I sounded like. “I’m not allowed to see Brandon outside of work for a month, but that won’t last. He has to help me with my algebra, or I’ll fail, and they won’t like that.” That seemed like a pretty light punishment considering what I’d done. If that’s all my mom threw at me, I’d gotten off easy.
“Okay, Cass. I guess they can’t do much to you,” my sister said, shaking her head. “But I’m your boss. I can.”
I didn’t appreciate the face she was making at me, so I folded my arms and looked her straight in the eyes. “What are you going to do, Cadence? Not let me go on the hunt? That would be really stupid on your part because you know no one else can do what I can.” Surely, she wouldn’t keep me out of my final hunt or try to make me take additional training. This was not hunt related. I wondered aloud what else she might do. “Not take me to Melbourne if you go? Of course you will. Remember how idiotic Aaron was for not letting you take enough Guardians to Lexington? You won’t be that stupid.” I realized about halfway through that statement how horrible I sounded and wasn’t sure where it was coming from. Something seemed really odd about the way words were coming out of my mouth.
And my sister was ticked. “That wasn’t Aaron,” she snapped.
I wanted to apologize, but the snarkiness welling up inside of me made it difficult. “I mean, I know it wasn’t actually his decision,” I said by way of an apology. “But he still said it. Anyway, you know you can’t do that.”
She puckered up her face and stared at me for a long time, and I assumed she was going to say something like, “Watch me,” and I’d just talked my way out of my last hunt. But when she opened her mouth again, she said, “Look, I’ve got a million things to do.” She stood and turned to the door, but before she took a step, she looked at me over her shoulder. “Why don’t you go pretend to be your old sweet self and clean the kitchen or something?”
I ignored the part about me not being sweet anymore and imagined the dishes whirling around the kitchen. “Sure. That sounds like fun, actually.” I jumped off of the bed, waiting for her to move so I could get to it.
“What do you mean?” my sister asked. Neither of us has ever been the type to voluntarily do chores.
I noticed a pair of jeans I’d meant to throw in the not-so-stinky clothes hamper the day before were still lying on the bedroom floor. I picked them up with my mind, and moved them across the room, opening the lid, and dropping them in, flashing my sister a somewhat-evil smile.
“You are such a weirdo.” My sister shook her head at me and started to walk out the door. I knew she was teasing, but that was the same sort of thing she’d call Christian, so I didn’t appreciate it. I picked her up. “Put me down!”
“Say you’re sorry,” I replied in a calm voice.
“You’re sorry.”
That was not what I had in mind, so I kept her about two feet off of the floor. Somehow, Cadence managed to make her way to the door, open it, and float out into the living room. My parents were sitting on the sofa, their hands over their mouths.
“Fine. Let’s find out your range, little sis, shall we?” Cadence asked, still managing to move away from me, though it was slow going. I knew I could pull her back toward me if I wanted to, but it was amusing to watch her paddle her way through the air, half walking, half swimming. She made it over to the door, opened it, ducked under the doorway, and closed the door behind her.
I stayed with her until she was almost to the elevator, and then I decided there were better ways to use my power, so I put her down. My parents said nothing, only stared at me, and I walked into the kitchen to see about doing those dishes.
