Chapter 395
I was relieved Alex wasn’t here. I needed to thank him for taking out the guy who’d tried to kill my sister, but now probably wasn’t the best time. I had to sort out the way I was feeling about him. I was certain it was just fascination with an historical character, but if it was bothering Brandon, it was a problem.
Ashley came in a few minutes before Jamie finished, and Cadence was polite, but I saw her roll her eyes. I guess the two of them still aren’t getting along. Jamie’s girlfriend waited with her arm wrapped around me, and when the doctor took a step back and nodded his head, only a few moments after he began, she started to applaud. “I’m dating a superhero,” she said with a wink, and I couldn’t help but giggle.
“Just one more thing,” Jamie said. He took a lock of my sister’s hair, one right next to the bald spot she had on the side of her head, and pulled it over slightly so it was covering up her exposed scalp. It seemed to take a little bit of effort, but somehow, Jamie managed to make the hair spread and regenerate so that the bald spot was gone, and Cadence’s hair looked the same as it had before she left for the hunt.
“How did you do that?” I asked as we all gaped in awe.
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “But I did.”
“Wow—imagine if that works with limbs,” Brandon said, shaking his head.
“I could use another arm if you wanna try it,” Elliott offered. I didn’t think that was quite what Brandon had in mind.
“Uh, not tonight.” Jamie looked at Ashley, like he’d rather be hanging out with his girlfriend than creating three-armed versions of his friends. “You guys both feeling okay now?” he asked the Leaders.
“Yeah, thank you,” Aaron said, patting his shoulder. “Glad you talked me into letting you go through with this.”
“I know, it’s pretty cool, isn’t it?” Jamie laughed like a teenager.
“Thanks, Jame,” my sister said. She was still exhausted and leaned back on the cot she’d been sitting on with heavy eyes.
Jamie and Ashley left, along with Martin who’d been here with the Leaders when we’d arrived. “So... what happened?” I asked Cadence, hoping she had enough energy to tell me what I didn’t already know.
“Yeah, what happened?” Aaron asked, spinning around to face her, his legs dangling off of the bed between them.
“You don’t know either?” Elliott asked.
“Not exactly. I saw her take off, followed her, she shot me, then she disappeared for a while, got taken hostage, and Alex shot the guy. We spent the whole ride back trying not to pass out from loss of blood. So....”
“Well, that pretty much sums it up,” Cadence replied, closing her eyes.
We weren’t letting her get away with that. “How did you manage to shoot him?” Elliott asked, a hint of amusement in his voice, now that we were all sure Aaron was okay.
Cadence grumbled. “It wasn’t me. It was Holland. I thought you were supposed to be blocking her or something, Cass. She was more powerful tonight than ever.”
“Don’t try to blame this on me,” I said, trying to keep my tone playful even though I didn’t quite feel that way. “I wasn’t even with you.”
She huffed again. “I thought I saw Drew.” We all stared at her, not sure what to say. Drew was her friend who died at the Eidolon Festival, the night Cadence first found out about Vampires and this whole crazy world. “I chased her down the hall. But it wasn’t her.”
“It was Laura,” Aaron explained.
I was almost as shocked to hear that—but then I figured Laura had to have shown up somewhere since Sam did. “What happened?” I asked my sister for the hundredth time. “Did you kill her?”
Cadence nodded her head, her expression solemn. It had to have been difficult to kill a former Hunter, even if Laura had shot my sister first, months ago. The woman was also Aaron’s ex-girlfriend, and she’d been the one to put the plot together at Sierraville. “And when Aaron finally caught up to me, Holland had made him look like a Vampire.”
“So you shot him.” Elliott filled in the blanks.
“Yep,” Aaron said, his eyes narrowed at Cadence, though it was obvious he wasn’t really mad at her.
“I’m sorry!” she exclaimed. “What would you have done?”
“This is just me,” Elliott began, folding his arms across his chest with a thoughtful expression. “But... maybe not shoot my fiancé? I mean—not on purpose anyhow.”
“Yeah, that’s probably what I would’ve done, too,” Brandon agreed.
“You can all leave now,” Cadence said, rolling over and hiding her face. “I didn’t mean to shoot him. This time.”
Aaron reached over and shoved her playfully on the shoulder. “I know you didn’t. We’re just giving you a hard time. We do need to figure out a way to make sure Holland can’t do that anymore.”
Everyone swiveled to look at me. “Uh, I’ll see what I can do,” I stammered. I thought I had this figured out, that I was stronger than her now, but she must’ve been drawing on power from somewhere else.
“Good. Now that we’ve eradicated most of her cells, she’ll either scramble or roll over in defeat,” Aaron said thoughtfully.
Elliott put his hands on his hips. “I’m gonna go with door number one. Doesn’t seem like Holland to give up so easily. She did come all the way back from the dead just to try to kill you two after all.”
“I think she won’t be happy until we’re all dead—or she is,” Brandon added.
“She won’t be happy if she’s dead,” I clarified, shrugging. “Just sayin’.” They all raised their eyebrows at me, but no one said anything. Probably because they agreed that I was right. Holland wouldn’t be happy if she was dead, but that was the only way any of us would ever be able to move on with our lives.
