Chapter 396
We all agreed that Holland needed to be taken out. How we were going to do that exactly was another question.
“Let’s sleep on it, take Sunday off, and get together Monday morning to see what the situation is,” Aaron proposed.
“Wait a minute—you’re going to take the day off?” Elliott asked. “Who are you? Did someone take over your brain again?”
“I didn’t say I was going to take the day off.” He slid off of the gurney and stepped over to help Cadence sit up. She was clearly exhausted, as was I. “But I might.”
Elliott couldn’t control his laughter. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“All right. I guess I’ll head back to my prison now,” I said, trying not to sound like a baby and failing. Brandon put his arm around my shoulders as my sister made it to her feet.
“At least you don’t have to go to training anymore,” Cadence reminded me, her voice sounding even more tired than it had when we arrived.
“That’s true, but you know Mom isn’t going to let me see the light of day except for when we’re on hunts or I’m needed for a meeting.”
“Maybe you’ll think about that the next time you do something stupid,” Elliott said behind me as we all headed for the door.
“Hey, my stupidity floated you right over to Sam tonight,” I reminded him without turning around.
“True—but it also almost got you shot.”
My sister and Aaron turned around to look at us. “I need to hear this story. In the morning,” Cadence said, and I nodded. At least I’d get to speak to someone other than my parents.
We made it to the apartment building in silence and onto the elevator. My floor was first. I told them all goodnight and gave Brandon a kiss on the cheek before I headed back to my cell. Even though it was the middle of the night, I had a feeling my mom would be awake.
She was. I opened the door just a crack and saw her sitting on the sofa, a book in her hand and the lamp on the table next to the couch turned on low. “How was it?” she asked me, setting the book aside. “Everyone okay?”
“Thanks to Martin and Jamie, yes. Cadence got hurt, but she’s all right now. I’m fine.” I figured my sister could fill her in later, and she didn’t really need to know that Aaron and Meagan had also been injured.
She looked worried about my sister but had learned that was part of the job description for being the Hunter Leader. “Did you fight?”
“No,” I said quickly. “But I had to help Elliott get up.” I took a few steps further into the room. “They used a sedative on him. I floated him over to Sam so he could kill him. Meagan ended up shooting him instead.”
I could see she was having trouble following. “The same Sam that shot Elliott? He’s a Vampire now?”
“Yeah, he was. Now, he’s a pile of ash in a funhouse in a rundown amusement park in Wichita.”
“I see.”
She probably didn’t. I lingered for a moment longer, thinking there was something else she wanted to say to me, but when she didn’t, I said, “I’m exhausted. I’m going to take a shower and go to bed.”
“All right, Cassidy. Have a good night.”
Somehow, I managed a smile and headed to the bathroom. Maybe someday I’d have kids who did this for a living, and then I’d understand how it felt to sit on a sofa and pretend to read a book while my daughters or sons were out fighting the undead, but for now, all I could see was that this apartment building was a cage, and my mom was the zookeeper.
Later that night in my bed, I reached out to Holland. She was distraught, which made me happy. Thoughts of everything she lost played over and over in her head, and she didn’t even seem to care that I could see them. She thought of her lost love, Carter, of Larundel, her fortress, of all the forces she’d lost, and perhaps what stung most of all, that my sister had won again. I knew then, no matter how much despair Holland was in, she wouldn’t give up. She’d forge another plan, dig deeper, maybe go back to Daunator. She’d keep fighting until Cadence was dead--or she was.
It was my duty to be in her head as much as I could to see what she had coming. There wouldn’t be as many hunts now that there weren’t so many Vampires. We had a wedding to plan. Lucy would go through her Transformation process in a few weeks, and I’d help train her because she’s one of my best friends. I’d continue to try to find ways to win my freedom and probably end up getting myself more constricted because that’s what I did best. I’d have to find a way to assure Brandon he’s the only one for me without pushing Alex completely out of my life since he probably won’t be around much longer now that we’ve essentially completed the task we’d asked the Roatan Guardians to help with, though I was hopeful he’d stick around at least until Holland was gone. If she was ever gone....
When the sun came up again, millions of people around the world would be safer than they could’ve possibly imagined. The threat the Vampires posed on the innocent was nearly annihilated, and we would continue to stomp out what numbers they had left as quickly as we could. Those people would never know the lengths we went to or the sacrifices we made to make them safe. But that’s what we do here. We fight Vampires. We kill Vampires. Someday, maybe there won’t be any Vampires left, and then I’ll have to find something else to do with my life, but for now, I’m Cassidy Findley, teenager, high school student, half-Vampire, half-Hunter, and I’ll sleep with one eye open, my hazel one, so you don’t have to.
END VOLUME 6: VAMPIRES BITE AND OTHER LIVE LESSONS
