Chapter 143
Finding himself in the back of a cargo plane again wasn’t so bad this time. Cadon had absolutely no urge to go to the front of the plane and sit in the cockpit as he had both when Ryker had been flying them over to Washington from Russia or when his dad had been flying them back to Russia.
Flying them to his death….
This flight was relatively short compared to both of those, and the plane was bigger. It was also fuller. With all of the prisoners and the team he’d taken to rescue them, there were plenty of bodies in the back, but there was also enough room for everyone to spread out and get comfortable--as comfortable as it was possible to be in the back of a cargo plane.
His eyes kept wandering to Mallory. She was sitting by the woman he assumed was her mother. Mallory had her legs tucked against her chest, her arms wrapped around them. She still looked nervous. It was difficult for him to understand why. She should be relieved to be out of the prison with the Vampires, but she didn’t look at ease, not even a little bit.
Moving over to sit next to her and talk to her would’ve drawn the attention of every person in the plane, and he didn’t want to do that to her. She already likely felt singled out being the only human. He wanted her to be comfortable.
He also wanted to know more about her.
“She’s pretty, huh?”
Cadon turned to look at the guy to his right, one of the prisoners he didn’t know. “Who?” he asked.
“Mallory,” he replied. “She’s really pretty.”
“Oh. I, uh… I guess.” How had this guy known that he’d been staring at the girl? Was he that obvious?
“That’s her mom. Her name is Annastasia. She’s a Hunter.”
“Right,” Cadon said. “I’m sorry--and you are?”
“Sorry. I’m Landry. I’m a Guardian. I should’ve introduced myself before.”
“Hi. Nice to meet you,” Cadon said. “I’m Cadon.”
“I know,” Landry said. “I know your parents. Well, knew them… I guess. Sorry. I was really sad to hear about your dad.”
“Thanks,” Cadon said, not really wanting to think about that at the moment. Landry looked like he was about the same age as Cadon, but that could be really deceiving, especially when it came to Guardians. They aged so slowly. Cadon and his dad looked like they could’ve been brothers.
This guy wasn’t much to look at, in Cadon’s opinion. He had reddish-brown hair, teeth that were slightly too big for his mouth, and had either lost a lot of muscle tone in prison or was just on the lanky side, a little like Dax. The thought of Mallory liking a guy like this made Cadon want to scoff--which wasn’t very nice.
“She almost missed out on her Transformation window,” Landry continued, clearly still talking about Mallory. “I wonder if she’ll want to change now, though. She looks so scared. I don’t know if she’d be braver if she was a Hunter and couldn’t die so easily or if it would make her even more nervous to know that she was expected to fight against Vampires and other undead creatures.”
“I’m not sure what she’ll choose to do,” Cadon said. “Whatever she wants to do will be fine with us.”
“I hope she chooses to Transform,” Landry continued. “It would be a shame for a face that pretty to get old so fast.”
Cadon stared at him for a long second but didn’t say anything else. It seemed like a strange comment for him to make. “So… what’s your story?” Cadon asked him, hoping to change the subject from Mallory.
“Oh, uh, well, I’m forty-seven,” he said. “I Transformed as soon as I could. I’ve been in California for most of my life. I used to work for Daniel when he was the LA area leader. Do you know him?”
“Yeah, I know him.” Daniel was there, sitting in the cargo area. He had been the temporary Hunter Leader when Cadon was born since his parents had taken a break.
“Annastasia was on that team, too.”
Cadon nodded. So they were back on Mallory again--or her mother anyhow.
“She was married to a Guardian named Berk. He died in the prison, though. A couple of years ago.”
“That’s too bad,” Cadon said.
“It was pretty bad. There was an escape plan, you see. They pinned it on him. I’m not even sure he had anything to do with it. But he paid the price. Along with a couple of other Guardians and a Hunter.”
Cadon hadn’t thought about all of the team members he hadn’t been able to save. It sounded like those people had passed away years ago, before he was in any position to try and help, but it also explained why Mallory was so scared of everything. She’d probably thought that her father wasn’t capable of being killed--and then he was.
As if she sensed they were speaking about her, Mallory turned her head and looked at him. Cadon’s first instinct was to look away quickly, even though it seemed like something someone in middle school would do. He couldn’t help it, though.
Landry grumbled next to him. “I guess she likes you,” he said.
“What?” Cadon asked, turning to look at him like he’d grown a second head.
“Yeah, she keeps looking at you. Figures. You look like a supermodel. Or a Greek god or something.”
Cadon had no idea how to respond to that. He had been told he was good-looking when he was younger, but for the past ten years, he’d been a little preoccupied trying to find his mom and not die to really think about whether or not he was a handsome fellow.
“It figures, you know?” Landry continued.
“What’s that?” Cadon wished he hadn’t asked the question, but it was out of his mouth before he could stop it.
“Your parents were so beautiful. It figures that you’d look like… that.”
“I’m sorry,” Cadon said. “I’ll try to prevent my face from offending you.”
“No, I didn’t mean that,” Landry said, scoffing. “You can’t help it. It’s just not fair to the rest of us mere… immortals.”
Cadon’s eyes flickered back over to Mallory. She wasn’t looking at him now. She had her eyes closed and her head resting back against the inside of the plane. Her mom looked worried. Whether she was concerned for her daughter or just anxious about the situation, he had no way of knowing.
If Annastasia had been on the California team, she might want to go back there someday. Mallory would probably go with her. Cadon would be staying in Kansas City at least for the foreseeable future. Until his sister got back with his mom, he’d be in charge.
It wasn’t an idea that made him happy--not even a little bit.
Hopefully, his mom would be back soon. She might not be able to take over right away, though. She’d been gone for so long. Who knew what kind of shape she’d be in? If she was physically hurt, the Healers could help with that. But if she was mentally harmed, well, that was another story.
And when she found out that Aaron was dead….
Cadon didn’t envy his sister having to tell their mom that. She would be devastated, to put it mildly.
“It’s really hard to believe that this is all over, isn’t it?” Landry was saying. “Holland’s finally dead. Crimson is falling. We’re taking the world back. It’ll be back in balance soon, and we’ll be in charge as we should be.”
“Yeah. That’ll be great,” Cadon said for lack of anything better to say.
“All I can say is… we’d better make sure that damn Blue Moon Portal is never, ever opened again. For anyone. I don’t care who it is.”
Cadon turned and looked at him, not quite sure he was following.
“Holland made it through before. She could do it again. We’ve gotta make sure that it doesn’t ever happen again.”
“Right,” Cadon said, understanding what he was saying now. “You’re right. We’ve got to make sure it never opens again.”