Chapter 150

Sitting in Annastasia and Mallory’s living room--again--Cadon tried to stay quiet and let Jamie and Ashley answer all of the questions the girl had. Plenty of questions popped out of her mouth as they were talking about the pluses and minuses of becoming a Hunter. Mallory’s biggest concerns seemed to be actually having to fight Vampires and the pain that she would have to undergo in order to turn herself into a Hunter.
“I have a medicine I will give to you after I give you the first shot, the Transformation serum,” Jamie was explaining. “I can’t give it to you until two minutes after the first shot, but most people don’t have a reaction until after those two minutes have passed anyway. For most people, the first Transformation shots aren’t painful at all. When some LIGHTS team members have chosen to have a second Transformation shot, later in their career, sometimes that second shot is painful, but not the first one.”
Mallory looked at her mother. “Was yours painful, Mom?”
“Not too bad as I recall,” Annastasia said with a shrug. “Certainly not as painful as having you, baby. And I don’t regret either decision.”
They all laughed except for Mallory. She turned to Jamie. “Did it hurt when you turned?”
“Well, things were different back then,” Jamie explained. “I didn’t have the benefit of the current technology and shots we have today. The entire business was different then.”
“It wasn’t painful when I did it,” Ashley chimed in, sitting next to Jamie on the couch, holding his hand. “I remember feeling tingly all over like my body was falling asleep, but it didn’t hurt.”
“What about you, Cadon?” Mallory asked, her large eyes wide as she looked at him. “Did it hurt when you Transformed?”
Cadon remembered that day like it was yesterday, even though it also seemed like it had happened a million years ago. The day he and his sister had been old enough to Transform, they’d gotten the shots. It was right at the beginning of the Revelation, and not only did their dad want to make sure that they were as difficult to kill as possible, but he also wanted them to be able to help him find their mom and fight the onslaught of Vampires. But that wasn’t to say that they couldn’t have declined if they’d wanted to. If either of them had said they didn’t want to be Hunters, Aaron would’ve let them make that decision for themselves.
It had hurt like hell. He remembered lying on a bed in a makeshift hospital while they were on the run, trying to evade the Vampire influenced government. Since the bed he was lying on was next to Jo’s, he had made himself not scream, even though he’d wanted to. A look at her face told him she was doing the same thing, biting back the pain.
If he told Mallory that, though, she’d be scared for no reason. The explanation he’d gotten for why it had hurt so badly when he Transformed was because his parents were so powerful. Jamie had helped both him and Jo with the pain after a few seconds, but that extreme, intense, relentless pain had stuck with him.
“It wasn’t so bad,” he found himself saying. “Jamie can make it all go away if it does hurt, but I don’t think it will.”
“And you’re glad you became a Hunter?” she asked, still staring at him intently.
Cadon didn’t have to lie to answer that question. “Yeah. I love it. I don’t think there’s anything else I’d ever want to do with my life.”
“But you were trained, right? By your dad?” Mallory had that skeptical look back on her face.
“I was, but you’ll be trained, too. There are plenty of us here to train you.”
“Everyone is so busy, though,” she reminded him.
“We’ll make time,” Cadon assured her. She tipped her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “I’ll make time,” Cadon clarified.
Mallory took a deep breath in and blew it out slowly. “I have to decide in the next couple of days. It’s almost my birthday. I never thought I’d have to think about it because I figured I’d just turn twenty-one in the prison where I couldn’t be given the Transformation serum. All of the Vampires stayed away from me because they didn’t want me to Transform. They figured once I turned twenty-one, I’d be a weak little human forever.”
That sort of explained how she’d managed to survive as long as she had. “I can imagine it’s a difficult decision for you to make, Mallory,” Cadon said. “But if it were up to me, I’d say you should do it. If you change your mind, the serum that Hunters can use to change back into humans is pretty advanced. It works really well.”
Jamie nodded. “We worked the kinks out of that several years ago. So that is always an option.”
“Does that hurt?” Mallory asked.
It was pretty clear that she was concerned about pain. Cadon wished she wasn’t so fragile. But she’d been through a lot, and chances were he wouldn’t be able to understand just how difficult her life had been.
“I’ve never heard anyone say it was painful,” Jamie said.
Mallory nodded and then turned to her mom. Annastasia patted her leg and gave her a reassuring smile. “I’d like to have the night to think about it, please,” Mallory said.
“Of course.” Jamie stood, and Ashley got up along with him. “Just let us know if you want to do it, and we’ll get everything ready, okay?”
“Thank you,” Mallory and Annastasia both told the Healer and his wife. Cadon realized he needed to get up, too.
He gave them both a wave as he headed toward the door with Jamie and Ashley. “See you later,” he said, doing his best to ignore the fact that his heart was hammering in his throat. He didn’t know why, but there was something about Mallory that made his heart do crazy things.
The three of them were quiet as they walked down the hallway. Cadon absently wondered where he’d be sleeping that night but hadn’t asked Ashley that question yet. For now, he wanted to go back to the office building, assuming that, if his sister came back through the portal soon, she’d end up back where she started.
But he wasn’t sure he expected Jo to do that. She’d keep searching until she found their mom. Just because their dad seemed to think she was capable of finding Cadence quickly, Cadon had no reason to think that would be the case. If his dad, the smartest person he’d ever known, couldn’t find her in ten years, how would Jo find her in a few hours?
Unless Holland’s death had an effect on the portals the way that it did on the rest of the world.
“Well, what do you think she’ll decide?” Ashley asked as the three of them got on the elevator headed down.
“I think she’ll do it,” Jamie said with a nod as he used the IAC to send them down to the ground floor.
“You do?” Ashley asked, her tone implying she was surprised. “Why is that?”
Jamie cleared his throat. “I don’t know. I just got the impression that she would. I’m usually not wrong about those sorts of things, but we’ll see.”
“She sure seemed frightened,” Ashley murmured, folding her arms. “Poor girl has been through so much.”
Cadon said nothing, sort of hoping they’d forget he was there. He truly didn’t want to give his opinion about whether or not Mallory would Transform. He didn’t want to talk about Mallory at all.
“What do you think, Cadon?” Jamie asked. The bell dinged, and they all stepped out into the lobby.
For a moment, Cadon was distracted as his eyes roamed the area for the familiar face of his favorite custodian--Juan Diego. He didn’t see him anywhere, though. It was too bad. That guy had always put a smile on everyone’s face. Everyone but Jo, anyway. But that was nearly impossible, she was such a grouch, especially when they were kids.
“Cadon?” Ashley asked, turning to look at him. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I was just thinking. I don’t know if she’ll do it. But I hope she does. I think she could be a good Hunter. She’s certainly got all of the reasons in the world to want to kill Vampires.”
“That’s true,” Jamie agreed. “Besides that, she is kinda cute, isn’t she?”
“What’s that?” Ashley asked, looking at him for a second like she was offended before she started laughing. “She’s a little young for you.”
“She’s a lot young for me, but then, so are you,” Jamie reminded her. He was well over a hundred years older than his wife. “I didn’t mean for me,” he added.
“I know. I’m teasing.” Ashley slid her arm around his. “I agree. She’s cute. And I think she might have a little crush on someone.” Ashley looked over her shoulder at Cadon.
“Uh… what?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowing as he reasoned through what she was implying. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ashley.”
“Oh, come on, Cadon!” Jamie said, also turning to look at him. “We’ve been around a while--I’ve been around a long time. It was pretty obvious not only that she couldn’t keep her eyes off of you, but you also seemed to be reciprocating in her puppy dog looks.” He mimicked the expression he was talking about, and Cadon immediately felt his face turn red.
“That’s not true. I do think she’s cute, and I hope that she stays safe. I rescued her, after all. But I’m not… she isn’t… we’re not.” He groaned. “Never mind.” Cadon walked around them, ignoring their laughter, and headed for Christian’s office.
He was used to his sister and Scott teasing him, but for Scott’s parents to tease him, well, that was different. But the thing that bothered him most about Jamie and Ashley pointing out that he was having trouble taking his eyes off of Mallory was the fact that what they were saying was true.
He did like her.
Was she really returning the looks he was giving her? He wasn’t sure, but he’d like to think maybe she was.
It was always Jo who had no problem hooking up with people. Cadon had never made time for it, and even talking to girls made him nervous. His dad was so suave and smooth, and women flocked to him--not that he invited it. It was like Aaron didn’t even notice when beautiful women were drooling over him. Cadon had not inherited that.
So even if Mallory was interested in him, would he be able to do anything about it?
He didn’t know--but he hoped so.