Betrayal
"What did you say?" Cadence asked, her head cocked to the side as confusion mingled with anger.
Aaron took another deep breath. "I said that Jack isn't dead. He's a Vampire, Cadence. Jack has gone through the Resurrection process."
Cadence stared at him for a long moment, unable to believe that something like that could happen, not only for Jack’s sake, but also because no one had told her, and since Aaron always knew everything before anyone… he had to have known. "I'm sorry," she said, looking at the ground. " How is that possible? I was with him, remember? In the hospital. He was sick. I took him there. If he had been a Vampire… wouldn’t I have known?”
Aaron shook his head. “Not until he was fully turned, and by then… you were gone.”
“But the doctors—"
He cut her off. “The doctors didn't know, remember? They had no idea what was wrong with him. And nothing they tried worked. He was infected, Cadence. By Holland. And when his friends and family thought he was dead, he was just going through the Resurrection process. I know it's hard to understand, but you need to believe me." He slid closer to her and reached for her hand, but Cadence pulled it away.
Slowly, she shook her head. "Aaron, that's crazy. Holland didn't bite him. I was there; I would have known if she bit him." Was she just in denial?
"You're right," he agreed. "She didn't bite him. She stabbed him with her fingernail, a fingernail she had purposely infected with her DNA. And when that DNA got into his bloodstream, it began the Resurrection process. Cadence, the smaller the amount of DNA, the longer the Transformation takes."
Once again, Cadence attempted to comprehend what he was saying. If all of that was true, he had a lot of explaining to do. "So you're saying that it wasn't a prank caller. It was Jack calling me. The real Jack. My Jack. And, it wasn't a form of temporary insanity when I thought I saw him at the service. It was really him--or at least whatever he is now. That's what I saw."
"Yes," he said, nodding his head. "It was Jack. You're not going crazy or being pranked. It was really him. Or what's left of him."
"What do you mean?" she asked, snapping her eyes up to meet his sharply.
"Well," Aaron began, "we don't know for sure, but we have a theory that, when a person is Resurrected as a Vampire, their soul actually passes on. A new soul takes their place, usually an evil or demonic one. Not all Vampires choose to go Rogue, but most of them do, unless they are constantly kept in line. So, it just makes sense that whatever makes them behave that way is some sort of new entity, not the former inhabitant of that body."
"But don't they have the same memories, the same interests? They are practically the same person, if you take away the propensity toward evil," Cadence said, looking for clarification.
"Yes, that's true," Aaron agreed with her. "But we aren't exactly sure if that's just the person's mind acting independently of the spirit, or if it's some sort of deceptive practice perpetrated by the new being."
Lot in a sea of confusion and betrayal, Cadence tried too process all of this new information and put some puzzle pieces together in her mind. Everything he was saying made sense.
But there was something else she needed to know. Something important. "How long have you known about this?"
Aaron took a deep breath and glanced away from her, and she could immediately tell she was not going to like his response. "Honestly…." he began.
She interrupted, the anger welling up inside of her beginning to dominate all of her other emotions. "Some honesty would be awesome, thanks."
Aaron paused for a moment, his expression telling her that he knew he was treading on thin ice and needed to be careful not to send her over the edge. "We had some suspicions since you mentioned he was acting odd at Drew's funeral. We couldn't be sure. I started receiving some reports from other Hunters and Guardians in the Lincoln area, saying they had noticed some Vampire-like behaviors from him. We didn't know for certain, however, until he was placed in the hospital with an abnormal blood infection. That's usually a pretty good indication."
Her breath caught in her throat as she thought about what he was saying. That had been… before they even went to France! "You've known for that long, and you're just now telling me?" She stared at him, mouth wide open, as he slowly nodded. "Why didn't you tell me before?"
Aaron kept his voice even, and she knew he was trying not to raise her frustration level, but he was losing the battle. "There were several reasons why I didn't tell you, Cadence. For one, we were in the middle of a hunt where you needed your full attention on the job. I also needed confirmation. I tend not to operate on hunches. Also, I was hopeful that Jack would turn himself in for training and tagging, and then, when you found out, it would not be under these circumstances. It would have probably been a joyous occasion, honestly."
She opened her mouth to scream at him that all of those bullshit explanations were just excuses when his last few sentences sank in. "What circumstances?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly under the weight of the question.
"Cadence," Aaron said slowly and purposefully, "Jack has gone Rogue."
"What? No…." She shook her head slowly from side to side, not dropping the eye contact she had with Aaron.
"Listen, Cadence. He's been seen with another of Holland's creations, Giovani, a well-known Rogue, one Hunters have been pursuing for years. . .."
"Bullshit," Cadence interrupted, not believing anything he was saying. She knew in her heart that Jack was not capable of killing an innocent person.
"It's true. We know that he participated in an attack where seven people were killed, one the epileptic daughter of a known drug dealer who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cadence. . ."
"I don't believe you!" she said standing. All of Aaron’s words were running together. It was too much! Too much! She pulled angrily at her hair. "Just because he was there doesn't mean that he killed anyone.” Was she talking to him or to herself? She didn’t know.
"We know how Giovani works, Cadence. That wasn't the only incident either. He would have had to have eaten by now, and all of our victims--all of them--are on the Innocent List."
"All of them?"
"Yes!"
"Even the drug dealer?" Cadence asked, skeptically. She turned to face him again, folding her arms.
"His status had not been changed, not yet." He stood then, taking a few cautious steps toward her.
She spun away. "I don't believe it. Jack wouldn't do that. He wouldn't." Cadence could feel hot tears stinging the corners of her eyes.
A crunch in the snow in the clearing a hundred yards or so away from them caught her attention then. She felt a familiar sensation in her stomach, as if dragons were taking flight, and knew there was certainly a Vampire in their presence.
With her eyes trained on the spot in the distance where the sound had originated, Cadence slowly asked, "Is that him?"
"It is," Aaron confirmed. "Cadence, you can talk to him. But you've got to be careful. You can't trust him."
