Transformation: The Clandestine Saga Book 1 (26 page)

              “Cadence,” he said smiling, “What are you doing here? You look so pretty.”

              “I came to see you,” she said. “I was worried about you. Are you feeling better?”

              “Oh, yes, I’m feeling much better now,” he said. His eyes were still glazed over, and she could tell the medication was making him a little loopy.

              “Your parents are here. They’ll be right back,” she said hoping that would make him feel better.

              “Steve and Alice,” he said, closing his eyes momentarily. “Alice and Steve.”

              “Yes, that’ s them. That’s your parents."

              “Hey, remember that time we snuck off under the bleachers at the football game and did it?”

              She couldn’t help but snicker. “No, Jack, that wasn’t me. That was Andrea Lacombe.”

              “Oh, that’s right.  Andrea had big. . .”

              “Alright, medicine is working then. That’s great.”  She leaned over to straighten his pillow, and he caught a lock of her hair between his fingers.

              “I remember you, too,” he said quietly, gently pulling on her hair so that she had to bend closer to him.

              “You do?” she asked, her face inches from his.

              He seemed to have fully returned to her for a minute and he said, “Oh, yes, I remember. I remember everything, Cadence Findley.”

              She felt the sting of tears in her eyes.  She fought to keep them from spilling out, afraid to upset him.

              “Why don’t you love me anymore?” he asked, a serious expression on his face.

              Cadence thought about her answer for a second. She didn’t love him, not like she used to, but she would always
love
him. He had been her first love and there was nothing that could ever change that. “I do love you,” she said. “I’ll always love you, Jack.”

              “Promise?” he asked.

              “Yes, of course I promise I will always love you.”

              “Good, then kiss me,” he said slipping his hand out of her hair and up to the back of her neck.

              She leaned down and gentle kissed his lips and he pulled her in for more. Cadence heard a noise behind her and pulled away, just in time to see his parents enter the room.

              Cadence was extremely embarrassed.  She stepped back, out of the way allowing them closer access to their son but just as she did so, she heard him whisper, “You will always be mine.”

              She turned and smiled in his direction, hoping this would be enough to help pull him through. Once he was well she could remind him of all the reasons they had broken up in the first place.

              Cadence excused herself from the room before the tears began to splash down her checks. His parents were so busy asking him how he was feeling that neither of them seemed to even notice she had left.  She went down the hall to try and find a quite place where she could talk to Aaron.

              “
Hey, could you call me on my cell phone. I just want to hear your voice.”

              Almost instantly, her phone began to ring.  “Hi,” she said just above a whisper.

              Hey, how are you? What did the doctor say?”

              “Well,” she began, “we’re at the hospital. They admitted him. It doesn’t look good, Aaron.  I don’t know. They said it was some sort of infection or something. I don’t even think they know for sure. They think he must have picked it up from a student from a foreign country or something.”

              “Really?” he asked. “Cadence, that sounds a little suspect to me.” Aaron was beginning to formulate his own theory as to what was happening with Jack, but he did not have enough evidence to mention it to Cadence just yet so he decided to keep his opinion to himself.

              “If it isn’t a blood infection, I don’t know what else could it be. He hasn’t been outside of the country or anything. They said they’ve never seen anything exactly like this, and they’re not even precisely sure how to treat it.”

              “What are they doing to treat it?” he asked.

              “I don’t know. They named off a bunch of drugs they’re giving him, a bunch of stuff I can’t even pronounce.  Antibiotics, steroids, I think. Just a bunch of stuff, trying to figure out if any of it will work for him.”

              “And is it working?”

              Cadence wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that. “I want to say yes. He was unconscious for the last several hours, but he came around a few minutes ago. He was talking coherently. He kissed me and told me he loved me.” She couldn’t help but stick that last little bit in there, wondering how he might react.

              Aaron didn’t say anything for a moment, not exactly sure how to take that. “Well, maybe they’re right and it is an infection and they’ll be able to treat it and he’ll be fine."

              “I hope so,” she concurred.

              “Yeah, me, too,” he said, for her sake anyway.  “When do you think you’re coming back?” he asked gently.

              “I’m not sure,” she admitted.  “Did you say you need me for a hunt?”

              “I do,” he confirmed. “We’ve found her.”

              Cadence didn’t hesitate. “Send me a plane.”

Chapter Thirteen

              Even on their own private jet, the ride from Kansas City to Paris seemed to take forever, and Cadence spent the whole time thinking about Jack and wondering what he was doing. The rest of the team understood that she needed some alone time and they gave her some space.  Before she had left Nebraska, Taylor and the rest of her friends had arrived at the hospital and at least one of them was there around the clock so they could constantly keep her updated, once she got off the plane. Nevertheless, she still felt bad leaving him when he was so extremely ill.

              When she had returned to his room that night, he was asleep, not unconscious again, but truly asleep.  His parents said they understood that she couldn’t stay, that she needed to get back to work. They already believed that the medication was working and they were certain they’d be calling her soon with positive information. That was yesterday evening, and she still hadn’t received any word from his parents, which was disappointing. And now, all of the rest of their friends were there as well, which left her feeling very melancholy and made the trip even longer.

              For some reason, it seemed everyone and their brother was visiting Paris at the same time, which had made booking enough hotel rooms extremely difficult. As soon as Eliza found out Stormy was coming and there wouldn’t be enough hotel rooms for them each to have their own, she had essentially called “Not it!” and talked Jamie into sharing a room with her. That left Cadence to share with Stormy. She was fine with that at first. They were both Vampire Hunters, which was something. Surely she could get along with anyone for a few days.

              Unfortunately, that had not been the case.  As soon as they arrived, Cadence wanted to call and check on Jack.  The room was tiny and the bathroom door was paper-thin.  Stormy insisted that she needed to go to sleep immediately. If she were to perform at her best, she needed precisely ten hours of sleep each night.               

              “Well, I need to call and check on my friend,” Cadence said.

              “I’m sorry,” Stormy said, “But the next ten hours are quiet time for me, and that means you must be completely silent at all times. You cannot call in here while I am sleeping. You’ll have to go somewhere else.”

              Cadence thought that arguing with her could quite possibly lead to a physical fight, and though she was fairly certain she would win, she wasn’t willing to escalate the situation.  “Fine, I’ll go out into the hallway,” she acquiesced.

              She spent the next fifteen minutes on the phone with Taylor, talking about how Jack was doing. Taylor explained that they had changed some of his medications because he wasn’t responding as they had hoped he would.  They were hopeful that this new regime would be more productive in creating healthy blood cells. He would also be receiving one or two blood transfusions daily now.  She said he had been awake and talking for a few minutes that day, but he never made much sense. It had upset Cadence to know that, each time he woke up, he asked where she was.

              After hanging up the phone, Cadence returned to the room she shared with Stormy. However, once Cadence left, Stormy had thrown the bar across the door, and even though she had a keycard, Cadence was unable to access her own room. She attempted to wake her up on IAC, but Stormy was either completely off or just ignoring her. 

              Cadence knew she had one of two choices. She could bang on the door and attempt to wake her that way, potentially getting into an altercation with her, or she could just find somewhere else to sleep. She was wearing linen pants and a sweatshirt and she had brushed her teeth before she went out to make the phone call. So, all she really needed was a bed. She knew that Jamie and Eliza were already sharing a room, and she didn’t want to ask them to make room for one more. Christian and Elliott each had their own room. Elliott was out of the question and she was afraid that, if she asked Christian, he would assume other intentions. Tonight, all she truly wanted to do was sleep.  That really only left one person.

             
“Hey, I’m locked out of my room. Stormy put the bar over the door and she won’t let me in.”

              “What! That’s crazy! I can wake her up."

              “No, don’t do that.  I don’t want to make her angry. We’ll just end up fighting.”

              “Okay, well, I know there are no more rooms.  What would you like for me to do?"

              “Are you sleeping or working?"

              "Working."

              "Can I sleep in your bed?"

              There was a delay in his response and Cadence thought perhaps she had overstepped the new boundaries he had recently established. In actuality the delay had come from multitasking and had nothing to do with her.

              “
Of course you can.”

              "Thanks. What room are you in?"

              "Three-seventeen"

             
She made her way down the hall and knocked quietly on his door.

              “Hey,” Aaron said, opening the door wide enough for her to enter.

              “Hi.  Thank you,” she added as she stepped into the room.

              “Sure,” he replied. “I’m sorry Stormy is being so difficult.”

              “It’s not your fault,” she said, looking around the room. He was working at his laptop, which was open on the coffee table in the sitting area. He only had one queen size bed in his room, but that worked just fine for someone who didn’t sleep.

              “It is and it isn’t,” he admitted. “I mean, I’m the one who invited her, and I’m in charge so if she’s being a bitch, I need to take care of it.”             

              “Well, maybe she’s just tired and she’ll be nicer tomorrow. I don’t know, I just went out in the hall to call Taylor to check on Jack and she locked me out.”

              “That’s a bit on the harsh side,” he admitted, choosing his words carefully. “Well, it’s all yours,” he said, gesturing towards the bed.

              “Thanks again,” she said, walking over and pulling down the blankets. She was very aware that he was still standing there watching her as she climbed between the sheets. “Everything okay?” she asked.

              “Yes, sorry,” he replied, realizing he had been staring. “I was just going to ask how Jack was doing, but I didn’t know if you wanted to talk about it.”

              She sighed, not really sure if she wanted to discuss him or not. Jack was just one of the many topics that she currently found upsetting. When she had first decided to ask Aaron if she could sleep in his room, she had thought she would be able to handle being so close to him, telling herself her sole purpose in doing so was to get some sleep. Now that she was here, she realized that her feelings for him were still at the surface level. He was dressed in very nice gray pants and a powder blue shirt, almost the same shade as his eyes, and she was beginning to wonder if coming here was a mistake.  She had cried enough over him recently, and she really didn’t want to go through that again.

              He could see that she was distressed, though he didn’t know exactly how bad Jack’s situation was. He searched for something comforting to say, anything to keep her from bursting into tears. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said, sitting down on the side of the bed near her knees. “Jack’s a tough guy, right? He can fight this, you know? It’ll be fine.”

              “You don’t sound very convincing,” she pointed out.

              He ran his hand through his hair and Cadence knew he was thinking about how to respond. “You’re right, I don’t. I’m sorry. Do you want me to try again?”

Cadence shook her head. “It’s okay, you don’t need to patronize me.”

“Oh, I’m not. I mean, I wasn’t trying to.” He sighed a deep sigh and turned to look at her. “Look, Cadence, here’s the deal. We can all say hopeful, reassuring things and that’s nice. It makes people feel good, at least for a few moments. There’s nothing wrong with that. Except for when it doesn’t turn out that way. And I have no idea if Jack’s going to pull through this or not. Of course, I hope so. I hope he makes a full recovery and you see him out there playing baseball in the spring, just like you always have. But, sometimes that doesn’t happen. And we lose people. And it sucks. God, does it ever suck. But we find a way to go on—sometimes when we truly think there is no possible way to go on. Somehow, we find one.”

Tears were starting to make their way out of the corners of her eyes. “I just can’t imagine losing Jack,” she whispered. “I’m just tired of losing people. I don’t want to do it any more.”

“I know,” he agreed. “I really do know.”

She wiped her tears on the sleeve of her sweatshirt. “You mentioned that before,” she replied. “What do you mean by that? Do you mind that I ask?”

“No, I don’t mind that you ask,” he responded.  In the past, it had been difficult for him to talk about it. But he was willing to talk to Cadence about it. There never really was an easy way to start this story, so over the decades, he just started telling it how it was. Taking a deep breath, he calmly stated, “My wife died.” He wasn’t able to look directly at her and instead found himself staring down at his folded hands.

Cadence gasped, “Oh, my God, Aaron, I’m so sorry! I had no idea.”

“I know. It’s okay. I mean, it was a very, very long time ago. But, even when this much time has passed, it really doesn’t make it any easier, unfortunately.”

She had no idea he had ever married before, though it would make sense that someone who had lived as long as he had would have been married at some point. “Do you ever talk about her, to anyone?” she asked. 

“No, not really. Not anymore.  There are some incredible rumors about what happened, and most of the team knows about her, but there’s really no one left that ever even met Aislyn. And, she was a human so, even if she hadn’t gotten sick, she wouldn’t be alive now.”

“You fell in love with a human?” she asked, intrigued.

“Mm hmm,” he replied softly.

“And you married her, knowing that, someday you’d have to go on without her?”

He nodded his head slowly.

“That’s incredible,” Cadence said. ”And pretty damn romantic,” she added.

He smiled shyly, “I guess so. I don’t know. I loved her. There was no question in my mind that I loved her, and I didn’t care what she was. I was going to marry her. And so, I did, and we were together for three years before she got sick, and even though I personally had the gift of eternal life, not to mention all of the contemporary advancements in medicine and technology at my fingertips, I could do nothing to save her.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, holding back tears again.

“Thanks,” he replied, nodding. Then he added, “So, I know. I really do know how you feel.”

She paused for a moment, considering all that he had said, being ever so careful to control her emotions.  There was so much that she wished to say.  Though she had admired him before, learning of his ability to love someone so unconditionally just intensified her feelings.  After a few moments she finally said simply, “Thank you for telling me.”

It had been a long time since Aaron had mentioned Aislyn to anyone, but he felt Cadence deserved to know, and he was glad to have had the opportunity to share his story with her. “You’re welcome. Thank you for listening.”

“And thank you for giving me another chance,” she added.

Her abrupt change of topic caught him slightly off-guard “What?” he asked. “You mean on the team?”

She nodded, slowly, briefly glancing up to meet his eyes.

“Oh, you don’t have to thank me for that, Cadence. I should have never . . .” he paused, not even knowing what to say without bringing up the other conversation they had had that same night. And with Jack sick, he certainly didn’t want her to think he was making advances towards her. Finally, he just stated, “Cadence, I was mad at the wrong person, and I don’t know if it was just my complete inability to see situations in any shades other than black or white or if I allowed someone else’s judgment to cloud my own, but I realized after you left yesterday, you never would have broken the rules if they weren’t stupid rules to begin with.”

“You mean the observation protocol? I don’t think it’s stupid . . .” she started.

“Sure it is. A rule that says every single Hunter has to follow the same protocol even when they don’t need to and it hurts the team? Yeah, that’s pretty stupid. So, I couldn’t hold you back anymore, even though it scares the hell out of me to see the risks you take. You know what you’re doing. You said you trust me, and I need to trust you, too.” Then he added, “And I do. I do trust you.” He was looking directly into her eyes now, and he hoped she could see the sincerity in his words.

Unable to continue to hold his gaze, she looked away. After a moment she said, “Good. Thank you.”

“Sure,” he said, nodding. Suddenly, he realized he needed to exit the situation or else become a complete hypocrite. “Okay, I’m sorry. You’re exhausted and I have work to do, so I promise I will let you sleep.”

“You look pretty tired, yourself,” she pointed out, not looking directly at him when she said it, hoping she wouldn’t think she was suggesting anything.