The chapel was a quaint little building set off to one end of the complex, a bit of a walk but not too far. There were flowers everywhere on the outside in shades of pink and purple, yellow and white. A weeping willow on either side of a winding path seemed inviting, and the building itself reminded me of a cottage out of a fairy tale. It was nice.
“Your grandmother designed this building,” Dad whispered as we followed other people up the cobblestone sidewalk. “After Grandpa died, she decided it would be nice to have a little place to remember those who gave everything for the cause.”
The way my dad said that reminded me of the type of phrases people say on Veteran’s Day, or maybe if they were fighting against the Empire. I thought, in a way, this was a sort of a war. I hadn’t really considered it that way before.
Next to the door was a little placard that read, “Jordan L. Findley Memorial Chapel.” I thought that w
Aaron was next, and I felt like it took him a little longer than I expected to actually start speaking. He definitely looked like he was having a hard time, which I bet wasn’t easy for him. He seems like the kind of guy who wouldn’t really cry much in front of other people. He shared a couple of great stories about Elliott and lots of accolades. When he finished, the preacher took the stage again. He made a few closing remarks, and we all bowed our heads to say a prayer. I was thankful this was almost over, but I knew the long process of putting our lives back together with such a gaping hole in the middle was just beginning.When I opened my eyes, I noticed that Cadence was gone. I wondered if it had gotten to be too much, and she’d headed to the restroom to have a good cry. I looked at my mom who also seemed bewildered. “Where’s your sister?” she asked, alarm in her voice.“I don’t know,” I replied. “Maybe w
“Where did everyone go?” Cadence asked, looking around like she didn’t realize she’d been gone for so long.“We’re having a luncheon at the main building in a few minutes,” Hannah explained, stopping in front of them. I took a few steps closer so I was pretty near behind her and the rest of my family followed. “Is everything all right?” Hannah asked.“Yes. Fine. Why?” Cadence asked as Aaron stepped around her and headed over toward the guys.I had no idea why my sister was being so dense. Why did she not expect her friends and family to be worried when she rushed out of a funeral? I stepped up beside Hannah, ready to have her back when she told my sister she was being dumb. Hannah began, “You took off out of here so quickly I just wondered if...” but halfway through, she switched tracks as her eyes landed on the same thing I was just noticing. “Oh, my goodness, Cadence! What's th
“Come on, Cass,” Mom said, smiling. She pulled out a chair next to my dad, who was talking to Jamie, and sat down on the other side of me. There was a bit of a line at the buffet, and some people at our table were already eating. While my stomach was growling, I wanted to know who that other guy was. I wasn’t sure why, but there was something intriguing about him, besides the fact that he reminded me a lot of Chris Hemsworth.I sat down and weighed my options as I spotted my sister still talking to the mysterious hottie. I didn’t really know any of these people, which gave me little choice. “Mom, who is that guy Cadence is talking to?” I whispered. Aaron was only about three seats down from me, but I didn’t think he was listening since he was talking to Christian.My mom looked over at the door and then, shrugging, said, “I don’t know.”I made a face I try not to make. My mom calls it my “teenager
My sister’s boyfriend—scratch that—fiancé--really is magical. The more time I spend around people on his team, the more I realize that. I was super impressed that he somehow managed to coordinate the cleaning and redecorating of an empty apartment a few floors below Cadence’s while also attending his best friend’s memorial service so that by the time we got back from the luncheon, my parents’ belongings had all been resituated in what seemed like an expansive hotel room. Cadence let me keep my stuff in her apartment, though. She said I could stay in the guest room, which was awesome because I hadn’t had the chance to see her much lately.Most of the rest of the day was a blur, though there was definitely a lot of sitting around chatting. After several hours at the luncheon, my parents, Cadence, Aaron, and I headed back to my sister’s apartment, and there was more chatting. I had taken a lot of pictures of the place on my
“Right, the talk. Grandma will give me the same talk she gave to you,” I said to Cadence, still shocked to think of what those pictures must be like. “Then what happened? What’s this Transformation process everyone keeps mentioning?” I already knew way more about that than I probably should’ve, but she had no idea that was the case.“Well, like I said, Grandma is the perfect person to explain all of this, so I don’t want to confuse you, but basically once a person who has the ability to Transform either into a Hunter or a Guardian is in danger from a Vampire, their body starts the Transformation process. Jamie just sped mine along with a shot.”I nodded. Had she worked it out on her own, then, that this wasn’t really a choice? I remembered Aaron saying to my parents, way back at the beginning, when he thought I wasn’t listening, that they wanted Cadence to choose to join them. Even if she’d chosen
I couldn’t help but smile, thinking about Cadence and Elliott working together to kill some awful Vampire that, in my mind, looked a lot like Bela Lugosi. “Why is that?” I asked, wondering why that was such a crucial event.“Well, I didn’t realize he was taking me out there just to scare me. Apparently, this Vampire, Barbarosa, has killed a lot of Hunters over the years. He lived in this creepy old house out in the middle of nowhere, and it was like a maze on the inside. So, when I wasn’t scared and thought it was just a typical hunt, Elliott tried to talk me out of it. My instincts had already kicked in, though, and I was in full slayer mode. So… I went in after Barbarosa, and chased him all through this labyrinth and out the other side. He was almost out the door when Elliott cut him off. Barbarosa had him by the neck, and while he couldn’t kill Elliott, it couldn’t have been comfortable. I had to be super careful when
“Hey, Cass,” Aaron said, walking toward me as Cadence headed for the chair Mom had been sitting in earlier. “Cadence said you had some questions about what happened in Sierraville.” He sat down on the sofa pretty close to me, and I wanted to scoot back, scoot away from him, but not only would that probably be rude, there was nowhere for me to go.“Yeah,” I said, looking anywhere but his eyes. “I just wanted to know what happened to Elliott.”“I think that’s a valid question, and you deserve to know. It’s just… not something that’s easy for either one of us to talk about, as you can imagine.”“Right,” I said, shaking my head. “I can understand that. I don’t need… details… or anything. It’s just, that guy who shot him? Who was he? Why would he do that?”I expected a whole litany of reasons why he wouldn’t be able to te
“When we walked into the woods that night, Elliott knew there was a possibility this was all a farce, too. But he still thought we should go through with it,” Aaron continued.I nodded, understanding that he was saying Elliott took the same calculated risk they all did. “So… can you tell me what happened, or is it too hard to talk about?” I had an idea now. I wasn’t sure that I even wanted him to tell me anymore, certainly not the details, but I also didn’t want to tell him to stop talking now that he was.“Sam shot him.” He said it like it was a fact from a history book. If I had asked, “Who shot Abraham Lincoln?” and his response was, “Booth shot him,” it couldn’t have sounded any more dispassionate. But I couldn’t blame him. He was a facts kinda guy, and I was asking him to talk about something that wasn’t just factual to him. It was emotional and real and it really, rea