Most nights, Cadence either dreamt that Jack was chasing her or had no dreams at all. This night, however, she dreamt that she was with Elliott. They were at a basketball game, and though she had very little interest in the sport, she recognized Larry Bird and Magic Johnson on the court. He was sitting next to her, clapping and cheering, and soon she found herself cheering right along with him. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him so happy. Every time the Lakers scored, he jumped out of his seat, applauding and whooping along with the other Los Angeles fans.
Eventually, she leaned over,
The information she found said this should be a twenty-two-hour drive, and she saw no reason to make it much faster than that. She had five days after all. Still, Cadence was used to going faster than humans, and she pulled into Salt Lake City around midnight, well ahead of the time she should have arrived by people standards.She’d already decided she would spend the night there and scoped out an unassuming motel on the outskirts of town. She wanted a place that took cash, even though she had a credit card with her just in case of emergencies. If she used it, Aaron could find her. As it
Aaron had messaged Cadence after his hunt last night, and she had ignored him. She finally decided to go ahead and let him know she was alive around 10:00 as she was humming along down the highway at a pretty good pace. “Hey,” she said. “Sorry—I went to bed pretty early last night.”“That’s okay. How’s it going?”
There was a dinging noise as the bell above the door signaled Cadence’s presence, and right away, she knew something was wrong. Behind the counter, an older man with a scraggly beard and unkempt graying hair stood, a nervous smile on his face. “Morning, miss,” he said, his fingers rapping on the counter before him.“Hi,” Cadence said, looking around the rest of the store. There was no sign of anyone else inside, which couldn’t be right. Also, the fluttering feeling in her stomach told her that either this cashier was a Vampire or one was hiding nearby. She t
“Where are you, exactly?” Dr. Cale Ryan asked over the IAC. Cadence could tell he was surprised the second she’d given him the news that she would be by to pay him a visit shortly, but she couldn’t tell if the secondary emotion was annoyance, irritation, or anxiety.“Well, exactly where I am, I’m not sure. But I’m probably fifteen miles outside of Elko,” she explained.
Besides being an area leader, Cale was also still a practicing surgeon, and he actually saw patients in this same building, which housed the headquarters for the region. Most of his patients knew about the Ternion for some reason or another, whether it was a relative or having actually been a practicing Hunter or Guardian at one time.His living room was fresh and white. Even the furniture was so clean, she didn’t want to sit down for fear of getting it dirty. He offered her a seat on the sofa, however, so she slipped her backpack off and took it.
A shower and a nap later, and Cadence woke up feeling refreshed—and famished. She sent a message to Cale to ask if he would mind if she raided his refrigerator, and since he was well aware of how she could pack it away, she didn’t feel at all bad cleaning out most of his foodstuffs once he’d given his permission to do so.When she was done eating everything she could find that was reasonable to make or cook, she realized she’d left his kitchen a mess, so she did the dishes and changed out the trash bag, though she wasn’t willing to actually chance running into som
Cadence had gone to bed early Saturday night. After a brief discussion with Cale, where he offered to take her on his team’s hunt that night, and she declined because his team would know she was there, and also she’d had enough crazy Vampires for a few days, she’d fallen asleep. Not having checked in with Aaron beforehand made her wake up in a panic at 6:30 the next morning only to find he was still in Connecticut, and she was safe--at least for a few more hours.It was tempting to spend another day or two in Cale’s comfortable, sparkly clean apartment. But she knew it
Monday evening, she headed out into the Forty Mile Desert and eventually found a place she liked. It was at the foot of a fairly tall plateau, and the shadow kept her in the shade as the sun was going down. She wasn’t sure how hot it might feel out here during the daytime, especially since her body didn’t react to temperatures quite the way it used to before she Transformed, but she was willing to give it a try. She’d brought plenty of water, some extra gasoline, and enough protein bars and other snacks to last until Thursday morning. She hoped she’d be out of there Wednesday night, but she didn’t know for sure if she’d feel like leaving if the portal didn’t open or Elliott didn’t decide to come through.