Cadence looked up at the crowd and froze. The room was packed. In fact, despite the cold weather, the doors in the back were propped open so that the dozens of people standing outside could hear and feel as if they were still a part of the service.
Cadence set the paper down on the podium and cleared her voice, trying to gather her thoughts. She glanced at the paper, but it was just a blur. She looked out at the faces in the front two rows, including the Cooks and all of her friends from high school. Her parents were there as well, and Cassidy, who was wiping her eyes with a tattered tissue.
Cadence sat through the rest of the memorial practically numb. She had no idea what she had witnessed, but she knew she needed to talk to Aaron sooner rather than later. She still wasn't sure where he had gone or if he was back. She made it through the rest of the service, Sydney's hand in hers, and took a deep sigh of relief when the final prayer was said, and Rev. Jones invited everyone to join them on the baseball diamond for the ashes ceremony.As Cadence and her friends stood, there was another exchange of hugs. Some people who had not embraced Cadence before the memorial came over to do
Taylor had let go of Cadence's arm and taken Jon's, something she noted as different, but she didn't stop to question it. She slipped her arm through Aaron's, and despite his reservations, he didn't stop her. They were standing in a few inches of snow, and that was reason enough to offer her his support, particularly in the trying emotional situation. "You're a grown up. They want to live vicariously through you." Cadence replied in response to his statement that her friends were inquisitive. She glanced back toward the school and saw Jack's parents, his aunt and uncle, and his cousins making their way over. She was glad; she wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.
"I don't like it when you say that," she admitted, turning her head to look at him at last. She caught his eyes and held them, hoping that, if he wanted to talk about something she didn't care to discuss, he would say so."About Jack," he explained. "But not here. We need to go somewhere more private." There were still a lot of people milling around, and he had other reasons for wanting to be alone as well.
Laura pounded her thumbs nervously against the steering wheel as she waited, her eyes focused out the windshield but her mind racing through all the scenarios of what might happen next. The information from Eliza had been greatly helpful. Once Laura and Laney had reached Shenandoah, they had easily located the familiar Corvette parked outside a little motel just outside of town. They weren't sure how long Giovani had been there when they arrived, but camping out in the parking lot across from the hotel and sleeping in shifts had yielded no sightings. If he left the hotel, he did so from a different door and on foot. In the day or so they had been watching, the car had not moved... until around 1:00 that afternoon.
"What did you say?" Cadence asked, her head cocked to the side in confusion.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 down at her shoes, pondering what Aaron had just said. "I'm sorry," she said, looking back at him. "What? How is that possible? Jack died. He was sick. He was in the
Cadence turned away from Aaron, looking toward the origin of the sound. She took a step forward but felt Aaron's hand on her arm.Pulling a Glock out of the back of his waistband, he offered it to her. "Take this. You might need it."Cadence looked at the gun in disgust, her hands buried deep in her coat pockets and not coming out. "I'm not taking that. I would never shoot Jack." She pulled
Cadence was listening to this conversation, ascertaining that the woman on the ground was a fellow Hunter, named Laura, though she had no idea who she was. She gave access to Laney so that she could see what was happening with her sister. Simultaneously, she was listening to the ramblings of an apparently insane Rogue Vampire, trying to justify to his brother why he didn't bother to tell him that the woman he loved, the one he planned to turn into a Vampire, could never be turned."Jack," Giovani explained, "she doesn't have to be a Vampire to live with you forever. She's already practically i
"Fine," Giovani said aloud. He turned, as if he were going to walk away. He could feel Eliza relax behind him, her gun still pointed down. Spinning around, Giovani shot her, first in the shoulder, then in the stomach. Eliza reeled in pain, falling to the ground next to Laura, who was now left exposed. Even though Jamie rushed in to try to cover Laura, he was too late. She was folded up on the ground, attempting to protect her head with her arms. The first bullet hit her in the hip, the next in the back. Jamie got there just in time to prevent a third shot from hitting her. It grazed his arm, doing little damage, as he was able to heal himself fairly quickly. He fired at Giovani, who stepped behind a large pine tree, taking cover there.