by ID Johnson
Sitting down next to Cadence on the sofa and resting the book beside her on the opposite side, Janette cleared her throat and slowly began to unfold the story Cadence had been waiting to hear.
“Cadence, darling, do you know what the word Clandestine means?” she asked.
Nodding her head, Cadence said, “Yes, it means secret.”
“That’s right,” Janette concurred. “What about the word Ternion?”
Cadence thought for a moment. That word did not sound familiar to her. She shook her head.
“Ternion means a set or group of three, like a triad,” she explained.
“Like a trilogy?” Cadence asked.
Janette nodded her head, “More or less. Today, you are going to learn about one of the most well kept secrets in the history of the world, the Clandestine Ternion.”
Cadence looked at Eliza and Jamie and they were both smiling reassuringly at her. “Okay,” she said quietly, grabbing a pillow off the edge of the sofa and pulling it to her chest.
“You see, the Clandestine Ternion is made up of three distinct types of beings. As of last night, you have now been introduced to all three types. Do you know what they are?”
Again, Cadence stopped to think. She was sure about two of them. “Well, Vampires,” she said, watching the rest of the group nod. Gesturing at Eliza and Jamie she said, “And Guardians.”
“Those are both correct,” Janette agreed. “And the third?”
Cadence swallowed hard, hesitating. “I take it the correct answer isn’t humans?” She watched the others shake their heads. Then, she thought back to what Eliza had told her in the car. “Hunters?” she asked meekly.
They all nodded and smiled proudly and Cadence felt like a kindergartner who had correctly identified her colors. “Now, you should know that we refer to each of those groups as a Passel. Within the Clandestine Ternion there are three Passels; Vampires, Guardians, and Hunters. ” Janette continued, “What do you think each of those Passels does?”
If Cadence had known this was going to be a quiz, perhaps she would have had more coffee or gotten more sleep. “Well, I know what Vampires do,” she said, starting with the easiest one. “Obviously, they kill humans and drink their blood.”
“That’s true, some of them do that, amongst other things. Go on.”
“Well, I assume that Guardians guard things—uh. . . people . . .uh . . .Passels? And I think that Eliza told me that they guard Hunters, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Janette confirmed.
“And then, I guess Hunters hunt—Vampires?” she looking for confirmation.
“Very good!” Janette said clapping her hands together. Jamie and Eliza looked pleased at Cadence’s answers, but also amused that Janette was so impressed by Cadence’s simple responses. “Let’s go a step farther, alright?”
Cadence nodded and her grandmother continued.
“What you must understand is that there are forces and powers beyond your present human understanding that balance the Clandestine Ternion and keep things in order. There are some rules that you must recognize and there are some laws that simply cannot be broken. Let’s go over those, alright?”
Again, Cadence nodded, still trying to figure out how she fit into this picture.
“First of all, a Vampire is not capable of killing a Guardian. If a Vampire could kill a Guardian, the entire Ternion would be off balance and things would quickly spiral out of control. We would end up with a world ruled by Vampires.”
Cadence needed some clarification. “Wait—are you saying that they are not physically capable of killing a Guardian or they truly cannot kill them?”
Eliza chimed in this time, “Cannot!” she said, shaking her head from side to side vigorously.
“Okay,” Cadence said, understanding. “So, if Vampires could kill Guardians they would just kill them all and kill all of the Hunters and kill all of the people?”
Three heads nodded up and down confirming her assumption.
This made perfect sense to Cadence, though she wondered why whoever made this rule didn’t just make it impossible for anything to kill anything, but that was beside the point at this juncture.
“So can anyone kill Guardians?” Cadence asked. The room went silent and Cadence got the impression that she may have crossed a line or jumped ahead.
“We’ll get to that, I promise,” Janette said, trying to stick to the order she was taught to follow while explaining the Ternion. “Vampires can kill Hunters and of course Hunters can kill Vampires. However, Guardians also guard against Hunters wiping out the entire species of Vampires.”
“What? Why?” Cadence asked, thinking it would be a great idea to just completely wipe out all of the bloodsuckers and do away with the problem completely.
“Because, believe it or not, Vampires do serve a purpose,” Janette explained. “When they do their job correctly, Vampires clean up the under-belly of the human population. They eliminate evil and corrupt humans.”
Again, Cadence had to check the room to make sure she understood correctly. She looked at Jamie this time. “So, Vampires are allowed to kill humans as long as they are bad?” He nodded his confirmation, making her head swivel to Eliza. “But, who determines who is a bad vampire and who is a good vampire? Or who is a bad human or a good human? How do I know for sure that jackass I killed last night wasn’t on the Nice List?”
“You’re jumping ahead again, darling,” Janette stated, bringing her back down a bit. “We’ll get to all of that, alright?
Cadence nodded her agreement and Janette continued.
“There’s just one more thing you need to know,” she hesitated and looked at Eliza and Jamie for support. “It rarely happens, but it is possible, for a Hunter to kill a Guardian.”
Cadence’s face took on a look of confusion. “Why would a Hunter ever want to kill a Guardian? Aren’t Guardians there to help Hunters?”
Janette said nothing so Eliza picked up for her. “Yes, our primary roll over the years has become the protection of Hunters who are engaged in battle against Vampires. However, occasionally, and on extremely rare occasions, a Hunter will find reason to eliminate a Guardian and there is very little that we can do to protect ourselves because a Guardian cannot kill a Hunter.”
Cadence thought she understood precisely what Eliza was saying, but she didn’t quite understand why her grandmother was so upset. Having learned from her previous mistakes, she chose not to ask just yet but to wait and see what topic came up next. After a moment, Janette seemed ready to continue. “You asked who determines which Vampires are good and which are not?” Cadence nodded. “Well, the Guardian Passel has a leader and that leader determines the majority of what the Passel does. He or she communicates with all of the Guardians and the preponderance of the Hunters and lets them know the status and location of all of the Vampires. It is solely up to the Guardian Leader to determine who is considered a Rogue Vampire and who is considered a Compliant Vampire. Hunters are not allowed to hunt Compliant Vampires and, if they are caught doing so, the Guardians will no longer provide service to them.”
“Wow,” Cadence muttered, pondering all of this new information. “It seems like it would be nearly impossible to keep up with all of the Vampires in the world and then adding in most of the Hunters. How in the world does the leader keep up with it?”
This time Janette deferred to Jamie has he was more of an expert on the system in place now. “Well,” he began, “every Hunter and every Guardian has a device implanted directly into his or her eye. It’s called an Intelligence Assistance Communicator, or IAC. It’s basically the smallest and most powerful computer ever invented. It allows you to communicate via thought with anyone else who also has an IAC implant. We can also access the use of each other’s eyes, record data, etc. just by our thoughts.”
Cadence looked around the room to see if anyone else was buying this. “Seriously?” she asked, “You expect me to believe that you each have a computer chip in your
eye that let’s you communicate telepathically? No way, that’s not possible. I believe the Vampires, Ternions and the Pastels or whatever their called, but there’s no way I believe that you have a chip in your eye. That’s insane! If that were true, we’d all have them."
Jamie and Eliza exchanged glances. “I guess you’ll believe that part later when we implant yours then,” she said, laughing. Suddenly, her demeanor changed and she looked like a scolded puppy.
“See now, what was that?” Cadence said, picking up on it. “Why did you make that face?”
Eliza’s first instinct was to plead ignorance, as that is what she had been doing the last several hours, but then she decided to use this as an example. “Because, I just got in trouble for saying that!” she emphasized the “in trouble” portion as if she was not speaking to Cadence when she said it.
“In trouble? What? From who?”
“From Aaron,” Jamie explained. “He didn’t want her to say that so, when she did, he told her to stick to the protocol.”
Cadence still looked puzzled. “So you’re telling me that Aaron, who is somewhere in Villisca or Shenandoah or God-knows-where just told you not to say that to me through your eye?”
They both nodded. “Yes, that’s correct.” Jamie confirmed.
“And then, all of those strange facial expressions you were making on our way here were because you were talking to him?”
“Well, I don’t know about strange facial expressions,” Eliza began.
“Oh, you do!” Jamie agreed. “You always make crazy faces when you’re talking on the IAC.”
“I do not!”
“You do!”
“Alright,” Janette chimed in, bringing them back to the topic at hand. “I think that’s enough about the IAC for now. I don’t have one. I prefer to communicate the old fashioned way,” she said, gesturing at her house phone. “Cadence, whether you chose to accept its existence right now or not, you will find out eventually that it does exist and it is how Aaron coordinates the thousands of Hunters and Guardians around the world.”
“Wait, what?” Cadence asked. She could see her grandmother’s face going back over what she had said, attempting to figure out what her granddaughter was questioning. “Did you say that Aaron was the leader of the entire Guardian Passel?”
“Oh, yes,” she confirmed. “He is the Guardian Leader.”
Cadence looked at Eliza and Jamie in disbelief. “I thought he was like a shift manager or something, not like, the CEO.”
Eliza burst out laughing and Jamie did his best to stifle the laugh in the back of his throat, though he could actually hear Aaron laughing, too, which was rare. “That’s hilarious!” Eliza said, though once she saw Cadence’s face, she attempted to control herself a little more.
Cadence was thinking back to the night before when she had called him “creepy” and had practically blown her nose on his jacket. “Wonderful,” she mumbled. “I sure hope he never has to save my ass again. He’s liable to let the Vampires have me.”
“It is a lot of responsibility, that is certain,” Janette admitted, shaking her head. “Especially now, since there’s no Hunter Leader.”
“I’m sorry—what? Wait. Did you say there is no Hunter Leader?”
Again, the three veterans exchanged glances. Janette finally made her remark again. “That’s right. There hasn’t been one for quite some time. Which has left the Guardian Leader to do the job of both.”
“But, why?” Cadence asked.
The eyes shifted around the room and Janette finally picked up the old photo album that had been sitting next to her on the couch. “This is a difficult story for me to tell, darling,” she said, “But I do believe you have the right to know.”
Cadence felt her heart fluttering a bit as she anticipated what her grandmother might say next. She watched as she slowly opened the album to the very first page.
Attached to the page of the photo album was a daguerreotype of her Grandma Janette and her Grandpa Jordan dressed in wedding clothes, which seemed to look as early as the mid-19th century. “This is you? And Grandpa?” she asked, waiting for an explanation.
“Yes,” Janette confirmed. “This is our original wedding photograph, taken in 1858. Since that time, we’ve had several others made. Otherwise, well, people would have quickly figured out we weren’t quite the ages we claimed to be.”
“So, both of you were also members of a Passel?” Cadence said, starting to put the pieces together a little more. “And, just as Vampires don’t age, neither do Guardians or Hunters?”
“That’s not quite accurate,” Janette corrected. “Vampires do not age. They are the same age they were when they were created until they are destroyed. The original Vampires were in their mid-twenties, and though none of them have lasted these tens of thousand of years, they never looked a day older than the day they were created. Hunters do age, just not as quickly as humans. They age just like a regular person until they are Transformed. Once they go through the Transformation process, they age at a ratio about the same as 1 year for every 10 years for a human. So, when I was Transformed at 17 in 1855, I looked practically the same for many decades.”
Cadence interrupted yet again, “So, Grandma, you’re a Hunter?” she asked.
“Oh, yes, I was,” Janette confirmed. “For a very long time. But, well, after your Grandfather died, I was converted back into a human.”
“You can do that?” Cadence asked, once again bewildered.
“Yes, in certain circumstances,” Janette explained. “But it's rare and it doesn’t always work. Sometimes the individual stays a Hunter and sometimes the conversion kills him or her. I do not recommend it.”
“And you said you were Transformed into a Hunter?”
“We will definitely talk about that later,” Janette said, looking directly at Jamie, who just nodded.
“Guardians age even more slowly than Hunters. It’s about 1 year for every 20 years past Transformation until they reach what we consider middle age and then they won’t grow any older looking. Once a Guardian is Transformed, there’s no going back. And there’s no way to die either, unless, of course, a Hunter kills you.” The end of her sentence trailed off and Cadence felt her heart breaking for her poor grandma, unsure of why this was such a sensitive topic but aware of how it was affecting her nonetheless.
“Now, let me show you another picture,” Janette said, flipping further into the book. She paused on a picture of her Grandpa Jordan. By the looks of it, it must have been taken much more recently. “This was taken just a few days before your grandfather was killed.”
Cadence paused to absorb that information before responding. “But, we were always told that Grandpa died in a plane crash,” she said. She had been told that story from the day she was born and she wondered now if her dad even knew the truth.
“Yes, I know, darling,” Janette said, patting her gently on the knee. “It was much simpler to tell everyone that Jordan had died in a plane crash while traveling for business than it was to tell them the truth.”
“And what is the truth?” Cadence asked timidly.
“Your Grandfather was the Guardian Leader prior to Aaron taking over that station, and he was killed by a Hunter.”
Cadence gasped. “But, how is that possible? If you were a Hunter and he was the Guardian Leader, how could that have possibly happened?”
The others could tell by Janette’s expression that she really wished to say no more. She had tears in her eyes and she reached into her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, dabbing at the corners of her eyes.
Through their IAC’s Eliza and Jamie could hear an audible sigh from the generally quite Aaron. They knew this was a difficult memory for him as well.
“It was my fault,” Janette started. All three Guardians protested, though she only heard two of them. “No, now, let me tell this story. It’s my story.”
Eliza and Jamie exchanged glances and resolved not to speak as Janette relayed the informat
ion to her granddaughter.
“Before I ever met your grandfather, I had dated a Hunter by the name of Skelton. He was sweet on me, seemed to have been that way for as long as I could remember. I didn’t really like him so much. He was a good-looking fellow but I knew for a fact he had been hunting Compliant Vampires, and I didn’t approve of that. Jordan was the Guardian Leader when I Transformed, but he didn’t train me. I didn’t meet him until I had been hunting for several years. Once I established a reputation for being fairly handy with an ax, my weapon of choice at the time, well, Jordan wanted to meet the little lady who took off Vampire heads with ‘one foul swoop’ as he used to say. Your grandfather was quite the character, you know.” She smiled at Cadence and, for the first time since she had walked in the door, Cadence thought she saw some joy in her eyes.
“Anyway, about the time that I met Jordan, there was an accident. The Hunter Leader was severally injured by a Vampire when the Guardians didn’t get there in time to assist. Your grandfather was livid. He said we needed new forms of communication, new protocols, what have you. Back then, it was pretty common to lose over one hundred Hunters a year to Vampire kills. We almost couldn’t grow them fast enough to replace them. But your grandfather, see, he was a smart cookie. He got his people working on technology. Did you know that we were using cell phone technology to communicate with each other in the 1940s? Can you imagine what that type of capability would have done during World War II? Of course, that came much later than what I’m talking about now. But those were the types of things he was working on, finding ways to save more Hunters lives and chase down more Rogue Vampires. And he was very successful. And so popular with the Guardians and the Hunters alike, he really was.”
Janette paused then, glancing down at the picture of her late husband and Cadence sat quietly, waiting for her to continue. “Well, once I went to train with Jordan and he actually started to work with me, you know, go on hunts and the like, well, my popularity grew as well. Whenever you lose a leader, there’re usually at least a few years of transition where the group doesn’t know for sure who they want to appoint as leader, or they are divided. But for me, it was quick and painless. Representatives from the other Hunters approached me one evening and asked me if I would accept the position of Hunter Leader. I talked it over with Jordan to see what he thought, knowing how demanding such a job might be. Well, he was tickled pink for me, you know. He was real happy. He thought I should accept for sure. And so, I did. And that was a long time ago, back in 1858, same year we got married. You see, darling, there’s a history of that in our Passels. With very few exceptions, if the two leaders are of different genders, they almost always end up hitching up. Not sure why, but it’s a fact. Isn’t that right?” she asked the question of Eliza and Jamie who both nodded in agreement.
