by ID Johnson
“I ran out. I was taking Tylenol,” he explained.
“Tylenol? You were taking Tylenol for the flu or the Bubonic Plague or whatever it is that you have? No wonder you’re not getting any better. Sweetie, you need some antibiotics. Or a steroid shot or something. This does not look like an over-the-counter type of illness to me.”
“It’s not that serious,” he insisted. “I’m not even coughing or puking or anything. I just feel nauseated and sore, like I’ve been working out too hard. It’s nothing.”
“What if it’s spinal meningitis or mono? You have no idea, Jack; you’re not a doctor. Let’s go to the school clinic. They’ll be able to get you in.” She was persistent and she could see that she almost had him convinced. “Come on, I’ll drive. Let’s get you dressed and I’ll find your keys, somewhere, in this horrific mess.”
“My roommate is a slob,” he mumbled, hoping she’d buy his excuse.
“Well, then tell your roommate to keep his giant pile of garbage on his own side of the room,” she remarked as she surveyed his desk top for keys. She glanced back at him and realized he wasn’t going to be able to dress himself. She wasn’t even sure he was going to be able to walk down the stairs to his car. “Jack?”
“Hmmm?” His eyes were closed and she could see that he was dozing back off.
“That’s it, I’m calling an ambulance,” she said pulling her phone out of her pocket.
That got his attention. “No, no. No ambulance. I’ll get up. I’ll get dressed. Just help me find some clean clothes, okay?”
She held her hands out and spun around in a circle as if to say, “I see lots of clothes. None of them are clean.”
“Those jeans over there on the back of that chair aren’t too dirty,” he said pointing across the room, his eyes still closed.
Cadence had to be careful when she crossed the piles of trash to get to them, afraid she might twist an ankle or fall into the garbage, never to be seen or heard from again. She grabbed the jeans and glanced towards his closet, hoping she might see a sweater of some sort on a hanger. She saw his Shenandoah High sweatshirt hanging inside and decided he could just wear that. It was slightly easier for her to get to the sweatshirt because the closets were on his roommates side of the room.
When she crossed back over to the bed, she found he was dozing off again. “Jack?” she said. “Help me or else you’re going to the hospital.”
Once again her threat was enough to get him to cooperate a bit more. He sat up tall enough that she could slide the sweatshirt over his head. He pushed his arms through the sleeves with minimal help. She was a little more leery of how she was going to get his pants on. “One leg at a time,” she murmured aloud.
“Huh?” he asked fading in and out again.
“It’s how you put your pants on—one leg at a time—just like everybody else.”
“Okay,” he said, starting to fall back down into the bed.
“Jack, dang it, come on now. Work with me here, kid.” She was able to get his pants up and over his hips finally. She buttoned them, zipped them and began the search for shoes. “Any idea where your shoes are?” she asked.
Jack was out of it again, so she was left to search for shoes all by herself. She thought she saw one under his dresser and as she was crossing over to dig it out, she got another message from Aaron. “How is he?”
Cadence was actually very glad to at least have someone to help calm her down and talk her through this. She was becoming exceedingly frustrated and wasn’t sure whether she should take Jack to a doctor or the emergency room. “Not good. He can’t even sit up. I’m not sure what to do. Hospital? Dr.?”
It took Aaron a few minutes to answer, but in the meantime, Cadence was finally able to locate matching tennis shoes. “Jack,” she said, “Where’s your wallet?” She was hopeful his insurance card would be in it and possibly some money or a credit card for the copay, although she could cover it if she needed to.
He clearly wasn’t going to answer so she began to rifle around looking for the wallet, which she eventually found under some wrappers on his dresser.
“Do you have transportation?”
She knew she had seen keys somewhere. She saw them over by his laptop.
“Yes”
“Take him to Family Medical, 4501 Twenty-Seventh. Dr. Matthews will see him as soon as you can get him there.”
“What would I do without you? Thanks!”
“Sure. No problem. Once you get him settled let me know. I need to talk to you about a hunt you’re going on ASAP.”
She was surprised to see that he was even considering letting her go on a hunt again so soon, but she was glad to hear it. “Okay,” she replied.
There was the minor problem of not having any idea where Jack’s car might be. She needed to wake him up again just long enough to find out where he was parked. “Jack,” she said, sitting him up. “Where’s your car?”
He opened his eyes just a bit. “It’s outside,” he mumbled, “in the parking lot.”
She sighed. Nothing was ever easy. “Can you be a little more specific? Do you have an assigned parking spot?”
“Yes,” he mumbled, his head beginning to flop over again.
“And that spot is?”
“Thirty-eight.”
“Thirty-eight! Perfect, we have a winner! Now, here’s to hoping there’s just one parking lot!” She checked her pockets to make sure she had her phone, and she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. She stuck his car keys and his wallet in her pants pockets. She didn’t see a set of room keys anywhere so she decided to leave the door ajar. It was risky, but a burglar could have just as easily taken all of their stuff while Jack was passed out on the bed.
She knew she could easily carry him, that wasn’t going to be a problem. The problem would be making it look like she wasn’t carrying him. If they passed anyone and they could tell that she was actually carrying a 160 pound man, that would look rather odd.
When she went to stand him up, it jarred him back to consciousness a bit and he started shuffling his feet. Unfortunately, with all of the trash on the floor, she ended up having to pick him up and carry him out of the room, but at least she could tell that he was attempting to work with her. By the time she reached the stairwell, he was awake enough to start to climb down the stairs with her. She still kept a firm grasp on him, just in case he started to lose his footing.
“Where are we going?” he asked as the cool December air blasted him in the face. She had been in too much of a hurry to think of grabbing him a coat, but it probably would have been a good idea considering he was already so sick.
“We’re going to the doctor,” she explained. “Is your car this way?”
There was only one parking lot nearby and that’s the direction she was headed. He nodded, confirming she was taking him the right way.
“I don’t want to go to the doctor,” he whined.
“Well, you have to,” she said. She saw his bright red Nissan Sentra just a few rows away. “Come on, we’re almost there.” She didn’t see anyone else in the parking lot so she picked him up off of the ground again and started carrying him.
“What are you doing?” he asked, coming back to consciousness again.
She put him down. “I’m just helping you to your car,” she explained.
“It felt like you were carrying me,” he said questioningly.
“Me? Carrying you? Don’t be ridiculous.” She helped him around to the passenger side, opened the door, and sat him down on the gray cloth seat. She buckled him in, closed the door, and then flashed around to the driver’s side.
This would be the first time that she had driven since her Transformation, and she was interested to see if she could drive as fast as everyone else. She had figured out how to access the police frequencies using her IAC, and she turned it on as she whipped out of the parking lot. “Will, if I kill us driving to the doctor, at least you won’t be sick anymore,” she said, just seeing if
he was listening.
He chuckled and patted her absently on the leg, not even turning his head to look at her. She knew she should probably be worried that he was so sick, but she didn’t have time right now to be scared. She’d have to save that for later.
***
Aaron had had to call in a few favors, but he had acquired the information he needed. He had fairly reliable intelligence that Holland was in Paris and that one of their most valuable Turncoat Vampires knew exactly where she could be found. He had initially intended to wait for her to come to him. But, now that Henry was dead, too, he knew she’d be working more quickly to amass a larger number of Vampires. If he came to her, not only would he shorten the amount of time she would have to recruit, it would also give him the element of surprise, something he always found to be beneficial.
He had debated whether or not to put Cadence on the team. He knew she was certainly going to be capable of eliminating more Vampires singlehandedly than anyone else he had in his service, yet he also knew that Holland would throw everything at her the Vampire queen had available. In the end, he decided she needed to go. The team needed her skills and she would need to have some closure.
Handpicking the rest of the team members was not as easy as one might think. He knew Elliott would have to come, as would Jamie. They both had skills no one else could duplicate. He didn’t really want to take Eliza. She had become a bit of a liability over the last few years. But he knew she was invested in this project because she had been present at the initial confrontation. So she was coming. He needed Christian, too, in case they had tech problems. He had already contacted six other Guardians based in Paris and their team was also eager to help.
As for Hunters, he had few highly reliable members to choose from if he looked only at his own team. He knew there were three Hunters based out of Paris who wanted to work with them. In fact, they were the ones had tipped him off to talk to Sebastian, the Turncoat Vampire that had given him a specific location. He wanted to keep his Hunter-to-Guardian ratio fairly low because he would have no trouble justifying why the Guardians were involved in killing these particular Vampires, and he wanted to make sure to offer plenty of protection to Cadence since she would likely be doing most of the killing. He finally decided to call in a female Hunter based out of California. She had worked with his team before but had spent the last few years off on her own. She wasn’t exactly the easiest person to get along with, but he thought her style would work well with Cadence’s and he knew she would be extremely effective on the battlefield. Her name was Stormy, and that name seemed to fit her perfectly.
After spending the majority of the morning getting commitments from his French connections, he finally decided to call in his own people and go over the plan with them. Stormy hadn’t made it into town yet, but she should be there soon. He was also missing Cadence, of course, but he could fill her in later. He hoped she’d be willing to come back either this evening or tomorrow so they could get to Paris and get this over with, but he had given her a few days off and if she intended to use them, he certainly wasn’t going to argue. Technically, she was still suspended and Elliott and Christian were on a team that didn't follow protocol, which meant they should miss the next hunt. Rather than bend the rules on that last one, he actually organized a hunt for that evening, one he would also not be attending, so that he could say Elliott and Christian had sat one out. And since Cadence was the only one who had any idea that she had been given a few days, or a suspension, or whatever one might want to call it, it really didn’t matter if she decided to come back sooner.
He had set the briefing for 4:00 that afternoon and had decided to have it in his own office, rather than the room they usually used. After last night’s shenanigans, he decided they needed a change of scenery. Everyone was on time, as always, and he was able to get started right away. He knew Cadence was still in the process of getting Jack to the doctor so she wouldn’t even have he IAC tuned in, but Stormy did and she was viewing the meeting from his perspective and Elliott’s.
“Alright, good afternoon, everyone,” he began once everyone took their seats. “The reason I called you all in today is because I’ve hand selected you to go on a high priority trip to Paris.” He waited for the cheering to stop and then continued. “We are going to kill Vampires, not for the shopping or the sight seeing, just so you know.” Eliza groaned disappointedly. “I know. It’s terrible. Okay then. This is our primary target,” he said bringing up a recent picture of Holland. “All of you were present at the recent protection mission we participated in in Iowa, except for Christian and Stormy, who we have on IAC, so the rest of you know her well. This is Holland. Approximate age is 1200-1400, extended clan size numbers in the thousands but her primary clan is estimated to be between 20-30. “ There were some gasps from the team members who were really good at math so he paused to explain.
“We will have quite a few French team members working with us as well. I know you’re all counting and trying to figure out the ratio. Chances are we will still be outnumbered, but that’s nothing new. We’re used to that, and most of her primary clan members are young. And we all know that young basically equals stupid.”
They all verbally agreed with that, so he continued. “This is what we will refer to as Location 1. It is an extremely popular burlesque strip club; I’ll wait for the catcalls to stop, thank you, called Le Doll, located on Rue St. Denis. This is the location where our informant, Sebastian, a Turncoat Vampire, has witnessed Holland and several of her minions hanging out over the past few days and actually quite a bit last summer as well. And to ease the consciences of those of you who are wondering why we would fly all the way to France based on the hunch of a Turncoat, these three young ladies are Hunters who have recently taken positions—no pun intended—in the strip club so they can better keep an eye on Holland and her comings and goings. “ Turning to the picture, he said, “That’s Chantal, the middle girl with the blond hair is Genevieve, and the one on the end is Sabin.” He noticed Jamie’s hand was raised so he paused, “Yes, Jamie?”
“If I kill Holland, can I have one of those?” he asked gesturing at the picture.
“Well, they are strippers, so, quite possibly,” Aaron replied, deciding to allow a little more fun into their brief this time since they were going to Paris and his old methods had not been working so well recently.
“Everybody has a price,” Elliott chimed in.
“Not everybody,” Eliza said, wagging her head.
“Anyway,” Aaron continued, “I was able to procure some pretty valuable information from these three ladies this afternoon, and they are more than willing to work with us. They are a small team, just the three of them, without a lot of Guardian support, so they operate basically as informants to larger operations, such as our team. But they are always excited to get in on a hunt. Questions about that? No? Okay, good.”
He pulled up the last slide, “Okay, this is an abandoned warehouse, known as Le Vieux Moulin, which is designated as Location 2, should we need a secondary location. It’s located fairly close to Location 1 and this is the place where Sebastian believes Holland and her clan are staying. I am working on getting more information about the interior of this building, but I do not have that yet. It would be nice if we can engage Holland and her clan here because it allows for less human interaction, but we may be reactive here, depending upon what she chooses to do. Any questions about that?”
Seeing that there were no hands, Aaron moved on. “As of right now, we are waiting on Stormy to arrive. I have sent a plane to retrieve her from California, so she will be here later this evening. We will also be waiting on Cadence, who is visiting a sick friend.” He noticed the eyebrow raising and head swiveling but didn’t acknowledge it. If anyone wanted to ask him why he had decided to take her, they could feel free to do so. Otherwise, the situation was between the two of them, though, he was pretty sure Elliott would want to talk about it. “So as soon as they are both here, I will let you kn
ow what our travel schedule is. We will get things moving as quickly as possible. Alright, if you don’t have any questions then you can go. Thanks everyone.”
Christian was the first one out the door, a wide smile on his face. Aaron knew he would be happy he had reinstated Cadence, and he didn’t have a problem with that. Of course, he had no way of knowing exactly how happy Christian truly was.
As the rest of the team exited, poor Jamie was getting an ear full from Eliza regarding the best shoe shopping in Paris. He threw Aaron a look that seemed to say, “Help me!” as she rattled on about Louboutin versus Yves Saint Lourent.
But Elliott stayed, as Aaron knew he would.
“I thought you took Ms. Vampire-Slayer off the rotation for a while, my friend. What gives?”
Aaron was straightening up the file he had started for this case and the rest of his desk. “Well, Elliott, I’ve reviewed some research since I talked to Cadence last night, some scientific studies regarding DNA coding and instinctive nature in Hunters, and it turns out, she had a valid point.”
“What was that? My grandparents were leaders so I don’t have to listen to anybody?” Elliott asked sarcastically.
Aaron’s patience was wearing thin, even with his best friend. “Well, yesterday you were telling me you thought she acted that way because we were dating—which we weren’t by the way—and now you think it’s something else?” He could feel the tension rising in his voice and he knew he was about to lose what little patience he had left. “Since you’re the expert on Cadence’s decision making, why don’t you just go ahead and explain everything to me now? That way I’ll know what to expect next time.”
Elliott began to realize he had pushed too far. He needed to reverse the tide quickly. “Woe, alright now, calm down,” he said in a serene voice. “You’re the boss. You want to take her with us, take her with us. I just hope you’re doing it for the right reasons, man, that’s all.”
“Believe me, I am,” Aaron assured him. “I basically told her last night that I was no longer dating my subordinates. Now, in retrospect, I realize I not only acted like a total jackass but also like an idiot, because you know what Elliott, I like her. I do. And you let me convince myself that, just because I’ve had a few situations go bad, I shouldn’t even give her a chance. Well that was really, really dumb of me and now she’s at her ex-boyfriend’s so, there you go.”
