“Brandon!” Cadence exclaimed, flinging herself at him. He barely had time to open his arms before she wrapped him up in a huge hug. “You came! You’re here.”
“Surprise! It’s me!” he said, less than enthusiastically. “Hope you weren’t expecting the pizza guy.”
“No, some of us don’t like pizza,” Cadence said, finally letting him go and shooting Aaron a flirtatious look. “Why are you here?”
But Brandon wasn’t paying any attention to her anymore. He was staring over her shoulder. “Hey,” he said quietly.
“Hello,” Cassidy replied, entering the room cautiously, as if she wasn’t quite sure what might happen once she stepped across the threshold.
Cadence looked from Aaron to Jamie, a confused expression on her face. Jamie shrugged and Aaron smiled as if to say, “I told you so.” Suddenly, Cadence began to put together the pieces of the puzzle he had solved months ago.
“Cass, this is Brandon,” Aaron said, standing up from his spot on Jamie’s desk. “Brandon, this is Cassidy.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you in person,” Brandon said, offering her his hand.
“Oh, yeah, you too,” she agreed, looking at his hand curiously before she finally shook it. “Why are you here?” she asked, repeating Cadence’s question.
Brandon was staring at her like he was meeting a celebrity for the first time. It took him a moment to process the question, but eventually he said, “Oh, uh, well, after I went on the hunt the other night, I decided it was time to go through with the Transformation.”
“The what?” Cassidy shrieked, no longer interested in who Brandon was exactly or why he was here. “Cadence! You said humans couldn’t go on hunts!”
“That’s true,” Cadence replied, defensively. “Humans are not allowed to go on hunts. Most of the time.” She looked at Brandon as if to say she would kill him just as soon as she got the chance. “There was a situation, and we needed his assistance. Remember what I told you about how good of a liar he is?”
“Not as good as you, apparently,” Cassidy exclaimed, crossing her arms in a huff.
“All right, Cass,” Cadence said, putting her arms out in an attempt to calm her sister. “We needed someone to run interference, and we thought Brandon could do it, so we let him come along. But we never do that. And you’re not old enough to come on a hunt anyway.”
“This is bull… crap,” Cassidy said, stomping her foot.
“Wow,” Aaron spoke up, “you’re not quite being the sweet little Cassidy we all know and love right now. What has gotten into you?”
Cadence looked at him as if to say, “She’s my sister, let me handle it,” but she wasn’t really sure what to say either. Finally, she took a deep breath and said, “Look, Cass, you’re not always going to understand everything I do as the Leader, but sometimes you just have to follow directives and do what I say. I always have a good reason, and most of the time it’s based on information that you don’t have available to you, okay?”
“Fine,” Cassidy agreed, shaking her head. “I just… really want to be a part of all of this, and it’s hard to wait.”
Cadence crossed the room and put her arm around her sister. “I know. But you will have the rest of your life to be a Vampire Hunter. You’re young. You still have a lot to learn. Give it some time, and you’ll be ready. But not yet.”
“Well, as much fun as this has been,” Jamie said, jumping up from his position behind his desk, “some of us have some work to do. So… Brandon, I’ll see you in a few hours. Let me get some stuff together, and then we’ll be ready to start the process.”
“Okay,” Brandon said, anxiousness showing on his face. “I appreciate it,” he added, offering Jamie his hand.
“No problem,” the doctor assured him, taking it. “Welcome to the team.”
“Let’s head over to the gym and we’ll show you around the facilities,” Aaron suggested ushering them to the door.
“After you,” Brandon said, pushing the door open for Cassidy, who smiled at him meekly, and Cadence to go through. Aaron patted him on the shoulder as they made their way out into the hallway.
“Do you realize what you just said to your sister?” Aaron asked, taking Cadence’s hand.
“What do you mean?” she replied, a questioning expression on her face.
“Basically the same thing I said to you the first two or three times I had to tell you information you didn’t like.”
Cadence considered the statement. He was so right. “Wow,” she said. “I guess now I know just enough about how we operate to be dangerous.”
“You know more than you think you do,” he assured her, squeezing her hand.
“What do you think made him show up? Does his mom know he’s here?”
“I don’t think so,” Aaron admitted. “I’m not sure, but I guess he’ll tell us when he’s ready. I’m sure we’ll hear from Amanda sooner or later.”
Cadence nodded. “And you had this all figured out from the beginning, huh?” she asked, gesturing at Brandon with her head as he stared at Cassidy.
“Oh, yeah. From the second he saw her picture. He was smitten.”
“Hmmm….” Cadence hadn’t noticed at all. “How did I miss that?”
“I don’t know. But you Findley girls are hard to ignore.”
She smiled and wrapped her arm around him. If her sister was going to be pursued by a boy, she could do worse than Brandon Keen.
Robert, whose last name had been Cavanaugh at one point, decades ago when he came into this world--now he had so many aliases, he couldn’t keep them all straight--was a tracker. He had honed his skills as such over the years while existing as a Rogue Vampire. Long before he met Giovani, he had survived off the streets of Omaha, finding his victims, hunting them down, and when the time was right, pouncing on them. In all of those years, he’d never drawn unwanted attention to himself from Hunters or Guardians. Even though he was certain he’d probably claimed a few Innocents at one time or another, they’d never bothered to try to find him. Once he met Giovani, however, things had changed a bit. He knew his friend was a wanted man. Robert had to become even more stealthy to keep the attention on the Italian and not on him. Now that LIGHTS was on an international manhunt for Giovani and Zabrina, things had gone back to normal for him; no one seemed at all concerned about Robert. Well, they should have been because he was every bit as much the monster as his former neighbor.
The problem with tracking prey in a position so close to Vampire Hunters and Guardians was that some of them were hypersensitive to Vampires. Coming within a few miles of them could alert his enemies that something was going on. If his target had stayed at home as he had hoped, this wouldn’t have been so difficult. There were Hunters and Guardians in the area but no one of consequence. His plan had been to get in, extract her, and get out as quickly as possible. Now, however, things were slightly more complicated. She was no longer in an area he could easily access, and she had better protection than even the President of the United States. No, there was no way he was going to be able to break into LIGHTS Headquarters and walk out alive. He’d have to wait.
Riding his motorcycle from Shenandoah to Kansas City had been invigorating, but it also put him out of direct contact with the mark. Once he arrived at his destination, however, his senses told him she was nearby. He was confident she was holed up in the compound. He had to keep his distance, and so he took a position outside. Using binoculars, he was able to keep visuals on the front gate of the establishment from his post atop an office building a few blocks away. Several people came and went throughout the day, and this made it difficult to determine whether or not she was one of them. This is when that sixth sense of sorts came into play. He had to feel for her presence; as long as he kept her within his overly-sensitive range of proximity, he should be able to lay in wait and bide his time. Then, once she emerged, he could use the fire escape to access his bike and trail her, also being very careful to keep his distance. He was lucky that he had such an instinctual tracking mechanism that allowed him to keep in contact with his target even from such a distance. Such a gift was rare. Robert would use his to help bring LIGHTS to its knees once and for all.