“Are you sure you don’t want me to call your mom?” Aaron asked. “You might be out for a day or two.”
Brandon scrunched up his mouth in consideration. After a moment, he began fishing his phone out of his pocket. “All right,” he finally replied. “But make sure I’ve gone through with it before you call her. And her number isn’t under mom. But you’ll find it.”
Aaron slipped the phone into his pocket. “All right. We’ll see you in a few hours,” he said clasping Brandon’s hand.
“Oh, and she’ll probably be really pissed,” Brandon added.
“I think I can handle it,” Aaron assured him.
“You know that Vampire y’all killed the other night? He ain’t got nothin’ on my mama when she’s pissed,” Brandon explained.
Aaron snickered. “Well, unless she can reach through your phone, I think I’ll be okay.”
“You ready?” Jamie asked, tourniquet in hand.
It all became very real suddenly, and Brandon swallowed deeply. “I guess so,” he said quietly.
“Wait,” Cassidy said, stepping over and putting her hands on Brandon’s arm. “Uhm, good luck,” she said hesitantly.
He looked into her innocent brown eyes, and said, “Yeah, thanks. I’ll see you in a little bit, okay?”
Cassidy nodded and squeezed his arm. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”
Brandon smiled, and as she stepped back to join her sister and Aaron, his eyes followed her. Jamie cleared his throat, and when he returned his attention to the doctor, he was holding the tourniquet up expectantly. “Let’s do it,” Brandon said, offering up his arm.
“All right,” Jamie said, tying it tightly around Brandon’s arm just above his elbow. “Go ahead and make a fist for me.” Brandon complied as Jamie searched for a vein. Once he had located what he was looking for, he picked up the syringe, and readying the needle, he said, “Here we go.”
Brandon closed his eyes, and Jamie administered the Transformation Serum. Once the entire vial was injected, he removed the needle and waited. Though his eyes were still closed tightly, Brandon didn’t seem to be in any pain. “If you’re doing all right, give me a head nod,” Jamie said quietly.
Brandon nodded his head slightly, and Jamie readied the pain medication he would administer next. This would also allow him to go to sleep so that the process could happen while the brain was in the most optimal state. However, he had to wait a few minutes before he could inject the second vial. While he waited, he checked Brandon’s pulse, which was in normal range and prepared a bandage.
“Is he okay?” Cadence asked Jamie, though she could clearly see that he was.
“Seems to be,” Jamie replied, glancing over at her.
“That’s good,” she said, and then added, “lucky SOB.”
Jamie smiled at her. “You’re just super special.”
She gave him a sarcastic grin before pulling a rolly chair over from against the wall and plopping down in it between her sister and fiancé. Her stomach was not getting any better, and she thought she may as well sit down while she could.
Aaron glanced at her questioningly but said nothing, returning his attention to Brandon, just as Jamie readied the next syringe. Without a word, the doctor inserted the needle into the same vein he had just used, emptied the vial, and removed the needle. There was a small amount of blood this time, and he used a cotton ball to apply pressure for a moment before covering it up with a Band-Aid and removing the tourniquet.
“That’s it,” Jamie said, crossing Brandon’s arm on top of his chest. But Brandon didn’t respond, and he was fairly certain he had already fallen asleep. He pulled the blanket up from the bottom of the bed and tucked it around him. “And now, we wait.”
“That's it?” Cassidy asked quietly. “He’s done?”
“Well, my part is over,” Jamie explained, crossing over to them. “But the hard part is just beginning. His DNA is undergoing the Transformation process, which takes quite a toll. He’ll be very different when he wakes up.”
“As long as he’s still his sweet self,” Cadence offered, sarcastically, with a fond smile.
Jamie smirked at her before saying, “I can go get a few more chairs from my office if you all really want to wait.”
“I do,” Cassidy said quickly, and then added, “I mean, you know. I guess.”
Fighting back a chuckle, Jamie stepped toward the door.
“I’m going to go call his mom,” Aaron told Cadence and followed Jamie out the door. Once they were in the hallway, he said to Jamie, “That went smoother than I thought it would.”
“I know,” Jamie agreed. “I really expected him to have some sort of reaction. I know his mom is human, but as strong as his dad’s DNA is, he should have been in some pain.”
“Maybe he just has a high pain tolerance,” Aaron surmised.
Jamie shrugged. “Possibly. I hope so. Otherwise, we might not be getting what we were expecting.”
“Don’t even say that,” Aaron replied, shaking his head. “We need him. We need someone like his dad.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Jamie agreed. “I’m tired of chasing your girlfriend around while she attempts to get herself killed. Let him do it.”
“I’m with you on that one,” Aaron laughed. “All right. I’m gonna step outside for a minute. See you in a bit.”
It was starting to get dark, tinges of orange and pink streaking the horizon in the distance. Even as he retrieved Brandon’s phone from his pocket, the messages continued to come in from Eliza and her team. Pushing that aside for a moment, he turned on the device and opened the contacts, trying to determine what Brandon had his mom’s name listed under. He found it pretty quickly under “Crazy Old Lady” and didn’t know if he should laugh or be concerned. “At least it doesn’t say Crazy Old Bitch,” he mumbled as the phone began to ring.
***
Almost instantly, Amanda picked up. “Brandon Michael, where the hell are you?” she asked, her speech slurred. “I’ve been texting you all damn day.”
“Ms. Keen, this isn’t Brandon,” Aaron said, keeping his voice completely calm, despite her obvious agitated, and extremely inebriated, state. “This is Aaron McReynolds. I was a friend of Elliott’s.”