Jack took another drink of his beer, gulping the rest down before he placed the glass back on the table, wiped his mouth on his hand, and attempted to formulate the question burning in his mind into articulate words. Somehow, however, before he even asked for clarification, he knew what Giovani's answer would be. "Who is Holland?" he began. "And, how can she be my mother?"
Giovani smirked and signaled to the waitress who had just started her shift. Still tying her apron, the petite brunette approached the table, her shoes clicking noisily on the wooden floor. "Can I get a couple more Buds?" he
Dr. Arnold stared at the phone on his desk, contemplating exactly how he was going to explain the disappearance of Jack Cook's body to his parents, particularly since the scene in the morgue had called to mind more horror movies than he cared to count. Dr. Arnold was a man of science, not usually one to believe in the paranormal. But after witnessing firsthand what appeared to be a corpse without a drop of blood left inside, with sharp fang marks over the heart, and with no earthly explanation as to how Jack Cook's body just seemed to walk out of the hospital, the only conclusion he could draw was that, in fact, Mr. Cook had done just that.
The ringing of Mrs. Cook's phone jarred Cadence awake. She hadn't even realized she had been asleep and wondered if anyone else had noticed. If they had, no one said so, and she wiped the sleep out of her eyes while listening to Alice Cook's half of the conversation she was clearly having with someone at the hospital."Yes, I see," Alice was saying. "All right then. We'll be by shortly. Thank you, Dr. Arnold," she said pressing the End Call button. Everyone in the room was perfectly still, their attention focused on Jack's mom as she gathered her thoughts in order to relay the message. "That w
"Is that possible?" Jack asked, giving his full attention to Giovani. "Can we track Cadence down and convince her to become one of us?""Of course, brother," Giovani stated emphatically. "Why not? If you can be changed, she can be changed, right?" He withheld the information that Cadence could never be turned in to a Vampire because she was already a Vampire Hunter. Jack had no idea that his ex-girlfriend was now his deadliest enemy, and telling him so would likely work against Giovani's plan.
The Hunters were a pair of sisters, the older of whom had previously worked for LIGHTS but had been on her own for the last decade or so, recruiting her sister to work with her. Though she had been successful for many years as part of the team, she had her reasons for departing. Laura, the older and taller of the two, was royally pissed to see Giovani speeding away in his familiar black Corvette. She had been tracking him for more years than she could count, and it seemed that they were just about to get a two-for-one hit when he caught their scent and bailed. "Dammit!" she yelled, her black knee-high boots coming to a screeching halt on the sidewalk outside of the dinky little bar Giovani had so rapidly exited. "We almost had him!"
Cadence glanced down at the number on the screen of her cell phone. She didn't recognize it, but she knew it was local because the area code was the same as the number in Jack's dorm room. Thinking it might be someone back at the hotel, she answered. "Hello?" she said, still trying to hear the conversation going on around her.There was no answer at first, just some commotion in the background. It sounded like a restaurant or other public venue. "Hello?" Cadence said again, this time slightly louder.
Elliott's eyes were locked on Cadence, and his brow was furrowed, as if he were deep in thought. He still managed to answer Hannah's question. "Same old story. Rogue Vampire, no one can seem to get a handle on him. You itchin' for a hunt, Cadence?" he asked, a thought popping into his head.He had her attention now, even though she was well aware that Elliott was not her biggest fan. "Always," she replied, almost absently.
Mitzy from Lincoln wouldn’t normally have been one of the first people Aaron would expect to hear from after awaking from surgery, but under the circumstances, he wasn’t surprised. "Just wanted to make sure you're aware that we've got a newbie in Lincoln. He's hooked up with Giovani, and a couple of free agents are attempting to relocate them now. Think they're headed toward Omaha. I saw him earlier and was about to call him in myself, but I heard you were a little under the weather and didn’t want to bother you. But these two Independents were persistent."
Ahead of them, Giovani was finding humor and excitement in the pursuit. "They've been chasing me for years," he explained to Jack, whose grip on the "oh-shit handle" was so strong, his knuckles were white. "I love it when they get real close and then I rocket away from them. Crazy bitches."Jack had so many questions he wanted to ask, but he was afraid, if he opened his mouth, the only thing that would come out was a scream, or vomit. Although, he wasn't quite sure that Vampires were even capable of that second one. The faster they went, the closer they got to the other vehicles around them, t