The short walk over to Christian’s lab in one of the office buildings was relatively quiet. Cadence hadn’t realized that, by inviting both of them, she kind of did herself a disservice. She had intended to use Jamie for physical support and Aaron for emotional support, but now everything just seemed odd.
A man who appeared to be a little older than her with dark blond hair was hunched over a computer, his back to them when they came in. She assumed this must be Christian. He must have been working hard on something when they entered because he didn’t even hear them at first.
Cadence jerked backward in the chair, almost causing him to poke her eye with the tweezers. The second the chip hit her eye, she was suddenly flooded with streams of data, both voice and visual. It was as if she were instantaneously trapped in the mainframe of a computer database. The unending waves of information were overwhelming.Jamie had no way of knowing what had happened, but he rushed over and immediately grabbed her head Aaron also hurried to her side.
Cadence had received a text message that morning from Aaron, checking to see how she was doing and asking if she felt up to meeting him at 10:00 for training. Thoughts of how her night had ended had her feeling just fine, and she was out the door by 9:30. This morning was a little different than the day before, however. They were joined by another Hunter, Meagan, and her trainer, Shane, the guy Aaron had been talking to in the gym the day before. Meagan, a shorter brunette with wavy hair and an infectious smile, had been at LIGHTS for almost six weeks, and she was preparing for her first observation hunt the next night. Aaron explained that, if Meagan could successfully spar with Cadence, there was a possibility that she might be ready to go on an observation. This in spite of the fact that Cade
Cadence laughed aloud and concluded that the IAC might be a great way to mess with people.“There are a few other things that you need to be aware of. You’re going to need to know how to do a Full Pause, which is the same as a Full Off, only you’re going to think Pause instead of Off. However, that’s going to be problematic for you because I can’t push you out of Pause the way that I can everyone else. I can’t push you out of Off either,” Aaron explain
Watching the hunt had been extremely valuable to Cadence. She was able to observe how the other Hunters and Guardians talked to each other, how they accessed each other’s visuals to determine where they needed to go and to coordinate their plan of attack. Aaron had allowed her full access to his communication screen, and she was actually able to see him firing off directives to his team members like a rapid-fire machine gun. He was sending out orders faster than she could read them. Of course, no one was actually reading most of the messages; they were sent directly into the receivers’ brains, including her own, but it was still incredibly impressive to see how fast they came.
Just before she was about to start, Cadence got a request for visuals from Aaron. She contemplated ignoring him since it was sure to make her more nervous, but she decided to go ahead and turn it on knowing that, if she wasn’t successful this round, his feedback would be invaluable.She entered through a black door and was given instructions to stand on the X. There was a clock counting down above her and a gentle female voice stating the time remaining. As the woman approached zero, Cadence’s nervous sensation became excitement. She waited for the woman to say, “You may begi
The brief meeting held before the hunt was an essential part of the task. If the directives were not given, if all of the members of the team weren’t clear, if the objective wasn’t stated accurately, the entire mission could be thrown off just from poor planning.Aaron liked to arrive early if possible so he could prepare his materials before he presented them. He wasn’t always able to do that, particularly if the location was far away. But tonight’s location was just a few blocks from LIGHTS, in downtown Kansas City, so he had plenty of time to prepare.
They walked outside to an assortment of dark-colored vehicles. Shane was directing everyone into the proper rides for his or her location. He told Meagan and Cadence they would be riding with him, and in fact, they would be staying with him at all times.Cadence looked around for Aaron and saw him standing near his motorcycle talking to Sam. She noticed Sam seemed to be gesturing at her and Meagan, and she wondered what in the world he could possibly be talking about.
Shane and Meagan had recovered from the spray of glass, and as Henry took off running, he ran right by all three of them. “Aren’t you going to chase him?” Cadence asked Shane.“No, I told you, this isn’t my hunt. We are all three just observing.”“But, he’s getting away,” Cadence pleaded. This was a Vampire who had killed children. How co