Once outside, she hurried off toward her apartment at such a pace she didn’t realize how fast she was going and nearly collided with Alex as he was crossing the street. “Well, I dare say, aren’t you quite the thoroughbred.” He stepped out of the way just in time and gave her a slight bow.
“I’m sorry,” Cadence said, thinking she’d had enough Revolutionary War soldiers for one night.
“It’s quite all right, Cadence. How are you feeling? I trust your procedure went as expected since you are much swifter than the last time I saw you.” He smiled at her, standing in the sort of pose one might expect a proper gentleman from two hundred years ago to stand, and she couldn’t help but stop for a moment to speak with him.
“I’m feeling just fine, thank you.” Realizing that Alex had actually been around even longer than Aaron had, and a year or two longer than Christian, she took a step forward and said, “Can I ask you something?”
“Why certainly. I agreed to come here so that I could be of assistance. Whatever is vexing thee?”
Now, she just thought he was being overly proper. She shook her head to clear it. “Well, it’s just….” Cadence looked around to make sure they were alone. She didn’t like talking about Aaron to just anyone, but she thought perhaps Alex could help. “I don’t know how well you know Aaron, but he doesn’t seem to be himself lately, and since you’ve been around for a while, I was wondering if you had any theories as to what might be causing him to be so stressed out, so angry.”
Alex folded his arms for a moment and then lifted one hand to his chin in contemplation. He looked up and caught Cadence’s eyes before slowly shaking his head. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t know. I have little experience with these demonic Vampires. You see, by the time it was sorted out that Dracula had come through the portal at the same time as I had, I was already off on my own, trying to figure out how to cope with a life that will stretch on into infinity.”
Cadence was disappointed, but she tried not to let it show. “That’s okay. I just thought maybe you might have an idea.” She was about to turn to leave when she realized what he’d said. “Wait a moment, Alex. Do you think… do you think this is directly related to the demonic Vampires somehow? That is to say…” she caught herself starting to sound like him and rephrased. “I mean, do you think that this is stress from the fact that we have to face a demonic Vampire, or do you think something else might’ve happened when Holland and Carter came through, something that might be affecting Aaron this way for some reason?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Alex said, though she could tell by his expression that he was continuing to contemplate the possibilities. “But I do think it is worth investigating. I’m afraid there’s a myriad of information we have yet to discover. Though we think we know all of the rules, all of the potential variables, when we come to the end of it, we really know little to nothing.”
His words were of no comfort to her. In fact, they made her feel even more uneasy. How could someone who had been around for so long think that there was so much more to find out? “All right, well, thank you, Alex. I appreciate your insight.”
“I apologize for not being of more help. But should I think of anything else, I shall let you know.”
“Great. Thanks.” She managed to smile at him and then hurried off again, this time trying to take it a little slower so there were no collisions.
Cadence re-entered her empty apartment and sunk down on the sofa, her head in her hands. She longed for the way things were before, back when Holland was gone, and Aaron was himself. Of course, as soon as that thought entered her head, she remembered this was all her doing, and her eyes shifted to the spot above the mantel where Elliott’s urn used to sit. Was she saying she wished she could go back and change things so that Elliott had never come back so that Aaron was himself again? She wasn’t sure. But for the first time since she’d opened the Blue Moon Portal, she was beginning to question whether or not she’d done the right thing.
A few uninterrupted hours of sleep should’ve done her some good, but it didn’t, and when Cadence woke up all alone in a king sized bed, she couldn’t decide whether to cry or scream. So she did a little of both, took a shower, and headed to Jamie’s office. There would be no relaxing run on the treadmill this morning, not until she’d had a chance to talk to the Healer anyway.
Despite doing her best to walk slowly, she was still standing in his open office door in less than two minutes. He looked up, slightly startled, as if she had appeared out of thin air, and she thought perhaps to him she had. “Hey. Got a sec?” she asked, leaning in the door with her top half while her legs were firmly rooted in the hallway.
“Sure,” he said, though he looked more than a little concerned himself. “What’s up? And since when can you teleport?”
She giggled even though she didn’t really feel like laughing under the circumstances. “I guess it might seem that way. Did you hear the front door open and close?” she asked, looking out his office door to the front of the building.
“No, but then I was looking at this data Christian collected on your sister, so I wasn’t really paying attention.”
Suddenly, Cadence had one more thing to worry about. “The samples still? Anything changed since last month?”
“No. Still the same. Cassidy’s samples that are mixed with the Vampire venom don’t deteriorate. Nor do any of the others. It’s all peculiar. I wonder….” He stopped, shaking his head. “What brings you in?”
“You wonder what?” she asked, gesturing with her arms for him to continue. “What?”
“Oh, I was just thinking aloud. It’s nothing.”
“No, it’s something. What?”