Immediately, Cassidy and Dax flew out of their seats. “Cale!” she shouted to the only conscious doctor who happened to be across the room doing something doctorish. “She’s waking up!”
“What’s that?” he called as he rushed over. “She’s… alive?” He reached over and turned the monitor back on, and the faint sound of beeping filled the room.
It was unsteady, with long pauses between, but eventually, it began to speed up. By the time it started to sound normal, Jamie was sitting up on the edge of his bed, his spiky hair disheveled, and Cadence and Aaron had entered the room. Cassidy refused to make eye contact with either of them since looking at her sister might also cause her to catch her fiancé’s attention, and she didn’t know how angry he might be.
“Her vitals are returning to normal,” Cale said, the girl’s wrist in his hand. “I guess… whatever you guys did worked.”
Cassidy smiled at Jamie who looked relieved but probably wasn’t happy that his boss was standing in the room, aware of what they’d done. “Thank you, Jamie. I guess I need to thank Christian, too.”
“He’s working on the trackers and the IACs.” Cadence’s voice was even, as if she didn’t want to gloat in front of Aaron. “We should let Tara continue to rest. Once she’s awake, we can see what’s she’s capable of. Did anyone contact her parents?”
“Her mother passed away a couple of years ago,” Jamie explained, his voice weak. “She lived with her grandma, and her health isn’t good, so I wanted to wait.”
“What about her dad?” Cassidy asked.
“She never knew him.”
“Her mother… passed away?” Cadence asked.
“Yes.” Jamie’s expression showed he was just as puzzled at the question as Cassidy felt.
Whatever it was bothering Cadence, she didn’t explain any further. “Cassidy, I know you want to be here with her when she wakes up, but we need you working on this situation in Melbourne.”
She stared at her sister for a moment, not sure how to respond, since clearly this was Cadence her boss, not Cadence her sister, telling her she had an assignment. “Uh, okay. When would you like me to do that?”
“The sooner the better.” Aaron spoke for the first time since he’d entered the room. “We believe the Area Guardian Leader of Melbourne has been kidnapped, and whoever has him is probably just as powerful as the entity we encountered last night.”
“We need to know if this threat is a minion, like Bonnie, or if this is the real deal so that, when we head that direction, we can decide who to take and who to leave behind,” Cadence further explained.
“It would also be nice to know what the locals are planning, if you can find that out.” Aaron seemed reluctant to mention that last part, as if he knew he would overwhelm her.
He did. “Would you like for me to discover the cure to cancer and create a renewable source of fuel while I’m at it as well?” she asked, looking from one Leader to the other.
“Just do the best you can, Cass.” Cadence offered a small smile. “We aren’t going full in on what you discover, but it will be one piece of the puzzle. Okay?”
“Fine.” Before she could negotiate a later curfew or a raise in her salary, she heard a weak voice calling her name and looked down to see Tara’s eyes were open. Even though she hadn’t known the girl that long and had only really spoken to her the day before, Cassidy felt as if the weight of the world had lifted off of her shoulders. “Tara? How do you feel?”
The brunette stretched her neck a bit, her hand coming up slightly as if she were going to grab at her throat, but she seemed to be having some trouble with her movements, like her body wasn’t fully operational yet.
“Here, Tara,” Dax said, picking up a cup of water with a straw Jamie had set on the table next to her hours ago, before he passed out, and helping her lean up so she could take a sip. “I bet your throat hurts, huh?”
“A little bit,” she managed. “What happened?”
She was looking at Dax, and as he set the cup back down, he joked, “If I told you, well, you’d never believe it anyway. But you’re safe now. Good as new.” Cassidy couldn’t blame him for not wanting to explain everything she’d been through. It was a lot, to say the least.
Tara inhaled deeply through her nose. “Good,” she replied. “I’m tired, but I also feel like… like I could leap up and run around the complex a few times.”
Cassidy wasn’t sure what to say to that, but she realized there was no reason to respond as Aaron stepped over. “Tara, in order to save you, we had to take some drastic measures. You’re fine—you’re going to be just fine. But you should know, things might be different for you now. You’ll probably be faster and stronger than you were before. And you might be able to see through objects as well.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean… like you?”
“Yes,” he said, managing a small smile. “Welcome to the club. So far, we’re the only members.”
“Do you think there will be more?” Tara asked, her voice cracking just a bit with the exertion.
Aaron turned and looked at Cadence who was gripping the end of the bed so tightly her knuckles were white. “Something tells me there will be. Whether I like it or not.”
***
The stinging in his ribcage on the left increased as Paul fought his way back to consciousness. His mind pleaded with him to just fade away, back to oblivion, back to where the pain was just a distant annoyance, like the itch of a mosquito bite, but determination to look his assailants in the eyes was winning out, and the closer he came to the shores of awareness, the more the pain intensified. Even though he had some powers as a Healer, nothing he was capable of could fix this.