I was having trouble getting enough oxygen into my lungs. It took me several minutes to regain control of myself. “I never would’ve thought you were such a jokester.”
He seemed embarrassed again, so I stopped prodding him on. “The IAC takes a little getting used to, but it’s not too hard to learn. Once you Transform, Christian will put it in—he’s the only one who can—and then you’ll be assigned a mentor to teach you how to use it.”
“I guess it really is true, then, that I can’t Transform until I’m seventeen?”
“In very rare instances people younger have done it on their own, but no, most of the time, the DNA in your blood hasn’t matured enough to complete the process if you start sooner than that.”
I thought about all of that quietly for a few moments before I sighed and said, “Well, I hope that whatever Christian is setting up for me lets me help the team out some. I really hate that there’s nothing I can do.”
“I can understand why you would feel that way, Cassidy, but believe me, there will be plenty you can do to help once you’re old enough.”
The landscape flashing by the window was just slightly blurry now that he had slowed down. I pondered it for a few moments. I decided to let it go for now. Jamie was quiet, and I imagined he was talking to people on the IAC or maybe just lost in his own thoughts. This was a good opportunity to get to know him better, and I felt like he was a pretty interesting guy. “Can I ask you something?” I said quietly, hoping he didn’t object.
“You can ask,” he said stretching his back like I’d woken him up out of a daze. “I reserve the right to plead the fifth.”
Naturally, I snickered at that, but considering the sensitivity of what I was about to ask, I changed my tone to a calmer, gentler one before saying, “I heard you got shot at Sierraville, too. Seems like everyone’s been shot at least once. Even my sister. How many times have you gotten shot?”
He glanced at me and then back at the road, and I hoped I hadn’t hit a nerve, though I can imagine it wouldn’t be easy for him to think about whatever had happened to him that night. “Uh, one other time,” he said, “and that was a really long time ago, an accident.”
“Really?” I asked. I was sort of surprised to hear that it had only happened once.
“Yeah, we are usually very careful to look out for crossfire, that sort of thing. Most Hunters know never to take a shot if there’s a possibility a Guardian will be in the way. When your sister got hit, that was either Laura not caring if she hurt Cadence or her really not knowing that she could do any damage. Hunters definitely get injured a lot more frequently than Guardians.”
“And when Aaron got shot, that was a turncoat Vampire who was trying to get vengeance for Holland or something?”
“Who knows? Eliza took Sebastian out before we had a chance to figure out what had happened, not that I blame her.” A moment later, as an afterthought, he added, “I didn’t realize you knew about that.”
“I know a lot, but not enough,” I admitted. “So what happened the first time you got shot?”
Jamie chuckled. “That was a disaster.” I could tell he was thinking about something that happened many years ago. “It was my ex-girlfriend who shot me, although we hadn’t even started dating.”
“You dated someone after she shot you?” I asked, briefly touching him on the arm. “Get out of town!”
Gesturing at the pastures out of the window, he reminded me, “We are out of town. Yes. Like I said, it was an accident. Most of us weren’t even using guns to fight Vampires then. She got a little overzealous shooting at one and ended up shooting me instead.”
“Wow. She must’ve been cute.”
“She was.” He was turning slightly red again. “Anyway… it wasn’t until a few years later that we started dating.”
“And you healed yourself?”
“Yes. And then healed another Hunter who’d fallen down a flight of stairs and broken his leg pretty badly.”
“Yuck,” I said, hoping my imagination was worse than what had actually happened.
“It was pretty gross. I’ve seen some gross stuff.”
“I bet you have. Doesn’t bother you, I suppose?”
“Not anymore.” He gave me a small smile and was quiet for a moment before he said, “You’re different than your sister.” Jamie steered around a Chevy going a little too slowly in the fast lane.
“How’s that?” I asked. I felt like I was constantly being compared to Cadence, and I usually came up on the short end of the stick, so I wondered if his assessment would be the same.
“Well,” he began, and I felt he was measuring his words carefully, like he didn’t want to offend me, “Cadence is great at so many things. I probably don’t have to list them for you. But she doesn’t ask a lot of questions about other people.”
Not knowing what to say to that, I didn’t say anything for a long while. “I guess, I’m just curious about everything, everybody.”
“That’s a good thing, most of the time,” Jamie nodded. “But you have to be careful, too. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of what can happen when you’re too curious.”
“Are you going to talk about a cat?” I asked, trying not to roll my eyes.
“Oh, good. You’re familiar with his tail.”
“Was that an awful pun? You’re not a dad, are you? That sounded like a dad joke.”
“Nope, not a dad. Not yet anyway. Maybe I’ll do that in my next century, if I ever find the right girl.”
He had me curious again, and even though he had just warned me not to be, I had to ask. “I guess this Hunter that shot you wasn’t the right one, then? So… why aren’t you seeing anyone now?”
“Who says I’m not?”
“Are you?”
“No.” He answered me really quickly but then grew quiet. “I was in love once, not so long ago, seventy or so years ago. She died. I’ve had a hard time dating since then.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say at the moment so I only stared at him. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t… I mean. Never mind. It’s not my business.”
“It wasn’t the Hunter, no. Turns out we weren’t actually in love. I didn’t know what love was until I met Ellie. But she died, and there was nothing I could do to save her.”
Something about his tone told me not to ask any more questions about that. “Well, maybe you’ll meet someone else someday.” I hoped my tone was light.
“Maybe so. In the meantime, I’ve got plenty of work to do to keep me busy.”
I nodded. “Yep. And I wanna help as much as I can. With all of it.”
Jamie laughed. “I know you do, Cass. We’ll put you to work the best we can. As for the rest, just be patient. You’ll be surprised how quickly a year can go by.”
I didn’t believe him, but I smiled and turned my face back to the window. This year was going to take forever….