 
# So You Think Your Sister's a Vampire?

### The Chronicles of Cassidy

## ID Johnson
Copyright © 2018 by ID Johnson

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover by Sparrow Book Cover Design

  Created with Vellum

# Newsletter

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For all of the students I've worked with over the years who inspired me to write this series.

Also, for my sweet girl, Kassidy, who sadly passed away December 29, 2018. She was the best dog in the world. RIP, precious girl.

### Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

A Note from the Author

Also by ID Johnson

# Chapter 1

You think you know someone, and then they go and turn into a creature of the night, a bloodsucker, a vampire, right before your very eyes, and then you realize, you don't really know anyone at all, perhaps not even yourself.

My name's Cassidy Findley, and up until a couple of weeks ago, I was living a pretty mundane existence. I live in a small town in rural Iowa where the most exciting thing that ever happens is someone shoots a deer or a friend's hog has piglets. No, really, those are the kinds of stories I've come to expect to hear in the hallways of Shenandoah High School on a Monday morning. Okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit; sometimes there are stories about who is going out with who or who met a hot stranger at the mall—which happens to be about an hour away from here in Council Bluffs, so no one can ever verify those sorts of stories—but for the most part, nothing exciting ever happens in Shenandoah, that is until the night before Thanksgiving. Nothing would ever be the same after that night.

Actually, things started to head in the direction of a downward spiral a couple of nights before that. My older sister, Cadence, is nineteen and attends college at the University of Iowa in Iowa City—well, she did go to college there, anyway. I'll get to that soon enough. She was back in town for the week because of the holiday, and I was so happy to see her. My sister and I have always been very close—until recently.

Her whole life, my sister has talked about wanting to be an elementary school teacher, so the fact that she dropped out and took a job with some sort of security company would've been shocking if I hadn't already figured out by then what was happening. Again, I'm getting ahead of myself. I guess it would make more sense if I just start at the beginning.

Cadence was super popular when she was in school. She was a cheerleader, in the choir, and in a half-dozen other clubs. I do some of those things, too, but I definitely don't get the same sort of attention that Cadence did, which is fine. I don't need that sort of spotlight. Not that she ever seemed to want it either, but that was just part of who she was. My sister is beautiful, with long brown hair and big brown eyes. I've seen guys literally crumple when she flashes them her dazzling smile. She's totally oblivious, though. Still, being so well-liked garnered her a group of friends that went practically everywhere with her when they were in high school and a boyfriend that was the envy of all the other girls. Even after she and Jack broke up, he still continued to follow her around like a puppy dog every time she came home. So, it was no surprise that one of the voices I heard through our adjoining bedroom wall that night was his.

I try not to eavesdrop as a rule. I think it's underhanded and sneaky. But... my sister's friends are loud, so I can often hear most of their conversations just by not listening to any music or watching anything on my laptop when they're chatting. Like I said, none of what I overheard was on purpose. And sometimes I wish I hadn't heard anything at all. But I did.

I was sitting on my bed, trying to decide whether to watch a movie or catch up on some TV when the whole group of them came up the stairs. I closed my laptop and went into "not eavesdropping" mode. I heard Cadence's friend Drew Peterson's voice first. She's still in high school and on the Varsity cheerleading squad. Since I'm on the JV squad, sometimes we practice together, and she's usually nice to me. She has short, curly blonde hair and big blue eyes. She's really pretty, but unlike my sister, she knows it. Drew's the kind of girl who will use her looks to get whatever she wants, and I always wondered why my sister hung out with her when Cadence usually likes people who are more down to earth.

I remembered that she used to date my sister's friend Kash Donetello as soon as I heard his voice. "That's why," I reminded myself. Drew started hanging out with my sister when she was dating Kash, and even though they broke up a while ago, Drew has stuck to my sister like bubble gum on her Converse. She just won't go away.

Drew's laughter rang through the wall, and I heard my sister mention she had a paper that she needed to work on. Why her friends were here while she was doing homework is beyond me, but I figured it is back to the sticky factor. Once someone has latched on to Cadence, she has a hard time shaking them.

I heard her two other guy friends—the aforementioned Jack Cook, ex-boyfriend and star baseball player who now attends college in Nebraska, and Jon Chancellor, who decided not to go to college. Jon is one of those guys who is always joking around about everything, and although I've personally never thought he was particularly funny, I guess Cadence does. She has always had a strange sense of humor.

I could hear two other female voices, too, though not well enough to make out what they were saying. Still, I knew that they were my sister's real best friends, the ones she'd choose to keep if she had to whittle down this group. Taylor Christianson and Sidney Cox are to Cadence what my two best friends, Lucy Burk and Emma O'Sullivan, are to me. I have other friends, too, like Milo Parker and Wes Standford, and then there's Liam White who is super cute, but I think is just using me to pass Algebra II. If I had to pick my two BFFs, though, there's no question it would be Luce and Em, hands down. I know that's a lot of names, and for right now, you probably don't have to worry about most of these people. The only ones that are super important are my sister, of course, and Drew. If I had known then what I know now about the fate of Drew Peterson, I would've burst into my sister's bedroom and ordered everyone to go home immediately.

But I didn't do that because I had no idea that the conversation my sister was having through that paper-thin wall would be so significant.

I adjusted my position on top of the floral print bedspread my mother had purchased for me a few years earlier when I'd decided I was too old for Disney Princesses and tried not to _not_ listen to my sister's conversation. You'd think the walls would be thicker considering that was supposed to be the master suite. Despite the fact that Cadence had an en suite bathroom and a closet big enough to hide all of her friends should my parents ever care that she was practically throwing a party in her bedroom, I was never jealous. My parents' bedroom was downstairs in what was meant to be a mother-in-law suite, but my Grandma Janette lives in Des Moines and my other grandparents still have each other. So, everyone else has spacious bedrooms with attached bathrooms, and I have to walk down the hall a little way to take a shower. Really not a big deal—not even a first world problem. Still, I could practically hear my sister and her friends breathing, which is why I can say I definitely wasn't trying to hear what they were talking about.

But I heard nonetheless. Drew was talking about an Eidolon Festival. I'd never heard that word before and thought at first that I just wasn't hearing it correctly through the drywall, but I did what I always do when I hear a word I don't know—I looked it up. Even before she stopped talking, I had it on Wikipedia. Since I was pretty sure she wasn't talking about idolizing anyone, that only left one alternative. "A specter or phantom," I read aloud, my forehead crinkling. _Why would anyone want to go to a festival for that?_ I wondered. It definitely didn't sound like something my sister would like. She wasn't even a fan of Halloween. Not that she was scared; she just thought it was pointless to walk around dressed like someone you're not, trying to scare people or collecting candy. I tended to agree with her and waited to hear her tell Drew to forget about it.

The discussion went on for a few minutes, and I could hear Cadence saying she didn't want to go. It sounded like Taylor was actually afraid, like she was about to cry, so I thought for sure this would be the end of the discussion. But then Drew started whining, and I know that's my sister's weakness. "You all went away to college and left me here," she was saying.

Like kryptonite, the tears of Drew Peterson melted my sister's iron resolve, and the next thing I heard was Cadence agreeing to go. I could hardly believe my ears. Whatever this thing was, it sounded dangerous, and it wasn't even in town. They'd have to drive to Villisca. A festival of ghosts in a town made famous for an axe murder? I was pretty sure this was a bad idea.

I know what you're thinking, and you're right. You're asking yourself, "If Cassidy Findley is such a good girl, why didn't she get up and go tell her sister not to go?" Or, "Why didn't she head straight downstairs and interrupt her parents' viewing of _CSI Miami_ to let them know her older sister was planning to lie to them and use a cover story of spending the night at Drew's house to sneak out?" And you're right—you're absolutely right. I should've done one or both of those things. And now, here we are, a few weeks later, and everything in the world is completely different. This is a guilt I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I no longer feel like the good girl who always makes the right decisions. What I overheard that night has led me down a dark hole, one where I not only eavesdrop on every other member of my family, but I've also become a master of deception. As a matter-of-fact, I'm pretty sure someone is dead because I didn't stand up and say something. What's even worse (yes, worse than death) is that, because I chose not to burst through my sister's door and tell her not to go to that stupid festival, my sister is now a vampire; I'm almost sure of it.

# Chapter 2

The night before Thanksgiving, I went to bed a little earlier than usual. I wasn't particularly tired, but I was worried, and I didn't want to hang around my parents any more than I had to because I was certain they would be able to tell something was bothering me. Cadence had sat around the house most of that day, trying to act inconspicuous, but I could tell by the way she twisted the ring on her right hand that she was anxious. I wanted to ask her why she had agreed to go to this festival if she knew it was a bad idea, but she had no idea I could overhear her conversations with her friends in her bedroom, and I was still under the impression that breaking her trust would be worse than just letting her go. For the most part, my sister has good judgment, and I still expected her to find a way to talk her friends out of going.

Ever since I'd heard Drew use that word—Eidolon—I'd been doing some research. I thought if I knew more about where they were headed, maybe I could come up with some sort of a way to trick them into not going. But no matter how much searching I did using the keywords I'd overheard from their conversation, nothing came up. Even though I had heard enough to know this Eidolon Festival in Villisca was supposed to be the night before Thanksgiving at the witching hour, which is 3:00 AM, I couldn't find any more information. I considered asking Emma to help me because, when it comes to computers, Em's a whiz, but I didn't do it. I was still thinking I was overreacting, though somewhere deep down inside, I felt a stirring, like this night would be a turning point of sorts. I played it off, because that just sounds ridiculous. I wish I would've listened to my gut.

We were eating dinner, chicken casserole, one of my mom's specialties, and the table was mostly quiet except for the clatter of silverware. I could tell my mom was going over her list for Thanksgiving dinner in her head, and my dad was probably thinking about the football games he'd be watching the next day. Cadence was much quieter than usual, and I wanted to ask her to stay there with me that night, to watch a movie, but when she was done eating, she cleared her throat and said, "I'm heading over to Drew's."

"Oh?" my mom had said, clearly not expecting that.

"Yeah. She's having us all over to watch movies. I might just sleep over at her house. I don't want to come back in the middle of the night and wake everyone up."

My sister wasn't looking at either one of my parents. She was looking right over their heads, like she couldn't meet their eyes. And I wanted to yell out, "Liar!" But instead I shoved a forkful of noodles and overcooked chicken in my mouth.

Dad looked at Mom and shrugged. "Okay, honey. Just be back plenty early in the morning."

"I was hoping you could give me a hand in the kitchen." My mom managed a small smile, but she didn't protest. Now, I wonder if perhaps her intuition had kicked in, and she'd somehow sensed her oldest daughter was in danger, but like me, she'd chosen to ignore that voice in the back of her head.

"Sure. I'll be back in plenty of time," Cadence had said, a nervous smile on her face. She'd scooted her chair back, the legs screeching across the surface of the oak floor beneath our feet, and took her plate into the kitchen. I wanted to follow her, to confront her. I'd taken another bite of my dinner now, tasting nothing.

The break in the silence started a conversation between my parents, and my mom started talking about the sales on Friday. She has friends who go Black Friday shopping, and while she's not much of a fan herself because of the crowds, she seemed to be considering going this year.

"May I be excused?" I asked, interrupting their conversation.

"Sure," my mom had said as if she wasn't expecting me to be so polite. I'm not sure why I asked either—it's not a rule at my house—but I was in the kitchen a few seconds later, practically running into Cadence as she came around the corner of the counter by the dishwasher.

"Oh, Cass. You scared me," she'd said, clutching her chest.

I'd wanted to say if she scares that easily, perhaps she shouldn't go out tonight, but I had just stood there, holding my half-eaten dinner. I remember noticing she wasn't quite dressed like someone who was going to her friend's house to watch movies. She was wearing knee-high brown boots, thick tights, and a skirt. I'd seen her bring down her brown jacket, which I assumed she'd toss over her brown cashmere sweater. I didn't comment on the fact that sleeping in that outfit wouldn't be very comfortable, and maybe she should consider taking an overnight bag. Instead, I just muttered, "Sorry," and stepped around her to scrape off my plate.

"You got plans tonight?" she'd asked. My sister was always trying to figure out whether or not I had a secret boyfriend. I could see the twinkle in her eye as she hinted that this is what she was really asking.

"No," I'd said, thinking now would be the perfect time to tell her I know more about her plans than I was letting on. Instead, I turned on the tap and rinsed my plate before sticking it into the dishwasher next to hers.

"Well, you should call one of your friends or something. You never have any fun, Cass."

I was thinking, _At least I am not sneaking out behind Mom and Dad's backs_ , but I just looked at her, wondering why we were so different. I would have never considered doing such a thing, and my sister was supposed to be a good girl, too, though I know that wasn't the first time she had lied to our parents.

I must've been staring too intently, because her forehead furrowed. "You okay, Cass? You feeling all right?"

"I'm fine," I managed, trying to force a smile, but my face was frozen, and I am guessing it came across as a grimace.

She did not look convinced. "Okay. Well, I hope you find something fun to do." She smiled at me and headed toward the kitchen door.

"Cadence!" I hadn't meant for my voice to be so loud, but she stopped and turned to face me, still puzzled. I'd taken a few quick steps over to her and wrapped my arms around her. It took her a moment to hug me back, and at the time, she probably thought I'd lost all of my marbles. "Be careful," I said into her shoulder.

A nervous giggle escaped her lips. "I'm just going to Drew's," she reminded me.

Somehow, I managed to regain my composure and stepped back, releasing her. "Right."

Cadence continued to look at me like she thought I might need to be professionally evaluated before she said, "Goodnight, Cassidy," and backed out of the swinging door into the dining room.

"Goodnight." Only she hadn't heard me. She was gone by then. I could've run after her, grabbed ahold of her, and not let go until she promised me she wouldn't go to that stupid festival, but I didn't do it. I stood in the kitchen, fighting back tears, wishing I'd been strong enough to speak up. While I was certainly unsettled, even then, I had no idea that was the last time I'd ever see my sister alive. She'd come back to the house later that night, but by then, I'm pretty sure the change had already started taking shape, and she was already undead.

Whatever the reason, I'd gone to bed early that night, thinking there was a shift on the horizon, something bigger than anything I'd ever known before. Eventually, I dozed off, but my suspicions that all was not well were confirmed when I awoke sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 AM to the sounds of an unfamiliar voice coming from my sister's room, an engine outside, and footsteps on the roof.

# Chapter 3

I think it was the voice that woke me up, though it may have been the purr of a motorcycle engine. I was dreaming about my sister riding off on the back of a motorcycle, leaving Shenandoah forever, and in my dream, I was on the sidewalk outside of our house, screaming for her to come back. So maybe it was the bike that woke me, though it had been incorporated into my dream so that when my eyes flew open, I thought that part wasn't real.

Then I heard a man talking to my sister. I'd never heard his voice before; I was certain of that. So, it wasn't Jack or Jon or Kash. He sounded like he was in a rush, like something was wrong, but somehow there was a calmness about each measured word. His voice was a sort of a song, and for once, I actually got out of my bed and pressed my ear to the wall, trying to figure out who this person was and why he was there.

Cadence was upset about something. There was no question about that. She was slamming drawers and doors. Most of the time when she was sneaking around, she'd try to be quiet so as not to wake me, but more than one slam let me know that she wasn't thinking clearly. While I still couldn't understand more than a few words, I did hear her call him a "creep" which was alarming, but the next thing I knew she was crying. It wasn't the sort of cry you might hear when someone is in trouble. It was a lamentable cry, like when the whole world has been upended and you're just on the cusp of understanding what has happened. I would come to know this cry on a personal level in the days and weeks to come.

Another engine sound caught my attention, and I crept to the window. Below me, pulled up to the curb in front of our unassuming house in the middle of small town USA, was a black sports car I imagined would do just fine in a Grand Prix race. I had no idea what it was, but it was impressive. I heard the motorcycle again and realized it wasn't a dream after all. In fact, as it pulled off into the distance, I thought I might've heard more than one of them. That's when I heard footsteps on the roof and jumped back away from the window. I had no idea what was happening, but panic began to grow inside of me.

Carefully, I snuck to the door and locked it, something I don't think I'd ever done before. I also picked up my phone thinking I might have to call 9-1-1. I had no idea what was happening, but I noticed Cadence had stopped crying, and a few minutes later, I heard her bedroom window open and close very quickly. I rushed back to my window, careful not to make too much noise, but I had no idea how anyone could come and go through her window since we were on the second floor.

Below me, I only saw a blur that looked something like a disturbance in the air, sort of like how a superhero might move in a movie. It disappeared out of the yard and down the street, and I held my breath for a long moment. The car was still there, the engine much quieter now as it idled, and then I heard another motorcycle sound. It was almost like whatever had jumped out of my sister's bedroom window had flashed to a spot down the block to the bike.

It wasn't Cadence, though. I heard her in her room, heard the creek of her door and the flick of her light switch, heard her boots on the carpet outside of my room, heard the creak of the stairs.

I felt like she was in trouble, like something bad had happened, and I desperately wanted to run out to her, to help her. But my feet were melded into the carpet by the window, and I couldn't move. I'd never been as confused or as terrified as I was at that moment. I heard another noise on the roof, though this one was softer than the bumps I'd heard before. I hoped that meant whoever—or whatever—was up there was leaving.

Looking down at the car, I saw another flash and then there was a woman standing next to it. I had no idea how she'd gotten there. I hadn't seen the driver's side door open or watched her walk around the car, unless that was what the flicker of movement had been. As my sister approached the car, an overnight bag in her hand, I noticed this other woman, who was dressed entirely in black with short, curly, purplish hair, was much shorter than Cadence. They talked for a few moments, and then my sister climbed into the car and rode away with her.

I continued to stand by the window for a long moment, trying to figure out if I was dreaming or if something else was going on. How could everything I'd just witnessed be real? I was about to walk away from the window when movement on the top of the house across the street caught my attention. My anxiety rose, and I thought perhaps we were being invaded by aliens. Panic turning to sheer terror, I did what a five-year-old girl might do and took off toward my bedroom door as fast as I could.

Forgetting that I'd locked it, I ran into the thin wood face first. I had expected to pull it open as I was going out, but instead, I'd come face-to-face with the barrier. Rubbing my smarting nose, I fumbled with the lock as another noise sounded on the roof. I made it out into the hallway, thankful for the nightlight my dad had positioned there eons ago, and ran down the stairs as quickly as I could, watching over my shoulders as I went.

My parent's bedroom door was closed, but thankfully it wasn't locked. I expected them both to be sound asleep, but as I threw the door open, I was surprised to see them both sitting up in bed talking, worried expressions on their faces.

"Mom! Dad!" I said, closing the door behind me and trying to hold back the terror in my voice. "Something weird is going on!"

"Oh, Cassidy, honey, you should be asleep." Leave it to Liz Findley to try and soothe the terror out of me when she clearly knew something odd was happening. Otherwise, she wouldn't be up this time of day either, not unless she was in the kitchen with the turkey, which she obviously wasn't.

I flung myself onto the foot of their bed. "Mom, something's going on with Cadence! There was a man in her room. And I saw her leave with some weird woman in a sports car!"

My parents exchanged glances, and then both of their phones chimed at the exact same moment with a text message. My mother held up a finger and reached for her phone. A small sigh escaped her lips as she showed the screen to my father despite the fact that he was holding his own phone in his hand and likely had just received the same message—from my sister, I presumed. I waited in agony for them to tell me what was going on.

I didn't miss the look that passed between them. They were aware that something bizarre was going on, but they didn't look panicked or terrified the way that I was. I continued to stare at my mother for what seemed like an eternity until she set her phone aside.

"I'll go call Mom," my dad said, letting out a deep breath. He took his phone and climbed out of bed, his blue pajama pants tangled around one calf. "Everything is okay, Cassidy," he said almost as an afterthought as he headed into the bathroom so he could call his mom in private. I had no idea what Grandma Janette had to do with any of this, and I returned my attention to my mother.

"Get as much information as you can, Eli!" my mother called out to my father as he shut the bathroom door. Then, she returned her gaze to me. I knew that look. It was the same one she gave me when I came in fourth place in a gymnastics competition when I was six, just missing the podium. I got it often when I'd tried to play coaches pitch and found out I am not so good at hitting balls with large sticks. She reached up and smoothed my long brown hair away from my face. "Everything will be okay, Cassidy. Something unexpected has happened. But I'm sure your sister is just fine."

Her words seemed measured, and I wondered exactly what that text, which I was certain now had to have been from Cadence, said. "Mom, I heard footsteps on the roof."

"It was probably just the wind."

"There was a man in Cadence's room."

"It must've been Jack."

I couldn't tell my mom that I'd heard Jack's voice through Cadence's wall plenty of times and knew it was not him. Also, Jack had never come and gone via the bedroom window before. "What about the sports car?"

"Honey, your sister just sent me a text. She's made a new friend. I'm sure we'll know more soon. She's just going out of town for a bit."

I raised both eyebrows at her. None of this made any sense. "What does Grandma have to do with anything?"

This one seemed to throw more of a wrench in her deceitful plan. "I think your dad just wanted Grandma to know that Cadence is going out of town for a little while."

I raised an eyebrow at her. Why would my father call his elderly mother at—I glanced at the clock—4:57 to tell her that my sister had made a friend and was going out of town?

Before I could inquire further, my dad was on his way back to bed, his pant leg righted. "Everything is okay, Cassidy," he repeated, a solemn smile on his face. Dad sat down on the opposite side of the bed from where I was sitting, and I could tell by his expression that everything wasn't really okay. He looked at my mom and then at me, as if he was asking her whether or not they should toss me out. My mom only shrugged, and I could tell by her eyes that she was dying for my dad to tell her something.

"Cassidy, why don't you go back to bed, and we'll talk about all of this in a few hours?" My dad's tone was the kind that says he's asking a question, but he doesn't really mean to see if you agree or not.

For once in my life, I played dumb. "No, thank you," I said, as if I thought his question gave me a choice. "I'd like to know what's going on now. Where's Cadence? Is she okay?"

My father's breath could've blown out all the candles on his cake if he was a hundred years old. "Cadence is fine, honey. There was some sort of an accident tonight. I'm not sure of the details yet, but Drew Peterson was hurt. They've taken her to the hospital. Your sister is going to stay with your grandma for a few days to try to calm down. She's very upset."

I listened to my father's words and felt the blood drain out of my face. I had known all along this Eidolon Festival wasn't a good idea, and now it was confirmed. Part of me thought I should tell them what I knew, that Cadence hadn't just gone to Drew's house that night, but I also didn't want to get Cadence in trouble, especially if she was involved with whatever had happened to Drew. It seemed very bizarre to me that my sister would head out of town because her friend was in the hospital unless Cadence had something to do with whatever had landed Drew there.

I remembered hearing my sister cry a few moments ago. Had she done something to hurt Drew? Was it on purpose, or an accident, like my dad said? I couldn't imagine Cadence hurting anyone. Even though we were siblings, we never roughhoused the way that some kids did. She'd never done more than throw a pillow at me. My insides felt all tangled up. So many more questions burned in my mind, but I didn't feel safe asking any of them right now for fear I'd give my sister's secret away. As it was, I may have already said too much. Would my parents wonder who the man was that was in my sister's room? What had Cadence told them about the woman with the purple hair?

Holding back all of the questions that threatened to bubble to the surface, I nodded my head. "Will you tell me if you hear anything more about Drew? Or if Cadence calls?"

"Of course, honey," my mom said. "But don't worry. You're perfectly safe. Any noises you heard have a logical explanation." She was smiling in reassurance, and I wanted to believe her, but she hadn't seen what I did.

Nevertheless, I pulled myself up off of the bed and headed toward the door. My parents' smiles were straightened, tight with anxiety, and they both watched me like they were waiting for me to step outside of the door so that they could breathe again.

I acquiesced and walked out into the hallway, pulling their door closed behind me. As expected, I heard two loud exhales as soon as it clicked. I considered lingering for a moment to see if they said anything I needed to know, but then, my parents were smarter than I was giving them credit for, and they waited for me to walk away before either of them said a word.

As I passed through the living room on the way to the stairs, I noticed the chain on the front door was unlocked. There was no way Cadence could've locked it behind herself when she left, so I slid it into place before heading up the stairs, satisfied that the door was secure.

I didn't go straight to my room, though. Instead, I went to hers. I carefully pushed the door open, afraid that man, or someone else, might be in there, waiting for me to become the curious cat. Nothing stirred, and nothing appeared to be out of place. Even the bedroom window appeared to be locked from the inside. I opened a few drawers and Cadence's closet, noticing some of her favorite clothes were gone. An inspection of her bathroom proved she'd managed to grab some of her favorite products and little more. I noticed she'd forgotten her phone charger and wondered if her new friends would have one she could borrow since I was pretty sure the only phone my grandma had likely used a rotary dial. The fact that I know what that is should prove I'm not kidding.

I stepped back into the hallway, looking around to make sure I was alone before I headed back to my bedroom. I closed and locked the door behind me and even took my chair out from under my desk and propped it under the handle. I realized that if these people could come in and out of locked windows, jumping up and down from the second story, my flimsy desk chair probably wasn't going to do much, but it made me feel marginally safer.

Out the window, the street looked just as sleepy as it usually did that time of morning. The sun wasn't up yet, although I imagined it would be beginning to climb the sky soon enough. The neighbors' roofs all looked as they should, and I heard nothing else above me.

Blowing out a breath through my mouth, I climbed back under the covers, thinking there was no way I could go back to sleep. I prayed that Drew would be okay and that whatever was going on with Cadence, she wouldn't be in any trouble. I saw my own phone next to me on the nightstand and thought about calling her, but whatever was going on with her, the last thing she needed was to think that she'd involved me somehow. My sister was overly protective, and I knew I'd be doing her a solid by not letting her know I'd seen or heard anything. For all she knew, I'd slept through the whole thing, and that's the way it needed to stay until I could figure out what in the world was going on.

I also considered calling Lucy or Emma but quickly pushed those ideas away, too. Lucy likely wouldn't be up until closer to noon, despite the fact that it was a holiday. And Em had a very strict rule that people shouldn't be out of bed until the sun was up. Once it climbed above the horizon, then, by all means, start your day, but if the sun was down, so was Em, at least in the morning. Sometimes her rules were a little hard for us to understand, but we did our best to abide by them, which meant I'd have to wait a few more hours to call her, too. It wasn't likely she would know anything anyway. She didn't care much for any people other than me or Lucy, so it wasn't like she would've heard anything. Lucy on the other hand had quite a social network. As soon as she was conscious, Lucy Burk would know what was going on. She'd probably hear what had happened to my own sister before I did.

I slumped down into the bed, pulling the covers up over my shoulders, wishing I could just forget the last half hour or so of my existence. Drew was hurt; Cadence was in trouble; and there were some sort of weird beings invading our lives. Whatever had happened at that Eidolon Festival, I needed to find out because, if Cadence's life would never be the same, neither would mine, and I wasn't sure I was ready for the kind of drastic changes that brought sports cars to your house in the middle of the night.

# Chapter 4

Somehow, I must've managed to fall back to sleep because when I opened my eyes again, the sun was streaming in between my curtains, and the clock said it was 9:27. I was so alarmed that I'd missed something important, I leapt out of my bed and ran to the door, listening for more weird sounds. The house was eerily silent without Cadence next door. I was sure my parents were up, but they were likely in the kitchen preparing for Thanksgiving dinner, and I wouldn't be able to hear them from here.

I went back and sat on the edge of my bed, trying to decide what to do. I could check all the usual social media sites to see if anyone knew how Drew was or what had happened, but I was a little hesitant to do that. What if someone knew my sister was involved? Did I really want to read that Cadence had killed someone on Facebook? I also considered calling my sister again but decided not to bother her. With a sigh, I grabbed some clean clothes and decided to head down the hallway to the bathroom to take a quick shower. My barricade was still in place, and I felt a little silly moving the chair out of the way so I could exit my room, but at least I knew no one had entered my bedroom in the middle of the night.

Unless, of course, they'd come in the window.

Chills ran down my spine as I thought over everything that had happened the night before. I turned the shower on and let it run for a minute while I took care of other things and brushed my teeth. Had there really been a strange man in my sister's room? Did he really jump out the window and run away in a blur? What was up with the noise on the roof? And where in the world did Cadence meet someone who drove a car like that?

I got in and let the warm water wash over me, thankful that something normal still existed in my life. As I washed my hair, my thoughts slipped to poor Drew. I had no idea what had happened to her, but I had a burning in the pit of my stomach that told me everything was not okay. My parents were not exactly forthcoming with the information earlier that morning, so I hoped they'd be a little more inclined to share now that the sun was up. They might not be willing to tell me what had happened to the blonde cheerleader with the infectious smile, but I hoped they would at least tell me if she was going to be okay.

Turning the water off, I ran a towel over myself and did my best to get as much water out of my hair as I could. People have always said that Cadence and I have the same hair, but I don't think that's true. Hers is a lot thicker than mine, and it seems like she can just run a brush through it, and it's perfect whereas I have to spend forty-five minutes drying, brushing, and styling mine. But not that day. I threw on my jeans and a sweatshirt and grabbed a ponytail holder. I wasn't planning on leaving the house and couldn't imagine anyone showing up on Thanksgiving morning. So... easy would win the day.

I was headed down the stairs, trying to keep my steps light in case I could catch my parents discussing something they wouldn't otherwise share with me. Like I said, I don't make a habit of listening in on other people's conversations, but that might have been the only way I could figure out what was happening with Cadence. I also wondered if my sister would be back sometime that day. I couldn't imagine her missing Thanksgiving dinner, but the parental units had made it seem like she would be gone for a few days.

Faint noises from the kitchen caught my attention, and I turned to head that direction when a knock at the door stopped me in my tracks. So much for no visitors today. I tentatively approached the entryway, hoping this wasn't the police or the FBI showing up to arrest my sister for doing something devious to Drew.

Our front door has one of those little windows next to it where you can peer out before you unlock the door. Of course, there's no way you can do that without the person seeing you, but I did it anyway. When you're expecting to see someone who looks like a federal agent standing on your doorstep, and you look out the curtain to see someone who looks like a federal agent standing on your doorstep, it is a little alarming. I didn't get much of a look at him before I flung the curtain back into place, but this was not a neighbor asking for a cup of sugar to finish a pie.

With a deep breath, I unlocked the door, wondering how fast my dad could run up here and save me if I screamed. But then, I'm fifteen years old; I should be able to answer the door without freaking out. Cautiously, I opened the door just wide enough to stick my head out. "Yes?" I asked, trying not to bite my bottom lip.

I could see him much better now than when I'd peeked out from behind the curtain. He was dressed mostly in black, except for the white shirt he had on under his black leather jacket, which is why I thought he looked like a cop. I wouldn't call him tall, exactly, but he had several inches on me and looked like he could probably hold his own in a fist fight, though he definitely wasn't a big guy. As he pulled his dark sunglasses off and made eye contact with me, my knees betrayed me, and for a second, I actually thought I might swoon like one of those ladies in an old-timey movie. This guy was hot—and not in the same way a high school boy who happens to have matured a little bit more than his peers is hot, either. Like, this guy could've been a movie star. His blue eyes were piercing, much brighter than any photo filter I've ever seen, and he had the kind of jawline that whispered he meant business, despite the easy smile he wore.

Nevertheless, I was not one for letting looks deceive me. I'd seen enough documentaries to know how people like Ted Bundy worked. I did not falter in my caution as I stood there, waiting for him to declare his intentions.

He must've been expecting my parents to open the door or something because it took him a minute to respond. "Hi," he said, injecting a cheerfulness into his voice I was sure wouldn't typically be there if it weren't a teenage girl staring at him from the doorjamb. "Are your parents around?"

As soon as he finished the sentence, a bolt of recognition struck me surer than if Zeus had tossed down a shock from heaven. I knew that voice! This was the guy from my sister's room the night before! My eyes widened, my mouth dropped open, and I felt my heart pounding in my chest. If there were words formulating in my head, they were not connecting with my mouth.

"Cassidy?" he said quietly, "are you okay?"

"Huh?" The mention of my name jerked me back to reality, though I was now even more shocked. How in the world did he know who I was?

"I didn't mean to... alarm you. My name is Aaron McReynolds, and I'm a friend of your parents'."

He was still smiling at me, and I knew he was doing his best to try and set me at ease. My fingernails were beginning to etch half-moons in the wood of the door. How did he know my parents? I looked past him, curious as to whether or not that girl was here, too, or maybe the roof people. A very expensive looking motorcycle sat at the curb, but that was it. No other nefarious people seemed to linger in the shadows.

Returning my attention to the man in front of me, I suddenly found courage I hadn't previously possessed. I cleared my throat loudly. "My parents are here. I can get them."

"Great," he said with a nod that showed relief—either that I would comply or that I hadn't passed out right in front of him.

"One moment please." He raised his eyebrows, and I thought I heard a chuckle as I closed the door in his face and locked it. He might be able to get through my sister's window, but he wasn't coming in here without my parents' permission.

All thoughts of cautiously approaching my mom and dad had gone away the second I'd realized who was standing on my doorstep. I ran into the kitchen, practically screaming, hoping that Aaron McReynolds, if that was his real name, couldn't hear the panic in my voice. "Mom! Dad! Some creepy dude's at the door. He says he knows you!"

My dad was sitting at the table in the kitchen, reading the newspaper and sipping coffee, while my mom was at the stove, likely basting the turkey. When I came in, they both turned to look at me like they were sure I'd lost my mind.

"Calm down, Cassidy," my mom said, a questioning lilt in her voice.

"Really, Cass, it's too early in the morning to be so jumpy." My dad took another drink before putting his coffee down and standing.

"Did he tell you his name?" My mom was following my father to the door now.

I backed up. "Yeah. Aaron."

"Oh, of course," my mom muttered, and then, even though I was walking backward and trying not to run into anything as we crossed through the dining room, I saw an exchange of glances that told me they really did know this guy.

"Well, Cassidy, you could've let him in," my mom scolded once we'd reached the foyer and she realized he was still outside.

"You locked the door?" My father looked both embarrassed and confused.

"I... don't know him." I didn't mention that I was afraid he was here to arrest Cadence at first, or that I knew he had been in her bedroom the night before, but as my mom opened the door revealing a patiently waiting, still mysterious, yet dreamy, stranger, I began to feel a little silly.

"Aaron! It's so nice to see you!" my mother exclaimed, gesturing widely with her arm for him to come in. She hugged him, and he kissed her on the cheek before my father proclaimed a similar greeting and they did that half-hug, half-handshake thing guys do when they're bros. I stood with my forehead crinkled, staring.

"I guess you've met Cassidy?" my mom asked.

"I have," Aaron replied, smiling at me in a way that said my teenage antics amused him. I wasn't sure what to make of him, so I said nothing, only narrowed my eyes slightly.

"Aaron used to work with your grandpar...grandma," my dad said, catching himself and making a course correction. Was he going to say grandparents? As in both my grandma and grandpa? That was impossible.

My expression revealed my confusion. "I'm a little older than I look," he said with a shrug, and both of my parents chuckled like they were in on a joke I wasn't privy to. I nodded, but as far as I knew, my grandmother had been retired since before I was born and my grandfather had died years before that. Which means he either started working when he was, like, ten, or he _was_ a lot, lot older than he looked.

"I'm sorry to come by and interrupt your holiday like this," he said, mostly talking to my parents, though I got the impression he was apologizing to me, too.

"Oh, no. It's not your fault." My mother let out a sigh that told me all of the joy she'd conjured up to greet this person she allegedly knew through her mother-in-law had been swept away as they all remembered why he was here. Of course, I still didn't know.

I opened my mouth, ready to ask where Cadence was, thinking he might know, but before I could get anything out, my dad said, "Cass, why don't you head upstairs for a bit. We need to talk about a few things in private."

Normally, I would have immediately complied. But everything was just so weird.... Instead, I said, "But Dad, you guys haven't even told me how Drew is. And is Cadence okay?"

The color seemed to drain out of my mom's face. She looked at my dad, and he seemed just as lost. My questions lingered in the air as I began to think of all of the horrible things that might've happened to my sister and her friend.

The only person who seemed to think I deserved answers wasn't even related to me (as far as I knew. Things were getting so weird!). "Cassidy, your sister is fine. I just came to talk to your parents about that. She's with your grandma."

This raised a million other questions. Why didn't Grandma Janette just call? Why would he need to be the one to tell them anything about their own kid? But I nodded. At least Cadence was okay, and someone was answering my questions.

"Honey," my mom said, unfreezing and turning to face me, "Drew... passed away."

Even though I'd been bracing for bad news about Drew all morning, hearing that information was still like a blow to the gut. I'd never known a real person who died before. I mean, my grandpa died before I was born, like I said, but I never knew him. I guess there were some older people in the neighborhood who had passed on, but this was totally different. Drew was only seventeen—only two years older than me. She was young, full of life. I felt tears stinging my eyes, but I didn't have any words.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart." My dad wrapped his arms around me. "I know she was on the cheerleading squad with you."

It wasn't the time to explain that wasn't quite right, but I knew what my dad meant, and it was nice that my parents realized that losing one of Cadence's friends was hard on me, too, even if we didn't hang out together the way that Cadence and Drew did. I fought back my tears, though, not wanting to cry in front of this stranger.

My dad released me. "Thanks for letting me know," I said.

"Why don't you head upstairs, and we'll be up to talk in a few minutes?" My mom's suggestion was acceptable, now that I knew what was going on. I nodded and turned to go, but before I made it to the stairs, I couldn't help but make eye contact again with the handsome, mysterious stranger. I didn't know who or what he was, but I felt like my world had been turned upside down over the course of just a few hours, and he knew more than he was willing to say.

He looked at me for a second, a small smile forming, as if he wanted to assure me everything would be all right, but that's just the sort of thing a girl thinks when she lets the hitchhiker into her car and winds up in a dumpster. No, I did not trust this Aaron McReynolds person, and I would do my best to find out why he was there and what he had to do with my sister.

I headed up the stairs, making as much noise as I could, lulling them into thinking I was long gone. I even went so far as to open and close my bedroom door before I slunk back over to the stairs and dropped down next to the railing. Luckily for me, they continued to stand in the entryway for a moment, rather than heading straight to the living room, which was further away. I was pretty sure if they moved locations, I wouldn't be able to hear a word.

My father is a little hard of hearing, so my mom has learned to talk really loudly. Aaron's voice wasn't loud at all and had sort of a melody to it I couldn't actually describe, though it was more intoxicating than I would care to admit. My dad's bass boomed, and I could hear nearly every word he said.

"How is she?" my mom asked about the time I plastered my head to the floor so the noise could carry up through the stairwell to my head, or at least, that's what I was hoping.

"She's okay," Aaron said. Then there was something else I couldn't make out, followed by, "I'm going... talk to her. We need her to think this is her idea, even though it's too late to go back now."

My mom said, "Right. I thought as soon as I got her text this is what we were up against. So... there's no avoiding the changes now?"

Aaron said something that sounded like, "I'm afraid not," though I wasn't sure. I had to assume they were talking about my sister. Something really had happened to her last night, and whatever it was she would never be the same.

"Let's go sit down, and you can tell us about this new process Jamie has," my father said.

I begged them silently to stay there a bit longer so I could hear what they were saying, but I heard footsteps leading away from the foyer. The last word I heard my mother say sent chills down my spine. I have no idea what the first part of the sentence was, but the last word sounded condemning. _Transformation_.

# Chapter 5

Once my parents were out of earshot, I belly crawled back to my bedroom and then stood, carefully opening and closing the door so they wouldn't hear that I had been slightly disobedient. I picked up my phone and saw I had twenty-three missed calls. All from Lucy. I also had fifteen voicemails from my impatient friend, but I didn't bother to listen to them. Instead, I pushed the appropriate buttons so that her squeaky voice filled my ear in less than two seconds.

"Oh, my gosh, Cassidy! Where have you been?"

I started to apologize, but all I got out was "Sor—" before she continued.

"Did you hear what happened to Drew Peterson last night? OMG, everyone is talking about it. It's just awful. And everyone is saying your sister was there when it happened, and now she's just so totally devastated that she's gone off to live with your grandma or something. What in the world is going on, Cass?"

That all came out in one long, drawn out breath, and I knew if I was actually going to answer her before she started talking again, I'd have to act quickly. "You may know more than I do," I admitted. "My parents won't tell me much." I didn't tell her about the strange man downstairs. Not yet, anyway. "Do you know what happened to Drew?"

"I know what everyone is saying. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but every single one of her friends that was with he swears it's the truth. Except for maybe your sis because she's not here. She's not there, right?"

"No, she's at my grandma's." That much I did believe, though I wasn't sure why.

"Well, I guess Drew told her parents she was going to spend the night at her friend Sidney Cox's house last night, but instead they all went out somewhere." I was positive I knew what Lucy would say next. The Eidolon Festival. But, when the next sentence came out of her mouth, I felt more confused than ever. "I guess they drove off somewhere where you can go rock climbing, and Drew fell. They said she somehow managed to slice her neck open on a rock, and before they could get her to the hospital, she bled to death. Isn't that just horrible? Can you imagine watching your friend bleed out like that? Poor Drew. She was always so... pretty."

I had so many questions, I couldn't even think about the fact that Lucy couldn't think of any better adjectives than "pretty" to describe the dead girl. Not "nice" or "cheerful," but "pretty." Instead of dwelling on that, I asked, "Are you sure that's what happened, Luce?" I didn't even know where one went to rock climb around here, not to mention I knew for a fact that my sister had been planning to go to that Eidolon Festival the night before. Why would she change her mind?

"I don't know," Lucy replied. "That's just what everyone is saying. Maybe you should call your sister and ask. All of her friends are super serious that that's how Drew died. Even Jack. My brother saw him this morning."

Again, I had a ton of questions. "Where? Why would Jack be out on Thanksgiving morning after his friend died?"

"I'm not sure," Lucy admitted, "but he said he ran into him on his jog in the park."

I literally scratched my head, thinking maybe I should call Jack. The whole time my sister was dating him, we were very close. He was like a big brother to me. He had to be very upset about what had happened to Drew.

"Daniel said that he looked like he was in shock and hadn't gotten much sleep."

"I can imagine," I said. Lucy was one of my very best friends in the world, and I desperately wanted to tell her that I had some suspicions of my own, but I didn't think telling her over the phone was a good idea. She might need to see my face to know some of this stuff wasn't made up. And it was a holiday, after all, so neither one of us could stay on the phone too long.

"I called Em whallago, while I was waiting for you to call me back, and she didn't know anything. Not sure she cared either." That last part was an aside. It wasn't that Em wouldn't care that someone had died, but she had a tough time relating to other people and understanding emotions.

"Listen, Luce, I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but there are a few things I wanna talk to you about. I think it would be better if we could talk in person, though." The sound of an engine out front caught my attention, and I walked to the window as quickly as I could without shaking the floor. I expected to see Aaron leaving, but instead, another motorcycle had pulled up out front and a very large man, also dressed in black, killed the engine and swung his leg over the side. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and all I could see from my second-story window was a mass of disheveled, curly, dark hair.

"Oh, my goodness. What is it, Cassidy?" Lucy was asking. "You can't keep secrets like that from me."

"I won't for long," I promised. "It's probably nothing." The words came out of my mouth as this large man began to saunter toward my front door. It was definitely something.

I was just about to tell her I had to go when I heard her mother's voice in the background shouting that she needed to get off of the phone. Lucy made a sound like a frustrated water buffalo. "I gotta go."

"Okay. Maybe we can get together this weekend?"

"We better, or else you're spilling over Skype, girl."

"Okay," I said again. "Talk to you later."

Lucy hung up, and I stopped staring out the window at two empty motorcycles. Frustrated, I sat down at my desk. I felt like I needed to get some of this information down on paper so I could see it and start piecing a few things together. I pulled out an old notebook I sometimes used as a journal and wrote the following:

"Cadence said she was going to the Eidolon Festival at 3:00 AM the night before Thanksgiving. Who was going with her? Drew, Jack, Sidney, Taylor, Jon, and Kash. Leaving from Drew's house.

"Wednesday night, Cadence arrived home around 4:30. Heard a man in her room. Aaron? Footsteps on the roof. He went out her bedroom window in a flash. Sports car out front with purple-haired woman. Cadence is gone. My parents said she went to my grandma's house to rest because Drew was hurt.

"Thursday morning, Aaron shows up at our house. Parents say Drew has died. Cadence is at my grandma's house. Aaron used to work with my grandma—and maybe my grandpa?? Another dude is downstairs now. Tall guy, broad shoulders, unruly hair. Who is this person? Why did my mom say the word 'Transformation'? What is up with my sister?"

I sat for a few minutes, trying to decide if I'd missed anything. Then, I remembered another snippet from the conversation downstairs and wrote, "Who is Jamie and what process does he use to do whatever he does?"

Another few moments passed by while I pondered my notes. I couldn't think of anything else, so I slipped the notebook back into a stack of books where it was very unlikely anyone would ever find it. Just as I was about to plunk myself on the bed, I heard footsteps on the stairs and prayed it was one of my parents and not a strange man dressed in black.

There was a light rapping on my door, and I knew from the familiar sound it was my mom. "Come in," I said, standing and taking a few steps toward the door.

Mom looked a little older now than she had just the day before. I wasn't sure if it was due to the events of earlier that morning or the discussion she'd just had with the fellows downstairs. But she forced a smile as she entered the room and took a seat on my bed, gesturing for me to join her. "How are you, honey?"

I sat down beside her, and my mom wrapped her arm around my shoulders. "I'm okay," I said, though my voice sounded weak. "Just confused." I realized I'd been so preoccupied with worry over my sister that I hadn't really given much thought to what had happened to poor Drew yet.

As if reading my mind, Mom said, "Cadence will be fine, honey. It's just going to take her a little while to... adjust to this. Life without Drew." She added that last sentence quickly, as if there could be something else she'd need to adjust to.

I nodded but didn't say anything yet. There were so many questions swirling around in my head, but I didn't feel like my parents wanted me to know as much as they did. Why else would they have sent me out of the room so they could talk to Mr. Suspicious? I didn't understand all of the secrets. It wasn't like my parents not to tell me what was going on.

My mom's voice cut through my thoughts. "There is someone downstairs I'd like for you to meet."

I looked up at her then, thinking it must be Weird Guy Number Two. "Who?" was all I could manage.

"He's a doctor, Cassidy, and he was there last night, er, this morning when they brought Drew into the hospital. I think he can help answer some of your questions."

My eyebrows knit together. "He's a doctor?" My mom didn't know I'd seen the burly man pull up on a motorcycle. Granted, I was looking down at him from two stories above, but he didn't look like any doctor I'd ever seen before.

She nodded. "Yes. Why don't you come downstairs and have a little chat with him? He's really nice. I think you'll like him. His name is Dr. Elliott Sanderson."

# Chapter 6

I was a little relieved to hear that my dad was talking to Aaron outside when I came down the stairs with my mother. There was just something about the intensity of his eyes that made me uncomfortable. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but their voices seemed lighter than they had a few minutes ago when the stranger had first arrived.

My mom led me into the living room, and I followed as if I'd never been to this particular part of our home before, each step feeling a bit like a death sentence. Dr. Sanderson unfolded himself from my mother's recliner as we approached, and I had a hard time taking in how someone so large could occupy the same space as my dainty mother.

"Cassidy, honey, this is Dr. Sanderson."

He extended his large hand to me, and I let it envelop mine. There was something hauntingly familiar about his green eyes. It was like I'd seen them before, frequently, and while I was certain I would remember meeting him, I couldn't place him. I smiled, though, finally feeling comfortable.

"Hey, there, kid," he said, his voice even more of a boom than my father's. "You can call me Elliott." His smile was friendly, and I was instantly put at ease.

"Why don't you have a seat, honey. I've got to go check on the turkey." My mom patted my arm reassuringly, but I was perfectly fine sitting here with this man I'd just met, though if she'd said she was leaving me alone with Aaron, I might've latched on to her like a joey and refused to budge.

"How are you?" he asked as we both sat. He reclaimed Mom's chair, and I sat adjacent to him on the couch. "Been a hectic day, huh?"

"I guess you could say that." I had no problem whatsoever staring contently into his eyes as we spoke.

"Well, I'm here to let you know that your sister, Cadence, is perfectly fine. She's a little upset right now, but she'll be better soon. There's no reason to worry about your sister, Cadence."

Each word was calm and carefully measured, and there was just something about his tone that set me at ease completely. A flood of relief washed over me, and I found myself repeating what he'd just said. "Cadence is perfectly fine. There's no reason to worry about my sister, Cadence."

"That's right," he nodded. "And I wanted to tell you about the accident with Drew as well. I was at the hospital when she came in. I am a doctor, so it's perfectly acceptable that I would be there. Drew fell while rock climbing, and she cut her neck on a rock. Drew died. It's very sad that she died, and we will miss her. But these things happen."

I listened intently to every word that he said and nodded along. "Drew died. It's sad, but these things happen." A wave of tranquility spread throughout my mind, filling up every space, and spreading through my body.

"That's right." Elliott nodded, that small, reassuring smile still on his face. "There's no reason for you to continue to ask questions about what happened with your sister or Drew. You understand everything now. You understand that your sister will have a new job and new work associates, and that's perfectly acceptable. There's no reason to ask any more questions about your sister or her new job."

My head bobbed up and down like a cork floating on rough seas. "My sister has a new job. There's no reason to ask any more questions."

Elliott sat back in his chair, exhaling deeply, a satisfied smile on his face. I smiled, too. Everything was back to normal, and it was Thanksgiving. "Thank you," I said, and I'm sure if I could see my face, I'd be embarrassed at the sappiness of my expression.

"No problem, lil girl," he said. He leaned forward and patted me on the knee, and I felt like we were long lost BFFs. It didn't matter that he was a grown adult man with hands bigger than my head or that I had no idea where he'd come from. Nor did it matter that my parents were keeping information from me and my sister was gone. Elliott had made everything clear.

I didn't hear my mom enter the room until she started talking. "All done?" she asked.

Normally, I would've jumped at the sudden sound of an unexpected voice behind me, but I felt pretty mellow. I just smiled as Elliott pulled himself from the chair. "All done." His smile had somehow morphed into something a little more mischievous, but I felt perfectly content not asking him what that look was supposed to mean. After all, he was looking at my mom, not me.

"I think I'll be heading out," he said, and my mom beamed at him like she might if he'd just stopped by to drop off the cure to cancer—if she happened to have cancer.

"Okay," my mom said, walking alongside him to the door. "It was lovely to finally meet you."

"You, too," he said, shaking her hand, and I wondered how long ago my mom had heard about him but hadn't met him, and from whom, but then I remembered that it didn't matter and there was no need to ask questions.

Elliott stepped outside, and a few minutes later, my dad opened the door, calling, "Have a safe trip!"

I wanted to rush to the door to tell Elliott to have a safe trip, too, but I didn't know where he was going, and I had no idea why I felt compelled to go and tell him to be careful, so I sat on the couch, smiling like an idiot.

"You okay, Cass?" my dad asked.

I looked up at him, still grinning like a Cheshire cat. "I'm fine, Dad."

"Hmmm," he said, shrugging his shoulders. He looked at my mom, and she shrugged, too. "I wonder if the football game is on yet." He stepped over to his recliner and picked up the remote. My mom headed back toward the kitchen, and the scent of baking turkey wafted through the air. I could go help her, but I didn't really feel like bothering. I could also go call Lucy and tell her what I'd just found out. Turns out she was right—Drew really did fall and cut her neck open. It really was too bad, but these things happen.

I continued to stare at the wall as my dad muttered something about the game not being on yet. I was happy to finally have some answers. There was no reason to continue to worry about my sister. In fact, I felt silly for ever worrying about her in the first place. Shaking my head, I grabbed a throw pillow and made myself comfortable on the couch, pulling my stockinged feet up and tucking them behind me as I closed my eyes and drifted into oblivion.

# Chapter 7

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, even though it was so odd to me that my sister wasn't there. I really wished she could've been, but I understood that Cadence needed to rest. I wanted to know more about her new job, but I also realized there was no reason to ask about it. Everything was just fine.

After I helped my mom clear the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher, I decided to head upstairs. I doubted Lucy or Em would have called since I'd already talked to one and the other would be busy trying to avoid her family. Emma really hated crowds of any kind, even if they were related to her, and I was pretty sure the meal this year was supposed to be at her house. I did think maybe Milo or Wes would've called, though. They both lived just down the street from Jack Cook, and it was possible they might've seen him. They might want to know what was going on, and I'd be happy to explain to them that it was an accident and nothing to worry about.

Sure enough, I had missed calls from both of them. I made myself comfortable on my bed and decided to call Milo first. He's a brainiac, sort of like Emma, except without the social awkwardness and disdain of most other people. I didn't get ahold of him, so I left a message and called Wes. I don't know that there exist in the whole world two other best friends who are such opposites as Wes and Milo, except for maybe Lucy and Emma. Wes is a jock and not too bright, but he has a heart of gold. He picked up on the second ring.

"Hey, Cassidy," he said, and I was pretty sure he was chewing on something. Knowing him it was probably a slice of his mom's pumpkin pie. "What's going on?"

"Not too much," I said, wondering how my attitude had changed so drastically since this morning. "Just returning your call."

"Oh, yeah. I was just wondering how your sister is. I heard about Drew. They were pretty good friends, right? So terrible." I heard a clunk of silverware against china. "She okay?" His mouth was full now, and I could hardly understand what he was saying, so I was glad the question was a short one.

"She's fine," I said with a shrug. "I mean... she's upset I guess. She's at my grandma's house right now. But... what happened to Drew was just awful. These things happen, though, Wes. People fall down rock climbing, slash their necks open, and die. It's sad, but the sooner life gets back to normal, the better off we will all be."

The phone was silent for a very long time, and I thought maybe we'd gotten disconnected. I was just about to call Wes's name when he said, "Cassidy? Are you feeling okay? Do you really mean that?" There was no food in his mouth this time, and every word was crystal clear.

I readjusted on the bed. "Sure. What do you mean?"

"Cassidy, a girl died. And she's not even that much older than us. How can you be so... insensitive?"

"Insensitive?" I could hear the offense in my own voice. "What are you talking about? I'm not being insensitive, I'm just being honest. That's all."

"Dude, you just said 'these things happen' and 'the sooner life gets back to normal, the better off we will all be.' I don't think Drew's family's gonna be getting back to normal anytime soon."

I listened to him replay my own words and realized they didn't sound very nice. Nor did they sound like something I would say. Yet, that's exactly how I felt. It didn't make any sense.... "I'm sorry, Wes," I said, trying to figure out what was going on in my own head. "I don't mean to be insensitive, I really don't. I talked to the doctor that was there with Drew last night, and that's the way he put it, so I guess that's why it came out so clinical when I said. I didn't mean anything by it. I am sorry Drew is dead."

"Could you be any more blunt?" I could hear that he wasn't quite willing to accept my excuse in the tone of his voice. "You talked to the doctor? That's so weird. Did you have to go to the hospital or something?"

"No," I replied, shrugging. "He came here." Why wouldn't he come here to pay me a visit? Doctors could do that—right?

"Oookay. Well, I just wanted to check on your sister. I'm glad she's okay. I hope she comes back soon."

"Yeah, thanks." I didn't know what else to say. Everything that came out of my mouth sounded foreign. "Guess I'll see you at school on Monday."

"Oh, no. Didn't you hear? They cancelled school for Monday. Because of the funeral."

"They did?" I was shocked. We didn't even close school when there was a foot of snow on the ground. My first instinct was to declare this was "cool," but remembering what Wes had just said about me being insensitive, I said, "I see," instead.

"All right, Cass. Talk to you soon."

I disconnected the call and stared at my phone for a few moments. Wes was acting weird. That was the only explanation for why he would think I was acting weird. I wasn't acting weird. Was I?

* * *

By Saturday morning, I was completely resolved to the fact that Drew's death really wasn't that big of a deal. I know—I sound like a horrible person. But I realized later that this really wasn't my fault. I had basically gone back to life as normal, and even though all of my friends thought I must have suffered a severe blow to the head to be so nonchalant about my sister's friend dying and Cadence being MIA, I was okay with it.

Most Saturday mornings, my dad makes pancakes, and this one wasn't any different, except we were out of chocolate chips. It was disappointing, but it didn't stop us from enjoying a nice breakfast. My parents still wore worried looks, but I think they were just missing Cadence. At least, that's what I told myself—the fact that my sister typically wasn't home even on weekends anymore since she'd started college didn't cross my mind as we sat around the dining room table making smiley faces with fruit on top of our flapjacks.

A knock at the door interrupted what would've been a pretty good buck-toothed rabbit face my dad was constructing on a short stack. "I'll get it," my mom said, pulling herself away from blueberry eyes. I could tell by the way she looked at my dad that she was reluctant to see who had come calling. They exchanged nervous glances.

Something twisted inside of me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Have you ever had something really terrible going on in your life, and for a few moments you lose track of it, like it's not consciously on your mind, but then it starts to creep in, and before it even registers in your brain, your stomach starts to hurt, like a sharp knife has been plummeted in from the side, a sneak attack? It was like that. I looked at my dad and he offered a small smile before he, too, pushed back his chair. "Go ahead and eat, Cass. We'll be back in a few minutes."

I nodded, and he exited the dining room, heading to the adjoining living room. There was no door between the two rooms, just a doorway, and I could hear my mother's voice as she opened the front door, though I couldn't make out what she was saying.

The voice that replied to her sent shivers down my spine. That Aaron guy was here again. Whatever he wanted, it couldn't be good....

I didn't think they'd let me stay in the dining room and eat while they were talking in the living room because it could be too easy for me to overhear. I fully expected to be sent back to my tower prison upstairs, but instead, my parents must have thought they would just speak quietly because I heard the groan of furniture as they took their seats. I listened intently to try and determine if Dr. Sanderson—Elliott--was there a well. Now that guy, I liked. But I didn't hear him.

At first, all three of their voices were very hush hush, and I was struggling to hear anything at all. But the more they talked, the louder my parents became, and before too much time had passed, I could hear a word or two, despite my attempts to cover up my eavesdropping by occasionally clanking a dish or scooting my chair. I had no idea if they would even notice that I was moving around, but I wanted to give them the impression that I didn't care what they were talking about, even though I did.

I'm not sure why, though. I had completely moved on from Drew's death, and I really didn't even care where my sister was or what was going on with her. Still, just the presence of this strange man in my house made my senses go on full alert. And the stabbing pain in my side reminding me that I forgot something important was also a pretty good reason to pay attention. So, I tried.

All I gathered from the brief conversation was that my sister was sleeping, some procedure had gone well, and "we" hoped she'd be back tomorrow. I heard a few names I hadn't heard before—Eliza and Christian. And then my mom kept saying "Jamie." I remembered having heard that name before, though I didn't know why. It's very hard to care about something and not know why. I felt like what I was hearing was important, but couldn't figure out why I felt that way.

Aaron was only there for maybe ten minutes when I heard them all stand up and walk toward the door. I thought I heard him say my name, but his voice was so quiet and calm, compared to my parents' anyway, I wasn't sure. Whatever he might have asked about me, I heard my mom say, "Cassidy is fine now." I found that odd. When had Cassidy _not_ been fine?

My parents were still talking to each other after the door closed. I heard footsteps coming my direction, though they didn't seem to be in too big of a hurry. Still, I realized I hadn't taken a single bite in the whole time they'd been gone, and if I was going to make them think I'd just kept eating my breakfast like I wasn't trying to overhear anything, I needed to do something fast. I cut a huge wedge of pancake, which was three high, and crammed a giant bite into my mouth. Syrup began to drip down my chin as I chewed for all I was worth. I knew I'd need to swallow at least most of what was in my mouth so they wouldn't wonder why in the world my mouth was stuffed full, but pancakes are chewier than one might think. By the time they entered the room, I had managed to choke down most of what was in my mouth, but I think they could tell by the way I was out of breath what I was up to.

"Cass, are you all right?" my mom asked, pausing beside me on her way to the other end of the table.

"Om fon," I said, still chewing. I forced a smile and picked up my napkin to try and wipe away the syrup from my face, but it just stuck to my skin. My mom shook her head and took her seat.

Whatever Aaron had told them seemed to make them both a little less anxious than they had been before. Their smiles seemed slightly less strained. I finally swallowed the last bits of the bite I'd crammed into my mouth and took a long drink of milk.

"You not hungry, honey?" my dad asked, looking at my plate. "I figured you'd be done by now."

All of that effort and my parents still were not thwarted. "My stomach hurts a little bit," I replied. It wasn't a lie.

"Oh, sweetie," my mom said sympathetically. "Aaron was just telling us your sister is just fine. She should be back tomorrow."

I raised an eyebrow. I wasn't sure at first how my stomachache was supposed to relate to Cadence, but then I realized my mom thought I was upset about her being gone. Which begged the question: should I have been? They seemed to think so. "Oh, good," I said, exhaling loudly, still picking pieces of napkin off of my chin. "That's great."

They seemed to buy my routine. My mom looked at my dad and gave him that reassuring smile she makes when she's certain her children are the most precious creatures in the world. My dad did his complimentary, "I concur," smile.

I took another, much smaller, bite of my pancakes and chewed it slowly. After trying to eat nearly a quarter of them in one bite, they were less appealing than they had been when my dad and I had initially made them.

My mom cleared her throat the way she does when something important needs to be said, but she is not sure if she should say it or if my dad should. They were looking at each other making small shrugging motions. Finally, my mom said, "Cassidy, you should probably know that your sister has decided not to go back to school right now."

My fork clattered out of my hand onto my plate. "What?" I asked. I had heard some unusual things recently, I guess—maybe they weren't that unusual—but this one seemed right out of left field. "Why not?"

"Well," Mom continued, still looking at my dad like he should be the one speaking, "she's decided to take a break. This... situation with Drew has been hard on her. She's decided to take a job with Aaron's... company... for a little while."

None of what my mother had said made any sense to me at all. For as long as I could remember, Cadence had been talking about becoming a teacher. The thought of my super smart, high-achieving sister not finishing college was mind boggling. And what did my mom mean by the "situation" with Drew? Since when was dying a situation? If anything, it was a guarantee all future situations would never occur. Finally, what kind of business was Aaron in, anyway?

I could have asked one of dozens of questions, but the one that came out of my mouth must have caught them both off guard. "You mean where Grandma used to work?"

Mom said, "Yes."

While Dad said, "No," at the exact same time.

They looked at each other, their eyes somehow wider than they had been before, the shrugging even more adamant.

"Well, which is it?" I asked as I began to grow dizzy from watching them gesture at each other without speaking for too long.

"It's... both," my dad said triumphantly, as if he'd come up with a suitable answer. "The company has gone through a few changes recently, so it's like the same company. But different."

A wide grin split my mother's face, the victory shared. "That's right," she nodded. "It is both."

"And what sort of company does Aaron work for?"

They exchanged glances again, daring the other to speak. My mom lost. "Security," she said with a shrug. "It's complicated. I don't know the details."

While part of me wanted to continue to question them simply because I was beginning to not believe a word they said, I also realized I didn't care. Part of me wanted to. There was a little spark in the back of my mind, niggling in my brain, thinking, "Cassidy! This is important! This isn't right! It doesn't make sense!" But the rest of me said, "Ah, who cares?"

"Is it all right if I go to Lucy's?" I asked, deciding I was done with my pancakes. I hadn't been out of the house at all for a few days and thought it was time to go see some people who were not related to me—or strange men dressed in all black.

"Sure," my dad said. My mom made a humming sound, making him look at her. That was her signal that he had said something wrong. He looked as astonished as I did. "What?" he asked.

My mom did a little head bobby thing which means, "Think about it," but my dad was still confused, so she let out a sigh and said, "Do we think that's a good idea right now?"

Confusion crinkled my dad's forehead. "I don't see why not. Honey, have you been talking to Lucy or anyone else on the telephone about what's going on with your sister?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Not really," I said, ignoring the formality of his use of the word "telephone." I looked at my mom and then back to him. "A few of my friends have called to see if she is okay." I had spoken to Wes, Milo, Lucy, and Emma—who seemed about as upset about the whole situation as I did right now, which wasn't much. "I just wanna get out of the house for a while."

My dad looked at my mom, clearly asking permission without opening his mouth. She did that "I'm exhausted, so I give in" face and pressed her hand to the middle of her forehead while looking down at the table. I had no idea why she was arguing in the first place or why this would be exhausting. Since when did they care if I went to Lucy's house?

"Okay. But bundle up. It's a little chilly." My dad seemed confident in his answer this time.

But he shouldn't have been. "Eli, I think it would be better if you drove her over." My mom said each word like she was talking to a person standing on the edge of a building, like one false step and my dad would plummet into oblivion.

"Of course, Liz." Whenever my dad uses my mom's name, especially in that tone, it is because he is also exhausted. "Let me know when you're ready, and I'll give you a ride."

"Lucy's house is, like, five blocks from here." I can't remember the last time they gave me a ride to her house, or even Emma's, which was about a half a mile away.

"I know. But... we don't want you catching cold." My mom's smile was so fake she looked like a cheap mannequin.

"Okay," I said, gathering up my plate and taking it to the kitchen. I hated throwing away my dad's hard work, but I had lost my appetite pretty quickly once my parents started acting so weird again.

I'm not sure what they were talking about when I came back into the room, but their voices got all hushed. I did hear a few words, which didn't make sense to me. I hurried upstairs to make sure it was okay with Luce if I came over for a while, wondering who Aaron had said probably went "back to Europe."

Upstairs, I sent Lucy a text. "Can I come over in a few?"

She answered almost immediately. "Sure! Just about to text. And Em, too."

"Cool. My dad's driving me, so, maybe ten minutes?"

"Whenever. My mom's shopping and my dad's at the golf course."

For some reason, I was glad her parents wouldn't be there. It seemed like there was something important I needed to tell her, though I didn't know what it was. "What about Daniel?"

"Are you kidding? It's not even 10:00 yet. He'll be asleep for another hour or two."

"I thought he usually got up early to run?"

"Not on the weekend."

I had been off school for a week. I guess I'd forgotten what day it was. "Okay. C U soon."

"Hey—you're going to tell me what the crap is going on, right?"

I was just about to put my phone in my pocket when I saw her text. I had no idea what she was talking about. "Huh?" I asked, including a puzzled-face emoji.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. You said some weird stuff was going on, and you'd tell me but you needed to say it in person. Remember?"

The conversation seemed vaguely familiar, but I had no idea what it had been that I wanted to tell her. There was no point in talking to her about it now, though. "Right," I sent back, thinking once I had her face-to-face, I would figure it out. When I'd talked to her the other day, she'd asked me about my sister and Drew again, and I'd shrugged her off. That was old news, and I didn't want to talk about it anymore.

I turned to look around the room, wondering if there was anything I needed to take with me. We tended to leave stuff at each other's houses. I noticed a book I'd borrowed from Emma sitting on a stack of other books and junk on my desk and decided to take it. I'm usually not a messy person, but I do have a tendency to clutter up my desk. When I picked it up, a landslide ensued, and a bunch of books and notebooks slid off onto the floor. Mumbling one of my dad's favorite non-swear words under my breath, I crouched to pick it all up.

One of the notebooks fell open to a page I didn't remember ever seeing before. It was definitely my handwriting, but I had no idea when I'd written it. This was a little scary, and I crumpled to the floor to look it over.

At first, I thought maybe I'd written it so long ago it just didn't stick with me, or maybe someone else had written it, and their handwriting just looked like mine. But a few of the words on the page leaped out at me, and I realized there was something strange going on here, and it wasn't just with my sister or Drew. When in the world had I written this down? I struggled to remember, haunted by a word written in bold letters and underlined—"Transformation."

# Chapter 8

Lucy's house is huge. Don't get me wrong, I don't exactly live in a shoebox, but she has five bathrooms—five. And there are only four people in her house! And her bedroom has a little alcove in it where she has a sofa, sort of like my sister's room, except it is not supposed to be the master. She has a pool and a big back yard with lots of flowers in it and even a fountain. Seriously. A fountain.

I think my dad doesn't like driving me to Lucy's house because he feels a little inferior. Like I said, he hasn't driven me over in years, but when I was younger he used to drive me, and he'd say things like, "I hope no one minds the rims on my truck," like people were staring out their windows at our vehicle. I always shook my head at him but didn't ever bother to argue because I didn't even understand what he was worried about. Now that I'm a little older, I understand it more, but it's still not a problem. My parents have always done a great job of providing for us, and I would never complain about not having something I needed, or even wanted. It just so happens Lucy's dad is a lawyer and her mother is an accountant. She's very down to earth about it and doesn't even make the rest of us feel inferior when she disappears into her walk-in closet full of designer clothing.

My dad pulled to the curb in front of Luce's house and I gave him a half-smile. "Would you rather I just forget to call you to come to get me and walk home? So Mom doesn't make you come back out?" I knew he wasn't the one who thought I shouldn't walk.

"No, honey, it's fine," he said, patting my knee. "So long as they don't close the gates on my old jalopy."

Lucy's neighborhood is not gated. I rolled my eyes at him. "Okay. I'll see you in a few hours." I reached for the door handle. "Thanks again, Dad!"

He waved and shifted his truck into gear but didn't leave yet, and I knew it was because he was waiting for me to get safely inside of the house before he pulled away, not because he thought anything weird was going on, like my mom apparently did, but because that's what he has always done.

I didn't even get to the front door before it opened. Lucy was standing there with her extremely long brownish/blondish hair in a ponytail, her hands on her slender hips. She was looking at me like she was ready to pounce on me, and my mind wandered back to the notebook I'd shoved in my backpack before I left the house. She must've been talking about what I'd written there, even though I didn't remember writing it down or mentioning it to her.

"Hi, Lucy," I said with a friendly smile. She narrowed one eye at me. "What's up?"

"Cassidy Elizabeth Findley, get in here." She stepped out of the way and I entered into a foyer with floors made of marble and a grand staircase with ornate moldings cascaded from the second story behind my diminutive friend.

Emma came bounding in from the adjoining living room, straightening her glasses. Her short brown hair was a little frizzy, and I thought about asking her if she remembered to use her conditioning spray this morning. Lucy and I have been trying to get her to understand different products we use, not because we care so much what she looks like but because we feel it is our duty as her friend to explain the purposes behind the things that we do that Emma doesn't get or doesn't care about. I pushed the thoughts aside and said, "Hi, Em."

Without looking at my face, she said, "Hi."

"How are you?" I took a few steps toward her, and away from Lucy who had shut the door behind me as if she was sealing the world out to give us some privacy.

"Fine."

Never in the ten or more years that I've been friends with Emma has she ever once asked me how I was doing, and that's okay. It's not that she didn't care, she just didn't think to ask.

"Well?" Lucy said, clearly put out by my insistence on being polite to my friend instead of disclosing to her everything I know about whatever happened with Drew.

I let out a sigh and said, "Can we at least sit down somewhere?"

An exhalation that loud shouldn't be able to come out of such a tiny person. "I suppose you want a pop, too? Maybe some popcorn?"

"Clearly, I am exhausting you with my civility," I said. "Would you rather just stand here in the entryway and talk?"

Lucy didn't answer; she just stormed past me into the living room and plopped down on the sofa, grabbing a throw pillow and holding it against her stomach.

I followed and sat down a cushion away from her while Emma sat in a nearby chair. The TV was on, but Lucy turned it off, once she got over her exhaustion with me enough to pick up the heavy remote. "Well?" she said again.

Before I could start to say anything at all, Emma said, "Guess what, Cassidy?" You don't get a chance to answer that when Emma says it. "I defeated the third level of my game last night."

"You did?"

"Yes. It was really hard, too, because...." This is the point where she lost me. Emma continued to talk about how she beat the level for about ten minutes, and I nodded along. I never have any idea what she's talking about and really didn't care, but she loves to talk about her video games, so I played along. Usually, Lucy does, too. But not that day.

"Emma Jane! Shut it! We need to talk about Cadence and Drew."

Emma's eyes widened, and I felt a little sorry for her, but I knew it didn't bother her as much as it would most people, even if she doesn't know how to tell when Lucy is really mad or when she's just frustrated like she was at that moment.

"Emma, can you tell me the rest later?" I asked in a calm voice. "I think Lucy wants to talk about something else."

"Fine." Emma shrugged and fixed her glasses again. Then, as if rehearsed, she looked at Lucy and said, "What would you like to talk about, Lucy Burk?"

I think Emma's tone must've made Lucy realize she was being unreasonable because she closed her eyes for a second and settled back into the couch. After she'd composed herself, she said, "Cassidy, when we spoke on the phone Thursday, you mentioned some weird things were going on, and you wanted to wait until we could talk about it in person, remember?"

She was talking to me like I was either a three-year-old or clinically insane, but then, the way my memory was working at that point, I wasn't sure that she was wrong to do so. "I vaguely remember that conversation."

I could tell she wanted to let out another whopper of a sigh, but she held it back. "Cassidy, I'm a little concerned about you. Maybe the stress of this situation with your sister is starting to get to you." Lucy folded her arms across her chest, the pillow now in her lap.

"Or maybe you're just bonkers."

We both turned and looked at Emma, who had a sly smile on her face. "Ha, ha! Emma O'Sullivan makes the funny jokes!" I said, proud of her for the effort. She just grinned. "Okay, I'll admit, something weird is going on."

"I know. And that's what you're supposed to be telling me about," Lucy replied, matter-of-factly.

"No, not just with my sister. With me." It wasn't easy to say out loud, but it was true. Ever since I found that notebook, I hadn't stopped wondering when I'd penned what was written there. It was my turn to sigh. "Let me show you something, and then maybe we can figure it out together." Lucy nodded and Emma leaned forward in her chair.

I reached into my backpack and pulled out the notebook. I'd dog-eared the page when I found it, halfway thinking I might not be able to find it again later and think that I'd imagined the whole thing. "Here." Relieved to still see the message I'd left for myself, and nervous about what Lucy and Emma might think, I handed it over to Lucy, and Emma came to sit on the arm of the couch. I was glad she seemed interested in helping. We would likely need her brain power. Lucy and I are smart, too, but not genius level smart like Em.

They read it over, and then Lucy stopped and stared at me for a moment, her pretty little face puckered. She opened her mouth, closed it, and dipped her head once more, and I assumed she was reading it again. After she finished this time, she set the notebook down on the couch between us and simply asked, "What the crap?"

"I know," I said, with a shrug. "But here's the thing, you guys. I don't remember writing that."

Lucy cocked her head to the side, and Emma said, "Hmmm." Then they looked at each other.

"Seriously. Like, I found it, and I don't know when I wrote it." I was beginning to panic a little on the inside. What if I started to forget other things, too, like my friends or the days of the week?

"Well," Emma said, straightening her glasses as she got up and moved back to her chair, "I guess that means you don't remember any of those things actually happening either?"

It was a good question, and the short answer was no, I didn't. But then, I'd just discovered this page before I'd come over, and I hadn't really thought about trying to remember.

"This is so bizarre," Lucy said. "What would make you write something down and then forget it? Were you sleeping when you wrote it?"

"I don't know. I don't remember writing it."

"Okay—well what is the last thing you do remember? Maybe we can work backward."

Emma had a good point. I took a deep breath and started talking through my day. "I remember riding over here with my dad, finding the notebook, asking my parents if I could come over while eating pancakes. And... Aaron came by this morning."

"Aaron? The same guy you wrote about?" Lucy asked, gesturing at the notebook.

"Yes. And I know that wasn't the first time he's been there, but I don't really remember anything about what he said the first time he was there. I know that doesn't make sense."

"But the first time you talked to him wasn't the first time he was there," Emma reminded me. "Your notes say he was in your sister's room the night Drew died."

"That's true. There's something about his voice. It's hard to describe, but it's memorable. I think he was the one in my sister's room that night. But I don't really remember what happened the night Drew died. I just have a feeling about it." I let out another sigh, this one in frustration. "It's so hard to explain."

"That's okay. We might be getting somewhere," Lucy said, reassuringly. "So, you do think what you wrote here is accurate?"

"I do." My voice didn't sound too resolute though. "I think I remember enough to say it's probably accurate—at least according to what I knew at the time."

"All right, so that strategy seemed to get us somewhere. What did Aaron say today? Do you remember that?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her. "I remember today, Luce."

"Well, I don't know," she shrugged. "I remember yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that...."

"All right," I said, cutting her off. "I couldn't really hear a word Aaron was saying, but I did hear some of my parents' responses. So... they said Cadence was sleeping." I tried to go back over their conversation in my head. "Oh, and they said something about a procedure."

"A procedure?" Emma asked. "Like a medical procedure?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I couldn't hear the context. Just that the procedure went well. I don't even know if it had to do with my sister."

"That's bizarre." Lucy scratched her chin for a second. "You know what, we need to write this down in case you forget again."

"Good idea," Emma agreed.

Lucy got up and walked to a desk across the room, producing a pen. She came back and started a fresh sheet. "I don't want to contaminate your questionable work."

I absently wondered if I might, at some point, forget there were now two important sheets in the notebook. Lucy began to write. "So... after that, I heard the name Jamie. I am pretty sure I'd heard that before."

"Yep, it's right here," Lucy said, turning the page and pointing to the last paragraph I'd written. "This says Jamie has a process—do you think that might be the procedure Aaron was talking about today?"

"Those words are very similar in meaning," Emma noted.

"Maybe. It's a possibility." Lucy wrote that down. "And I heard two new names today. Eliza and Christian."

"Are you sure they weren't saying someone is a Christian?" Lucy asked. "You know, like religious?"

"I don't think so. I think my mom said she'd never met Christian, but I couldn't make out the exact sentence. I think it's a person named Christian."

"Do you think the purple-haired girl you mentioned is this Eliza?" Emma asked.

"Maybe." It seemed like that was my favorite word now. "I thought my mom said something about a car in that sentence. Like maybe Eliza would be the one bringing Cadence home tomorrow." I was seriously considering rigging up some sort of surveillance in the living room so I could hear my parents' conversations from now on.

"Anything else today?"

"Not when Aaron was talking to my parents," I said, feeling more confident than I had about anything else. "But my parents did say something weird when they got back to the dining room table."

"What's that?" Lucy asked, pen poised.

"My sister is dropping out of college." I couldn't even believe the words, so I didn't expect them to.

"Shut up!" Lucy said, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"That's unfortunate," Emma stated quietly. "She won't be able to find gainful employment easily that way."

"Actually, that's the thing," I said, "my parents said that she was going to be working with Aaron."

"Say what?" Lucy asked. "Doing what?"

"That's also weird." I replayed the conversation with my parents. I realized I hadn't asked a lot of questions, and I remember feeling, at the time, that I didn't really care about the answers. I had no idea why that might be. I certainly cared now. "My mom said security, but that it was complicated. But..." something in my notes jarred my memory, "My dad said that Aaron used to work with my grandma—but he almost said grandparents."

The other two girls exchanged glances. "Why is that weird?" Emma asked.

"My grandpa died in the '80s, a long time ago. Aaron looks like he's about my sister's age, maybe a little older. I'd be shocked if he's even thirty."

"So... he couldn't have worked with your grandpa unless he was a little kid or something," Lucy reasoned.

"Exactly. And my grandpa was an engineer, like my dad."

"That doesn't make any sense. Maybe your dad misspoke?" Emma asked.

"Maybe." There was that word again. "But even the idea of Aaron working with my grandma doesn't make sense to me. As far as I know, she's never had a job. Not in my lifetime."

"So weird." Lucy's pen moved to capture every word. "What else? What about this other dude who showed up?"

I inhaled through my nose, trying to remember. The notes I'd written down seemed so cryptic now. "I don't know," I admitted. "I remember there being another guy." I closed my eyes. I thought back to when Aaron had knocked on the door that morning. My initial reaction was to hope that it wasn't him. That it was someone else. "Elliott." My voice was a whisper.

"Who?" Emma asked.

"Dr. Elliott Sanderson." It was coming back to me now. "The guy with the curly hair, the one I wrote about, he was the doctor. He was there the night Drew died. And he came to talk to me about it."

"Hold on a minute," Lucy said, setting the notebook down. "You mean, the last thing you did before you talked to that doctor was write in your notebook that he was at your house, and then you don't remember having written this stuff down?"

I nodded. Things were suddenly starting to come back to me now. I remembered sitting across from Dr. Sanderson, the soothing tone of his rich voice, the things he said to me about Drew. "Lucy... do you think he has something to do with me forgetting?"

"Uh, yeah," she said, her face turning even more pale than normal.

I couldn't believe it. I had trusted that guy. He seemed legitimately concerned about me. And my parents had encouraged me to talk to him. "So... all those things he said to me, about Cadence being okay, and Drew's death being no big deal... all of that was just in an attempt to... to...."

Emma finished my sentence for me. "Brainwash you."

# Chapter 9

My mom came to pick me up a few hours later. By then, I had gotten over the initial shock of realizing my parents had allowed some strange man to come into my house and brainwash me into thinking the death of my sister's friend was no big deal, but I was still miffed. And confused. Why in the world would my parents want me to think that Drew's death was just a blip in my existence and not something to worry about?

Something very strange was going on, and I had no idea who I could talk to about it. If my parents were part of the conspiracy, then I couldn't trust them. My grandmother also allegedly knew these people, though I wasn't sure I could trust that either. As hard as it was, I decided to wait it out. My sister was supposed to return the next day. Maybe when she came home, she'd spew out some acceptable explanation for all of this weirdness and life would go back to normal.

I wasn't holding my breath.

Saturday night, I tried to watch a movie to keep my mind off of everything, but I couldn't pay attention and ended up going to bed early. Every creak and groan of the house had me on edge, though, and it was either really late or really early when I finally fell asleep, depending upon how you wanna look at it.

I am usually a morning person, but Sunday, I was dragging. Sometimes we go to church; sometimes we don't. My mom wanted to go that day. She thought it would be a nice show of support for Drew's family—even though they didn't go to our church, and my parents would be attending the funeral the next day. (They had decided I was too young, which I thought odd since Drew wasn't much older than me, and unfortunately, she was going to be there. But I didn't argue. I wasn't too excited about attending anyway.)

A lot of people were crying at church, and our pastor delivered a lovely message about cherishing those we hold dear. I looked around for any of my sister's friends. Most of them didn't go to church at the same place, but Jack did. He wasn't there, though. I saw his parents, Alice and Steve, sitting toward the back. They both looked extremely upset, and I guessed that was because Jack was probably distraught. Who could blame him? Who knew what he actually saw the night Drew died—whether she really fell down a cliff and cut her neck open or if something more sinister had happened.

I was leaning toward the sinister theory, especially after having spoken to Lucy and Emma the day before. Lucy made a copy of all of my notes, just in case I forgot again, which was a good idea. She said she was going to do some research. I don't know exactly what she was intending to do, but I was eager to see if she could come up with something. She said to make sure I sent her a text every time something unexplained happened so she could write it in her own notes, and I agreed to do so.

After the last song, my parents solemnly trudged the length of the pew and down the aisle. I could tell by the way my mom kept looking at Alice that she intended to stop and speak to the Cooks if she had a chance. While Alice looked determined to get out of the church before too many people bombarded her, she gave my mom a small smile, sort of a kinship recognition, I think. They were both moms who were sharing in another family's tragedy, one that touched too close to home. I silently wondered if any people dressed in black had visited the Cook residence.

My mom didn't catch up to her while we were still in the building, but once we were outside, we saw Alice and Steve standing near their car, which wasn't too far away from Mom's minivan.

"I'm going to go speak to Alice," my mom said, touching Dad lightly on the arm.

"Me, too," I said. My mother turned and looked at me questioningly. "I want to make sure Jack's okay," I said with a shrug, and she nodded. I knew that my mom understood that Jack was very important to me, and while I felt bad using our relationship as a means to potentially exploit information, I didn't see that I had any other choice.

"Hello, Liz," Alice said, her voice small. She has poofy blonde hair that is usually styled a bit like she has forgotten it is no longer the 1990s and doesn't mind floral prints and mom jeans. Her husband Steve used to be an athlete, like Jack, and sometimes I think they don't quite match, but it's always very clear that they have a solid marriage.

"Hi." My mom's greeting was a sigh. "How are you holding up? Jack hanging in there?"

"He is," Steve nodded. I heard footsteps behind me and realized my dad had decided he was obligated to come along. He shook hands with Steve and hugged Alice. "How is Cadence?"

My mom's lips pressed together in a thin line. "She has been at her grandmother's trying to get some rest. She should be back later today. I know she's... struggling."

Alice dabbed at her eyes with a tissue that looked like it was the only one she'd ever possessed in her whole life. "Jack is as well. He... goes from being nonchalant about the whole thing to... paranoid." She said the last word like it was a secret, and I saw a shift in my mother's eyes.

"Paranoid?" she repeated, her forehead crinkling up. "About what?" As soon as she asked the question, I could tell she regretted it. She glanced at me and looked like she was going to tell me to leave right then and there, but that might seem odd to everyone who didn't realize there was something she was trying to keep from me, so she didn't.

"It's hard to explain," Alice replied. "He just keeps looking out the window. I ask him what's going on, and he either says he doesn't know, or he's afraid someone is watching the house. There are times when he seems to think someone is after him."

My mom shook her head. "That's terrible. Cassidy, why don't you...."

I interrupted. I had no choice. "Poor Jack," I said loudly, so that my mother sending me back to the car would be drowned out. "He's probably having bad dreams, too. Has he said anything about that?" I wanted to add "or people walking on the roof" but didn't want to be too obvious.

"He has," Steve said, looking at the ground. "But when he wakes up, he says he can't remember what happened."

"It's just awful. The whole thing." Tears started to careen down Alice's face again. "I've heard the other girls aren't doing well either." I assumed she was talking about Sidney and Taylor.

"Who ever would've thought someone could lose their life rock climbing around here?" I wasn't sure if Steve asked the question in such a way as to feel my parents out to see if they had accepted the explanation, or if he was truly just flabbergasted by the idea that this is how Drew had passed away, but my parents didn't admit they also thought it was odd.

"It's such a tragedy," my dad agreed. "I know it'll be hard for the kids to get back to their normal routine."

"Jack says he wants to go back to Lincoln on Tuesday," Alice sighed. "Says he needs normal. Is Cadence going to wait a few days to head back to Iowa City?"

"Uh, actually, she's not going back. For now." My mom looked at my dad in confirmation, like she wanted to make sure it was okay with him for her to mention Cadence's plans. "She's going to get a job, for a little while, and then try to go back later, once she feels more like herself."

I could tell that Jack's parents thought this was odd but were too polite to say anything. "Well, I hope she can get back to her routine soon," Steve said, running a hand through his dark hair. "These poor kids have been through the ringer."

My dad clapped him on the shoulder. "Please send Jack our best," he said.

Before Steve could respond, I interrupted. "Actually, I have something for him. Would it be okay if I brought it over in a little while? It won't take long." I didn't really—but I would come up with something. I needed to see Jack. I wasn't exactly sure why I needed to see him, but I definitely did.

My mother began to protest, but Alice's voice won out. "Absolutely, Cassidy. I'm sure he would love to see you. Jack has always thought of you like a little sister."

"Great," I said with a wide smile. "I'm looking forward to seeing him."

"Cassidy, you know your sister will be home." Clearly, my mother didn't think it was a good idea for me to go to the Cooks' house. I didn't know why, but then, I didn't know why about a lot of things.

"I'll be quick," I assured her.

"We'll see you in a bit, then," Alice said and took a step back toward her car door. There were more people streaming into the parking lot now that they'd all had a chance to catch up with their friends and chat a little, and I was sure there wasn't anyone else at church Alice and Steve wanted to talk to, other than my parents, who were the only people who could understand what their family was going through.

We headed over to the minivan, and I desperately tried to figure out what in the world I was going to take to Jack. There had to be something I could bring him that would be the perfect excuse to see him. I wished I could bake him something, but that would be too suspicious to my parents. I'd said I had something for him, and I didn't have any baked goods on me.

"What do you have for Jack?" my mom asked as she put on her seatbelt.

"Oh, uh, just a... card," I replied quietly.

My mother eyed me in the rearview mirror, as if she wasn't sure she could trust me. I know the look because I know the sentiment. "That's nice. Did you make it?"

"Yes," I lied. I hadn't made it—yet. "Lucy's brother saw him the other day and said he didn't look so good. I felt bad for him."

That seemed to be enough of an explanation. Mom nodded and returned her stare to the window while my dad backed out of the parking spot. I hoped I could make a card and run it over to Jack's house before my sister got home. I was sure my parents would want to come with me, which meant I wouldn't get to ask Jack the questions I really wanted to, like was he hearing weird sounds on the roof, and had anyone dressed in black visited him, but talking to him in front of one of my parents would be better than nothing. If Jack had any idea what was going on, hopefully, he would say something to give me more clues.

# Chapter 10

Jack's house was in the same end of town as Lucy's but not the exact same neighborhood, so my dad didn't mind so much when he had to drive me over. The Cooks' house is about the same as ours, which is pretty nice, regardless of how my dad feels when he sees the Burk Mansion.

Alice opened the door, and Jack was standing a few feet behind her. I couldn't tell if Alice had been crying more since church, which was over about an hour earlier, or if she just looked exhausted. I felt bad for her. Clearly, she was much more distraught about Drew's death, or Jack's reaction, than my parents were.

"Hi, Cassidy. It's so nice of you to come over," she said, opening the door so I could step in.

"Hi," I said quietly. I looked at Jack carefully—as if he were a painting and I would have to answer questions about him later on a quiz at school. He looked more haggard than usual. Perhaps he hadn't shaved in a day or two. I'd never seen him with that much facial hair. He was wearing gray, baggy sweatpants and a white long-sleeved T-shirt that had a stain on it. His hair wasn't long enough to be too disheveled, but it was sticking up in a few places. His eyes looked off to me, too. I couldn't tell if they were just bloodshot or also a bit darker than normal. I found it very strange that he was such a mess since I'd only ever seen him completely put together.

"Hey, Cass." His voice croaked a bit, as if he'd had a cold and was just getting over it. I wondered if maybe he'd been sleeping too much.

"Hey," I said in return. He had always hugged me before, but this time he stood with his hands in his pockets, just looking at me. "I'm sorry to bother you. I just wanted to see you, make sure you're okay, and give you this." I extended the hastily put-together card. I had decided printing something off of the Internet was probably better than me trying to draw something, so it wasn't horrible, but it was a little odd. They don't exactly make cards that say, "Sorry your friend died. Are weird things happening at your house, too? Has my sister transformed into some sort of beast?"

"Thank you," he said, taking it. His fingertips grazed mine, and I almost jumped back. I wasn't expecting his hand to be so cold. If his whole body felt like that, I was glad he hadn't hugged me.

He turned the card over in his hands before he opened it and read it. It had a picture of a bumblebee and some silly joke like, "Bee well soon." Jack politely chuckled. "Thanks, Cass. Very thoughtful of you."

"Sure," I replied with a shrug. "I just thought... you might need some cheering up. Sorry I didn't have a chance to bake cookies or anything."

"That's all right." He made a half smile that sort of reminded me of the Jack I was used to. "How's your sister?"

I was surprised he'd asked me and not my dad, who was still standing behind me by the door, sort of pretending he wasn't there. I turned and looked at him, expecting him to answer. I hadn't even spoken to my sister since the whole thing happened. Although, for that matter, I'm not really sure my dad had either. Was he just speaking to Aaron about his oldest daughter?

"She's okay," my dad said, with a sharp nod. "She'll be home this afternoon."

"Right," Jack said. "She left. She went to her grandma's house." He was speaking as if he was trying to remember something that wouldn't quite come to him, like pulling on a loose thread, crawling his way along to the root of the problem. I knew the feeling. "She wasn't at the hospital." He had been staring at the floor, but his eyes shifted to fall on my dad, and I saw an expression there I'd never seen before. "Why wasn't she at the hospital?"

Before my dad could answer, Alice crossed to her son and rested her hand on his chest. "Jack, I'm afraid you're getting upset again. Why don't you take some deep breaths...?"

"We should probably go." My dad was being polite. I could see he wanted to get me out of the Cooks' house as quickly as possible, but I didn't know if I was in danger from Jack or if my dad was afraid Jack might say something he didn't want me to hear.

"Jack," I said, trying to force down the panic in my own voice. I wanted some answers, and this might be my only chance. Still, I had to be careful not to tip my dad off that I might know more than he suspected. "Did Dr. Sanderson explain to you what happened? How Drew's death was a tragedy, but these things happen?"

Jack had been continuing to mutter that he didn't know why Cadence wasn't at the hospital, but at my words, he froze. Something drastic happened to his disposition, and a carefree smile slid over his face. "Oh, that's right. Dr. Sanderson told me. He said Cadence needed to go to her grandmother's to rest. That makes perfect sense. Of course she did. And Drew—it was a tragic accident, the way that she died, but these things happen."

"Jack," Mrs. Cook said, still holding on to him, "Dr. Sanderson also said you need plenty of rest. Why don't you go sit on the sofa?"

"Okay. Bye, Cassidy. Bye, Mr. Findley." Jack turned like a robot and practically marched out of the room. I stared after him. Dr. Sanderson had definitely gotten to Jack—the same way he'd gotten to me.

"I'm sorry," Alice said, rubbing her face in frustration. "He's simply not himself. Not yet."

"No, don't apologize," my dad replied. "We understand."

"I'm not sure why he seems to calm down when we mention Dr. Sanderson," Alice continued, looking at me, "but that does seem to do the trick."

Hesitantly, I treaded into waters I wasn't sure I should explore. "It made me feel very calm to talk to the doctor," I said, wondering if I was setting Jack up for more brainwashing reminders from his mom, and if so, whether or not that was in his best interest.

"Dr. Sanderson came by to talk to Cassidy the other day," my dad explained. "She was a little upset about Drew. They were on the cheerleading squad together."

"I see." Alice gave me a small smile. "This must be hard for you, too, dear."

I only nodded, not sure I could trust myself to say anything else. I was definitely worried about Jack, though. If my sister came home acting like that, all weird, I wasn't sure what I would do.

"Cadence will be home soon," my dad said with a smile. "We should get back."

"Thanks again for the card," Alice said, patting my arm.

"Sure." I glanced past her and saw Jack sitting rigid on the sofa, staring at the television, and I hoped the real Jack was in there somewhere, but I began to think we might not see him again.

I followed my dad out the door and climbed into his truck. I hadn't even gotten my seatbelt fastened before he let out a very soft sigh. "Cassidy, do you feel like it helped to talk to Dr. Sanderson?"

He pulled away and was halfway down the block before I decided how to answer. "Yes," I said emphatically, "but I think it might help if I could talk to him again."

My dad glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, and I could see surprise there. "You do?"

"Yes." Rather than tipping my hand, I stopped talking. If my dad had a follow up question, he could ask it. He didn't need to know that I was taking a huge risk by requesting to see the doctor again. He had no idea I planned on being a pretty poor patient.

My dad cleared his throat and said, "Well, I think he's out of town right now. But as soon as he gets back, I'll see if he can come over and speak with you."

"'Kay," I said. Did it make any sense to me that the doctor who saved Drew, one I'd never heard of before even though I had lived in Shenandoah my whole life, had conveniently gone out of town the day I wanted to speak to him? Of course not. But then, I was beginning to wonder if Dr. Sanderson was even a doctor at all. But I played along. At this point, I had no idea who I could trust, but the list was getting smaller and smaller by the minute.

# Chapter 11

Never in my entire life has my mother let me eat Sunday lunch upstairs, but all it took was mentioning that speaking to Jack had me feeling sad, and she agreed to let me fix a plate and take it to my room. I felt like she wanted to talk to my dad and thought it would be easier if I wasn't there since this game of secrets was becoming more and more complicated with every passing moment.

I grabbed a chicken breast, a helping of mashed potatoes, and a few roasted carrots, slipping a can of pop into my pocket before I headed up the stairs, my mom shouting at me to be careful on the carpet. My true purpose was to call Lucy as soon as I could. I needed to let her know what had happened at Jack's.

Unfortunately, I got her voicemail. I left her a message to call me and then jotted down a few notes in my notebook before snapping a picture and sending it to her.

"Sunday: Went to talk to Jack Cook. He was acting odd. He seemed haggard and disheveled. His mom said he thinks someone is watching him and is sleeping poorly. He started asking why Cadence wasn't at the hospital the night Drew died, but when I mentioned Dr. Sanderson, Jack's demeanor shifted, and he was almost like a robot. He went into the living room to watch TV when his mother asked him to.

"Who is Dr. Sanderson really and who else has he brainwashed? I asked my dad if I could speak to him again, but apparently the doctor is out of town right now. I want to see if I can face him and _not_ be brainwashed. Maybe I can find a way to figure out who he really is."

Once I'd sent Lucy my notes, I took a few bites of chicken. My mom is an excellent cook, but I really wasn't hungry. All of this sleuthing was making my stomach hurt. Thinking the mashed potatoes might settle it a bit, I concentrated on them.

I had decided enough was enough about the time my phone rang. I set my fork down and was relieved to see it was Luce. "Hey, did you get my pic?"

"OMG!" Most of Lucy's greetings are the same three letters. "Yes! And get this! Last night, I decided to see if I could find this Dr. Sanderson on the Shenandoah Memorial website, and there's not a trace of him."

"Really?" I asked. That did surprise me a bit. I didn't think there was any question he was there that night, when they brought Drew in. But if he didn't work there, _why_ was he there?

"As a matter of fact, I couldn't find a Dr. Elliott Sanderson even licensed in the state of Iowa."

Lucy's words washed over me, leaving goosebumps in their wake. "You're kidding."

"Nope. So, I don't know how he could possibly be practicing medicine here...."

"Maybe he has a different first name and goes by his middle name or something." There had to be a reasonable explanation.

"Doubtful." Lucy shot me down.

I was trying to come up with something else when I heard the purr of an engine outside. I recognized the sound from the other night when this whole mess started. Jumping out of my chair, I almost knocked it over in my rush to get to the window.

Lucy was prattling on in my ear, but my eyes were glued out the window. It was the same car as the other night. Even though my friend was still talking, I needed my camera. I pulled the phone away from my head and took a few pics of the sports car, knowing I'd need to identify it. It was hard to see through the tint of the windshield, but I thought it was the same girl driving as had taken my sister away the other night.

I'd just put my phone back up to my ear, hearing Lucy ask, "Hello? Are you there, Cass?" when the most unexplainable thing I'd seen yet happened. I almost dropped the phone.

My sister got out of the car. I saw her standing there on the curb for the briefest second. But then, she was gone, only a blur remaining. Not even a half-second later, I heard the door downstairs.

"Cass??"

"Sorry!" I said, once I'd picked my jaw up off of the floor. I had to sit down, but I didn't want to walk away from the window until the car was gone. Once it faded around the corner, I surveyed the road once more and stumbled to my bed. "Lucy, my sister's home."

"Oh, good. I guess you need to go then."

I was trying to figure out how to tell her what I'd just seen. "Lucy," I began, "Cadence just sprinted up the driveway so fast, she was just a blur. I wouldn't have even known she was doing it if I hadn't seen her get out of the car with my own two eyes. I even have pictures of the car to send you. But... seriously. A blur."

In all of the years that I've known her, Lucy Burk has never been quiet for more than two seconds unless she was in class and couldn't talk. She didn't speak for at least half a minute. "OMG." It was a whisper.

"What the..." I stopped myself. I heard my mom shouting my name. "I've gotta go."

"'Kay. Send me the pics."

"Right."

I headed toward the door, sending the pictures as I went, but I wasn't sure how to even face my sister. I knew what I'd seen, but there was no way that it could actually be my sister, normal, average speed, college freshman, Cadence Josephine Findley, who just covered the distance from the curb to the house in less than a second. No. Way.

I wasn't sure what to expect. Would Cadence look different? Would she have some sort of new appendages that made her run so fast? Would she glow in the dark? Surely, she wasn't dangerous—not to her family, anyway.

From the top of the stairwell, I could hear my family talking. I took my time. If they didn't know I could hear, they might just keep saying things that could be valuable to my investigation.

My mom's voice carried up the stairs. "We had always heard that Transformation was extremely painful, but now I guess they have some new method or something, and it's not so bad? Is that right, or was Aaron just trying to make us feel better?"

There was that word again. I knew for a fact now that my sister had undergone some sort of procedure, something that had altered who—or what—she was. The proof was in the blur I'd seen as she made her way to the house. And now my mom was confirming it.

I wished there was some way I could wait until after my sister replied before I showed myself, but Cadence was facing the entryway from the stairs to the living room, so as soon as I stepped foot on the floor at the bottom of the stairwell, she could see me.

I could see her, too, obviously. She looked the same—possibly less tired than usual, which I found odd since Jack looked just awful. She had a smile on her face and her brown eyes were twinkling. I wondered if she would feel cold to the touch like Jack. Maybe something was happening to him, too, and he was in the early stages whereas Cadence was a finished product.

My sister stood and embraced me, "Hey, Cass! How are you?" she exclaimed.

Relieved that she was as warm bodied as ever, I only said, "Good," thinking maybe I should still be leery of whatever my sister had become. Remembering I needed to make sure they were not suspicious, I asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

I saw the exchange of glances between my sister and my parents before my mom, who was sitting in her recliner, replied, "Cadence is feeling much better, Cass. You're so sweet to ask. Cadence, we explained that you needed some time away from town to process your friend's passing, so you went to stay with Grandma for a few days."

Clearly, my mother's answer was an attempt to let my sister know the lies I had been fed, but what was I going to say? "I know there's something going on, and you're all hiding it from me!" Probably not the right track to take if I ever wanted to be let in on the family secret.

Cadence was nodding so hard, I thought her head might come off. "Yes, that's right. I just needed some time. But I'll be fine. Thanks, Sis."

There was an awkward pause where I was almost positive they were all waiting for me to skip off. No one seemed to want to tell me to skedaddle, though, so I waited patiently. I can play games, too.

My dad drew the short straw. "Cass, honey, we're going to talk to Cadence a little more about what happened that night when she was out with her friends." I stared at him, wondering what his excuse might be for not letting me stay. He took a deep breath and continued. "I really think it's best if you just join us for dinner in a bit; all right, honey?"

Since we'd just eaten, that meant he wanted me to stay in my room for several hours! I felt like screaming, "No! I am a member of this family and should get to stay, too!" But I didn't. I nodded and said, "All right. I'll see you later, Sis," to Cadence, even though I wasn't sure whether or not I could trust her. I still needed to try and get some information from her.

I eyed her for a moment as she said, "For sure!" and sat back down on the couch.

I turned and headed for the stairs, trying to seem normal and walk at a regular pace. I wished they were still standing by the stairs so I could hear better once I reached the top, but I also knew that my parents had a tendency not to know their own volume.

The top of the stairs was still before me when I heard my mom say, "Well, honey, we hope it wasn't too terribly painful."

I strained to hear Cadence's response, but her voice wasn't as loud. Once I reached the top of the stairs, I didn't even bother to fake-shut my door, thinking they were too wrapped up in their own conversation to even be paying attention to me. I went around the side of the railing closest to my bedroom and dropped to my stomach.

Knowing I'd missed part of the conversation, I strained to hear what was being said now. My dad's voice boomed, "She had visions of you screaming in pain, writhing around on a hospital bed, you know, the type of thing you see on horror films." I assumed he meant my mother thought this must be the case. Why would she think that? Was Cadence like Frankenstein's monster now? Surely, they were talking about this procedure she'd undergone and nothing additional.

My mom's voice was defensive, which meant louder than normal. "Well, I didn't know. I just didn't know. That Aaron is a nice boy, but for all I knew he was telling us what he thought we wanted to hear." I thought my mom's choice of words was a little funny. I didn't know how old Aaron was, but he had to be older than he looked if he had worked with my grandmother.

I had no idea what Cadence was saying. I could barely make out the melody of her voice as she responded to my mom's comment. My mom said something in response, but she must've calmed down because it was faint.

It was my dad's voice that I was able to make out next, but I didn't catch the first part of the sentence. I heard, "a bit scared," followed by, "would be lying if we said we weren't a little, uh, circumspect."

Not knowing what that word meant for certain, I puzzled over it for a moment as my mom confirmed not only was that the word he'd said, it was a good one. "Circumspect," I repeated, hoping I'd remember to look it up later.

There was a little more chatter before I heard Cadence imploring them to "focus," which was about the only word she said that I could make out at all, and then she said she wanted to go lie down for a bit.

Scrambling to my feet, I slowly backed toward my bedroom door, knowing I couldn't let my sister find me there. Now that she could move faster than a speeding bullet, I needed to hurry but still be as quiet as possible. Luckily, she seemed to be slowing her movements around my parents, and by the time I heard her footfalls on the stairs, I was in my room with the door closed.

I realized I couldn't risk calling Lucy because my sister might overhear, so I pulled out my phone, thinking I'd text her. There were quite a few missed texts on a three-way with Lucy and Emma, and I saw that Milo had called me, too. While I'd spoken to him a few days before, I was still in my crazy state of thinking that Drew's death was no big deal when we talked, so I was eager to call him back to claim I'd been in shock or something.

Noises next door told me Cadence was in her room, but she wasn't particularly loud, and I hoped she'd fall asleep for a little while. After that, I hoped I'd get a chance to talk to her. There was so much going on all of a sudden, and I felt pressed for time, even though I had no idea why.

I checked my texts first. The girls had discovered the car was a Lamborghini Aventador, which cost about $400,000. That number was from Emma, so I knew it wasn't an exaggeration. I almost dropped my phone. Again.

Also, Emma explained that you have to have a license to practice medicine in Iowa to be admitted to a hospital as a physician, so Dr. Sanderson's story didn't make any sense. She said there was only one Dr. Elliott Sanderson in the entire database of doctors she had accessed, and he was licensed in Oklahoma as a psychiatrist.

There was a whole lotta shade being thrown at this person's story.

I sent them several texts to let them know what I had overheard and went ahead and jotted it down in the notebook as well. I figured at this point, it was smart to have notes in various places. My family wasn't typically nosy, so I wasn't too worried someone might find them, and Lucy's parents never messed with her stuff. There was a chance her maid might find it, but she only came to clean once a week and would probably think Lucy was just being weird. Emma's parents knew she was weird so they wouldn't think twice about seeing her write down something that sounded like a fantasy game.

"Sunday: Cadence returned. I saw her get out of the Lamborghini Aventador she had ridden away in the other night, and I think it was the same girl who was driving though I couldn't really see her. Cadence got out of the car like a normal person but then moved so quickly to the house, all I could see was a streak. I am certain that this happened, even though it is unbelievable.

"I overheard my mother asking about Cadence's transformation. My dad said that he thought my mom was envisioning a scene from a horror movie. My mom mentioned that she thought Aaron was just telling them what he wanted them to hear. My dad said they had been a bit scared and thought the whole situation was circumspect, which Emma told me means, 'guarded' or 'wary,' so I think that means he is suspicious of what is going on. I concur, though my parents clearly know a lot more than I do."

Once I was satisfied that I'd written down everything I needed to, I gave Milo a call, hoping he didn't think I was nuts like he did the other day when I'd talked to him.

"Hey, Cass. Is your sister home?"

Milo is often very direct, like Emma. "Yes, she's here. Listen, Milo, I'm sorry I was acting so weird the other day when we were talking. I think I was still in shock about, you know, everything. I'm really upset about Drew, and I am just hoping my sister is okay." I kept my voice down, hoping Cadence couldn't hear me, but it didn't really matter if she did. Milo and I weren't going to discuss anything I wasn't supposed to know.

"That's fine," Milo said, clearly accepting my crazy explanation. "I just wanted to tell you I saw you leaving Jack Cook's house this morning."

"Right," I said. Milo lived down the street from the Cooks, and we'd driven by his house a couple of times. "I just went over to check on him."

"Yeah, me, too." Milo was silent for a really long time. "He seems... freaked out."

Normally, Milo would use more scientific words than "freaked" but I had to agree with his word choice. "I know," was all I could manage. I wasn't ready to tell yet another one of my friends that I thought something bizarre was going on with my sister and her friends.

"You saw it, too?"

"Uh huh."

"I mean... not only did he look awful, the whole time I was trying to talk to him, he kept looking out the window, and at one point he said, 'I think I'm next.' Then, his mom came in and calmed him down, saying something about some doctor. It was really weird, Cass."

I took a deep breath, not knowing what to say. I knew that Milo had every right to be concerned, but I didn't want to let him know what I knew. "That is bizarre," I finally said. "He was a little antsy when I was there, but nothing like that." I wondered if his mother had started using the Dr. Sanderson line with him because she saw what happened when I mentioned him or if she'd been doing it all along.

"Your sister's not acting like that, is she?" he asked, and I could hear more than just curiosity in his voice. He really thought my sister might be losing it, too.

"No, she's sad, I think, but not paranoid." I did not mention that I thought, whatever was happening to Jack, my sister had already gone through it. It had to have something to do with this transformation procedure my parents kept talking about, but I had no idea what it meant. Jack must be in the early stages of transforming or something.

"Well, that's good," Milo said. His voice sounded a little calmer, but not completely back to normal. "Okay. I just wanted to check on her. And you."

"Thanks, Milo," I said, trying to smile so that he would think I was being nonchalant. I may have to enlist his help later, but not right now.

We hung up, and I saw that I'd missed a whole slew of speculative texts from my girls. I let them know what Milo had told me, and once again, added a notation in the notebook. At this rate, I was going to need a three-ring binder.

"Sunday: Milo called. Said he went to see Jack, who was acting weird. Jack said he 'thinks he's next.' Not sure what this means but wondering if hast something to do with transforming. Are Aaron and Elliott stalking Jack? Will he be their next victim?"

# Chapter 12

My mother ordered pizza for dinner. Yet another reason to suspect it was the end of times. I wanted to check the back yard to see if perhaps she had also purchased us a pet unicorn, that's how rare it was that my mom would order pizza for dinner when it wasn't anyone's birthday. The only other time I remember her ordering anything in on a regular day was when my father had a fender bender on the way home from work, and they were both stressed out about calling insurance and whatever else you have to do when your car's crunched.

We didn't even eat at the table! We sat in front of the television and watched a movie. I had no idea we even owned TV trays. It was amazing, and it sort of made me wish my sister had transformed into some weird, super-fast creature earlier or more often.

If Cadence was struggling to keep things at a normal pace, no one noticed. She looked like her regular self, although I swear she was more muscular somehow. It was hard to tell since she was wearing a long sweater and jeans, but something about her arms looked more defined. Her skin had an even more glowing quality to it than usual. Not like Green Lantern glowing but like she was well-rested and had been getting her eight glasses of water in every day.

After the movie was over, I decided to go to my room. I hoped Cadence would follow because I had so many questions for her, but I didn't think I should just invite her up, like she was there for a job interview, so I just said I was heading upstairs and smiled at her. A few minutes after I settled onto my bed with my laptop, I heard a soft knock. I turned down the Spotify station I'd been playing and turned my attention to the door.

She poked her head in. "Hey! Whatcha doin'?" My sister has one of those smiles that immediately makes you smile back, so I did.

Setting my laptop aside, but leaving it open so the music continued to play, I made room for her on my bed. It's a full-sized, but we both like to lean against the wall and sort of have our regular spots. "Nothing." That was true. I hadn't even checked my email before she came in.

Cadence sat in her usual spot, grabbing one of my pillows and stuffing it behind her. "How are you?" I could see concern in her eyes, and while I appreciated it, I thought it a bit strange. It was her friend who had died, after all, not mine.

"I'm okay." I gave her a small smile and then proceeded with caution. Gathering information without tipping my hand would be tricky. "How are you? This has gotta be hard on you."

I could see sadness in my sister's brown eyes, but she put on a brave face. "It has been," she admitted. "But I'll be okay."

Nodding, I took another step down the road, hoping not to fall off of a cliff. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really." Her answer came too quickly, and I wished I would've phrased my question differently. This may've been a missed opportunity.

I thought I'd try a different tactic and maybe circle back to what had happened that night with Drew at a later time. "How's Grandma?"

"She's good. She was sad she didn't get to come down for Thanksgiving. I'm sorry I missed it, too. But she cooked for us."

"Us?" I asked. "Did she have friends over?"

I saw the wheels turning in my sister's head. I'm sure she'd meant just her and Grandma when she'd said "us," but I wasn't going to let an opportunity like that pass me up. My grandma allegedly knew Aaron, if not more of the strangers who had recently come into our lives, and I wanted to know if my sister would admit that.

"Oh, just... a few people. No one you'd know."

I narrowed my eyes at her. I decided to feel her out. "I met Aaron."

I saw her eyes enlarge slightly. "You did?"

"Yep." I decided to keep Dr. Sanderson in my pocket for a moment. Would he have been there, at my grandma's?

"That's cool." She looked uncomfortable. "How are your friends?"

So, clearly she did not want to talk about Mr. McReynolds. "They're fine. Milo went to visit Jack today."

"How is he?"

I assumed she meant Jack and not Milo, though it was hard to say for sure. In that case, there was no easy answer to the question. "Do you know that I saw him this morning?"

Cadence looked surprised. "Jack? No."

"Dad took me over. I wanted to check on him. Daniel, Lucy's brother, saw him the other day. He said he looked... different. So, I wanted to make sure he was okay. Milo went over after I did." I waited to see if she'd ask me anything about Jack. I wanted to know what kind of concerns she might have.

"That was nice of you. I'm sure he's just as upset about Drew's death as I am." It seemed hard for her to say those two words—Drew's death. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to talk about a good friend that way. "Did he seem... okay?"

"He was not himself."

Cadence puzzled over my choice of words, which had been intentional. "I'm sure he's very upset."

"Mom told me you're not going back to school."

Once again, her eyes lit up with surprise. She must not have realized Mom had told me anything. "I've decided to take a little break." She nodded, trying to make her voice sound confident, but I could hear her wavering a bit.

"Why? I thought you liked college. Are you still going to be a teacher?"

Cadence ran her hands through her hair. "It's hard to explain, Cass. I just felt like going back there right now wasn't the right thing to do. I'm sure I'll go back eventually."

I had to accept that answer, for now anyway. I think she really wanted to change the subject, but I pressed on. "So what kind of work are you going to be doing?"

By now she must've realized I knew more than she thought I would. "It's sort of difficult to explain and top secret." She plastered a crooked smile on her face, which I knew was fake. "If I told ya I'd have to kill ya." She poked me in the ribs with her elbow.

I laughed because it was meant to be funny, but on the inside, I felt my blood run cold. "Ha, yeah. Mom said it was security or something."

"Something like that. Hey, how are Lucy and Emma?"

She had managed to change the subject. Good for her. "They're good. We were all ready to head back to school, but I guess that'll happen Tuesday. We are working on a science project together."

"Cool. What's it about?"

I spent way too long explaining our project on electromagnetic charges to her, and by the time I'd finished, I realized we were as far off of the topic I wanted to be discussing as we could possibly be. Score one for big sis.

Eventually, we got around to Cadence's favorite question. By now, we were lying on our stomachs facing each other. "So... you gotta boyfriend?"

I felt my face flush but rolled my eyes and shook my head. "No."

"No... but?"

She could read me like a book. I readjusted the pillow beneath my chest and let out a sigh. "There is a boy I think is cute, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't like me."

"Oh, my goodness, Cass, I knew it! Spill! Who is he?"

"It's not a big deal, Cadence!" I wished I hadn't said anything, but she could always tell when I wasn't being completely honest with her. "His name is Liam White, and he's in my algebra class. He's super popular, though, and lots of girls like him."

"Awww!" my sister gushed. "What does he look like?"

Letting out another exhale, I pulled out my phone and went to a popular social media site. I silently handed over the device.

"Cass! He's so cute! He looks like he could be in a boy band."

"Thanks?" I said, not sure that was a compliment, though I think she meant it to be. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. We're not going out or anything. I've just helped him with his homework a few times." I took my phone back and put it in my back pocket.

"Still... he's dreamy."

My eyes rolled so far back into my head, I could practically see my brain. "What about you?" I asked, turning the tables. "You seeing anyone?"

I expected her to give her usual, "I don't have time for that answer," but instead my sister's face turned a slight shade of pink. "No," she said, and I knew immediately that wasn't the full answer.

"Do _you_ have a crush on someone?"

"No." Cadence is much better at keeping her lips sealed than I am. I can never force any information out of her. I wondered if it was one of the guys whose names had recently come up, although it seemed like there were so many, I didn't even know where to begin guessing. "How's algebra going, anyway?" she asked, successfully changing the subject to one that would not make her face look like she'd been out in the sun too long. "You have Mr. James, right?" She made a "bluck" face, and I agreed with her. He was not my favorite teacher.

"Yeah, I do. The work isn't too hard, but he is so boring!"

"I know!" Cadence agreed, slamming her face down into the pillow. After a moment, I realized she was laughing. She lifted her head. "You should see Jack's impression of him. It's so funny." In a very monotone, old-man voice, she started reciting Mr. James's typical greeting, "Okay... class... let's... get... out... our... textbooks...." We both started laughing hysterically because her impression was so awful, but I could still tell it was supposed to be my boring teacher. "Jack's is so much better," she said between gulps of air.

"I didn't know Jack did impressions." I couldn't imagine mild-mannered Jack making fun of an instructor.

She shrugged, finally regaining her composure. "I mean, not like Jon does, but sometimes." She grew more solemn, like thinking of Jack made her sad for some reason. Or maybe she was thinking of Drew, although I'm sure Drew was definitely not in Cadence's algebra class since she was a year younger than my sister.

I decided to change the subject myself this time. "Have you seen that new superhero movie yet?" I asked, thinking it would be best to keep the topic light. Despite my suspicions that something totally weird was going on with my sister, she was still one of the most important people in the world to me, and I hated seeing her upset. Besides, this entire conversation had been so normal, I was beginning to think I'd lost my mind before, when I thought she was transforming into some creature I wouldn't recognize.

We continued to chat for another hour or so before Cadence yawned and said she was tired. I was sure that she must be exhausted. Even if she hadn't had any procedure that transformed her into a lightning quick being, I'm certain she had spent many hours crying about the loss of Drew and her life as she'd known it before that terrible festival. She might have still been keeping everything from me, but I loved her just the same. When she stood to go, I climbed to my feet and gave her a long hug. My big sister was the best sibling anyone could ever ask for, and I hated that she was going through all of this; I hated that I was still on the outside, and she didn't feel like she could share it with me.

"I'll see you in the morning," she said quietly, and I let go of her and nodded. The funeral was the next day. I didn't know if Cadence had ever even been to one before. I hadn't. I thought they must be awful.

My sister left, and I heard her turning on the shower a few minutes later. I decided I was pretty tired, too, and flipped my light switch off, thinking I'd check my phone and then try to go to sleep, even though it was just a little past 9:00. I shut my laptop, turning off the music. With a sigh, I leaned back against my pillows. I didn't think I'd really garnered any new information to jot down or share with my friends from our discussion. Cadence was very careful not to mention anything that she didn't already know my parents had told me, which was smart on her part. I wasn't surprised; she's always been _almost_ as smart as I am.

I did have several texts, though, and while they were interesting to read, my friends were mostly speculating. Milo and Wes had also sent me texts to check on me and my sister. And Milo mentioned he'd been keeping Jack's house under surveillance to see if anyone really was spying on his neighbor, which I thought was odd since that was exactly what Jack was worried about. Was Milo's watching him what was making him so nervous?

I heard an odd noise in my sister's room and froze. It wasn't loud, so I'm not even sure why it caught my attention, but I could still hear the water running in her shower, even though it was faint because the bathroom is on the other side of her room (I think a pipe runs through the ceiling over my bed or something), but I got the impression that something strange was happening again.

Lying as still as I possibly could, I strained to hear what was happening next door. I heard Cadence's water switch off but didn't hear anything else for a while. I assumed she was still in the bathroom, drying off, etc. Just when I was beginning to think I was imagining everything, the bathroom door opened, and I heard my sister shriek. It wasn't a scream—like she was in pain or something was attacking her—it was more like the sound someone might make at a surprise party. However, it was enough for me to know I wasn't losing my mind.

It was muffled but distinct enough that I could make out every word. "What are you doing in my bedroom again?" my sister shouted.

Before he even spoke, I knew who she was speaking to. "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" I heard Aaron say. His voice was becoming too familiar to me. "I just climbed in the window.... I had no idea you were in the shower. If I had known, I wouldn't have come in."

I knew that wasn't true. He hadn't _just_ climbed in the window. He'd been in there a few minutes, and he had to have known she was in the shower—he would've heard the water. Why would he lie about that? Maybe he didn't want her to know that he was sitting there waiting for her to come out? What kind of a sicko was this guy?

My sister's response was squeaky at best, and I wasn't sure exactly what she'd said, but I heard, "...climbing in my bedroom window!" and then the sound of her footsteps as she angrily crossed the room to my side, where her closet and dresser were located. I assumed she was looking for clothing and must have had her towel wrapped around her and clenched in one fist.

Aaron's voice sounded different, like he was embarrassed. It was always a bit quieter than most men I know, but this time it was unusual altogether. I could make out every few words, enough to know he was making excuses for why he was there. The last part sounded really odd to me, as I had no idea what it could mean—or maybe I had misheard it. "You don't have your IAC yet."

What the crap was an IAC?

My sister's response came from right on the other side of the wall it seemed. She was rattling off all the other ways he could've gotten ahold of her, other than an IAC, whatever that was. He sounded apologetic as he agreed that she was right and it wouldn't happen again.

Cadence's bathroom door slammed. A few long seconds later, she shouted, "I'll be out in a second!" like she was afraid he might leave while she was in there. Was she now okay that he'd snuck into her room?

I waited to hear if Aaron would make a hasty retreat out the window, but I didn't hear anything at all. He was good at sitting still, if he was sitting. The floorboards didn't creak either, so he wasn't pacing. The more interaction (or covert interaction) I had with this man, the stranger he seemed. I wondered what he was exactly; I had a pretty good idea he was not a human.

Alien? Superhero? Doubtful. Genetic mutation? I had no idea.

A few minutes later, my sister's bathroom door creaked open and I heard her crossing the room. I think she was headed toward one of the two chairs that sit next to the windows in her room, the same one Aaron thought was his personal entrance.

I could hear them talking but barely a word was discernible, and it was driving me crazy. My sister's tone sounded much more pleasant now than it had a few minutes ago. I guess she'd gotten over the initial shock that there was an uninvited man in her bedroom. I knew that she'd had Jack over to study lots of times and my parents hadn't minded when they went in her room. They trusted my sister completely. Kash and Jon had been in there plenty of times, too, but this was different. My parents might've known Aaron, but they didn't know he was in her room, and I wondered what they would think if they knew he was here. He was older than Cadence, by his own admission. Was there something going on between them?

He didn't seem like my sister's type. Don't get me wrong. Aaron is super attractive. Like I said earlier, he has stunning blue eyes and looks like he could be a model if he wanted to be. He's nice enough, but there's just something rigid about him. I could hear his soft laughter through the wall every once in a while, but it wasn't the kind of easy-going laugh I'd heard from Jack. Aaron seems a little too polished for my sister, too, like the kind of guy who might get a manicure on a regular basis. He could easily be one of those guys all the girls desperately wish was straight, like Matt Bomer, but when you find out he's gay, it's not a huge shock.

My sister continued her conversation for a lot longer than I expected her to. If I hadn't been straining so hard to try to hear what they were saying, I might've fallen asleep. But no matter how hard I concentrated, I only picked up a stray word here and there.

I heard the name Eliza again, but I still had no context for her. At this point, I thought that had to be the girl with the purple hair that had both taken my sister and brought her back. I also heard Christian again. And I'm pretty sure the term "IAC" came up again when they were talking about this fellow. I'd have to Google that and see if I could figure out what the heck an IAC could possibly be.

About an hour or so after he'd arrived, I heard Aaron say he needed to go. It wasn't even 11:00 yet, but he probably knew what my sister had going on the next day. I wondered if these people would be at Drew's funeral. They seemed to know her, somehow.

The springs in one of my sister's chairs croaked as one of them stood up. Their voices were so quiet now, I couldn't really even tell if they were talking or whispering. Then the window opened. I wouldn't have even caught the noise, it was so fast, but I knew exactly what to listen for. I wished I'd been over by my own window so I could see if Aaron was still just a disturbance in the air as he leapt to the yard. Only a few seconds passed before I heard a motorcycle engine several blocks away. There was no way he could've gotten there that quickly if he was a regular human person like the rest of us. But then, at that point in my life, I was beginning to wonder who was human and who wasn't. And the people who weren't, like my sister, what were they?

# Chapter 13

Staying at home by myself while my sister and parents went to the funeral wasn't an option, so I was at Lucy's house. It was fine, better, probably, than staying at home alone, but I wasn't sure I wanted to talk anymore about what was going on with my sister. It was all Lucy wanted to talk about.

Emma was there, too, but she seemed indifferent. We decided to set up in Lucy's bedroom so that when the rest of her family came back from the funeral we wouldn't be overheard. The more Lucy went over what we knew and what we didn't know, the more I wanted to shout for her to just stop. Somehow, it felt wrong talking about my sister's problems—or whatever they were—while Drew was lying in a casket somewhere, being sunk beneath the earth, and covered with dirt.

Lucy didn't seem to see it that way. She'd made a Wiki about what we'd found out so far. She drilled me about my conversation with Jack and what I'd talked about with Cadence. She was intrigued by Aaron's appearance again the night before, and when I told them my Matt Bomer theory, she begged me to take a picture of him. I tried to explain I wasn't saying he looked like the actor, I just thought he might be deceptively handsome to women. She still wanted a picture. I couldn't blame her, I guess. If her sister had a super-hot guy sneaking into her room in the middle of the night, I'd wonder what he looked like, too, although it did no good to think about such things since neither Lucy nor Emma had a sister, and if a guy was sneaking into Daniel's room to talk to him in the middle of the night, well, we could be back to the Matt Bomer thing, I guess.

"Aaron McReynolds has no social media presence," Emma declared, her fingers flying over her keyboard. "But here's something slightly interesting. I did a search using the key terms 'Eliza' and 'purple hair' and I got something."

"Huh?" I asked, a little surprised, although, I thought there had to be more than one woman in the world named Eliza who happened to have purple hair, didn't there?

"What makes you think that you found this elusive woman who drives a Lamborghini through a Google search?" Lucy's words mirrored my own inquiry.

"Do you know how many Lamborghini Aventadors are in existence?" Emma asked in her matter-of-fact voice.

"Not so many?" Lucy inquired. Like me, she must think the number had to be low to beg the question.

"Less than 5000 per production year, and they haven't been around that long."

I was sure Emma knew the exact numbers, but sometimes she liked to be less strict with her quantitative evaluations so as to be a bit more relatable.

"'Kay," Lucy said. "So... what does this have to do with whatever you found?"

Rather than answer, Emma turned her laptop around so the two of us, who were also sitting on Lucy's bed rather than the sitting area in an alcove, which would've made more sense, could see it.

I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand. Emma's Google search had produced a picture of the woman I'd seen. I was sure of it. She was wearing all black leather from head to toe, leaning back against the Aventador, her arms crossed and a cocky smile on her face. Her short hair was a dark purple, almost burgundy color in the direct sunlight. She wasn't as tall as my sister, and I remembered thinking that when I'd first seen her out my bedroom window. The picture was a post from a social media site, and the caption read, "The company car is pretty rad." The name on the account was @ElizaWrath.

"I take it that's her," Lucy said, her voice very quiet.

Without replying, I picked up my notebook and started writing. It was starting to get a little full now since I'd decided to go ahead and record my discussion with Cadence and the little I'd picked up from listening in on her late-night discussion with Aaron. (A Google search for IAC had not turned up much.) I needed to write this down so I could collect my thoughts.

"Is there any other info on her profile that might be helpful?" Lucy asked.

"Not that I could find," Emma shrugged. "Of course, I don't really know what I'm looking for." She adjusted her glasses and turned her laptop back around. "I guess we could check all of her friends' profile pictures and see if any of them match the people you've seen, Cass."

Something told me Aaron was not the kind of guy who had time for social media. Elliott—maybe? "Check and see if she has any friends named Jamie or Christian," I said.

"Or maybe something with a doctor name?" Lucy asked, and we both nodded.

I had finished my notes and set my notebook aside. While I had been hesitant to dig into all of this while the funeral was going on, seeing Eliza Wrath's picture had sent chills down my spine. It was one thing to see the woman outside of my bedroom window from a distance but something else entirely to see that she really did exist in real life. Every time something proved that what was happening with my sister was real, I found it harder to accept.

I picked up my own laptop and went to the same website Emma was on, finding Eliza's profile quickly now that I knew what I was looking for. The girl was pretty. She looked a lot like Ashley Greene, only with purple, curly hair. And taller.

Thinking of Ashley Greene led down a rapid chain of thoughts that had me slamming my laptop closed. My mouth hung open, and my heart began to race. "Oh, my God," I said quietly. The thoughts that had entered my head seemed so completely impossible, but then, with the things I'd seen recently, anything was possible, wasn't it? Apparently, even the laws of physics weren't exactly what we'd thought they'd been. Neither was gravity the old friend I'd thought I understood for all these years.

"What is it, Cass?" Lucy's voice sounded haunted, as if she, too, were on the edge of a discovery that would shake her from what was left of the normal world.

I was having trouble even formulating what had entered my head into a coherent thought, let alone a sentence. I managed to croak, "Water," and gestured for the bottle I'd left on Lucy's nightstand.

Emma looked at Lucy, her eyes wider than normal behind her glasses, took the lid off of the bottle and handed it to me. I nodded my thanks and swallowed about half of the contents before handing it back to her and taking a few deep breaths. The water helped loosen my tongue, but I still didn't know how I was going to say what I was thinking.

I slowly turned so that I was facing them both. "Okay—so here's the deal," I began. "You guys prepare to tell me that I'm nuts. Okay?"

"No problem." Emma's response was serious, and I knew she wouldn't hesitate. It would've made me laugh if I wasn't freaking out.

"Eliza Wrath looks like Ashley Greene." I looked from one pair of eyes to the other to see if they were following me. They both looked lost. "The actress who played Alice on _Twilight_."

"Right," Lucy said, nodding.

"What's _Twilight_?" Emma asked.

"It's a movie," Lucy replied, barely glancing at her and then back at me.

"I gathered that," Emma shot back. "But what movie?"

I needed to continue before I lost the nerve or my train of thought. I stuck up a finger to still Emma. I didn't think she'd get what I was trying to say anyway, but I thought Lucy might. "Seeing her picture made me think about what I've seen. People who move very quickly, who can jump from great heights and not get hurt. They drive expensive vehicles. Jack was so cold when I touched him. I don't know if he's part of this or if that was just a clue. They're all pretending to be something they aren't. My sister said she couldn't talk about her new job but it was security related—which I doubt. Some of them are very attractive, more so than normal people." That wasn't necessarily the case for Dr. Sanderson, but Aaron and Eliza were above average for certain. So was my sister. "Lucy," I said, slowly, "do you think...." I couldn't finish the sentence.

Lucy's face showed confusion still, even though I was pretty sure she was following me. After a very long pause, she slowly asked, "So, you think your sister's a... vampire?"

My hands were literally shaking, but my head was nodding up and down. "I think she could be."

"Huh?" Emma asked, her head swiveling from me to Lucy and back again. "What's _Twilight_?" she asked again.

Neither of us answered, only stared at each other with our mouths open. I heard Emma's fingers flying over the keyboard, and a few seconds later, she said, "Oh." A minute later, she said, "I don't think they look that much alike."

"That's not the point, Em!" Lucy exclaimed. "She doesn't think that Eliza is Alice. That's just what made her think of it. I totally get the connection. And what you said makes totes sense, it's just.... You do realize what you're saying, right Cass?"

I stood up then, needing to pace. "Yes! I know exactly what I'm saying! I know it's insane. I know it doesn't make any sense when one considers the laws of nature and everything we've ever known about what is real and what is make believe." I turned to face them before I continued, "But I'm not crazy to think that explanation... fits... am I?"

"No, no you're not crazy." Lucy pulled herself off of the bed, her laptop sliding onto the comforter and a notebook slipping onto the floor. She took a few steps so that she was standing right in front of me and took both of my upper arms in her hands. "You're not crazy, Cass. I totally get why you would say that."

"I think you might be crazy."

We both turned and looked at Emma. She had a pen in her hand and was resting the end of it against her chin. She just shrugged.

Lucy turned back to me. "When you put it like that, it does sort of seem to fit. Let's just go back over everything from the context of 'what if Cadence is a Vampire' and see if we can come to a logical explanation for what might've happened."

Her blue eyes were still wide, but I saw the complete confidence in them that I hadn't lost my mind. Lucy was going to help me. I knew Emma would, too, though I wasn't surprised to hear her say she thought I might be nuts. Emma is not only overly analytical, she also calls it like she sees it with no filter.

We sat back down on Lucy's bed, and she pulled out her notes. "Okay, so let's start at the beginning. Your sister and her friends were talking about going to an Eidolon Festival, which we weren't able to find too much information on, but based on the name, we can establish that this is some sort of a creepy festival. Is it possible that there could've been vampires there?"

"No, because vampires don't exist," Emma said, crossing her arms.

Lucy let out a loud sigh. "If vampires do exist, is it possible that there was one at the festival?"

"No, because it is impossible to assume vampires exist when they don't." Emma's voice didn't change in intensity as she reasoned through the unreasonable.

With an icy stare, Lucy said, "Sheldon Cooper, much?"

That got Emma's attention. She knew when Lucy said something about the popular character from _The Big Bang Theory_ that her autism was getting the better of her. "Fine. Let's pretend that in a parallel universe where it is possible to transform into an undead creature that lives off of the bodily fluids of humans, there was a vampire at an Eidolon Festival and alternative reality Cadence J. Findley attended said festival."

"OMG! You said 'transform!'"

"I heard it, too," I exclaimed. I had chills again.

"It's just a word that means to change, to go through a metamorphosis," Emma said shrugging like she didn't get the significance.

"Yes, but that's the word everyone keeps using to describe what's going on with Cadence," I reminded her.

"Maybe I should've used a different word."

"Maybe you shouldn't have," I argued.

"Okay—let's get back on track," Lucy said, shaking her head to clear it. "If there was a vampire at the festival, it could've infected your sister."

"And killed Drew," I said quietly.

Lucy's face went ashen and her mouth dropped open. I knew what she'd say next, but it was a soft whisper, not the usual declaration. "OMG. You're right. That explains the 'cut her neck' explanation everyone keeps using that doesn't make any sense."

"You think a vampire stuck its fangs into her neck, drained her of blood, and then slashed her throat so that it looked like a rock cut her?" Emma didn't seem to think that was very logical.

"Maybe," Lucy replied. It was a possibility. "Or maybe it wasn't the vampire who slashed her neck."

"It could've been her friends." I didn't want to say the words aloud, but it made sense. "If they saw what had happened to Drew and were nervous that no one would believe them...."

"Or if one of them did it...." Lucy said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling my pulse increase again.

"What if one of her friends _is_ the vampire?" Lucy asked.

"Okay, now I think you're stretching this theory," I said, not sure how that would be.

"Why not? Jack is acting weird. Something has happened to your sister."

"Whatever happened to my sister, happened afterward." Of that, I was sure. Cadence was fine, perfectly normal, until after she went to the Eidolon Festival.

"It could be alternative universe Jack, though," Emma agreed. "It might explain why he's afraid someone's coming for him, too. If he killed Drew, he might think he'll get in trouble."

It was hard for me to imagine Jack was a vampire or that he was capable of killing Drew. "Do you think Jack could do that?"

"No," Emma answered quickly. "I don't think anyone could do that. Because I don't think there's any such thing as vampires."

Lucy groaned. "I can't imagine Jack hurting a fly, but if something got to him before the festival...."

"Maybe," I said. "But I think it's more likely that the vampire met them at the festival."

"And maybe it didn't mean to kill Drew, just turn her, but she died. And it got the rest of your sister's friends, too, and her, apparently." Lucy was clearly thinking out loud as her statement was a little disjointed, but I still managed to follow.

"All those other people, Aaron, Dr. Sanderson, Jamie, Eliza, Christian... they're also vampires?" Emma asked.

"I guess so," Lucy shrugged.

I thought about it for a few moments. "I guess... they showed up when they found out my sister had been bitten and decided she'd need help transitioning to a full-fledged vampire?" The word bloodsucker had entered my mind, but I didn't say it because I couldn't associate something so terrible with my big sister.

"Do they look like vampires?" Lucy asked.

"How they heck do I know?" I blurted back, exasperated. "I've never seen a vampire before. At least not that I know of."

"You haven't," Emma assured me. "Because they don't exist."

I knew she wouldn't stop, so I decided to ignore her. She wasn't really capable of playing along with our theory when it broke some of her rules of logic. "All of this sounds so absurd."

"It is absurd."

"Thanks, Em." I shook my head at her.

"It does sound cray cray," Lucy agreed. "But... unfortunately, given the facts that we have, it also makes sense."

"I will come up with an equally logical explanation that is scientific," Emma declared.

"Go ahead," I replied, settling back against the wall and grabbing a pillow and squeezing it.

Emma thought for a few moments. "Okay, your sister went to this festival, and her friends were approached by a group of strangers wearing all black. They have access to a drug that gives them superhuman speed, and they feel no pain, so leaping from heights really isn't a problem so long as they don't break any bones. Your sister and her friends all try it. Drew takes too much and dies. They want to cover it up, so they slash her throat.

"The strangers panic, but luckily, one of them is a doctor. He bluffs his way through the emergency room at Shenandoah Memorial, and the doctors there don't bother to do a blood screen. They are satisfied with his answers because, as we know, he is capable of brainwashing people.

"Jack's symptoms are due to withdrawal as he also took the drug, too much of it. He is paranoid, cold to the touch, and unsettled.

"Cadence isn't going through withdrawal because she has decided to keep taking the drug. Aaron is her dealer. Eliza can drive such a fancy, expensive car because of the drug money. We haven't heard of the drug yet because it's pretty new to the market. Your sister has dropped out of school to be a drug dealer." Emma finished with a shrug, her face completely serious.

I stared at her for a moment, not sure whether her theory made me feel better or worse. Thinking of Cadence addicted to a new street drug that killed her friend was disturbing, but not as disturbing as the idea that she might be a vampire. I still couldn't get my thoughts into a complete sentence by the time Lucy spoke.

"I guess that is also a possibility."

"There is no 'also,'" Emma replied. "Because 'also' implies that your vampire theory is a possibility, and it's not. There are no such things as vampires."

"I agree that Emma's theory also sounds plausible." Before Emma could mentioned that I said 'also' I pointed at her with one finger. "Did you have a chance to look at Eliza's friends on that social media site?"

"Not yet." This had her refocused, and I hoped she would let both of our theories go. I took a deep breath as Emma began to concentrate on her laptop again.

Lucy wrapped her arm around me. "I'm sorry all of this is happening, Cass."

Part of me wanted to bury my face in her shoulder and have a good cry, but I felt selfish crying over mere possibilities when, somewhere across town, my sister was watching them lower her good friend into the cold, dark earth. What did I have to cry about in comparison? My sister was alive, even if she was acting odd. There had to be a logical explanation for what was happening, one that didn't involve the undead or drugs. I just hadn't figured it out yet.

"Hmmm," Emma said, jarring me back to reality.

"What is it?" Lucy asked, scooting closer to her on the bed.

"I went down a rabbit hole for a minute," Emma said, and I exchanged glances with Lucy, wondering where that passage might have led our friend. "I checked the names you said and didn't find anything, so I checked for anyone whose name was related to medicine."

"Did you find something?" I was at the other end of the bed, and as much as I wanted to scoot over where I could see the laptop, I felt paralyzed.

"Maybe," Emma said with a shrug.

Impatient, Lucy grabbed Emma's laptop out of her hands and stared at it for a moment. "That's... unexpected."

"What?" I asked.

"Well, Eliza has a friend on this site who appears to be a doctor, but it isn't Elliott."

"Who is it?"

Lucy swiveled the laptop around and handed it to me.

I didn't recognize the guy at all. He wasn't necessarily attractive like Aaron but wasn't goofy looking like Elliott either. He had spiky hair that was frosted on the tips and the kind of smile I can see winning a lot of people over. His profile picture showed him standing in front of a building and it was narrowed in close enough so it was impossible to tell how tall he was. And he wasn't wearing black leather like Eliza. At first, I thought he was just a random friend, like all the rest of her followers on the page happened to be. He didn't even have a lot of friends or seem to follow anyone. At first glance, there were less than a half-dozen posts over the last three years.

Then I realized what had caught Emma's attention. His user name was @DocJop, and his name was Jamie Joplin. "Jamie?" I said, confused. "Jamie's a doctor, too?"

"Apparently." Emma's voice was dry, not unusual.

"Doesn't that make sense, though?" Lucy asked, taking Emma's laptop from me and handing it back to her before I dropped it. "Didn't someone mention that Jamie was doing the procedure?"

"Yeah, I think so," I admitted. "I guess... I don't know. I just wasn't expecting that. It's like pulling on a loose thread until your sweater is a ball of yarn"

"And an army of alley cats is all up in it," Lucy agreed.

"Yep."

"Hey, but on the bright side, we've established a few things." Emma scooted forward a little bit, like she was actually trying to connect with us. "We know what Eliza and Jamie look like. We know that they exist now."

"Didn't we know that before?" I asked.

"I didn't." She was being blunt again, and I realized that meant she hadn't been sure she could believe me. "I can assume that since you've actually met Aaron and Elliott they are also real."

At this point, I wasn't sure of anything, so I just nodded. "They seemed pretty real."

"So... we just keep working on trying to figure it out. Now that we have last names for everyone, we can see if we can find anything else online for any of them. I might be able to access public records. Their profiles might lead us to birthdates, hometowns, etc. and then we can try to find out more information from there."

Emma's plan seemed to make sense, and at least we'd be moving in the right direction. Anything but staying stagnant at this point worked for me.

"While Emma is going down her path of logic, I will start to research the alternative," Lucy said, her eyes squinting as she was clearly thinking about the paranormal. "I've never done a serious search for information about the existence of vampires. Maybe there are more people out there who think that they have a family member who has turned into... the undead."

"There are. And you can find them in institutions across the country." Emma wasn't letting up.

"Thank you both for your help," I said, and they smiled at me. Even if Emma didn't always believe everything I said, at least she supported me. "What do I do?"

"Keep listening in, taking notes," Lucy shrugged.

"But don't let them know what you know," Emma warned. "If this is some sort of a drug cartel, you need to not be caught up in it."

I nodded, but I was confused. "You guys don't think I should just ask some questions of my sister, like 'Who are these people?'"

"She won't tell you the truth," Lucy reminded me. I knew she was right. "Even your parents seem to be wanting to shelter you from whatever this is for some reason."

It was true. My parents knew a lot more than I did. "What about my grandma?" I asked.

They exchanged glances. "Do you think she really knows Aaron?" Lucy asked me.

"It seems sort of risky that my parents would mention that if it isn't true."

"That's a loose end I don't know how to tie back into either story," Emma admitted. "In the parallel universe where vampires exist, is your grandma one? I can't imagine she's a drug dealer."

"I can't imagine she's a vampire either." None of this made any sense.

"How did your sister just happen to meet Aaron, a guy who knows your grandma, on the same night that Drew died?" Lucy asked, thinking aloud.

"I don't know, but I do know for sure that it was Eliza who drove Cadence to my grandma's house. So, she had to have met them before she left for Grandma's."

"You heard Aaron in your sister's room before she left with Eliza, right?" Emma clarified.

"Yes." It didn't help any of us figure out the connection. "Maybe I could call my grandma just to see how she's doing and see if she will tell me anything."

"Maybe," Lucy said, stopping for a second to chew on her bottom lip. "But be careful. Your grandma could tell your parents you're nosing around, and they could shut this whole investigation down."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "How's that exactly?"

"I don't know," Lucy admitted, "but parents seem to have a way of doing that."

"If my sister really is a vampire, or a drug addict, I'm going to have to find out eventually, aren't I?"

"What if she tries to turn you?" Lucy asked, her eyes wide.

I almost laughed. If she hadn't looked so frightened, I might have. "Don't worry, Lucy. Cadence isn't going to turn me into a vampire. She would never hurt me."

Lucy nodded, but she didn't say more, which made me wonder, if Cadence really was a vampire, was it possible she could infect me? Suddenly, I felt unsettled, like maybe I needed to stay away from my own sister. Could the rest of my family be at risk? The thought of turning into a vampire was revolting to me. I couldn't even imagine—sneaking around at night, finding people in dark alleys, drinking blood. No thank you.

The doorbell rang, and I assumed that was one of my parents there to pick me up. It seemed like the funeral would be over by then. A few seconds later, Daniel yelled up the stairs, "Cassidy! It's your mom!"

"I've gotta go," I said as I gathered my stuff up. "I'll see you both at school tomorrow." I didn't even want to think about what the atmosphere would be like at SHS the next day. I shoved my notebook and laptop into my backpack.

Lucy stood up and hugged me before I headed toward the door. "Be careful, Cass."

I hugged her back. "I will."

I knew things were serious when Emma hugged us, too. Emma is not a fan of hugs. "I really hope your sister doesn't kill you."

# Chapter 14

On the ride home, my mom was pretty quiet. She said the funeral was as nice as could be expected and that lots of people had gone over to Drew's parents' house after the service, which is where Cadence was now. I studied my mom carefully, trying to see if it was possible to see any changes in her demeanor that might indicate what was going on, but she seemed herself, only a little more tired than usual.

I sat pondering Lucy's advice not to say anything to my parents. It seemed like every time I broached the topic of what was going on with Cadence, they changed the subject anyway, so I decided not to ask any of the questions burning in my head, though I'd resolved to call Grandma Janette when I got a chance. And hopefully I'd have another chance to talk to Cadence.

"Do you have any homework?" my mom asked as we passed through the garage into the house.

"No, I already did it," I assured her.

"Okay, just don't forget to lay out your clothes for school tomorrow."

It was a little odd that my mom was concerned I'd forget that I had school the next day, but I figured she was just trying to keep things as normal as possible. "Where's dad?" I asked, noticing his truck wasn't in the drive or the garage.

"He decided to spend the rest of the day at work." My dad is an engineer, and even though he's close to retirement, I know that he would prefer to think about work most of the time rather than problems at home. Not that we had a lot of those, but I think if we'd ever had one before, this one took the cake.

"Okay," I repeated. I kept my backpack on and headed up the stairs.

"Did you eat lunch at Lucy's?" my mom called after me.

"Yes," I replied, even though it wasn't true. I didn't feel like eating anything. If I got hungry later, I'd find something.

I heard my mom pad off toward the kitchen and supposed she would try to get back to normal herself, though it couldn't be easy. It had to be unsettling to watch them lower a child younger than your oldest into the ground. I wondered if Drew's casket had been open or closed. I wondered if Drew had actually been inside of it.

Once I reached my bedroom, I slipped my backpack off onto the ground and took a deep breath. After the conversation I'd had with my friends, it seemed odd to be sitting in my room all alone, like maybe this whole thing was just a figment of my imagination, and I was starting to lose it myself. What if Cadence was perfectly fine and I was the one who had a problem?

I decided to move my chair over by the window so I could hear when my sister got home. I knew it seemed like I was becoming just as paranoid as Jack, but I wanted to listen. I peeked through the blinds and noticed nothing unusual. Satisfied that we were not being spied on or infiltrated by vampires, I pulled my cell phone out of my back pocket and flipped through my contacts until I saw my grandma's name and pressed it.

My grandma's phone was so old, when I pictured her rushing to answer it, I imagined it was one of those big, black rotary phones you see in old movies. I knew it wasn't quite that old, but that's what it reminded me of. It did have push buttons, and it was red, but it was still very old. If my grandma owned a cell phone, I didn't have the number, and I imagined it was a basic Jitterbug or something like that. She wasn't one for technology. Sometimes I noticed that she would try to change the channel on the TV with her calculator.

The phone rang about eight times before she picked it up, and I assumed she must've been in the kitchen. That's where she was most of the day. "Hello?" She had to ask who was there because she didn't have caller ID.

"Hi, Grandma. It's Cassidy." I took a few deep breaths, wondering how I was going to ask her any of the questions burning in my head without sounding like I was digging for information.

"Well, hello there, sweetheart," Grandma Janette said, her voice brightening. "How are you?"

"I'm okay." I heard the sadness in my own voice and hoped that she could pick up on it, too. Not that I wanted her to know how all of this was affecting me, but because being sad about Drew was better than being curious about Cadence.

"Did you know Drew, too, honey?" My grandmother's voice sounded just as sympathetic as my mother's had all week long.

"Yes. She was on the Varsity cheerleading squad, and sometimes my squad practiced with hers. She was such a nice girl, Grandma." I didn't think there was any reason to let my grandma know that wasn't necessarily true. No reason to speak ill of the dead—or the undead.

"I know, sweetie. Your sister said the same thing. Such a terrible tragedy. You didn't go to the funeral though, did you?"

"No, Mom and Dad thought it would be better if I stayed home."

"That's probably for the better, honey. Funerals are not fun."

"Right." I was doing my best to try and bring up something connected to the true reason for my call, but so far, I hadn't seen an opportunity. Until now. It was a stretch, but I was hopeful. "They did bring in a doctor to talk to me, though. I think he's going to come back in a day or two."

"Oh, well, that seems like a good idea. Is he a psychiatrist?"

"I'm not sure." This was true. For all I knew, Dr. Elliott Sanderson was actually a vegetable doctor. "I think you might know him. His name is Elliott Sanderson."

My grandma's breath was sharp enough for me to distinguish even through the phone that my comment had caught her off-guard. I assumed she knew that I was talking about Dr. Sanderson when I first mentioned a doctor, but she must not have known that I knew she knows him. "Oh? Why would you think that?" she asked, her voice stretched thin with innocence.

"I don't know. I just thought you might. He was here at the same time as Aaron. And you know him, right? Dad said you used to work together or something."

"Aaron?" My grandmother repeated his name like she'd never heard those sounds strung together before. Finally, having likely weighed the option of not agreeing with my dad versus giving me some information, she said, "I know him. Are you ready for school to start tomorrow? It's been a week or so hasn't it?"

The fluidity with which my grandmother attempted to change the conversation was impressive. "I think I'm ready to get back to normal," I replied. "Do you think that's possible, Grandma?" My question sounded almost as innocent as her attitude when I'd inquired about her connection to the strange people in black. "Do you think we will ever be normal again?"

She could take that however she wanted, but my grandmother needed another moment to prepare an answer. "I hope so," she said. "You're far too young to have to be thinking about... all this."

I wanted to ask what "all this" was but I heard a car out front. Peeking through the blinds, I saw my sister pull into the driveway and decided it was time to stop interrogating my poor grandmother. She'd likely already grown suspicious of me anyway. "I guess I should go," I said. "Thanks, Grandma. I love you." I was in a rush now. I wanted to see if I could beat my sister to the entryway.

"I love you, too, Cass," she said. "Take care."

Already out of my chair, I hung up as I ran to the stairs, taking them two at a time, careful not to accidentally toss my phone down the steps as I flew. My sister would have to wait for the garage door to open, park her car, get out, shut her door, cross to the door that led to the foyer, open it, and close it behind her. I should have been able to beat her because I was really trying.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs where the door to the garage was located, I heard my sister's voice. In the kitchen.

That was not humanly possible.

Slipping my phone into the pocket of my jeans, I headed into the other room. My sister was talking to my mom, and as soon as I entered the kitchen, they stopped talking, but I did hear my mom say, "Maybe he's just having trouble coping with Drew's death." I didn't know who they were talking about, but I assumed it was Jack.

"Hey, Cass," Cadence said, turning to face me. She was wearing a long black dress, and I noticed she'd somehow also had time to take her coat off and hang it up in the amount of time it took me to run down the stairs.

"Hi," I said, eying her carefully. She didn't look the same to me. Her arms were so muscular now, I could see her biceps through the sleeves of her dress. Her calves looked similar to an Olympic athlete's. There was a sheen about her hair that I'd never noticed before, and her brown eyes seemed a bit more sparkly than what I was used to. I decided it was fine for her to hug me, and she didn't feel cold like Jack had, but I was still a little leery.

She must've noticed. "Are you okay, Cass?"

"I'm fine," I replied. "I'm just... sad." I'd learned that explanation worked for just about everything.

"Me, too," she replied, letting me go. She patted my cheek like she was my mother. "It'll be okay."

"That reminds me," my mother said, stepping over from whatever she was putting in the oven, "Dr. Sanderson will be stopping by tomorrow after school to speak with you."

"Oh, okay," I replied, a little surprised. I was glad, though. I'd been wanting to talk to Elliott again to see if I could unravel exactly what he had done to make me forget everything before.

"Hmmm," Cadence muttered, her forehead puckering. "Why is Elliott coming to talk to Cassidy?" she asked, staring at my mother's retreating back.

"Oh, Aaron brought him over the other day," Mom replied, without turning around. "It seemed to help answer some of Cassidy's questions."

"I asked to see him again," I said, waiting to see if Cadence would give me anything with her reaction.

She didn't. "Oh." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Well, I'm really tired. I think I'm going to go take a nap."

I considered pointing out that sleeping would be a lot easier if she stopped letting Aaron into her room late at night, but I held my tongue. Cadence patted me on the arm and headed out of the room. I wondered if it was difficult for her to keep her footsteps so natural looking or if she wanted to take off at breakneck speed.

My mom was baking cookies, and I suddenly realized I was starving. "How long until those are done?" I asked, breathing in the aroma of sugar and chocolate.

"A few minutes. You hungry?"

I nodded, and my mom smiled at me. "Have a seat, and when they're done, you'll be the first to know."

Pulling out a chair at the table in the corner of the kitchen, I sat down. I realized I was sitting on my phone so I grabbed it out of my back pocket and thought about updating my girls, but I didn't want Mom to ask what we were talking about, so I decided to wait until later. "Mom," I said, thinking of a question that might seem pretty normal, "where will Cadence be working at? I mean, I know you said she might be traveling, or whatever, but does she have a headquarters or something?"

"She does," my mom nodded. She was still standing by the oven. "It's in Kansas City."

My eyes grew wide. "So, she'll be moving?"

"I'm afraid so," my mom replied as she exhaled. "And it might be soon. I think Aaron is anxious to get her started."

"I bet he is." The words were out of my mouth before I stopped to think about them. My mom raised both eyebrows. "I mean... he seems like the sort of person who has a plan."

"Cassidy, you don't need to worry about your sister's job." Suddenly, my mom's voice sounded foreign to me. It was almost monotone, like she was trying to brainwash me, too. "Don't worry about Cadence's job. Everything is just fine."

I nodded, and for a moment, I was completely content to believe the lie my mom had just fed me about everything being just fine. I was brought back to the few moments I'd spent in the living room the other day with Elliott and how he'd convinced me everything was all right. My mom was trying to trigger that for me, like I'd done with Jack. I plastered a smile on my face, and my mom let out a deep breath. Why would my mother want to have her daughter brainwashed by some psychiatrist from Oklahoma?

The oven timer beeped, and my mom got up, patting me on the head like I was a good dog as she went. "These will need to cool," she said as she began to pull the cookie sheet out of the oven.

They still smelled delicious, but suddenly I wasn't as hungry as I had been before. It wasn't easy to stomach the idea that your own mother wanted you to forget and not ask any questions about what was going on with the rest of your family....

# Chapter 15

I went to my room early that night under the pretense that I was tired and wanted to get a good night's sleep before returning to school the next day, but I lay awake staring at the ceiling for what seemed like hours. My sister and I had carried on a meaningless conversation earlier in the day, and I went back over every detail, trying to figure out if there was anything at all that could be a clue as to what might be going on with her. There was nothing. I even attempted to take her pulse at one point, pretending just to want to hold on to her arm, but her heartbeat seemed normal. If she was on some sort of illicit drugs, wouldn't her heart be racing?

Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was almost 11:00 and groaned. The alarm would be going off way too soon. I closed my eyes and tried to think of nothing, but that was difficult when visions of vampires filled my brain, and I had so many conversations replaying.

A few minutes later, I heard my sister's window open and close very quickly again. Cadence said something I didn't understand, and Aaron replied. Whatever he said must've been hilarious because Cadence was giggling. Her bed squeaked, and then I heard footsteps over by the window. I assumed they were sitting in her chairs again and wondered how long this conversation might take and if I would hear a single word that made any sense to me.

The answers were "a long time," and essentially, "no." There wasn't much to be heard through the wall this time. It was as if they both thought I might be listening in so they kept their voices down. I made out an odd word here and there, nothing too important, though I did catch Eliza's name more than once, and I thought I heard Cadence say something about shopping. Eliza seemed like the kinda girl who'd like to do a little shopping, I thought.

It was well past midnight when Aaron finally left. I didn't really hear the window open or close this time, but I did hear him hit the ground outside. I would've liked to run over to the window to see if he dashed away the same as he had the first time, but the distant sound of an engine confirmed he'd done the same thing as he had before. No one could cover that much ground that quickly, regardless of what kind of drugs they might be taking. That left little doubt in my mind that the sickening scenario Lucy and I had come up with had to be about the only answer.

I heard my sister let out a loud sigh and thought she was definitely smitten with that guy. It seemed to me like the feeling must be mutual, though I couldn't be sure. I still thought there was a chance he was batting for the other team, and Cadence was just trying to make a conversion.

None of that really mattered, however, if he was a vampire. Especially if my sister was one, too. I needed to talk to Lucy to see if she'd come up with anything. Maybe there was a chance vampires weren't really what I thought they were and there was some coven of helpful vampires. My mind returned to _Twilight_. Maybe I needed to watch that movie again. I'd read the books, too, but I didn't have time to go back through all of that again, not when my sister could be leaving any day.

There was also the matter that I'd have to talk to Dr. Sanderson again the next day. I knew he'd do his best to make sure I was thinking what everyone else wanted me to be. I hoped I'd be powerful enough to fight him off and maybe get some answers myself. Was there a possibility I could be honest with him? He was a professional after all, wasn't he?

I rolled over again. At least with all of this craziness going on, I didn't have time to worry about what everyone at school the next day might think of me and my sister. Hopefully, the rest of the student body would be so distraught about Drew, no one would think to ask me about Cadence.

* * *

First period. I didn't even make it through first period before I was asked a ton of questions about my sister. Our teacher, Mrs. Neally, allowed us a few minutes at the end of the period to "chat quietly" while she graded a pop quiz she'd given us first thing on the day back from a long break, which was just awesome by itself, and as soon as they had the opportunity, everyone in the two rows on either side of me turned, staring.

"So... how's your sister?" Bridgette Turner, a girl on my cheerleading squad, asked, her green eyes narrow like she was digging for dirt.

"She's sad," I replied with a shrug.

"I heard they made her drop out of college because she's on the brink of a nervous breakdown." Dustin Pollard is such a goon. I turned and glared at him.

"You heard wrong. She decided to take a little break, that's all. She'll go back."

"I heard Jack Cook is a basket case," Lloyd Tulley proclaimed loud enough to get a shush from Mrs. Neally who was puzzling over our quizzes. In a somewhat quieter voice, he added, "At least he was able to go back to school today, though."

I opened my mouth to say something in Jack's defense, but before I could get a single word out, a familiar voice from right behind me said, "Hey, why don't you guys just leave Cassidy alone, huh? This can't be easy on her either."

I turned to smile at Liam, hoping my cheeks weren't as red as they felt. He nodded at me, his blue eyes twinkling, and as his head shifted, his long, blond bangs fluttered in the breeze. I took a deep breath. Perfection in a pair of blue jeans. "Thanks, Liam."

"You bet, Cass." He continued to smile at me. "And... can you help me with algebra again, later on this week?"

"Uh, yeah. Of course," I stuttered, wondering if his help had anything to do with needing mine. "Just let me know what day." I had piano lessons on Thursday, but he already knew that. Since football season was over, I didn't have anything else on my schedule, and I didn't mind helping him out. It was nice just to be in his presence, though I got the impression he knew that.

The rest of the day was similar to first period. Even in the hallways, kids I didn't really even know came up to me and asked if I knew anything else, anything different than what they'd heard. One girl reported that Sidney, one of my sister's friends, had passed out at the funeral. I didn't think that was true. Someone else said that Jack had screamed at the coffin as they were lowering it into the ground and then punched a tree. I was pretty sure that my sister would've mentioned that, although there was a lot that was going unreported, at least to me, lately.

"Why can't anyone think of another topic to discuss?" Emma asked before taking a bite of her sandwich. She had the same thing for lunch every single day. Ham and cheese sandwich, Cheetos Puffs, apple, bottle of water, Little Debbie Zebra Cake.

Lucy and I always bought our lunch, and we were both glad that it was pizza day. There was an option where you could pick from a variety of fast food choices at the "salad bar" but when there was pizza on the tray, you got a lot more food for a lot less cash. The brownie squares we had for dessert even looked a little bit like the ones my mom made, though I bet they didn't taste the same.

I'd already filled them both in on what little I'd gleaned the night before. Also, that morning, Cadence had told me she might not be there when I got back from school. She said she was going shopping with Eliza and might go straight to her new job, depending upon how things went. I had hugged her goodbye, but it wasn't easy for me to think about what all of this really meant, and I doubted I'd have too many more opportunities to gather clues if my sister wasn't home when I got there.

"Are you nervous about your discussion with Dr. Sanderson?" Lucy asked, picking the pepperonis off of her pizza. She preferred cheese, but they didn't have any left by the time our lunch period, the last of the day, got our trays.

"I am," I admitted. "I'm afraid he'll be able to brainwash me again."

"It'll be fine," Lucy assured me. "As soon as you get done talking to him, you'll call me, and I'll unfreeze you."

Emma laughed. "Just like freeze tag. Remember when we used to play at recess?"

I giggled. Recess seemed like a million years ago. Sometimes I couldn't even believe we were in high school. I heard parents talk all the time about how their kids were growing up too fast, and now that all of his had happened with Drew, I was beginning to realize they were right. "I hope you can thaw me out," I replied. "And that I can get some more information from him."

Lucy had revealed she'd found "tons" of information about "real" vampires online, though she wasn't sure how reliable the information was. She was making notes that she would share with us later on, she'd explained, but for now, it didn't seem like Cadence's situation was quite as uncommon as I'd initially suspected. In fact, Lucy said, the more she read, the more plausible it seemed to her that my sister might actually be a vampire.

That hadn't sat well with me, but I was at the point now where I was beginning to think that at least having an answer would be better than continuing to wonder what was going on with her. Even Emma seemed to think there was a slim chance that Lucy could be right, which had blown my mind. Apparently, she'd done as thorough a search as possible online for a street drug that might have the qualities this one would need to have, and she wasn't able to find anything. She'd also said she'd found something else but hadn't told us what in the hallway.

Lucy must've remembered at the same time I did. "Em, what were you going to tell us earlier? What did you find?"

"Oh, right." Emma dusted her orange fingers off on the napkin her mother tucked into her lunchbox every morning. Emma's mom still did a lot for her. "You won't believe it. I don't believe it, and I'm the one that found it."

"Try us," I said, thinking there wasn't much I wouldn't believe at this point.

"Okay." Emma pulled out her phone. "I was looking for information about Dr. Joplin. There wasn't much. I had to really dig. I didn't know how old he might be, though I think he looks like he's not old enough to be a doctor at all." I agreed with her there. She had been flipping through her phone. "I kept going back until I found this." She turned her phone around to face us, and Lucy and I huddled together to see the screen.

It was an old picture of a group of men in suits. I couldn't tell exactly what I was looking at, though I assumed the picture had to be about a hundred years old. "What is it, Emma?" Lucy asked, her forehead as crinkled as mine.

Emma let out a deep breath and turned her phone to swipe. She turned it back around.

This time, the picture was zoomed in on just one man. It was much grainier, but he looked vaguely familiar. His hair was different. Rather than being tall and spiky, it was brushed to the side, more in line with the fashion of a century ago. I felt my mouth go dry. Though the picture was blurry, I was pretty sure this was the same guy I'd seen on Eliza's social media friend's list.

"Uh, so you think that's the same Dr. Joplin that Eliza knows?" Lucy asked tentatively, glancing up at her friend, the same one who'd been convinced the day before there was no such thing as vampires.

Without a word, Emma withdrew her phone again and swiped. She turned it back to us.

There was no picture this time, just text. "Dr. James Joplin, Boston Massachusetts, graduate of Harvard Medical School, 1883, aged 15."

I had to read it several times, trying to let it sink in with each pass, but the information seemed stuck somehow between my eyes and my brain.

"Wow," Lucy finally uttered, and Emma withdrew her phone. "So... according to this... if that's the same guy—and it looks like the same person, though his hair is different, and he looks slightly older—Jamie is, like...."

"A hundred and forty-six years old," Emma concluded for us.

I took her word for it. Her math was never wrong. "How....?" That was all I could say.

"Maybe it's his great-great-whatever-grandfather," Lucy offered. I was suddenly confused. It was as if Emma agreed with me that this could be a case of vampires, and Lucy was the skeptic. But then I realized she was playing devil's advocate.

"I could do a facial recognition test," Emma offered. "I could scan both pictures and see if it's the same guy."

"Can you do that?" I asked. I knew Emma had access to computer programs most people did not, but I didn't realize she had that sort of capability.

"Sure," she shrugged. "I thought about doing it last night, but I wanted your opinions first."

"Do it," Lucy agreed. "And let us know."

"Okay." Emma put her phone in her pocket and checked the time before opening her Zebra Cake.

I tried to turn my attention back to my pizza but my stomach felt unsettled. I saw Liam across the cafeteria and wished he'd look in my direction. Maybe that perfect smile could calm my nerves.

"Stop staring," Lucy mumbled, and I took a deep breath. I hoped my afternoon classes would go by quickly, all of them except for algebra, and that I could survive my discussion with Dr. Sanderson. I took a sip of water and tried not to dwell on the fact that my sister might be friends with a guy who was alive during both world wars. Everything just seemed to keep unraveling.

# Chapter 16

My dad always dropped me off at school on his way to work, and my mom picked me up. It was nice that she worked at home, or whatever the proper phrasing was these days, so that I didn't have to walk or ride the bus. I felt like it was the next best thing to having my own driver's license, which I wouldn't get until after all of my friends were driving, thanks to my late birthday. Still, that would be next year. For now, I was content to be sitting in my mother's minivan so long as she didn't play any embarrassing music too loudly.

I didn't say much of anything on the way home, only answered my mom's usual questions like, "Did you have a nice day?" and, "What did you eat for lunch?" I did not mention Dr. Joplin, nor did I ask about Dr. Sanderson.

Turns out I didn't need to. As we approached the house, I saw a rider-less motorcycle parked out front. It seems my mother had no problem letting this strange man hang out in our house while we were gone. A sickening feeling landed in the pit of my stomach. What if he'd seen my notebook?

"Are you okay, Cassidy?" my mother asked as she pulled into the garage next to Cadence's car. I hoped that meant my sister was still here but realized it meant nothing; Eliza could've picked her up.

"I'm fine," I managed. I forced a smile. "Just a little nervous. That's Dr. Sanderson's bike, isn't it?"

"It is," my mom nodded, returning my smile. "Elliott is a very nice young man, though, Cassidy. You have nothing to worry about."

I swallowed and shoved the van door open, hoping she was right. If he really was a vampire, and he found my notebook, would he do something to make sure I didn't tell anyone else?

My mom came around the van, and I let her open the door to the house. I suddenly felt incapable of speech. She pushed the door open and I followed. As she stepped out of the way, I saw him standing in our living room in front of the sofa, his hands shoved deep down in his faded blue jeans. He was wearing a green T-shirt beneath his black jacket that made his eyes stand out, and his hair looked slightly more ruly than last time. The smile on his face did a little to ease my nerves, but I still hesitated to step forward.

"Hey, there, Cassidy," Dr. Sanderson called as my mom gestured for me to give her my backpack so she could hang it up for me. I did, taking very small steps toward the living room. "How was school?"

I shrugged. It took some effort, but I pressed out a squeaky, "Fine."

"I'll go get you a bottle of water, dear," my mother said, clearly aware of my cottonmouth.

I was almost to the living room now. There was no turning back. He didn't seem to know about my notebook; either that or he was waiting for my mother to leave to destroy me. "Have a seat," he said, gesturing at the couch.

Looking at it as if I'd never sat on one before, I sidled up to the piece of furniture before slowly lowering myself down, leaving a good foot or two between us. He raised a dark eyebrow but then pulled up his jeans at the thigh and sank back down himself, slightly amused.

My mom returned with two bottles of water. We both accepted them, and I began to drink mine while Elliott sat his on a coaster on the coffee table. I wondered if he wasn't able to drink liquids that weren't red and sticky.

"Your parents said you wanted to talk to me again," he explained, turning slightly to face me.

Readjusting so that I was now basically in the corner of the couch, I nodded. "I had some questions about what happened to Drew, and I thought you were the best one to answer them for me."

He looked surprised. Perhaps he was of the opinion that his brainwashing should've lasted longer. Maybe I should've continued to believe everything he said without question, but I really thought he was my best hope for getting any sort of answers at all. Now, sitting across from the hulk of a man, I thought better of it. Maybe I shouldn't have asked him here at all, especially now that we had evidence that one of his associates was about a hundred and fifty years old.

"You have questions?" He asked it as if no one had ever had any further inquiries after he'd originally spoken to them. "It's fine that you do, but I already assured you that you don't need to worry about what happened with Drew." He looked deeply into my eyes, and I noticed that his seemed to be sparking just a bit, like there was movement within his irises. It was slightly unsettling. "Drew died, Cassidy. It's a shame, but these things happen. We just need to let it go and move on."

I stared at him for a long time, and then realized I was nodding along with what he had said. "Right. It's just one of those things." I felt my mind starting to slip away from me. It was as if I didn't know what I'd been thinking all along. Of course, it was fine that Drew had died. It wasn't a big deal. I needed to let it go and move on.

He continued. "Your sister has to go away for her job for a little while, but everything will be fine with that, too. Just go on with your life. You don't need to worry about Cadence."

My head continued to bob up and down. "I don't need to worry about Cadence. She's fine. She's just working."

He inhaled deeply and held my gaze for a moment, as if surveying his work before he gave a sharp nod. "I think that should answer your questions."

Feeling relieved, I let a wide smile break across my face. "I feel so much better," I said. "Thank you so much for coming over."

"Anytime," he replied. Elliott also looked reassured. He looked around the room for a moment, like he wasn't sure what to do with himself now that his work was done.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. With a sigh I pulled it out and glanced at it. It was a text from Lucy. I almost put my phone back in my pocket without even reading it, but something about the fact that the message was in all caps caught my attention. I slid to read the entire text as Dr. Sanderson pulled himself up off of the sofa.

"CASSIDY FINDLEY! DO NOT LET HIM CONVINCE YOU EVERYTHING IS FINE! IT IS NOT!!!"

Lucy's words brought the wall I'd built around my mind crashing down. How had I just sat there and let Dr. Elliott Sanderson convince me that everything was just hunky dory when Drew was dead, Cadence was weird, creatures were crawling in and out of her window, leaping form the second story at all times of night, and something was up with Jack? I slipped my phone into my pocket and shook my head violently to clear it. "NO!" I shouted.

Dr. Sanderson was standing next to the coffee table. He turned and looked at me as if I was the one who had suddenly turned into a monster. "Beg your pardon?" he asked, his eyes wide.

I grabbed my head between my hands. Before I could say anything else, my mom came rushing in from the kitchen. "Cassidy, are you all right?"

"She's fine," Elliott assured her. "I think she just got a text message about something at school that upset her."

I glanced up at him, wondering at first if that's what he really thought, but I could see a flicker in his eyes that let me know to go along with it.

My mother said, "Oh, Cassidy is fine. She just got a text message about something at school that upset her," and spun on her heels and walked out of the room.

Alarmed, I stood, turning to look at her, and then back at the doctor. "So... that works on my mom, too?"

"Why didn't it work on you?" he asked, and I could see that he was concerned, like he thought I'd broken his secret superpower or something.

I had no idea whether or not I could trust this man. I'd just met him less than a week ago. He had already lied to me more times than I could count, and I'd just seen him brainwash my mom. "Will you please be honest with me?" I asked, avoiding eye contact.

Elliott cleared his throat. He sat back down, this time in my mom's recliner, a few feet away from the couch. He seemed to mull a few things over before he said, "I'll be as honest as I can, Cassidy, but there are some things I'm not at liberty to divulge."

Whether or not that would be good enough remained to be seen. I moved to the far end of the sofa, closer to him, and sank down. "What is going on?" I asked, my voice just above a whisper. "Where is my sister— _what_ is my sister—and what happened to Drew?"

He licked his lips and then bit down on the bottom one, like he was thinking, trying to weigh his answer. His eyes darted back and forth for a few seconds, and I almost thought he was having an internal conversation, debating what he could tell me, with himself. "Cassidy, I really can't answer any of those questions," he finally said. I let out a loud sigh of frustration. "But I can tell you everything is going to be fine. That's not bull this time. It's a fact. Your sister will probably only be working with us for a few weeks, and then, hopefully, she'll go back to school, and life will be back to normal for you and your family."

I really wanted to believe him, but it was hard when I couldn't trust a word he said. "Can I record this conversation so I can reference it later?"

He laughed at me. "Uh, no. Why would you need to do that?"

"Because you keep lying to me!" I proclaimed, frustrated. I shouldn't have asked. I should've come into the room with my phone set to record.

"Cass, I'm not lying to you, I promise. I have been saying a few things to reassure you that everything's going to turn out okay. But, for the most part, it's not been lies."

"So, Drew really fell rock climbing and cut her throat?" I folded my arms and tipped my head in such a way to get my point across.

"Some of what I've told you may be... embellished a bit."

I pursed my lips at him. "And you can't tell me what really happened to her."

"No."

"Why not?"

He let out a deep breath and ran his hands through that unruly hair, leaving several curls standing up on end. He didn't seem to mind. "Because my boss won't let me."

I raised an eyebrow. "Aaron?"

He nodded. "And your parents. They don't want you to worry about any of this either."

"Why don't you just convince them that they do?"

He laughed again. It was a deep chuckle and it set me at ease, even though I didn't want it to. I needed to stay on guard with this guy. "It's not that simple. I could _convince_ them, but it wouldn't be right." He reached out with his lengthy arm and plucked the water bottle off of the coffee table. Opening it, he took a long drink while I contemplated that response.

"So, you only convince people of things when you think it's right?"

"Or when I'm ordered to, yeah," he confirmed, replacing the lid.

"You just do everything Aaron tells you to do?" I knew his name came out of my mouth like it was poison on my tongue, and I silently wondered when I had become so hostile to the man I'd only met once.

"Well, that's kinda what being someone's boss means," he shrugged.

"Do you like him? Is he your friend?" I needed to know if every single word of what I was saying here would get back to the guy who kept sneaking into my sister's room.

"Of course," Elliott shrugged again. "Why wouldn't I?"

I was frustrated and I huffed, my arms still folded. "You going to tell him everything I've said to you?"

He weighed his options. "No, I don't need to tell him anything about what we've talked about so far."

I was skeptical. "You're not going to tell him that my brainwashing session didn't work?"

"Now, why would I go tell my boss that I failed?" He chuckled again. "Besides, I could make it work if I wanted to, Cassidy."

Feeling bold, I began to speak, not considering the consequences. "No, you can't. I have my ways of remembering. You could try, but I'd remember the things I've seen again. Eventually."

"Really?" He leaned forward in his chair. "Is that a challenge?"

I'd said too much. He could destroy my phone, raid my room, annihilate the notebook, track down my friends, and brainwash them, too. "No," I said quietly. I was silent for a long time, the weight of his stare crushing me into the sofa cushions. "I just... wanted to know what was going on with my sister. I feel like she's in some sort of danger." Did I dare tell him I thought she was a vampire?

"Your sister is fine." He wasn't doing that thing with his eyes when I glanced up at him, but I was inclined to believe him.

"Did she kill Drew?"

"No."

I believed that, too. "Did one of her friends kill Drew?"

"No."

"Did someone kill Drew?"

He took a deep breath. "I can't say."

That was a yes. Drew had been murdered. I shook my head, not sure what to think about that. "Were you and your associates there when Drew died?"

He opened his mouth and then closed it before he shrugged.

Also a yes. Frustration grew. My hands became fists. "Did you or one of your associates kill Drew?"

"No." This answer came very quickly.

I stared at him for a long time, making sure I could believe him without any brainwashing voodoo. I did. I believed that none of Elliott's friends had killed Drew, but they knew who killed her. He wouldn't tell me that, though. I swallowed hard, trying to determine whether or not to ask him the true question that was burning in my mind. I wanted to know if my sister was a vampire.

"Look, Cassidy, I think this is probably enough Q and A for now. I can't really tell you anything more, and even if I could, you wouldn't believe me anyway."

"I'd believe you." I jumped on that quickly. I wasn't sure if I would or not, but I wanted him to think I would.

A smirk broke across his face. "Okay, but... I still can't tell you anything else. I will come back though, soon, and talk to you again, as quickly as I can."

"But... I have so many more questions."

He was still smiling at me. "That's good. I just can't answer them. And you need to stop searching for the answers, too, lil girl, because you're just going to end up going down the wrong path. The answers aren't out there," he gestured out the window. "If they were...." He didn't finish that sentence. I had no idea what he was talking about.

I was frustrated again. A sort of a half-groan, half-growl came out of my throat. "Can I have your phone number?"

He looked surprised again. "What for?"

"So that I can call you." It seemed obvious. Perhaps the doctor wasn't as smart as I had given him credit for.

"I know that," he replied. "But why?"

I ran both hands through my hair. "Because I trust you. Despite your lies and trickery. I think you're being honest with me now."

"But I can't tell you anything else."

"Sure you can," I countered. "Aaron can't prevent you from answering simple questions, can he? Like, when's your birthday?"

"July tenth."

"See? And... where were you born?"

"Oklahoma."

I nodded. Thanks to Emma, I already knew that. "Easy peasy. How old are you?"

"Ha," he said, standing, "I can't tell you everything, Cass."

"Why not?" I asked, following him as he headed toward the door. I found it a bit odd that now I was running him off. I even assumed he'd want to stick around and talk to my mother, let her know the brainwashing had gone as expected.

Elliott paused at the door. "Because... you wouldn't believe me."

That was a dare, and I knew it. He wanted to know what I knew. "I would. What are you, like, twenty-seven?"

He couldn't contain his laughter then as he pulled the front door open and stepped out onto our porch. "Sure. Let's go with that."

I stepped out, too, and closed the door behind me. Luckily, I was still wearing my coat. I just realized I'd never taken it off. "Why is that funny?"

"It just is. How old do you think Aaron is?" Elliott took the three steps down to the sidewalk that ran to the porch quickly, but not nearly the speed I'd seen my sister move.

"I don't know. Twenty-five?"

He stopped and spun to face me. "You think he's younger than me?" He shook his head and mumbled something under his breath, but all I understood was "pretty boy."

Elliott continued to walk toward his motorcycle. I followed, undeterred. I had felt the shift in the tides; somehow, I had won him over, and he was going to help me. I could just feel it. He flung one long leg over the bike and rested on the seat, turning back to face me. "Cass, you've got to let this go. When you're older, all of it can be explained to you. For now, just trust us. Trust your parents."

I stopped next to him on the curb. "How old is Jamie?"

I'd stunned him a few times with my questions, but he wasn't expecting this at all. "Jamie?" he said, his forehead puckering. "How do you know...?"

A smile crept across my lips. "I have my methods. How old is he?"

Elliott stared at me in such a way that I felt as if my blood began to run backward. I wasn't afraid of him, necessarily, but I felt like a line had been crossed, like he was no longer able to joke around with his new co-worker's younger sister. "Cassidy," he said quietly, "whatever you know... whatever you think you know... you need to be careful. Not everyone is as willing to let infractions go as I am."

Infractions? What was he talking about. What was it about Jamie that had struck a nerve. My smile was long gone. I took a step back.

Elliott continued. "I don't want to scare you, Cass. I don't. But... clearly you know things we didn't realize you knew. You should try to forget them. For now, anyway. I could take them from you. I'm not going to, not right now, anyhow. But, please, don't go poking the bear, okay?"

I nodded, slowly, not sure why. I felt like my veins were on fire. "I'm... sorry." It seemed like the right thing to say.

"Give me your phone."

I raised my eyebrows. Lucy's text was still on there—a lot of them, for that matter—if he read what we'd been talking about.... But I didn't have any choice. I reached into the pocket of my jeans and handed him my unlocked phone.

He didn't keep it long, only a few moments, before he handed it back. "Cassidy, tell your friends—Emma and Lucy—none of this concerns them. Tell them you talked to me, and you're no longer trying to figure out what happened to Drew. You understand that your sister is going to be working for a security company out of Kansas City for a little while, but she'll be back shortly, okay?"

I nodded. He hadn't brainwashed me. He wasn't talking to me like I was a silly high school girl. His tone conveyed that everything he'd just told me was for the best, for my safety. "Okay, Dr. Sanderson."

"It's Elliott," he said, managing a small smile. He reached out and patted my shoulder, and I felt like he was my big brother, trying to protect me. "Take care, Cass."

He started the bike, and I stepped back away from it. He didn't wear a helmet, but something told me he didn't need one. As the bike sped away, I continued to gawk after it until he rounded a corner, disappearing from my sight.

The front door creaked behind me, and I turned to see my mom approaching. She didn't have on a coat, and she had her arms wrapped up against the early December breeze. My feet were still planted in the dead grass between the sidewalk and the street, my phone burning a hole in my palm.

"Did Dr. Sanderson leave without saying goodbye?" my mom asked, coming up behind me.

"Yes," I replied. "He seemed like he had somewhere he had to be."

"Hmmm," she said, she put her arm around me, turning me toward the house. "What did the two of you discuss?"

My answer came naturally enough. "He said that Drew's death was a tragedy, but these things happen, and I shouldn't worry about it." I glanced up to see a satisfied smile on my mom's face. "He also said I shouldn't worry about Cadence. She's working in Kansas City now, but she'll be back soon."

We'd reached the front door. My mom pushed it open. "That Dr. Sanderson is a smart fellow," she said, stepping into the foyer.

"Yes, he is," I agreed, going inside and closing the door behind me. My mom was headed toward the kitchen, her favorite room in the house. "I have some homework," I called after her. It wasn't true, but I did need to go make some notes on our conversation before I forgot everything and get Lucy to back up her texts since I was pretty sure mine were all gone now.

"Okay, honey," my mom called. She would get back to making dinner, and I would get back to investigating whether or not my sister was a vampire, even though I'd been strictly warned not to do so.

As soon as she was out of the room, I unlocked my phone and looked to see how much damage had been done. I opened my text exchange between Lucy and Emma, expecting it to be eradicated. Shockingly, everything was still there. I flipped to my pictures. The ones of Jamie, which Emma had sent to me, and the ones I'd saved of Eliza were also still there. "What did he do?" I asked aloud, checking my emails and social media. Everything was exactly the same.

It took me a few minutes to find it, but when I did, I almost dropped my phone. In my contacts, I found it. "Elliott Sanderson," and a phone number.

# Chapter 17

"So... maybe he's just hoping you'll call him instead of snooping around," Lucy said just before she shoved another cheese-covered french fry into her mouth. Her full mouth should have deterred her from saying more, but it didn't. "Maybe he's the good cop."

"He's not a cop." Emma rolled her eyes. "He's a drug dealer."

I held back a giggle. "She's not being serious, Em. It's just a saying. Good cop/bad cop." Sometimes Emma couldn't tell when people were being serious. She also wasn't good at plays on words, puns, or idioms.

"Oh," she replied, chewing on her ham and cheese sandwich. "Well, if Elliott is the good cop, who's the bad one?"

"Aaron," Lucy replied, sticking her finger in her mouth to remove the last bits of cheese before reaching for a napkin. "He tried to blame everything on his boss, right? Saying he couldn't tell you stuff or Aaron would get mad?"

"Yes." That was the impression I'd gotten anyway. I'd called both of my friends the evening before to go over everything with them, but this was the first time we'd gotten a chance to talk about it in person. I had warned them both about how serious Elliott had gotten when I'd asked about Jamie and how he seemed to think we should let this whole thing go, but both of them were undeterred, though it had given Lucy chills when I explained that Elliott knew both of their names. But then, I thought it was possible he'd gotten that information out of my phone. Everything was starting to blur together for me, and I wasn't sure what to think about much of anything anymore.

"So, your sister never came home yesterday?" Lucy asked. "She went shopping with Eliza and then went straight to Kansas City?"

"I guess so," I said with a shrug. "I sent her a text last night before I went to bed, and she said she was in KC having a blast, and she'd call me soon." Cadence's messages hadn't been long, and I hadn't pressed her. I had a feeling she wasn't going to be exactly forthcoming with information.

"I just wish I knew what it was about mentioning Jamie that had set him off," Lucy thought aloud before taking a swig of her pop and moving the empty can back away from her.

"I have no idea." I had been wondering about that, too. "The only thing I can come up with is that he didn't think I knew about Jamie, so when I did, it threw him off."

"Why wouldn't you know about him, though? People have been talking about him at your house." Emma wadded up her napkin and shoved it into her plastic sandwich bag.

"Right, but they didn't realize I'd been eavesdropping. It must've been an eye opener to Elliott that I know more than I should know if all I knew is what they had told me."

Both of my friends went over that again in their heads before either of them spoke. "Well, I went over the social media accounts on both of them and couldn't find anything," Emma said. "No links to accounts for Elliott, Aaron, or Christian."

"The information I found out about vampires does seem to suggest it is possible," Lucy said, avoiding eye contact with Emma who was still skeptical of our theory about the undead. "And it would make sense that Elliott wouldn't want to mention that to you."

"Right." I didn't know what else to say. Of course, he wasn't going to come out and tell me he was a vampire--and so is my sister. "The only thing is, he said that his associates didn't kill Drew."

"There could be warring factions of vampires," Emma offered. I stared at her for a moment, wondering if this meant she was starting to give in to our theory. She shrugged. "That doesn't mean that I believe in any of it, but isn't it possible that your sister is on one side of a vampire conflict?"

"That is a good point," I agreed. "I mean, even in _Twilight_ , not all of the vampires are on the same side."

"Why does everything have to come back to _Twilight_?" Lucy asked. "There are other vampire books, movies, TV shows."

"I know," I shrugged. "It's just the one I know the best, I guess."

"Maybe we should call Stephanie Meyer and ask her if she thinks your sister is a vampire." Lucy laughed at her own joke.

"I bet a lot of people ask her questions like that." Emma was quite serious. "They must think she is the foremost expert on vampirism."

Before I could say more, I realized Liam was crossing the cafeteria, headed right for us. I took a deep breath and tried not to choke on it. "Hey, ladies," he said, that winning smile beaming down on us as he pulled out a chair between Emma and I and had a seat. "How's it going?"

Lucy had declared just a few days ago that she was totally over him. She shrugged and began to play with her fingernails. "Hey, Liam," she said, bored.

Emma said nothing, only stared at him, as if he had intruded into our private conversation and couldn't be excused. She had her arms folded on the table and was peering at him behind her glasses.

"Hi Liam," I said, once words could escape my lips again. "What's going on?"

"Well, I was just wondering if I could come over and get some help with my algebra this afternoon," he replied, smiling at me. My insides began to melt. "I mean, if you think your parents won't mind."

"No." His eyebrows raised, and I took a deep breath to try again. "I mean, no, they won't mind. You can come over."

His countenance changed and his eyebrows lowered. "Cool. Right after school work for you?"

"Sure. You can ride home with us if you want. My mom won't care. She can take you home when we're done." The thought of having Liam in my car made my pulse race. From this day forward, whenever I got into my mom's vehicle, I would smell hints of Axe Apollo body spray.

"Cool," Liam said again. He brushed his bangs out of his right eye. "I'll text my mom and let her know. Meet you out front after school?"

"You got it." I tried to sound cool, but I knew it came out like something a goofy little kid would say. Still, I couldn't help but stare after him as he got up and sauntered away.

"Gag," Lucy said, shaking her head.

"What?" I asked, turning on her like a mama bear protecting her cub.

"What?" she repeated. "He's such a fake. I'm totally over it."

"I know. You told me that already." It was fine with me if Lucy didn't have any interest in Liam. That was just one less girl who's way cuter than me trying to get him to ask her out. I told her that the other day, and she rolled her eyes, insisting I was cuter than her. Luckily, Emma had been there to tell Lucy her eyes were prettier, but I had a nicer smile. Good ol' honest Em.

"I just think you need to be careful," Lucy said, shaking her head. "I think he's using you for your computation skills."

"So, you think a guy like Liam could never like me? Thanks." I gathered up my tray and my empty Dr. Pepper can.

"It's not that," Lucy proclaimed, following behind me. I was walking pretty quickly, though, and she rushed to keep up. I wished I could walk as fast as Cadence. "It's not that at all. He's just not a genuine person, Cass."

I tossed my trash into the garbage can and stepped out of the way so other students could get by. I really didn't want anyone else to overhear our discussion, so I thought about cooling it, but it really did irritate me that Lucy said I was prettier than her but still didn't think Liam could like me. "Whatev," was about all I could manage for the moment. I could tell Lucy wanted to say more, but she didn't. Her eyes were wide in frustration, and maybe a bit of sadness. We hardly ever fought, and I didn't want to let Liam come between us.

"Liam is a jerk."

I turned and looked at Emma. She shrugged and headed off toward her next class without saying anything more or offering any sort of apology for her bluntness.

Catching Lucy's eyes, I mumbled, "I've gotta go," and headed toward Mr. Delgado's World History class. I knew I'd see Lucy again for Biology later, and by then, we'd be back to normal. I just hated the thought of fighting with her at all, but now that she knew so much about what was going on with my family, it was even worse. It crossed my mind that she could start spreading rumors about me, about my sister killing Drew, or the fact that I thought Cadence might be a vampire, and in a matter of minutes, my reputation would be ruined. I knew Lucy Burk well enough to think she'd never do that, but it was just an illustration of how deeply I'd grown to depend on my two best friends, especially now that they were the only normalcy I seemed to have in my whole life.

* * *

When I was younger, I used to get so upset that Cadence always got to sit in the front seat of Mom's van. Once she headed off to college, the front seat had finally become mine. Now, I gleefully climbed into the back and scooted all the way over to make room for Liam, and my heart was beating through my chest.

He'd come over a few times before to study, but the other times, his mom had brought him or he'd ridden his bike. He only lived about a mile away. Everyone in Shenandoah lives relatively close by; it's a really small town.

Liam climbed in and shut the door behind him. "Cool van, Mrs. F," he said, buckling his seat belt. I had mine on already and smiled over at him, not sure what to say.

"Why thank you, William," my mom said, pulling out of the parent pick-up lane. There were not a lot of vehicles in line since most of the kids at my high school could either drive or caught rides with their friends who could drive, but I'd never been embarrassed by my parents, and I figured Lucy would have her license soon enough since she was several months older than me. Emma said she'd never learn how to drive because it was too complicated. I was determined to teach her. Once I knew how to myself.

Liam was looking at me and smiling, and I felt myself blush. "How was your day?" he asked.

"Great," I replied, nodding. "How was yours?"

"Not too bad. Ben Jackson almost caught his hair on fire in chemistry, so that was cool."

I laughed, and I heard my mom make a noise that let me know that she was either shocked, or annoyed, or both. A song I really like came on the radio. I began to bop along to it, and when I looked at Liam out of the corner of my eye, I could see that he was, too. Did this count as our first dance?

"I really love the guitar part coming up," he said, and my mom, being the hip momster that she is, turned it up just a bit. "It's totally rad."

Trying not to look surprised at his word choice, I agreed. "I like it, too."

"My brother's going to teach me how to play guitar as soon as he gets his back from the shop," Liam continued. "He broke it at their last gig."

"Oh?" I knew Liam's older brother was in some sort of a band, but I didn't know they did gigs.

"Yeah, he wants to tell people he slammed it down at the end of a song, but really he didn't buckle his strap correctly and it fell off."

I wasn't sure what to say to that, so I just nodded. "Well, learning to play the guitar would be great." I really did think it would be cool if Liam learned to play. Then, I could go to see his performances and maybe be the girlfriend of a rock star. I was getting ahead of myself, way ahead of myself. Chances were, his older brother, Chase, would never teach him how to play as he didn't exactly have a reputation for doing anything he said he was going to do. He worked at my sister's friend Jon's parents' plumbing company, having dropped out of college after one semester. But then... my sister hadn't even finished that much.

"You okay, Cass?" Liam asked as my mom turned onto our street. "You look a little... distracted."

I saw my mom's eyes flicker in the rearview mirror as she decided whether or not she should be alarmed. "No, I'm fine," I replied, forcing a smile. "I was just thinking about how cool it would be to learn the guitar."

My mom pulled the van into the driveway and stopped. Since she'd be taking Liam home soon enough, there was no reason to bother with the garage. We climbed out. "You know, I could teach you, if you want," he said, "once I know how to play."

Explaining that I thought him learning to play the guitar was about as likely as me learning to fly seemed like a waste of air and time, so I only nodded and repeated his favorite word, "Cool."

"You kids make yourselves at home in the dining room," my mom said, unlocking the door and pushing it open. "I'll go make you a snack."

The smell of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies wafted through the open door, and I led Liam toward the dining room, not at all surprised my mom had done some baking. I was certain the moment I'd sent her a text to let her know Liam and I would be studying together after school she'd preheated the oven. I give my mom some grief sometimes for not being completely with it, or for treating my sister like she's the princess and I am a house servant, but for the most part, she does everything she can to help us. And whether I like it or not, my mom is fully aware that I have a crush on Liam.

We sat down at the table and pulled out our algebra books. Soon enough, my mom came in with two plates, each containing three warm chocolate chip cookies. "Milk or water?" she asked Liam, setting the plates down.

"Whoa! These smell so good," he said, smiling broadly. "Milk, please, Mrs. F."

My mom smiled and disappeared, coming back a few minutes later with two tall glasses of cold milk.

We nibbled our cookies, and I tried to explain the algebra concept we were working on to Liam. He's cute, but he's not the brightest guy I've ever worked with, and sometimes it took me several tries for him to get it, but he smiled the whole time, and once he bumped my hand with his. I didn't think it was an accident.

My mom headed upstairs, and we could hear her footsteps from time to time. I figured she was cleaning a room that was already perfectly tidy. Liam glanced up at the ceiling and then cleared his throat. "So, uh, it's too bad about what happened with Drew," he said cautiously.

"Yeah," I replied, trying to keep my eyes on my algebra textbook. "She was a nice girl."

"Totally." He took a bite of his cookie and dusted his hands off on a napkin. "Did your sister say how it happened? How she fell?"

I glanced at him briefly, trying to figure out if his only purpose in being here was to find out more information about what happened with my sister. "Nope," I replied. I double-checked that he got the same answer as me, saw that he didn't, and tried to figure out where he'd gone wrong.

"I hear she got a job in Kansas City. That's cool."

"Yeah. Oh, I see. You forgot to divide by X," I said, pointing to his paper. His fingertips brushed against mine as he began to erase.

"I heard the rest of her friends went back to school today. You seen Jack Cook?"

I raised my eyebrows and slowly shook my head. "Not for a while."

Liam brushed the eraser shavings off of his paper. "I heard he's not doing so hot. Like, he's all grief stricken and paranoid and stuff."

I stared at him for a moment. "I don't know," I finally said.

"Must be hard," Liam continued, as he fixed the math problem, "to see someone you're friends with plummet to their death. Poor guy."

"Yeah." There was nothing much else for me to say.

"I feel bad for your sister, too."

Having Elliott's power of suggestion would've been handy right now. "She'll be fine." I didn't know what else to say. "There you go," I said, seeing that he had the right answer now. "Let's go to the next one."

We continued to work on algebra for the next half-hour or so, not saying much about anything at all, and definitely not about anything except for math. Once Liam was all caught up, I said, "I guess that's that."

"Yeah," he shrugged. "Do you think your mom would mind giving me a ride home, or should I call my dad?"

"She'll give you a ride," I said, sure that she would.

"Cool."

I pushed my chair back, intending to hop up and go find my mom, when I felt Liam's warm fingers wrap around mine where they lay on the table. "Thanks a lot for your help, Cass. I don't know what I'd do without you."

I looked into his eyes and saw a crinkled smile there. "No problem." I felt heat rising up my neck, and he quickly released my hand, but I suddenly knew why all those girls who met their favorite rock stars always gush, "I'll never wash my hand again!" Even when I reached the living room and found my mother sitting in her chair folding towels, I could feel the warmth radiating from my fingers.

"Hi, honey," my mom said, glancing up at me between folds. "All done?"

"Yep. All done." I could tell my voice sounded overly enthusiastic because my mom raised her eyebrows and appeared to be holding back a laugh. "Could you give Liam a ride home?"

"Absolutely!" My mother's energy level matched my own, even though I could tell she was teasing me. "I'll just get my keys!"

"Okay, Mom." I tried not to roll my eyes at her. I headed back toward the dining room, but Liam was standing just inside the doorway to the living room. "Are you ready?"

It seemed like a dumb question since he had his coat on and his backpack flung over his shoulder. "I am." He smiled at me, though, like I hadn't just asked him something stupid.

"I'll just grab my phone and my coat." I'd left my phone on the table and my coat was over the back of my chair. I hurried to the dining room and fumbled to get my arms in the sleeves. I had no idea why I was acting so weird. I slipped my phone into my pocket and hustled to catch up with my mom and Liam who were walking out the front door. I heard them laughing and hoped it wasn't at me or that my mom hadn't told him some lame joke.

We sat in the middle seat of the minivan again, and I climbed in first so I wouldn't have to get out when we got to Liam's house. He lived in a smallish-sized ranch house with his parents and older brother. I had heard his dad worked in one of the factories on the edge of town and his mom was a clerk at the grocery store. I didn't ask questions about his family, though. For some reason, it seemed like prying, even though everyone in the world seemed to be asking about my family these days—well, about my sister anyway.

Liam pointed out the van window. "It's this one," and my mom pulled to a stop, pressing the button to open the sliding door. "Thanks again, Cass," he said, turning to me and smiling as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

I was caught in his eyes again and could only manage, "Yup."

He slid out of the car calling, "Thanks, Mrs. F!"

"Have a good evening, William!" my mother called. As soon as he was out, she pushed the button to close the door, and we waited to make sure he got inside safely. Even though it was only around 4:30, it was starting to get dark outside, and the wind was blowing. Once she saw Liam's mom open the door, my mom shifted into drive.

I unhooked my seatbelt and carefully slid between the two seats up front so I was sitting in the passenger side. "Thanks," my mom said. "I didn't really want to be the chauffeur anymore."

Giggling, I said, "Thanks for that, Mom." Even from up there, I could smell the scent of Liam's body spray wafting from the back seat.

"Sure, honey," she replied, taking a left at the next corner. "I think William's a pretty nice young man."

"You can call him Liam, Mom. Everyone else does."

"Well, I've always known him as William. Sometimes change is hard." She took a deep breath and let it out, and I realized we weren't talking about my friend anymore.

I cleared my throat. I wasn't sure if I should ask the question burning in my mind or not but ultimately decided I may as well say something. "Have you heard from Cadence?"

My mom's eyebrows arched as if I'd mentioned a taboo subject. "She's doing well. All settled in. She's doing her training."

Nodding, I tried to decide if I dared to ask a follow up question before my mom changed the subject. I dared. "Where is she living?"

"They have apartments, dorms, something like that," she replied. We were almost back to our house.

"And what kind of training does she have to do?"

My mom pressed a button to open our garage and aimed the van for the door. "I don't know." She sounded genuine, but I doubted she didn't really know. "What they do is pretty secretive."

I decided that was probably enough for now. "'Kay," I muttered as the van pulled to a stop. "Maybe I'll call her later."

If my mom thought that was a bad idea, she didn't let on. "Pork chops for dinner?" she asked, pulling her keys out of the ignition.

"Yum."

# Chapter 18

The rest of the week flew by pretty quickly, and I didn't really have too much of a chance to talk to my friends about what was going on except for at lunch. Since that was a public space, we had to be careful what we talked about, too. It wasn't until Saturday that Emma and I met over at Lucy's house so she could show us all the stuff she'd found on why people thought vampires might be real.

We were sprawled out on her sofa in her bedroom, Emma in the recliner nearby, and while the TV was on, no one was watching it. Each of us had our laptops. I had my notebook, too, and Lucy had hers.

"Okay, go to this website," Lucy said, rattling off a web address. Emma and I both typed it in.

"Dark Shadows?" Emma said as the page loaded in front of each of us. "How did you find this?"

"I did a bunch of digging, and I found some forums where people talk about their experiences with vampires," Lucy explained. "This is a website where they post their stories."

I began to read through posts by people claiming to have encountered vampires. Most of them seemed really ridiculous, and some of them were very vague. Things like seeing figures in the shadows or watching someone jump off of tall buildings and then walk away. One person claimed he'd melted his neighbor's face by dousing him with garlic salt.

We read on for a few minutes before Emma declared, "This is dumb."

"Okay, I know a lot of the stories seem far-fetched," Lucy nodded, "but some of them have details that seem similar to what Cassidy has experienced."

I suddenly didn't want to be associated with any of these ridiculous stories. "'I stabbed my boyfriend in the heart with a wooden stake, and he died.' Uh, you think?"

"Lol!" Lucy said, "Yeah, I'm sure she did that. And she's not in jail. Okay, so they're not all perfect, but let's look at the similarities. We could tally how many of them talk about the different unexplainable traits you've witnessed between your sister, her work people, and Jack."

Something about the mention of Jack's name stirred me, and I felt my gut tighten. "Jack," I said his name aloud and pulled my face to the side. "What about Jack?"

"Huh?" Emma asked, peering at me over the top of her computer.

"Well, I was just thinking, is there any information on here that says how long it would take for Jack to... you know... turn... if he didn't have the transformation thingy Jamie allegedly did to my sister?"

"I'm not sure I'm following you," Lucy said, setting her laptop between us on the couch. "Are you saying, if Jack was infected by a vampire the night that Drew died, how long would it take for him to become a vampire?"

"Cause you think that your sister was infected the same night and that Jamie fixed her up so that she went ahead and went full-fledged vampire right then?" Emma concluded.

All of this sounded so stupid. "Sure," I said.

"Well, let's see. There's a search function on this site. And a glossary," Lucy explained.

"I'll look through the glossary," Emma said.

"And I'll search." Lucy typed furiously for a second and then began to scan.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I felt like I needed to call my sister. I had no idea what was going on, but I needed to talk to her. Had she heard from Jack? Could I just call Jack? I had his number. Maybe I could call Elliott. Something told me he'd have the answer to my question.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

"I don't know," I admitted, but then I went to my contacts and clicked on Cadence's name. I hadn't really spoken to her since she'd left, just briefly, and a few texts. She wasn't answering. It went to voicemail. "Hey, Sis. I just... wanted to see how things were going. Thought you might have the day off since it's Saturday. Call me." I hung up.

"It stinks we don't have more time to work on this," Lucy was mumbling as her eyes flitted across the screen. "Next Saturday is Wes's birthday party."

"Oh, yeah," I mumbled, remembering how badly I'd wanted to go to that just a few weeks ago when he'd told us about it. Now, I couldn't have cared less, even if it was going to be at the new roller rink they'd opened up in the neighboring town. Who knew what my life would be like in a week?

"Okay, so the glossary says it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months, depending upon how bad the infection is," Emma explained to us.

"That's not helpful," I stated before I realized I was talking about vampire infection—how could there be trustworthy information about that?

"I've found a post that says this guy thinks his girlfriend was bitten and that she started acting weird a couple of days later and another one where the guy says his wife went to sleep and woke up after a week acting all weird."

"What happens to these people?" I asked. "Do they just go off into the night?"

"No, their neighbors douse them with garlic salt," Lucy replied, her face perfectly straight until I started laughing. "I don't know."

"That is a good question, though," Emma pointed out. "Because... here's the thing. If vampires are real—and obviously that's a big "if"—wouldn't they have to have been around for a very long time? Either that or they're new and biologically engineered." The last part seemed to be a whole new train of thought, and she shook her head, returning to the original idea. "What's stopping them from just wiping out humanity completely?"

"Maybe there aren't a whole lot of them?" Lucy offered. "Maybe there just aren't enough of them to kill all the people."

"Wouldn't they just make more then?" Emma asked. "If all you have to do to make a vampire is bite someone, then that seems easy."

"Unless it's super hard to restrain yourself from just killing them." Lucy shrugged, like we were talking about the rules of etiquette or how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of baby vampires.

"I wonder if it's possible...." Emma stopped talking as she started typing.

"What?" Lucy asked, her voice screechy. "You wonder if what is possible?"

Emma continued to be silent for a few moments. She shook her head. "Not finding anything." She raised her eyes off of the screen and looked at Lucy before she said, "What if the reason there aren't millions of vampires killing all of us mere humans is because they're held in check by something, a force, or a group of people who keep them at bay?"

"You mean like, _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_?" I asked, finally getting back into the conversation.

"Or President Lincoln?" Lucy laughed, remembering how silly that movie was.

Emma's face was straight. "Why not?" she asked. "I mean, if we're going to go off the deep end and decide that it's possible that there's a such thing as vampires, then why not go all the way there and say there are also vampire slayers?"

The three of us stared at each other in silence for several seconds before my phone rang causing all of us to jump. "It's my sister," I said, scooping it up off of the arm rest. "Hello?"

"Hey, Cass. Sorry I missed your call." She sounded tired and not very chipper at all.

I looked at both of my friends, and they were still watching my every move. I'm sure they wanted to know what Cadence had to say. "That's okay. I just wanted to see how you were doing. How is everything?"

"Ugh, not good," she replied. "I, uh, I'm in Lincoln. Jack's sick."

I felt my stomach rise up into my throat and then go slamming right back into my gut. It took me a moment to formulate a sentence. "He's sick? What's wrong with him?"

"Who's sick?" I heard Lucy say, as she grabbed my arm, but I sloughed her off.

"It's some sort of an infection," Cadence explained. "They're not sure how he contracted it. They think it might've been through a foreign exchange student. He's stable right now, and they think he'll be okay in a few days. But I came out here to be with him. I think the rest of our friends are headed this way. I got in yesterday."

I wondered why my parents hadn't mentioned this to me. "Have you talked to mom?"

"Yeah, but I didn't tell her it was this serious." I could hear the exhaustion in her voice. She seemed exasperated.

"I'm sorry, Cadence," I said quietly. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Pray." I knew she meant that, too. "No, not really. I mean, if he continues to stabilize, they say they're going to take him off of some of the equipment in the next few days. But... I have a work thing I have to go to, so I won't even be able to stay here."

It wasn't like my sister to let work interfere with her friends. "What kind of work thing?" I asked.

"Well, I'm going to Paris," she said, her voice uneven, like she wasn't sure she should tell me. "I'll be gone a few days. I'll come back here as soon as I can."

I remembered Elliott mentioning he didn't think that my sister would be with them too long before she went back to school and everything returned to normal. I thought, if they were sending her to Paris, maybe something else was going on. "Paris. That sounds cool. What for?"

"Oh, just some... a client."

That was a very vague, non-answer. Before I could question her further, she said, "Listen, Cass, I'm sorry I haven't been able to tell you much about what's going on, but everything's fine, I promise. I'll be able to tell you more when you get a little older and you can understand all of this a little better."

Elliott had said something similar, that I wasn't old enough. I wondered what that even meant. If my sister really worked for a security company, it shouldn't matter how old I am; security secrets were security secrets regardless of my age. But all I managed to say was, "Okay."

"I'll tell Jack you said hi," she offered. "I love you, Sis."

"Thanks," I replied, meaning for the message to Jack. "I love you, too." I hung up and realized there were tears in my eyes. I turned back to look at my friends.

Lucy reached over and patted my arm while Emma stood, walked over to a tissue box, plucked out two, and handed them to me without a word. I took them and dabbed at my eyes. "Thanks. I don't even know why I'm crying."

Wrapping her arms around me, Lucy pulled me over to her shoulder. "It's okay," she said quietly.

It took me a few moments to get the tears to stop. I really didn't know what it was about my sister's words that had gotten this reaction out of me. "She said Jack has some sort of infection but he's getting better."

"That's good," Lucy commented, "I mean, that he's getting better."

"And she's going to Paris?" Emma asked. "I assume you mean France, not Texas."

That had me giggling. "Yeah, I think she meant France. She didn't say."

"Well, let's take some notes, and then, there's not much else we can do for now. I hope Jack is okay." Lucy let go of me and picked up her laptop.

"Do you think...." Emma stopped, not able to say the rest, what all of us were thinking.

"I hope not," I replied. I knew what she was going to say. Is it possible Jack was sick because he was becoming a vampire?

My phone was ringing again. With a sigh I looked down at it and then held my breath for a second before I managed to pick it up and swipe. "Hello?"

"Cassidy?"

"Hi, Dr. Sanderson," I said, mostly for my friends' benefits. They both froze and put their laptops aside again.

"I was just calling to check on you, lil girl. How are you doing?"

"Fine," I muttered. What are the chances he would be calling to check in on me just a few minutes after my sister told me about Jack and that she's going to Paris? I didn't think this was a coincidence.

"You been leavin' well enough alone?" he asked. I glanced down at my computer, which was currently pulled up to the vampire website.

"Uh, yeah," I said, glancing over my shoulder out Lucy's window. Could he see me?

"Good." His tone conveyed that he might possibly believe me. "Remember what I told you about letting all of this go, Cassidy. There ain't no sense in you tryin' to figure out a bunch of stuff that doesn't concern you."

"Okay." What else could I say?

"We're taking a little trip and will be pretty busy for the next few days, but once we get back, I'm going to come and visit you again, okay? I know you're a little confused about all of this, and I'm happy to tell you what I can, but between now and then, just let it be. All right?"

"Sure." I hoped my voice sounded compliant. Maybe he was right. Maybe I should just let all of this go. I mean, if I wasn't going to find any answers anyway, maybe it would make more sense for me to concentrate on what was going on at school, or Wes's birthday party, or Christmas, which would be here in a few weeks. Why was I bothering with all of this? "Wait," I said, shaking my head to clear it, "does your voodoo stuff work over the phone?"

"Huh?" he asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I've been leaving everything alone anyhow, but... while you were talking, I was thinking about why I should leave all of it alone and go on with my life before everything got all weird, like you were planting ideas in my head again."

He snickered. "Nah, I wasn't doing anything."

I could tell by the way he said it he was lying. "Look, if this is one of those things you can be honest with me about, then maybe you should."

"Okay, fine. Maybe a little."

I wanted to reach through the phone and smack him, but I figured even if I could do so, I would just hurt my hand. "Someday, when I'm older, will you tell me how you do that?" I figured since everyone else was talking about me waiting until I was older for everything, I may as well qualify my statement, too.

"Sure. Look, I'm doing everything I can to try to get things back to normal for you, Cass. Including trying to convince Cadence that this isn't the job for her. I know how important it is for you to have her back at home, or at least at school. So, just know when I said the other day I thought she wouldn't be here for too long, I meant it. I'm just not sure what's going to happen."

I wondered if that was part of the reason Cadence sounded so off, although I would think the fact that Jack was so sick, and she was having to leave would be enough. "Does she like her job?" I asked, hoping Elliott wasn't doing anything on my account if Cadence liked what she was doing.

"It's too early to say," he replied.

"Is she good at it?"

"Uh... I don't know." His voice betrayed him, though. He didn't seem to think my sister was a good match for their business. Maybe that was a good thing. If my sister was bad at being a vampire, maybe she could pretend to be human. If that's what her job was.... "I have to go, Cass. I hope I didn't interrupt anything too important."

"No, you didn't."

"I wasn't sure if you even knew I'd put my number in your phone. You can call me if you need to. I'd rather you called me if you have a question than go digging around. Stop doing that."

"But you don't answer any of my questions," I reminded him.

"I answer the ones I can."

"Not the really important ones." I don't know why I was being so bold right now. It might've been because I was on the phone rather than face-to-face with the man who was large enough to crush my skull between his palms if he wanted to.

Elliott cleared his throat. "I answer the ones I can," he repeated. "I'll answer more when I can answer more."

"When I'm older?"

"Yep."

I was frustrated now. "Well, that doesn't do me a lot of good now, does it?"

"Just don't be trying to find things out, Cass. There isn't any info out there, like I told you before, and you'll end up more confused and possibly get yourself into trouble."

The last part definitely sounded like a warning. "Okay," I said quietly. "Why are you going to Paris?" I wondered if he'd tell me the same thing my sister did.

"Work."

"What kind of work?"

"The very important kind."

"Is my sister in any danger?"

"Probably not."

I didn't like that answer. "Do you know what's wrong with Jack?"

"Jack who?"

"Jack and Jill. Who do you think?" I was becoming a tad irritated.

He laughed. "No. I heard he's sick. Probably Man Flu. It can be pretty severe, I hear. Luckily, I never catch it."

I couldn't help but chuckle at the seriousness of his tone, even if it didn't match the words he was saying. When I realized we were laughing at Jack, who could be very sick, I straightened up. "If you find out what's wrong with him, will you tell me?"

"Sure," he said, but I didn't believe him. "Okay, I really have to go now."

I didn't want him to hang up. I felt like he was a lifeline to the truth, and the second the phone clicked off, I'd be scrambling through the unknown again, drowning in a black abyss. "Elliott," I said, trying to keep the urgency out of my voice. "Will you please just answer one simple question for me? I promise not to make it any more complicated than it has to be, and it won't even be something you should get in trouble for telling me."

He was quiet for longer than I expected. Finally, he said, "I will tell you what I can, if I can. What is it?"

My mind was so full of questions, I wasn't sure which to ask. I knew there were certain things he wouldn't be able to tell me, and I didn't want to waste my one question on something he couldn't reveal. After careful consideration, I took a deep breath and asked, "How old are you?"

"Cassidy, if I tell you that, it's just going to open a whole 'nother can of worms and lots more questions."

"That's okay," I said, feeling like his non-answer was actually good information to have. "I won't ask you anything else today, and I'll wait for you to call me again before I ask you anything more. Come on, Elliott. Aaron can't get mad at you for telling me how old you are, can he? I mean... it's a simple question. Like, you can ask me, and I'll tell you I'm fifteen."

"Yes, he can get mad at me," Elliott replied. "He can get very mad at me."

"He's not going to fire you, is he? Aren't you pretty important to your organization?"

Silence filled my ear. I tried not to breathe too loudly into the phone. "I have to go, Cass."

"Please?"

"Cass...."

"PLEASE?" Apparently, I was not above begging.

There was a growl I hoped I never encountered in a dark alley. "Fine. I'm... seventy-five. And I have to go."

The phone clicked dead in my hand and I let it slip out of my fingers onto the sofa. My mouth hung open for a really long while, and I was oblivious to my friends calling my name.

"Cass-i-dy?" Lucy said, pulling on my shoulder.

I turned to face them, still in a fog. "He's seventy-five..." I mumbled.

"What's that now?" Emma asked. She didn't seem quite as alarmed as Lucy.

I swallowed hard and pressed on my temples with both hands. "He finally answered me. He said he's seventy-five."

"Years old?" Lucy clarified. "He's seventy-five years old?"

"That's what he said."

"Great googly moogly," Emma whispered. "How in the how?"

"I don't know."

We sat in silence for a very long time, and I almost wished I hadn't asked. There was no way in the world the man that I had spoken to in person twice now who looked like he was in his mid-twenties, early thirties at best, could possibly be seventy-five freaking years old. No way. But why would he lie about that? Just to freak me out?

Lucy snapped out of it first. "Okay. Tell us what else he said so I can add it to my notes and the Wiki."

I wanted to, but my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. I grabbed my bottle of water off of the floor and downed a whole bunch of it before I started filling them in on the other side of the conversation. Talking about Jack was hard. I was concerned for him. Lucy took a lot of notes and then started putting them into her computer. I thought I should be writing this information down, too, but I didn't want to, not right now. It had occurred to me that the only reason I had been writing everything down was to share with them and to make sure that if Elliott did anything to my brain, I could remember, but then, I knew now he wasn't going to do that anymore. If I had never written the notes in the first place, to keep track of things and share them with my girls, I would likely be in a brainwashing-induced stupor without a care in the world. Presently, I wasn't sure what was worse—knowing or not having a clue.

Lucy was just about done with her notes when my phone buzzed that I had a text. It was from Elliott. "You okay, lil girl?"

I was sure he knew how much he'd freaked me out. But I couldn't tell him that. "Yep. Just fine, gramps." I hoped he would know I was messing with him.

"Ha ha. You're too cute. Don't ever call me that again."

I wanted to ask if what he told me was real, or if he was just messing with me, and something told me that if I pressed the issue and let him know how weirded out I was, he would deny it and say he was just joking around, which wouldn't be too hard to believe considering how much he liked to do just that. But I wasn't going to go there. I knew what I knew, and he'd have to be okay with it. And so would Aaron. Which reminded me of something else Elliott had said. "At least you're not as old as your boss."

"True," he replied. "Or dirt."

Not having any idea how old Aaron was, and not wanting to ask, I decided to let him off the hook. I'd had enough revelations for one day. "Have a safe flight to Paris."

"Thanks. I promise we'll chat when I get back. Just keep this convo to yourself, okay?"

I assumed he meant not to tell my parents or Cadence we were talking since it wasn't likely I'd be seeing or speaking to Aaron any time soon. "Will do." It was a promise I intended to keep, except for the other two ladies in the room. It was too late for that.

"And tell Lucy and Emma I said hi. They'll know what it means."

With that, I started laughing hysterically. It wasn't that funny of a joke—of course they'd know what the word "hi" means. But the fact that he knew I was with them, that I'd already told them everything he said, spoke volumes to me. I got the idea he was crossing a few boundaries he wasn't supposed to in letting me know what little parts of the truth he could reveal, and I appreciated it. Why he would take this sort of risk was beyond me, but the more I got to know Dr. Elliott Sanderson, the more I liked him. Whoever, or whatever, he was.

# Chapter 19

There was just about a week before school got out for Christmas break, and we all should've been excited about the upcoming holidays, but something thick hung in the air around my school and even at home. Whispers in the hallway between classes told me Jack Cook wasn't getting any better. My parents didn't know when I could overhear their solemn conversations about Cadence and if she was getting in over her head. I continued to worry, to take notes, to discuss with my friends, but I still had no idea what was going on with Cadence.

I was at Lucy's studying for a biology test we'd be having on Friday, which happened to be the last day before Christmas break, when my mom called. I knew it had to be important because she never called me when I was studying. "Hello?" I asked, bracing myself against the fear that began to grow inside of me each time my phone rang.

"Cass, honey, something's happened. I'm on my way over. I'll be there in just a minute."

A lump formed in my throat. "Is... is everything okay? Is it Cadence?"

"Your sister's fine, honey. Just pack up and meet me outside Lucy's house in a minute, okay?"

"Okay," I replied, hanging up and putting my phone in my back pocket.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked. Milo and Wes were there, and I could even see concern in Emma's face, which was rare.

"I don't know," I answered honestly, packing my books into my backpack. "She just said something's happened, and she's coming to get me."

"It's not your sister?" Emma asked.

"No."

"Maybe your grandma?" Wes asked.

I glanced at him. That hadn't even occurred to me. "Maybe."

I began to walk out of Lucy's bedroom, headed for the stairwell. All four of them followed me.

Lucy was on my heels. "Do you think your mom will come in and tell you?"

"No." I reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped, turning to face them. "I'll let you know." I had my coat over my arm and thought I should probably put it on, but I wasn't thinking clearly so when I turned to walk outside, it was still not on.

My mom's van was pulling to a stop in the driveway. I told my friends goodbye and ran out to get in. The bitter December breeze cut through my sweater like it was nothing, and I was glad my mom had the heat on high.

"Honey, put on your coat," she scolded as I clicked my seat belt. "You'll catch your death of cold." As if her words, a sentence she'd said to me a million times before, were suddenly poison, she made a terrible face and then backed the van down the drive.

I knew immediately someone was dead. "Mom, who is it?" I asked, names and faces flickering through my mind. "Where's dad?"

"He's on his way home from work," she assured me. "Let's wait until we get home."

"No," I insisted. I thought of my aunt and uncle, my two younger cousins. It could be any of them. But I knew in my heart it wasn't. "Mom, is it... Jack?"

My mom was headed down the street going slightly over the speed limit, but that didn't stop her from turning to look at me. "How did you know that?" she asked, her words slow, even if her driving wasn't.

Tears were already stinging my eyes as I thought about the boy, the man, that my sister had dated for so long. He'd been like a brother to me. Always so kind and considerate. Such an outstanding citizen. "Is he... dead?"

She cleared her throat, and I could see she was fighting back tears of her own. "I wanted to wait until we got home to tell you, Cassidy," she said quietly.

I settled back into my seat and turned my head so that I was facing the front of the van, but I wasn't seeing anything. Not the road or the trees or the houses or any of it. I didn't want my mom to try and drive while she was crying, so I was silent.

We reached our house, and my mom pulled into the garage. In a trance, I got out of the car and followed her inside. I went straight to the couch and sat down, waiting for my mother to situate herself near me. "Cassidy, he was sick. He'd contracted something from a foreign exchange student. The doctors did everything they could to make him better, but they couldn't save him."

There was no holding back the tears now as I began to sob. My mom wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her shoulder, smoothing my hair as she whispered reassuring phrases, like, "It's okay. It'll be all right. Take a deep breath."

But I knew that it wasn't all right. That nothing was ever going to be all right again. I knew things I wasn't supposed to know about people I'd never even met—like Jamie and Eliza. My mom had no idea that I was more afraid than anything that Jack wasn't dead—that he was undead. What if my sister had done this to Jack, created a monster out of the boyfriend she used to love so much? Maybe she'd gone to Paris to evade whatever heat the other vampires had put on her for creating a new bloodsucker without permission.

Or maybe Jack really was dead, and all of this nonsense was just that—childish stories I'd been telling myself in an attempt to make peace with Drew's death. But what were the chances that two of my sister's friends would die so close together? Both under very mysterious circumstances. None of it made any sense, and I had absolutely no one in the world I could talk to about any of it.

I was inconsolable for the next fifteen minutes or so until I was finally all out of tears and began to heave air into my body with each breath, shaking, trying to regain control of my spasming lungs. My dad came in, and that made it worse. His long arms created a protective cocoon around my mom and myself, but I knew it was all a façade. There really was no security.

Eventually, I began to still, no longer able to produce any tears or even a noise. My parents continued to hold me, and even though I began to feel a bit selfish that I was so upset about a friend of my sister's, I couldn't speak. My dad stood, pulling me up with him, and with his arms still around me, he walked me upstairs to my bedroom. He pulled the covers down for me, and I slipped out of my shoes and fell into my bed.

Dad sat down on the edge of my bed as I wiped at my tear streaked face with the back of my hand. He smoothed my hair and kissed my forehead. "I know how badly this hurts, Cassidy. Jack was like a brother to you. He was a good person. I'm so, so sorry."

Lots of thoughts filled my mind, like the fact that my dad loved Jack, too, that I knew he was also hurting. But I couldn't say anything. My body continued to vibrate and every once in a while, it would give a violent shake. "Your sister is in Lincoln with Steve and Alice. She should be home tomorrow, for a little while."

I knew he added on that last bit, so I would know it wasn't over yet, that she would be headed back to Kansas City eventually. I guess Elliott hadn't been successful in getting my sister to quit the team. I only nodded at my dad. I was glad Cadence was there, and I wondered if she'd been there when Jack passed away, but I couldn't ask that right now. There'd be another funeral. This time, I would go. They wouldn't be able to keep me from attending Jack Cook's funeral. I owed him that, at least.

My dad stood and pulled the blinds shut. I thought of all the strange things I'd seen out that window lately and wondered what they had to do with all of this. I shuddered again and closed my eyes, thinking sleep was the only way to escape the nightmare my life had become.

"We'll call you down for dinner in a while, honey. Try and get some sleep."

I made a noise that sounded a little bit like a bleating lamb and closed my eyes, happy to let the darkness overtake me. I knew I'd promised to let my friends know, but that would have to wait until later. I let myself drift off into oblivion to a world where people's friends didn't die, old men didn't wear young men's faces, and no one's sister ever turned into a vampire.

# Chapter 20

School was cancelled for the rest of the week, which was just as well because no one would be going anyway. We would have our finals when we returned from our two-week Christmas break, and the little kids would have a winter party instead of a Christmas party upon their return. Plans were adjusted, schedules were changed, people did what needed to be done to get by since our small community had lost a second young life inside of a month's time.

I'd slept late into the morning, which was unusual for me, but despite my nap, I was completely exhausted in every way imaginable. The night before, my parents had gotten me out of bed long enough to pick at a piece of chicken, but the last thing I wanted to do was eat. By the time I'd checked my phone, everyone already knew, so I didn't bother to text anything back except for to let Lucy, Emma, Milo, and Wes know that I was okay. If that was the case, it didn't feel like it, but I could hardly tell them how I really felt like someone had ripped my heart out of my body and crushed it before my very eyes.

It was mid-afternoon when we heard a car pull into our driveway. My dad and mom exchanged glances, and I swiped at my eyes again. We all knew Cadence would be home that day; I just had no idea who she would be when she got here.

We all went to the door to greet her. Something about her looked different again. She was wearing a faux smile, and I could tell that she'd been crying some, too, though I knew her eyes were not as puffy as mine. Her skin had a sheen to it I couldn't quite place. I didn't understand why I felt like grim death and my sister, Jack's ex-girlfriend, looked like a supermodel.

I was relieved to see she wasn't alone. After she'd hugged all of her family members, Cadence said, "Mom, Dad, Cass, you've all met Elliott. And this is Hannah."

I smiled at Elliott the best I could, and the look in his eyes when he looked at me was nothing but empathetic. I wondered if he could climb inside of my head now and convince me that it was okay that Jack had died. I think I would've welcomed it.

Hannah was tall and thin, though not as tall as my sister, and she had long strawberry-blonde hair. She wore a professional looking skirt and jacket with a turtleneck under it, all in matching tones of gray. If I had to guess, I'd say she was in her mid-thirties, but at this point, I knew there was no way to tell. "Cassidy," she said, her voice like a song, "it is so very nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you." I took her outstretched hand, and the moment I did, a wave of warmth hit me. Suddenly, the despair I'd been holding on to since my mother had given me the news seemed to fall away, and I could breathe again.

I looked at Elliott, and he smiled at me just long enough for me to understand that Hannah had some sort of ability, too, and that it was okay for me to give in to it. "It's nice to meet you, too," I said to Hannah. We all headed into the living room to make small talk and pretend like Jack wasn't dead, and I could see that my sister looked more haggard now than she had in the direct sunlight of the front porch. She sat next to me and put her arm around my shoulders. I let her lean her head on my arm and pretend like she was the same sister I'd had not long ago, the one I knew and trusted. I wasn't sure what she was now, and I didn't like the fact that she couldn't tell me. Still, she was obviously hurting. Maybe I didn't see it at first because of whatever Hannah was doing to her, doing to us.

As my dad took his usual seat, he asked, "Where's Aaron?"

"Billings," Elliott said. "He'll be here in a day or two."

My dad nodded in understanding and the conversation rolled along, but all I could think about was whether or not this was actually my sister next to me or just something that looked mostly like her.

Elliott was sitting on her other side, sitting close, very close. And as we continued to talk, I noticed that my sister reached over with her free hand and took ahold of his. This seemed odd to me. I wasn't sure if Cadence was just trying to stabilize her emotions by having direct contact with the two of us or if something else was going on. Was there more than just a friendship between the two of them?

"How are Alice and Steve?" my mom asked, crossing her legs and leaning forward in her recliner, as she had a tendency to do when she was nervous.

Cadence sat up only slightly. "They're about as well as can be expected." Her voice was solemn. "I'm sure it will take a very long time for them to go through the grieving process."

Hannah spoke up in her soft voice from where she sat on the love seat across from my parents. "The grieving process is so vitally important for each of us to go through in order to return to any semblance of normalcy once we have a devastating loss of this nature."

Both of my parents nodded and agreed, and I noticed again how clinical her voice sounded. "Are you a counselor of some sort?" I asked, hoping my tone seemed inquisitive and not at all accusatory, since I didn't mean the question to come across that way. But I was suspicious of everyone.

Hannah looked at me and smiled. She was pretty in an unassuming way, and she sort of reminded me of the lady who plays Rayna on _Nashville_. "I am," she said, her voice very calm. I nodded. I wanted to ask why Cadence brought along her own personal grief counselor, but I thought that might seem aggressive. "I'm happy to help any of you who might be struggling with the horrible events of the past few weeks."

My eyes flickered to Elliott, and I silently wondered if this was because he had not done a very good job of helping me "deal" with my "grief." He smiled at me, a small reassuring gesture, and I quickly put my attention elsewhere, back to Hannah. "Thanks," was about all I could manage.

"How are the rest of your friends?" my dad asked. He looked at me, and for a moment I thought he might send me out of the room, like all of this was also top-secret, but he didn't.

Cadence replied, "Okay. They spoke to Elliott and Hannah, and I think that helped."

My parents nodded, and I pretended like I had no idea what that meant, like I was supposed to think Elliott and Hannah were just good at talking to people instead of knowing what Cadence really meant was that her new friend had brainwashed her gang from high school, and Hannah had used her emotional manipulation, the same good juju I was feeling right now.

I knew I was likely on my way upstairs, so I thought I might as well see if I could get something out of it first. "Do they have any idea what it was that... killed Jack?" I asked, turning my head slightly so that I could look at Cadence. I tried my best not to catch anyone else's eyes as I was pretty sure they'd interfere with her answer. I took a chance that she might slip up, that she might forget the "don't tell Cassidy stuff" rule.

"The CDC is looking into it," Cadence replied. "Once they found his body and had it cremated, I think that they have it under control, but I'm not sure what the autopsy showed."

I almost smiled. She had said way too much. I could tell by the wide-eyed expression I saw over her shoulder on Elliott's face. He stammered, "Uh, it's nothing to worry about, Cassidy. Everything is fine."

She had messed up. I could tell. I analyzed her answer and saw the fault in it. Since I knew Jack was in the hospital sick for several days before he died, there was no way what she said about "finding" his body made any sense at all, unless they had temporarily lost Jack's body. How odd. And... why would the CDC cremate a body? Was there even an autopsy?

But I had to play all dumb and innocent, like I didn't have any idea that what my sister said was unexpected or led me to believe she was lying to me about anything at all. "That's good," I said, smiling at Cadence. She wasn't looking at me, though. Her eyes were darting around, and for a second, I thought it seemed like she was talking to someone, the same way Elliott had the other day when he was supposed to be talking to me, but it looked like he was having an internal conversation. I glanced at him, and he was doing the same thing right now. Was it possible they were talking to each other? Using telepathy?

Eventually, Cadence pulled a sort-of creepy smile onto her face. "You know, Cass, everything is just fine. There's nothing to worry about. I mean, it's unfortunate that Jack has passed away, don't get me wrong, but we don't have to worry about the disease that claimed him."

I nodded in agreement. "It is too bad that Jack died." I looked at Elliott whose eyes were narrowed at me, as if he was doing his best to keep my mouth shut. I couldn't help but let a haunt of a smile slip across my lips, though I was sure he was the only one who would notice. "But... these things happen. We should all be sad that Jack died, but then we need to let it go and get on with our lives. People die." I shrugged, like it was no skin off my nose that the boy I used to think of as a brother was now tiny bits of ash in a container sitting somewhere on his parents' mantel awaiting his final send off.

Elliott cleared his voice, obviously perturbed by me. I assumed the rest of the people present would just think he had managed to slip that brainwashing into my vocabulary, but he and I both knew better. "Cassidy, don't you have... homework or something?"

As a teenage girl, I have perfected the, "I-will-murder-you stare." I used it on the good doctor now.

"You know, Cassidy, I do think it might be better if you went upstairs for a little while. We need to talk to Cadence, and I am sure you don't want to hear any of the details about Jack's death." I knew Elliott's power of suggestion would work on my mother.

"No, of course I don't want to," I lied, turning to look at my parental units. "I think I'll go upstairs." Cadence let go of me, and I stood. I gave her a sympathetic look and then turned to Hannah. "It was nice to meet you." She gave me a small smile, and then, looking directly at Elliott, I said, "I don't have any homework, but I do have a few phone calls to make."

The look on his face was one of almost amusement, as if he couldn't believe I had the guts to look him squarely in the eyes and tell him I was about to do exactly what he'd told me not to and let my friends know what was going on, but he said nothing.

Upstairs, my phone was chiming before I even sat down on my bed. I knew who the text was from, and once I'd pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at it, I couldn't help but laugh.

"Cassidy Elizabeth, I think we talked about this. You're supposed to let this go and not tell your friends jack about Jack."

I replied, "Dr. Sanderson, I don't know what you're talking about. Why would I tell my friends anything when I know nothing?"

"You know more than you should."

Feeling bold, I sent a text back, "Come up here and make me stop then, why don't you?"

It took him a few moments to answer, and I wondered if someone had asked him who he was texting. Finally, I got my reply. "You know I can."

I did. I knew he could do a lot of things, even if he wasn't a vampire. He's a big dude. But I also knew that he wouldn't. Because he liked me. I didn't know why, but I knew that he did. And I liked him, too. For some reason, I felt like I'd known him a lot longer than a few days. He seemed familiar in the way the sun or the moon feel like old friends, like he'd always been there in the background, part of my life I'd never noticed before.

Part of me wanted to respect his wishes and not tell my friends anything, but I knew they deserved to know as much as I did. I called Lucy and Emma on three-way and waited for them both to answer before I began to recite what I'd learned from Cadence. I hadn't really spoken to them since I'd left Lucy's the day before, when my mom picked me up to tell me about Jack, though we'd sent a few texts about how we couldn't believe it, and I let them know I was okay—or would be—eventually.

I told them I really felt like my sister and her friend were carrying on a mental conversation. I expected Lucy to believe me, which she did, but what really surprised me was that Emma did, too. She said she had gone ahead and started doing some research on vampires herself and that most popular legends state that they have the ability to use telepathy as a means of communication. When I mentioned Jack's missing body, Lucy about lost it herself, exclaiming that it would only make sense if Jack had left the hospital on his own and they'd had to hunt him down and destroy him. We were back to the good vampire/bad vampire scenario, and as much as I hated to believe it, it was beginning to make sense. Maybe my sister was a vampire, but if she was, I could at least hope that she was one that was supposed to help protect people from evil vampires.

I hung up and laid back on my bed, wondering if my sister had actually bitten someone and sucked their blood. I didn't think my sister could kill Jack, and I believed Elliott when he told me that she hadn't killed Drew. Was it possible that whichever evil vampire had killed Drew had infected Jack? It seemed like he had started getting sick almost right away, back when I went to visit him. I know other people thought he was acting weird because he was upset about Drew, and that would make sense, but part of me thought there was a good chance that he was turning even back then.

Lucy must've been thinking the same thing. She sent a text that said, "Maybe Jack was infected the night Drew died, and this was just an incubation period?"

"I was just thinking the same thing," I replied. We sent a few more texts with theories and timelines, and Lucy said she'd update the Wiki. I'd set my phone down and was staring at the ceiling, thinking about how devastated I'd been the night before and feeling thankful for Hannah's superpowers when a knock on my door had me sitting up.

"Yeah?"

Cadence opened the door slowly. "Hey. How are you doing?"

I shrugged. "I'm okay. I feel better today than I did yesterday." I considered feeling her out about Hannah, but I let it go. Whatever was happening, it had to be taking its toll on my sister. She looked even more exhausted now than she had when she'd had her head on my shoulder, although I couldn't get over how much more vibrant her skin looked.

"Mom said dinner will be ready in a few minutes." She sat down next to me on the bed. "How's school been?"

"Fine."

"How's that boy you never want to talk about?"

I blushed. "He's good. He came over to study for algebra with me last week." It seemed like a million years ago.

My sister gave me a mischievous grin. "Are you sure you don't have a boyfriend, Cass?" she asked, a twinkle in her eyes.

"No!" I exclaimed, sitting up. "He's definitely not my boyfriend." Like I could even get my hopes up that he might be someday.

"I don't know..." my sister said in a sing-song voice.

"What about you?" I asked, remembering her holding hands with Elliott. "Anything you wanna tell me?"

Cadence raised both eyebrows and stared at me hard for a long moment. "Uh, I think I hear Mom calling," she said, darting off of the bed almost too fast to be believed.

"Uh huh!" I called after her, jumping up and running to catch her. "I think you're a fine one to talk, teasing me about boys."

Hearing my sister's laughter momentarily made me forget that everyone around us seemed to be dying or changing into creatures of the night. She reached the foyer and turned back to look at me. "No boyfriend here," she replied. "I can't help it everyone wants a piece of this, though." She winked at me and made a really weird gesture with both arms, like she was displaying what she meant by "this," and I cracked up. Having my sister back, even if it was just for a little while, and even if she wasn't really herself, was comforting. So was walking into a dining room with just my family and digging into mom's pot roast without thinking of vampires or funerals. It might not last, but I was determined to hold on to it for now.

# Chapter 21

I went to bed a little earlier than usual that night after updating my notes and going over a few things. Lucy had sent me more information about vampire infections, and Emma sent some links to sites that talked about telepathy, but I didn't have the energy to look at them right then. Wes's birthday party was still on for the next day, and even though part of me didn't want to go, my parents thought it was a good idea. And I thought maybe I needed a little more normal. I closed my notebook and my eyes, shutting off the light on my phone, which was already plugged in to charge.

Maybe half an hour passed before I heard my sister's voice. At first, I wasn't sure what was happening, but then I realized she was on the phone, though it sounded brief. I couldn't understand what she was saying, but by her tone, I got the impression all was not well. She sounded stressed. I considered getting up and going next door to check on her, but then I heard her bedroom window open and remembered it was no longer my responsibility to make my sister feel better; she had her new friends for that.

I fully expected to hear Aaron's voice. I wondered why he wasn't with her when she got here today. What could possibly be so important in Billings? I wasn't even sure where that was. But, he is the boss, after all, and I thought maybe he had more important things to do than babysit his new recruit. So far, however, he'd been the only one to come through Cadence's window—that I knew of.

Until now. I couldn't understand a word that was being said, as I'm sure they were both being quiet because they were aware I was on the other side of the wall, but it was definitely Elliott in there. His voice reverberated through the wall in bass tones, much deeper and richer than Aaron's.

A pang of jealousy hit me in the chest. I had no idea what it was I thought I had to be envious about. Elliott did not belong to me, after all. But the idea that he was in my sister's room right now, talking to her about whatever it had been about the phone call that upset her, made me want to run over there and scream at Cadence that she wasn't allowed to talk to him, that he was mine. She could have the rest of her new friends, but I wanted Elliott for myself.

It was stupid, and I knew that. And it wasn't like I had a crush on him or anything. It was more like someone was trying to take up my big brother's time, and I wanted him only for me. Embarrassed by my own emotions, I pulled the blanket up over my head and tried to block out the sound of them chuckling quietly.

A little while later, the room grew unusually quiet, and then, a few minutes passed before I heard my sister's bedroom door creak open. I had a feeling it wasn't Cadence who was headed downstairs, though.

I rolled over, facing the wall, turning my back on my sister and Elliott and this whole new ridiculous world they'd introduced me to. I didn't need any of it. Everything had been just fine and dandy before Cadence had to run off to that stupid Eidolon Festival and get herself turned into a bloodsucker. If I could go back and do it all again, I would. I'd burst through my sister's bedroom door and scream at Drew, talk some sense into her, make her recognize that she was making a decision that would lead to her death, and Jack's too. But I couldn't do that. I had no way of turning back time.

I wondered if any of Cadence's new friends had that for a special power.

Tossing and turning for the next hour began to weigh on me. Even though Wes's party didn't start until the next afternoon, so I could sleep in, I felt like I needed to get some sleep or I was going to lose my mind. Besides, I wanted to know if Elliott was still in our house.

I got up, put on my robe and my slippers, and headed out the door toward the stairs, careful not to wake my sister as I went.

The light over the stove was on, casting an eerie glow I could see from underneath the door from the dining room. My parents' bedroom was on the other side of the house, and I didn't think I'd disturb them since my dad snored really loudly and my mom always wore earplugs and ran a box fan, even in the winter, to drown him out, but I didn't even know at this point who might still be in my house.

I pushed the door open and wasn't awfully surprised to see Elliott sitting at the kitchen table, reading a newspaper, with what looked like a mug of coffee in front of him. Without looking up, he said, "Hey, Cass. Whatchu doin' up?"

Going about my business as if it was perfectly normal for a man I barely knew to be sitting in the breakfast nook, I opened the fridge. "Couldn't sleep," I replied. I pulled out a gallon of milk and set it on the counter before grabbing a glass out of the cupboard.

"Me neither," he replied, folding the paper and setting it in front of him on the table. I considered asking him if vampires had to sleep, but then, Cadence was sleeping. I glanced at him over my shoulder to see he was watching me intently. I poured the milk into the glass, put the lid back on, and padded over to the fridge to put it away before returning to the glass. Elliott's eyes followed me the whole time.

I picked up the glass and took a few steps to the microwave. I had the door opened before he said, "Cassidy? What in the world are you doing?" He was out of his chair and by my side quicker than a flash. "You can't microwave a glass of milk."

Looking up at him, I raised an eyebrow. "This is how I always warm my milk."

The expression of disgust on his face rivaled one an elderly woman might display if she caught a granddaughter wearing white after Labor Day. "Give me that," he said, snatching the glass out of my hand and crossing to the stove.

Turning to watch him, I stood with my mouth open, pushing the microwave door closed without looking. Elliott found a small saucepan and poured the milk into it, flicking on a burner. He was mumbling to himself, something about, "kids these days," and "barbarians." I was amused; I never would've taken him for the kind of person who could be so irritated by something that seemed so unimportant to me.

I decided to take a seat at the table while he began to slowly stir the milk, being very careful to warm it evenly and not burn it. "You seem to know a lot about warming milk," I noted.

"Yeah, well, my mom taught me early. Used to have to help take care of my baby brother. And then..." he stopped talking. I wondered where the thought was going, but he didn't seem to want to finish it, so I went back to what he had actually felt comfortable telling me.

"I didn't know you had a brother."

"Had is right." He turned his back to me then, and in the dim light from above the stove, he looked a bit frightening, dressed in dark jeans, his signature black jacket still on. The light cast a shadow over most of him but illuminated the top of his curly hair.

"I'm sorry to hear that," I replied. He muttered something that sounded a little bit like thanks as his shoulders hunched up and down. "What happened?" I knew it was none of my business, but it seemed like the sort of question a person might ask.

He turned back to face me now, though he was still stirring. "He got hit by a train," he replied quietly. I gasped, and he shrugged again. "It was a long time ago, though."

My hands had flown up to cover my mouth on their own accord. I withdrew them. "That's just terrible. I'm very sorry."

"It's okay." He turned back around now, but I could tell that it really wasn't.

Part of me thought I should leave well enough alone, but I am nothing if not inquisitive. "How old was he?"

"Uh, a little older than you," he replied, stirring. "Seventeen."

I sighed. Another life taken too early. "That's... I'm sorry." I knew I was saying the same thing over and over again, but there really wasn't anything else to say.

Elliott seemed satisfied that my milk was warm enough, so he flipped the burner off and carefully poured it back into the glass. He brought it over to me and resumed his seat.

"Thank you," I said before cautiously picking up the container, being sure it wasn't too hot before I took a sip. It was delicious. He was right. It was much better heated over the stove than ran through the microwave. "It's really good," I said before taking another gulp.

He smiled at me. The paper was back in his hands, but he wasn't reading it. "Good."

I took a few more swallows, staring at the table instead of him, before I stuck my toes into the proverbial pond. "Can I ask you something?"

"Nope," he said, straightening the paper so that it flapped loudly.

"Please?"

Huffing like I'd asked him to drive me to Disney World, he said, "What is it, Cass? You know I'm not going to able to answer you. I've already told you way more than I am supposed to."

"And I appreciate that," I replied, "but, I can't help but wonder what all that discussion was earlier, about the CDC, and Jack's body missing. Does the CDC really cremate people?"

"Sure," he replied. "Why wouldn't they? If someone has an infectious disease, we can't hardly let them go running around spreading it all over the place."

"We?" I asked, glad to finally have him talking.

"Yep." He groaned at me and rolled his eyes before setting the paper aside and reaching into his jacket pocket. He pulled something out and glanced at it before turning it to face me. It was a badge, like one you might need to get into an office building, and it had a picture of him looking a bit cheesy, sort of like Will Ferrell's wedding picture in _Old School_. Next to it, I clearly read, "Dr. Elliott Sanderson, Center for Disease Control."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "What else you got in that pocket of yours? FBI? CIA? Department of Homeland Security?"

He shrugged and stuck the badge back in his pocket, taking a sip of his coffee before he said, "Maybe."

I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms. "Now, that's something I would think Aaron would get mad at you for telling me."

His smirk took up half his face. "Are you and Aaron having a lot of intimate conversations these days?"

"No, of course not," I replied, slamming my hand down on the table, "which is why it shouldn't matter what you tell me."

"It's not just Aaron I'm worried about," he replied, keeping his voice down as if my hand slamming might wake up half the house. "Your parents have made it very clear that they are not ready for you to know anything more than what they are willing to tell you. Dang it, Cass, I'm trying to respect that."

Elliott looked a lot more serious and a little more angry than I had ever seen him before, and I didn't like it. "But... why?" I asked, my voice almost a whisper. "What is it that my parents are keeping from me?"

"Not _keeping_ _from_ you. _Protecting_ you _from_." The anger was gone, but his words were still measured. "You don't know what you don't know."

I stared at him hard for a long moment. I had no idea whether or not I should be trusting him. Was this how Jack and Drew had been snookered? Did they think they could trust someone that they couldn't? Is that how my sister fell under their spell and ended up—something different. "Did my sister kill Jack?" I already knew the answer, but I needed him to tell me. For sure.

"Of course not."

"Did one of your associates?"

"No!"

"Do you know who did?"

He let out an exhausted breath. "Why can't you just accept that Jack died from a disease like everyone else?"

"Because I'm not like everyone else."

"You got that right." He ran his hands through his hair, leaving it standing up and curled in all different directions. "Cassidy, Jack is gone. I'm not trying to brainwash you, but you need to let him go, okay?"

Tears filled my eyes, taken from the well inside of me that grieved for the baseball player my sister had loved so well, that I had loved in a way that was now being transferred to the man in front of me for reasons I could not understand, reasons out of my control. I said nothing, only dropped my eyes to the floor.

Elliott got up and walked away, returning a moment later with a napkin, which I supposed was the best he could do under the circumstances. His chair screeched across the floor as he sat back down. "Look, I wanna be honest with you, Cass. I can't tell you everything, but I do want you to know I was wrong about one thing. I thought your sister would decide this line of work wasn't for her. In fact, I thought I could convince her of such. But... well, she's pretty darn good at her job. And she's growing on me a little bit." I looked up at him then, saw a small smile, remembered them holding hands on the couch earlier. "Anyway, I don't think she'll be headed off to school again quite so quickly. I think she'll probably come back to KC with us when Jack's funeral is over, and I think she might be with us for the long haul."

I didn't know what to say. I dabbed at the corners of my eyes, still upset but not wanting to start crying again. I muttered an, "Okay," and took a deep breath.

"Just, whatever you do, don't start asking her a bunch of questions, all right? She's not equipped to handle that right now, and you don't want her to get in trouble for telling you stuff you're not supposed to know."

I sounded like a broken record, whatever that means. "Okay."

He reached over and put his big bear paw of a hand on my thin arm where it rested on the table. "Cassidy, I will tell you that you're safe. You and your family are well-protected from anything and everything. You don't have to worry." I looked up into his eyes, and even without them gleaming at me, I believed him. "We are the good guys. You can trust us."

Something about the intensity of the moment had me smirking. I had to turn it into something else so I didn't seem rude. I asked, "So why do you always wear black, if you're the good guys?"

"This ain't no western, and it's not my first rodeo," he replied, without skipping a beat.

I nodded, feeling like even if he couldn't tell me exactly what was going on, at least I no longer felt like there was a possibility that my sister was some evil creature who was taking out her friends. Once more, for good measure, I said, "Okay. I guess I should go to bed."

"Yeah, I think you should, too."

I rose, stepping behind my chair and pushing it in. I reached for my mostly-empty glass of milk. "I'll take care of it," he assured me, and I smiled. "Night, Cass."

"Goodnight." I gave him one last smile and then headed off to bed, thankful that he had at least put my mind at ease, even if he hadn't answered all of my questions. I was hopeful the milk would do the trick, and I'd be drifting off to dreamland sometime soon.

# Chapter 22

I felt sorry for Wes. His birthday party should've been epic, but instead, everyone looked morose. Even the upbeat songs and the disco lights reflecting off the slick skating surface didn't make any of us feel any better; everyone was thinking about poor Jack Cook.

The rumors were ridiculous, and I tried not to listen to them. Of course, in comparison, I supposed they weren't any more out there than what I thought might be the truth—that Jack Cook was infected by a vampire, turned, and was killed by a team of "good" vampires that my sister had recently joined. I guess the other kids' ideas that it was the bubonic plague, tainted Mountain Dew, or an infiltration by Russian spies really weren't that outlandish after all.

Once the party was over, Em and I headed to Lucy's house. My folks thought it would be a good idea if I slept over for some reason. Maybe it was because they wanted me out of their hair so they could talk to Cadence about all of the secrets the three of them were keeping from me. I didn't complain, though. It would give the three of us a better opportunity to look at things at the same time and see what we could come up with. Our brainstorming sessions were always best when done in person.

Lucy's mom had ordered pizza and let us eat it in her room, which was totally cool and something my mom would've had a heart attack over, probably because she'd have to get out any stains herself, whereas Mrs. Burk had a housekeeper to do that—well, at least once a week.

We had found some other good sites to give us information about vampires and we were taking some careful notes about ways you can test to see if someone is a vampire when Emma made the "hmmm" sound she makes when something surprises her. We don't hear that noise too often when she's doing research because she usually sees things coming. But not this time.

"What is it, Em?" I asked, finishing up with my notes about mirrors and silver jewelry.

"Well, I've been visiting this forum a couple of times a day for the last week, trying to see if anyone posts anything else interesting. I was reading a post this lady wrote just a few minutes ago, but halfway through, it just disappeared. And now, her entire account has been erased."

"That's really odd," Lucy said, setting her laptop aside and stretching across the end of the sofa she was sitting on to get closer to Emma in her chair. "What was it talking about?"

"Some lady in Montana posted that late last night, she was looking out her bedroom window and saw a terrible looking creature running across the street, being chased by a group of four or five people wearing black clothing. She said she saw a stream of blue light and what sounded like a gun firing before the creature just disappeared. I was getting to what happened next when the article literally just went away. That's so weird, because I hadn't refreshed my browser. It should've still been there."

"That is super weird," I agreed. "Do you remember her username or anything?"

"No, just that she was in Billings, I think."

For some reason, that town sounded familiar to me, though I couldn't quite place why. I puzzled over it while Lucy began typing furiously, and I wondered what in the world she was doing, but I didn't ask. She didn't look like she wanted to be distracted. "Are there any other sites like that you think she might've posted on?"

"There's one more," Emma mumbled, already typing. A few seconds later, she said, "Yeah, here she is. Montana Mama. But all of her posts are deleted."

I got up now, needing a closer look. I came and crouched down next to Emma's computer. Sure enough, there were three posts in a row that all said, "Montana Mama" and beneath her profile picture, "Deleted by admin CHENRY77" followed by the time, which was just a few minutes ago. "Super weird. I wonder if Montana Mama was on to something, and this admin person is trying to cover it up."

"I don't know. Let me see if Montana Mama has contact information before that disappears, too." Emma clicked through a few buttons and took a screenshot of Montana Mama's profile, which included an email address.

"OMG! OMG! OMG!" Lucy was squealing. "You have got to see this! Quick before it's gone!"

Emma practically dropped her computer as we both scrambled to get to Lucy's side. She was on YouTube, that was obvious by the red and white color scheme. The video she was watching was grainy at best. It was difficult to see what we were looking at, but I thought it might be a security camera. Emma pulled out her cell phone, and at first, I didn't know what she was doing, but then I realized she was filming the video. Smart. That way if it disappeared again, we'd still have it.

Lucy also took a screenshot of the post. It said, "I will not be silenced! I didn't want to have to do this, but you have forced my hand. Here's the video to prove I'm not lying!" The user account was none other than Montana Mama.

The creature ran across the screen, its pale face obscured by long, stringy, black hair. You could tell Montana Mama had slowed the video way down. Behind it, we saw three men and a woman in black chasing it. One of them fired what looked like a gun, and a streak of blue made contact with the monster before it was obliterated and ash filled the camera frame. At the end, two more figures came into focus, like they'd been hanging back, not really part of the chase but there nonetheless. If they hadn't been wearing black, I would've thought they were just innocent bystanders. Judging by their height and muscle structure, one of them looked like a petite woman, the other a man. As the others began to walk away, the one I thought was a woman turned and looked directly into the camera. It was just a flicker, something I wouldn't have even caught if I hadn't been staring at the screen so intently, but when I realized who I was looking at, I fell backward from my knees straight onto my keister. The screen went black, and for a moment, so did YouTube. When it flickered back to life, Montana Mama's video was gone.

"What the crap?" Lucy muttered, refreshing. Montana Mama's entire YouTube channel was gone.

I was still staring blankly, trying to process what I'd just seen.

"It's all gone." Lucy typed a few things, shook her laptop, and huffed in frustration. "Did you get it, Emma? Too bad you can't download from YouTube easily."

"I got it," Emma assured us. "I hope no one comes and erases my phone."

"How could they know you recorded it off of YouTube with your phone?" Lucy asked, as if that was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. I'd heard crazier. "Cass? Are you okay?"

They had finally noticed my stupor. "Yeah, it's just... I think... I saw...." Both girls stared at me like I had two heads or fangs. "I think that woman at the end was Eliza." My voice was just a whisper, like saying it aloud would bring black-clad super humans through the walls. I suddenly remembered what was familiar about Billings, Montana.

"Eliza?" Lucy repeated. "Shut up! Really? Play it again, Em."

Obliging, Emma played the video again on her phone, Lucy staring over her shoulder. I still hadn't moved. At the end, they both said, "Huh," and I heard Emma's camera go off as she captured a screenshot.

"I can run facial recognition," she said. We already knew the software was 90 percent sure Jamie Joplin's profile picture matched his Harvard graduation picture from over a hundred years ago.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket, not sure why in the world I was doing what I was doing, but part of me was tired of playing games. He answered on the second ring. "Hello?"

Clearing my voice, I said, "Who took out Montana Mama?"

I could hear talking in the background and couldn't decide if Elliott was at my parents' house or the hotel room he and Hannah, and who knows who else, had rented. His voice was low. "What in the world are you talkin' about now, lil girl?"

I wasn't surprised that he didn't know what I meant. He wasn't in the office, after all, and I had a feeling it wasn't him who had erased the video and posts. My mind flickered back to that video. Eliza was in Montana. Who was with her? I already knew the answer. That's why Aaron hadn't been at our house the night before—he was in Billings, Montana. Before I could ask another question, Emma was kicking me. I looked up, trying to listen to Elliott attempt to calm me down and read what Emma was trying to show me. The admin for the site that she was reading when Montana Mama's post went away, CHENRY77—Christian Henry. _Christian_.

"Cass, I told you to stop before you get yourself into trouble." He was talking through gritted teeth, his voice just above a whisper. "Seriously...."

"Ask Christian," I dared him. "I saw it, Elliott! I saw the video! That, that thing...."

"Okay, okay! Where are you?"

Could I trust him? Could I let him come over to Lucy's house when we had all of this information right here in front of us? He could destroy it all. He could make all three of us forget.

Before I could decide what to tell him, he was already answering. "Never mind. I already know. Stay there, Cass."

The phone went dead. I looked at my friends whose eyes were as wide as mine. My heart was racing. "He's coming. I've gotta get out of here."

# Chapter 23

We were scrambling, trying to hide whatever we could while still making sure our notes were clear. We still weren't exactly sure what we'd seen, but we had come so far. I wasn't about to let Elliott take it all away from me now. He'd have to claw it out of my cold, dead hands. That thought didn't last long before I realized that could easily be arranged, and ice water began to run through my veins.

"Why did you do that?" Lucy asked, shoving her laptop and notebook in a secret hiding space she had beneath a floorboard behind her dresser. "You shouldn't have told him!"

"Because I'm an idiot," I replied. I had no idea why I'd made that phone call. "I thought I could trust him!"

"You're an idiot!" Emma agreed.

"I know!" I grabbed my coat, having done my best to hide my laptop under a stack of Lucy's clothing, and my notebook was shoved between her desk and the wall. "I'm just going to go."

"It's cold outside, and it's almost dark," Lucy reminded me.

"I can't stay here. He'll... brainwash both of you."

My mind was made up, and I took off, stepping over the half-eaten pizza in the box on the floor, hoping Mr. and Mrs. Burk wouldn't notice me as I fled the scene.

I was about halfway down the stairs when I heard a knock on the door. I turned to see Lucy and Emma had followed me. We all three froze in terror as Daniel opened the door. I knew Elliott could brainwash his way in, take everything from us, and disappear into the night, like a... banshee.

"Hi, I'm so sorry to bother you. My name is Hannah Roberts, and I'm a friend of Liz Findley's. I understand her daughter, Cassidy, is here. Would you mind if I spoke to her for just a minute?"

It was Hannah. Oh, thank sweet baby Jesus, it was Hannah. Daniel shrugged and turned to face the stairs like he was going to scream up them, but when he saw me standing there, he walked away, leaving the door open and Hannah standing there. As I began to creep toward her, I heard Lucy's mom ask her son who it was and he said nobody. I didn't hear footsteps coming our direction, so I assumed somehow Hannah had manipulated Lucy's family into letting her in without question.

I stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "What are you doing here?" I asked, swallowing hard.

"Hi, Cassidy," Hannah said, smiling as she pushed the door behind her closed. "Do you have a minute?"

"No...."

She laughed. "It'll just take a moment."

"Did Elliott send you?" I was on a roll with stupid questions tonight.

Hannah walked into the dining room like she owned the place, and the three of us followed. She gestured for us to have a seat, and we did. I could see Lucy's hands trembling as she pulled out a chair, the one as far away from Hannah as possible.

"I understand that you saw a video on YouTube that has you asking some questions."

I didn't move. Didn't nod. Didn't waver.

"It's natural for you to question videos of this sort which seem to show people doing things out of the ordinary, impossible things. I don't blame you for being curious, particularly when they seem to disappear almost as quickly as they pop up. I can assure all three of you that you needn't worry about Montana Mama; she's just fine. An associate of mine is having a similar conversation with her just now. And... once that associate leaves, Montana Mama will no longer think she saw anything out of the ordinary."

"And when you leave, neither will we?" I asked.

Hannah's smile was tight. "I know you have notes, other pieces of information to help you remember what you think you've seen and heard, Cassidy." Hannah's voice was so pleasant, it was like a lullaby. "It's perfectly normal for you to want to keep track of the information you've gathered. I know that Elliott has asked you several times to stop researching. Here's the deal, sweet girls. This has to stop right here, right now, okay? You cannot keep digging. You have to let it go."

All three of us were nodding.

"There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything that you've seen. It was a prank. Montana Mama is looking for attention from others. You are right to question what you've seen, to be confused, but at the end of the day, there's nothing to fear."

I was still nodding, but the question burning on the tip of my tongue flew out of my mouth despite her assurances. "Was that a vampire?"

"Of course not. There are no such things as vampires. That was a man in a costume."

"Of course, it was a man in a costume." Lucy let out a long sigh of relief.

"Okay," I said.

"Now, when we are done, I want you to go back upstairs and rip up all of your notes. Delete everything off of your computers. And then... let all of this go. Okay?"

All three of us smiled. "Okay," we agreed.

"I can't wait to go rip up my notes," Emma said, a big sappy smile on her face.

"I'll just wipe my whole hard drive." Lucy looked relieved.

"And don't forget to delete all of your texts." Hannah's smile grew even wider.

"We will," Lucy assured her.

"Okay then." Hannah stood and pushed in her chair, heading for the door. We watched her let herself out, and still smiling like a bunch of idiots, we headed up the stairs.

"I am going to shred all of the notes I've taken," Lucy said. "It will be like making confetti!"

"We can have a paper party!" Emma agreed.

I was thinking about what a relief it would be to destroy everything, to lift the burden I'd been living under for these past few weeks, to be free of vampires, mysteries, and everything that had been weighing so heavily on my heart. I'd be able to breathe again at last.

We were at the top of the stairs when my phone buzzed. I almost ignored it, but then I thought I may as well get to deleting those pesky text messages.

It was Elliott. "Don't do it, Cass. Let them. Make them. But don't do it."

Confusion swept over me like a wave pounding against the rocky shoreline. What was he talking about? Don't do what? Make them do what? Suddenly, everything came rushing back to me like a ton of bricks slamming into my chest. Hannah had tricked us, convinced us to destroy everything, but Elliott was telling me not to do it with my own research, to let it be. But... I'd have to convince my two best friends in the world to rip up, to delete, everything they'd been working so hard to gather these past few weeks.

And they'd been doing all of it for me, not for themselves. They'd done it because I asked them to. Knowing that, however, made me feel very selfish. I had dragged them into this mess, and they could've been in danger. They could still be in danger. I had no idea what we were dealing with here, but I knew that it involved vampires. I'd seen it with my own eyes. I knew what I needed to do.

I answered him quickly with just one letter. "K," and followed Lucy to her room. I wished I could get a copy of that video, the one on Emma's phone, though. It would be good to have. An idea popped into my head as Emma picked up her laptop. "Hey, give me your phone, and I'll delete those texts," I said to her. "I did mine on the stairs."

"Sure!" she agreed, her voice still chipper from Hannah's brainwashing. As soon as I had it in hand, I found the video and sent it to my own phone. Then, I set about deleting every scrap of information Emma had on her phone even remotely associated with vampires.

When I was done, I fumbled around on my own laptop for a few minutes before joyfully proclaiming that everything was gone. I pulled some random pages out of my notebook and ripped them up before stuffing what was left of it into my backpack. Satisfied that we were all done destroying our hard work, we all sank back onto Lucy's furniture and grabbed cold slices of pizza.

"Want to watch a movie?" Lucy asked, flipping the TV on.

"Sure. What's on?" I asked, scooting back onto the sofa beside her.

"Ooh, here's one Emma's never seen. Let's watch this," Lucy said, sinking her teeth into her slice of cheese pizza

"What is it about?" Emma asked, settling in on my other side.

"It's called _Twilight_ ," Lucy replied. "It's about sparkly vampires."

"Cool," Emma said, a sappy smile still on her face. "I guess we know it's not a documentary. Everyone knows vampires aren't real."

They both burst out laughing, and I forced myself to laugh right along with them, even though I could feel tears stinging the backs of my eyes. My best friends were completely convinced that none of this had ever happened; their minds had been altered, and it was my fault. What was worst of all was, I was still 99.9 percent sure that my sister, Cadence Findley, is a vampire.

# Chapter 24

Jack Cook's memorial was held in the cafetorium at our school—that is, the cafeteria/auditorium/gymnasium, and even with the folding doors open encompassing the entire space, the place was jam-packed with people so that there were people standing in the back behind the rows and rows of folding chairs. Despite the chilly December air, the doors were propped open because there were even people on the walkway outside.

My family had ridden together, though Cadence was sitting in the front with Jack's family and her friends. My mom, dad, and I sat a few rows behind them. I had been crying most of the morning. The thought of saying goodbye to Jack for good was just too much for me, and the burden of knowing something was going on with my sister and I had no one to talk to about it was almost more than I could bear. I was glad Elliott was still around, but for the most part, all I'd gotten from him was sympathetic smiles. Now that Lucy and Emma had forgotten everything, I felt like an island in a tumultuous ocean being pounded by the waves and enduring it in solitude.

Just before the pastor of our church, Rev. Don Jones, walked up to the podium on the stage, I glanced around to see if I could find Elliott anywhere. I didn't see him, but I did spy Hannah sitting toward the back. There were a couple of men next to her I didn't know and a woman with short brown hair. After squinting, I realized one of the men was Jamie. I hoped he didn't notice me looking at all, especially when my eyes widened. I wondered if the man with dark blond hair next to him was just a random guy or another of my sister's associates, but I had a feeling I knew who he was. I turned back around and tried to tune into the reverend's message. I needed to focus on Jack right now.

The service was lovely. They showed a slideshow with all kinds of pictures of Jack with his friends, playing baseball, hanging out with his parents. There was even one of him and me when I was younger and he and Cadence had gone trick-or-treating with me. That one had the tears rolling down my cheeks again. Ironically, he had been dressed like a vampire.

Cadence gave a speech, and it was beautiful. She also had me crying. I hoped that Hannah was able to use her good vibes to make my sister feel calm while she was up there since I know how much she hates talking in front of large groups. I prayed she'd never have to give a remembrance at another funeral again for the rest of her life.

When she was almost done, a strange look flickered across her face. It was only there for a moment, and I doubted anyone else even noticed it, but I could tell something was wrong. She regained her composure and continued on. I wanted to look over my shoulder to see what was happening in the back of the room where she'd been staring when her countenance had changed but didn't risk it.

The service ended with a song and a prayer, and then the reverend invited us all to join him out on the baseball field where Jack's family would be sprinkling some of his ashes on the pitcher's mound. It seemed like a touching memorial for the pitcher who held all of our high school's records.

My sister was walking along with her old friends as lots of people came up to greet her. She came over and spoke to us momentarily and then headed toward the back. Every time she tried to walk forward, someone would stop to hug her, so we ended up making it outside ahead of her.

The cold December air was welcoming as it dried the tears on my cheeks. We were a few steps outside the door when we saw Aaron coming toward us, and I imagined he was headed for my sister. He greeted my parents and hugged my mom briefly, smiling down at me, and I sort of pretended like I didn't know him. I really didn't, after all, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. I was an afterthought to him, I imagined, anyway. He seemed like something was bothering him, and I was under the impression he needed to get to Cadence.

We walked on, my parents stopping occasionally to say a word or two to others who were making their way to the baseball field. The ground was a little slick as there was a fresh layer of snow over frozen ice, and my dad had both Mom and me by the arm so we wouldn't slip in our dress shoes.

Hannah's warm smile greeted us as we approached. Part of me wanted to hate her for what she'd done to my friends, but I also understood that it was her job, that she'd likely been ordered to do it.

A wave of self-consciousness washed over me as I realized we were walking over to them. There were people in this group I knew way too much about for having never met them. I dropped my eyes and squeezed my dad's arm, hopeful that I wouldn't have to say much. Hannah went through introducing us to all of them, and it seemed like my parents either knew some of them or had at least heard of them. I smiled but didn't offer my hand to anyone, even though part of me wanted to know if they would be cold to the touch like Jack or warm like Elliott, who wasn't with them.

Jamie looked slightly different than his pictures, but it was definitely the same man. He smiled warmly at me, and I felt like I would like him, if I could get over the fact that he was over a century old. Eliza looked perturbed, like she didn't really want to be there. She nodded at me and offered a small smile. Meagan—whose name is pronounced like Me-gan—seemed nice enough. She had shoulder-length brown hair and looked a little frightened herself, like she was new to all of this or something. Christian's eyes made me uneasy. He was also attractive, though not to the level of Aaron or Eliza, but something about the way he looked at me made me want to step behind my dad. I didn't trust him.

Luckily, we only stood there for a few minutes before my parents moved away. My mom saw Sidney's parents, and we went to talk to them. I wanted to pull my phone out and see where Elliott was but thought that would be rude. I glanced behind us, back toward the school, and saw my sister finally walking over. She was with her old friends and Aaron, and I wondered what the others would think of her new boss. From here, it seemed like Sidney and Taylor were having trouble keeping their eyes off of him, and I guess I couldn't blame them.

As I was gazing at my sister, I noticed some movement on top of the school roof in my peripheral vision and looked up to see Elliott for just a split second before he disappeared behind one of the air conditioning units. I was sure it was him, and in fact, I thought perhaps he wanted me to see him. I instantly felt relief, though I wasn't sure why. It was like a safety net had been cast over us. Despite not knowing what it was that had me frightened, I was glad he was up there.

My toes were frozen by the time Alice and Steve finally made it to the baseball diamond. I wasn't complaining, though. I couldn't blame them for needing a few moments. They tossed some ashes, there was another prayer, and then we all slowly started to head to our vehicles.

There would be a gathering at Jack's uncle Mike's house in a little while. My parents wanted to drop me off at Lucy's house—her parents had decided she didn't need to come to Jack's funeral, and Emma was with her—but I insisted that I wanted to go. I knew that Milo and Wes would be there, and I thought I was just as old and mature as they were, so my parents gave in.

We were about halfway across the field when my mom got a text. "Cadence is riding with Aaron," my mom said, looking a little worried as she glanced over my head at my dad.

"Okay," he said. I got the impression whatever it was my mom was concerned about, my dad didn't get it.

I could see Cadence getting into the Lamborghini in front of us and silently wondered what it would be like to ride in that car. I wondered if I'd ever know....

We went home for a bit because we wanted to give Mike's family some time and not be the first ones there. I sat on the couch, thinking about everything I knew that I wasn't supposed to know. I didn't keep notes anymore. I hadn't written anything down since the other night at Lucy's when I'd watched her and Emma destroy everything. I had watched the video I sent myself from Emma's phone a few times, but I didn't know anything more now than I did the first time I saw it.

Nor had I been able to find anything else out online. CHenry77 was pretty good at taking things down off of the entire Internet that seemed to provide any sort of realistic proof that vampires existed, other than the fact that I was pretty certain my sister was one.

There were several cars at Mike's house when we pulled to a stop on the street out front, but none of them were Lamborghinis. I was relieved to see Milo was already there when I walked in, and Wes came in a few minutes after us. We didn't say much, but standing there with two people I felt like I knew, felt like I could trust, calmed my nerves slightly.

Despite the overwhelming sadness in the air, people were chatting, and occasionally the sound of laughter would ring through the house. I think Jack would've liked that. He would want people to be happy, to go on with their lives and remember all of the good times we'd had with him.

"I'm going to go grab some cheese and crackers," Wes said, always thinking of his stomach. "Want anything?"

"No thank you," I replied.

"I'll wait until you get back," Milo said, and I smiled at him, thankful he wasn't going to leave me alone.

Wes had only taken a few steps when I swore I heard an odd noise coming from outside. It sounded like gunshots. I looked at Milo, and his forehead crinkled, but he didn't say anything. I turned to find my parents, who were seated across the room. My mom looked alarmed, and she said something to my dad, but he only shrugged, and I realized the noise likely wasn't loud enough for him to hear.

Turning back to Milo, I cautiously asked, "Is it hunting season?"

He seemed to relax a little bit. "Oh, yeah. It is," he nodded. He had to have heard the gunshots, too, and wondered, like I did, if we were in any danger. Regardless of the fact that neither of the two teenagers who had died recently had been shot, we were all a little bit on edge.

It couldn't have been ten minutes later when I spied my sister on the front porch. She was definitely upset, and before she came in, she turned and buried her face in Elliott's chest. Without being able to hear what he was saying, I could tell by his expression he was joking around with her, and in a few moments, they both came in the door.

I was slightly jealous that my sister was with Elliott, even though I knew it was dumb. They both smiled and waved at me, but my sister was intercepted lots of times before she even made it to our parents or her friends. Somehow, Elliott managed to get away from her, and I let go a deep breath when he came to stand beside me.

"How you doin' lil girl?" he asked. The weight of his hand on my shoulder was like a warm blanket, and I felt my shoulders release pent up tension.

"All right," I said, feeling like I could say more if we were alone. "Milo, Wes, this is my sister's coworker, Elliott."

"How you doin' kids?" He offered his hand and they shook it, though they both looked intimidated by his size. Both of them mumbled something in response about being fine, and thank you, and even called him sir, which almost made me laugh. "You need a drink or somethin', Cass?"

"I'm okay, thank you." I glanced around the room and saw my sister standing with her arms crossed, an irritated expression on her face. "What's the matter with Cadence?"

Elliott let out a sigh. "Can't say. She'll be all right."

I raised an eyebrow and wondered if he'd tell me if my friends weren't standing right there. But it didn't matter because they were. I could tell that Milo and Wes weren't sure what to do or say with Elliott nearby, and I think he sensed it, too. A few minutes later, he excused himself, but instead of heading back to my sister, he walked over to Jack's parents. I should've found that odd, but nothing surprised me anymore.

Milo and Wes and I had started a conversation about Christmas, and I was beginning to feel a little calmer when my sister came over and said, "Hey, Sis. I'm going to head back to the homestead. How you doing?"

I was more than a little ready to get out of there myself. I was so over all of this death and loss. "Not so good. I hate funerals." It didn't matter that this was my first one. I had a feeling they were all the same.

"Me, too. Hopefully, we won't have any more for a while." Elliott was over with her friends now, talking, and they looked like they were having a nice conversation. I saw a flicker of what looked like jealousy cross my sister's face. I felt it, too. She shrugged it off. "Mom said you guys were leaving pretty soon, too."

"That's good. I wish I could just ride back with you." I was ready to leave.

Cadence frowned. "I'm sorry, Cass. But Elliott drove Aaron's Lamborghini, and it's just a two-seater."

Before I could say anything, Milo chimed in, "Lamborghini? That's so cool."

I couldn't help but feel disappointed—and trapped. "Okay," I said, staring at the toes of my shoes.

My sister exhaled loudly. "Wait a second." She touched me lightly on the arm and then went over to talk to Elliott. He shrugged, and then she approached my parents. A few seconds later, my sister was back. "Okay," she said, "Elliott's going to drive Mom's car, and Dad's gonna drive the Lamborghini. So, you can ride with us."

I couldn't help but laugh at the idea of my dad driving Aaron's car. And then there was Elliott in my mom's van. "Seriously? That's hilarious."

"I know, right?" Cadence agreed. "I didn't tell Elliott he'd be driving a Honda Odyssey, but I'm sure he will look cool driving anything."

There was something about the way that she said it that made me think she was back, the sister I was used to. I couldn't help but wrap my arms around her. "I miss you, Cade," I said quietly into her hair.

"I miss you, too, Sis," she replied. She let me go, and I turned back to my friends as she headed off to meet Elliott by the door, Mom's keys in her hand.

"I'll see you guys soon," I said. I felt like maybe I should hug them, but that seemed a little weird, so I didn't.

"See you, Cass," Milo said.

"Take care." Wes offered me a small smile. I wondered if I'd ever be able to bring these two into the loop. The thought had crossed my mind back in the beginning, a few weeks ago, forever ago. I felt like it was a possibility then, but now, I realized not even Lucy and Emma were with me. Once again, I felt all alone.

Elliott was doing his best to cheer me up. We went through the drive through at McDonald's and got ice cream cones, despite the cold weather. And he blasted a Lionel Richie song on the radio, singing off-key at the top of his lungs. By the time we got home, I was laughing and felt much better.

Seeing my dad pull up in the Lamborghini was also pretty comical. But that also meant Elliott would have to leave. Watching him pull away made me feel all alone again, even though my family was right there with me, and if it hadn't been for a text from him I got a few moments later letting me know he'd be back soon enough, I probably would've broken down and cried.

Something was bothering my sister. I could tell by the irritated expression on her face. She slogged back over to the couch as I slipped my phone in my back pocket and agreed with Mom that Elliott was a great guy. I couldn't help but ask Cadence the question that popped out of my mouth, the one that had her choking on her water. "Are you dating him, Cadence?"

Once she was able to breathe again, she said, "No! Why would you think that?" She had water all down her shirt and was brushing it away.

"I don't know," I admitted, sitting down near her. "I just thought you got along so well, and he's kind of cute, in a teddy bear sort of way. I think you would be adorable together."

"I'm sorry, Cass, but no. I don't like Elliott like that. It would be like, if I asked you if you were dating Milo or Wes."

All I could say to that was, "Eww!" I loved those boys, but not like that. I felt like I could trust what my sister was telling me, and when my mom asked if she was dating Aaron, my sister also denied that. I mentioned to her I thought perhaps Mr. McReynolds was married, just to feel her out, and my sister thought that was hilarious for some reason.

"No, he's not married. And, no, we're not dating. We've . . . talked. That's about it. Nothing going on there. Nothing at all." I saw something like melancholy flicker across Cadence's face and knew I'd struck a nerve. I felt bad for her and wished I hadn't brought it up. Perhaps there was something going on with her and Aaron, something she wasn't going to tell me about; that much I knew for sure.

I excused myself and went upstairs, not because I had any friends I could call and report to, and not because there was any research I needed to look up, but because I needed to be alone. I stayed in there for most of the afternoon, only leaving long enough to grab something to eat.

Later that evening, I heard voices coming from outside. I couldn't hear a single word, but I knew it was my sister. And Aaron. I hadn't heard his car pull up, but it was there, parked in front of the house. A few minutes later, they left--together. I had no idea where they were going. For that matter, I didn't even know if she'd be back, but she didn't have any luggage, so I thought she might be. I sighed and flopped onto my bed, thinking I'd never know anything.

# Chapter 25

I must've drifted off because when a noise by the window caught my attention, I opened my eyes to a dark room. Startled, I sat up and probably would've wet my pants if I hadn't realized the large frame by the window had to be Elliott's. I mumbled one of the words my dad says when he hurts himself fixing something around the house and flipped the lights on. "What are you doing here?"

"Sorry, lil girl," he said, making himself comfortable on the foot of my bed. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"Perhaps next time you try the door then?"

He laughed at me. "I didn't think your parents needed to know I was here."

That made sense. They didn't. Especially if this meant he'd come to answer questions. "Where did Cadence go?"

"To one of her friend's houses." He adjusted on the bed, bouncing me up into the air a little bit.

"Why is Aaron with her?"

He exhaled really loudly, like he was flabbergasted. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "I think... maybe...she's a little fond of him."

I remembered what Cadence had said earlier about her new boss. I also remembered how mad she'd seemed when she came into Uncle Mike's house. I wasn't sure what to say at first, but then I asked, "How does he feel about her?"

Elliott folded his hands together between his knees. "Aaron is a complex fellow. It's hard to say."

I nodded, but I wasn't sure what that meant. It didn't sound promising for Cadence, though. Realizing I shouldn't be wasting this time to ask about my sister's potential boyfriends, I asked, "How was Paris? Did everything go okay?"

"In the end, yeah. We accomplished what we went over there to do."

"That's good," I said, nodding. "What was that?"

He grinned at me. "Wish I could say."

I sighed, wondering why he had even come here if he wasn't going to say anything. "What if I guessed? Then could you tell me?"

While he said no, he was nodding his head. I was confused for a few seconds, but then I supposed it wouldn't hurt to try. "Did you go to Paris to kill a... vampire?"

He did the same thing. Nodded at me while saying no. My eyes widened. I realized I was finally getting some answers. Before I could stop to process what he was _not_ telling me, I put my hand on his arm and scooted closer to him. "So, vampires are real?"

"No," he said, his head bobbing up and down. "And you need to stop asking about them."

"Why would I need to do that if they're not real?"

He smirked at me and rolled his eyes. "Because no good can come of it."

I folded my legs and wrapped my arms around them. "Elliott, can you just tell me." The next question came out of my mouth like a confession at church. "Is Cadence a vampire?"

His mouth was a tight line. "I think we've been over this. We're not vampires."

"But you just climbed into my second story window! And when you leave, you'll jump down. And I bet I'll hear a motorcycle rev up several blocks away a second later!"

Elliott turned so that he was slightly facing me. He put his hand on mine, on top of my knee, the girth of his palm making my knee disappear. "There are alternative explanations for that."

Both of my eyebrows arched. I remembered Emma's initial argument. "Drugs?"

He laughed. "No."

"Superheroes?"

Another chuckle. "Not exactly."

I was confused, more confused than I'd been before. "Why can't you just tell me what you are?"

"I'm not allowed to." His voice was slow and even. "I honestly wish I could, but I can't. Cassidy, you have no idea, _no idea_ , how important you are to me, how important you have always been to me. And I want to let you know because I hate lying to you. But... it's not my decision."

His words brought a fog of confusion to my already puzzled brain. How could I be so important to someone I'd just met? What did he mean I'd _always_ been so important to him? I leaned forward, staring into his eyes, and then, suddenly, it was as if the sun had come out and the fog rolled away. "You... you have always been here, haven't you?" I asked. Hundreds of memories came back to me all at once, some from when I was a very small child, others more recent. A face in a crowd, the man who'd handed me back the money I'd lost at the mall, even seeing him on a motorcycle one day when my mom was driving me home from school. I had no idea if I was pulling these memories out of the recesses of my mind all by myself or if he was gathering them for me, but I knew they were mine, and I knew they were real.

I had no words. I couldn't figure out how to let him know what I was feeling. His arm slipped around my shoulders, and I melted into his shoulder like a little girl hugging a long-lost father for the first time. Quietly, he said into my hair, "It's always been one of my responsibilities to keep you safe, Cass. I promise you, as long as there's air in my lungs, you have nothing to worry about."

Tears filled my eyes again, but this time they were not of sadness, but joy and relief. "You're not a vampire." I was certain that my words were the truth as I sat back, my arm still around him, his still protectively draped around me. "You really are one of the good guys."

"We are," he assured me. "And so is your sister now. Just trust us, okay?"

I nodded, no longer feeling like it mattered exactly what they were. Knowing that vampires are real should've terrified me. Instead, having the knowledge that Elliott, my sister, and all of her new friends were out there keeping us safe, made me feel at peace.

Nevertheless, Elliott continued. "I've never seen anything like your sister before. She is incredible. And someday, when you're older, you'll take your spot alongside her. You'll be just as amazing. I'm sure of it. But you'll have to wait. So, go on about being a kid. Worry about Christmas, and winter dances, cheerleading, that kinda stuff. Leave the rest to us, okay?"

"Okay," I said, pulling myself away so I could look him in the eye.

"And I'll come see you as often as I can, like I always have. I'll call you. Most importantly, we'll all be working to keep you safe. And you will be."

He kissed me on the top of my head, and I squeezed him tightly. After a few moments, he pulled away. "I've gotta go. But we'll talk soon." I nodded and watched him approach the window. "Take it easy, lil girl."

"Bye," I said, watching him go. Before I could even comprehend what had happened, the window was open and then shut again, and Elliott was gone.

I swiped at my eyes with the back of my hand, thinking about everything he'd said, everything I'd remembered. Elliott wasn't a vampire, and neither was my sister. I was certain of it now. I felt more at ease than I had for weeks because now I knew what my sister was, and that someday, in a couple of years when I turned seventeen, I would be one, too. Being patient, however, would be difficult because I couldn't wait to be Cassidy Findley, vampire hunter.

* * *

End of Book 1

If you love Cassidy's story, find book 2, _Who Wants to Be a Vampire Hunter?_ on your favorite retailer.

# A Note from the Author

In the words of Lucy Burk, "OMG!" you finished the book! Look at you! Aren't you just the bestest reader on the planet? Seriously, you had a million books to choose from—maybe a billion—and you picked mine. And that's totally awesome.

By the time this book is published, the first four books in the series will be done, but Cassidy's story can go indefinitely as long as people like it and are reading it. So, if you liked it, please let me know! Please go back to the retailer where you bought the book and leave a review.

The entire series is now availble on all major retailers.

When you sign up for my newsletter, you can dowload several of my books for free, including _Saving Cadence_ , a novelette about the Eidolon Festival strictly from Aaron's perspective. Find _Saving Cadence_ , free novels, and previews when you sign up here:

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My newsletter comes out twice a month and always has free and discounted books as well as information about what I'm working on.

Most of my books are written for adults, while this series is specifically for younger readers, though I know a lot of adults are reading it. So... if you check out the rest of my books, please keep in mind that many of them have language and situations unsuitable for younger readers. The Clandestine Saga series tells the same story from the perspective of Cadence, Aaron, and the rest of the team Cassidy is just discovering in _So You Think Your Sister's a Vampire?_ The entire series is now available.

Thanks again for reading!

# Also by ID Johnson

**Stand Alone Titles**

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The Doll Maker's Daughter at Christmas

_(clean romance/historical)_

Pretty Little Monster

_(young adult/suspense)_

The Journey to Normal: Our Family's Life with Autism ( _nonfiction_ )

* * *

**Duology**

_(psychological thriller/literary fiction/women's fiction)_

Beneath the Inconstant Moon

The First Mrs. Edwards

* * *

**Forever Love series**

_( clean romance/historical)_

Cordia's Will: A Civil War Story of Love and Loss

Cordia's Hope: A Story of Love on the Frontier

* * *

**The Clandestine Saga series**

_(paranormal romance)_

Transformation

Resurrection

Repercussion

Absolution

Illumination

Destruction

Annihilation

Obliteration

* * *

**A Vampire Hunter's Tale (based on The Clandestine Saga)**

_(paranormal/alternate history)_

Aaron

Jamie

Elliott

* * *

**The Chronicles of Cassidy (based on The Clandestine Saga)**

_(young adult paranormal)_

So You Think Your Sister's a Vampire Hunter?

Who Wants to Be a Vampire Hunter?

How Not to Be a Vampire Hunter

My Life As a Teenage Vampire Hunter

Vampire Hunting Isn't for Morons

Vampires Bite and Other Life Lessons

Gone Guardian

* * *

**Ghosts of Southampton series**

_(historical romance)_

Prelude

Titanic

Residuum

* * *

**Heartwarming Holidays Sweet Romance series**

_(Christian/clean romance)_

Melody's Christmas

Christmas Cocoa

Winter Woods

Waiting On Love

Shamrock Hearts

A Blossoming Spring Romance

Firecracker!

Falling in Love

Thankful for You

Melody's Christmas Wedding

The New Year's Date

* * *

**Reaper's Hollow**

_(paranormal/urban fantasy)_

Ruin's Lot

Ruin's Promise

Ruin's Legacy

* * *

**Collections**

Ghosts of Southampton Books 0-2

Reaper's Hollow Books 1-3

The Clandestine Saga Books 1-3

The Chronicles of Cassidy Books 1-4

Celestial Springs Collection

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For updates, visit www.authoridjohnson.blogspot.com

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### Contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Newsletter
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Chapter 1
  7. Chapter 2
  8. Chapter 3
  9. Chapter 4
  10. Chapter 5
  11. Chapter 6
  12. Chapter 7
  13. Chapter 8
  14. Chapter 9
  15. Chapter 10
  16. Chapter 11
  17. Chapter 12
  18. Chapter 13
  19. Chapter 14
  20. Chapter 15
  21. Chapter 16
  22. Chapter 17
  23. Chapter 18
  24. Chapter 19
  25. Chapter 20
  26. Chapter 21
  27. Chapter 22
  28. Chapter 23
  29. Chapter 24
  30. Chapter 25
  31. A Note from the Author
  32. Also by ID Johnson

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Beginning
  7. Also by ID Johnson

