Repercussion: The Clandestine Saga Book 3 (24 page)

              She dropped down beside him on his left, the overwhelming emotions from hours of not knowing his fate rendering her speechless for the moment. In her mind, she could not fathom what had made him decide to re-Transform without speaking to her first, but she was thankful that it had taken and he was still with her. Whatever difficulties the new situation provided, they would work them out. She briefly let the team know she had found him, he was alive, and she would check in shortly.

              He dropped his hand on top of hers, saying nothing at first. When he finally did speak, the Irish accent was back. "It's beautiful isn't it?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," she agreed, thankful for the feel of his hand on hers. "How much of it is yours?" she asked.

              "Most of it," he replied.

"Is that your house then?" she asked, gesturing toward the little cottage with her head.

              "Yes," he confirmed.

"And that one?" She indicated the larger estate beyond.

              "It is," he replied. "Someone else lives there, though," he explained.

              "Fergus and Moira O'Malley?" she asked.

              "Been checkin' the land records then, have you?" he asked. "Yes. I figured if I ever decided to come here, I wouldn't want to be found."

"You did a great job of escaping," she assured him.

              He didn't respond to her comment. After a moment, he pointed at the little cottage. "That's where my house was," he explained.

              "That's not the original, then?" she asked.

"No, that's a mansion compared to the little hut we called home," he said, shaking his head, apparently memories of the small home he had shared with Aislyn flickering through his mind.

              "It looks cozy," she remarked, sincerely.

              He nodded. "I like it," he agreed.

He was quiet again for a moment. She decided it was time to confirm her suspicion. "Did you take it then?" she asked, staring at the lake, not able to look at him just then.

              "Yes," he replied quietly. She said nothing and they continued in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, he said, "Cadence, I'm sorry I didn't tell you...," turning to look directly at her for the first time.

"Yeah, about that, what the hell?" she asked, staring into his eyes. An expression of confusion washed over her face as she realized his eyes weren't blue anymore--they looked almost green.

              If he noticed her countenance, he didn't say anything. "I knew you wouldn't want me to do it," he replied quietly, looking away from her.

              She was doing her best not to get angry. It would do no good to do so, not now. "Of course, I wouldn't want you to do it," she replied, keeping her voice even. "I don't understand why you would be willing to take such drastic measures. I mean, if you don't want to be the Guardian Leader anymore, that's one thing, but Aaron, to alter who you are... I just don't understand it. You're going to have to explain it to me, because.... I mean, the risk you were taking... I just.... I don't know." She sighed, staring down at the lake, trying to regain her composure. He said nothing, just squeezed her hand. After another long pause she quietly said, "Well, what's done is done. We'll figure it out."

"Did you talk to Christian?" he asked curiously.

              "Yes," she replied pointedly. "And he told me there was only an eighty percent chance that serum would even work. I was afraid I was going to find you dead."

              She expected an apology, or some sort of strong reaction to her concern, but instead, he looked only surprised. "Eighty percent?" he asked. "Interesting."

              "Yeah, and he said you had no idea. Besides being worried sick about you, I've been contemplating the numerous painful ways I can make him pay for his idiocracy."

              "That would have been nice to know," he said solemnly.

              She glanced over at him and realized he seemed very upset. She considered how much worse things could have been and wrapped her arm around him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, babe. I don't mean to be so ugly. I just... it's been a long day. The important thing is that you're okay." She kissed him on the cheek, hoping he'd turn to her and return her kiss.

              But he didn't. He didn't say anything for quite some time. When he did speak, it was just above a whisper. "Cadence," he said waiting for her to acknowledge she could hear him, "it didn't take."

She pulled her head up only slightly, confident she had misunderstood. "What?" she asked quietly, pushing down the panic rising in her stomach.

              He swallowed hard before saying it again. "The serum... it didn't take."

              "How do you know?" she asked, sitting up and looking at him intently.

"I know," he replied assuredly. Her expression was enough to tell him that his response was not adequate. With a deep sigh, he flipped his right arm over so she could see the injection sight.

              Cadence gasped in horror. The veins in his arm were a dark green color, almost black, starting where he had inserted the needle near his elbow and running up his arm towards his bicep. The flesh was a lighter shade of green, and she could see it was spreading the other direction as well. "Why is it green?"

              "The serum was green," he shrugged. "I'm not sure why."

              "Does it hurt?" she asked as she reached out her hand to touch it, but then paused, waiting for his answer.

              "Yes," he admitted. "But you can touch it. It might feel better if you do, actually," he muttered under his breath.

              She gently ran her finger along the line for a moment, and then pulled her hand back, shaking her head. "What if we... apply a tourniquet or something?" she asked, her mind beginning to spin again.

"It's already in my bloodstream," he assured her.

              "Is that why your eyes are green?" she asked, still puzzling over the situation.

              He looked surprised. "I didn't know they were."

"We can fix this," she said, pushing the panic away. "We can totally fix this."

              "No, we can't," he said calmly.

              "Yes, yes we can!" she assured him. "Aaron, you do realize what this means, right? If it didn't take...."

"Hell, yes, Cadence," he replied, finally evoking some emotion. "Of course, I know what it means. I've been sitting on this mountain for the last four hours wondering how the hell I was going to tell you I accidentally fucking killed myself."

              The weight of his words hit her fully in the gut, but she was determined not to let the tears roll down her face. "No," she said firmly. "No! I am not letting that happen..."

              "Cadence..."

              "NO! Not you, too. Not both of you! It's not happening. I won't let it."

              "Cadence..."

"Aaron, we've finally gotten this figured out. We're going to be together. You love me... we love each other. I won't let you die."

              He turned towards her and grabbed both of her forearms, attempting to steady her, causing her to look into his now unfamiliar eyes. "Cadence, I know how this works. There's nothing you can do. There's nothing anyone can do. It's just a matter of time. God... I'm so sorry. I would have never done it if I didn't think..." he looked away from her then, as if he realized it didn't matter.

              "But, I have the Transformation serum," she assured him, pushing him off so that she could get into her backpack and pull out the vials. "See? This will work. We can fix it."

              For a second, there was a small glimmer of hope in his eyes, but then it disappeared. "Of course, I'm willing to try it, babe, but I don't think there's any chance it will work. I think it's too late. Even if... even if you'd given it to me right away, I don't think it would have been able to stop this."

              She carefully placed the vials back in her backpack, making sure they didn't break, and took his face in her hands. "Aaron, it's going to work," she assured him.

He returned the intensity of her stare, holding it for a moment before quietly saying, "Okay. Let's give it a try."

              She leaned in and kissed him, hoping to transfer her confidence, however wavering, to him. He returned her kiss before pulling away and resting his forehead on her shoulder. It was only then that she realized how warm and clammy he felt. "Are you going to make it back down the mountain?" she asked gently. "Jamie says I should get you in bed before we do this."

              Without lifting his head, he asked, "How's Jamie doing?"

She pulled back her head in confusion. "What? Really?" she asked before shaking her head in disbelief that he was worried about Jamie as he was literally dying. "He's going to be fine," she finally replied.

              "Good. Jamie's a good guy."

              "Can you walk?" she asked again, changing the subject back to the topic at hand, fully knowing she could carry him if she needed to.

"I think so," he said, leaning back so that she could get up. She helped him up and wrapped her arm around his waist, his arm around shoulders.

"Okay?" she asked as they began their decent.

              "I've been better," he admitted.

"Is it just your arm?" He was cradling it against his chest now, as if it was in pain.

              "I just feel...weak. And everything's getting a little... blurry," he replied.

              She wasn't having to help him too much, so she took that as a good sign. At least his physical strength wasn't failing him yet. "How long ago did you take the injection?"

              "About four and a half hours ago. I knew immediately, Cadence. So, I came up here. And waited."

              "Waited to die?"

              "No, waited for you to get here," he replied. Then added solemnly, "And then to die, I guess."

              "How did you know I was on my way?" she asked, trying not to stumble over any lose rock as they made their way down. They were still able to move much faster than humans, despite his condition.

"I just knew. The same way you knew where I was," he replied.

              "We tried to send some locals to intercept you, but it didn't work," she explained.

              "Those renegades aren't the only ones who can persuade compliance out of our people, you know." She could hear his condition worsening in his tone. He began to sound a little off--not quite himself, the air of confidence replaced by nonchalance and giddiness.

              "Is that why no one here was able to help us? Did you pay them off?" she asked, things starting to make sense now.

              "Something like that," he admitted.

"But your IAC is off, and you don't have your phone."

              "I don’t have that phone."

              She just shook her head in disbelief. "You went to a lot of trouble not to be found."

              "I didn't want anyone to try to talk me out of it. I was certain that this was what was best--for you. I didn't think I could give you everything you deserve and still be a Guardian," he said very quietly.

              She didn't know how to respond, so she said nothing at all, wishing he had felt comfortable enough to discuss it with her. Surely, given the opportunity, she would have been able to change his mind. But now it didn't matter; now, all she could do was fix it.

              As they neared the ground, he said, "It is nice to see Ireland again. I haven't been back since 1912, and even then, it was just a passing glance at Cobh from the deck of the Titanic."

              She looked at him skeptically, wondering if he was delirious. "You're going to have to save that one for later."

They reached the place where she had parked her bike, and she realized he must have come on foot. It wasn't too horribly much further to the cottage. She wasn't sure if she could steady him on the bike and drive at the same time.

              "I can make it," he assured her, starting to let go just to prove it, but she didn't let him.

"Okay," she said, leaving the motorcycle, securing her grip on his waist.

"Did you talk to Cale?" he asked, leaning over and nuzzling her ear.

              As much as she would have welcomed the contact under other circumstances, she found it difficult to keep them both upright while he was doing that. "Yes," she replied, pulling away.

He stopped, momentarily, and asked, "Before or after we..."

              She looked at him, shocked. "Before!"

              "Just wondering," he said innocently.

              "You knew that," she muttered. "You know everything."

"My IAC has been off for," math seemed hard," a while. I didn't know for sure."

              "As soon as I walked away from you on the roof, I went straight to him to let him know I couldn't see him any more," she assured him.