Transformation: The Clandestine Saga Book 1 (15 page)

              As the door opened, they stepped out into a short hallway. Cadence realized they had gone to the top of the building before Eliza did.  The building narrowed up here and there were only two apartments.  Jamie took her to the right and pulled a physical key out of his pocket to open the door.

              “What the hell are we doing here?” Eliza asked, suddenly realizing where they were. They were at the penthouse level. Aaron’s apartment was up here and the other one was reserved for the Hunter Leader, if he or she chose to work so closely with the Guardian Passel that they needed a place on sight.

              “We are showing Cadence to her apartment,” Jamie replied, popping the door open. He waited for Cadence to go in first and then followed her in.

              Cadence couldn’t believe how beautiful the place was.  They entered into a stunningly decorated living room with an open-concept dining room and full kitchen behind it. To her left there was a space setup as a small office. She could see a couple of doors down a narrow walkway by the kitchen and she was eager to see what was back there, though she couldn’t pull her eye away from all of the beautiful décor in these rooms.

              As she passed the kitchen, she noticed granite counter tops and stainless steal appliances.  Upon opening the first door, she found a gorgeous bedroom, decorated in shades of purple and gray, two of her favorite colors.  The bed was huge and it looked incredibly comfortable. She walked in to the en suite bathroom and was thrilled to see a Jacuzzi bathtub and a stand-alone shower.  Returning to the hallway, she also located a half-bath for guests and a laundry room with a full sized washer and dryer.

              Jamie was waiting for her in the kitchen while Eliza had dropped herself into a chair in the living room and was carefully studying her fingernails.

              “This is incredible!” Cadence proclaimed. She threw her arms around his neck and Jamie couldn’t help but laugh at her enthusiasm.

              “Isn’t it?” he agreed. “And did you see the view?”

              Cadence had briefly glanced out the window, but she was happy to look again. She could see a great deal of the green space from here, one of the fountains that decorated the campus, and off in the distance, she could see some of the buildings from downtown Kansas City.

              “This is just amazing,” she commented still staring out the window. “Ha! I feel like a grown up!” she laughed.

              “I’m very glad you like it,” Jamie replied.

              “Why wouldn’t she like it?” Eliza asked. “We’re in the freaking penthouse!”

              Both of them chose to ignore her for now and Jamie continued. “This actually used to be your grandmother’s apartment, you know, several years ago, of course, but this was it.”

              “Really?” Cadence asked. How exciting to think that her grandmother had once lived here, too.

              “Yes, the building has undergone extensive remodeling since then and the interior was recently just redecorated with you in mind, but it’s still the same location, same address, as when your grandmother lived here.”

              “I wonder if that’s why it was assigned to me,” she said absently, still spinning around, taking in all of the little details of the decorating.

             
“No, it was assigned to you because Aaron is thinking with the wrong head!”
Eliza commented directly into Jamie’s IAC.

              “I’m sure that had something to do with,” Jamie said in response to Cadence’s comment, not Eliza’s. “Now, you should have some clothes in your closet from your house and your dorm room.  Aaron wanted me to ask you to get into your training clothes before I show you the other buildings so I can just take you straight to him. Do you think you have any thing that will work for that?”

              “I’ll go check,” she said, bustling back to her new bedroom, planning to toss herself on to the bed before she started to look for workout clothes.

              “What the hell is wrong with you?” Jamie demanded turning to Eliza.

              “What?” she asked, as if she had no idea to what he was referring.

              “Could you be any uglier or more selfish?” he asked, feeling like a father scolding his incessant daughter.

              Eliza wanted to fire back with some smart remark, but in her heart, she knew he was right. Cadence needed this room because, there was a pretty good possibility she would, in fact, become the Hunter Leader if she were successful in the hunt at all. After all, her grandfather was one of the most popular Guardian Leaders ever and her grandmother had more success as the Hunter Leader than any two other leaders combined.  It made sense to move her directly in to this apartment, establish her as the leader that she most likely would be, and expect the Hunters to follow. And even though Aaron had been doing a tremendous job running both Passels for almost twenty years, she knew he would be much happier with help from a Hunter Leader.  She was just extremely jealous of Cadence and wished she were a lot less attractive. Even though it had been years since she and Aaron had dated and it had been a disaster, she still had feelings for him. She needed to find a way to deal with that herself instead of pushing it off onto other people and making it their problem.

              “You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry. It’s just hard, Jamie,” she said tossing herself back against the chair then and slumping her head against her hands.

              He was not totally uncompassionate to her situation, but he knew her mouth was one of her biggest problems and it was beginning to get old for him as well.  The chair she was sitting in was oversized and he wedged his way in next to her. “I know,” he said, massaging her neck roughly with one hand. “But you’re going to have to figure it out, sweetheart. Cause you know Aaron is never returning to that relationship, regardless of how much either one of you claims to have changed.  I’m not fully blaming you but that was not pleasant for any of us, having him so pissed off at you all of the time and inadvertently taking it out on us. No thank you.”

              “I know, I know,” she repeated. “I just need to move on. Find someone else.”

              “Yes, you do,” Jamie agreed.

              Cadence came bounding back out wearing yoga pants, a matching t-shirt, and a light hoody. “Will this work?” she asked.

              Though she had actually been addressing Jamie, it was Eliza who answered.  “That’s super cute!” she said, smiling. “That will definitely work!”

              Cadence glanced inquisitively from Eliza to Jamie and then back again.  He just smiled at her so she decided to pretend she hadn’t noticed a complete 180-degree shift in Eliza’s attitude.

              “Are you ready for a little tour?” Jamie asked.

              Eliza had decided not to join them on their jaunt around campus. She said she was worn out from shopping and needed to take a nap.  Jamie showed Cadence that there were some food options in the basement of their building, including a smaller grocery store and a couple of restaurants.  He also walked her over to the debrief building and let her see the meeting rooms there.  She noted they had a lot of technology, which wasn’t surprising considering every single one of them had a computer in his or her eye.  He didn’t take her to Aaron’s office because he probably wasn’t actually there, and as Jamie put it, he hoped she’d never have to go there. It was never a pleasant situation when you got called into the office. It was kind of like going to see the principal in school.

              They finally ended up at the gym.  Cadence was extremely impressed with all of the equipment that was available.  Their version of a rock wall was incredibly extreme and Cadence was looking forward to giving it a try.  Jamie also pointed out something they called The Hill which looked like a 75 or 80 degree incline.  It was no wonder everyone hated it. There was also a lap pool, sauna, and whirlpool.  There were several trainees using all of these services while they were on their tour and Cadence understood why that would be one of the more popular places to hang out.

              After their tour of the back part of the building, Jamie returned her to the gym floor where Aaron was waiting. He was wearing a T-shirt and gray gym pants but he found a way to look incredibly attractive even in those, and it was difficult for her to keep from bounding at him and throwing her arms around him.

              He smiled when he saw her.  She had her hair pulled up in a high ponytail and it was swinging back and forth as she approached.  She looked extremely happy and, while he was glad she seemed to like the facilities, he was a bit disheartened by the fact that he knew she would no longer be smiling once he started putting her through her paces.

              “Hey,” he called to them as they approached. He had been observing a couple of other trainees who were working out with one of the trainers but he excused himself when he saw Cadence enter the room.  “How are you?” he asked debating whether or not to offer a handshake. He finally decided it would be best if she just left her hands in the pockets of her hoodie where they were now.

              “I’m great!” she exclaimed. “Never better!”

              “You showed her the apartment then?” he asked of Jamie. Of course, he knew that because he had seen bits and pieces of the tour through Jamie’s IAC, but Cadence didn’t necessarily realize that.

              “Showed her the apartment,” Jamie confirmed.  “She loved it.”

              “Good,” Aaron said. He had hired a pretty well-known interior designer to work on getting the apartment ready and had spent quite a bit of his own money simply because they were working on a crunched timeline.  It was nice to know that Cadence appreciated all of their hard work. “Jamie, are you going to stick around and let me torture, you, too?”

              “No!” Jamie said emphatically.  “In fact, I think I will just leave the gym all together so I don’t get roped in to anything.  Will you just let me know when she’s ready for me to take her to Christian?”

              “Oh, are you going to go with her to get her implant, too?” Aaron asked

              “I asked him to go. Just in case,” Cadence said quietly.

              Aaron understood. “Okay, sure.  That makes sense. I’ll let you know.”

              “Thanks,” Jamie said. Then, turning to Cadence, he said, “Good luck. You’re going to need it.” She reached for him to hug him good-bye and he kissed her lightly on the cheek before making his way to the nearest exit.

              While Cadence certainly didn’t mind, she was surprised and Aaron couldn’t help but read that expression from her. She caught his eye and attempted to figure out what he was thinking from the smirk on his face.  “It’s not . . . .” Cadence began to explain.

              “You don’t have to say anything to me,” Aaron said. “I already know.”

              She realized he meant he could tell by her reaction that she did not have romantic feelings for Jamie. She shook her head tried to force the Healer completely out of her mind so she concentrate on the tasks at hand.

              “Alright,” he said leading her over to where the floor equipment was housed. “I’m going to start you out on the treadmill.  What we want to work on is your endurance but at your optimal speed. So, if we find that you can run a top speed of thirty-five miles per hour, then we want to work on pushing that speed for as long as possible. There are times when, on a pursuit, you may need to sprint that fast for thirty or forty minutes easily. Go ahead and hop on there and we’ll get you warmed up,” he stated.

              Cadence removed her warm up jacket and climbed on the treadmill. 

              “You’re going to want to use this,” Aaron said, hooking the kill switch on to the bottom of her shirt. 

              As Cadence began to follow his directions, she realized her body was now capable of some incredible things. She found she could easily run thirty miles per hour for up to fifteen minutes at a time and that was on one of her first attempts. She could lift hundreds of pounds and throw them the length of the gym floor.  She could accurately hit her mark using a regular bow and a crossbow, which was good to know, even though she would also have firearms at her disposal, and they would work with those another time.  She even made it up and down the rock wall in the amount of time Aaron asked of her several times, even when he cut her initial goal in half.  She was able to do everything he required of her until they reached The Hill.

              Aaron had put this obstacle last on their list on purpose. He knew she would be tired by the time they reached it, and probably angry with him, although she really had seemed to keep a good attitude the entire time. She was drenched in sweat, however, a prime indication that she had been working exceedingly hard, and he was incredibly proud of her.

              “Alright, this is The Hill,” he said as she took a drink out of a water bottle. She nodded her head and he continued.  “It’s pretty simple.  All you’ll need to do is just get up and get back down in six seconds.”

              Cadence was tired. She had never worked out like this before but she felt she had just a little bit left to give him. “Six seconds?” she clarified. He nodded, stopwatch in hand. “Okay,” she said assuming a runner’s stance. He gave the command for her to go and she sprinted up the incline as quickly as she could, turning at the top to descend.  Her legs were burning before she even reached the top and, while she knew she had gone as fast as she could, it felt longer than six seconds.