Just before she was about to start, Cadence got a request for visuals from Aaron. She contemplated ignoring him since it was sure to make her more nervous, but she decided to go ahead and turn it on knowing that, if she wasn’t successful this round, his feedback would be invaluable.

She entered through a black door and was given instructions to stand on the X. There was a clock counting down above her and a gentle female voice stating the time remaining. As the woman approached zero, Cadence’s nervous sensation became excitement. She waited for the woman to say, “You may begin,” and she rounded the corner, entering the simulator.

The first individual that appeared in front of her was dressed all in black, and she could tell immediately that this was a Guardian, so she did not shoot. However, in the corner of her eye she saw a Vampire appear to leap out from behind a piece of furniture. She shot it, hearing the soft ping from the scoreboard above her. To her right, another Vampire appeared, and she took it out as well.

As Cadence continued to wind her way through the maze of hallways and small chambers, she began to wonder why this was so difficult. She had reached thirty points within the first 10 seconds of the simulator. Though part of her thought it would be less risky to play it safe and put her gun away, lest she shoot a Guardian or Hunter, she was having too much fun to quit now. There was one small Vampire hiding beneath a dumpster that she missed, and she was extremely pissed off about it. At the end of her first round, Cadence's score was a near perfect ninety-five.

She exited the simulator to find Shane, Meagan, and Aaron all applauding her performance. “Well done!” Shane said as she placed her weapon on the table and approached them.

“That was amazing!” Meagan concurred. “I really wish I could get this like you can!”

“Thank you,” Cadence said squeezing her arm. “You’ll get it. You really will.”

Aaron stepped over and put his arms around her, “Unbelievable,” he whispered as he gave her a quick hug. She couldn’t help but beam at him. Though she was still upset that she had missed that one Vampire, she was proud that she was able to get all of the rest of them.

Meagan did better on her second turn and was actually able to score thirty-five points, enough to count as a round toward earning her observation. Between turns, the girls talked about which strategies were working and which were not, and Meagan said that it was really helping her to watch Cadence’s attempts. Even though Cadence was able to get her three consecutive scores of thirty in her first three attempts, and two of her scores were perfect, something a rookie Hunter had never accomplished before, she continued to take her turns because she wanted the practice, and it did seem to be helping Meagan to watch her and then discuss. By the end of the session, Meagan was scoring in the high fifties, low sixties, and she was able to get her three consecutive hunts as well.

Cadence’s prowess had drawn so much attention that many of the veteran Guardians and Hunters had come to watch her in person. Rather than just following her visually, they showed up at the gun range to collectively cheer her on. At one point, Christian logged into the system and ratcheted the level of difficulty up. It made no difference; she was still easily able to score in the nineties. And she never had a kill that wasn’t a Vampire, despite the higher numbers of Hunters and Guardians he threw her direction.

Once their session was over and most of the spectators had left, Cadence set her Glock back on the table. She wanted to rush over to Aaron, but he was having a discussion with Shane, and by the looks of it, it was important. Cadence hoped they were agreeing that Meagan was ready to go on the hunt the next night. The brunette had worked hard and earned it, in Cadence’s opinion. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be much longer before she was also allowed to go. Although, technically, she had met the requirements, she knew it wouldn’t be this hunt for her. She still needed time.

Meagan came up behind her, and Cadence put her arm around her shoulders as Shane walked over toward them. He smiled at Meagan for a long moment before his eyes flickered at Cadence and then back to the other girl. “All right,” he said in his booming voice. “We’ll see both of you at the meeting room tonight at 9:00.” He offered both women a high-five.

“What? I get to go, too?” Cadence asked, making sure she had understood correctly.

“That’s what I said,” Shane confirmed. “Be there ready to go watch our forces in action. All right?”

Cadence was elated. She threw her arms around Meagan, and they both jumped up and down shrieking for a few moments before they gave Shane his high-fives. Actually, Meagan flung herself into his arms, and Cadence thought it was nice she was so close to her trainer.

Glancing around the room, Cadence saw Aaron over toward the exit, deep in the middle of a conversation with Elliott, whom she hadn’t seen since she’d arrived. Despite this, she couldn’t help but run over and give Aaron a hug. He wasn’t looking, and when she bumped into him so hard, she almost knocked him over, but she didn’t care. She was too ecstatic. “Thank you!” she said, and once he’d had a chance to recover from the collision, she planted a kiss on his cheek and bounded away hoping she’d get a chance to talk to him again later. For now, she wanted to get back to her apartment so she could watch some more footage of recent hunts and go over her own recorded simulator footage, all of which she could watch from the IAC.

Cadence flew out the door on her way back to her apartment on cloud nine. Everything was going so well! She was making great progress as a hunter, she’d finally figured out her IAC, and, oh yeah, Aaron had kissed her! Finally, things were looking up! She felt unstoppable.

“What was that?” Elliott asked as Cadence flew away and exited the building.

Aaron felt the color rising up his neck. “Nothing. She’s just really happy she gets to go with us tonight, that’s all.”

“Aaron, I’ve known you a really long time, my friend. Do you think I can’t smell your bullshit from ten miles away? Now tell me the truth; what’s going on?”

He stammered at first, not sure exactly what to say. There were a lot of people on this team he could easily lie to. Elliott was not one of them. “It’s, uh, it’s really nothing. I mean nothing’s going on. Nothing’s happened. Not much of anything really at all.”

“Did you sleep with her?” Elliott demanded loudly enough that several other individuals within earshot turned to look in their general direction.

“NO!” Aaron said sternly. “Please be a little more discrete!” he demanded of his longtime friend.

“Sorry. That was way too loud. I apologize. I just know something must have happened because two days ago that girl couldn’t look you in the eye without turning pink, and now she’s kissing you in public like it’s just the most natural thing anyone would do. Just go up to your boss and plant a big one right on him.”

“All right, all right, that’s enough. I told you it was nothing really. I kissed her last night. She asked me to, and I did. And maybe I shouldn’t have, but I wanted to, and it happened.”

“You kissed her?”

“Yes.”

“You KISSED her?”

“It was nothing really.”

Elliott huffed aloud before he sent back, “Well, I think other things might be happening soon by the looks of it.”

“Listen, I don’t have any idea where this relationship is going, but it’s really not anyone else’s business.”

“I beg to differ!” Elliott countered. “What happened to no relationship?”

Aaron had no response to the second part, so he concentrated on the first. “How’s that? What do you mean you beg to differ?”

“Think back to what happened last time with Ms. Whiney-Britches, ignoring your orders, doing whatever she wanted, almost got herself caught in the crossfire between two Hunters. We cannot have those types of situations, and you know it.”

“That won’t happen with Cadence,” Aaron assured his friend.

“How do you know that?”

“She always does exactly what I say. Always.”

“Yeah, well that was when you were her boss. Now you’re her boyfriend. And if she doesn’t want to do what you say, or she thinks you’re being mean, or you looked at her cross-eyed, she’s going to go do her own thing and put us all in danger. I just don’t like it Aaron. I don’t like it at all.”

“Elliott, I’m not her boyfriend. It’s really not to that point. She’ll listen. You’ll see tonight. Trust me. I’ve never seen anything like her. You watched her in the simulator. She’s incredible. And if she’s ready to go out into the field then so be it.”

“All right, you’re the boss. Just please don’t hate me when I start saying I told you so.”

“I won’t because you won’t have to.”