Chapter 2: Photographs

Cadence didn’t say anything, only kept her eyes on her grandmother’s withered face for a few more seconds before returning to the picture in the album.

“Now, her name is Peggy Smithstone, and this picture was taken in the late sixties, I believe. She lives in Oklahoma—Norman, I think. At any rate, she is very important, and I think, when you have more time, you should hunt her down—well not, really, not the way that you hunt things down,” her grandmother mused, “but contact her. I think she has some stories you’d like to hear.”

The picture showed a woman in her mid-to-late thirties outside at what appeared to be a picnic or barbecue. Her hair was done up in a beehive and she was wearing a plaid skirt and button down white shirt. She had a nice smile, but she looked like she was caught in the middle of doing something. Next to her, only half in the frame, was a young man who couldn’t have been much more than fifteen or sixteen, and even though she couldn’t quite see all of him, Cadence thought he looked familiar. “Is that…?”

Her grandmother didn’t give her a chance to finish her question. “Peggy went through the Transformation process because her parents were very active. Her mother was a Guardian and her father was a Hunter. So she was a Guardian. But she found she didn’t like it—couldn’t stomach the carnage—and so she decided to go back into the real world and live a “normal” life.

“Well, Peggy married a man, and he knew her secrets of course. He was a human. And it turned out it was very difficult for Peggy to have kids of her own.”

“That’s sad,” Cadence interjected, wondering where her grandmother was going with this.

“You know we try to keep tabs on everyone as best we can, whether they’ve Transformed or not. It’s getting harder. So many are choosing not to Transform, not to tell their children.”

“Right,” Cadence nodded. She was familiar with this problem. Recently stepping up recruiting efforts had meant a lot of exploration into who could even Transform—who was of Hunter blood and who was of Guardian blood.

“Our team in Oklahoma found that there was a woman who was of Guardian stock that wasn’t taking very good care of her children. She’d never Transformed, thank goodness. We don’t need her kind around for eternity. Well, eventually we ended up taking her kids away—after a long investigation.”

“We can do that?”

“Oh, yes. Why not?”

Cadence just shrugged. It had never occurred to her that she might need to do such a thing. “So Peggy took her kids?”

“Yes, two boys. They were around seven and twelve by then, but Peggy was ecstatic. And she was a good mother, too. Although, when the boys got older, she had a bit of a falling out with the oldest one. Never got it resolved either, which is a shame.”

“This one?” Cadence asked, pointing at the young man half-in and half-out of the picture.

“That’s him.”

Hesitantly, Cadence asked, “Is that… Elliott?”

“Yes,” her grandmother replied. “And so… I think you should find Peggy and talk to her. Let her know she raised a good man.”

“Okay,” Cadence replied in a sort-of sing-song voice. “Why haven’t you done that, Grandma?”

“Well, Peggy wasn’t a big fan of your grandfather’s. He’d tried to keep her in when she wanted out, and it got a bit drawn out. Anyway, I think it would be best if you contacted her.”

Cadence shrugged her shoulders. She could do that. “Whatever happened to Elliott’s brother?”

“He died,” Janette answered, and it was the first time Cadence had heard her be so blunt about anyone passing all day long. “Got hit by a train when he was sixteen.”

“Oh, my God!” Cadence exclaimed. “That’s horrible!”

“Yes, it was. He hadn’t Transformed yet. It was awful. At the time, Elliott was about twenty-one. He’d recently Transformed, but he was still in Oklahoma. I think he blamed himself quite a bit. I think that’s part of what broke up his marriage, if I’m honest.”

Cadence needed a moment, and after she cleared her thoughts, still shaking her head, she asked, “Do you know what happened to his first two children? Hannah said she contacted them about the funeral, but neither of them or his first wife wanted to attend.”

“I’ve never seen a more bitter woman poison her children against an ex,” Janette said, crossing her arms with a humph. “Such an awful woman. I heard she had lung cancer a few years ago, but if Hannah contacted her, I guess she’s still kicking. His kids were living in Florida. It would be nice if you could try to contact them, too. Let them know they were wrong—their mother was wrong.”

Cadence remembered when she’d tried to talk to Amanda Keen about Elliott at the funeral and how she had been in such a hurry to back away without even speaking. She wondered how these people who were so close to her friend could have seen him so differently than she did. “Grandma, was Elliott different—before? I mean, he was awfully mean to me when I first met him. Was he like that to other people? Is that why he’s fallen out with so many people?”

Janette seemed to consider the question for a moment. “No, I wouldn’t say mean, honey. I think he was very stubborn at times, as we can all be. But with you, that was different, darling.”

“What do you mean?” Cadence asked, her forehead crinkling. After Elliott died, she’d had several discussions with other team members that had led her to believe there was a possibility that the only reason he didn’t want her on the LIGHTS team was because he didn’t want her to get hurt, but she didn’t have any firm evidence that this was the case.

“Turn to the back of the album, dear,” Grandma Janette instructed.