After the crowd really started to pour in, Aaron told her his Vampire tracker started getting hits all across the club. This application in his IAC picked up on the implants of tagged Vampires within a set range and determined if they had any complaints against them. If they had enough substantiated offenses on their record to meet Rogue status, the rest of the team would also receive notification. Of course, this only worked for Vampires who were tagged. It was a bit shocking to know just how many of the patrons below were Compliant Vampires. The incessant beeping was just one more aspect of Aaron’s job that could have easily driven someone of lesser skill beyond the breaking point.

Once Cadence and Aaron found their positions, they were suddenly bombarded by club goers offering to buy each of them drinks. The constant interruptions were getting to be a bit of a distraction. Finally, Aaron closed the small gap between them and wrapped his arm around Cadence’s waist.

She was rather surprised but certainly didn’t mind. Nevertheless, she had to ask, “Whatcha doin’ there, bossman?”

“Well, I was hoping that these nice patrons would start to think that we are a couple and leave us the hell alone so we can do our jobs,” he replied, his hand on her side but just lightly resting there.

She was standing in front of him peering over the balcony, scanning the crowd for any of the known members of Holland’s clan and for Sebastian. While she agreed that the French partiers were a distraction, she didn’t know if he realized that he was causing even more of a disruption in her ability to concentrate. Yet, despite the knowledge that she knew concentration was vital, she wasn’t about to ask him to move away.

“You know, it’s easier to hold you when you’re not packing heat,” he whispered in her ear.

“Are you trying to disarm me?” she replied teasingly.

“No, not at all,” he resounded. “I’ll just have to figure out some other way to let everyone know you’re presently spoken for,” he said in a more flirtatious tone than she had ever heard him use before.

“I have a few ideas,” she said biting her bottom lip. She was beginning to wonder if he wasn’t also taking advantage of this charade to momentarily suspend their agreement to go their separate ways. If he was, she was definitely game. She felt like she was playing a role in an action movie, not like this was real life.

“Oh? What ideas?” he asked, clearly intrigued.

Though it required taking her eyes off of the club floor for a few moments, she convinced herself that the believability of their cover story was at stake. She swiveled her hips around so that she was facing him and placed her hand on the nape of his neck. Pulling him toward hers, she pressed her lips against his and drew his mouth open with her tongue. After a few moments she released him. “Believable?” she asked, requesting his approval.

In response, Aaron pulled her back in and kissed her again, this time a bit softer but still just as passionately. Releasing her, he said, “I think that might work. It does make it a little more difficult to see the club floor, but really, there will be other opportunities to kill Vampires.”

She laughed and turned back to scan the crowd, making sure she hadn’t missed anything while she had been thoroughly distracted.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” Eliza wanted to know. She was standing just a few feet away with a drink in her hand.

“Cover story,” Cadence replied.

“Believability is everything,” Aaron noted.

“Am I the only one working around here?” the third wheel wanted to know.

Cadence couldn’t respond just then though. Her eyes locked in on a face moving through the crowd. She didn’t have a good vantage point from where she was presently standing, so she began to move, her instincts kicking in.

There was no way Aaron could see exactly what she was doing, but he seemed to know by now that when she went into this state, it was best to just let her work and try to keep up. She could feel him following behind her as she trailed along the railing.

Cadence had a lock. It was Sebastian. He was winding his way through the crowd, heading down the middle of the dance floor, constantly looking over his shoulder as if he was certain he was about to be pounced on at any second. And that was Cadence’s first thought, but the fact that he was here must be significant. If something weren’t amiss, he would have never shown up in the club that night, knowing it was bound to be crawling with Hunters and Guardians.

Surveying the location of her teammates, she realized he was about to pass into Jamie’s zone. “Jamie, Sebastian, white shirt, middle of the floor, your ten o’clock.”

“Affirmative,” Jamie replied.

Jamie was on him in less than two seconds, without the crowd knowing he had instantaneously covered about fifty feet and without bumping into a single one of them. Cadence watched and listened through the IAC as the doctor placed his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, as if they were long lost pals. “Sebastian, we’ve missed you,” he said, keeping his grip tight as they continued to walk through the crowd. It didn’t really matter exactly where they were going, so long as Jamie didn’t let the Vampire get away.

“I need to speak to Sabin,” Sebastian said, his heavy French accent making it difficult for Cadence to understand.

“Well, let’s go,” Jamie replied, leading him to where she stood at the back end of the club on the first balcony.

“God, I really want to go ring his neck, literally,” Cadence muttered.

“Nice pick up,” Aaron replied. “You can’t kill him just now. We’ve got to figure out what he knows.”

“Don’t you want to go talk to him?” Cadence asked, turning to look at him momentarily.

“I’m dying to go interrogate the turncoat myself, but doing so would mean leaving you, and it isn’t worth it. I’ll just have to trust Sabin to gather and disseminate the information.”

His response made sense, and Cadence nodded before returning her eyes back to the dance floor, crawling back over faces, searching for anyone else who might be a threat.