Training was a no go the next day. My alarm went off, and I stopped it without opening my eyes, using my powers, and then buried my head back underneath the pillow. Sleep had been fleeting, and I’d tossed and turned most of the night, thinking about the missing people, the Vampires, whether or not I should contact Cadence, my fights with Brandon. And Alex.
So when I finally got up around 10:00, I had a lot of missed messages on my IAC from my friends checking on me. Aurora wanted to make sure I was okay since I hadn’t gone to the gym. On Saturdays, she just works with the newer people, or the ones who really need it, and those aren’t always the same people. She usually only has a handful of recruits, but I think she likes it when I’m there because we can laugh and joke around a little while the others are working out. I wasn’t in any mood to cut up with her at the moment.
I told her I was fine. Told all of my friends hey and I’d chat
“You could try to slam the door on me,” Christian shrugged. My eyes slitted to match his. “Please don’t. Listen, I need to talk to you about something.” He looked around like he was suddenly afraid his pounding on my door might’ve brought the attention of the other apartment dwellers. “In private.”I scoffed. “What in the world could I possibly want to talk to you about in private or otherwise? I hate you, in case that scar on your face doesn’t remind you every day.”His hand automatically left the door where he’d been leaning and fingered the small mark by his mouth, the one I’d left there in my rage, the one Jamie couldn’t fix because he had been in the portal—the portal he was in because Christian Henry is a jerkface. I still felt a little bad, though. I had acted like a psycho that day, even if it had been deserved, and it made me feel better....“I realize that,
Giving Christian a minute, I tried to calm my rage a little and look at this from a different perspective. He wanted to help me, didn’t he? So why was I attacking him? Hadn’t he suffered enough at my hand already? It’s not like we could go back now and change what he’d done. The least I could do was try to remain reasonable while he potentially attempted to atone for his mistakes. “What is it?” I asked, hoping he’d elaborate on why he wanted to know more about what I’d found out.His serious expression became even more so as he cleared his throat and raised his eyes so they were at my face level again. “You can’t repeat what I’m about to tell you.”“Oh, good. More secrets.” Maybe I was wrong with what I’d thought before and he didn’t deserve any compassion.“Cassidy, I’m serious. Believe me, you’ll be glad to hear it. But I won’t tell you at al
All of that information would be lovely to have before letting him go to face the monster, but with Daunator, it didn’t come easy. I figured what I was about to say would be disappointing to him, but unlike some people, I didn’t feel comfortable sending him off into battle without all of the information. “For the most part, he hasn’t been doing the turning himself, I don’t think. When I jump into one of these newborns’ heads, I see one of a few other Vampires as their parents, not Daunator himself. I think he has minions, bloodsuckers he sends out to do his dirty work.” That’s about all I could gather from what he’d mentioned, and it wouldn’t be much to go on. I would try again, though, especially now that I thought it might be a purposeful endeavor.“That’s good to know,” Christian said, which surprised me. I thought he’d be disappointed I didn’t have more answers. “Do you think i
I spent the next couple of days trying to find the answers to Christian’s questions. It wasn’t easy, and some of them were basically impossible to find because I just didn’t have access to the sources I needed. A lot of the people who were missing were not accessible, which seemed so odd to me. Normally, if I have a name, I can eventually find someone. Having a name, a face, and a location make it easier. Even with all of that, the struggle was real.But I was able to get a lot of data that should, theoretically, help him, including the names of several Vampires that had been turning the people I could locate, or were just active in the area. The info I had on them was sketchy, and I needed to sit down with Christian and go over it, but I couldn’t bring myself to contact him. I figured he’d have to come back to me eventually if he was serious about this endeavor. Unless he was waiting for me to reach out to him, which I hadn’t been comforta
I was done and ready to go, but Brandon’s hand pulled me back to the couch as I started to stand up.I wanted to yank away from him, but I calmed slightly when he said, “Okay, okay, okay. I’m sorry. If that’s what you’ve been working on, I can see why that would take a lot of attention.” I figured he was honing in on the army part now since he had to have known I’d been focused on Daunator, unless he also doesn’t listen when people talk to him—like me that night. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I was just, like I said before, worried about you.”For someone who didn’t mean to be rude, his tone hadn’t quite returned to its normal level yet, but I decided if he could apologize, I could calm down. “Don’t be. I’m fine.”He wasn’t buying it. He was reading my face and knew that I wasn’t okay. And that had more to do with Guardians than Vampires. But I wa
I stood outside for a few seconds, drawing in deep breaths, trying not to dwell on the conversation—the fight—I’d just had with Brandon. They seemed to be happening more and more, and it made me uncomfortable. Why couldn’t I just remember how devastated I’d been when he was gone and focus on that?Christian’s voice jarred me back to reality as I tried to remember I’d just invited this weirdo into my head. “I’m in the lab, finishing up a few things. Why do you ask? What’s up? You thirsty for blood?”I let a giggle escape before I remembered I don’t like him. I hoped he hadn’t noticed, but I got the feeling he did. It’s hard to hide anything from the IAC. “You wanna meet me at the coffee shop? I’ve got some information for you.”“Sure,” he replied pretty quickly. “Isn’t it almost your curfew?”
My pondering was interrupted when Christian plunked his coffee down on the table and slid into the booth across from me. He’d ordered the smaller size. Peewee or something? As tired as he looked, I thought maybe he should’ve gone with Largo. “Rough night?” he asked, and I wondered if maybe I also looked like I could’ve used a Largo.“You could say that.” I definitely wasn’t about to go over my argument with Brandon with this guy. I ran my hands through my hair, wanting to get on with it but not knowing where to start.“Man, who would’ve ever thought even a week ago you’d be sneaking out in the middle of the night to see me, huh?”I didn’t like the implications of his comment and swallowed hard before I said, “You don’t have to make it sound like that.” Like we were on a date or something. Barf.“Like what?”As if he didn’t know. I rolle
I cocked my head to the side and looked at him for a moment. I don’t know why I hadn’t considered that before. Maybe it had crossed my mind, and I’d just assumed whatever had come through with that other Guardian had been killed a long time ago. I’d always just thought the first one must’ve come back centuries ago. I followed his line of reasoning, though. “Because Dracula came through with Alex, and Holland came through with Elliott....”“And Carter came through when our grandma went the other direction. So who came through with that third Guardian?”I didn’t have to think about the answer to that one because I had absolutely no idea. “Good question. It would also be nice to know who the third Guardian is. He had to be before Alex, right? Because Aaron Burr went looking for someone to help him and found an ancient Guardian who knew about the portal. So he must be the one who came through it.” This