Chapter 136
A few deep breaths and Jamie’s words of reassurance had my shoulders coming down out of my ears. “Why is Christian like that?” I asked, thinking I could probably have phrased it more eloquently if I wasn’t distracted by the blurs out the window.
“I’m not sure how to answer that,” Jamie admitted. “He’s just an odd guy. The more you get to know him, the more you’ll see that’s how he is. But he’s harmless.”
“Good to know,” I said, turning my head to look out the window and then realizing my mistake and turning so that I was staring at the radio. I didn’t want to stare at Jamie, so I was kind of lost with where to avert my eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked, clearly seeing I was uncomfortable.
“Fine, thanks.” I didn’t know what else to say. I had a million questions I could ask, but I wasn’t sure what he would agree to tell me before Grandma filled me in on everything.
“Your grandma has a pretty methodical way of explaining everything, so I think she’ll be able to answer a lot of your questions. She’s pretty particular about how she likes this sort of information to be handled.”
“So what about all the other people who Transform?” I asked. “They don’t all come to see my grandma do they?”
“Not all of them. More than you might think. Sometimes other family members fill them in. Sometimes we go and collect them, bring them in and explain everything. We have people at headquarters who are trained for this sort of conversation.”
“So why couldn’t one of them have told me while I was there?” I asked, settling my eyes on him now that we were having a conversation. It made the landscape flying by easier to ignore.
“Because your grandma wants to tell you.” It made sense, and that’s what I had assumed.
“I sort of feel like I probably already know a lot of what she’s going to tell me, though,” I muttered. “Not that I mind going to see her or hearing her out.”
“You might already know,” he agreed. “The way you learned about everything is a little different than she had imagined it would be.”
“How did you find out?”
“My parents told me when I was about six years old,” he said, switching lanes. At this rate, we’d be in Des Moines in less than half the time it usually took when my dad drove. “Back then, we had Leaders, but things were a lot less organized, and my uncle was sort of in charge of the area around Boston. I say uncle. I’m not exactly sure how many ‘greats’ should go in front of that term. Anyway, my parents decided it would be a good idea to let my sister and I in on everything when we were young.”
He stopped talking and I raised an eyebrow, wondering if he would continue. When he didn’t, I asked, “How did that work out for you?”
“Honestly? I was terrified of my own shadow for a long time. I couldn’t even walk past this alley down the street from our house without being afraid a Vampire was going to leap out and kill me. But in retrospect, it was probably a good thing I was pretty much always aware of this world. I never had to go through that process of realizing your family has been keeping the truth from you or that you only understand a bit of what’s going on around you.”
“Yeah, that really stinks,” I agreed. He took his eyes off the road long enough to give me a sympathetic smile. “So did you always want to be a Guardian, since you were six?”
“Uh, no,” he said quickly. “In fact, I wouldn’t have Transformed at all if it wasn’t for my sister. It’s hard to be angry at her now, but if she hadn’t gotten herself in a tangle with a Vampire, I would probably have lived a happy life as a surgeon and died eighty or so years ago.”
“That’s so crazy to think you’re that old,” I exclaimed before I really thought about what was coming out of my mouth. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
“No, it’s fine. I know it takes some getting used to. I know I’m old. But I don’t feel old. I don’t look old.”
“You don’t smell old,” I offered, and that had him chuckling. “I’m just saying. Most old people have a distinct old person smell. I mean, I haven’t been sniffing you or anything, but if you did smell like an old person, I would’ve noticed.” I began to realize I sounded like a creep about halfway through all of that but he was still laughing, and I thought he saw my honesty as an attempt to be funny instead of a trip down Ridiculous Lane.
“Thanks, Cass,” he finally said once I learned to shut up. “I can see why Elliott enjoyed hanging out with you so much.”
Now, that was a compliment, and I thought back to my nefarious plan to make Jamie my new confidant. Maybe it was working. “Did you guys drive from KC to Shenandoah?”
“We did.” I couldn’t see his eyes because of his glasses, but I got the idea it wasn’t a pleasant trip.
“Christian being weird?”
“Christian being Christian. It was fine.”
“Why didn’t you fly?”
He let out a sigh like I had pushed on a bruise. “There really wasn’t a plane available. Long story. I don’t mind driving. I even enjoy it, honestly, but Christian was being even more unusual than he generally is today.”
That begged the next question out of my mouth whether he intended for me to ask it or not. “Why is that?”
“I’m not sure,” he said quickly. “Probably because….” He stopped himself and fiddled with the radio for a moment which I hadn’t really been paying any attention to. I just noticed we were listening to a heavy metal station, though it wasn’t loud, and I was sort of surprised at that. He seemed more like a slow jazz kinda guy. “I’m not sure what you know about him already, so maybe I shouldn’t say anything at all.”
I thought for a moment and decided I probably already knew one of the reasons why Christian would be uncomfortable at our house. “Does it have to do with my sister? Christian liked her, didn’t he? Or does he still?”
Jamie exhaled in a way that let me know he was glad not to have to explain any of that to me. “I think he’s just having a little trouble with your sister’s engagement, so coming to her house probably wasn’t on his list of top ten things to do, even though she’s not even there, and he has to be around both of them at work on a daily basis.”
“Reasonable explanation,” I nodded. “But… he’s still kind of a weirdo, isn’t he?”
He didn’t answer me, but the smirk on his face told me that he didn’t disagree. I decided that was enough investigating for one drive and tried again to look out the window, but when that was stomach churning, I closed my eyes and tipped my head back against the seat, hoping that would keep the rollercoaster ride we were on from taking any sudden drops, and it seemed to help a little bit, but I didn’t know how much longer I could stand the sensation of spiraling out of control, especially when I already felt like that about the rest of my life.
