Chapter 219
Mom and Dad both greeted us at the door. “We thought you were never coming in,” she joked, hugging me and then Brandon. My dad hugged me and shook Brandon’s hand.
“Sorry,” I said. “Aaron was asking us about something, and it’s always easier for me to do one thing at a time.”
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“I think so,” I shrugged, moving into the foyer. “It wasn’t something we could really help him with. But he did say that Brandon can stay here tonight and skip his training tomorrow since he did it today, if that’s all right with you.”
“Of course he can stay,” my mom said, patting him on the arm. “That’s what guest rooms are for.”
“Thanks,” Brandon said, flashing her that smile that so reminds me of his father. “Sure beats turning around and driving right back.”
“Did you have a good time?” my mom asked, moving into the living room. “Was your sister busy, or did you get to see her?”
“She was pretty busy,” I said, assuming my mom and dad were not in the loop. I dropped my bag by the stairs and followed my parents into the living room, Brandon next to me. “We had fun. Aurora did my training. Brandon spent a couple of hundred dollars winning me a stuffed bear at Pizza Triangle.”
“It wasn’t that much,” he corrected me, sitting down next to me on the sofa.
“Did you see any of your other friends?” my dad asked in a way that made me feel like I was reporting on my trip to day camp at church or something.
“Just the people I train with mostly. Jamie for a few minutes.”
“You were going to try to talk to Hannah, weren’t you?” my mom asked.
I’d mentioned it to her after Lucy brought it up at lunch last week. “Yeah, but she was kinda busy.”
“You know,” my mom said, hesitantly, “Elliott was awfully good at making people feel better when they were down. Have you thought about maybe…?” She nodded her head in Brandon’s direction but stopped speaking.
Momentarily, I was confused. I turned and looked at him, and realized he was as lost as I was. Then it occurred to me what she was getting at. “Mom, you want Brandon to brainwash me into not missing him or the rest of the LIGHTS team? Into being happy with my weirdo self?” I asked, a little taken aback.
“Well, when you put it like that, it sounds terrible,” she admitted. “But didn’t Elliott used to come to school and just make the kids happy? Could he do that?”
I hated that we were talking about Brandon like he wasn’t even in the room—among the other parts of this conversation that I also hated. “I don’t think so, Mom. I don’t want to be brainwashed out of this. I want to figure out why I feel this way and fix what’s wrong.”
“But do you think you can? I get the idea that you will just continue to feel like a little lost soul until you’re at LIGHTS full time, and that’s a long way off,” my dad said, looking at me skeptically.
“I would just rather figure out a way to deal with it,” I said, trying to be honest. The last thing I wanted to do was have Brandon manipulate my feelings about him. Besides, I wasn’t even sure he could do that.
My parents were quiet for a few minutes, and I knew they were so worried about me that at this point they probably would’ve tried just about anything. Mom cleared her voice and said, “Well, dinner should be ready in an hour. Why don’t you kids go up to the movie room and watch something?” She forced a smile through gritted teeth.
“Okay, Mom,” I said, standing. Brandon pulled himself up off the sofa and followed me up the stairs, grabbing my bag for me as we passed it. I secretly wondered if I should tell my parents Cadence was up to something, just to take the focus off of me for a few minutes, but then it seemed selfish to worry them about her when there was nothing they could do, and it didn’t really seem like she was in any trouble.
We sat down in the movie room, and I handed Brandon the remote. I didn’t really feel like watching anything. I just kept waiting for a notification on my IAC that something was going on, that Aaron had tracked down Cadence or that Jamie or Christian was in trouble for helping her. But nothing ever came.
“You okay, Cass?” Brandon asked. “I don’t think you’re watching this very closely since Dwight just said something hilarious and you didn’t even laugh.”
I hadn’t even realized we were watching The Office until then. “I’m fine,” I lied. He wasn’t buying it. With a sigh, I turned to face him, causing him to turn the sound down on the television. “Brandon, do you ever feel like something is about to happen—like you don’t know what it is, but it’s something big, something there’s no going back from?”
“Every day of my life anymore.”
I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. I looked down at the ring on my finger and twisted it a time or two. “Listen, the last time I talked to your dad, I’m almost sure he knew he was about to die. I don’t know how that’s possible since Guardian deaths are so rare, but I swear, some of the things he said to me—he knew something was about to happen. And that’s how I feel right now.”
His expression shifted such that his eyebrows went up and the rest of his face drooped. “You think you’re about to die?”
I huffed, maybe a little too loudly. In retrospect, that is sort of what it sounded like I had said. “No, not at all. But I do feel like something big is about to happen. Like we’re on a precipice. You don’t feel it?”
He wrinkled his lips up and drew them to one side of his mouth, as if he was really concentrating, and held that for almost a minute. “Heck, Cass, I don’t know. I don’t think so. Not any more than usual. But… isn’t there some sort of super moon or something next week? No offense or anything, but maybe it’s your Vampire part that feels that way. Aren’t they allegedly affected by the moon?”
“You say I’m a Vampire in one sentence and then say ‘they’ in the next.” I glared at him.
“I didn’t say you are a Vampire,” he corrected, reaching over and taking my hand. “I know that you are a not a Vampire. But you do have Vampiric tendencies.” He sort of chuckled at his own clever terminology.
“It’s not a super moon. It’s a blue moon,” I said, “and I don’t know. But I do think maybe I should try to see what they’re talking about.” I didn’t tell him I’d tried the night before and failed. “I’m just a little nervous about it still.”
“I don’t blame you, but I don’t see what harm it can do. If you’re nervous that something’s going to happen, and one of them happens to know about it, wouldn’t it be great to find out in advance?”
I felt like he was placating me a little bit, but he was also right. I would like to know what I could without the enemy finding out. I became more resolved than ever to embrace this new part of who I was, even if it killed me. Which I didn’t think it could do, but then, I still had no idea what could kill me. And maybe that was also part of the problem. With a sigh, I turned back around to watch the show—but I didn’t let go of his hand.
