Chapter 238
My sister came back a couple of hours later. She looked exhausted and headed almost immediately for the bedroom. Aaron and Elliott were with her, and they both sat down without saying anything, aloud anyway, and Brandon and I exchanged glances. We had been watching The Goonies, but now real-life monsters seemed much more important than the ones on the show.
“Everything okay?” I asked, looking from one of them to the other.
“Yeah, she’s just tired,” Aaron said. He looked a little tired himself.
I glanced at Brandon, and he gave me a reassuring smile. With a deep breath, I stood, deciding it was now or never, and headed for the bedroom.
Cadence was sprawled on the bed she’d claimed earlier. Her eyes were closed, but when I sat down on the other bed across from her, she opened them. “What’s up, Sis?” she asked, forcing a smile.
“Do you have a minute?” I asked. “I wanted to talk to you about what I’m supposed to do tonight.”
She rolled over so that she was on her side, her head supported by her hand. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… I think… maybe I could be of some help. If you want me to be.” I knew I wasn’t choosing my words very well. “I just wondered what you were thinking about how I can contribute.”
“It’s pretty simple, Cass.” My sister seemed extremely annoyed all of a sudden, and I began to think talking to her wasn’t such a great idea after all. “You just stand there between Elliott and Jamie. If either one of them has to come help, you glue yourself to the other one. If both of them come to help, then you switch to Cale or Scarlet, the Healer from Philly. That’s it. You just stand there.”
I sighed. The nervous energy welled up inside of me, so I stood and began to pace the small area between our two beds, trying to figure out how to better express myself. Cadence closed her eyes and fell backward onto her pillow, like she’d dismissed me, and the conversation was over.
Even the two hours I’d had to consider how to word this weren’t helping, and I ended up blurting out, “But what if I can convince him to come to me? What if I give him the idea that I’m on his side? Then, you could swoop in and get him while he’s distracted.”
Cadence sat up and looked at me like I had two heads. “And what if he rips your leg off of you and uses it as a club to beat you with? Jamie’s a pretty good Healer, but I don’t think anyone’s gonna be able to reattach your severed leg without an operating room.”
Her voice was loud and argumentative, much more so than mine had been, at least from my perspective. I stopped pacing and dropped down onto the window sill behind me. “Argh!” I groaned, no longer capable of quelling my disappointment. “This is so unfair!”
“Cassidy Elizabeth!” Cadence shouted, shooting up to a sitting position. I stared at her in surprise, not sure why she was so angry. “Listen to me, young lady. I got you what you wanted. You’re here, aren’t you? If you want to go on this hunt at all, then you will listen to me. Just be thankful that I convinced Aaron to let you go. If you’re going to be living with me soon, then you’ve got to stop arguing with me all of the time!”
I knew most of what she’d just said wasn’t true—it hadn’t been Aaron she’d had to convince. She was just trying to take the credit for me being there, like he was against it, when in actuality if she’d had to convince anyone at all it was our parents. And that’s exactly what she sounded like now, like a parent. “God, you sound like Mom. Only meaner.”
Her eyes expanded to double their size and her mouth dropped open. Obviously, I had hit a nerve. There was no way she was ever going to agree to my plan now. I did my best to bite my lip as she said, “Listen, if you don’t want to take my word for it, ask Elliott. He will tell you the same thing. It’s going to be a madhouse in there. You have no training. Stay where I say, or you don’t come on another hunt. Ever.”
I couldn’t believe she was threatening me with throwing me off the team. This had certainly taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way, and I was shocked. What was even more shocking was what I heard next. Elliott’s deep voice sounded through the door before he even got there. “Listen to your sister.” He walked in and stood between us, and I stared up at him, unable to believe he was taking her side or that he’d been listening at all.
“What—were you eavesdropping?”
“Yes. Always,” he replied as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. “Cass, this is going to be the wildest hunt any of us have been on in a while, and you’re gonna help us figure out where he’s at if you can, but you can’t get in the way. And if you move two inches away from me, I’m going to use these.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “And I just might have to handcuff you to someone other than myself—someone less fun. Like… I don’t know, Mickey.”
While I was glad to hear he was acknowledging that I might be able to help, the thought of being handcuffed to anyone, especially Mickey, made my stomach turn over. I knew he was bluffing, but I couldn’t help but clarify. “You wouldn’t.”
“Heck, if I thought it would keep you safe, I’d handcuff you to Christian, and I know you’d hate that.”
My face contorted, and I think a little bit of vomit rose in the back of my throat. I caught a glimmer in my sister’s eye, though, like she suddenly thought she had something on me. I slipped that piece of information into my own back pocket. It was only a weakness if I let it be.
Elliott’s voice was still gruff as he continued. “The bottom line is, you’re gonna do what your sister says, what Aaron says, and what I say. Now, go make me a sandwich.”
Still in shock at his attitude, I asked, “What kind of….”
“Just go!” Elliott cut me off, pointing at the door.
I wanted to yell at him, to tell him I thought we may have brought back the wrong person because the Elliott I know would’ve never talked to me like that, but I said nothing, only stood, swallowing my pride and my tears, and headed straight for the bedroom door.
Brandon met me on the other side, but I walked right past him. I glanced around and saw that Aaron was gone and decided that was a good thing. At least I hadn’t been humiliated in front of him.
“Cass? Where are you going?” Brandon asked, catching up with me and grabbing my arm.
I walked over to the room phone that was sitting on a table near the sofa and picked up the receiver while simultaneously looking up the phone number to the closest sandwich delivery place. “Your dad wants a sandwich, he’s getting a sandwich,” I replied.
“How are you going to pay for…”
I pulled Cadence’s credit card out of my back pocket. I’d never returned it after buying my train ticket the last time I’d come to this city. “Hello, I’d like to place an order for delivery,” I said to the male voice on the other end of the line. “What’s the biggest sandwich you make?”
Brandon watched with his mouth wide open as I ordered his dad a sandwich large enough to feed a small army and then slammed the receiver down.
“I’d ask if you’re all right, but I guess I already know the answer,” he said, still staring at me.
I ran my hand through my hair and took a step closer to him. “He’s never talked to me like that before. Ever.”
“I know,” Brandon said, resting his hand on my shoulder. “I think he’s just nervous. This is his first hunt since he… died,” he reminded me.
“I know—but he took her side.”
Brandon’s face morphed in recognition. “Oh, I see.”
“What?” I asked, my own forehead crinkling now.
“Cass, just because he agreed with Cadence in this instance doesn’t mean he’s always going to agree with her. She’s just trying to keep you safe, and so is he.”
“I know but…”
“But it bothers you because you’re afraid he likes her more than he likes you. That seems natural to me. I wouldn’t worry about it, though. He can like both of you.”
I opened my mouth to argue but realized he was exactly right. That’s why my feelings still stung like I’d had an inner jellyfish encounter. “You’re a pretty wise dude, Brandon Keen,” I said quietly.
He chuckled, probably relieved that I wasn’t going to argue as much as he was expecting. “Yeah, well, I have no idea which side of my family tree I would’ve gotten that from.”
“True,” I nodded as the bedroom door opened and Elliott walked out. He had an expression on his face that told me he wanted to talk to me but wasn’t exactly sure what to say. I glared at him for a moment as Brandon backed away. “Where are you going?”
“Gotta clean off the coffee table,” he replied. “Gotta make room for all that food.”
Elliott looked at him confused for a second before he turned back to face me. He was only about a foot away now. “Sorry about all that,” he muttered.
I folded my arms and looked at him. “Are you, now?”
“Well yeah, kinda,” he said. “I mean… I’m sorry I yelled at you. It’s just, dang it, Cass, when I found out what happened to you the last time you were here, I was livid. Mad enough to strangle my own son.”
“Hey!” Brandon called from across the room.
Elliott shrugged. “It’s true. I’m just afraid you’ll end up getting yourself into another sticky situation, that’s all.”
“Elliott,” I said, reaching up to rest my hand on his shoulder, which I could barely reach. “What could possibly happen to me?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I don’t want to find out. I’m telling you, things are about to get very real. You might think you have an idea what it’s like to be in the middle of a hunt, but you don’t. I know you’ve been watching a lot of videos, and that’s cool. But until you’re right there in the middle of it….”
“I’ve been in the middle of it,” I countered, withdrawing my hand and putting it on my hip. “I was the prey last time, remember?”
“The bait,” Brandon chimed in.
“Yeah, well, there ain’t no sense in you getting yourself tangled up with Gibbon. You don’t go poking or probing anything without permission from Cadence or Aaron, you hear me?”
“I hear you,” I said, which wasn’t necessarily agreeing.
“I hope you do,” he said. “Because I think your sister was serious about this being your last hunt if you disobey her.”
I nodded, meeting his gaze. He had no idea just how important a weapon I could be, though, and neither did my sister. Hopefully, I could still find a way to show them without disobeying orders and without getting hurt. What they also didn’t understand was that I was already beginning to feel the pull. Gibbon was out there, all right, I could feel him. He might be the monster, but I was the one coming for him.
