Chapter 337
My cheeks were burning. I was doing my best to try to seem relaxed and nonchalant, but listening to Alex tell Lucy about the time he and Aaron Burr had taken out an entire shipload of Vampires in Boston Harbor was exciting. I loved to listen to Alex retell history, and it was truly the fact that I was in the presence of an American historical icon that had my heart thumping so loudly in my chest—and nothing else. But the more I thought about seeming like I wasn’t hanging on his every word, the harder it became. Tara kept grinning at me, like a Cheshire cat, like she thought there was something else that had me so enthralled, and I told her to stop through my IAC a dozen times—but she didn’t. So I tried not to look at either one of them.
Lucy was also caught up in his every word. Like me, she loves history class. You wouldn’t think that would be the case because sometimes she comes across like a wannabe valley girl, but she’s super smart. She did ask Alex why he insists on dressing like it’s still 1777, and he laughed and explained he was most comfortable in knee breeches and his velvet jacket. Thankfully, most times he didn’t wear a powdered wig, though I think he wished he could. He’d mentioned to me once before that he thought that was going too far even for him.
We were in the building that houses Christian’s and Jamie’s offices, in a room down the hall from Christian’s lab. Lucy seemed to enjoy her quick tour of campus, and we had been headed back to my apartment to ask Mom if we could hang out at Brandon’s when I noticed the light was on and decided to see if Alex was around. I knew it was risky because Dax and Tara would likely give me a hard time, but I thought Lucy would like to meet him. This room was where he was conducting his own experiments and research, trying to see if he could get around the Blue Moon Portal, and I headed here any chance I had when Brandon was busy with something else because, as I’ve already mentioned, I am fascinated with Alex—I mean, all of the history Alex knows firsthand. Not with him.
He finished his story, one I’ve heard a few times before but still enjoy, with a flourish of his cuffed sleeve. “Then the entire canister of gunpowder went off, sending us all up into the air, and when we landed in the harbor, only Burr and I remained.”
“So all of the Vampires died in the blast?” Lucy asked. I had asked the same question the first time I heard the story.
“From ashes to ashes,” Alex replied with a nod. “From dust to dust. From powder to powder.” He had that twinkle in his eye that let me know his performance was over, and Lucy nearly clapped her hands, as if she were at the Broadway play named for the man in front of her.
“Wow—that’s incredible.” She was shaking her head in disbelief.
“Indeed.” Alex gave a smug smile, clearly satisfied with his retelling.
“Well, we should probably be getting back,” Brandon said, and I remembered he was there for the first time in a few minutes, a fact I would’ve never admitted. I glanced up at him and could see something was bothering him. “We all know you have important work to do.”
“It is always a pleasure to relay one of my stories to the youth of the day,” Alex replied with a bow of his head.
“It was really amazing to meet you,” Lucy said, her cheeks turning slightly pink like mine do in this man’s presence.
“No, Miss Lucy, it was my pleasure to meet you. Please feel free to stop by any time. And should you ever get one of these fancy eye mechanisms, perhaps we can chat.”
“That would be awesome.” My friend’s grin was almost as wide as mine had been when he’d said something similar to me. It’s too bad we weren’t taking American History this year. I couldn’t imagine having a better reference.
We headed off toward the apartment building, and Tara and Lucy chatted about Alex. Every once in a while, Tara would say my name with a sing-song tone to it, like “Cass really loves to talk to Alex, too.” I tried to ignore her, but I sensed Brandon’s whole arm tense up every time she said my name and Alex’s in the same sentence, so I sent her an IAC to knock it off. Considering Brandon had recently thought there was something going on between me and Dax, I didn’t need him worried about Alex. There were so many reasons why that wasn’t a problem. Not only was the man two hundred years older than me, he was hoping to die. I have a problem with getting all gushy over someone who is actively trying to find a way out of this earthly plane.
When we entered the lobby, I saw a familiar face and rushed over to say hello to Juan Diego, our head maintenance man. I just love him, and I think he feels the same way, as he set aside the hammer he was using to hang a new picture on the wall in the lobby to give me a hug. “Juan, this is my friend Lucy. She’s going to be staying with me and my parents for a while.”
“Ah, Lucia. It is very nice to meet you.” He offered his hand, and she shook it with a smile. He just instantly makes a person feel happy. “How you like this place? It’s big, no?”
“It’s huge,” Lucy agreed. Juan’s English is limited—though not as limited as my Spanish, so sometimes he doesn’t quite say exactly what he means. I think he meant impressive, but I didn’t correct him.
“You know Cassidy a long time?”
“Yes, since we were... chicas.” Lucy was trying, and that was something.
Juan laughed and said something in Spanish I couldn’t have repeated, but I think it meant “little girls.” He nodded. “Muy bien. It’s lovely to meet you.”
“You, too,” Lucy replied.
“You need any-ting at all, you let me know, okay?”
“Will do.” We all waved and headed for the elevators, and I laughed when I saw Juan take a small step back from Brandon. Even though he knows Brandon isn’t Elliott, they look enough alike that he is still slightly afraid of my boyfriend. Juan is terrified of Elliott. He is very superstitious. In fact, it was Juan’s superstition that got him this gig in the first place. It didn’t seem like a coincidence that he’d been an employee in the hospital where Jack died and came back as a Vampire in Nebraska, at the hospital in Kansas City where Jamie had saved Cadence from a bullet wound, and at the school in Texas where the team finally tracked down the guy who’d shot Elliott. When Aaron noticed the same man kept showing up everywhere, he thought it had to be more than a coincidence and asked Juan to come and work for him. I’m so glad he did, too, because no matter how bad a day I’m having, even the shortest conversation with Juan makes me feel like a million dineros—or whatever Mexican money is called.
