Chapter 375
My sister’s voice cut through the stillness. Cadence asked Schmitz, “Do you know what they called this monster?”
Schmitz nodded, but he didn’t answer aloud, and I wondered if maybe he sent her an IAC message with the answer, but then my sister asked, “Can you tell us?”
Immediately, the nod turned into a negative, a quick shake back and forth that couldn’t be misunderstood. We were all puzzled. Aaron asked, “You can’t tell us? Why is that?”
Finding his voice again, Schmitz replied, “Speaking his name is said to draw him out, and even though I am certain he cannot manifest here, I’m not willing to take the chance.”
I was shocked to see him so frightened by someone who was reputedly located on another continent and realized I needed to know what this thing was so I could try to find out as much as I could about him.
“Can you write it down?” Cadence asked, her voice bordering on losing the touch of understanding she’d originally spoken with when she asked him the monster’s name the first time.
Schmitz sucked in a deep breath and then reluctantly nodded. Hannah passed him a pad of paper and a pen, and he breathed in deeply again before sprawling a few letters on the top page and flipping the pad over, his hand over top of it protectively. “Will you wait until I leave before you read it?”
“Certainly,” Aaron replied quickly, likely thankful just to have the information he needed at last. “Well, if there’s nothing more you wish to tell us, I suppose you can go.” I thought it was a little strange how Aaron was suddenly showing his own age. He was starting to sound a little like Alex.
“That’s all,” Schmitz said, already pushing his chair back. “Just be cautious. We don’t know what he can do. But it’s not typical.”
“Yes, of course. Thank you,” Aaron said with a smile, and Schmitz was out of the room before anyone else could even say goodbye.
“Shall I accompany him?” Alex asked, obviously wanting to get out of our meeting, too. I was relieved when Aaron said he could leave as well. As much as I like Alex, I don’t really feel like I can be myself when he’s around. I constantly feel like I’m having to try to impress him. He gave a bow, as he always does, and then slipped out the door as well.
We sat in silence for a long moment before Hannah pulled the pad of paper back in front of herself and asked, “Are we all ready for me to read it?”
“Nope,” Elliott said, and we all turned to look at him. “Let me get my aluminum foil hat on.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. Most everyone else did, too. The serious tone was cut out of the air, and the team all settled back a bit as Hannah read the name. “Daunator.”
Immediately, Christian’s ears perked up. “Daunator?” he repeated.
“You know him?” Aaron asked. I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was. If Christian knew this guy, why hadn’t he said anything? Or was he just trying to make us all think he knew when he really didn’t have a clue?
“I should say I’ve heard of him, I guess,” Christian said with a shrug. “He is legendary. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him.” He was talking to Aaron, and the comment seemed disrespectful to me, but Aaron didn’t even flinch. I guess he doesn’t know everyone after all.
“Enlighten us, Captain Henry,” Elliott said, taking the pressure off of Aaron and giving Christian the opportunity to do what he loves to do most—talk.
He cleared his throat, and I settled back in my seat, thinking this would be round two of storytelling. “There isn’t much to say. Just... yeah... I’ve heard he knows a lot, that he has powers beyond your typical Vampire, a lot like Holland. Except, he is said to be able to transcend time and space. I have never heard that he knows how to kill Guardians, but if that’s what she’s looking for....”
He stopped talking abruptly, and we all waited for him to finish the sentence. He didn’t. Brandon asked, “So you do think it’s possible?” Christian had already said in this very meeting that he didn’t think it could happen. Was he switching horses midstream?
“No.” Christian answered quickly but not convincingly. “But if it were, he would know it.”
His answer didn’t even make any sense. I kept my mouth shut for once, though. It was someone else’s turn to try to make sense out of Christian’s ridiculousness.
“Okay,” my sister said. “Is there anything we can do about her looking for this guy?” She wasn’t talking to anyone in particular from what I could tell.
“I doubt it,” Aaron answered. “If she’s been searching for him for this long, she’s probably found him by now.”
“Especially if you only have to say his name for him to show up.” Elliott’s comment brought a few snickers.
Brandon added, “Thank goodness Winona Ryder isn’t with her,” and everyone started laughing except for Meagan, who just looked confused. I laughed, too, but I wasn’t sure I got the joke. I just didn’t want to look stupid.
My boyfriend must’ve realized I didn’t understand because through his IAC, he sent me a picture from the movie Beetlejuice, and I fully got it. In that movie, Winona Ryder summoned the demon Beetlejuice by saying his name three times. It was a pretty good joke—now that I understood it.
“We’ll have to assume Holland knows something the rest of us don’t know,” Aaron was saying. “Maybe you can find something out, Cass?”
At the mention of my name, my head jerked in his direction. Since I’d already planned on doing just that, I nodded. “I’ll try.”
“Good. That’s one more mystery we need to unravel about Holland. We know she has Sam and Laura, and we’re assuming that’s because she hopes they know something about us she can use, though I doubt they do. I contacted Laura’s sister, Laney, this morning, and let her know.”
“How did she handle that?” Hannah asked, her sympathetic counselor’s tone coming through.
“Not well,” Aaron admitted. “She asked for a leave of absence so she could go speak to their parents, which Cadence granted.” I wondered what it might be like to have your ex turned into a Vampire. It seemed to be weighing on Aaron, even if it had been a long time since he and Laura had been a couple. And she had tried to kill him in the interim.
