Chapter 411
The summer went by pretty quickly. Elliott was a lot more open with Brandon about when he was seeing Aurora and when he was just doing whatever other kind of stuff a guy like Elliott has to do, and eventually Brandon came around to the idea that his dad was seeing someone, though I’m pretty sure he never gave up hope that his dad might start wooing his mother again. I had no idea if Amanda would be any more open to the idea of dating a Guardian now than she was all those years ago, but I wasn’t going to be the one to squash Brandon’s dream, so I just tried to stay supportive.
Not a lot of hunts were happening because we’d taken out so much of the Vampire population, and I still couldn’t get a handle on Holland’s location, no matter how hard I tried. So we sat around a lot. Any time there was any sort of a hunt at all going on in the four-state area, we were all volunteering and fighting each other to get to go, but those were few and far between.
When my sister and Aaron took a small team to Las Vegas late in August and I wasn’t included, I wanted to throw a hissy fit like a little kid. I was livid that she wasn’t going to let me go. Granted, it is Sin City, and I’m not even technically an adult yet, but I thought it would be so much fun to chase Vampires up and down The Strip. Not getting to go was almost enough to make me stop talking to both of them. But then I thought about how sweet it was to have my own apartment—especially once my furniture came in—and I remembered I wouldn’t have that if it wasn’t for my sister and her fiancé. So I tried to get over my anger without using my “mean words.”
I hadn’t forgotten Hines’s thoughts about something in late summer that could potentially make his dreams of defeating the Guardians come true, but as far as I could tell, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary going on. I couldn’t jump into his head because I had no idea where he was, and I had drawn the conclusion that Holland was doing something to shield both of them from me. So I continued to spend a lot of time looking through other Vampires’ minds, and still none of them could tell me anything potentially related to one of Hines’s schemes. I started to think maybe Hines is just a quack—particularly since I happen to know that Hines is a quack.
One day, right after Cadence and Aaron returned from Las Vegas, Aaron knocked on my apartment door. It was highly unusual. I can count the number of times he’s come to me on his own on one hand and don’t even need most of my fingers. I let him in, and he took a seat in my brand new recliner. I plopped down on the couch thinking whatever he wanted to talk about had to be important or he wouldn’t have come himself.
“The apartment looks nice,” he said, looking around and nodding.
“Thanks. Juan Diego did a great job of matching the furniture to the paint.” I hadn’t asked him to come back in and change the color, and the grays and blues had really grown on me.
Aaron just continued to nod for a few minutes, like he wasn’t sure how to say whatever it was he’d come to talk to me about, so I just sat there and tried to look disinterested. Finally, he said, “So... I have a favor to ask.”
“A favor or an assignment?” I like to think of using my special skills as assignments because then it makes it seem like I’m poking around in people’s heads for work and not just because I’m some kinda creep.
“Both, I guess. I got a call today from a Vampire named Mika Ito. Ever heard of her?”
I shook my head. “A phone call? Really? Like, are all Vampires provided with your business card or something?”
He snickered at me. “Sort of. When a Vampire comes in to get tagged, they’re provided with information about how to get in touch with us, should they need to. Mika lives in DC, so she wasn’t tagged here, but it wouldn’t have been too hard for her to figure out how to call me.”
“Interesting.” I had no idea. “So who is she?”
“Well, I’m not really sure. I mean, I know she’s a reporter who works in DC, and she was turned a few years ago, accidentally, via a scratch. As far as I can tell, she’s always been one hundred percent Compliant. Nothing on her record at all. But she had an odd request, and I want to make sure I’m not overlooking something before I approve it.”
I tipped my head to the side and asked the obvious question. “What sort of request?”
He swallowed hard, like whatever he was about to say would be difficult to spit out. “She wants to host an Eidolon Festival.”
“An Eidolon Festival?” My eyebrows were probably on the back of my head somewhere. “Really? After what happened at the last one?”
“Yeah, I know. But the thing is, they are allowed to have them in the US once a year, and they haven’t had one for a while, not since the incident with Carter.” I nodded knowing exactly what he was talking about. It was the incident that had led to both Cadence and I discovering that Vampires are real. “So she brought that up as a reason why I should approve it. The other thing is, we did recently take out a lot of Compliant Vampires, and she said letting them have an Eidolon Festival would go a long way toward rebuilding some of the trust that was extinguished when we took out Vampires who had done nothing wrong.”
I could tell by his expression he was feeling bad about ordering the demise of so many Vampires who hadn’t done anything wrong, although I sort of agreed with the battle cry we’d formed after the rescue mission in Melbourne. Our plan had been to wipe them off the face of the earth entirely. Turns out they do serve a purpose, and crime was on the rise without them to eliminate all of the rabble. Still, what was done was done, and I saw no reason to feel sorry for it.
Nevertheless, the Vampires maybe had a point. “Okay, so what do you want to know?”
“Well, she wants to have it at the end of August, on a night that happens to have a blood moon. I’ve already talked to Christian about it and done some research myself. As far as I can tell, there’s no reason to think that should be of any particular concern. Christian is going to double-check the archives that there’s no mention of any sort of portal associated with a blood moon. But I want to be extra-cautious, especially since you said Hines mentioned something about waiting until late summer to try another plan to eliminate the Guardians.”
“Right. So you want me to check Mika’s head and make sure she’s not affiliated with Hines or Holland?” I guessed.
“Exactly, and that she knows nothing about any sort of portals or anything else associated with the blood moon. Or the location for that matter.”
“Which is where?”
“Shepherdstown, West Virginia.”
“Oooh,” I said, thinking of that show on cable where a team of investigators checks out ghost stories in the small town known as one of the most haunted places in America.
“Yeah, I guess Vampires like hauntings, too. Anyway, if you can do some digging around in her head, that would be great.”
“Sure,” I shrugged. “Should be easy enough with a name and a location, so long as there’s no shield around her. If there is, I guess we know she’s no good.”
“Good point.” He clapped his hands down on his knees and looked around again, like maybe he was supposed to do something else. But there didn’t appear to be any reason for him to stay, so he headed for the door, and I followed behind, being a polite hostess.
I should’ve offered him some water or something.
“Thanks a lot, Cass,” he said as I pulled the door open for him. “Just let me know what you find out.”
“No problem.” I smiled and closed the door behind him, happy to have a job to do again. It seemed like it had been ages since I’d been asked to do anything at all.
