Chapter 413
My sister was so not happy about the Eidolon Festival. She was already beginning to panic a little bit about the wedding, and then, when she found out Aaron was going to be leaving a few days before it, she became this giant ball of nerves that just couldn’t seem to get a grip on anything. I felt sort of sorry for her, but every time I asked her if she needed any help with anything, she just said she had it under control.
I was elated when Aaron decided that I could travel with the team to West Virginia, even though he’d given me a big fat no on actually attending the festival itself. I get it—I’m more Hunter than Vampire, and I can’t just choose when I want to be whichever one suits my purpose. At least I was going to be able to go on the trip. That was much better than staying back in Shenandoah watching my mom try to make Cadence look like she was calm.
It was great to be able to see my other best friend, Emma, for a few days while we were in full wedding prep mode. Emma’s still in high school, the same one Lucy and I used to go to before Vampires invaded our lives. She’s planning on finishing at Shenandoah High and then going to a four-year college before she joins our team, though she says now she will probably go ahead and Transform once she’s done with high school. She’ll be a Guardian when she goes through the process, unlike me and Luce. It will be awesome when Emma moves to KC because I’ll finally have all of my main people back together again.
The Eidolon Festival was on a Wednesday night, which I thought was really weird at first until Brandon reminded me that Vampires don’t have to sleep. And... thinking back, the first one that my sister had attended was also on a Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving. So I guess it wasn’t unusual after all. We loaded up the plane a little after noon, and my mom promised to get things done in the church while Cadence was gone, though I know my sister was reluctant to leave. I think she was also worried about something—like maybe Holland was going to pull one over on us. I had a little bit of that unsettled feeling in my gut as well, but it wasn’t overwhelming. I’d done as much feeling out into Vampire brains as I could, and I hadn’t been able to detect anything at all that made me think Holland or Hines was involved with this, but I didn’t blame anyone for being a little leery. After all, we were traveling to an Eidolon Festival held on the night of a blood moon at a time when we had no idea what our mortal enemies were up to.
Brandon and I sat on the plane next to Dax who was bummed that Tara wasn’t able to come with us. Aaron and Cadence had made it clear that they didn’t want any unnecessary Hunters tagging along, and since Tara isn’t anywhere near done with her observations yet, there was no reason for her to come. Besides my sister and myself, the only other Hunter on the plane was Ashley. I’m not sure why she was there, except that she’s Jamie’s girlfriend. It wasn’t like she needed to come along for anything, but who’s going to tell Jamie no when chances are, whoever you are, he’s already saved your life at least once?
Elliott was unusually quiet. I don’t think he was happy that Christian was coming with us. They don’t get along very well. I doubt anyone was too happy Christian was there, but he’d done some research for Aaron to make sure this was safe, so I guess his reward was getting to come along. He’d also missed the last festival because he’d been in Roatan, so I’m sure that was part of the reason. Anyway, Elliott had his arms folded for most of the flight, and it didn’t look like he was talking to anyone, just sulking about something.
For some reason I don’t quite understand, Alex was with us. I thought it was weird because he’s mentioned to us several times before that he’s not a fan of airplanes. I doubt it was because he was bored without going on any hunts recently since he took a decades’ long break while he lived in Roatan. I thought about asking him why he was there, but I didn’t want to offend him. He had a grip on the armrests like they were the only thing that might survive if the plane crashed, which was kind of funny since he’d been through the Blue Moon Portal, which made him immortal.
Hannah and Jamie were the other two Guardians with us, so it was a pretty full flight for one of the smaller planes we zip around in. I was excited just to be flying so often. We’d flown to Shenandoah and now to West Virginia. I wondered if maybe someday Aaron would teach me how to fly a plane, after we got Holland, and things settled down a little bit. I had a feeling it would be a lot of fun. Now that I can levitate things, I can fly around a lot of different items, but I’m not sure if I could ever levitate something as heavy as a plane. I wondered exactly how strong I might be.
“I’m glad Aaron let you come along, but it stinks you can’t go to the festival with us,” Brandon said quietly in my ear.
“I know. But it does make sense they wouldn’t want any Hunters around. Some of them will probably see me as only a Hunter and not a Vampire.”
He nodded. “Still... why do we care what they think?”
“It’s their party. LIGHTS is just there to keep the peace. If we show up in a threatening manner, they won’t be happy. I’m pretty sure the whole point of this is to try to appease them.”
“But why?” Brandon asked, shaking his head. “Why do we care if they’re happy?”
“Have you watched the news recently?” I knew he had. “There aren’t enough Vampires doing their job. Crime rates are up everywhere. We need to make peace with them so they’ll go back to doing what they’re meant to do, taking out the bad guys, and then maybe not so many of them will be tempted to do what they’re not supposed to do.”
He must’ve decided my explanation was good enough because he didn’t question it anymore. We lapsed into a less serious conversation, but I had an uneasy feeling forming in the pit of my stomach. I glanced over at my sister and could see she felt the same way.
Earlier in the week, Cadence had approached me and told me she didn’t know if this was a good idea. I’d gotten a little offended. I told her I’d done all of my research, and if there was a threat, I’d know it. I felt like she was doubting my abilities. But in the back of my mind, I started to wonder if she was right. Was there a chance I had missed something?
My eyes flickered over to Christian, who looked like he was telling Hannah a story. Why had we left the important task of making sure this operation was safe up to the one person who probably wouldn’t care if half of the Guardians did get taken hostage by Holland—so long as he was in the half that wasn’t? I know he’s been the go-to guy for that kind of stuff for decades, but I was questioning his loyalty.
It did make me feel better that Alex and Aaron hadn’t ever heard of anything associated with the blood moon, other than the fact that Vampires were usually more active while the moon was red. Surely, if there was something else, one of them would know about it. I hoped.
