Chapter 427
“Is there a place I can wash my hands?” I asked Ashley. They were covered with Christian’s blood, and I wanted it off of me. Now.
Ashley didn’t blink, so I leaned around her. The woman on the other side of her had heard. “There’s a restroom right there.” She pointed across the hallway.
“Thanks.” I looked at Ashley, who didn’t seem to notice me at all, and headed off to the ladies’ room thinking if my sister had given her some sort of a warning not to let me out of her sight, Ashley had failed in less than thirty seconds.
I opened the door with my mind and was glad to see the room was empty. Three stalls, three sinks. I picked the one closest to the door and turned the faucet on, shoving my hands beneath the warm water and watching it instantly pink. There was more blood there than I had realized, and I felt slightly bad for what I’d done to Christian—not that he didn’t deserve it, but I was sure it had to be pretty painful. I had no idea I could produce talons like that. It had never happened before.
Scrubbing my hands clean took a good five minutes. When they were pretty much their normal color again, I glanced up and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. What I saw wasn’t even recognizable, so I looked again. I had heavy bags under my eyes, like I hadn’t slept for days, and my skin was blotchy from crying earlier. My hair was a wreck, and I had more blood on my clothes than I had realized—including Brandon’s shirt, which stank because that meant I’d have to take it off and wash it, and I didn’t want to take it off until he was home.
I took a deep breath and turned the water off, grabbing a few paper towels and blotting my hands. I held my own gaze and even went so far as to shake my head at myself. “You’ve gotta get it together, girl.” Maybe the reason I couldn’t reach any of the jerks I was looking for was because I was too caught up in all of this. Maybe I just needed to chill out a little bit.
Satisfied that I no longer resembled a serial killer, I headed back to the space outside the holding rooms. Ashley was no longer catatonic. Instead, she was sobbing. The woman next to her, whose thoughts told me her name was Sarah, and that she was an Independent Hunter, had her arm around Ashley and was whispering soothing, yet otherwise meaningless, phrases like, “It’ll be okay. Just breathe.” How did she know it would be okay? Did she have any idea how hard it was just to take another breath when your whole world was missing?
I decided to take advantage of her kindness at taking care of Ash and see if I could find anyone now that I had calmed myself down a little bit. I sat down in the uncomfortable metal chair and folded my legs into a crisscross. Closing my eyes, I took some deep breaths and reached out into the universe.
At first, I tried to find Brandon again. It was a silly idea, I knew. I’d already tried to find him earlier and had had no luck. But the idea that I could get a message to him with my telepathy, that I could find out where he was, seemed so appealing, I had to try again. I got nowhere and switched my efforts to Stewart.
That, too, got me nowhere. I spent a long time searching around for him, trying to figure out a radius. Surely, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to board a plane? I hoped my sister had thought to order our teams to cover all of the airports close by.
Holland was a waste of time, too. Only that black wall, and I didn’t have the time or energy to go climbing again.
I switched my efforts back to Christian’s book. I was hoping if I stared at his memories long enough, I could somehow figure more of it out, but it didn’t work that way. I only knew what he knew—that the book spoke of a Blood Moon Portal. That wasn’t helpful.
My cell phone was ringing. I wasn’t sure how long it had been vibrating in my pocket, but it wasn’t until I gave up on the book that I noticed it. Considering only humans try to get ahold of me that way, I figured it couldn’t be anything important. I sure didn’t want to speak to my parents at the moment, and Emma was the only person I might want to talk to who would use a phone, but I doubted she would be calling me this time of day.
Going back to Stewart’s former students, I jumped into Ty Duke’s head again. He didn’t like it. The college hockey player was sitting across from me in one of the cells, but in his memories, I saw Stewart luring him into his office after class and turning him. It was pretty horrendous, and so unfair. Ty could’ve been a pro hockey player one day. Now, he was a monster.
Thinking about the others Stewart had turned, I wondered if any of them could be of any help at all. Was there anything I’d missed? I’d tried to be thorough....
My phone was vibrating again. Infiltrating Vampires’ brains is hard enough when your phone isn’t ringing and ringing and ringing. Frustrated, I opened my eyes and pulled it out of my pocket. My heart stopped beating.
It was Amanda—Brandon’s mom. I checked my voicemails and saw that she’d left four in the last few minutes. I also had a couple of texts from her. I didn’t even want to listen to them, but I did. By the last one, she was frantic. She couldn’t get into contact with him, and she had a bad feeling. Would I please call her back and let her know everything was okay?
How in the world was I supposed to do that? I took a deep breath and stuck my phone back in my pocket. I had no idea what I could possibly say to Brandon’s mom. I definitely couldn’t tell her everything was okay because it absolutely wasn’t. But the idea of calling her to tell her what had happened seemed like a worse punishment than having someone who hates me rip my face off.
Sometimes, I think I am a grown up. Other times, I wish people would just treat me like a grown up. Still other times, I feel like I’ll never be a grown up. In that moment, contemplating how to tell Amanda that Brandon was sucked up by a portal, I knew I wasn’t a grown up yet because I could not find a way to make that call. For the first time in a long time, I would have been content to be a helpless child again so that someone else could call his mother and tell her that her only child, and his dad, had disappeared.
