Chapter 459
Cadence left, along with all of the others who had come up with us, and those who came up in the second trip, except for Tara and Amanda. Dax came over to me, and I let go of Brandon’s hand momentarily to give him a hug. “How are you?”
“So much better now that I’m here,” he said. “That was the worst experience of my life.”
I didn’t want to ask him to compare watching Tara almost die from Bonnie’s attack, so I didn’t mention it. “It’s so great to see you again.”
“Thanks. Tara and I are going to go down the hall for a few minutes. There’s a little lounge over there. We just wanna talk in private.”
“Oh, okay. See you soon.” I knew they could talk in private right here through their IACs, but I couldn’t blame him for wanting to spend some alone time with his girlfriend. I wanted Brandon to myself, too, but his mother was sitting right here. And Heather was also seated across the room, just staring at us.
I pulled up another chair and reclaimed Brandon’s hand. He was talking to his mom about what he’d seen in the portal. “It was crazy, Mom. All of these crazy creatures. Dogs with three heads. Giant cats with big, long claws. And then the demon hunters showed up. They were insane looking! Huge, white, like they were made out of clouds. At least they scared the demons off.”
I knew Brandon was still on his meds, but he sounded so outrageous, talking about all of these mythical creatures. Said the half-Vampire girl. Still, I wondered how much of it was the way he was describing it. I thought about jumping into his head to look but decided to wait until he could give me permission.
“Do you think they are dangerous?” Amanda asked, “The demon hunters?”
“I don’t know,” Brandon said, his tone less groggy.
“Yep, sure are.”
We all turned our heads to look at Heather who was sitting in a chair closer to the door. “I seen ‘em do some pretty damagin’ stuff. Course, they don’t stay in there long. Usually just get what they’re after and skedaddle.”
Her accent was so thick, it was kind of hard to understand, but I got the gist. “So you think the Guardians that are still in there are in danger from them, too, or just the demons?”
“All of ‘em. They’ll gitcha same as the others if you ain’t careful.” She must’ve seen my face melt so she added. “Don’t you worry about them fellas, though. Jaime’s a crack shot with the blue lights. That’s the craziest thing I ever did see. And I seen a lot a craziness. I’m Heather, by the way.”
I realized I’d been rude not to have introduced myself and thank her already. I stood and walked over to her, offering her my hand. She got up and peered into my eyes as she shook it. “Cassidy. Nice to meet you. Finally.”
“Same here. ‘Cept... I sorta feel like I’ve been tricked. You ain’t got mismatchin’ eyes.”
“Yeah, I do.” I reached up and pulled my contact out and showed her. She stepped back with a gasp. I hurried to put my lens back in before it dried out and blinked a few times to get it back into place. “Christian can make you one, too, if you want. And you’ll probably want an IAC.”
“Christian? He that shifty lookin’ feller who was here a bit ago?”
“Picked up on that already did you? Yeah, that’s him.”
Heather slumped back into her chair, and I went back to Brandon’s side. I wondered if he knew about Christian’s duplicity. I should’ve probably let it go, but I asked anyway. “Do you know—that he knew about the portal?”
Brandon was sober now, I could tell by the expression in his eyes. “We figured. I mean, I don’t know if anyone came right out and said it, but he looked at that book ahead of time, right?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t know what else to say, so I just shook my head.
“I wonder if Aaron will send him away, like to Siberia or someplace,” he said.
“I doubt it.” Brandon’s eyes widened, like he wanted an explanation. “They’ve been friends for a really long time. Aaron’s not likely to do anything.”
“He’s gotta be mad. I mean, he’s gonna miss his wedding because of this,” Brandon reminded me, not that I needed it.
I kept my thoughts about that inside, but I’d seen the way Christian looks at my sister, and I was pretty sure that had been the idea. “Well, I took matters into my own hands, so even if nothing else happens to him, at least I got the satisfaction of ripping his face off.”
“You what?” Amanda asked.
I realized a sentence too late that that information would’ve been better sent through an IAC message.
Brandon came to my rescue. “It’s just a figure of speech, Mom. She means she yelled at him a lot. That’s all.”
“Oh. Right. I can’t blame you there.”
“You ripped his face off?” Brandon asked.
Rather than try to explain what I’d done, I sent him a short video from the other day when I’d laid into Christian. His eyes widened but he didn’t give it away to his mom that I wasn’t kidding. “I guess you’ll want to take a shower. We brought you some clothes, but they’re still on the plane.”
“You brought my stuff?” Brandon sat up straighter. “Really?”
“Sure. Thought you’d need it.”
He beamed at me. “Thanks, babe. It’s nice to know you had faith I’d get out of there.”
“Of course we did,” I assured him.
“We brought your dad’s too,” Amanda said, and Brandon nodded, though his smile faded a little bit. I could tell he was worried. I was too.
“They gave us some clothes when we got here. That’s definitely not how Heather was dressed when I met her,” Brandon explained.
“Hey, ain’t nothin’ wrong with my usual duds. These is... weird.”
“They’re a little too big for you,” I pointed out. She was wearing jeans, a long-sleeved blue T-shirt, and boots that looked like they’d seen better days which I was guessing were actually hers. I noticed a brown cowgirl hat sitting on a table over by a lamp and assumed that was hers, too. “I bet if you had the right size you’d be more comfortable.”
“Oh, well, beggars can’t be choosers, I reckon,” Heather said, I just assumed she had to be happy just to be out of that portal.
