Chapter 48
I went to bed a little earlier than usual that night after updating my notes and going over a few things. Lucy had sent me more information about vampire infections, and Emma sent some links to sites that talked about telepathy, but I didn’t have the energy to look at them right then. Wes’s birthday party was still on for the next day, and even though part of me didn’t want to go, my parents thought it was a good idea. And I thought maybe I needed a little more normal. I closed my notebook and my eyes, shutting off the light on my phone, which was already plugged in to charge.
Maybe half an hour passed before I heard my sister’s voice. At first, I wasn’t sure what was happening, but then I realized she was on the phone, though it sounded brief. I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but by her tone, I got the impression all was not well. She sounded stressed. I considered getting up and going next door to check on her, but then I heard her bedroom window open and remembered it was no longer my responsibility to make my sister feel better; she had her new friends for that.
I fully expected to hear Aaron’s voice. I wondered why he wasn’t with her when she got here today. What could possibly be so important in Billings? I wasn’t even sure where that was. But, he is the boss, after all, and I thought maybe he had more important things to do than babysit his new recruit. So far, however, he’d been the only one to come through Cadence’s window—that I knew of.
Until now. I couldn’t understand a word that was being said, as I’m sure they were both being quiet because they were aware I was on the other side of the wall, but it was definitely Elliott in there. His voice reverberated through the wall in bass tones, much deeper and richer than Aaron’s.
A pang of jealousy hit me in the chest. I had no idea what it was I thought I had to be envious about. Elliott did not belong to me, after all. But the idea that he was in my sister’s room right now, talking to her about whatever it had been about the phone call that upset her, made me want to run over there and scream at Cadence that she wasn’t allowed to talk to him, that he was mine. She could have the rest of her new friends, but I wanted Elliott for myself.
It was stupid, and I knew that. And it wasn’t like I had a crush on him or anything. It was more like someone was trying to take up my big brother’s time, and I wanted him only for me. Embarrassed by my own emotions, I pulled the blanket up over my head and tried to block out the sound of them chuckling quietly.
A little while later, the room grew unusually quiet, and then, a few minutes passed before I heard my sister’s bedroom door creak open. I had a feeling it wasn’t Cadence who was headed downstairs, though.
I rolled over, facing the wall, turning my back on my sister and Elliott and this whole new ridiculous world they’d introduced me to. I didn’t need any of it. Everything had been just fine and dandy before Cadence had to run off to that stupid Eidolon Festival and get herself turned into a bloodsucker. If I could go back and do it all again, I would. I’d burst through my sister’s bedroom door and scream at Drew, talk some sense into her, make her recognize that she was making a decision that would lead to her death, and Jack’s too. But I couldn’t do that. I had no way of turning back time.
I wondered if any of Cadence’s new friends had that for a special power.
Tossing and turning for the next hour began to weigh on me. Even though Wes’s party didn’t start until the next afternoon, so I could sleep in, I felt like I needed to get some sleep or I was going to lose my mind. Besides, I wanted to know if Elliott was still in our house.
I got up, put on my robe and my slippers, and headed out the door toward the stairs, careful not to wake my sister as I went.
The light over the stove was on, casting an eerie glow I could see from underneath the door from the dining room. My parents’ bedroom was on the other side of the house, and I didn’t think I’d disturb them since my dad snored really loudly and my mom always wore earplugs and ran a box fan, even in the winter, to drown him out, but I didn’t even know at this point who might still be in my house.
I pushed the door open and wasn’t awfully surprised to see Elliott sitting at the kitchen table, reading a newspaper, with what looked like a mug of coffee in front of him. Without looking up, he said, “Hey, Cass. Whatchu doin’ up?”
Going about my business as if it was perfectly normal for a man I barely knew to be sitting in the breakfast nook, I opened the fridge. “Couldn’t sleep,” I replied. I pulled out a gallon of milk and set it on the counter before grabbing a glass out of the cupboard.
“Me neither,” he replied, folding the paper and setting it in front of him on the table. I considered asking him if vampires had to sleep, but then, Cadence was sleeping. I glanced at him over my shoulder to see he was watching me intently. I poured the milk into the glass, put the lid back on, and padded over to the fridge to put it away before returning to the glass. Elliott’s eyes followed me the whole time.
I picked up the glass and took a few steps to the microwave. I had the door opened before he said, “Cassidy? What in the world are you doing?” He was out of his chair and by my side quicker than a flash. “You can’t microwave a glass of milk.”
Looking up at him, I raised an eyebrow. “This is how I always warm my milk.”
The expression of disgust on his face rivaled one an elderly woman might display if she caught a granddaughter wearing white after Labor Day. “Give me that,” he said, snatching the glass out of my hand and crossing to the stove.
