Chapter 488
“You could try to slam the door on me,” Christian shrugged. My eyes slitted to match his. “Please don’t. Listen, I need to talk to you about something.” He looked around like he was suddenly afraid his pounding on my door might’ve brought the attention of the other apartment dwellers. “In private.”
I scoffed. “What in the world could I possibly want to talk to you about in private or otherwise? I hate you, in case that scar on your face doesn’t remind you every day.”
His hand automatically left the door where he’d been leaning and fingered the small mark by his mouth, the one I’d left there in my rage, the one Jamie couldn’t fix because he had been in the portal—the portal he was in because Christian Henry is a jerkface. I still felt a little bad, though. I had acted like a psycho that day, even if it had been deserved, and it made me feel better....
“I realize that, Cassidy, but considering no one else wants to discuss your findings with you, I thought maybe even I wouldn’t be so completely repulsive that you wouldn’t want to take the opportunity to fill me in on a few things.”
He had my interest now. I was shocked to hear he was actually here to talk about the problem in Europe and not something stupid, like how he was going to press assault charges against me. I stared at him for a moment, deciding whether or not I should let him in and hear him out or assume he was bluffing and that, not only could he not help me, he was just playing some sort of a sick joke on me. I decided to let him in.
As soon as I moved out of the doorway, he flew into my apartment as if he was afraid I might change my mind—not that I couldn’t float him back out if I wanted to. But I stepped aside, and he walked past me into my living room, leaving a faint trail of cigarette smoke behind him that left me wanting to wave my hand in front of my face to try to get some fresh air.
Christian stood there with his hands on his hips for a second, surveying my décor. “Nice place. I wish I’d had digs this spacious when I was your age. Even a roof would’ve been acceptable.”
That remark seemed strange to me, but I didn’t want to go into his history at the moment. I realized I knew next to nothing about him, which was unusual for me. I knew as much about my other teammates’ pasts as possible, but not Christian. I’d never asked, and he didn’t talk about it. I didn’t want to have a conversation with him about it now, though, and I certainly didn’t want to talk about my “digs.” I sighed. “Listen, if you’re really here to tell me you’ve decided to jump back into the Blood Moon Portal, and you need a hand, I’ll do whatever I can to help you out. I’ll even float you up there myself.” I folded my arms and waited for him to turn around and look at me. It took him a minute.
“Thanks.” He shook his head at me, and I felt a little bit like a brat, though I’d meant every word of that. I wouldn’t cry if he was gone. “No, I’m sorry to disappoint you, Cassidy, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“That’s too bad,” I lamented. “The six hours you were in there were some of the best of my life.” I was just being a brat again. Of course, that wasn’t true. Aaron had been in there, too, and I was upset on my sister’s behalf, as well as just feeling awful for Aaron. He was stuck in the portal because he’d trusted this moron standing in front of me, thought he was his friend, and he’d gone and done something like that. Why, I have no idea, but it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth and basically left me incapable of ever trusting Christian myself. So why was he here?
Christian shook his head at me again, this time, his expression morphing into a semblance of sadness. I knew it was fake. “How did we end up this way, Cass? I don’t even remember. It seems like you just hated me right off the bat.”
“I didn’t hate you until you let my boyfriend get swallowed up by a portal,” I countered, wondering if that was the truth. I couldn’t remember when I’d started hating him, but I went with it. “Before that, I just disliked you strongly.”
“But why? Where did we go wrong?” He took a step forward. I wanted to back away from him but held my ground. “I remember that time I came to your house in Shenandoah and installed software on your computer so you could feel like you were helping us out with the whole Giovani thing. We got along fine then.”
I felt the anger rising up in me again. “See! It’s that—right there!” I pointed my finger at his face, which seemed like something rude that he’d do, so I dropped it. “Why do you have to say things like that? If you’ll recall, it was Lucy, Emma, and me that found Giovani. Why do you always have to talk to other people like they’re not as important as you are? Like everyone else is a moron, and you’re the smartest person in the world?”
I could tell before the question even left my lips that I wasn’t going to like his answer. A cocky grin spread across his face as he said, “Oh, I see. I intimidate you.”
A laugh projected itself out of my throat so quickly, I choked on it. “You are such an idiot.” I don’t know why I didn’t just toss him out the door right then. I could have. I could’ve picked his sorry behind up and thrown him out the door. Instead, I let the fact that I really wanted help with the situation in Europe cloud my judgment and found myself asking, “Did you say you wanted to hear about my findings?”
I saw his expression shift from the teasing, irritating tone from before to something else, something a little darker. “Yeah,” he said, not looking me in the face anymore. He thrust his hands down into his pockets, and I studied him for a moment. I had noticed a change in his disposition since he got back from the portal. I’d imagined it was because he was waiting for Aaron to transfer him, preferably somewhere far, far away. But he couldn’t be worried about that at the moment, because Aaron wasn’t here. He was in Fiji with my sister. So maybe there was something else bothering Christian. I wasn’t sure why I cared, but I did.
