Chapter 490
All of that information would be lovely to have before letting him go to face the monster, but with Daunator, it didn’t come easy. I figured what I was about to say would be disappointing to him, but unlike some people, I didn’t feel comfortable sending him off into battle without all of the information. “For the most part, he hasn’t been doing the turning himself, I don’t think. When I jump into one of these newborns’ heads, I see one of a few other Vampires as their parents, not Daunator himself. I think he has minions, bloodsuckers he sends out to do his dirty work.” That’s about all I could gather from what he’d mentioned, and it wouldn’t be much to go on. I would try again, though, especially now that I thought it might be a purposeful endeavor.
“That’s good to know,” Christian said, which surprised me. I thought he’d be disappointed I didn’t have more answers. “Do you think it’s just two or three, or could there be more? Are they housed with him?”
“I don’t know.” I hated to admit it. “I haven’t done too much digging because everyone seems to think we shouldn’t go.” Most of my time had been spent calculating how many people were missing. I’d have to shift my focus to help him.
“How long would it take to find out?”
It was a good question, but it didn’t have an easy answer. “It depends. Some people’s minds are more accessible than others.”
“But he’s not using a shield or anything to block you, like Holland did, is he?”
“No, but he doesn’t really need it,” I explained. “Whenever I try to get into his mind, it’s like a black wall, like a cave deep in the ground or something. I can’t actually get through any of it to access his thoughts or memories. Even if I did, he would see me coming. That could be dangerous.” I meant for him, for Christian, because then Daunator would know everything I knew—including the fact that the Guardian was on his way to face him.
He was nodding, like the state of the Vampire’s mind wasn’t a surprise to him. “All right. Just get me as much info as you can. I haven’t decided for sure if I’m leaving, but if I do, I’m going to be completely MIA. The only way you’ll be able to contact me is through telepathy.”
I was more than a little confused now. “What about your IAC? Aaron can force it on.” He should know that. He designed them.
Christian laughed at me, and I felt some of that rage growing inside of me again. “Do you honestly think I’d be stupid enough to put something in my eye that anyone else could track without having a way to disable it?” He was already moving past me toward the door.
It was obvious the cocky Christian was back, and I figured he’d be the one to stick around. “I thought only Aaron’s IAC was designed that way.”
Pulling the door open, he turned back to look at me. “If I could build one for him that isn’t accessible, I could build one for myself.”
He had a point. I moved on. “What about Hannah? Won’t she wonder where you are?”
Christian shrugged again. “I’ve got something like two thousand vacation days saved up.”
“We get vacation days?” I interjected. He kept talking right over me.
“I’ll just tell her I’m taking a couple of those.”
I had to shake my head to clear my thoughts so as not to get distracted by the idea of taking a vacation myself. “Okay, but why would she think you’d need them now if you haven’t taken any in, like, a decade?”
“At least.” That part wasn’t really to me. “Because I feel so bad about the entire Blood Moon Portal fiasco, I need a few days to chill and recuperate, that’s all.”
I didn’t think that was funny at all. I folded my arms. “Yeah, right. Like you feel bad at all.”
He tilted his head to the side and took me in for a moment, and I braced myself for something snarky. Instead, he said, “I guess there’s only one way to know for sure.” He turned and walked away without another word, leaving me staring after him as the door swung closed. I kept standing there for longer than I should have, thinking about his last remark. What did that mean? If he went, it meant he was sorry about the portal? And if he didn’t, what did that mean? He wasn’t sorry?
I couldn’t quite work out how they were related unless he wanted me to believe that he was thinking about taking Daunator out by himself as some sort of atonement for putting the rest of the team at risk in the portal. He had thrown himself in there, after all, and he didn’t have to do that. Maybe he thought Aaron wouldn’t kick him off the team if he was able to get Daunator by himself or find out pertinent information about the monster.
After a minute or so, I finally moved away from the door and dropped onto the couch, realizing I was sweaty and needed a shower. I thought about Christian’s request. I would need to get him as much information as I could so he could decide whether or not he wanted to try this. It was an idiotic plan, one that would never work. I knew that—and I figured he probably did, too. There was just no way he could get Daunator by himself unless the weapons he’d referred to earlier were something I hadn’t even conceived of before, something so powerful, they’d get rid of Daunator more easily than anything else we had. I doubted that was the case.
If Christian wanted to go, though, who was I to tell him not to? It was great that someone was willing to take action, even if what he was up to wasn’t going to work. At least we were doing something, and doing something is usually better than doing nothing, in my experience.
It would take me hours to get him the data he’d requested, but I was determined to get on it, as soon as I took a shower. I needed to answer my friends, too, especially Brandon. Christian being here reminded me of how sad I’d been when Brandon was gone. I hadn’t been acting like it lately. That needed to change.
Before I pulled myself up off of the couch to get some clean clothes and head to the bathroom, I searched “Don’t call me Shirley, Airplane” on my IAC. A clip came up from an old movie from 1980, one I was pretty sure I’d seen before, now that it was in my eye. I chuckled at the lead character’s response to someone saying, “Surely, you can’t be serious.”
“I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.”
Christian Henry makes the funny jokes sometimes. Who knew?
