Chapter 495
I cocked my head to the side and looked at him for a moment. I don’t know why I hadn’t considered that before. Maybe it had crossed my mind, and I’d just assumed whatever had come through with that other Guardian had been killed a long time ago. I’d always just thought the first one must’ve come back centuries ago. I followed his line of reasoning, though. “Because Dracula came through with Alex, and Holland came through with Elliott....”
“And Carter came through when our grandma went the other direction. So who came through with that third Guardian?”
I didn’t have to think about the answer to that one because I had absolutely no idea. “Good question. It would also be nice to know who the third Guardian is. He had to be before Alex, right? Because Aaron Burr went looking for someone to help him and found an ancient Guardian who knew about the portal. So he must be the one who came through it.” This had always been my assumption.
But Christian was shaking his head, his eyes glued on mine. “Not necessarily. There are ways of knowing that information without having gone through the portal oneself. There are plenty of Vampire books in the archives that talk about the Blue Moon Portal if a person knows where to look and how to read ancient texts.”
Despite the interest level of his comment, which, for me, was high, the fact that we were talking about the archives and portals made me mad. “Like Scottish Gaelic?” I asked, remembering how he’d been sent into the archives to find information about the Blood Moon Portal and lied to Aaron about it.
“Exactamundo.”
It was hard for me to stay mad when he said a word like that, even though part of me wanted to. He was being different now, though, not as much of a jerk as usual, though it came and went. I snickered and took another sip of my drink.
Christian continued. “Vampires knew about the Blue Moon Portal well before any of us ever did.”
“But why? They didn’t use it to travel, did they?” Heather had explained how Vampires used the Blood Moon Portal for that purpose, back before she was shoved in there and the demons put a stop to it. The book in the archives that Ward had found said as much as well. Had they used the Blue Moon Portal in a similar fashion?
“I don’t know,” Christian admitted. “I can’t read anything older than eighteenth century English, but I do recognize the words for the portal. Anyway, back on the current topic, I think Daunator may have come through when the other Guardian came through.”
“Before Dracula, then?” I was a little lost. I didn’t understand why he would think that. Sure, Daunator was very powerful, perhaps the most powerful Vampire in history, but couldn’t there be other ways he’d gained that power? Did he have to have come through one of the portals to get that way? “Schmitz said he was terrorizing the region during the Middle Ages.”
Christian half-shrugged. “I think Daunator was extremely evil before he became demonic and has probably been terrorizing since he was a little Vampire baby running around in diapers.”
An image of the emperor from Star Wars popped into my head as I’d always imagined that was what Daunator must look like, with his alabaster face and a long black robe. I could envision a baby version running around like Christian had said and started giggling. “As if he wasn’t an old dude when he was changed,” I muttered. If he wasn’t, it made little sense that he’d choose to represent himself that way now, but then, he was probably powerful enough to look like whatever he wanted to.
“I don’t know what he was. But my hunch is that he was evil before, and when he came back, he was even eviler. But unlike Holland, he was smart enough to bide his time. Ever since then, I think he’s been waiting. Feeding when he needs to but being cautious and building up his power.”
I was slightly confused again, though I realized this was all speculation. “Do you think that’s possible? Like, it’s not a battery that gets charged to a certain capacity and then it’s full, but it could actually be collected beyond a specific capacity?”
“I don’t see why not. Maybe he never runs out of power, like Jamie.”
That was true of the Healer now, but it had taken a second dose of serum to get him there. If Daunator had been through the portal, would that have a similar effect? There was probably no way to know for sure how he’d gotten so powerful, but Christian was right to think of him the way he was—almost undefeatable. “And you think you’re going to stop him on your own?”
His shrug was more exaggerated this time, showing his lack of confidence. “I hope so. But I don’t know. It just depends. On a lot of stuff.”
“How are you not afraid to try?” I couldn’t help but ask. I still couldn’t understand what was making him do this—or why I wasn’t trying to talk him out of it. I probably should be.
“I can’t be.”
It was a simple answer, but I still didn’t understand. “That doesn’t make any sense. Of course you can be. How could you not be?”
“Okay, so maybe I am. But just because I’m scared, that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it.”
I looked at him for a moment until he dropped his eyes. What he’d just said was profound. We can do things when we’re scared—it’s the pushing through that counts. I couldn’t admit to him that I was impressed with his wisdom, though, so instead, I made fun of him. Sort of. “So you are scared then?” I chided.
“I don’t think I said that.”
“I think you did....”
“Anyway....” I couldn’t blame him for changing the subject. I giggled again, not sure why. How was I actually enjoying having a conversation with Christian? “If I get the right information from you, then, yeah, I’ll do it.”
