Chapter 507
First, I needed to check in on Christian. I was hoping to just scrape the periphery of his mind again so he wouldn’t know I was there. He’d said he’d let me know when he was ready to chat, but it had been too long, and I was worried.
I should’ve been worried-er. It took me a while to get to him, and when I did, there was no periphery to scrape. I had to dig down pretty deeply through layers of blackness to find him, which was more than a little alarming. It wasn’t nearly as bad as when I’d had to dig Aaron out of Holland’s web, but it wasn’t good. As soon as I stepped foot into his conscious mind, it became apparent that Christian had gotten himself into a bunch of trouble.
“Christian? Where are you?” I asked, finally pulling back enough layers of darkness that I could make contact with him.
“Oh, hey, Cass. Nice to hear from you. I’m in a hole. In the ground.”
I felt chills go up my spine as I remembered my dream. “Seriously?” I asked him, stunned that I could dream about what he was actually going through and wondering how he’d gotten there. His tone was so odd, I could tell he wasn’t kidding around, but he didn’t seem as if he was worried either, which was odd considering if what he said was true and like my dream in any way. Because that had been worrisome.
“I believe so,” Christian said, still nonchalant. “It’s kind of hard to tell for sure since I can’t even see my hand in front of my face, even with my X-ray vision. But yeah. The jerk has me trapped down here and won’t show himself.”
My mental mouth was hanging open as I pondered which question to ask first. Eventually, I settled on, “How did you get there?”
Now, he seemed a little irritated. “I told you. I fell. It’s a hole. He opened it up, and I fell in.”
I shook my head. I gathered that much. I wanted more detail, but something told me Christian wasn’t going to give it to me. How did he know Daunator had made the hole? Where was the hole? How deep was the hole? I didn’t ask those questions, not yet. “How long have you been there?”
“You know, even though it seems like an eternity, it’s only been a few hours. Six and a half, to be exact. It’s kind of like being in the portal except I can’t see anything.”
I wanted to add that there also weren’t demons trying to kill him, but I figured it wasn’t my place to try to compare his two awful experiences. I tried to be positive. “And I can talk to you.”
“You can, but my IAC isn’t capable of getting messages down here. I guess I’m too far down in the ground.”
That seemed strange to me. It must be working in some capacity since he knew the time. I assumed he couldn’t see a watch if he couldn’t see his hand. “Maybe Daunator is blocking the signal.”
“I guess that’s possible. I only turned it on for a second. Anyway, I keep shouting for him to show himself so that I can fight him. But so far, he’s declined.”
The thought that he was still trying to win, that being sucked down into a hole so deep in the ground that he couldn’t even use his IAC hadn’t deterred him from wanting to fight the Vampire, was unsettling to me. I’d seen Christian do some unbelievably stupid things, but this one made me wonder about his mental stability. “Christian, you need to let us come and help you now. You’re not going to be able to get out of there on your own. And if Daunator decides he doesn’t want to fight you, you could be trapped down there for a really long time.” Surely, he had considered all of this. I could find him. I could float him out of the hole.
“No, Cass.” His tone was more serious than it had been the entire time we’d been talking. “You can’t tell anyone where I’m at. Not yet. You’ve gotta give me a chance to do what I came here for first. If the rest of the team decides on their own that it’s time to move in on him, that’s one thing. But it will take them plenty of time to figure out a strategy, especially since Aaron’s not even back yet, is he?”
“No, not yet.” I wanted to respond to the rest of what he had said, but he cut me off.
“So just keep your mouth shut for a little while longer while I figure this out, okay? Then, if I decide I can’t get out, I’ll let you know.”
I wanted to ask how, exactly, he was going to let me know, if his IAC wasn’t working, and I decided not to reach out to him again. He was putting an awful lot of trust in me, the same person who had attacked him not that long ago. The whole idea was stupid. He could be in there for days if we didn’t leave right now to go and find him. And, if the rest of the team found out I’d let him sit in there while he pondered the best way to kill a Vampire by himself, I could be in trouble.
But I could tell by his tone he was dead set on this, that this was the way it was going to be. So I said, “Fine. You’re just going to hang out in the hole for another couple of days or a week? Won’t you get hungry? Or thirsty?”
“I don’t eat much,” Christian reasoned. “I do have a few snacks with me and a half-full canteen.” Apparently, he’d already considered his rations and was okay with it.
“What about using the bathroom?” I argued.
“It’s a hole in the ground, Cassidy. It’s perfect for that.”
The idea made me squirm. I hadn’t asked how big the hole was... but I didn’t want to think about it. Instead, I asked about something he might not have considered. “What about your smokes?” I didn’t know if Guardians could become addicted to nicotine like humans, but I imagined if they could, he’d be wanting those soon enough.
He was quiet for a long time, his mind frozen as he pondered how to respond. “You know about that?”
Even though he couldn’t see me, I rolled my eyes. “I think everyone with a nose knows about that, Christian.”
He seemed to accept my response. “I have a few left.”
If that didn’t deter him, I didn’t know what would.
