Chapter 508
I shook my head before I continued with my discussion with Christian. “I don’t like this. It could be a long time before we can come and get you. Maybe I should send Eliza in after you.” I didn’t know if she would even be able to find him, but she was the only other person who had any idea what Christian was up to. If she could get him out....
“No, Cass. It’s too dangerous. I’m still not sure if Daunator can kill Guardians or not, and I don’t want anybody getting hurt coming after my stupid, sorry self.”
Was that a breakthrough? “Well, at least you admit you’ve done something stupid....”
“I didn’t mean that this was stupid. I just meant stupid in general.”
Also a victory. I didn’t want to argue with him, though. “Okay, but if Daunator can kill Guardians, what’s stopping him from killing you?”
He sighed in his thoughts. “I told you. I can’t die.”
“I don’t think that’s what you said.” I tried to remember the conversation we’d had. When had he ever told me he couldn’t die? Why wouldn’t he be able to? “But if it is what you said, I took it to mean he can’t kill you because he’s a Vampire, and you’re a Guardian. Did you mean something else?” What else could he have meant? What was he not telling me.
“Yes.” That was it—all I got.
I waited a moment or two. Or three. “Care to elaborate?”
“No.”
I suddenly remembered why I hated this guy. “Listen, Christian, I’m going to need to know why it is you think Daunator can’t kill you because otherwise I’m going to contact my sister and tell her you’re in trouble.” I was bluffing. I hoped he couldn’t sense that. I’d already promised him I wouldn’t tell Cadence, so I really wasn’t planning on changing that now, but I needed to know what he was talking about. Was there another way a Guardian could become indestructible—other than the Blue Moon Portal?
“You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone!”
I did not like the way he was raising his voice at me. “That was before you ended up in a hole in the ground in the middle of a mountain with no one to hear your screams—except for me!” I reminded him.
“I’m not screaming!”
Of course, he was screaming, though not in the sense of how I had implied it. I took a few deep breaths and reminded myself that I was getting agitated for no reason. This was Christian, after all, and there really was no sense in trying to reason with him. So... a guy I didn’t like at all who’d done something awful to my boyfriend—ex-boyfriend—was now stuck in a hole in the ground. If Christian had told Aaron about the portal, Alex wouldn’t be dead. Maybe he could just stay there forever.
But I didn’t want to get in trouble for helping him, either. I knew I could find out his reasoning for thinking he couldn’t die with just a little push past his conscious thoughts into his subconscious. He was probably thinking about it right now, so it wouldn’t take much. I didn’t want to do it, but as I was trying to figure out what to say to him, I accidentally drifted a step too far.
Only what I saw had nothing to do with life or death. It was a face, a beautiful woman, with dark hair sort of like mine and the most unusual lavender eyes I’ve ever seen. In his memory, she was wearing a dress, the sort of gown a woman might wear around the time of the Civil War, and she was smiling at him, but there was something in her eyes that seemed deceptive to me. I could tell that, whatever it was that had driven Christian to go after Daunator, this woman was involved. But I didn’t want to press any further. There was something very private, secretive, sacred about these particular memories. So I jumped out of the thought, back to where Christian was still stewing about the possibility of me telling Cadence.
I had to ask, though. “Who is she?” I hoped I sounded casual and that he’d know exactly who I was talking about.
He was still mad. “Why would I tell you that when you just threatened to reveal everything else to your sister?”
“That’s a fair point.” I had to give him that. I couldn’t believe he was trusting me with anything at all considering our history. “Look, Christian, I’m only trying to make sure you don’t get hurt or lost forever and I don’t get myself into trouble. So if you don’t want to tell me who she is or how you know Daunator can’t kill you, that’s fine. But whether you do or whether you don’t, I’m still going to have to use a little bit of rational judgment to determine whether or not you’re in over your head—both literally and figuratively speaking.”
“Well, I can already tell you I’m in way over my head—literally.” He didn’t sound angry anymore. Just tired.
“So why be both?”
“It doesn’t matter, Cassidy.” Now, he sounded exhausted. “It doesn’t matter if I tell you or not because it doesn’t change my predicament.”
He didn’t trust me. I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t trust me either, if I were him. I didn’t trust him, after all. Why would he tell me more secrets when he had no faith that I would keep the ones I had? I could either dig deeper on my own, which I refused to do despite my curiosity because it just felt wrong, or I could let it go.
I made like Elsa. “So why don’t you try shouting to the monster that you’ll get me and my sister there if he comes out to play? Have you tried that tactic?”
“No, not yet.” I thought he might be considering it for a few moments while he was quiet. “I guess I could.”
Eliza’s too-chipper voice came through my IAC. “Any updates?” Boy, was she impatient.
“Hold on,” I said to Eliza, hoping she didn’t take it the wrong way. To Christian, I said, “All right. Let me know how it goes.” Of course, I’d have to contact him. “Do you want me to check in more often since I’m the only person who can talk to you now?”
“Yeah, I guess.” He seemed reluctant. Probably because he didn’t want to be reliant on me.
“I’ll talk to you soon. Hang in there.”
“Yep.” What else was he going to do?
I let him go, and even though I disliked him more than anyone else in the world, I felt a little wrong doing it. I sure hoped he was right about Daunator not being able to kill him because if the Vampire had figured out that particular trick, Christian could be in a world of hurt.
