Chapter 509
I turned my attention back to Eliza, wishing I could just be done with this entire fiasco. It was sort of odd how I’d been begging to be involved and now I wanted to run away. “Sorry, Eliza. I was talking to Christian.”
“Christian? You found him? Is he okay?”
I didn’t want to be rude, so I stopped short of reminding her I could find anyone who had conscious thoughts. “Yes, I found him, and he’s okay. But Daunator has him stuck in a hole in the ground.”
“A hole? What do you mean?”
Biting back the sarcastic answer that wanted to define the word hole for her, I went another route. I could see why it might be hard to believe under the circumstances. “It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s like a really deep, dark, hole in the ground. There’s no way he can get out on his own. So he’s hoping Daunator will show up and fight him so he can kill the Vampire. And then... I don’t know what his plan is to get out, but for now, he wants to be left in there alone to figure it out.” It sounded stupid coming out of my mouth, but it was accurate.
“Is he nuts? I can get a team together and go find him, with your help.”
“I’m sure you could, but that’s not what he wants.” I didn’t bother to mention I’d brought up the same thing with Christian. “I’m just going to keep checking on him for a while and see how it goes.” Again, I was tempted to call my sister. If she knew what Christian had done, she’d probably be headed back here immediately. But if that dream hadn’t gotten her attention....
“What if Daunator really can kill Guardians?”
It was sort of scary how Eliza and I were thinking so much alike. “I asked the same question. He doesn’t seem worried about it.” I wondered if Eliza had any idea what it might be that made Christian think he wasn’t capable of dying. Or if she knew who that woman might be. But Christian had given me the impression that no one knew about any of that, not even Aaron, so I hesitated to bring it up thinking I’d have to say more than I wanted to if I did.
“I don’t like this, Cass.”
The fact that she’d just used my nickname irritated the crap out of me. Was she under the impression we were friends? That we could someday be friends? I let it go. “I know. I don’t either. But that’s where we are for the moment.”
“And no bosses yet?”
I swallowed my frustration. “Nope.” She could contact them, right? I was certain she had to have Aaron’s cell phone number and probably Cadence’s, too, since she hasn’t changed it ever. I didn’t suggest it, though. I’m not sure why. Eliza seems like the kind of person who wouldn’t mind ruining her ex-boyfriend’s honeymoon.
Eliza was as aggravated with Christian and his plan as I was, but she switched topics. “All right. Since we got Honey last night, there’s only a couple more of Daunator’s main henchmen on our list. I’m not sure when we’ll be going after the next one, but it will probably be soon. Will you be able to help me out when the time comes?”
I was already tired of this game, even though I’d gotten myself into this situation because I refused to be patient and wait for my sister. What choice did I have now but to press on? “I should be able to.” It wasn’t like I had anything better to do....
“Great. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks!”
“Sure. I’ll go see if I can find Heather and ask her about our minions. I’ll let you know.” There was no reason for her to know I wasn’t actually going to launch a formal search, but rather, send a message. I ended the conversation before Eliza said goodbye.
I knew Heather would still be in the middle of her workout, so it would do me no good to go over there and interrupt Aurora’s training. Instead, I sent her a message. “Hey, when you’re done, will you let me know? I need to ask you about something. Maybe we can grab lunch?”
She didn’t answer, of course. I hadn’t expected her to. I’d have to wait until she was in the locker room before she’d have a chance to answer.
I thought about doing some more research, trying to figure out what those things were in someone else’s head. Schmitz hated talking to anyone, so it would do me no good to actually go over there. Scratching the surface of his mind wouldn’t work with this because he wouldn’t be thinking about them. I’d have to dig. I didn’t think he’d know what they were. I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have mentioned them when he was talking about Daunator if he’d seen them before.
Ward might know. But talking to him would ultimately result in Hannah and Aurora knowing that I’d been helping Eliza. And probably, eventually, that I’d been helping Christian, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. No, I’d wait and ask Heather. Then, if she didn’t know, I’d give it some time.
So what would I be doing with my day? It felt strange knowing I had the day to spend with my boyfriend and no boyfriend to spend it with. I thought about what he might be doing right now. Lucy and Tara would be at training with Heather, so maybe he would be hanging out with Dax. I was certain he’d told all of our friends about it. Yet, no one had said anything to me, not even Lucy who had been my friend far longer than I’d known Brandon. It seemed weird.
I didn’t want to think about it anymore, so I didn’t. I picked up my notes on the missing and started going through them again, trying to find the people who had disappeared but I hadn’t been able to confirm had been turned into Vampires. There were so many of them. So strange that I couldn’t read any of their minds. Why would Daunator take all of these people just to kill them? Were his Vampire henchmen so sloppy they ended up killing more than half of the people they tried to turn? It didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
I was just starting to get into a rhythm of searching when my IAC interrupted my thoughts. Oddly, it was Dax. He didn’t usually contact me, though we talked when we were all hanging out. “How’s it going?” was all it said. I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean. He must know....
“Okay,” I said. “How are you?”
“Fine. I just... wanted to say... that I know what happened. And that sucks. Tara and Lucy don’t know yet—unless you told them. Brandon just told me. Sorry, Cass.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I felt my eyes start to tear up and all of the color draining out of my face. It did suck. He was right. “Uh, thanks. I’m okay.”
“I bet if you went down and talked to him, you could clear it up really fast. I don’t think he meant to do what he did.”
“Yeah, well, he did it,” I said, suddenly feeling defensive. Why should I have to be the one to go and find him and apologize? He broke up with me.
“I know. I’m just saying... I don’t think this is the end.”
I wanted to be angry at someone, but I realized it wasn’t Dax who deserved to hear my rage. It wasn’t even Brandon. It was probably me. “Thanks.” That would have to do. I really didn’t want to talk about it, not to him anyway. Maybe not to anyone. I think if my sister had been around, we could’ve chatted about it, or maybe Elliott if he wasn’t Brandon’s dad. He’d made me feel a lot better about that loser Liam. But I couldn’t talk to Elliott about Brandon. I didn’t want to talk to Dax about him either.
“Sure.” He understood the conversation was over and flicked his IAC off. I was glad Lucy and Tara were at training so they weren’t all “OMG” about the whole situation. If Heather got back to me in time for lunch, I wouldn’t have to talk to the other two girls about Brandon until later this afternoon. By then, maybe they’d have gotten over their shock. If anyone bothered to mention it to Heather at all, I doubted she’d want to talk about it. She’s not much for gossip.
I got back to work, going back over the names of the missing, looking for needles in haystacks, and hoping Christian was having better luck with his part of the mission, though something told me he wasn’t.
