Chapter 523
I stared at Elliott for a moment, thinking we needed to have a little chat about what backing someone up meant because he expected Jamie to do it for him but hadn’t given me the courtesy the last few times I needed him to, including earlier in this meeting. “That was before I saw what I saw. Look, all I’m saying is, I understand Aaron’s point.”
“Thank you, Cass,” Aaron said, and I should’ve let it go, but my mouth kept moving.
“I don’t agree with it.” He stared at me like I’d just insulted him—not a good idea. I tried to soften the blow. It wasn’t that I didn’t agree with anything he’d said, so I continued, trying to explain. “But I do understand it. I think... if we’re going over there, the sooner the better. Whether he’s here or not. A lot of people are getting turned into monsters, of one variety or another. We can stop that.” I hoped he understood—I agreed we shouldn’t be so hard on Christian, but we needed to get over there now. I couldn’t say why, so for once, I stopped talking. At least, that was the plan.
“What if we can’t stop it?” Aaron asked, and it was my turn to stare at him. “What if this is one Vampire we cannot stop?”
It was demoralizing to hear our leader say such a thing, but it was obvious he was being honest. We all stared at him, not sure how to respond.
“How is that possible?” Hannah asked for all of us. “We’re Guardians. He can’t kill us.”
“Schmitz seemed to think he could.” Aaron shrugged like he hadn’t just admitted our entire operation and reason for existence might be in question.
Aurora said, “Schmitz is a nut job.” We all turned to look at her, and I couldn’t believe she’d said something so rude. “Well, come on! He was afraid to say the guy’s name in this room for fear he might kill him while he was sitting in a meeting with a ton of Guardians and Hunters. He’s a bit of a... strange one.”
“I wish we could get him to talk to us, to tell us what he knows,” Cadence said, shaking her head slowly. She didn’t seem to think Schmitz was a nut job.
“We don’t need him to talk to us to tell us what he knows,” I reminded her, wishing I hadn’t. Now was probably not a good time to remind them that I can read minds. But I felt the need to defend Schmitz. He had been Alex’s friend, after all. “I can get the information.” She nodded at me, and I took the opportunity to remind them that this was urgent. “Once we know everything we can find out about Daunator, we should just go.”
“What about Daunator?” Jamie asked, and I turned to look at him. “Can you get into his mind?”
I shook my head as I said, “It’s a black, tangled up mess in there, worse than any mind I’ve ever seen.” My eyes flickered to Aaron for a second, and I noticed Jamie and Cadence exchanging glances. I hadn’t meant to remind the bossman I’d saved him, but now was as good a time as ever to bring it up since he was probably still irritated that I had disagreed with him earlier. “Besides, every time I try to find anything out that way, Daunator immediately downloads every though I’ve ever had. So he can peruse it at any time. He may have an idea we’re planning to attack when we do just from previous thoughts I’ve had.” There really was no way for me to figure anything out from Daunator’s mind, unfortunately.
“What about Heather?” Aaron asked. “Maybe she could get in. She doesn’t know anything, and she won’t unless we take her with us. Could you distract him while she looks around? Is it possible for you to get close enough for him to detect you without him scraping your thoughts?”
It was a bold plan, and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t work for a number of reasons. “I doubt it. I could try. But then... I don’t really know anything yet either.” I meant about our plans. He nodded. “It’s just... he’s good at putting ideas together to make predictions about what will happen next.” It was difficult to explain what I meant, but since Aaron is also good at that, I hoped he’d understand what I was trying to say.
“Then do a whole lotta thinkin’ about his demise,” Elliott suggested.
I knew he was trying to make me laugh, and while I was still agitated at him. I did smile in his direction. “If only that would work.”
“All right. We’ve got a lot to figure out and not a lot of time to do it.” Aaron sighed again, picked up a pen, and tapped the end of it on the table while he spoke. “Cassidy, you know what you need to do.” I nodded. A lot—I needed to do a lot. “Take these.” He handed me a big chunk of the list of names but not all of it. I already had my own, but his had more information, and it would make checking the missing against the black creatures easier.
I tried to focus as he continued to hand out orders. “Cadence and I will talk to the people that have been working with Christian. I’ll get Emma on the cell phone business. Hannah, check in with Mila, see how that’s going. Aurora, study the video of that hunt with Eliza and sit in on the one tonight so that we can find out what techniques work against those creatures.” Aurora nodded enthusiastically, but that seemed like a token job to me, something Aaron had just assigned to her for the sake of giving her something to do. “Jamie, see if Eliza can get you any tissue samples from whatever happens tonight, and Elliott—"
“Sit on your couch and eat Cheetos?” he offered.
“Uh, no. Contact Ward. I’ll get you his number. Have him talk you through any information he might have on the Blue Moon Portal, any books he might’ve seen while he was here.”
I think we were all confused, but Elliott asked the question. “Why?”
“I wanna make sure you can’t die before I send you into a situation that might get you killed.”
That made sense, but I didn’t know if that was the only reason Aaron wanted Elliott to investigate the portal. I was reminded of something else Christian had said—that he couldn’t die....
“What about the rest of us?” Aurora asked.
“I already know the rest of you can, potentially, but if I’ve got someone who can’t be killed, I’ll play my cards a little differently than if we’re all doomed.” Aaron’s answer made sense on the surface, but I was still thinking there was more to it than that.
“Does that mean you think Daunator might be able to kill us?” Hannah meant Guardians, I thought. It was obvious Daunator could kill Hunters, and no one knew if anything could kill me or not.
“I don’t think so,” Aaron assured her, “but I don’t know for sure, and I don’t want to find out if I can help it.”
Everyone nodded, and Aaron dismissed us with his eyes. I wanted out the door as quickly as I could get out so that I didn’t have to talk to anyone else about anything. I couldn’t believe I’d made it out of that meeting without being asked to find Christian, and I wasn’t going to linger in order for the topic to come up. With the stack of papers in my hand, I shot down the stairs, headed for my apartment, glad no one yelled after me. I did want to talk to Elliott, to figure out why he was being the way he was, but now wasn’t the time. I had more assignments than I had time. At least we were finally doing something. I just prayed it wasn’t too late, and we’d be able to find some of these missing people before they lost their souls to the devil.
