Chapter 535
Aaron turned his attention back to me. “I want you to get into contact with Mila later and see if you can help her out while they look for the next Vampire on their list. She’s aware now that Eliza was speaking to you.” He must’ve seen my eyes widen because he assured me, “Eliza’s not in trouble or anything, but I’m sure it’s yet another reason why Mila doesn’t quite trust her. Anyway, if we can find that guy, and take him alive, we might be able to figure out the answers to some of our questions.”
I said, “All right,” but I didn’t think that would be possible. I knew enough about Sylvester, the next mark, from my research to know he wouldn’t go down easily. They looked ready to move on to the real reason I was here, so I switched topics. “Something else happened last night.” Even thinking about the situation with Daunator made me nervous. I could feel sweat popping up on my upper lip, and a lump formed in my throat. I needed to tell them, but I really didn’t want to talk about it.
Cadence reached over and put her hand on top of mine. “What is it, Cass?”
With a deep breath, I spit it out. “Daunator jumped into my head. While I was down there, trying to figure out a way to help Dala, he was suddenly in my thoughts, shouting and laughing. It was horrible. Maybe the worst experience of my life.” Considering everything I’d been through, they should understand I was serious. “No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t push him out.” I pulled my hand away from my sister and pressed my palms to the side of my face, remembering the sound of his cackling in my head. “I hope I never have to go through that again.”
It took them both a second to respond. Aaron reached over and patted my arm, which was kind of weird, but I didn’t pull away. “I’m so sorry, Cassidy. How did you get him to leave?”
Part of me didn’t want to answer that either. But I did. Trying to sound cool about it. My words didn’t match my intention. “I don’t know for sure. I was so scared, I didn’t know what to do. I ran down to Elliott and Brandon’s apartment, and Brandon helped me to calm down, and eventually, I was able to get Daunator to stop. But I don’t know if I did it myself or if he just got bored of terrorizing me so he left.” I really hoped it had been my power that made him go, but looking back on it now, I didn’t know how that could be the case.
“Thank goodness he was able to help you.” Cadence smiled at me, and I nodded, glad she wasn’t making a big deal out of me turning to Brandon for help.
“Yeah.” It took me a moment to regain my composure before I continued. “I want to help those people in the holes, but I don’t want that to happen again.” If I played my cards correctly, maybe they would somehow understand that’s why I didn’t want to contact Christian—even though it wasn’t the real reason. They didn’t need to know, did they? If they suspected that’s where he was, too, maybe they’d understand that I didn’t want to go back there.
“We’ll just have to be careful not to ask you to stay in too long or push too far,” Aaron said, which to me meant he wasn’t opposed to me going back in.
I nodded, but I wanted to remind him I didn’t have to go in at all.
He leaned back in his chair, and I could see the wheels spinning in his head. “We’re going to get the rest of the leadership team in here in a few minutes and see what we’ve all figured out.” I assumed he meant since he gave us our assignments the night before. “We’ll let you know if we need any more information after that.”
“’Kay.” I was glad I didn’t have to stay for that. I didn’t want to see Elliott at the moment. I also knew Aaron wasn’t done with me, even though I could’ve potentially used his statement as a reason to get up out of my chair and head toward the door.
He continued, “We need to get on this as quickly as we can, but we also have to be careful. Until we know for sure we can handle Daunator, heading that direction would be suicidal, at least for the members of our team that can die.”
“And we’re not even sure who that might be,” Cadence added.
I understood what she meant. Aaron leaned toward me, and his voice changed slightly, almost like he was talking to a child. “Cassidy, it’s really important that we talk to Christian before we leave to face Daunator.” Here it came. I sucked in a breath and held it. “I can’t get his IAC on. His phone is here and off. I really hate to ask you to contact him for us, but I don’t see any other way. Do you?”
Whether he’d meant to give me an out or not, I took it. Quickly, I said, “Heather could do it.” My eyes flickered from his face to my sister’s and then back again. “She needs the practice, you know, finding people on demand. She hasn’t done much of that.”
They exchanged glances for the millionth time. “We could ask Heather, but it might take her a while to locate him,” Cadence said. Now she was leaning toward me. “And you could tell us right this very second exactly where he is.”
It was obvious to me now that she also knew that I was hiding information from her. I hated to see my sister look at me that way, daring me to defy her. Whether she’d figured it out or Elliott had told her about our conversation, I couldn’t say. I tried to play dumb with her. “It takes me a little bit of time to find people, too.”
“Yeah, I know,” my sister, my boss, said with a nod. “But... you could tell us right now, without digging into his head, couldn’t you?”
I cocked my head to the side and looked at my sister for a moment, trying to figure out why she wouldn’t just say that she knew I was keeping Christian’s location from her. There was no point in continuing to pretend she hadn’t called my bluff. “He asked me to keep his personal information to myself.”
“Why? Why would he trust you after what just happened between you two? And why would you agree?” Cadence was frustrated, probably not just at me, but I didn’t like it when she talked to me that way.
I tried to stay calm. It was difficult. “I can’t explain it. I didn’t mean to see what I did in his head, but I saw it. At the time, when he came to me, I really wanted to go after Daunator, and no one would listen to me. You guys weren’t here. So... when he said he had a plan, I wanted to help. He made me promise not to say anything, though, and I feel like I need to keep that promise, even if it is Christian, and even if he is still the biggest jerk ever born.”
It took a moment for either one of them to break the silence. When Aaron finally did, his voice was calm. “Cassidy, it’s noble that you want to honor your promise to Christian, but he could be in a lot of trouble. Daunator is unlike anything we’ve ever faced before. Christian doesn’t seem to recognize that if he thinks he can face him alone. And even though he took a few of his new weapons with him, we have no idea if they will even be useful against someone as strong as Daunator. If you know where he is, you need to tell us before he gets into trouble.”
“He’s already gotten himself into trouble,” I blurted with a shrug.
Aaron’s forehead wrinkled. “What do you mean? Trouble how?”
I couldn’t tell him that. It didn’t matter if they found out from Heather in ten minutes or me right now, Christian was on his own. “Really, couldn’t you just ask Heather to find him?”
Cadence was getting even more agitated at me. “What do you think will happen if you tell us where he is? It’s for his own good.”
“I don’t know!” I admitted, throwing my hands up at her. “I’m just not comfortable being the one to tell you, that’s all. Why are you pressuring me into doing something I don’t want to do?” I balled up my hands and slammed them on the table, though not hard enough to make a hole this time. “It’s my superpower! I should be able to use it however, whenever, I want!”
My sister’s teeth were gritted, and I assumed she was getting ready to yell back at me, but she didn’t get a chance to. Aaron had his hands up between us. “All right, all right. Thanks for your help, Cass. We’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
Even though Cadence was staring at him like she couldn’t believe he was dismissing me, I didn’t wait for him to change his mind or for her to argue with me. I pushed back my chair and headed to the door, frustrated at both of them and myself. I didn’t know what I thought was going to happen if I didn’t keep my promise to Christian, but it was important to me to keep it. I just wished they could understand that.
Mrs. Carminati must’ve heard part of that. “Would you like a gingersnap, dear? Made them myself.” She held out a plate of cookies, aluminum foil covering half of them.
“No, thank you.” I forced a smile, and she set the plate aside with a sympathetic look in her eyes. I felt like I should say something else, but I didn’t know what else to say to her, so I moved toward the door.
“You know, Cassidy,” her voice called out behind me. I stopped and turned to look at her. “Sometimes we think we’re keeping promises to other people when we’re really just trying to be true to ourselves.”
I tilted my head to the side and looked at her for a moment, not quite sure what she was saying. But then, I figured that was the point. I’d need to reflect on that. “Thanks.”
“Have a nice afternoon, dear.”
“You, too.”
I made my way to the elevator, knowing exactly where my feet were headed, even if I wasn’t sure why. It was time for me to come clean.
