Chapter 537
“Daunator?” Brandon was alarmed now. He leaned forward. “What do you mean? Christian has a plan to stop Daunator?”
Here it came. Confession. “Christian went after Daunator by himself.” His eyes widened in shock. “He needed me to help him gather some information about who might be working with Daunator and to try to help him find the monster. He also wanted me to get into Daunator’s head, but I can’t really do that. Anyway, Christian swore me to secrecy because he didn’t want anyone to know what he was up to.” That was a lot. I paused for him to process it all.
After all of that, he asked, “You were helping Christian?”
“I am helping Christian,” I corrected. “And I know that my sister knows I’ve been helping him, but I haven’t told her I know where he is yet. She knows I know where he is. And she probably knows where he is because I think she was going to have Heather find him.” I imagined one of the reasons Aaron let me walk out of the office was because he’d already gotten Heather to agree to meet with them and find Christian. She’d probably done it by now. “But, yeah, I agreed to help Christian. I wanted to be involved.” I hoped Brandon would understand. I knew he was still mad at Christian over the portal—as he should be.
I wasn’t done with my confession, though. “But that’s not the only reason why I agreed to help.”
His head turned even more to the side so he was looking at me crooked now. I could see in his eyes where his mind was going and my stomach began to feel a little queasy. “Seriously, Brandon. It’s Christian.”
Relief washed over his face as he exhaled loudly. “Right.” It was almost comical that he’d think I was in to Christian. “What is it then?”
The next part would be difficult for me to say because I wasn’t even supposed to know about it, and I hadn’t even sorted through it myself. I just needed to start talking and see how it all came out. “I accidentally got in his head, and I saw this woman. She was beautiful. But his feelings for her were so messed up. Like he loved her and hated her. I didn’t probe deeply because I wasn’t trying to get information out of him. I’ve asked him a few times about her, but he won’t say. All I know is, I think she’s the reason he’s such a psycho.”
He shook his head slowly, and I hoped he wasn’t thinking that he could relate. “Sounds tragic—but what does that have to do with you helping him?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “It’s related to Daunator in a way I can’t quite figure out. The other night, before he left, I had coffee with Christian—”
“I know.”
It was my turn to stare at him in surprise. I waited for him to say more.
“I didn’t mean to see you, but I did. I wasn’t spying on you or anything.”
It seemed weird to me. I’d just had an argument with Brandon before I met Christian. Why had he gone to the other apartment building? Guessing it didn’t matter, I moved on. “Anyway, he was saying all kinds of weird stuff about how he knows Daunator better than anyone, and he thinks Daunator came through the Blue Moon Portal. I think it’s all related somehow, but I can’t piece it together. Christian is an enigma. And for the most part, I’ve just tried to ignore him, but now, I’ve sort of started to try to put him together. For some reason, he thinks Daunator can’t kill him.”
“Yeah, well, Christian is a Guardian, and Daunator is a Vampire, so why should he be able to?”
I realized my statement hadn’t come out quite as I’d intended. “You remember what Schmitz said, though, right? That he’d heard Daunator could kill anyone?”
He nodded. “I remember that, but Schmitz isn’t exactly the most normal person I’ve ever met.”
“No, I realize that.” I thought about how rude Aurora had been, talking about the Roatan Guardian. “When I asked Christian if he just didn’t think Daunator could kill any Guardians or just not him, he differentiated his answer. Of course, he said he didn’t think Daunator could kill Guardians, but he seemed to be saying, even if the Vampire had figured out how to kill Guardians, he couldn’t kill Christian.”
His chin tipped down and his eyebrows knit together. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know.” I’d been trying to figure it out since Christian had said it and hadn’t come up with many possibilities. “But I hope he’s right because he’s in a world of hurt right now. None of his weapons are working on the monster, and Daunator has him stuck in a literal hole in the ground, deep inside the mountain.” He had that surprised look on his face. I continued. “He’s not the only one. There are a whole bunch of those missing people there, too. Daunator’s turning them into those black creatures Eliza fought off the other night.” I assumed he’d seen the footage.
He was lost. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Cass. The last few days, my dad’s been about the only person I’ve talked to, and it hasn’t been about work. I had only been at Dax’s for a few minutes when I heard you in the hallway.”
My eyes widened. He’d been sitting in here by himself this whole time? I’d assumed he’d been hanging out with our friends. I hadn’t been.... “Why is that?”
He shrugged like he didn’t really want to say. “I didn’t want to hog our friends, and I didn’t want to make them choose between us.”
I couldn’t help but grin at him. That was a sweet gesture. I just wished I had known that. I would’ve told him to hang out with them. I had been too busy to spend any time with them myself, but he could’ve been.
Rather than going for the obvious, I thought back to his reference when he’d broken up with me in the first place. “Well, Monica is my sister.”
His familiar chuckle rolled across the space between us, and my heart caught in my chest. He used to make me feel like this all the time when we first met—like I couldn’t breathe and my heart could explode at any moment. “You don’t look like Ross Geller.”
Still smiling, I reached up and grabbed a chunk of hair near my part. “My hair isn’t crunchy either.”
His chuckle turned into outright laughter, and I found myself laughing, too. Most of the episodes of Friends had aired before we were even born, but we could communicate all day long using only sitcom references, and it was a nice feeling to have that back again.
