Chapter 66
The next morning, I took my time getting up, showering, dressing, and hauling myself down the stairs. Christmas magic was long since gone, and I looked at the Christmas tree with disdain, wishing it would fold up its branches and put itself away.
My parents were in the kitchen, chatting with Elliott over leftover cinnamon rolls. They all greeted me when I came in, but I proceeded to march to the coffeemaker with little more than a mumble in their general direction. I poured a steaming cup of joe, added almost half as much cream, two cubes of sugar, and stirred it up. I’d never drank coffee before, but I had decided I was an adult now, and adults drank coffee.
It was awful. I almost gagged it tasted so bad. Despite my attempt to make it sweet, it was bitter and gritty. I wanted to dump it down the sink, but I couldn’t let them through my façade, so I took my steaming cup of poo into the living room and found a seat by the window, staring out into the collected snow, wishing I could open the glass and toss out the concoction I’d made.
Maybe five minutes passed before Elliott followed me. I didn’t turn to look at him, and I knew I was being rude, but I didn’t care. “You all right?” he asked.
Ignoring the question, I asked, “Is Cadence still asleep?”
“Nah, she went over to Sidney’s house,” he replied. “Guess she wanted to see her friends before we head out this afternoon.”
“What’s left of them.” No longer able to stand the smell, I set the coffee mug down on the table, still not looking at him. He was sitting in my mom’s chair, and since I’d swiveled my dad’s chair to face the window, that meant he was behind me. I had picked up on the fact that he said they would be leaving in a few hours, too. Part of me wanted to beg them both to stay, or let me go with them, but I knew it would do no good.
“Cassidy,” he said quietly, “I know you’re upset about our conversation last night….”
“What conversation?” I asked, not turning to face him. “Seems to me like I did most of the talking.” I was being very rude now; it wasn’t true. He’d told me a few things he didn’t have to, things about himself he could’ve chosen to keep me in the dark about. But I was feeling sorry for myself, and I wasn’t about to return to my normal blissful persona, not yet.
In the blink of an eye, he was standing next to my chair, his hand extended. “Come here,” he said.
Looking from his hand to his face, I raised both eyebrows and opened my mouth, letting it hang for a second before I said, “Wha—”
“Just come here.”
Slipping my hand into his, I let him pull me out of the chair and followed silently as he headed for the stairs, having no idea where we were going.
Elliott walked straight to my bedroom, closing the door behind me. He pulled my chair out from beneath my desk and sat in it, gesturing for me to take a seat on the bed. “You’re gonna get me in trouble, lil girl,” he said, shaking his head. “What? What do you want to know?”
I stared at him for a moment, not sure whether or not he was actually going to answer my inquiries or if this would be another session of “I can’t tell yous” but I decided to give it a shot. “What does LIGHTS stand for?”
After his hand brushed through his hair, it was standing on end. “Lincoln International Guardian and Hunters Training Station. Do not ask me what any of those words mean.”
The last sentence came out with enough force to cut that question off before I even dared to formulate it. I nodded. At least I’d have something to work with. “And IAC?”
“Intelligence Assistance Communicator.” He was silent, and I stared at him for a long moment, expecting another warning.
When none came, I asked, “What is that?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“That’s okay,” I shrugged. “I shouldn’t believe any of this… and yet I do.”
A smirk crossed his face, like he was saying he knew the feeling. “It’s a computer chip that helps us talk to each other. It’s implanted in our eye, and we can communicate without talking, sort of like having telepathy but with technological assistance.”
“You’re right,” I managed. “I don’t believe you.” It wasn’t that I didn’t—I just didn’t know what to make of that.
Elliott chuckled at me. “Don’t ask questions you’re not prepared to hear the answers to.”
“Can I see it?” I asked. “I mean—you said it’s in your eye?”
“It’s tiny,” he replied. “I doubt you can, but you can look.”
I leaned forward, squinting into his right eyeball as he pulled the skin out of the way.
“Wait,” I said, hopping up and leaning across him to access my desk drawer. I pulled out my magnifying glass and tried again. It seemed like a tiny, black speck was partially visible next to his iris, but it was really difficult to tell. A little frustrated, I put the magnifying glass down and resumed my spot on the bed.
“Listen, Cass, I know it’s gonna be hard, but you’re going to have to pretend like you don’t know any of this stuff, okay? Once you’re old enough, and your sister or your parents or whoever starts telling you all these secrets, you gotta be shocked, all right? Don’t you go getting me in trouble just because I can’t resist those big hazel eyes of yours.”
“Okay,” I muttered, not sure what else to say.
“And I do have something for you.” He pulled a small box out of his jeans pocket and handed it over. “I was actually coming into the kitchen last night to give it to you, but we know how that worked out.”
I held the box in my hand for a moment and stared at it, wondering what it was. I looked at him and saw him waiting for me to open it, chewing on his bottom lip. I’d only ever seen him do that once before, and that was the only other time he didn’t seem completely confident in himself.
Flipping the lid of the box open, I saw a small, golden ring with a pink flower on top. It looked like something a little girl might wear, except, as I picked it up, I noticed the flower petals were made of some sort of sapphires, and there were small diamonds on either side of the main setting. It was polished, but didn’t look new. “It’s beautiful,” I whispered.
“Do you like it?” he asked, leaning even further forward in his chair. “It was my grandmother’s. I don’t have much of anything from my family, but I got that a couple of years ago from a distant relative. I thought… I thought you might like it.”
I slid it onto the ring finger on my right hand and it fit perfectly. “I love it,” I said, smiling up at him. “Thank you.”
“If you don’t like it, or you don’t want to wear it, I’ll understand.”
“No, it’s awesome,” I said, still staring at it. Then, dropping my hand, I scooted forward and wrapped my arms around him. “Thank you, Elliott.”
He squeezed me back, and the way I’d felt earlier, like the world was closing in on me, seemed to be held at bay once more. “You’re welcome, Cass. I might not be able to tell you everything, but I am looking out for you, I promise.”
Letting him go, I wiggled back onto the bed again. “It’s okay. I understand.” And I really was beginning to. I needed to stop pressing him for information and let things be, at least for a while. It wasn’t fair for me to pester him constantly for things he wasn’t supposed to tell me. “I understand enough now,” I said, thinking it was true. “I know Cadence is some sort of a vampire hunter, and I guess that must be what you are, too.”
He only shrugged at me, an indicator that he couldn’t say more.
“I’ll do my best to keep all of this to myself,” I assured him, “although it won’t be easy.”
“Thanks.” That’s all he needed to say to signal to me that this was what was for the best. “I can always come and talk to your friends again, make sure they aren’t asking too many questions.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, just come on over to SHS and brainwash the whole student body into thinking everything’s normal.” I rolled my eyes.
“Okay.”
Looking up at him, I could see that he was serious. “You could do that?”
“Of course, I can,” he shrugged. “When does school start again?”
Thoughts of him walking down the hallway with me, like my bodyguard, had me giggling. I shook my head. “Uh, we have two weeks off, so the Monday after New Year’s Day.”
“All right. I’ll be there.”
I wasn’t sure if I’d live to regret even mentioning it to him, or if I’d change my mind between now and then, but for now, the idea that Elliott might show up at my school didn’t seem like a bad thing. Maybe while he was at it, he could convince all of my teachers to give me straight As for the rest of the year, or talk Liam into asking me to the homecoming dance. On second thought, maybe I should keep my brainwashing friend at home.
Elliott stood. “I think I’ll head downstairs and check in with your folks,” he said, walking toward the door like a regular human.
“Okay,” I called after him. “Thanks again for the ring.”
“Sure,” he replied. “Glad you like it.” I could tell by the small smile of relief he flashed at me before he stepped out into the hallway that he meant it.
I couldn’t help but stare at my hand. It really was a cute ring, but more importantly, there was a great deal of sentiment behind it. I just hoped it wasn’t the reason I suddenly didn’t feel like asking any more questions about my sister’s new secret life.
