Chapter 20: Chapter 20

We boarded the elevator, but I didn’t let go of his arm. He didn’t seem to mind. I thought about mixed signals and all that stuff, but it didn’t make me lessen my grip. It just seemed like I needed that personal attachment to someone like me, and right now, Brandon was the closest to it. Besides, he smelled really good.

“So what did you tell him?”

“Just that you were here and wanted to come say hi if he had a minute,” he shrugged. His hands were in his jeans pockets, and he’d taken to wearing a black leather jacket much like his father’s. In fact, if there was a chance he’d fit in his dad’s I would’ve thought it was his father’s. But Elliott still had a significant amount of girth, particularly in the shoulders, on Brandon.

“Well, I hope he doesn’t think that’s… weird.”

“It’s Christian. Who knows what he thinks is weird.”

“True.” He had a point. The elevator dinged, and we were on the ground floor. I said hello to some of the workers, the ones who had been there when we arrived. There was a new guy who was really nice, and he was there with a wide smile. “Hola, Juan Diego!” I called. “Como estas?”

“Bien. Y estedes?”

“Bien, gracias,” I replied as we headed toward the door. I gave him a little wave. Two years of Spanish was coming in sort of handy. I didn’t get a lot of chances to practice my Spanish in Iowa, but I knew enough to ask someone how they were and say I was fine, thank you.

“Listen to you,” Brandon said as the November breeze kissed our cheeks. “You’re a regular Sofia Vergara.”

“I wish,” I muttered. He looked down at me like I was crazy to want to be the gorgeous actress whose legs never quit, and it made me feel all warm inside that he seemed to be happier that I was me. We walked the rest of the way in relative silence, but it only took a few seconds to get there because, at headquarters, there was no one to walk slow for. It was awesome to get to zip around uninhibited, something I hadn’t had much of an opportunity to do until now.

As soon as we walked in the door, I spotted Jamie standing in his office, and even though we were there to see Christian, I couldn’t help but run in to say hello. He had been such a lifesaver for me—literally—and even though I’d thanked him more times than I could count, it was always nice to see him.

“Cass!” he said, embracing me. “You’re here. For the whole week?”

“I think so,” I replied, squeezing him tightly and then letting him go. He winced a little bit, and I remembered I’m much stronger than I used to be. “I never know anything for certain anymore,” I reminded him.

“Right. Well, it sure is nice to see you. What brings you over here?”

“Oh, well, we… I mean I… just wanted to come and say hi to everyone. Cadence and Aaron are giving Mom and Dad a tour of the gym. So I thought we’d just head over here and… say hi. To everyone.”

Jamie nodded his head, but he wasn’t an idiot. “I see. Well, I believe Christian is in his office.” He squinted at me—sort of a half wink with both eyes. “I’d come over with you, but I don’t want to be involved in anything that might get me in trouble with the boss and your sister later.”

“I have no idea what you’re even talking about,” I said, making an innocent face at him.

“Mmm hmmm,” he said, though he had a smirk on his face. “Hey, when you get a chance, stop back by. I have a couple of questions for you.”

It was my turn to make a face. I wrinkled my nose at him. “Does this have to do with my fangs?”

“Maybe,” he replied, taking a few steps back toward his desk.

“Ugh,” was about all I could say. I turned and went back to Brandon, who was waiting for me at the door.

He leaned down and whispered in my ear, “I bet if you bit him he’d stop asking,” and then looked up at Jamie with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

Normally, if someone suggested I bite someone with my fangs, I would be greatly offended, but this time I laughed. An image of Jamie attempting to look into my mouth to check for my fangs right before I turned and sunk my teeth into his neck filled my mind, and I chuckled. “No, but I’ll keep that in mind for our next stop,” I joked. I waved at Jamie, and we headed across the hall. I was careful not to touch Brandon this time since I wanted Christian to think I only had eyes for him—one eye in particular—the one that needed an IAC.

Christian was behind his computer—which was meganormous—when we walked in. It’s seriously the biggest desktop monitor I’ve ever seen in real life. He didn’t look up at first, and I remembered that he really isn’t unattractive. He has dark blonde hair and a fairly handsome face. He’s tallish and muscular, of course. But there’s just something about when he looks at me that makes me think he would be very happy driving around a neighborhood in a white van looking for kids to help him find puppies. I’m not sure what it is that makes me feel that way either, which I think makes it worse. Maybe it’s because I heard the story about him recording my sister before I actually had a chance to meet him.

He looked up at us and didn’t smile, and then I remembered. It’s because he’s creepy.

“Hey, Christian,” I said, taking a few steps inside the room, not holding on to Brandon but bumping up against his arm like a toddler who couldn’t walk on her own. “How’s it going.”

“Hello, Cassidy,” he replied, standing up. “It’s nice to see you. How has school been?”

“Good,” I nodded.

“Still cheerleading?”

“Uh, yeah. We have two more games after the break, and then it’s on to the playoffs.”

“That’s cool,” he replied, nodding. “It was nice to see you cheer. You have some nice girls on your squad.”

Creep. E. “Yeah, I do. So… what’s up with you?”

“Oh, I’m still working on that re-Transformation serum for the Guardians,” he said, nodding at his computer. “I think we’re just about there. Not ready to test it again yet. Don’t need to kill anyone else.” He folded his arms and shook his head, and I felt all the blood rush out of my face.

I probably shouldn’t have asked the next question. “Oh, yeah? You killed someone with it?”

He looked surprised. “Oh, you don’t know?” I shook my head and looked at Brandon, who looked as lost as I felt, though I was never certain when Brandon was bluffing. “Well, I sort of killed someone. For a little while. He’s fine now. The rest of the trials have been on tissue, so that’s not as big of a deal. But killing your boss is kind of a big deal.” He had his hands on his hips and was shaking his head, not looking at us.

I realized that he had to be talking about Aaron. I looked at Brandon and both of our mouths dropped open. As Christian looked up, I closed my mouth, not wanting to let him know he’d actually just given us way more information than he’d probably intended to. “I can imagine it would be tough. Thank goodness the dying didn’t stick,” I said, trying to laugh.

“No kidding!” He laughed, a sort of a half-crazy, half-pleasant, normal person laugh, and Brandon joined in. “Anyway, it’s nice to see you. You just making the rounds?”

“Yep. And… I wanted to tell you that we recently read about Bunker Hill. That battle is so fascinating to me. Were you there?”

“No, I wasn’t,” Christian said, shaking his head once again. “I was with General Washington at the time, on our way to Boston. I was with him for the duration.”

“Really?” I couldn’t help but ask. “That’s incredible.” Why had my sister never mentioned this to me?

“Well, I could move a lot faster than everyone else, except for Hamilton. We’d race sometimes. He beat me occasionally, but he was a ranking officer, and I wasn’t at the time, so I did a lot of message delivery for the general. They always thought I’d ridden a horse, but I’d tie it up somewhere and run. I was a lot faster that way.” He seemed to be reminiscing.

“Do you mean Alexander Hamilton?” Brandon asked.

“One and the same,” Christian nodded. Christian’s far off expression grew a bit somber. “Anyway, that was a long time ago. I can tell you all about Valley Forge, crossing the Delaware, the Battle of Long Island, but I wasn’t at Bunker Hill.”

“That’s really amazing,” I said, finally hoping maybe I could find something to connect with this man about so I didn’t have to keep being creeped out every time I saw him. “I’d love to hear it sometime. I really would.”

“Sure,” he nodded. He continued to smile at me, and somehow it looked a little less freakish. “So… uh, any word about your IAC?”

“Actually, no,” I said, thankful he had brought it up on his own. “I would love to get it installed while I’m here, but I’m not sure what my sister thinks about it. It would just be so much easier for you guys to contact me that way, you know? I feel like I could be a lot more useful with it in my eye.” Brandon had told me about all of the archives and training videos they had available through the IAC. There was also the matter of being able to watch the hunts. I knew I could learn a lot that way, even if I wasn’t able to go on them. He’d already observed a few more since he’d returned from Philly, and he was almost to a point in his training where Aaron was going to let him participate. I would love to have the opportunity to watch that—even if it would make me nervous.

“Well, I can ask her, if you want,” Christian said. “Actually, I’d probably start with Aaron. He’s more likely to say yes.”

“Would you mind?” I asked, forcing my hand to reach across the chasm between us, over the expanse of his messy desk, to rest on the sleeve of his green button-down shirt. “That would be so awesome.”

“Sure, it’s no problem. We have a group of recruits coming in tomorrow afternoon to get hooked up. May as well pop yours in while I’m at it and have all the equipment out, if it’s okay with the bosses.”

“That would be so cool. If you could ask, and then just let Brandon know what they say—or call my cell. You have my number, right?”

“I do.”

I wouldn’t have offered if he didn’t already have my number. He’d called Emma once, so I was certain he had to have my number, too, and I was thankful he’d never actually called me. “Okay, well we have some other folks to visit. It was really nice to see you!”

“You, too,” he said, his smile looking almost normal now that I knew him slightly better. “Take care.”

“You, too.”