Chapter 32: Chapter 32

Brandon was already at my house Friday when I got home from school. I had packed my bag that morning before I left. It took me a few seconds to tell my mom goodbye, listen to her strict warning to be careful, and we were in the Enclave, heading out of town. I felt like a thousand pound weight had been lifted off my chest.

“How’s your day been?” Brandon asked as he weaved through traffic on the highway. “Did you have a good day?”

“It was fine,” I said, wishing Aaron would let him drive the Aventador, but he still didn’t trust Brandon with that particular type of vehicle for long distances yet. “But I don’t want to talk about it. Do you have any idea what’s going on with Cadence? Why couldn’t she come and get me herself.”

“I’m not exactly sure,” he said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “But something is up. I know that much.”

“Really?” I asked, turning so that I was facing him more. I was wearing my favorite pair of distressed jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt with a picture of Marceline from Adventure Time on it. Lucy said it was the best subtle announcement she’d ever seen in her life. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, the other day while I was training, Cadence came and asked me to come and get you, right?” I nodded; no surprises yet. “She said she wouldn’t be there to do it herself, and I couldn’t mention it to anyone. At all.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, wondering what that meant.

“Not even Aaron.”

“Wait. What?”

“Yeah, so Aaron and Christian went to Connecticut for a couple of nights. And Aaron said he wants to go to Philadelphia next week to look for Gibbon, but Cadence doesn’t want to go. I’m not sure why. But get this. She’s not even at headquarters right now. She left.”

I stared at him for a really long moment. “When did she leave?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted with a shrug. “But she’s definitely gone.”

“That’s so weird,” I said, leaning back into the seat.

“Yep. And her IAC is totally off, so no one knows where she went.”

“No one?” I repeated.

“No one.”

He was so cute when he was excited, and I wanted to let his exhilaration seep into my pores a little bit, but I found it odd that my sister was gone from headquarters and not even Aaron knew what was going on. I really hoped they were all right. As much as I had been irritated at Aaron when he broke up with Cadence to date Eliza, that was all in the past now. “Hmmm,” was about all I could manage.

“You don’t seem nearly as enthusiastic about this as I am,” Brandon noted, looking at me for longer than a human who was driving would’ve been able to without crashing.

My arm was bumped up against his on the console between us, and I twisted my hand around so that his fingers interlaced with mine. “It’s just not like her to do something like that.”

He took my hand, no questions asked. “I know. That’s why it’s so intriguing. She’s got to be up to something.”

“What if it isn’t good?” I asked.

“What if it is good?”

I didn’t know what to say to that response that didn’t cause us to end up in an endless loop.

“Listen, Cass, I’m sure everything is fine. Just don’t worry about it, okay? You’re literally going to your happy place. Relax.”

He was right. I couldn’t let whatever was going on with my sister bother me. Lord knows she wouldn’t be worried about me if the tables were turned. I took the recommended deep breaths and closed my eyes. Just being in Brandon’s presence made me feel calm. It didn’t hurt that he was making little circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.

“Aurora said she’d train you tomorrow,” he said quietly.

I didn’t open my eyes. “Cool. You coming with?”

“That Amazonian has already kicked my behind five days this week. And I’ve been on two hunts.”

“Is that a yes then?” I asked, only opening one eye and looking at him expectantly.

He was quiet for a second. “Sure,” he finally said. I laughed and closed my eye.

***

Watching Brandon eat pizza is sort of like watching an Olympic sport. You ask yourself a half dozen times how is one person actually able to do something of his magnitude? Like those guys who can swallow thirty hotdogs in two minutes, or whatever those crazy contests are, Brandon can eat pizza like no one I’ve ever seen before, and that’s saying something because Lucy Burk can really put away some cheese pizza.

“I’m going to win you one of those plushes before this night is over,” he vowed, wiping his hands on a napkin.

“Maybe you should leave them greased up,” I suggested. “Maybe it’ll make you faster.”

He narrowed his eyes at me only momentarily, like it took him a second to tell if I was joking. “You know that no one ever wins anything here, right?” he said for the hundredth time.

“I know,” I nodded. “So… what makes you think you’ll be able to? You’ve already spent, like, forty bucks trying. You could’ve gone next door to that toy store and bought me a whole cart full of plushes by now.” Not that I even wanted them. I was sure that wasn’t the point.

He shook his head, his curls, which he was still growing out, doing a dance in protest. “I’m winning. Brandon Keen is not a loser.”

“Well….” I winked at him, and he glared at me again.

“All right. I think I’m gonna try for that Grumpy Care Bear in the claw machine because of your attitude,” he teased.

“I’m sorry. You’re right.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’ll try harder.”

“You were doing so well until you talked to your sister.”

“I know.” Cadence had contacted me via the IAC a little bit ago, and I was still having trouble getting over the conversation. We’d talked about nothing—and I still didn’t know where she was—until she asked me to try to start listening to the Vampires’ conversations. I didn’t think it was something I wanted to start dabbling in. After all, I had no idea what kind of damage they could do to me at this point, if they wanted to, and knowing I was in their heads would not only be potentially dangerous, it would be disturbing.

“Listen, Cass, if you don’t want to listen to them, then just don’t do it. Tell Cadence you couldn’t hear anything, or that it didn’t make sense.”

I nodded, but I thought back to what my sister had said. “I’m the only one who can do this, though,” I reminded him. “I do feel like I owe it to the team to at least try.”

“Okay, well, maybe you should try it in a crowded place, where there’s more likely to be a Vampire or two, and where you’ll be in public so you won’t feel so alone.”

“Because a busy train station in Philadelphia wasn’t crowded enough to deter them from trying to hurt me?” I raised an eyebrow and stared at him for a moment.

He gave me a weak smile. “That was before your training. You could take them now if you needed to.”

I thought he was right, but I had no way of knowing. I’d been on zero many hunts, while he’d been on more than he could count. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I don’t know.”

“Well, let’s not worry about it right now, okay?” he said. Standing, he pushed his chair in and said, “Come on. Let’s go try to get that bear.”