Chapter 33: Chapter 33

Elliott chuckled. “That Eliza sure is a piece of work. I’m so glad we got rid of her when we did. Don’t you go thinking she’s earned her way back here, now. That was impressive what she did to those Vampires on the roof the other night, but that don’t make her a gold star student.”

“I won’t,” Aaron said, and Cadence knew that to be the gospel truth. Eliza could do all the good deeds in the world, but she wasn’t coming back to this team.

“All righty. You two have a good night.”

“Bye, Elliott,” Cadence called, finally snapping out of her thoughts enough to remember her manners.

Aaron told him goodbye, too, and closed the door behind him. He stood with his hands in his pockets for a moment, staring at Cadence.

“Do you think...?’

“I don’t know.” He came back toward the couch but didn’t sit yet. “God, I hope not. Surely, she’d know better than to keep that from us. And he wouldn’t be that reckless, would he?”

“We’re talking about Christian here,” Cadence reminded him as he sat down next to her.

“I know. But Christian is usually only careless when it comes to other people, not himself.”

Cadence nodded. That seemed to be true. “What do you think Cassidy meant when she said he’d been hurt before? Some woman? Do you know who she might’ve been talking about?”

“No, I have no idea. I’ve known Christian since Dracula, about a hundred and thirty years, and in that time, he’s dated dozens, maybe hundreds of women. I’ve never known him to be serious about any of them, though. He goes out with them for a while and then they either blow him off, or he decides they’re not for him.”

“Isn’t it a little odd that he’s never had a serious relationship in all of that time?”

“Sure, but he also seems to like to play the field. Besides, you know how creepy he can be. And in fairness, I didn’t have a serious relationship for a really long time either.”

“Yeah, but that was because of Aislyn, not just because you didn’t want to or you were busy. Do you think there’s some chick in Christian’s past that had the same effect on him? It’s hard to believe he would’ve never mentioned her to you, if that’s the case.”

“I really can’t imagine it either, but I guess it’s possible. It had to have been before I met him, though.”

“Why? Amanda wasn’t before Elliott met you, and look how traumatic that experience was for him. And you didn’t know about her until after I did.”

Aaron turned his head to the side and nodded at her with his eyes. “Maybe I don’t know these people as well as I thought I did.”

She laughed. “I’m sure that’s not the case. What do you know about Christian before you met him?”

“Not much. He never talked about his past. He was in the Revolutionary War, obviously. He served with Washington and Hamilton at different times. After that, he was part of the same team as Hamilton and Burr until the duel. He was there when Alex came back. You know all of this as well as I do.”

“But that was like a hundred years before you met him, wasn’t it? He never mentioned what he was doing that whole time?”

“No, all I know was when I met him, he was part of the Philly team. He’d been working with them for a long time. Jordan transferred him to work with me in London because he felt I worked well with Christian.”

“Grandpa didn’t say you worked well together, only that you worked well with him?” Cadence thought the word choice was odd.

“I don’t think Christian works well with anyone,” Aaron admitted. “He never has.”

“So... maybe something happened before that, then. And maybe that’s what Cass saw.”

“When did she see this? While they were having coffee? Or afterward?”

Cadence shook her head. “I have no idea. Seems sis is keeping secrets, and while I can’t say I’ve always been one hundred percent honest with her, I don’t like this. She seems... different since the second round of serum, don’t you think?” Cadence hated to admit it out loud, but her sister’s disposition had changed since she injected herself with the second dose, not that she’d been an angel before then, but she seemed sneakier these days. And then there was the fact that she’d annihilated a teammate’s face.

“I didn’t want to say anything, but yeah, I do.” Aaron put his arm around her and pulled her against his shoulder, and Cadence snuggled up to his chest. “Maybe she’s a little more Vampire now than she was before. As long as she tells us everything she knows about what Christian’s up to without us having to get Heather to traipse around in her head, I’ll let it go.”

“She’s still the most valuable weapon we have against any sort of enemy,” Cadence reminded him. “Heather’s not up to speed yet.”

“I know. I’m sure Cassidy will do the right thing. I can’t imagine she’d lie in order to protect Christian, no matter what she saw in his head, especially if there’s a chance he could be in danger. And if he really did try to go after Daunator by himself, then he’s most definitely in danger.”

Cadence agreed, but she couldn’t think about Christian anymore, especially not now that her head was pressed in the crook of Aaron’s neck, and his scent started to interfere with her senses. Her hand was pressed against his chest, the perfectly chiseled chest she’d been staring at on the beach for the better part of two weeks. “Can we put all of this on hold until tomorrow and pretend we’re still on our honeymoon for one more night?” she asked, pulling back enough to look into his clear blue eyes.

He answered her with a kiss, and for the first time since she’d boarded the plane, Cadence wished she hadn’t left Fiji early.

***

Cassidy was growing frustrated with Christian. He’d been in that hole so long now, his brain had to be turning to mush. Even after he’d told her about the attack, how he’d tried to blow Daunator up with one of his grenades, and it hadn’t done a thing to the monster, he still refused to let her tell anyone he was down there.

She decided to try again. It had been a couple of hours since she’d contacted him. She’d spent a lot of that time talking to Eliza, but since the Guardian said she didn’t want her help anymore, now that Aaron and Cadence were back and might be upset about the entire situation, the hunt had fallen through. The team hadn’t been able to find the mark and had gone back to regroup.

Despite her decision to leave Cassidy out of it from now on, Eliza had been very chatty, and Cassidy had had to cut her off so that she could work on the other assignments Aaron had given her. She was used to having the bulk of the research now, since she could handle it a lot better than most of the other team members, but it still ate up a lot of her time. She’d started going through the list of missing persons, trying to establish if any of them were still alive. She’d found a few Vampires, but a lot of them seemed to be out there somewhere, just completely without thoughts of their own. It was such a strange state of mind, Cassidy was having trouble explaining it, even to herself. It was like a humming noise was coming from all of their minds, nothing purposeful or decipherable, sort of like a radio station that was only in tune enough to omit a buzzing noise, but not even enough to get the white noise sound.

The list was organized from the person who’d been reported missing first up to the most recent, in each of the areas, and Cassidy had decided to start from the oldest to the newest, but perhaps that hadn’t been the best strategy. She’d decided to try one of the more recent victims, but first she wanted to check in on her idiot teammate.

“Christian, you still okay?”

She caught the lyrics of a song she didn’t recognize. “Let’s defend it with the sword, or die with the braves. For we had better die in freedom than live and be slaves.”

“Christian? Can you hear me?”

“Oh, hi, mind wanderer. Are you back to tell me you’ve turned me in?”

“No, I’m back to make sure you’re still alive. Seeing as though you are, I guess I’ll go.”

“Wait, Cassidy.”

She did, though he didn’t continue with his thought. Blowing out a breath that stirred the hair on her forehead, she asked, “What do you want?”

“Listen, uh, he said... he said you guys should try to come and save me. If you do, he’ll have what he wants. So... don’t do that, okay? I mean, I know your sister should be back soon. Don’t let her come over here until after I figure out how to kill him.”

Cassidy could understand now why Christian hadn’t wanted them to rescue him once he found out even the grenades wouldn’t work. “She’s back already, Christian. They’ve been trying to contact you. I lied the best I could, but I won’t be able to cover it up if they ask me to contact you telepathically. I think they might even be a little suspicious of me. They might ask Heather. She can do it, too, you know? She can track you down and tell them where you are.”

“Why are they suspicious? They should be able to see my IAC activity in Hawaii.”

“Because when Aaron tried to get you, he couldn’t. You set it so that he couldn’t turn it on, remember?”

“Yeah, but... I’m on vacation.”

“But he should be able to make you talk to him. You didn’t think this through very well, bruh. Not very well at all. And now you’re stuck in a damn hole where your IAC isn’t showing up at all. We’re going to have to come and get you out. Nothing you try is going to work on Daunator. You know that.”

His thoughts were blank for several minutes, enough time that Cassidy thought maybe he’d just decided he wasn’t going to talk to her anymore. Finally, he said, “Did your sister tell you what I said to her, right after you ripped my face off?”

Cassidy had no idea what he was talking about. “No.”

“Good.”

“What did you say?”

“It doesn’t matter. She just can’t come over here, all right. I need you to keep her there.”

“Christian... I can jump a little deeper into your head and find it.”

“But you won’t because you’re not a bitch, right?”

Cassidy didn’t quite think reading people’s minds made her a bitch, but she couldn’t argue with the sentiment. “Will you at least tell me who that other girl is? The one with the lavender eyes?”

“No. Stay out of my head, Findley.”

“Christian, I’m trying to help you....”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, womanchild, but not everyone is as lucky as you and your brawny boyfriend, okay? Not everyone has the kind of love that makes you wanna get up in the morning just so you can hold hands, eat sugar cookies, and stare into each other’s eyes, all right?”

“What the crap?” Cassidy muttered aloud to herself. Who did those things? “Christian, my life isn’t perfect. Brandon dumped me a couple of days ago, okay?”

“Bullshit. That’s just a lie on your part to get me to talk to you.”

“It’s not. I wouldn’t lie about that. He... he said he thought I needed more space, to get myself together. I didn’t tell him I was helping you, though he did know I’ve been working with Eliza. Anyway, if that girl hurt you, I get it. I feel like someone jabbed a knife into my heart.”