“Cassidy, I’m serious. Believe me, you’ll be glad to hear it. But I won’t tell you at all if I can’t trust you, and even though I know you hate me more than you hate Daunator himself, I’m serious. I want your help. I need your help. But I’ll manage without it.”
It occurred to her that she could just jump into his head and find out whatever it was without promising anything, but she didn’t do that. Instead, she repeated her question. “What is it?”
He hesitated again, his eyes shifting up and down a few times, before he finally said, “I think I want to go after him.”
“Great!” Cassidy said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “You’ll help me convince the others?”
Before she even finished the statement, he was already shaking his head. “No, I mean, alone. I think I want to go after him by myself.”
The shock of it took a moment to sink in. How could he possibly think he could take Daunator on by himself? “What? You can’t be serious!”
“I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” Confused, Cassidy stared at him for a long moment, her forehead crinkled. “It’s a.... You know, Airplane?” Waving his hand at her, he continued, “Anyway, Cass, I think I want to go find him myself, see if I can destroy him without having to get anyone else involved. It’s a long-shot, but I’ve got some new weapons I want to try out. If I can’t do it, maybe I can at least keep him busy for a while. When Cadence and Aaron get back, they could get a team together, and we could all attack with whatever knowledge I bring back.”
“Yeah, or he could kill you.”
“I don’t think he can do that.”
“So you’ve said! But Schmitz would disagree, and he knows a lot more about Daunator than you do,” she countered.
“No, he doesn’t.”
“See! There you go again, thinking you’re smarter than everyone else! You didn’t even think of him until Schmitz came into the meeting that time, and even then, you couldn’t tell us anything the rest of us couldn’t have accessed in some Vampire Wikipedia.”
“Cassidy, I can understand why you’d think that, but believe me, I know Daunator better than anyone else.”
There was something about his eyes that told her he wasn’t bluffing. “And you know he can’t kill you?”
“I’m pretty sure.” He shrugged. “Does it matter—I mean, to you?”
“No.” She swallowed hard, feeling meaner than she ever had in her entire life and also knowing what she said wasn’t true. “What do you want to know?”
“Anything and everything you can tell me. If you’re able to access the Vampires he’s recently turned, you must have information about him, what he’s capable of, precisely where he might be, anything that might let me know his weaknesses.”
Cassidy mulled that over. “For the most part, he hasn’t been doing the turning himself, I don’t think. When I jump into one of these newborns’ heads, I see one of a few other Vampires as their parents, not Daunator himself. I think he has minions, bloodsuckers he sends out to do his dirty work.”
“That’s good to know. Do you think it’s just two or three or could there be more? Are they housed with him?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I haven’t done too much digging because everyone seems to think we shouldn’t go.”
“How long would it take you to find out?”
She shrugged. “It depends. Some people’s minds are more accessible than others.”
“But he’s not using a shield or anything to block you, like Holland did, is he?”
“No, but he doesn’t really need it. Whenever I try to get into his mind, it’s like a black wall, like a cave deep in the ground or something. I can’t actually get through any of it to access his thoughts or memories. Even if I did, he would see me coming. That could be dangerous.”
Christian nodded as if he already knew that, or at least it made sense to him. “All right. Just get me as much info as you can. I haven’t decided for sure if I’m leaving, but if I do, I’m going to be completely MIA. The only way you’ll be able to contact me is through telepathy.”
“What about your IAC?” Cassidy asked. “Aaron can force it on.”
He chuckled. “Do you honestly think I’d be stupid enough to put something in my eye that anyone else could track without having a way to disable it?” He started toward the door.
“But I thought only Aaron’s was designed that way.”
Christian shook his head as he pulled the door open. “If I could build one for him, I could build one for me.”
“What about Hannah? Won’t she wonder where you are?”
“I’ve got something like two thousand vacation days saved up. I think I’ll just tell her I’m taking a couple of those.”
“We get vacation days?” Cassidy shook her head to clear it. “Okay, but why would she think you’d need them now if you haven’t taken any in like a decade?”
“At least...” he muttered. “Because... I feel so bad about the entire Blood Moon Portal fiasco I need a few days to chill and recuperate, that’s all.”
She folded her arms. “Yeah right, like you feel bad at all.”
He cocked his head to the side and looked at her for a moment, and Cassidy felt like a brat for being so rude. “I guess there’s only one way to know for sure.” He turned and walked away from her, and Cassidy stepped back inside of her apartment, letting the door close behind him. If he did this, it would be a huge risk, especially if Daunator could kill Guardians. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Part of her wanted to go tell Hannah immediately; the rest of her wanted to give Christian a chance. He was a grown man, after all, capable of making his own decisions, and if no one else was willing to go after the monster before his power and strength was too much for them, at least Christian was willing to give it a try. She’d get him the information he’d requested and then let him make a decision. Unlike the man in question, she’d make sure her information was as complete as possible. If he was walking into a trap that she could detect, she’d let him know. Something told her it wouldn’t change his mind, though.
