Cassidy’s IAC flickered, bringing her out of her head and back to the room, which was just as well. The last thing Christian needed was for Cassidy to tip Daunator off. She actually had two messages, one from Eliza, which would’ve been weird under any other circumstances, and one from Brandon, whom she’d been avoiding the last few days. He’d asked to talk to her the day before yesterday, but she’d blown him off completely, and then yesterday, she’d gone over to Lucy’s to hang out with everyone but hadn’t really said much to him. Eventually, she’d get over their fight, but right now, she wasn’t in the mood to talk about her feelings.
“I’m busy. Check in later,” she said really quickly to Brandon and then she responded to Eliza. “What’s up?”
“Hey. Sorry to bother you. We’re headed into Honey’s prime territory, and I was just wondering if you happen to have any idea where she might be. You can do that, can’t you? Leap into people’s brains and know where they are?”
“Yeah, usually. Sometimes,” Cassidy replied, not exactly sure who all the Guardian was getting her information from. If it was just Christian, that was one thing, but if other people were talking about her, that was just plain weird. And it hadn’t escaped her memory that Eliza had been ready to pull the trigger when Zabrina had her mouth wide open, ready to rip her fangs through Cassidy’s throat.
“Well, if you could get us a location within a few blocks, that would be great. If you can keep me apprised of exactly where she’s at, that would be even better.”
Cassidy sighed. One of the down parts of agreeing to work with one person she couldn’t stand was having to work with another person she couldn’t stand. “Give me a sec.” She closed her eyes and reached out for Honey. She’d spent a little bit of time in the Vampire’s head recently, but most of the information she’d supplied to Christian about her had come from her victims, not the Vampire herself. She hoped she’d be able to help Eliza take her down, though, because this woman had turned enough people into Vampires lately, just by herself, that Daunator would’ve amassed an army by the time Aaron and Cadence finally got home in a few days and made their way to Eastern Europe, if they even went.
It didn’t take her long to find the Vampire. She was where Cassidy expected her to be, in a club in one of the shadier parts of Budapest, trying to pick up a guy and having lots of luck. Several were hanging on her every word, buying her drinks, laughing at everything that came out of her mouth. Cassidy had no idea what time it was there, but she supposed Eliza would know how many hours she might have to get her team into position before Honey left.
She couldn’t stay in the bloodsucker’s brain long because she didn’t want to tip her off. As far as Cassidy could tell, she hadn’t noticed the infiltration because she’d been too busy flirting, but she got out quickly, leaping into the mind of the man across from Honey who was human, for the moment. A banker who was supposed to be playing cards at his friend’s house, not at a bar, and not with this woman while his overly-tired wife was at home with their three children, Daven seemed cheerful on the outside, but inside of his mind, he was afraid his wife would kill him and wondering if he should take a chance on the tall blonde or not. “Don’t do it!” Cassidy shouted into his head.
Honey’s face changed. She asked a question in Hungarian, and Daven answered with a nod. His expression must’ve shifted when he heard Cassidy’s voice in his head. He would likely assume it was his conscious speaking up, but just to be sure, she leapt to someone else, another man on the outskirts of the conversation. It was too hard to stay in the head of someone who would likely be Honey’s victim, and if she warned too many of them, Eliza would be out of luck. Honey would give up and move on.
She was just looking for the name of the club and finally saw it on this guy’s cocktail napkin. It was something in Hungarian, something she couldn’t read, so she took a snapshot of the napkin and sent it to Eliza, along with a few hasty sentences about what Honey was up to. “Be careful. If she turns a bunch of these guys before you get there, you’ll have more than just her to contend with.”
“We’re pretty sure she has a batch from the last several nights incubating somewhere,” Eliza replied. “Thanks, Cassidy. I appreciate it.”
“Sure.” There really wasn’t much else to say, except for maybe to tell her she wasn’t forgiven for being a horrible bitch of a friend and almost ruining her sister’s life, not to mention working with the traitors who killed Elliott.
“You know, I’m happy to tell my boss you’re the one giving me the information if you want. I just didn’t know if you wanted anyone over there to know you’ve been helping us.”
“No, don’t do that,” Cassidy said quickly. “I don’t need anyone to know. You can take the credit. It’s fine.”
“Okay. Thanks again.”
“Yep.” Cassidy was happy to get Eliza out of her head, but she wasn’t in such a hurry to answer the banging on her door. She was aware that it was Brandon this time, not Christian, like the other day, but she didn’t think it was necessary to knock her door down.
“I’m coming!” she shouted, not hurrying her steps as she shuffled across the living room in her socks.
She opened the door to a bouquet of red roses. “Hi.”
Pushing the flowers down so she could see his face better, she asked, “What are these?”
“Flowers. Roses. Red ones. You know, ‘cause I love you.”
“I know that. But why are you giving them to me now?”
“I thought maybe we could go do something tonight, maybe watch a movie in a theater, or go to dinner.”
Checking the time, Cassidy saw that it was already 9:00 in the evening. “Isn’t it a little late for that?”
“Well, maybe. We could go tomorrow, I guess. I know it’s almost your curfew, But you wouldn’t answer my IAC messages....”
“I did answer you.”
“But I think we should talk, and then after we clear the air, we should go do something fun.” He shrugged like he had no control over his own shoulders.
“Not tonight, Brandon. I’m super busy right now.”
“Busy? With what? There aren’t any hunts going on.”
“Actually, there is one about to start in a few minutes, and I need to sit in on it.”
His face scrunched up like he wasn’t sure whether or not to believe her. “Where?”
“In the forbidden land, the place we shall not speak of.”
“The Czech Republic?”
“Close. Hungary. So... I’m sorry, but I need to be ready in case they need me.”
“Why in the world would you be helping the team in Eastern Europe, Cass? Did your sister tell you to do that?”
“No, but someone asked me for my help, someone who is aware of the problem over there, and so I offered to give it to them. So... if you don’t mind....”
Brandon stared at her for a long moment, and Cassidy could tell by his expression that he was hurt. He had a right to feel that way. She hadn’t exactly been kind lately. “Okay, Cass. If that’s what you want....”
“That’s what I need right now, Brandon.” She tried to make her voice sound more gentle, more understanding, but she wasn’t sure it came across that way to him.
“Okay. So... listen then... uh, maybe we should take a break. You know, just until you, uh, get caught up with everything. Or until you get things figured out.”
“A break?” Cassidy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her eyebrows were high and her mouth hinged open after she’d finished the question.
“Yeah. I don’t want to keep bothering you when you’re busy. You know where I’m at when you’re ready to talk.”
Cassidy stared into his eyes and thought she might see tears there, but if so, he was doing a good job of hiding them. “Okay.”
He nodded, looked at the flowers he was still holding, and thrust them at her again. Cassidy took them, not sure what else she could do. With his hands in his jeans pockets, Brandon turned to go.
“Brandon!”
He pivoted on one heel, his eyes wide with question marks.
“You mean like a break-break, right? Not like a... frozen yogurt break?”
With a slow nod, he replied, “Yes, I mean like a real ‘we were on a break’ break.’”
Cassidy’s head followed along with his, glad he was using the same episode of Friends to communicate his meaning so that neither one of them had to say what all of this really meant. “’Kay.”
“’Kay.”
He turned around to leave again, and Cassidy pulled herself back inside of her apartment and closed the door wondering what in the world had just happened.
