“All righty now, tell me again. What the hell did them damn things look like?” Heather took a giant bite out of her bacon cheeseburger, and for a moment, Cassidy marveled at her skills.
“Uh, well, they were people, but they were completely jet black, like they’d been through a crisper. But they weren’t burned. I mean, they weren’t charred or anything. Just black. Except for their eyes. Those were red. And their clothes were weird. Some of them, anyway. Some of them looked like they were wearing clothes from a really long time ago, like villagers in an old movie or something. They crawled down the sides of the buildings, like spiders sort of. And they had claws. Maybe you should just jump into my head and then you could see for yourself.” She took a small bite out of the hot ham and cheese sandwich in front of her but she wasn’t really hungry.
“Okay, sounds good to me. Pull ‘em up.”
Cassidy felt a little odd knowing someone could access her thoughts so readily. She was used to being on the other end of that situation. But she pulled up a visual from Eliza’s hunt the night before so that Heather could see it. While she could’ve sent her the video, Eliza hadn’t okayed that, and she didn’t feel comfortable sharing other people’s footage without their permission. This way, it would basically stay put in her head, and Heather could just see it.
“Nope. Ain’t never seen nothin’ like that before,” Heather said quickly. “They do remind me a little of the critters in the portal. They was black, too, with red eyes. But they weren’t people.”
The similarities seemed like more than a coincidence to Cassidy, but she had no way of telling what in the world it might be that made these creatures resemble the demons in the portal. “Can you think of any way we might be able to figure out what they are?”
Heather had another large bite of burger in her mouth and was chewing, so Cassidy waited. “Hell, I don’t know. Catch one and dissect it? Did ya ask Christian? He might know. He seems to think he knows everything.”
“He’s on vacation,” Cassidy offered quickly before she added. “I have a feeling he wouldn’t really know either.” He didn’t. She was sure of that. She needed to check back in on him, though. It had been a few hours since she’d first found out he was in that hole, and she’d promised to drop in often. But she wasn’t exactly excited about speaking to him, especially since he didn’t seem to want any help.
“Well, I don’t rightly know. But I’m sure that the lady who sent you that’ll check in with Aaron as soon as he gets back. Maybe he’ll know.” She stuffed the last chunk of cheeseburger into her mouth and wiped it with a napkin before scrubbing off her hands and digging into the remainder of her fries. “You know, we didn’t have nothin’ like this back in my time. This here is the best meal I ever did eat.”
“You say that every time you eat fast food, Heather,” Cassidy laughed.
“Well, it sure is true this time. For certain.”
Cassidy took a sip of her drink and thought about what Heather had said—before the accolades to the sandwich shop’s cheeseburger. Eliza wouldn’t contact Aaron, but Mila probably would. If these creatures were not related to the issue with Christian, and the Hungary team was ready for them if they went on another hunt, would it really matter if it took a few days for them to ask Aaron if he knew what they were?
“All right. Thanks for your help.” Cassidy took another drink and then brushed her fingers off on a napkin.
“Ain’t ya gonna finish yer sandwich?”
“Ugh,” Cassidy looked at it. She’d only taken a couple of bites. “I’m not really hungry.”
Heather’s face took on the only semblance of sympathy the girl could ever find. “You upset about Brandon?”
“No. I mean—maybe. I guess.”
“Course you are. How could ya not be?” Heather was shaking her head. “Poor gal. Did he even give ya a reason fer breakin’ yer heart?”
Cassidy was shocked Heather even knew they’d broken up. She wondered what Brandon had been telling people. “We just decided that I was too distracted right now, and I need to figure a few things out. That’s all.”
“Uh huh.” Heather’s face betrayed the fact that she didn’t believe that. “I was so surprised to hear he’d broken up with you. You was about all he could talk about when we was in the portal together.”
That made Cassidy feel terrible. There was no way she could explain to Heather that Brandon hadn’t broken up with her because he didn’t love her anymore. Explaining would take words Cassidy couldn’t find. “I should probably go.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset ya.”
“You didn’t.”
“So ya ain’t upset about Brandon?”
“I didn’t say that. It’s just... it’s too hard to put into words, Heather.”
“All right. Well, I hope things work out fer ya. Y’all was a cute couple. I just loved the way he doted on ya. Made me feel like maybe there’s a good feller out there in the world for all of us after all.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Cassidy thought for a moment before she added, “Maybe there’s more than one.”
“Whatta ya mean?”
“Nothing. Never mind.” Cassidy had said too much, and if Heather decided to repeat any of it, she could end up making Brandon even more upset than he already was. “Thanks for your help, Heather.” She gathered up her trash and slid out of the booth.
“I weren’t much help, but yer welcome any time. Take care.”
“You, too.” Cassidy tossed her trash into one of the bins and walked out of the shop, lost in her thoughts. She rounded a corner and ran right into a very familiar chest.
They both quickly took a step back, as if they were kindergartners and thought the opposite sex had kooties. “Sorry,” Brandon muttered.
“Yeah, me, too.”
He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something else but closed it, so Cassidy made a wide circle around him and headed to the stairs that led up from the basement to the lobby of the trainee apartment building. Never in a million years would she have ever thought running into Brandon could be so unbelievably awkward. The entire situation made tears spring to her eyes. How had she gotten to a point where her best friend in the world didn’t even feel comfortable bumping into her?
She couldn’t let herself think about it, not at the moment anyway. She had work to do. With a deep breath, she headed back to her apartment, determined to do whatever she could to help Christian, whether he liked it or not.
