“I know. That’s what I said to him. But he knew I was the only one who could do what he needed to be done. Except for Heather, but she wouldn’t be as reliable, and there was a chance she wouldn’t want to do it anyway. For some reason, he also thought I’d be less likely to tell my sister or Aaron.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I know. But he knew how desperate I was to do something to stop Daunator, so when he told me his plan, I decided to go along with it.”
“Daunator?” Brandon echoed, leaning forward slightly, his forehead wrinkling. “What do you mean?”
“Christian went after Daunator. By himself. He needed me to help him with some information about who might be working with Daunator and to try to help him find the monster. He also wanted me to get into Daunator’s head, but I can’t really do that. Anyway, Christian swore me to secrecy because he didn’t want anyone to know what he was up to.” She stopped talking, not sure if he was following or not. The look on his face hadn’t changed since he’d asked her what she meant.
It took Brandon a few long moments to ask, “You were helping Christian?”
“I am helping Christian. And I know that my sister knows I’ve been helping him, but I haven’t told her I know where he is yet. She knows I know where he is. And she probably knows where he is because I think she was going to have Heather find him. But... yeah, I agreed to help him. I wanted to be involved.” He was nodding slowly, and she could’ve stopped there. “But that’s not the only reason why.”
Brandon’s head shifted to the left so that it was crooked. He peered at her intently, but his mouth didn’t move. She could only imagine where his mind might be going, and the thought made her sick to her stomach.
“Seriously, Brandon. It’s Christian.”
“Right. What is it then?”
His head was still sideways but at least he didn’t seem to think she had romantic feelings for the man who infuriated her anymore. “I accidentally got in his head, and I saw this woman.... She was beautiful. But his feelings for her were so... messed up. Like he loved her and hated her. I didn’t probe deeply because I wasn’t trying to get information out of him. I’ve asked him a few times about her, but he won’t say. All I know is, I think she’s the reason he’s such a psycho.”
“Sounds tragic,” Brandon muttered. He leaned back on the couch. “What does that have to do with helping him, though?”
“I’m not sure. It’s related to Daunator in a way I can’t quite figure out. The other night, before he left, I had coffee with Christian...”
“I know.”
Now it was her turn to stare, wordlessly.
“I didn’t mean to see you, but I did. I wasn’t spying on you or anything,” he clarified.
She’d have to accept that. “Anyway... he was saying all kinds of weird shit about how he knows Daunator better than anyone, and he thinks Daunator came through the Blue Moon Portal. I think it’s all related somehow, but I can’t piece it together. Christian... is an enigma. And for the most part, I’ve just tried to ignore him, but now, I’ve sort of started to try to put him together. For some reason, he thinks Daunator can’t kill him.”
“Yeah, well, Christian is a Guardian, and Daunator is a Vampire, so why should he be able to?”
“You remember what Schmitz said, though, right? That he’d heard Daunator could kill anyone?”
“I remember that, but Schmitz isn’t exactly the most normal person I’ve ever met.”
“No, I realize that. But... when I asked Christian if he just didn’t think that Daunator could kill any Guardians or just not him, he differentiated his answer. Of course, he said he didn’t think Daunator could kill Guardians, but he seemed to be saying, even if the Vampire had figured out how to kill Guardians, he couldn’t kill Christian.”
Brandon looked as lost as Cassidy felt. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. But I hope he’s right because he’s in a world of hurt right now. None of his weapons are working on the monster, and Daunator has him stuck in a literal hole in the ground, deep inside the mountain. And he’s not the only one. There are a whole bunch of those missing people there, too. Daunator’s turning them into those black creatures Eliza fought off the other night.” She could only assume he’d seen the video that was going around.
Once again, Brandon was lost. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Cass. The last few days, my dad’s been about the only person I’ve talked to, and it hasn’t been about work. I had only been at Dax’s for a few minutes when I heard you in the hallway.”
“Why is that?” Cass was worried. She’d just assumed he’d been up to his usual routine.
Brandon shrugged. “I didn’t want to hog our friends, and I didn’t want to make them choose between us.”
A small smile pulled up at the corners of her mouth. “Well, Monica is my sister.”
The sound of his chuckle melted her heart a little more than she wanted to admit, even to herself. “You don’t look like Ross Geller.”
Cassidy reached up and scrunched the hair above her forehead. “My hair isn’t crunchy either.”
He laughed again, and she joined in, glad a sitcom, mostly from before they were born, could give them something to bond over. “Thank you for filling me in, Cass. It sounds like I’m missing out on a lot of information still, but at least I know what you’ve been up to. It must’ve been stressful for you, trying to keep Christian’s secret when you knew it would be better for both of you if you got him some help. I can imagine that must’ve been very distracting.”
“It was, Brandon, but if I’m going to be completely honest with you, I have to say, that wasn’t the only problem.” She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, watching his face morph again. The nerves that had been there when she first spotted him in the hallway were back. If she knew what was good for her, she would’ve stopped talking after she agreed with him, but clearing the air completely seemed like a better idea than keeping everything bottled inside.
“There’s more?” he asked, slowly. The color slowly drained from his face.
Once again, the right words evaded her. She looked around the room for a minute, not sure why tears were suddenly stinging her eyes, but they were there just the same. She pulled her bottle of water up off the floor with her powers and took a drink. It didn’t help. How could she find the words to express herself to Brandon when she couldn’t even articulate how she was feeling to herself?
