Elliott tried not to let Cassidy’s concerns sound trivial to him. The fact of the matter was, he wasn’t used to working with someone who could infiltrate the enemies’ minds. For all he knew, Vampires had been saying the same thing for thousands of years, and none of the good guys ever knew it until now. “I’m sure it will be a priority as soon as your sister returns, Cass. But there really isn’t too much we can do right now.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he turned his head to look at her. “You cannot possibly be thinking about going over there on your own, are you?”

“No.” Her answer came quickly, too quickly, and he could sense that the thought had at least crossed her mind. If she’d gone any further than that, like actually booking a ticket or packing her suitcase, he wouldn’t be too horribly surprised, unfortunately. Cassidy wasn’t exactly known for taking no for an answer.

Stopping in his tracks, Elliott turned to look at her. “Cassidy Elizabeth, so help me God, if you do anything of the sort, I swear I will fly over there and track you down myself, and when I do, it will not be pretty! The last thing I wanna do is call your sister during the one vacation she’s taken since she started, the first one Aaron has taken in centuries, to tell them that our campus runaway is on the lam again. Don’t you dare!”

Her eyes were practically bulging out of her head as she stared back at him. “I told you, I’m not!”

“Good! You better not be!”

“You’re not my dad, Elliott!”

“Okay, well, if I go have a chat with Mr. Findley, I’m sure he’d say the same thing.”

Cassidy let out a growl and darted across the street toward the apartment building faster than Elliott’s eyes could even track her, leaving him shaking his head and thankful he’d never had a daughter.

The scent of cigarette smoke and the idea that he wasn’t alone had him slowly turning his head toward the shadows next to the building they’d all just emptied out of. Elliott tried not to audibly sigh in discontent as he realized it was the one person in the world he least wanted to see—except for maybe Daunator, or Aurora. “You enjoyin’ the show, Major Henry?”

Christian stamped out his cigarette butt and then picked it up before flinging it into a garbage can at least a hundred yards away. “Not really.”

“Good.” Elliott turned to walk away, wondering what had driven Christian to smoke this time. He couldn’t remember for certain when the last time he’d seen the Guardian light up might’ve been, but he thought it was the night Cadence had tracked down and ended that Vampire Sam had been after, which hadn’t been a very good night for any of them.

“She’s right, you know? By waiting, we’re just making things worse for all of us.”

He paused for a moment to turn and glare in Christian’s direction. “So you think we should just head on over there, too? Try to track down Daunator and destroy him without our Leaders?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean she’s wrong.”

“I don’t recall ever telling her she was wrong, only that there isn’t anything we can do about it. For all we know, Daunator really can kill Guardians, and if that’s the case, we’d be really stupid to go in half-baked with any sort of plan not involving Aaron’s brain.”

Christian’s hands were pushed deep into the pockets of his jeans, and his head was tilted down toward the sidewalk, as if there were something interesting in the cracks. “Couldn’t kill you,” he muttered.

A bushy eyebrow raised over one green eye. “Tell that to Alex.”

“That was different. That was another dimension.”

“Says the guy who goes from it’s not possible for a Guardian to kill a Hunter, to okay maybe it is. Nothing’s wrong with my IACs, okay maybe they’re vulnerable after all. Why don’t you ever just admit you don’t know shit?”

“I don’t know shit. But I know Daunator’s going to make Dracula look like Tinkerbell.”

Elliott smirked, thinking of his team blasting the fairy out of the air with their Glocks. “I thought you said you didn’t know about Daunator.”

“I did say that. Maybe I don’t. Maybe I do. Maybe I know more than anyone else.”

“Oh? You been readin’ up on him? Like you did the Blood Moon Portal?” So far, in the week or so since Elliott had come out of the portal, he’d managed not to break Major Henry’s neck over the fact that he could’ve prevented any of them from being sent to that hellhole.

“Something like that. I already told you I’m sorry I lied to Aaron.”

“Yes, I got your blanket apology letter. It was quite meaningful. I’ll be sure to mention it to Alex the next time I die.” Elliott started to walk away, no longer willing to listen to the rambling of what he could only consider a crazy person.

“What do I need to do to show you I’m sorry? I took Hines into the portal myself. What else can I do?”

“I don’t know, Henry. Maybe find a firing squad of Hunters trained as sharpshooters and volunteer for target practice?” Shaking his head, Elliott headed for the apartment building, wishing Aaron would just transfer Christian once and for all. But his friend would never do that because he felt sorry for the weirdo.

He pushed through the lobby door, not bothering to wave at Juan Diego who was terrified of him anyway, and called the elevator, praying the kids were hanging out in someone else’s apartment this evening. All he wanted to do was chill in front of the TV, eat that Chinese food, and maybe call Amanda later just to hear her voice. He prayed he wouldn’t spend the night trying to talk Cassidy out of leaving the country on her own.