We had our meeting in a library upstairs, which was way cooler than either of the conference rooms we had back in KC. We were all sitting on plush, velvet couches, rather than hard wooden chairs. It smelled like old books and fresh flowers, and I might’ve actually fallen asleep on Brandon’s shoulder if I wasn’t so worried about whatever it was going on in my gut. Not that the meeting was boring or anything; it was just most of it didn’t really pertain to me because I wouldn’t be going along.
From what I ascertained, Eidolon Festivals are pretty simple to work. You just stand around for the most part. If you see a Vampire doing something you think is sketchy, then you calmly approach and investigate the situation. Don’t assume any harm was intended until you find out for sure. That’s basically it. The thing would start at 2:00 and last until sunrise, so it wasn’t even that long. The Guardians would be headed out around 1:00 just to make sure they were all there and in position as the Vampires started to arrive, but Aaron said he’d heard from one of the locals that the place was basically set up already, so he didn’t even know if there would be any Vampires there when the team arrived.
All I needed to know was the timeline and that if something went wrong back here, we’d have an SUV available. That also meant that I needed to know how to get there, so I followed along with the directions on the map Aaron had given us through our IACs. It looked like it was pretty simple. Not that I can even legally drive. I guess I could levitate there if I had to. I probably wouldn’t need to follow a map for that, though.
Clearly, my mind was wandering. I didn’t even hear Aaron dismiss us, so I just kept sitting there as the others began to file out the door. Brandon squeezed my hand, “You okay?”
“Oh, yeah.” I gave him a half smile, coming back to reality. “Too bad I can’t drive.”
“Hey, you’ve been doing really well lately. I bet if you had to, you could manage.”
“You think?” He stood up and pulled me to my feet. Brandon had been giving me driving lessons recently, and I thought I was all right, but there was a difference between driving around the streets on campus and actually being out on the open road.
“Sure. If you can levitate a person, I think you can drive a car.”
“Those two things are not the same at all,” I laughed, following him back down the hallway to his room. I heard my sister tell Elliott she was going to go lay down for a while. It wasn’t even 10:00 yet, but she looked tired, and she had a lot on her mind. I waved at her and told her I’d be in their room if she needed me, not that I was more than a thought away.
We sat on the floor and watched a little bit of The Goonies, but my mind was elsewhere. Brandon would be leaving in a few hours, which should’ve been fine. We don’t have to be together every hour of every day, but that unsettled feeling wouldn’t go away, and I think he felt it, too.
Elliott was in and out, getting his weapons ready and conferring with other team members. Aaron came in, too, and they had a quiet conversation over by the window about how much ammo to bring. Aaron didn’t seem to think they’d need too much, but Elliott told him that Alex was planning on bringing a lot. I almost laughed but stopped myself since I was eavesdropping. Alex is one of those people who is always way too prepared.
I thought maybe I should go down and say goodbye to him. I hadn’t talked to him much at all that day. In fact, it had been a couple of days since we had a meaningful conversation. We’d run into each other at the little shop downstairs while I was grabbing a carton of almond milk and he was trying to decipher why the world needed so many varieties of candy bars—not that he was even buying one. He looks at things differently than most people.
He asked me if I wanted to grab a tea with him next door, and I did, even though that meant I couldn’t take my milk right then. We chatted for about an hour, and he told me all about his family, something he doesn’t usually like to talk about since they’re all dead. I know he misses his wife, Betsy, something awful. His son, too. When our cups were empty, he told me I reminded him a lot of his late wife, which was a little awkward, because I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just smiled and said thanks and left.
I hoped he didn’t think I thought that was supposed to mean something. I mean, obviously, I know that it doesn’t. We’re just friends. He knows Brandon is my boyfriend and asks about him every time I see him. And Alex isn’t even planning to be around much longer, once we get Holland. If the formula Dr. Morrow and Christian have worked out to change Guardians back into humans so they can die will work on Alex, he’ll take it sooner rather than later. I don’t think he’s planning on killing himself or anything, but I don’t think he’ll go out of his way to keep himself alive either. No, Alex is on an exit plan. So it’s stupid of me to even think about trying to decipher what his comment might’ve meant other than a compliment.
I didn’t go down to his room. Instead, I fell asleep on Brandon’s shoulder until around 12:30 when he had to get up to do a few things. I couldn’t remember dreaming anything, but that unsettled feeling had grown, and I was about ten seconds from begging him to stay. He didn’t have to go, after all. It wasn’t like he needed an observation or the festival couldn’t go on without him.