Chapter 5

“It’s not really different than that episode of Friends....” Brandon wagered, giving me a little more grace than I probably deserved. It was almost exactly the same.

“It doesn’t matter,” I huffed, folding my arms and unfolding them. “Why won’t anyone listen to what I’m trying to tell them? Something really bad is going on. These people are disappearing, and no one cares.”

Brandon rested his hand on my shoulder. “Calm down, Cass. They’ll listen. You just have to give them more than a couple of minutes to have time, that’s all.”

I was shaking my head and pulled away from him, stepping toward the door. Even if no one was going to listen to me, it wasn’t going to stop me from doing some more research. Thoughts of Havel and his wife came to mind. “Whatever. You don’t get it, Brandon. You haven’t seen what’s happening.” Granted, I hadn’t jumped directly into anyone’s head yet, but I could still understand how these people were feeling. People they loved were just gone—and no one seemed to care.

“I do get it, Cass. Just... why don’t we watch a movie or something and give Hannah or Aurora some time to finish what they’re doing?”

“All you ever want to do is watch movies!” My voice was a lot louder than I intended, but I felt like he was minimizing my concerns. “There are people out there who need our help.”

“Not nearly as many as there used to be,” he countered. “Besides, no one is going to do anything until your sister gets back anyway. They’ll want the bosses to say it’s okay.”

“Oh, so why even bother then?” I countered. “I’m gonna go.”

“Come on, Cass. Don’t be mad. That’s not what I meant. Of course you should bother. I guess I just don’t understand why you’re all worked up about this.”

“I guess I just have a tendency to overreact.” I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. He caught it before I could slam it in his face.

“I didn’t say that. Cassidy! Stop, why are you so mad at me?”

“If you don’t know....” I stopped mid-sentence. I sounded like an idiot. If he didn’t know, I wasn’t going to tell him—is that what I was about to say? “It doesn’t matter. I’m not mad. I’m just going back to my room to figure some things out.”

“Cass, just stay. I’ll help you with the research. I’ve hardly seen you the past few days.”

“What are you talking about? I was with you at Lucy’s last night.”

“Yeah, but....” It was Brandon’s turn to stop in the middle of his thought. “I just feel like... something’s different.”

I stared at him blankly, wanting to shout at him that a lot of things were different. The nagging in the back of my mind as to what they were, though, was something that wouldn’t protrude from my mouth. “Nothing is different.” Alex is dead. He was in love with me, but he’s gone. I shook my head to clear it. “I’ll see you later.”

“Cass? Cass!”

I was already walking away from him and would’ve made it to my apartment without even turning my head to see if Brandon was still staring after me if I hadn’t heard a door open to my right near the elevator. When I glanced over to see whose apartment it was, I noticed Brandon standing in the hall staring at the floor, rubbing the back of his neck, and felt like a witch.

“Everything okay, Cass?” Jamie asked as Brandon went back into his apartment.

Drawing a deep breath in through my nose, I turned my attention to the Healer. He looked genuinely concerned, though also a little perturbed. He was wearing gym shorts and a white T-shirt, and I honestly couldn’t remember ever seeing him dressed in anything that casual. I realized it was a Saturday afternoon, and since there was no hunt the night before and nothing going on that night, a lot of people might be home hanging out—everyone but Hannah and Aurora apparently.

“I’m fine,” I assured Jamie, wishing I hadn’t brought him to the door when he was obviously trying to chill. I assumed Ashley Stone, his girlfriend, was also in the apartment but didn’t bother to try to look past him. He was probably making her a fancy lunch or they were doing kickboxing together.... “Sorry.”

“It’s all right. You just seemed like something was bothering you, so I thought I’d make sure you didn’t need anything.”

“Actually....” It occurred to me that not only was Jamie also on the leadership team, he had a lot more sway with both Hannah and Aurora than Elliott did. “I might be able to use your help. If you have a minute.”

Jamie glanced over his shoulder back into his apartment. “Ashley’s taking a nap, so as long as you’re not planning on raising your voice at me, I guess so.”

“Sorry,” I muttered again, assuming that was his reason for coming out into the hallway in the first place, to make Brandon and I start acting like civilized human beings before his girlfriend was awoken by our antics.

“She’s not feeling too well today,” he further explained as I followed him into his living room, which was immaculately clean. I noticed a picture of his sister, Margie, who is a beast, on a table behind the couch and thought it was sweet that he keeps her picture next to an ancient one of his parents, even though they don’t get along very well.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Stomach bug?” I asked, taking the seat he offered on the couch.

“Something like that. She’ll be fine.”

That seemed odd to me, but I decided not to pry. I couldn’t imagine there was anything Jamie couldn’t heal now that he could shoot blue healing light out of his hands. Before I had a chance to try to figure out exactly how to ask for his help in getting an audience with the leadership team, he made it easy on me and asked, “So what is it? Everything all right?”