After leaving Chambers' place, Chase headed home in the Mercedes, repeatedly trying to get in touch with Nathan or Avery.
"The man takes his parties seriously," Chase said as he drove, tapping the hang-up icon before leaving Nathan another message. He still wasn't answering his phone, and neither was Avery. Chase had already left three messages and decided against leaving any more.
Not wanting to take any chances, he decided to crash their party. One way or another he had to tell them about Landcaster. The revelation that Landcaster had been trying to kill Avery all along was alarming—to say the least. It changed everything. And the fact that Avery and Nathan didn't know presented a huge problem. It was one thing for Chase to be in danger, it was quite another when it was Avery. And the fact that Landcaster was one of them was almost too much to comprehend.
Chase had no idea what would possess anyone to harm her, although in hindsight he wished that he saw the signs earlier. It had been her house where he had first seen Landcaster, and it was she that was shot—three times.
Chase cursed at the absurdity of trouble following him his entire life, only to wind up finding someone who didn't deserve it.
He had many reservations on showing up at their engagement party, but if Avery could be targeted again then there was no question what he had to do. Of course, it would be awkward seeing everyone again after already having said his goodbyes, but ensuring Avery's safety was all that mattered to him.
To hell with saving face.
Pulling into his driveway, Chase got out of the car, kicked the door closed, and hobbled into his house. He decided that if he was going to the party he might as well follow Dr. Chandrian's advice and go in style. He quickly showered and shaved, noticing that the stitching in his leg was getting progressively worse. Both the swelling and pain had increased, sending him well out of the land of denial. Gritting his teeth, he donned his best and only black suit, selecting a pale green tie with tiny black micro-grid squares. He put a little gel in his hair, quickly spiking it and messing it. Taking one last look in the mirror, he smirked at the color of his tie, wondering if he had truly lost his mind.
"Well, Chase, it's time to go to a party full of aliens," he said to his reflection. "Because your life hasn't been strange enough."
It took him longer to find directions to The Fugue than it did to get dressed. He got on his computer and looked at online maps of the city, just to get an idea of where this place was before trying to plug it into the Mercedes. First, he had the wrong spelling, sending him in circles as he searched and searched. Then when he finally found it, the route downtown confused him because of the one-way streets. He knew that a normal person would not have struggled with something so simple. But he was not normal, and managing even simple details like this had challenged him his entire life.
He counted himself lucky that he even remembered the name.
Fighting off a wave of nervousness, he took a deep breath and walked out of his house, locking his front door and stepping out into the cool night air. He climbed back into Cadence's car, pausing after closing the door to enjoy the vacuum of complete silence for a moment.
Despite the fact that Chase had done everything in his power to make a clean break from these people, events and circumstances continued to pull him to them like gravity. He was aware that Nathan and Cadence didn't care much for his company, but there was something that Chase liked about the Caelans. Throughout his life, people rarely accepted him. His father left when he was seven, his mother hated him, he had no close friends or family outside of Jay—and even Jay had been distancing himself. The Caelans represented something of a clean slate to Chase. They had little to no preconceived notions about him or his past, instead choosing to judge him on what they saw in the here and now, sometimes even giving the benefit of the doubt due to their trusting nature.
