Jonah fastened my seat belt for me and I wriggled the iPhone free; still no messages. My connection to Gabriel was still present but like a horizon you moved away from—it was becoming a tiny dot in the distance. It seemed that the farther apart we were, the weaker our connection became. I couldn’t feel him near my invisible tunnel and I decided that the very fact he had handed me my phone meant he wouldn’t be able to meet me in my mind. Apparently that little trick didn’t work long distance, at least not properly.
For the first time in what felt a very long while, my thoughts were my own again. It felt desperately lonely.
“You gotta switch that off, we’ll be on the move soon.” Jonah took my rejected phone and handed it back to me; the screen turned black. “Cessie—”
I cut him off. “Just … just hold me, please.” I snuggled my face into his chest and obediently he slid his arm behind me. I got away with my silent sobs, but my chest-jerking gave me away.
“Shhhh, beautiful.”
I fell asleep nuzzled into Jonah. Bizarrely, on this frosty winter night, he was the only thing that would keep my soul warm.
* * *
HE WOKE ME AS THE PLANE came into a bumpy landing, hitting the tarmac and bouncing up and down before coming to a complete stop. I pawed my tired eyes with curled fists and reluctantly peeled myself from Jonah’s chest.
“Did you get some rest?”
“Don’t sleep, remember,” he said. He smiled a sweet, sincere smile that put me at ease.
“Right. Thanks for, well, you know…” I offered, unbuckling my seat belt.
Ruadhan and Brooke waited for the seats to empty before finding us and we traipsed down the aisle, the flight attendant wishing us a pleasant stay as we made our way down the steps. Brooke attached herself to Jonah, so I held back and joined Ruadhan.
“We’ll be out of here in ten minutes, it’s a shed of an airport. I’ve got a rental waiting for us. We’ll be in Neylis in less than an hour and a half.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that the French security might have a problem with my passport. Jonah and Brooke had gone through no issues with theirs, but when I stepped up to the window the old French woman with graying hair eyed my passport and me for a prolonged period of time.
She called over another staff member, who looked me up and down, at which point Ruadhan stepped in. When her tone didn’t respond positively I was rendered speechless: I witnessed him capture her stare, speaking extremely slowly in her native tongue. She then nodded, repeating what he’d said, and signaled for me to move on. The wrinkled lines of her crow’s feet ironed out as she moved on to the next foreigner.
“What did you do to her?” I whispered, pacing quickly to the baggage claim.
“Vampire ability, the power of influence … One of the few traits we have in common with our Angel friend.”
“What was wrong with my passport?” I asked, taking it from Ruadhan’s large hand and dropping it into the top of my backpack. I couldn’t remember how I had obtained it, sometime in a life gone by. Of course, it was fraudulent.
“Some confusion over your photo, she didn’t think you were the same person. I told her … young folk dye their hair, wear contact lenses and whatnot.” He rushed over to the conveyor belt, grabbing the first of Brooke’s suitcases coming through and chucking it to Jonah.
I bowed my head, confused; I looked the same as my photo. I didn’t have long to ponder on the mistake; Ruadhan was like a bat out of Hell taking my hand and dragging me to the waiting car. In exchange for a credit card swipe, Ruadhan received the keys to a matte black sedan. A few moments later, a bright yellow bumblebee-striped Mini Cooper convertible appeared.
Brooke dashed from the entrance to swipe the keys out of the young lad’s hand with an extended smile. “Come on, Cessie, you can ride with me!”
Obediently I stepped forward, but Ruadhan’s long arm moved over my chest, yanking me back. “No, the little love is with me. You take Jonah and follow. Keep your eyes on your mirrors, make sure no one’s behind you that shouldn’t be.”
Her face soured. “Ruadhan, I apologized. I won’t hurt her, freakin’ hell, you can’t tell everyone what to do!”
Ruadhan didn’t grace her with a reply.
As Jonah found his way to the car, suitcases in tow, she stopped complaining. Riding alone with Jonah wouldn’t be so terrible after all.
I opened the door and Ruadhan chuckled under his breath. “Other door, love, they drive on the wrong side of the road here, you know.”
“It’s the right side!” Brooke shouted at him, deliberately emphasizing her American accent.
I slammed the door shut.
“You ready?” Ruadhan asked.
I nodded as he pulled away from the curb, switching his lights on. The clock on the dashboard informed me that it was 6:27 a.m., and I found my thoughts wandering back to Gabriel. I switched on my phone and waited to see if any messages would load. They didn’t.
“He’ll be halfway over the Atlantic by now, he won’t be able to call you yet.” Ruadhan tilted his head in my direction as if he were reading my mind.
“Oh … Do you know when he’ll be back?”
“When he’s found who he needs to find and he knows what he needs to know.” Shrugging, Ruadhan circled several roundabouts, finally hitting a long stretch of road. I peered out at the side mirror to check that the Cooper was following us. Sure enough, they were there.
Ruadhan broke the silence between us. “I need you to keep your distance from Jonah.”
I let his words drift between us before I replied. “Says who, you or Gabriel?” Snuggling deeper into the seat, I rubbed my coat sleeves.
“Gabriel has concerns.… Jonah’s unusually taken by you; he drank from you and Gabriel’s worried he might try again.”
“He had the opportunity two nights ago. He didn’t,” I argued.
“No, but if Brooke hadn’t walked in, well, who knows…”
What actually worried me more was that night, in the kitchen, I was on the verge of asking him to do so.
“He’s a Vampire, sweetheart. He, like the rest of us, feeds on blood. Sometimes that urge supersedes even the strongest of wills.”
“He’s not a monster! He risked himself to save me, and I for one am most grateful for that.”