Evan looks up and makes eye contact with Griffin, who raises a brow in response. “Sorry, sorry. Not the time for me to grill you. Anyway, she gave me the address of the place they would sometimes stay and told me about an old barn they would go to when their uncle got sick of them hanging around. Her words, not mine.” I point at the address I hastily scrawled on the paper. “There are a few other places, but she said these were the best bets for finding him.”
“What’s this here?” Griffin points to the name Thomas. I even underlined it a few times.
“Riley told me to stay away from this guy, she almost seemed a little afraid of him.”
“Could be the alpha,” Evan surmises.
“Then he’s probably exactly who we need to see,” Griffin concludes, while staring across the table at Evan.
Evan’s lips pull back from his teeth, but I wouldn’t dare call it a smile, it’s far too sinister for that. It reminds me how intimidated I was by him the first time I saw him before he drove me up to the school.
He’s not armed with the gun on his hip the way he was that day, but I really can’t think of him as unarmed either. I’m reasonably sure he’s a shifter of some sort. Even more so now, considering he was the one talking about the aspects of pack life.
I bounce in my seat as we hit another pocket of turbulence. I go to flatten my palms on the table to feel more grounded, but I end up slapping my hand down on Evan’s forearm instead. My fingers curl over his arm as my other hand finds the edge of the table to hold onto.
I’d almost forgotten we were even on this little jet. “I’m usually not this bad.” I don’t mention to them I also usually pop a Xanax before flying, but I used my last two on the flight out here. I didn’t expect to need more so soon, or I would have already called my doctor. “We need seatbelts.”
“I got it.” Evan uses his fingers to gently pry my clawed grip from his arm. His big palm covers mine for a second before he reaches over and drags Griffin’s hand over, placing it on top of mine instead. Evan then spins my chair a half turn and crouches in front of me, reaching for both sides of my hips. “I know this thing has belts,” he mutters, as his eyes narrow while he searches.
“I can go back to my seat.” My words are rushed. My head is telling me I’m fine, that I just need to be rational, planes are actually the safest way to travel. But there’s no reasoning with the panic welling up inside me. Yet, I still have the presence of mind to feel embarrassed about how freaked out I am.
I feel the belt tighten around my waist and hear when the latch catches. “Maybe we’ll need to rethink you coming on pickups in the future.” Griffin is tracing the tips of his fingers over the back of my hand.
“No, I’ll just make sure to call in a prescription so I have it on hand for next time.” I let my head rest against the seat and close my eyes, but jerk them back open quickly. I don’t want to get motion sickness. That’s all I need to make this even more humiliating.
“Can we talk about something else?” I blurt. “What will we do first when we land?”
“Maybe you should call your doctor and see if she will call something in for you for the flight back?” Evan suggests while he retakes the seat next to me.
I look down at my watch. “It will probably be too late. I can try to leave a message with the answering service.” I mull it over, there’s no harm in trying. “Can I have the password to the Wi-Fi?” I know my cellular data won’t work up here.
“I don’t know it, just use mine.” Griffin uses the hand not covering mine to reach into his pocket and retrieve his cell phone. The screen is already unlocked when he hands it to me. I pull my hand out from under his and reach into my back pocket for my phone to get the number.
It takes a few seconds to listen to all the prompts before I’m directed to leave a message for the on-call doctor. I give a brief rundown of the issue and leave my phone number for a call back.
“Wait,” Griffin orders, as I’m just about to hang up. “Leave them my number too, in case we’re still in the air.” He recites the numbers slowly and I repeat it into the phone.
After hanging up and extending the phone back to Griffin, I tell him, “They probably won’t call back tonight, it’s not a real emergency.” I don’t want to get my hopes up in case they don’t. “But thanks.”
“I’m sure we could figure something else out if they don’t. There’s urgent care and emergency rooms.” Evan’s voice is soft, consoling.
“I don’t think they would consider me needing to get on a private jet to fly back to work an emergency.” I give a soft chuckle. “I really don’t want to talk about it anymore though,” I add, trying not to sound like I’m being a jerk.
“Shifters are drawn to certain people. I don’t know it’s the fabled fated mates, but the attraction is usually really strong.” Evan leans his elbows on the table and turns his head to face me. I appreciate what he’s doing, trying to distract me.
“How is it different than just being attracted to someone?” I feel myself rocking a bit in the chair, but ignore the nervous energy.
Evan blows out a breath and looks up. “Imagine walking through a crowd and being drawn to one person you’ve never met, never talked to, but everything inside you is telling you that youneedto be near that person.”
“Sounds intense. You’ve experienced it?” The way he described it makes me feel like he has.
Evan shifts his eyes away from me. “Vampires have something similar,” he tells me, avoiding the question. I wince internally. I need to tamp down the inquisition.
“It’s a bit different.” Griffin has his knuckle up near his mouth, pushing slightly against his lip.
I release my death grip on the arms of the chair and lean forward. “Really? I’ve never heard that.” But then there are many misconceptions about vampires. The biggest being they burn up in the sun. Vampires are born from other vampires, just as humans are born from humans. A different species just like a gorilla and a chimpanzee, both primates, yet so different.
Vampires go through a metamorphosis when they become blooded. They don’t die, in fact my species teacher made it seem like the opposite. They do stop aging at that point though. Their cells are constantly working to repair themselves, which is why they need to consume blood to survive. The myth that they couldn’t be in the sun started around the middle ages. Vampires did little to dissuade the legend. It was the perfect ruse, after all, since a person out during the day couldn’t be a vampire.
