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He seemed surprised by the question. “Of course I’m coming with you. I think we’re beyond the point of that even being an option anymore. I’ve followed you to another frigging plane of existence, for Pete’s sake. ”
I had to smile. “Look how well that turned out. ”
Since it was still early in the evening, with hours to go before sunrise, we were able to arrange for the jet to take us from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Virgin Air had planes jaunting all over California at a moment’s notice, meaning we could have flown in a passenger jet instead, but Holden put the kibosh on that plan straightaway.
“No. We are not putting three vampires on a plane with a hundred humans. Worst possible idea. ” He’d been adamant. I tried to convince him it would be fine as long as he and Maxime had eaten.
I wanted to fly in a real plane.
I’d been on jets before and understood I should be grateful to have avoided a genuine travel experience, but I still wanted to try it. I didn’t get to do a lot of standard human things, and sitting side by side with bored, irate travelers seemed like fun to me for some reason.
It was just so undeniably normal, which was something I didn’t get to experience often.
Too bad it wasn’t meant to be.
My only victory in the whole thing was this time we were allowed to fly inside the passenger compartment rather than the cargo hold. Maxime and Holden showed little interest in the view from the small cabin windows, but I practically had my face glued to them.
Los Angeles from above was stunning, a far-reaching grid of lights spreading farther than the eye could see. New York was so small in comparison, one glowing island as opposed to this huge, illuminated blanket.
I called Desmond since our pilot didn’t seem to mind if we used our phones on board.
“I was just thinking about you,” he told me, sounding close in spite of the thousand miles between us.
“Good things, I hope. ”
“Is anyone in earshot?”
“Yes. ”
“We’ll stick with good things then, yes. ”
“I miss you. ” I watched the lights of L. A. get farther away. “Things here have been so strange. I’ll have some unbelievable stories for you when I get home. ”
There wasn’t time to get into the whole Sutherland issue over the phone, and I wasn’t in the mood to rehash it right then, anyway.
“You’ve only been gone a day. ”
“I know. Doesn’t take long to stir up drama with the vampires. ”
“Something they have in common with us. ”
“I’ll call you in a day or two, okay? Love you. ”
“Love you too. ”
After I hung up, the remainder of the flight was uneventful. My impression of San Francisco from the air was marred by cloud cover, but I did get a good view of the Bay Bridge lit up at night, and it reminded me of home. The sweeping wires and towers were more modern than the Brooklyn Bridge, but living on an island made me compare every bridge to the ones I saw at home.
We landed at a small private airport where a town car was waiting to take us to our residence for the next two nights. Although the West Coast council no longer made their home in San Francisco, they still had a number of local connections to make it easy for them to spend a night or two in their old haunting grounds should they choose to.
Which worked out well for us.
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sp; We’d be staying in the same hotel suite Sutherland had last been seen in, which I hoped might give me some clues as to what my father had discovered, and perhaps where he’d run off to. Galen informed me the room had been thoroughly inspected by his wardens, and they’d come up with nothing, but maybe my father and I had something other than just DNA in common. Perhaps I’d be able to see something the wardens had missed.
It was probably wishful thinking, but all the same I was hopeful.
Holden’s tension had eased some since we’d left Los Angeles, but he’d kept his distance from me on the plane and opted to sit up front in the car rather than next to me in the back. It wasn’t the most ideal way to sell himself as my full-time lover, but now the only person we had to convince was Maxime, and Holden didn’t seem too interested in keeping up the ruse around his brother.
