And I almost laugh, because she’s so deliriously enjoying her life there that she just broke character with a sunny disposition rather than continue to act concerned or annoyed with me.
I don’t know exactly how it’ll all go with Jason Creed and Bailey Blackwood, but I do know it’s going to be
a)Angsty.
and
b)Messy.
1
JASON CREED
I startle awake, surprised I dozed off. I don’t like sleeping in public, especially not mainstream public.
I touch my phone screen, seeing it’s just over seven hours into an eight-and-a-half-hour flight.
I was dreaming about apples. I used to dream about them all the time, but it’s been a while. I’d dream I was following or chasing them and could never catch them. Like I was in a video game and always losing. But this time, in the middle of the chase, Bailey Blackwood appeared and handed me one. I took a big bite. And it was thebest. The rest of the dream has already faded. But that apple… I swear it’s still on my tongue.
I get up, stretch my neck, roll my shoulders, and head to the john, thinking about trying to get apple pie for dessert wherever I get food today, because that dream left me with an unreal craving. I haven’t done the math on what time it’ll be when I land yet. Hopefully I’ll find something open.
Moving down the narrow aisle to the restroom, fragrances hit my nose and many of them aren’t pleasant. Old food, dirty clothes, and someone carries the faint scent of piss. I also smell arousal from two females who happen to be looking at me. No, I smell three, though the third person isn’t looking at me, she’s reading a book.
Not only do human scents surround me, there’s also a vampire on this flight, a male sitting three rows from the bathroom. He’s got his eyes closed, headphones on, listening to an audiobook.
A male flight attendant gives me a head-to-toe look with appreciative eyes, just before I close and lock the door to the closet-sized lavatory.
I’m looking forward to getting off this flying tube. Though I’ll only have a brief reprieve, because I’ll then have to climb on another. And then a couple days later I’ll direct-fly home. I’m reprimanding myself right now for volunteering to do this, because I wasn’t thinking with my head, that’s for sure.
Once I land in Rome, I’ll meet up with Danica Young on the layover, and we’ll travel the rest of the way to Romania together to drop off the artifacts in my backpack.
Danica Young is the witch that set me on this course by being too damn attractive. It wasn’t just the way she looks; it’s the way she acts like she doesn’t want me. I like a challenge and her attitude definitely revved my engine. And after gearing me up, being a savage little tease the night of Rye’s mate’s birthday party, not only did she make it clear it wouldn’t happen, it’s no longer even on my radar, especially not after seeing how fast things have moved with the four council brothers ahead of me.
When I volunteered to do this, I imagined having some fun with her. Now, I’m just on edge about my mating.
If the timeline so far is anything to go by, it’ll happen for me soon. Probably on this trip. It’d be ironic if it turns out to be Danica after all that.
But, fuck, I hope this isn’t when it happens. This mission needs to get done with my senses paying attention to everything around me, not getting snagged on a female. And if it truly feels like this ismyfemale, I’m told it’ll be tough to focus on anything but her.
Danica is meeting me in Italy during the long layover. I’ve booked a room nearby at a bed and breakfast so I can grab a couple hours of sleep.
I didn’t check any baggage. My carry-on bag in the overhead compartment has two changes of clothes, my shaving bag, my wallet, passport, phone charger, and the artifacts – a carved wand and small cauldron, which washed up in the cave under the falls a while back.
Erica wrapped them in special protective material, then rolled them up inside two of my t-shirts this morning before Rye drove me to the airport.
Being the one holding the artifacts is another reason I wouldn’t want to let my guard down in public. Something isn’t sitting right with me about this. There’s unease in my veins. I’m guessing I’ll feel better when these witch tools are safely where they need to go, but it’s more than this Starling coven shit that’s got me on guard.
I’m on the cusp of finding out who is going to be by my side for the rest of my days. The female that’ll give me pups. The one who’s supposed to be all I’ll ever want or need.
And there’s been a whack of drama lately. The saving grace is we’re over the hump, past the halfway mark through the council and this means two things. If the chain of events so far is anything to go by this means that one: there are only three more dramas to play out and two: since it’s my turn, I’ll soon be dropped into a vat of it.
At least I know things are okay at home. For now. Sherry is with my parents. My youngest sister is home on a break from school and she’s good at handling Sherry. My older sister keeps bringing my nieces and nephews over to hang out, not for Sherry as much as for my mother, who is so distraught over my sisterthat she needs to keep busy and having the whole clan over helps with that.
Sherry isn’t okay; probably won’t be for a while. But at least she’s out of the clutches of that asshole Meadows who mated her before he was killed. She hasn’t said much about what went down with him, but she has a haunted look about her.
But she’s surrounded by pack who can help her get back to who she is again. Or maybe, like my other sisters Taylor and Gwen are hoping – a humbler, less brittle version of herself.
I’m not sure if it’s just paranoia, the timeline we’ve seen so far, or if my gut is right in telling me my own drama is gonna kick off while I’m on this trip. I don’t have a supernatural second sight gift, but my eyes, nose, and ears are all on high alert and I’m feeling like this plane is flying into the eye of my storm. I half-expected something to happen that’d keep me home, but since it didn’t, I suspect it’ll either kick off while I’m away or it’ll happen right when I get back. The way Mase was moved out of the way by the coven to align things for his mating, maybe I’m being moved in preparation for mine.