Streak of Black

When we get back, Eyulf and Zeeva have already returned.

"Whoa, what happened to you guys?" Lovett asks, noting the tear on Ryder’s shirt and the burn mark underneath. I probably have a little blood left on my forehead from when I banged my skull against that of the other guy.

I sink into a chair that no one occupies. "No big deal, just tricking some guys who followed us."

"What happened?" Lovett demands again, looking me over more carefully to make sure that I'm really okay.

"Relax. They don't know we're here, and we took care of them a few blocks away. No harm done—well, at least no harm to us. They're in pretty bad shape. But, the important thing is that Charlette and Gabrielle are okay, and we should be able to get out of here safely."

Eyulf glances down at his notes. "The airport is about 20 minutes from here by car—if that’s safe means of transport—but we have to hurry either way because the next flight leaves for France in about 2 hours and I still have to take care of everything with the airport. So if we're really going, we have to go right now."

I nod. "Is everyone ready to go?" I look around, and everyone nods and shrugs their shoulders. I notice that Cannan is by himself in the corner and seems to not even be listening. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure that I haven't heard a sound out of him since two days ago. I make a mental note to talk to him later. "Alright, let;s all change real quick because we smell like this theater and we'll probably get looks if people notice the torn shirts and scars from yesterday."

Everyone obeys, and we're soon by the side door. I hand everyone their fake IDs and passports while Rudi and Nox pull the new stolen car to the front of the theater. We walk out quickly, all of us surrounding Charlette and Gabrielle in a tight circle. They get in first, and we all follow. Eyulf hands a map he had printed to Nox, and he begins rattling off instructions to Rudi.

I worry as we zip through the streets. What if someone realizes that this van is stolen? What if we get pulled over for speeding? What if Damien’s goons follow us and realize that our paper trail that Eyulf set up is false. I lick my lips, the anxiety eating away at me.

We pull up to the airport, undisturbed. Once inside, we linger uselessly as Eyulf and Zeeva go up to the counter to make all of the flight arrangements. He purchases 10 tickets to France—without a car seat, Gabrielle will be sitting on her mother’s lap—before creating a trail of tickets for our crazy cross-country ‘adventure’ that would eventually take us to Canada.

Ryder huffs, annoyed at having to wait. "Okay, I get why we had to buy the tickets to France in cash, but wouldn't it make sense to buy the cross-country and Canada tickets online too?" he complains, kicking at the ground.

I giggle at his impatience. "Ryder, Eyulf and I have gone over this with you. We're setting up a partial paper trail for them to follow. Remember, they think that we're complete idiots; however, they do know that we have at least some sense. So, we decided to buy the tickets in cash to make it slightly less obvious that we're to trick them. Eyulf used the library computer to hack into a bunch of computers around the country to make it look like we were there at certain times. Eventually, they'll figure it out, but hopefully we'll have Charlette somewhere safe by then."

He leans back against the airport's huge window with his arms crossed. "I still say that we could've just bought the tickets online too."

I roll my eyes and smirk up at him, nudging my hip against his. He smiles down at me and wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close.

Eyulf and Zeeva finally return to us, looking relieved. I figure that he had Zeeva do most of the talking—he's a terrible liar, and a couple of teenagers buying so many tickets to various places with that much money is just plain suspicious. He distributes the tickets and leads us to the terminal.

Not having been in an airport in six years, everything feels foreign, and I feel unsure. In places that I'm familiar with, I'm confident in my ability to protect my Pack. But in somewhere like this, somewhere so big where I know nothing of the layout, some of my confidence is snatched away, leaving me stumbling. I clutch Ryder’s hand, feeling better when he squeezes mine back. No matter what crazy stuff goes down between us, his number one priority is, and always has been, ensuring that I'm okay.

Once we get through security, we only have about thirty minutes to kill. Lucky for us though, the plane arrives early and is able to board ten minutes before what was expected. Gabrielle is beginning to fuss, but Charlette is able to soothe her before we board by whispering gentle nonsense in French. I breathe a sigh of relief before getting onto the plane.

Because of the last minute tickets, few of us are together. Eyulf gave Ryder and I two of the only tickets that were together—keeping the other two for himself and Zeeva—but we organized it so that Charlette is in the middle of us all, or at least as close to the middle as possible. The rest of us are scattered around the coach section. We made sure that Lovett was the closest, only one row behind her.

As the plane begins to take off, my ears pop, and the sides of my head begin to pound. The pain centers on my actual ears and is excruciating. I close my eyes with my hands over my ears, leaning forward with my elbows resting on my thighs. Ryder, seeming to realize what's wrong, lifts the arm rest between us and wraps an arm around me, pulling me closer to him. I lean against him and allow the pain to subside, grateful for my superior werewolf healing.

Sensing my relief and always hoping to make my life worse, I hear Monique make a throat clearing sound in the back of my head. Before I can ask what she's planning, she begins to shriek loudly and relentlessly. It reminds me of when her voice used to always be high-pitched and shrill. My headache returns ten times worse than when the plane was lifting off, and my skull feels as though it's splitting in half. She eventually stops, the shriek subsiding into on of her usual cackles, thrilled by my discomfort.

Trying to act natural, I smile up at Ryder, deciding not to tell him.

"Next time, we're taking a boat," I whisper.

He chuckles. "Seasickness is worse than this. That’s something you have to deal with the entire trip—which is much longer. At least this way, you only have to deal with a headache when we lift off and when we land."

I groan. "I forgot that this pain will be returning later."

He laughs again. "But, if you really have your mind set on a cruise, we could take a romantic getaway once we finish with all of this."

I raise an eyebrow. "That's what you’re thinking about right now?" I shake my head at him. "You really need to rearrange your priorities."

"No I don't, because you are my priority, and that's all that matters." He shrugs. "Besides, we have thirteen hours to waste right now, so I can talk about whatever I want." He looks down at me triumphantly, and I roll my eyes, snuggling tighter against his side as the last remnants of my headache dissipate.

He pulls a blanket out of the bag at my feet and covers us with it. I close my eyes, beginning to drift off to sleep as he massages my back. When I wake up, the sun is setting, but that means nothing since I don't know what time zone we're in. My arm is draped across Ryder’s lap, and he's asleep with his head leaning against the window. As if he can sense that I'm awake, Ryder’s eyes flutter open, and he gazes adoringly down at me.

"I could get used to waking up like this," he murmurs. I know what he means. Other than the occasional nap where one of us wakes up leaning against the other, we've only ever woken up from actually sleeping together once, the day after we returned from Damien’s mansion. I've been too stressed lately, and I would probably be too embarrassed, to consider sleeping in the same room with Ryder regularly at this point in time. And with Monique always in my head, I wouldn't be able to trust her not to do something that I'd regret later.

He gently begins to stroke my cheek. "Doubtful that you know this," he whispers, not wanting anyone else to hear what he's talking about, "but there’s another definition for the phrase ‘sleeping together’ than actually sleeping."

"What are you talking about?" I ask, just as quietly. By his tone of voice and the glint of his eyes, I can tell he's being naughty, but I don’t understand what exactly he's telling me.

"Well, usually parents or teachers explain this to teenagers, but when two people—or two werewolves, I guess—want to really express their love for each other, they…" he trails off, not sure how exactly to tell me what he’s trying to. He awkwardly gestures me forward with a finger and leans in to whisper in my ear. "And not only is it a bunch of fun, but that's also where babies come from."

I pull away, not sure how exactly I feel about that. Finally, I glance at him before closing my eyes and leaning back in my chair. "I just hope that you're not planning on trying for that anytime soon."

He laughs and kisses the top of my head before leaning against the window again. I eventually give into the temptation of how warm and comfortable he is and lean against his side again. He wraps his arm around me and gladly holds me against him.

"I gotta say," he mutters, "I'm a little nervous about meeting your family."

"Why? They’re really nice."

"I'm sure they are, but if we really tell them everything, I'll probably have to talk about my past, at least a little. Maybe I look like I'd be okay from the outside, but when they hear about who I really am and what I've done, they'll probably flag me as inappropriate for you. I mean, you're just so good and nice, and I’m so…well, for lack of a better word, bad. You saw who I was, and you've heard about who I am. I don't know. I just don't think that I deserve you sometimes."

I giggle and look up into his big, vulnerable blue eyes. "Ryder, I have an evil Voice in my head that sends me nightmares of people dying and kills others herself, influencing me to do the same. I think that if either of us will be deemed bad for the other, it'll be me." I giggle again, and he joins in this time.

"Yeah, I guess you might be right. We are both pretty screwed up. Well, at least we have each other to share our craziness with."

"It would appear so."

"But back to our earlier conversation—"

"I said not yet, Ryder." I refuse to look at him again for fear of bursting out laughing at what is no doubt the most persuasive look he can muster.

"I'm just saying, I've already seen all that there is to see."

"Don't push it, Ryder, or you'll never see any of it again."

He huffs and stops trying. I smile at the power that I hold over him. We move on to safer topics and spend the flight making light conversation and laughing with each other. No Voice. For a little while, it's as if there is no mission, and we're back at the cabin just talking like old times.

Soon enough and to our mutual disappointment, the pilot comes on and announces that we'll be landing within the next few minutes and for everyone to buckle our seat belts. Ryder and I exchange a nervous glance as I finally pull away from him.

It's time to go home.