Chapter 319
Bandon and I headed out of the apartment and rode the elevator to the lobby, Brandon carrying my bag for me. I always thought it was weird that we didn’t all meet here and ride to the airport together rather than taking separate vehicles or getting one of the humans to take us, but I figured Aaron had a reason for his madness. When we headed back over to our apartment building to arrange a ride, we saw Jamie and Elliott loading up and hopped in with them. I was glad Jamie was driving because Elliott’s just a little too dangerous for my taste, even though I know a car crash can’t kill me.
By the time we got to the airport and pulled in near the private jet we’d be taking, my eyes were so heavy, I thought I would fall asleep before I could get aboard. “You okay, Cass?” Brandon asked me. I managed a nod, but I was glad he had his arm around me as we headed up the steps to the plane. I had never been this tired in my whole life.
Once we settled into our seats, I rested my head on Brandon’s shoulder, and I was out. The plane taking off didn’t jar me awake, nor did our stop for refuel in some exotic location that otherwise would’ve thrilled me. It was an impossibly long flight, and I slept for almost all of it. When I finally opened my eyes, blinking and stretching my stiff neck and shoulders, I could hardly believe I’d slept for so long. And I really needed to use the bathroom.
I jumped out of my seat and made a beeline for the bathroom without even saying a word to Brandon, but I could hear him laughing behind me. I was just glad this time it wouldn’t be like our long train ride to Philadelphia where my needing to use the facilities so badly had almost gotten me killed.
I returned to my seat to see he was still amused. “Sorry,” I said.
“No need to apologize, but since I’ve been your pillow for the last several hours, I kinda need to go, too.”
I was up and out of his way so he could do his business, and I looked around to see lots of other smiling faces. “What?” I asked, looking from Elliott to my sister. “I had to go, all right?”
“Nice to see you’re alive, lil girl,” Elliott teased. “Feel better?”
“Yeah, but I’m starving. I bet you have snacks, don’t you?” I asked, stepping toward the row of seats he was sharing with Jamie.
“Now why would you think that?” he asked, but he was already digging in a bag beneath his seat. He pulled out an unopened bag of Doritos, and I hugged him. “Brought ‘em especially for you.”
“You’re the best.”
“We do have real food in the back,” Aaron reminded me, but by then the chips were already open, and my mouth was full.
“I’ll go make you a sandwich,” Cadence said, climbing over Aaron easily and heading to the back. “And Brandon another one.”
I was glad that she’d at least thought to feed my beloved while I was passed out on his arm. I waited for him to return and then we took our seats again. “Feel better?” he asked, and I thought it was so funny his dad had just asked me the exact same question. He wouldn’t know that, though.
“I do. Ready to get this show on the road.”
“The rest of us have had our show on the road for over a half a day, but whatever,” Elliott said over his shoulder.
“Well, my road still requires sleep. Or my show does. Or something.” I wasn’t capable of thinking yet.
“We should be landing in about two hours,” Brandon said, looking out the window.
“Where are we now?” I leaned over him to try to get a view, but all I saw was water.
“Well, that’s the ocean. Before that, we were over the ocean, and then, before that, we were over a different part of the ocean. But still the ocean.”
I wrinkled my nose at him and sat back down. I was sure there had to be some land in there somewhere. I checked my GPS and saw that we were over the Pacific Ocean but pretty close to Sydney, so it wouldn’t be too much longer now before we’d start our descent. I thought about asking Aaron a few questions about flying the plane since he is a pilot, but I didn’t think now was the best time. I was interested in learning how to fly. My grandfather had been a pilot, and he was the one who taught Aaron how to do it. I thought it would be really cool if he could, in turn, teach me someday. But for now, I tried to relax and concentrate on what I was about to do.
“Here you go,” Cadence said, handing us our sandwiches and a couple of bottles of pop.
“You’re the best, Sis,” Brandon said, and I giggled as she backhanded him in the shoulder. We were all sort of like a family, I guess, even if the roles were a little hard to define. If Cadence was Brandon’s sister and mine, that would be weird. Maybe he meant like sister-in-law. That would also be weird. That would make Elliott my father-in-law instead of my brother….
“You gonna eat that, Cass?” Brandon asked, his mouth full of ham and cheese.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Still stuck in my head.”
“Yeah, as long as you’re alone in there right now, that’s fine. But you don’t want Holland picking up on your location and finding out where we are. That would be bad.”
He was right, but I wasn’t sure how to block that. I was just thinking about whether or not she could read my location when Aaron said, “Cass, when you get a chance, can you see if you can block Holland’s signal again so we can get some new data to Christian?”
I realized my IAC wasn’t even on, so I flicked it on and saw I had about forty messages from Christian demanding I update him on the Vampire tracker locations. With a sigh, I closed my eyes and concentrated on Holland’s signal. Keeping in mind what Brandon had just said, it wasn’t as easy as it might’ve been otherwise. But after a few minutes, I was able to intercept her signal briefly, but long enough for Aaron to let me know he had the screenshots he needed to send to Christian. I took a deep breath, opened my eyes, and sank my teeth into my sandwich. I’d need to keep my strength up if I was going to keep doing that every hour.
