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Then they went to sleep, but only for a short while. Not long after that, Levka was waking them for lunch and then another flight.

“I just thought about another thing. Regina knew your name, Arman. How did she know you would come after me?” Fiona asked, while they had lunch in the suite—Chinese food this time.

“We know about her, but I don’t know how she would know about me, unless she has had visions of your white knight coming to save you,” Arman said.

Fiona laughed.

He liked her laughter. He liked dancing with her too. And she was really pretty. He liked blondes and her enchanting green eyes always captured him and drew him in—now, when he finally got to see her in person again, and in the visions and dreams he’d had of her.

He was glad she had changed the plan so that they now avoided Dallas because he knew everyone had been worried about going there in case Regina figured they were heading to that location.

“Where are we going after this?” Fiona asked.

“We’re flying to another country.”

Fiona frowned. “I don’t have a passport. Which country?”

“Scotland. We can take care of the passport issue,” Levka said. “Our vampiric persuasion is very…persuasive.”

“That comes in handy then.”

“It does,” Caitlin said. “Before I met these guys, I couldn’t have done half of all the things we’ve done—the hotel reservations, flight reservations, even purchasing the meals, and clothes. So they can make sure that you bypass the passport issue. We often get first class seats on the planes too. But it means that we bump people out of their seats sometimes. I…well, I didn’t think I would like being like that, but you know those people always have the wealth, first class everything. So it doesn’t hurt for them to live like the common man every once in a while.”

Fiona smiled. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I have another idea. It might be kind of absurd, but can we go to Moody Gardens on Galveston Island? I’ve always wanted to go but my parents wouldn’t take us, and my brother never wanted to go. No way would Regina or the others suspect I would drop by there. Nor that if Arman ‘stole’ me, that he would take me there.”

“Moody Gardens it is,” Levka said.

Arman said, “If they access the worldwide registry of important vampires, then they would know I’m from Wales. But we’re not going there. They would have to dig a lot further to learn where we might be living now. That should take time and we have a lot of friends there who will back us up.” He sighed. “As to Moody Gardens, unless you mentioned to Regina or the others that you always wanted to go to that location, she might make a trip there or send people you don’t know there. Otherwise, it should be safe.”

“No, I mentioned I wanted to go to Dallas to the university to join my brother. I don’t know if he would have been okay with it, but that was what I had planned to do. I guess all of that’s out now.”

“Online courses,” Caitlin said, smiling. “You can do the whole thing that way. Well, depending on what you want to study.”

“I don’t know yet. I’m sure whatever I would have planned will have to be changed considering the circumstances.” Fiona hated uncertainty and this was more than she thought she would ever have to deal with. Having some control over her life was important, so being able to go to Moody Gardens gave her a tiny sense of having some say in her life. She didn’t want to think about the blood moon, or her birthday, or about any powers she might end up having. She didn’t really believe she could have any, truthfully.

She still didn’t know if she could trust these vampires. She’d just met them and they’d taken her away from, well, people she thought she knew. She might think they were lying about her relationship with Regina and Tobias, but Fiona didn’t believe Regina or Tobias had been telling her the truth either.

Maybe she was being silly about going to Moody Gardens, but everyone seemed to think the idea was perfectly fine, so she was glad for that.

“Okay, are we ready to go?” Levka asked. “We’ll stay in Houston, and then travel to Galveston from there. It’s only an hour away.”

“Why not go straight to Galveston instead of stopping in Houston first?” Fiona hoped they didn’t think she sounded like she was afraid they might change their minds and just get on a plane for Scotland in Houston.

“Sure,” Levka said. “It’s so close, that will work. Ruric?”

“On it,” Ruric said.

When they arrived at the hotel on Galveston Island, they all went to their rooms—Caitlin staying with Fiona while they took turns showering, and then joined the rest of the gang to see Moody Gardens.

“So I was surprised you all eat food,” Fiona finally mentioned.

“Yeah,” Caitlin said. “So except for showing off fangs in anger, we look like any other human. Except, I’m also a witch.”

“Also, there are hunters who were changed at the same time during the Black Death and their offspring. They don’t have a craving for blood like we do. They’re stronger like us, and it had been their goal to destroy vampires,” Levka said. “Then things changed over the centuries and hunters began to realize not all vampires are bad. That some hunters are evil, killing machines. We try to police our own rogue vampires, though hunters are also hired to take care of the rogues.”

“What about rogue hunters?” Fiona asked. “Who takes care of them?”

“The hunters,” Ruric said. “The vampires have to report them to a hunter council in the jurisdiction. Vampires aren’t allowed to take down rogue hunters without being called rogues themselves.”