Page 37 of The Wayward Sons & The Vampires of Fortune (The Wayward Sons #4)
J ust after sunset, the airport alarm went off again, and I tensed. A black SUV rolled through the gate and down the road toward the open hangar door. Did vampires drive SUVs?
“Stay,” I ordered, holding up a hand to Ryder. I put some space between me and him—protecting him.
“It’s fine,” Sam said as he crossed behind the jet to join us. “They’re with us.”
“Okay,” I replied as the stress in my shoulders relaxed some. I rolled them slightly to loosen my muscles. This whole thing had me wound up so goddamn tight. Wherever we ended up after this needed a beach. And open land. And no fucking people.
Fuck, we needed a vacation. A real, honest to God vacation.
It didn’t help that Cole and Sam were being sketchy as fuck with us. They’d kept to themselves while we waited around for God only knew what to happen. It took everything I had not to dip into my hunter senses to eavesdrop for some clues.
The SUV cruised slowly through the hangar door and parked off to the side with the others. The passenger door opened first, and Nash stepped out. Stupid fucker with his weird magic tranquilizing habits. That limp of his was new though.
It took no time for Cole to move around to help him. There was a quiet, grumpy exchange, but Nash finally draped an arm around Cole’s shoulders for support in the walk across the hangar toward the office.
“What the hell happened to him?” I asked under my breath, but Ryder just shrugged.
The driver’s side door barely opened before Winston lost his shit, howling and barking as he barreled across the hangar. A woman stepped out fast and immediately snapped her fingers. The dog halted, sitting when she pointed to the ground. His entire backend wiggled while he waited impatiently.
“Good boy,” she whispered, and he inched forward, pressing his entire body to her chest, which was impressive. She was short, but that dog was damn big comparatively.
“Who’s that?” I asked, leaning toward Ryder as my interest piqued.
“Andrea Carlisle,” Ryder answered quietly. “She’s an FBI agent.”
“She’s too damn hot to be an agent,” I replied without missing a beat. Long dark hair, sharp blue eyes, fair skin. She was petite and delicate in appearance. There was no way in hell she was an agent. They’d stomp all over her pretty little self.
“She’d eat you for breakfast, honey,” he warned. But ah yes, warnings like that didn’t work on me.
“I’m charmin’, baby, remember?” I told him, which made him chuckle softly. When she neared, I greeted her with my best smile, “How you—”
“No,” she snapped, walking right past me. I turned to watch her go and shamelessly drank in that ass of hers.
“I ain’t even said nothin’, darlin’!” I called after her.
“Don’t need to,” she yelled back. “The answer is no.”
I grinned. I did love them feisty, gorgeous, and deadly. Sure, she could probably beat my ass if she wanted, but I’d let her. I’d enjoy it too.
“I think I’m in love,” I said to Ryder as I faced him again, grinning like an idiot. The look on his face told me everything I needed to know. Yeah, I was an idiot, and she was so far out of my league. “She’s still hot.”
“Don’t make me punch a woman to protect you,” Ryder commented.
“I don’t know, baby,” I teased. “I might just start a fight to see you do it.”
“I’ve seen her fly.”
Hold the fuck up… he what?
“Hold on up!” I exclaimed a little too gleefully. I hurried across the hangar to chase her down. “You can fly?”
“I can fly,” she replied as if it was the most natural thing to do with her power. How the hell had she done it?
“Baby! She can fly! Can you teach me to fly—”
“Gray,” Ryder interrupted. I made a face, ready to argue if he told me no. Instead, he said, “You don’t like heights.”
His words gave me pause.
“Oh.” That. Yeah, that would cause some issues. Ryder chuckled.
“I can make ice too,” she called over her shoulder before disappearing into the office.
“How?” I shouted after her, even though she’d shut the door. I whirled back to face Ryder, demanding, “How, baby?”
“I still haven’t figured that out,” he admitted.
“She figured out how to alter the temperature of the air and water,” Sam explained. Arms crossed, he meandered closer. His expression was carefully drawn as he joined us. “Combined, they create ice.”
“That’s fuckin’ awesome,” I whispered. “Can I do that?”
“I imagine you could alter the temperature of air,” he replied, “but I’m not sure how much good that’ll do you, considering you can’t control water.”
“Damn it.” He had a point. I couldn’t create ice with those two elements. I asked, “Are we gettin’ out of here now?”
“About that,” he began slowly.
“That answer better be a real loud yes,” I interjected.
“Yes and no,” Sam told me. “It’s not that simple.”
“Simplify it,” Ryder ordered.
“Look, this can go one of two ways,” he replied. I already didn’t like whatever the hell he was going to say. “If we get you out of here now, all you’ll end up doing is running for the rest of your lives.”
“We’ve been runnin’ most of our lives,” I pointed out. That was nothing new.
“Not like this. Not with vampires chasing you down,” he said. “But… vampires take decades to crawl back out of Hell. All upper-level demons do. If we killed them, you’d be in the clear. By the time any of them come back, we’d all be long gone.”
“You want to kill the vampires?” Ryder finished for him.
“No,” I cut in instantly. “There ain’t no way in hell we’re takin’ on a group of vampires.”
“Four,” he corrected. “There are only four left. Ryder killed two of them, and Andrea doubled back to kill the one I ripped in half.”
“You what ?” I exclaimed. What the hell had happened out there?
“And we all barely got out of there,” Sam continued over me. Those words made my stomach twist uncomfortably. I didn’t like the sound of that. Not one fucking bit.
“No,” I repeated. “Not a fuckin’ chance.”
“Just hold up a minute,” Ryder cut in, surprising me. Before I could say more, he held up a hand to shut me up. “Do you truly think any of us stand a chance against four vampires?”
“I do,” he said, nodding. “We have a plan—one that’ll work.”
“And I don’t fuckin’ care. It ain’t safe.”
“Look,” Sam stood a little taller, his shoulders squaring off, “we put a lot on the line to rescue you, including our lives. We have a chance to make sure that no one has to deal with them anytime soon. We can give you your lives back—at least, some part of it. And after that? That jet will take you wherever the hell you want to go.”
“I don’t like it—”
“Gray,” Ryder interrupted me. I turned to him, and he jerked his head slightly, indicating for me to follow him as he put some distance between him and Sam. I trailed after him, knowing full well I wasn’t about to like where this conversation was going.
“It’s a bad plan,” I whispered the moment we were alone, my tone harsh.
“I know, it’s just…” He sighed. It was clear the weight of the situation was hitting him hard all over again. “It’d be nice not to have to run from vampires too.”
“I know, but, baby, how the hell do we know what they’re plannin’ will work?”
“Because they may not give a fuck about you and me, but they all want to go home. It’s their lives too.”
“Damn it,” I grumbled. He had a point. “I still don’t like it.”
“If it helps, I don’t either. But the alternative isn’t any better.”
I fucking hated that he was right.
I hated the idea of relying on a plan we weren’t privy to.
Mostly, I just fucking hated vampires.
“I miss regular demons,” I told him heatedly. “What the fuck happened to just a good ol’ fashioned hunt? Some research, some bad choices, fuckin’ a hot waitress afterward? When did our lives become prison breaks and runnin’ from vampires?”
“About the day you met me,” he said painfully. Fuck.
“I ain’t meant it like that, baby,” I replied.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.” I took his face in my hands and made him look at me. “It ain’t about you, baby, and I ain’t goin’ nowhere. If you say you want to fight a horde of vampires, then I’m fightin’ a horde of goddamn vampires. There ain’t no question about that. I just miss the normal shit.”
“You don’t regret it?” Ryder asked, his voice quiet and unsure.
“Not a single fuckin’ bit,” I assured him. “But we’re makin’ them take our asses to Hawaii when this is all said and done. I’m crossin’ that state off our map.”
“Okay.” He chuckled.
“I mean it, baby,” I continued. “Sand, beaches, and the big, wide ocean. I’m gettin’ laid and I’m gettin’ lei’d, baby.”
“Jesus fuck,” he muttered, and I just smiled wider. If he thought I was kidding, I wasn’t. I loved flowers. And wearing flower necklaces? Hell yeah. That sounded like the vacation we deserved.