(San Francisco International Airport) US Hwy 101, San Francisco, CA 94128 June 18th 15:47
The trip to the airport had been relatively uneventful, although Raleigh's constant staring into the rear view mirror made Jackson's entire body tense up. He knew that she felt guilty about their current situations. And yes, she had no control over it. Jackson felt that he was handling the whole affair pretty well, he hadn't freaked out, hadn't gotten mad, if anything he was trying to be as cooperative as possible.
Now they were sitting in the most uncomfortable airport seats known to man and Raleigh was curled up against him, clutching his arm like it was a life line. Jackson watched as his Mate disguised bored looks as carefully chosen scans.
They had tickets to a flight leaving for New York in half an hour but Jackson knew they wouldn't be getting on. He wrapped his arm around Raleigh putting his mouth to her ear, "Whenever you're ready."
Raleigh's eyes lit up in excitement and she grinned from ear to ear, "Black jacket, four o'clock, looks like an asshole."
Jackson looked and sure enough there was a man, early forties probably, in a black business suit talking obnoxiously loud on his cell phone. "You sure?"
Raleigh turned towards him bumping the lips together, "Just like we practiced."
Jackson nodded and Raleigh stood up, opening a Diet Coke she'd gotten as soon as they'd made it to the airport, making her way across the terminal. He stood following behind her by about ten feet. He tried not to smile when Raleigh walked right into the older man spilling her drink all over him.
"Oh, my God, I am so sorry! Are you okay?" Raleigh yelled futilely wiping the liquid off of the man's jacket.
The man dropped his phone with an angry look, "No, I am not okay, you just ruined this suit!"
Jackson wasn't a foot behind Raleigh, and he hadn't even seen the movement, but she was holding a ticket in her hand where the man couldn't see. "Really, I am so sorry sir, this almost never happens to me!"
Jackson snatched the ticket and kept walking with the tiniest smirk on his face, he loved Raleigh. He made it to the bathroom just outside of the terminal and waited for Raleigh, she showed up just a few minutes later with a smug look on her face.
"What a dick." She sighed, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket while she crowded up into his space.
"Did you see anyone?" He asked mouthing at her temple; because she made the cutest noises that she'd never admit to.
She smirked up at him, Jackson was beginning to think she was stealing his traditional look, "Not that I could see, better safe than sorry right?" Raleigh didn't complain however when he cradled her hips with his hands, "You got the rental didn't you?"
He nodded slotting his nose against her ear, "Yes, and I just want to let you know that I don't like the idea of leaving my baby at an airport for who knows how long."
Raleigh leaned into Jackson pressing the curves of their bodies together where they fit, "Then maybe I'll just make it up to you when we get back to the Hale house."
He grinned licking his lips, pulling Raleigh in for a kiss. Her arms automatically went to his shoulders and Jackson could feel the way her legs flexed, she was resisting the urge to jump on him. He slid his hand into Raleigh's hair deepening the kiss, with too much tongue and teeth.
"Geez, get a room."
Jackson and Raleigh broke apart to see what had to be a twelve or thirteen year old kid standing in the little niche outside the bathrooms with them. "You gonna move or just stand there and make out, I gotta go."
Raleigh went to say something but Jackson covered her mouth, he did not want a repeat scene of the last time Raleigh spoke to someone who was under the age of sixteen. Some things really were age appropriate.
"Go find your mommy kid." Jackson shot off making the kid double take in shock. Raleigh's hands cradled his head and pulled him closer when the kid ran off.
"I like it when you're mean." She said touching their noses.
He scoffed, "You're the one always telling me to be nicer to people."
Raleigh rolled her eyes shamefully, "I know, but it's kinda hot." She gave him a peck on his lips and pulled back all business, "You should go and wait in the car. If anyone tailed us, we're about to lose them." She said with a sly grin.
Jackson smiled back at his Mate and inhaled deeply as she spun on her heels and walked back into the terminal. He watched her for a second before exiting the airport quickly, walking to where he parked the dark blue Honda. He didn't really like the car but it had been the first one he'd seen.
Jackson jumped in the car and started it, messing with the radio and the AC. He didn't have to wait long before Raleigh came running out to the car slightly out of breath. "Let's get the hell out of here!"
Jackson's eyebrows drew together but he put the car in gear and backed out. He glanced over when he saw a crowd of people being escorted out of the terminal, covered in white powder, by airport security. Raleigh chuckled evilly.
"What did you do?" Jackson asked a little unsure.
Raleigh snorted, "Baby powder bomb." She openly laughed when she saw obnoxious phone guy yelling on the sidewalk at one of the officers.
"Wait, if that was your plan all along why did we switch our tickets with three different people?" He asked as they pulled out of the airport just in time before they closed it off.
Raleigh winked his way, "Confusion, confusion, confusion."
Jackson smirked, putting his eyes back on the road. "We'll be back in Beacon Hills in about thirty, forty minutes."
"Good." Raleigh responded putting her hand high on his thigh and squeezing, with a little grin.
Jackson swallowed and pressed his foot harder onto the gas pedal.
(San Francisco International Airport) US Hwy 101, San Francisco, CA 94128 June 18th 16:29
Nick turned his head and coughed, baby powder tinged on his tongue and in his hair. He swore under his breath and tried to maneuver through the crowd without anyone touching him. He'd spent a lot of damn time and power to follow Raleigh and her aesthetically gifted boyfriend. No one appreciated how long it took to mix the right potions to keep his ass invisible all this time.
After Charming had realized he could no longer track the teenage girl with his magic, the warlock had sent Nick to watch over the girl's apartment. He'd watched them move some furniture out and then Raleigh and what's-his-name had left.
Nick followed them to the airport in a rental car, keeping his distance and as soon as they'd made it to the airport he'd cloaked himself and followed them inside. He'd watched them buy their tickets and turn their luggage in. Nick had actually smiled at Raleigh thinking it was really going to be that easy.
But then she'd started purposefully running into people. It had been a little hard to see but Raleigh had switched her tickets with three or four different people. Nick had wondered at the time what Raleigh thought she was achieving so after the second switch he had decided to stay with Raleigh's carry on. Whichever flight she ended up getting on, he'd be right there.
But after they switched tickets with a loud man on a cell phone they had gone to the bathroom and Nick sat patiently waiting for them to return. Out of the corner of his eye he'd seen Raleigh come back into the terminal and beat a vending machine viciously before stalking off to another terminal. He'd figured the machine was out of order, no trouble, she'd be back.
A minute after that Raleigh's backpack had exploded sending six pounds of baby powder over thirty feet across the terminal. Thankfully his spell had held, and despite the inconvenience Nick managed to make it out of the terminal without any officials bothering him. But by the time he made it outside, he couldn't find Raleigh or her boyfriend.
Nick had gone back inside the airport, searched the place from top to bottom, which was a chore in itself the airport was huge. He'd even snuck into a security room and stared at the cameras for a good ten minutes. Raleigh was nowhere, she was lost. He knew better than to keep looking for her, anyone who was friends with Constant would be long gone by this point.
And now Nick was screwed. Charming was not going to be happy about this. Although since Nick had dug the warlock's ass up; he had yet to actually be happy about something. So no big shocking surprise there. Nick looked around in disdain; he felt the low thrum of power flood through his body and in the span of a heartbeat he was inside a depressingly run down warehouse.
Nick sighed and shrugged through the hallways, Charming might be two thousand years old, but this is why bad guys had a bad name. They all liked to hang out in places that smelled like dying animals… or maybe Charming just killed something while he'd been gone. Nick inhaled deeply when he spotted Charming reclining casually on a ripped couch, something bloody in his hand, it looked like a bone but he couldn't be sure.
"So where did our little friend run away to?" Charming asked in his thick accent, not even bothering to look up at Nick.
The boy glanced down at the ground, "I don't know."
Charming's eyes flickered towards him with a bored look, "Wasn't that the point of you following them? Because I can't."
Nick cleared his throat trying to speak up to the warlock, "I was but they… they got away from me."
Charming's boots hit the cold concrete with a solid thud. He brushed his jeans off casually and straightened his button up, "Did they know you were following them?"
"I don't think so, but they were prepared for anything."
Charming's eyebrows went up in a chilling manner, Nick blinked and the warlock was suddenly standing behind him with a hand where his neck and shoulder met. "Oh, Nicodemus," The hand tightened painfully, "Aside from those dreadful years you spent in limbo, how old are you?"
Nick swallowed carefully as he tensed. He was playing with fire, hell he'd been playing with fire all his life and this was no different. Constant had been right about one thing, Nick liked to get in over his head. "Nineteen."
Charming made a noise; it was either a scoff or a laugh Nick couldn't tell. The warlock drug his nails over his flesh lightly, "Nineteen years old… you have not even begun to live, have you?"
Nick rolled his eyes, imagine that creepy old warlocks being creepy. "Your point?"
The hand slipped up around his neck with light pressure, "It would be a shame if you disappointed me," The hand around Nick's neck gripped harder, "Your life would just be a waste then."
Nick jerked away from Charming facing him with a rueful glare, "I'm not the first person in this little agreement to come up short," He gritted out watching Charming roll his eyes, "You were supposed to bring me Constant's body! I wanted to see her!"
"Child, she's dead. Trust me."
There was a cold silence between the two. And Charming smiled again which made Nick want to vomit. The warlock took a step forward throwing Nick on the defensive. The boy took a step back, pain shooting through his body. Charming felt it and locked eyes with him.
"You want to fight me?" He asked with a sly grin. "You may have power, but it's not yours. You stole it, and you can't control it. Can you?"
Nick balled his fists up, he wanted to have something to say, wanted a comeback, a quick glib remark to wipe the smirk off of Charming's face. You always get in over your head, and then you wonder why no one cares when you start drowning. Constant's voice sounded in his head, making him snarl.
"You fucked up, and I fucked up. Makes us even." Nick said after a minute. "Now get off my back."
Charming tilted his head in thought, "Even, hmm. I suppose." He sighed wiping dried flaky blood off his hand, "The only question is now, how do we find Raleigh?"
"We wait."
Charming shot him a wary look, "I spent the last three hundred odd years in a box, waiting." He narrowed his eyes dangerously, "I'm finished with that."
Nick sighed, "Well, you're going to have to un-finish that. If I know anything about Faith, she's hard to kill, harder than Constant. Find Faith and we find Raleigh."
Charming smirked, "I don't know about that, Constant was fairly easy to kill."
Nick smoldered and frowned at the same time. That's because you didn't kill her, he thought to himself. He could feel it inside of him, if he focused on it. Nick's stolen power was Guardian in origin, Constant was connected to it. She was still alive but that's all he knew. There was no way he was telling Charming that though, the warlock couldn't be trusted. He sighed, how did he get himself into these situations?
"Faith is going to be harder to kill." Nick's smile mirrored Charming's, "Trust me."
Charming's smiled grew into a sickeningly happy face, "In that case, I'm bored." He took a step toward Nick, "Tell me more about this, what did you call it?"
Nick rolled his eyes, and grabbed his charging laptop on a nearby table. "It's called the internet."
Charming walked over hovering over his shoulder with an amused look on his face. Nick almost smiled. Going from the late sixteen hundreds to twenty thirteen couldn't be easy. And if he played his cards right… Nick could use that to his advantage.
