Chapter 13
Reunions
My dad pulled the truck into the airport parking lot and I woke up Crystal and Keith so that they could get their bags out. I stepped out of the car and nearly collapsed. My mind was awake but my body was still half numb from the long car ride. We all started walking together through the parked cars and slow moving bystanders. I guess it struck me as funny that Keith and I were the most dangerous things here. Usually this thought wouldn't be a big deal, but we were going into an airport, one of the most security-tight industries in America, and two of the country's most deadly, and undiscovered, weapons were just strolling into the front doors as if it were nothing.
I felt a tug on my strap that was so light that, for a second, I thought that I had imagined it. And sure as day, I turn around to see Keith watching me with one finger tucked around the back strap of my old duffel bag. I slowed down as we allowed a few feet between my family and ourselves. He draped his arm over my shoulder as if we were just your everyday couple. I guessed he had noticed the tons of people who took the time to stare as they passed by us. Maybe this was his attempt to be casual. He leaned in and my heart rate picked up.
"Are you okay?"
I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down. I was in no way used to him being this close to me for this long.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You were whining in your sleep."
I cursed myself in my head. If he had heard me then my dad probably did to.
"It was nothing, just another nightmare."
He pulled me a bit closer as a blonde girl passed with an expectant look directed at him. I wonder if Erin had to deal with this. I guess it would explain a tad bit more as to why she had been so bitchy when she saw me walking with her boyfriend. I was thankful that my dad hadn't looked back here. I'm not sure what's going on between Keith and him, but there's no telling as to how he would've reacted. We stopped at the metal detectors and started unloading everything metal that we had on us. We listened to the vibrations as the bucket of metal objects went through the scanner and the cops searched us with detection wand things.
I felt that irritating ping in my chest that was starting to pop up every time that I thought about Erin. I guess it was the more envious side of me and I just couldn't shake it. Ignore it as I may want to, there's really just no denying it. I was jealous of Erin. There was absolutely nothing positive about her as a person, from what I've seen, but I'm completely and overwhelmingly jealous.
"Why do you keep doing that?" I asked, as he sent her to voicemail yet again.
"Erin is a notoriously suspicious person. She doesn't like to accuse me, but she hates it when my phone's off."
"But-"
"I don't want to string her along, but there's no easy way of ending it with her either. I just want some time with her before this all takes over. The sooner I do it…hopefully the less she'll get hurt."
"Come on you two! We're going to miss our flight."
I shook my head disapprovingly at the irritating monster that is my little sister. Keith only smiled and led me to the rest of my family.
To some extent, I finally felt like I could relax once we got on the plane and into the air. My parents were two rows ahead of Keith and I and Crystal was behind us in a row by herself with her music playing. I smiled when I noticed that the words flowed clearly into my brain from her headphones. She'd never really been one to blast her music and I was quite sure that today wasn't any different. Keith seemed to be feeling the relaxation that I was newly thankful for as he leaned back in the plush seat and stretched his long legs. I crossed my legs and turned so that I was lying against my side and facing him. He simply watched me as if he could read my mind. I started playing with his fingers, surprised that he let me, and even more surprised that I wanted to. But overall, it felt natural and it didn't seem to cause any tension between us so I kept going, enjoying the feeling.
"That story that you told me, about Koda, did you ever question your time with Dominic after?"
The break in the silence surprised me but the question almost hurt. I looked up at his eyes only to retreat back to our hands. I flipped them over in mine, thinking about what he had just asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Have you ever wondered why you were with Dominic instead of Koda?"
"Yeah, I guess it's crossed my mind once or twice. Koda had been practically my brother before that night and after he kind of got demoted to being my best friend. Where are we going?"
"You don't know?" he asked, looking out past me through the window. Oh yeah, I had to score the window seat.
"I think it's pretty obvious at this point that I don't. And apparently, I'm the only one."
"No you're not. Crystal doesn't know either."
He smiled at himself. Stupid, secret-keeping dog. His nostrils flared slowly and not in the way that they do when a person is just breathing normally. He was sniffing something in particular.
"What is it?" I asked and had to keep myself serious despite the fact that I had just replayed a near perfect clip from Lassie in my head. He was my Lassie.
He leaned close to me and sniffed so simply that I couldn't feel or hear it. He whispered in my ear while he was still near it, "I don't know. It could be nothing."
Personally, I didn't want him to move, but he seemed pretty intent on this new smell. He turned casually and looked at the sleeping passenger beside us. He was positioned by the window with a jacket pulled up to his shoulders. Maybe it was cold on this flight, I couldn't really tell. He couldn't be much older than Keith or I, maybe nineteen at the oldest, with short, brown hair and a slightly lanky figure, or at least that's what I would guess by looking at his skinny legs, but you never know. Keith turned back to me.
"I don't know, maybe it's that guy's cologne or something."
Being this close to him, nothing else registered in my brain except for Keith's scent so I would just have to take his word for it. Not even a full minute later, my phone started vibrating. And of course, we both knew that it was Dominic. I opened my phone. Keith watched me.
"Are you going to answer it?" he asked in a slightly harsher tone than he had been using lately. I closed it and just stared at the now silent piece of whatever this phone was made of. It wasn't a huge deal. I've refused to answer the phone when Dominic called before. It was a pretty rare event, but it happened. And right when I was thinking this, I got a text message. He was so predictable. This is how he always acted when he screwed up or was coming off of a hangover, or both. I opened the phone back up and opened the message to read the words 'I'm sorry' with a picture of a teddy bear. Keith looked at the message and actually laughed a bit.
"That's cute," he murmured. I only sighed and leaned my head against the window. Before I could react, he grabbed my legs, turning me to face him, and laid them onto his. He stared at me perfectly seriously.
"Look, I know this is hard, and it's probably going to get worse. But it has to get worse before it can get better, right?"
"Yeah, I guess," I whispered. He smiled warmly and leaned farther back into his seat.
"Tell me something."
Okay, I can't lie. That simple statement of his made me nervous. He was so unpredictable and I had no choice but to be attracted to it. But something in me was telling me that it was becoming less about the imprinting, and more with how I felt towards him of my own free will, which I was really starting to miss. And for the next few hours on that plane, we talked. We didn't think about the rest of the world, or the vampires that wanted us dead, or what our future held for us. We just talked like two remotely normal people.
"Why couldn't we do this before?" I asked him, yawning. It was dark now and I had no clue of how much time we had left before we finally made it to wherever it was that we were headed. He noticed my exhaustion and I was sure that his eyelids were starting to get just as heavy as mine.
"Do what?"
"Just talk like this. We could never really do this until today."
We had moved the armrest between us hours ago so we had practically gravitated towards each other without really noticing or caring. I curled my legs up beside me and leaned into him and he didn't object but rather slipped his arm over me.
"I guess there was just too much in the way."
Anything after that was incoherent because the burn between us was strong enough to put us both to sleep. We had been aware of it this whole time but saw no need in mentioning it. It simply was what it was and we were learning to embrace it. I guess we don't have much of a choice where our future is concerned, but we can decide how we want to deal with it.
"Who are you?" I asked. He didn't even bother to look at me. He was too busy turning my rose between his fingers. He started to pull off the petals and I stood up, walking away. Whether I was looking for something or just bored, I couldn't tell. The trees and darkness seemed more crowded and darker in comparison to the first time that I had this dream. The only noticeable difference was that now there was the sound and feel of snow being crunched under my feet…and I could actually feel the cold.
The farther I walked, the colder it seemed to get until I reached a point where snow was starting to drift down. The flakes actually lingered on my skin before disappearing. Somehow, I finally made it to a new clearing. This one was new to my dreams and beautiful in an almost eerie way. It was like my rose had multiplied and varied. Most were black, but among them were a few that donned a dark crimson. Here, the trees were taller and bore not a single leaf that I could see. I touched the one closest to me, half-expecting it to crumble in response, but there was nothing. Running my hand down the bark, there was no sound, but my nails left jagged lines the entire way and rather than giving me splinters, it only tickled.
All too quickly, I felt the feeling of a hand moving a bit of my hair behind my shoulder and a voice whispering, "Faites vous m'aimez?"
Do you love me? I turned around so that I could see the stranger but he was nowhere to be found. When I turned back, Keith was there. Everything seemed to slow down and the silence seemed to get louder as a sound caught my attention: a heart beating. I shifted my weight and the stranger turned me around. This time he didn't speak. He simply broke the stem off of my rose and stripped the remaining thorns before putting it behind my ear into my hair. He kissed my cheek and I closed my eyes, listening to the beautiful rhythm. It wasn't coming from him though. In fact, there was nothing coming from the mystery man. There was no scent, no warmth, no chill, no heartbeat…no life.
However, there was warmth here and there was a heartbeat to be heard. I could tell that I wasn't hearing mine, but it vibrated in my ears as if it were. Everything just seemed to get warmer and warmer until I finally opened my eyes to see Keith inches away from me. I looked back and the man was gone yet again. Keith stared at me with true fear and it was…amazing. His skin practically glowed in the moonlight and his scent was stronger to me. I touched my hand to his chest and his heart beat even harder through my fingertips.
His eyes were brighter and paler with the terror that they held and somehow he seemed more beautiful because of it. I reached up and kissed him, but not on the lips, instead on his jaw line. He shivered and shook as my hand moved from his chest to the opposite side of his neck. I moved carefully and my lips felt what my hands couldn't as they both searched for the same thing. Something like a whimper made its way past his lips. He had a better idea of what was going on than I did. But whatever was happening, it wasn't good.
My eyes widened and I stopped at the back of his jaw, where they told us that the pulse was located in elementary school. My lips parted…
"Please," he whispered.
"I love you," said the voice that didn't rightfully belong to me. The deep breath that he took before my teeth forced their way through the soft flesh changed instantly into a gasp. He trembled and my grip tightened on his neck. I couldn't taste it. His blood was flowing perfectly fine and oh-so warm, but I couldn't taste it and I think that that made my dream self more desperate for it. The more that was taken from him, the colder he felt to me. I pulled away only for a second as he dropped to his knees and fell onto his side. Watching his eyes, I ran my hands up his chest. His heart was still beating and he was barely breathing. I crawled on top of him and in his ear whispered, "Je vous aimerai toujours."
Everything blurred and I was blinded with the sun pushing its way through the window across the aisle. It seemed like the kid had picked a new position to sleep in as his long legs took advantage of the seat beside him. Remembering what I was doing here and my nightmare, I looked up at Keith, alive, still asleep, and with his arm still around me. Throwing my hand over my mouth, I slipped out of his grip and ran too fast down the aisle into the small bathroom. I tried to stay quiet, but my stomach had other plans for me. It felt clenched and like it was eating away at itself, and up until this point, I hadn't realized that I was hungry, but with everything in my stomach now in this toilet thing, and the knowledge of the fact that I hadn't eaten anything for the entire flight, my stomach growled and gurgled out of hunger, pain, and queasiness.
All the while, my rose had started burning again, but there was a new burn following it now. After my stomach had lurched yet again, I stood up and took my shirt off to examine my back, but I paused once I saw my front. My stomach was more developed than it had been last week, but even more distracting was the stem and thorns that were on my chest. I turned, looking for the source even though I knew perfectly well where it had come from. My rose had changed again. The petals were spread out even further now and the stem of it curved under my arm and up onto my chest pointing directly to my heart. I turned again and saw that the rose wasn't alone anymore. There was a new bud symmetrical in placement to where the first one had started.
I threw my shirt back on and bit my lip, refusing to scream as the pain got worse. Damn it! As if the first rose wasn't bad enough! Now it's growing even more and it has a brother. Slowly the pain subsided and my stomach relaxed partially. Once my face was rinsed and I was calm, I went back to find my toothbrush and paste.
"Hey. You okay?" Keith asked as I went and sat back down beside him. I fought to push the nightmare to the back of my mind before answering. Of course, my new tat did was a pretty good distraction.
"Can I ask you something?" I asked. He stretched his arms and legs.
"Sure."
"Has your tat ever changed?"
I picked my legs up, wrapping my arms around them as he stared in my area with a confused look on his face.
"Sure, I guess," he said, smiling sarcastically.
"Be serious."
"I am."
I sighed with a mix of amusement, frustration, and sympathy. "Fine, did the burning stop?"
"Yeah. I mean, it's a paw print. I don't really think that there's really anything else that it could be. Why?"
I took a deep breath and thought about pulling down the neckline of my t-shirt to show him but then realized why that wouldn't have much effect.
"My rose kind of came with attachments."
"What?"
"The stem has gotten longer and now there's a new rose starting to grow on the other side."
We will be landing in the Quebec airport momentarily. Please prepare for landing and buckle your seatbelts.
Quebec? Why are we in Canada? Clicking filled the air as people followed the intercom's directions, and we were filing off minutes later. I followed my parents as they walked to the baggage area and then out of the crowded airport. My mom handed me one of my old coats as we stood on the sidewalk. This confused me. She knows that I don't really get cold anymore, but I turned to see that Keith was wearing one and it suddenly clicked. To normal people, it was freezing here and we didn't need to draw attention to ourselves by strolling around in over a foot of snow in t-shirts and jeans.
A sparkling black Escalade Raven pulled up to the curve and we all turned to my dad.
"It's a rental," he murmured, starting to pile bags in the trunk. I think all of our hearts dropped at that moment…just a bit at least. It was a really nice car. A really nice car. We piled in and a bit of me relaxed into the plush leather, but it took a lot of effort to finally settle my sore back against the seat. Crystal was seated between us yet again and she and Keith both managed to notice my strain.
"Are you okay?" they both asked. I looked between the two of them. I have to admit, their timing was just a little strange. I cracked my back and felt a twinge of a burn. At this point, it was more numbing than unbearable.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just feeling a little stiff."
I noticed my mom glance over at my dad before she readjusted in her seat. This was all still a lot for her, that much was obvious. But all in all, she really seemed to be handling it all a lot better these days. I sank even further into the seat and closed my eyes, picturing what I had seen on my skin. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty and all but it had to mean something, right? I was really starting to think that the rose was done. Am I really still changing? And was I changing enough to really need a second one?
As eerie as it is, I'm pretty sure that the rose was still bleeding, and now the blood looked like it was dripping where my heart beat. Somewhere along the point of my fears of what was to come and the random pain that had started to spread through my entire torso, I managed to slip out of consciousness yet again and opened my eyes to see that we were parking in a small driveway connected to a familiar house. Were we really where I thought that we were? I mean, it has been a while since I've seen her, I could be wrong. Without fully realizing it, my legs had pulled me out of the car and I was strolling to the simple two-story building with the snow-covered, little step of a porch. A woman who could pass for no younger than forty opened the door.
"Grand-mere?" I whispered.
