Chapter 19
Thanks to the early hour of the morning, I decided to focus on the fact that I could see my breath to deviate from the fact that I was up at this ungodly time.
I’d just finished my second Nashville show the night before, and now I was due in Pennsylvania for my first of three shows tomorrow night.
Because of the hysteria with wrapping up our last show in Nashville and the whole weirdness with Lafayette and Veronica, I hadn’t managed to have my talk with Van about whatever it was he was so intent on sharing with me.
He’d been great about it though, not even bothering to bring it up.
I wanted to make a point of making the conversation finally happen, especially since we were about to have plenty of time to talk during our flight.
Van and I had ridden in the rideshare he’d ordered for us, after he’d shown up like a white knight in navy with two vanilla iced coffees for me.
His own almond milk latte wafted in the air as we both got out of the car once arriving at our destination, taking the time to gather our things as we walked closer to the private airfield.
Van walked by my side, carrying my two bags while I hoisted the carrier with Fawcett and Thiessen inside higher up on my shoulder to keep it from slipping.
They both meowed in annoyance whenever the bag shifted, and this time was no exception.
“I really thought you were joking this morning when you said you’d be bringing your cats.” Van snickered, taking a small sip of his latte.
“I never kid when it comes to my girls.” I said easily, lightly patting the side of the cat carrier. “They go where I go.”
“No, I admire it.” He said as we kept making our way toward where the private plane was waiting for us. “I think it’s really great of you to bring them along for the ride.”
My mouth opened to respond, but stayed open once I saw a figure walk from in front of the plane, giving us a clear view of himself. I knew he had to be the pilot, based on what Priyanka had told me before, but what I hadn’t been expecting was the pilot to be an Orb.
He was fairly tall, taller than me for sure.
He had flawless, medium brown skin that was honestly a marvel to behold.
Not a single blemish or mishap was readable on his skin, and I was as envious as I was impressed.
His ears were pointed and large, making him very obviously not human.
Also on the list of things that definitely made him different from a human was the fact that he had slitted eyes the color of honey.
The most human thing about him was the long dark brown hair that fell from his skull in slight waves.
I had some serious hair envy all of the sudden.
The Orb flicked what looked like a cigarette down on the ground as we approached, snubbing it out on the concrete with the tip of his shiny loafers.
He was dressed similarly to Van in the sense that he was wearing a beige suit that looked to be perfectly pressed.
His navy tie was neatly tucked into his suit, contrasting Van’s suit wonderfully as we stopped in front of the pilot.
A weird sense of awkwardness fell into the air, and I looked at Van on instinct.
His eyes were wide in shock, like he hadn’t been expecting for our pilot to be an Orb and he was caught off guard.
I mean, I hadn’t exactly thought that our pilot would be an Orb either, but I certainly wasn’t that rattled by it.
So why did it look like Van had seen a ghost all of the sudden?
“Ahh, you must be Alistair Finn.” The Orb said, wiping his hands over the side of his slacks before presenting me his hand. His fingers extended a little further than a human’s, and his nails ended in sharp points and were painted the same shade of blue as his tie. “Nice to meet you. I’m Xoah.”
Xoah’s smile was wide and showy, allowing us to see that he had enlarged incisors on both the top and bottom rows of teeth.
I was pretty sure that Xoah was lycanthe, which I’d learned was the second most populated species of Orb in the world.
The only thing I really knew about them was that a lot of people thought they were fairly similar to sangamar, the Orbs that were blind by nature unless they consumed human blood, but lycanthe didn’t need any of that.
I was sure there was something concrete that set them apart, but I hadn’t heard of what it was specifically.
To me, Xoah just seemed like a handsome Orb that was fairly confident.
Van, however, looked like he was trying to come up with an excuse to bolt.
I didn’t understand why he was looking so ashen.
He’d been pretty vocal about liking how much I supported Orbs and Orb related causes in the past, so I knew he wasn’t prejudice.
I just couldn’t understand what I was witnessing from him.
“Hi, Xoah.” I finally said, shaking his hand firmly. His grip was way stronger than mine and honestly, it was obvious that Xoah was strong as fuck. When we pulled our hands apart, I stifled the urge to flick the feeling back into my hand. “I’m Alistair, and this is Van.”
“Van.” Xoah purred, letting his eyes saunter from me to the taller man to my right, who was still wearing a panicked look that didn’t seem like it was leaving anytime soon. “And Van is your—”
“Bodyguard.” Van interrupted, sticking out his hand and laughing nervously. “I’m Alistair’s bodyguard. It’s great to meet you.”
Squinting, Xoah shook Van’s hand, his eyes bouncing like he was trying to truly assess Van. I kept looking between them, rubber-banding from the scrutinizing gaze Xoah was giving Van and the weird mix of panic and plea that was radiating off of Van. What the fuck was going on?
“Bodyguard.” Xoah echoed, scoffing a little as they ended their greeting. “Right.” He cleared his throat and gave me a smirk. “I’m assuming Priyanka already told you?”
“Told me what?”
Now I was the one looking panicked. I dug around my pockets looking for my phone, only to realize that I’d stuck it in the cats’ bag. I fished it out just as Xoah started talking. I had seven missed calls from Priyanka and two unread texts, as well as a text from Blue that I hadn’t seen either.
“Priyanka and Blue aren’t joining us as planned,” Xoah said, placing his hands on his hips. “She mentioned something about needing to hash out something with the place you played last night so she has to hang back. Blue offered to hang back so she didn’t have to fly commercial alone.”
Sure enough, both the texts from Priyanka and Blue said as much.
Blue was texting me to let me know that he’d calm Priyanka down on the flight over and she was telling me she’d take care of the financial mishap that apparently was going on with someone at the stadium.
I nodded at Xoah and sent a quick text to both saying thank you and that I would see then in Pennsylvania.
“Alright, I guess it’s just us then.” I slipped my phone into the pocket of my gray sweatpants and then beamed at Xoah. “Thanks again for agreeing to fly us for the entirety of the tour.”
Xoah chuckled, gesturing toward the plane and waving his hand at the open stairs that would allow us entry.
“I’m considering it my grand finale before I stop flying.
I’ve been ready to pursue other work and when I got the call from Priyanka, I thought it’d been a nice way to go out with pizzazz.
” He leaned forward a bit, so that he was closer to me than he was to Van.
“I’m actually a fan of your music, so it’s my honor to fly you. ”
“Aww, that’s sweet, thank you so much.” I giggled. It was nice to know that I had fans in the Orb space as much as the human one. “Well, I’m glad to have you.”
“Right, shall we head out?” Xoah glanced at Van, narrowing his slitted eyes at him. “I’m sure you both have a lot to talk about during our hour and a half flight.”
Xoah stepped off then, leaving me to glare at Van and see the dumbfounded look on his face as our pilot stepped up into the vehicle we were about to be housed in.
What the fuck was going on? What was I missing?
I wasn’t sure if Van and Xoah knew each other or what, but I was damn sure going to get to the bottom of it before we made it to Pittsburgh.
We made our way on the plane, and Xoah was nice enough to give us a quick tour, letting us know where the bathroom was and pointing out the bottles of water and bags of chips if we needed them on the little kitchen counter area.
Once he sauntered off to the front of the plane, I noticed that Van seemed instantly more relaxed.
It only further confirmed that something was going on that I wasn’t privy to, and I didn’t like it one bit.
For some reason, I had the distinct feeling that whatever reason for Van’s reaction to Xoah had everything to do with what he’d been trying to tell me since the night we’d slept together at the hotel.
Of course it could be something else entirely, but I was dying to put an end to this awkwardness that was wrapping around him tighter than the damn navy suit he was wearing.
I took a seat in the middle, just one row before the kitchen area.
Sitting down the cat carrier next to me, I made sure to go into my girls’ bag and dig them out a couple treats for being such good sports about traveling.
They meowed at me signs of contentment, lapping up their treats.
I was sitting in the seat closest to the aisle, and Van was directly across from me, also taking an aisle seat.
He looked nervous, but not the same level of nervous that he had when he’d been around Xoah.
With an exasperated sigh, I shook my head at him. “Will you tell me what the hell is going on?” His eyes flared like he hadn’t been expecting my outburst, but I didn’t understand how he didn’t. This had gone on long enough. “What’s going on with you and Xoah and why are you acting so weird?”
A heavy exhale left Van, telling me that he’d been holding on to it for a reason. At least everything was about to be out in the open. He looked around, like he feared that Xoah could come around the corner at any given moment. “Once we’re in the air, I’ll tell you everything.”
“Just tell me this,” I nodded. “Does your interaction have anything to do with the thing you wanted to tell me at the hotel?”
“Yes.” He answered honestly, tilting his head in the direction of the cockpit.
Xoah made a show of getting us in the air, making me a little worried about his flying skills.
He’d at least come over the intercom to say that he was just messing around and we’d been in Pennsylvania before we knew it.
Another five minutes went by and Van still hadn’t said anything.
I’m sure he was nervous, because I could see a sheen of sweat lathering his forehead and bubbling against his skin.
I was beginning to get a little restless, checking on Fawcett and Thiessen when I finally heard him take a chaste breath.
“I don’t regret what happened that night at the hotel.”
My head snapped back to him. I hadn’t expected for him to bring up us having sex. To be honest, I hadn’t been thinking he regretted it at all, but now that the thought was on the hypothetical table, I didn’t like how my mind felt after taking it in.
Not knowing what else to say, I just nodded and added, “I don’t regret it either.”
“I just want to start with that so you don’t think that what I’m about to tell you has to have a negative effect on us having sex.”
“Van, whatever it is, I’m not going to freak out.”
He huffed, rolling his shoulders knowingly. “Remember that you said that.”
“For fuck’s sake.” I chuckled. “Just tell me.”
Sighing again, Van turned as much of his body toward me as he could from his seat, balancing his arms on his knees that were bouncing nervously against the carpet.
Our eyes locked, and I could see the absolute intense terror that was waiting for me in Van’s eyes.
He was really scared. I hadn’t thought, at least on some level, he was scared because he feared my negative reaction.
I was going to tell him that I wasn’t going to freak out again, that he couldn’t tell me anything that would warrant how panicked and afraid he was acting, but he beat me to the punch by just blurting our the last three words I ever would have imagined he’d put together.
“I’m not human.”