Chapter 11 #2
“The jet is waiting about ten miles south of here at a private airstrip,” the largest explained, his voice rough.
“We will follow you there and take our car back with us. Everything else is loaded on the jet. We will also return the car to the nightmares back west.” He turned his attention towards me with a head nod.
“Your father told me to inform you to contact him as soon as possible, Miss McCroy—”
“No,” Saint interrupted.
I looked at him in bewilderment.
“I don’t like you being labeled with another man’s last name.”
“Babe, you don’t even have a last name! I’ve always had my dad’s last name.”
Razar huffed in amusement, intertwining his fingers with mine and pulling me into his chest. Amun offered Saint a confused look, while everyone else seemed amused by his antics. “I hadn’t heard it used until now, and I really don’t want you labeled like that.”
I turned back to the man from before with a smile. “Thank you for the help. We should be ready to go in thirty minutes.”
“We will be waiting.” The man nodded his head as they went to their cars. I finally turned back to Saint, who totally had a scowl on his face.
“You don’t have a last name,” I again reminded him.
“I do,” Cy offered, Saint breathing out a sigh of relief.
“Fucking glad someone does. See, flower? Now you will have a new last name,” he proclaimed proudly before looking at Cy. “What is it?”
“Lavoie.”
“Arabella Lavoie?” Saint considered it. “Acceptable.”
And then he was gone.
I ran a hand over my face and shook my head. “Does he realize it’s a legal process to change my name?”
“Or get married,” Damian pointed out, stoking the fire. Blackwell let out a rumble of agreement.
Or get married. As if it was the easiest thing in the world.
I wasn’t positive if there were formal marriages for nightmares. Did we get married in human legal terms? I’m sure we could, but did we want to? I sort of liked the idea of it being recognized everywhere, but I knew they wouldn’t allow for multiple partners—
Blackwell appeared behind me, tugging on my ear with his teeth. “Come on, love. We need to get the fuck out of here.”
So now was not the time to talk about marriage, then?
I squeaked as his hand hit my ass, and I hurried towards our room to get everything packed.
Turns out I didn’t need to do much at all.
The guys were so freakin’ efficient, we were done in ten minutes.
I stood outside as Zain went to check out of the motel, eager to get to the plane and to put on some of my own clothes.
Thick clouds were rolling in, threatening a storm. That would be cool to watch from the sky. I had no idea where my father’s intel would tell us that the god terrors were, but I was hoping it was somewhere warm—possibly even close to Nia, the sis meta. Was that too much to hope for?
After a short drive, taking the back roads to avoid any potential problems, we pulled up to a private airstrip with more military vehicles present. I breathed out a sigh of relief at the sight of the familiar dark jet that the ISS teams used from time to time.
I jumped out of the car and strode towards the jet, only coming to a stop when I saw Ashur standing near the stairs. Everyone else, including Amun who looked absolutely fascinated, went immediately onto the jet.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him, briefly hearing Razar talk to the pilot about heading west. Bingo!
That made this so much easier—otherwise I may have had to put my foot down on saving Nia first. Although I needed to look at what my father had left me for sure.
A thrill of energy went through me, suddenly excited to get back at it and finally narrow in on the threat.
I was good at this. I was the best at planning, so it felt good to be back to doing what I knew I was capable of controlling.
“I haven’t been up in the air in a very long time,” Ashur admitted. “Let alone in metal.”
I could hear the cautious edge to his tone and offered my hand with an understanding smile. “I promise you it’s totally safe, but if you want, you can sit right next to me. It’ll get us where we need to go far faster. In fact so fast, you won’t even realize we are in the air.”
“Are you seriously afraid right now?” Damian demanded from the door.
“Hey!” I narrowed my eyes at him, and his expression turned sheepish. “Not cool.”
Damian grunted. “It’s not about him being afraid, it’s just… He’s like a legitimate creation terror, cherry blossom. That’s fucking ridiculous.”
Creation terror. That was totally what we were calling him.
“Everyone is afraid of something,” I pointed out.
Damian’s gaze softened and he nodded, offering me a hand as he motioned for me to join them.
When I looked back at Ashur, he was staring at me with a wide-eyed, almost surprised expression.
Then he picked me up. I could practically hear Damian’s huff of frustration from here.
“You guys like picking me up a lot.”
“You’re very liftable,” Blackwell stated as we entered the cabin. The light cream interior made the space seem huge, and in the far back I could see the door for the private suite…with a bed. That sounded amazing.
“Come on.” I tugged Ashur’s hand to one of the seats, Razar sitting down across from me and sliding a tablet and folder across the table between us. Immediately I was smiling, because for once it seemed that my father’s intel and my desire to rescue the sis meta lined up.
“Where are we going?” Zain asked.
“California.”