Chapter 23 #2
After that, it was just a few minutes before Amelia was shoving a whole bag of food and a drink carrier into my arms, and Davin was leading me back out the door toward his car.
They wished us luck, and I quelled the urge to stop and tell them every single thing that was going on, because they looked so worried.
The whole truth wasn’t going to make that better for them right then, since it ended with “Davin and I are about to storm my grandfather the elder dragon’s castle in the middle of the North Sea. Hope he doesn’t kill us, see you later, maybe . . .”
The trip to the airport was as fast as any drive had ever been, though the walk from the car to the hangar was a little longer, since we didn’t know how long we would be gone, so we had to go all the way to the long-term parking area.
The plane, oddly enough, was already outside the hangar when we arrived.
The people around it, a man in gray overalls with reflective tape and a woman in a deep blue suit, were clearly expecting us, since they waved and she motioned us toward the little rolling staircase without so much as a “let’s see some ID. ”
I glanced at Davin, and he was clearly having the same issue as I was, because his brows were furrowed, and he actually paused before mounting the stairs. “This is Caspian’s plane?”
“Of course, sir,” the woman agreed, smiling, but not seeming in any apparent hurry.
He looked back up at the plane, his eyes focusing on the same thing mine had: the windows, at least from our angle, seemed to be open. They were airplane windows, so it wasn’t like there were holes in the side of the plane, but they were windows.
Letting the sun in.
In the middle of the day.
We climbed up and into the plane, and there, sitting at a table in the middle of the sunny airplane cabin with a thick layer of documents spread in front of him, was Caspian.
He looked up at us and smiled, motioning for us to take seats across from him. The woman followed us into the cabin, and he smiled at her too. “I think we’re ready, Nina. Unless the two of you wanted something else before we leave?”
“Not at all,” Davin demurred, but he continued to hesitate there, just inside the door, while the woman turned and secured it shut.
Through the window, I could see the man in overalls rolling the staircase away, and decided that I didn’t especially want to continue standing around while the woman, clearly Caspian’s pilot, started heading down the runway.
I was clumsy enough without having to worry about staying on my feet at .
. . hell, I didn’t even know how fast jets went.
So I grabbed Davin with my free hand, setting the food and drinks from Teas(e) on the table, then went to shove our bags into one of the open compartments, and closed them up so they wouldn’t fall on our heads when the plane started moving.
Somewhere in all that, Davin seemed to get his shit together and started moving on his own, helping me secure our stuff.
Not five minutes later, we were buckled into seats around the table Caspian was sitting at, each with a cup of tea, looking at a whole bunch of paper that seemed to be . . . “Are those blueprints?”
“Indeed,” Caspian agreed. “I doubt they’re entirely correct, but this is from the company that installed electricity in the castle about sixty-five years ago.
” He motioned to a set of photos on another corner of the table.
“Those are satellite photos taken this morning, and they at least follow the correct shape to be the same building as the blueprints. I couldn’t find information on any other work done, but given the time frame, I won’t rule out that I’ve simply missed something.
” He turned his winning smile up at us. “I might have excellent connections, but I’m not a miracle worker. ”
Me? I thought he was wrong.
The plane, which had been taxiing, made a turn and slowed down, and a second later the woman’s voice came over a speaker. “We’re about to head down the runway, so you might want to secure your papers and drinks.”
Automatically, I turned to set my tea in one of the deep cupholders recessed into the table.
Caspian gathered up a handful of papers and stuck them into a messenger bag, then lifted a strap that seemed to be attached to the table, securing the blueprints under it, so they could stay on the table without shifting during takeoff.
That, finally, was when Davin broke down. “The windows are open. You—”
“Fire mage,” Caspian explained, not a bit of prevarication in it.
“Very, exceptionally, ridiculously old fire mage. I can control how the sun affects me. I’m the only one I know who can, so I don’t go around advertising it.
” He settled back into his comfortable seat, finally strapping himself in.
“I will also be warding you against fire when we arrive there, Davin. Flynn doesn’t need it, and I can’t make anyone immune to being bitten in half if Tadhg has somehow gained the ability to transform, but no one will be dying of dragon fire in this siege. ”
I breathed a sigh of relief at that, because it had actually been a major concern for me. Davin might be fast and strong as any vampire, but they weren’t generally immune to fire.
Him being protected from fire would be a huge load off my mind.
It was good to have one of the most powerful vampires in the world as a contact.