Chapter 24
Inverness, which was indeed where we were landing in northern Scotland, was beautiful at night.
Not that I suspected most cities looked very different from each other from the air in the dark.
Maybe really unusual ones, like Las Vegas or Paris or something, but mostly, it was just a swathe of bright lights against the dark.
We’d stopped to refuel somewhere on the East Coast, also in the dark, so I figured we might actually be getting close to morning.
It made more sense, Caspian constantly jetting all over the world, since he could go out in the sun. I couldn’t imagine how most vampires would do it. A private plane with a coffin-style room with no windows? That sounded pretty terrible to me.
Although . . . the bathroom in Mother’s plane was pretty enormous and had a little recessed seating area on one side that a person could lie down in, as well as very sturdy locks on the inside. So yeah, I supposed that was the answer.
We all stood and stretched after landing, and it was nice to be up and moving again. Twist was grumbling about the lack of dinner from her pocket, so I turned to Caspian. “We’re going to need a whole lot of food. For the cat more than me, but I should probably fill up too.”
“Not to worry,” Caspian promised, waving me off as he stretched up onto his toes, and his back gave a little pop that I could almost feel myself.
“I’ve got reservations at my favorite hotel in town.
It’s lovely. We’ll take at least twenty-four hours to rest and ready ourselves, not to mention see if any further information pops up about renovations inside the castle.
Wouldn’t want to miss out on anything we can get just because we rushed. ”
“You don’t think he’ll be preparing for us?” Davin asked. That was my boyfriend, the worrier.
Fuck me, I loved that guy. It was really convenient that he remembered things like that, when I was just fantasizing about a big fluffy bed.
“I definitely think he’s preparing for us.” Caspian said the words like they were nothing. Not a threat or a concern, just a simple fact like the temperature outside.
The temperature was fucking freezing as Nina opened the door to let us out, leading to a stairway that the airport employees had already brought alongside the plane.
What the hell?
“Isn’t it summer here?” I asked, wrapping my arms around myself.
Davin and Nina both turned and gave me looks like I was speaking a foreign language, but Caspian laughed. “It is summer here, in fact. But this isn’t Southern California. It’s northern Scotland. I’d say it’s about . . . Fahrenheit? Forty degrees.”
Nina held up her phone, pressing a few buttons, then nodded.
“Forty-two.” Then she turned to me and shrugged.
“I’d rather be in SoCal too, but Scotland is pretty.
As long as we don’t have to go to Vegas or Cairo.
My skin can’t handle that much dry. The pressurized cabin in the plane all the time is bad enough. ”
“I told you I’d buy you a skincare company,” Caspian offered.
She rolled her eyes. “Just buy me the skincare products, dumbass. What am I gonna do with a company? I don’t have time to play CEO.” She reached up and scrunched her halo of ebony curls, frowning. “Something for my hair, too. This humidity is going to kill it.”
“Anything you need,” he agreed. “Just put it on the card I gave you. You’re wasting your whole life flying me around. I will buy you anything you need or want. House on the French Riviera. A new plane.”
“A house I’ll never visit, gee, thanks,” she said, rolling her eyes. “And the plane is good enough. It’s one of the nicest I’ve ever flown. Any more complicated and I’d need a copilot, even with you being my emergency backup.”
They went on like that, and it struck me as very much like my own banter with any or all of my friends. I supposed if they spent all their time flying around the world together, it made sense. It would suck to spend all your time with someone you didn’t think of as a friend.
There was a car waiting for us, and I wondered if Caspian had arranged everything, or if there was another employee, or army of employees, hidden in the wings making things happen.
In the moment, it didn’t matter enough to ask.
I just dumped my bag in the trunk with everyone else’s and climbed into the back of the car, where Nina was eating the last of the scones Amelia had sent along with us.
I’d offered it to her, since there was no reason to throw away perfectly good food, and I didn’t think she’d eaten since we left California.
“This is the most delicious thing I’ve had in my life,” she told me. “It’s from a shop in Avalon?”
“Teas(e), I agreed. The, um, last e is in parentheses. Like, it’s kind of a pun?”
Caspian took pity on me and interrupted. “They also make excellent chocolates, which we’ll have to get you when we get back to California. I’m afraid I ate all of them.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes while shoving the last of the scone into her mouth. “If they’re half as good as that strawberry jam, I’ll come out of my cockpit and fight you for them next time.”
“He makes one with the strawberry jam in it,” I offered, and she narrowed her eyes at Caspian.
He threw up his hands defensively. “That wasn’t in the box. Just chocolate covered caramels. I did not withhold strawberries from you.”
“Kaz, I swear to you, I will turn this car around and go back to California.” Her tone was perfect, just like something my mother would have said to me when I was a kid, making trouble on the way somewhere.
He pouted, but pointed out, “You’re not even driving.”
That brought out the also-familiar “bitch, please” face I knew all too well. She didn’t even have to point out that she could do the job without being the driver.
I was almost disappointed when the drive to the hotel was on the short side. Or maybe it had been long, and I’d just been so entertained by the two of them, I hadn’t noticed. I couldn’t hear planes overhead anymore, so . . . maybe that one.
The hotel was . . . fuck me, we got out of the car, and it looked like we’d stepped into a resort. If it hadn’t still been freezing cold, I’d have wondered if we were in Hawaii instead of Scotland.
There were tall columns and marble stairs, heading up into a huge front room that was more lounge than check-in desk. In fact, despite the hour, there were waitstaff meandering between chairs and tables, bringing drinks to the people sitting in the area.
Damn.
We didn’t go up to the desk at all, but were approached by a man with a handful of .
. . maybe brochures? “Mr. Bardia,” he said, smiling and holding out the—oh, not brochures.
Those folders hotels gave out that contained room keys.
“Two suites, as requested. The two in the north wing, right across from each other.”
His accent was the first thing that reminded me yeah, we were actually in Scotland.
He slid his fingers apart, revealing that it was just two glossy folders in his hand, and Caspian took both, then turned and held one out toward Davin and me.
“I thought the two of you would want a bit of privacy, since you haven’t been getting any for the last few days.
I love Fiona like a daughter, but she’s not the kind of woman who’s ever going to butt out of your life. ”
I took the folder with a nod, and tucked it into the front right pocket of my coat, so as not to annoy Twist. “True. But that’s okay.
She’s a good mother, even if sometimes it feels like it verges on smother.
I couldn’t have asked for better.” Then I turned to the guy who’d brought the keys.
“Any chance of getting room service at this hour?”
“Of course,” he agreed. “The kitchen is always open for our guests. You’ll find the menus in your rooms, or on the hotel website, if you like. You can either call or order online for delivery to your room.” He leaned forward to touch a QR code on the front of the folder in Caspian’s hand.
Nice. “Thank you so much.”
“Mmm, food,” Nina muttered from next to Caspian. “Kaz, order me a steak while I shower?”
“Of course,” he agreed, motioning for her to go ahead of himself, and then turning and making the same motion for us. “Shall we? Might as well get as much rest as possible before the storm.”
“Oh, I hope you’re not flying out in it,” the man said as we started to walk away.
Caspian sighed and half-turned back to him. “No rest for the wicked, I’m afraid.”
Then the two of them chuckled together like they were old friends, as we headed out of the lobby down a very long hallway, Nina leading the way like she’d been there many times before.
How often did Inverness need attention from the senate?
I didn’t think it was technically even big enough to safely harbor vampires, let alone be a hub of travel for one of the leaders of the senate.
“How many vamps have you sired?” I asked Caspian as we walked, and it was a heck of a walk. Was it a one floor hotel? Weird.
He didn’t turn to face me, just gave me a side-eye and lifted brow. “You don’t think that’s personal?”
“I know it is. But you’re kind of my grandfather, in a weird way. I figured I had a little room to be personal.” I leaned into Davin. “I mean, you already know what I’m gonna spend the next day doing.”
That, apparently, was all he needed. He tossed his head back and laughed.
“Mother’s father helping you handle father’s father, is it?
Well, Fiona has never in her life acted like anyone’s child, but I suppose it’s fair enough.
The answer is two. And I’m afraid you’re never going to meet your uncle.
Your mother is the next best thing to an only child. ”
“I mean, she acts like one,” I offered, to more laughter. Even Davin chuckled at that.
When Nina stopped, we were literally at the end of the hallway, the only things left a single door on either side of the hall and a blank wall at the end.
She turned back to look at us. “There’s still time, gramps.
You’ve got lots of childbearing years left ahead of you.
” Then she glanced over at me and Davin.
“Though I suppose you two are more likely to jump into procreation. Too bad nobody can have babies there, you’d make pretty ones. ”
Davin blushed and looked away, which was adorable as hell, but I just smiled and held up the room key. “I tell you what, if there’s a way, we’re about to find it. No stone unturned, that’s my motto.”
“That is not your motto at all,” Davin muttered, but a tiny smile was turning the corners of his lips.
“We’ve just got to feed Twist first, and then you’re all mine. Twenty-four hours of all the debauchery you’ll let me at.”
“Flynn!” he huffed, exasperated.
I grinned and waved at Nina and Caspian before I unlocked the door to the room and headed inside.
No offense to them, since their company was proving to be a lot of fun, but I had a kitten to feed and a boyfriend to have, and I wasn’t going to waste a single moment of our impending privacy on anything else.