Chapter 5
“A what?” Paige shouted, leaping from her seat. The blanket cascaded down around her ankles, tripping her as she tried to take a step toward the cockpit.
Devon grabbed her wrist and tugged her back to the couch. “They have enough to deal with. Sit down and buckle up.”
“Buckle up?” Paige asked as she plopped back into the leather seat and dug in the cushions for a seat belt. “Is he serious? He can’t be serious.”
The plane wobbled again, shaking all over. “Mmmm, pretty sure that he is,” Dewey said as he struggled to tighten the seat belt across his tiny lap.
Paige stared ahead with a frown on her face. This couldn’t be happening. “A crash? We can’t crash.”
Devon grabbed her hand and squeezed. “It’s okay, Paige. We’ll be okay.”
She tugged her hand from his, grimacing at him. “Seriously? You’re using a plane crash to hit on me?”
“I was trying to be helpful,” he argued.
“Helpful? You know what would be helpful? Not crashing!” She slapped a hand against the leather seat.
Dewey lifted a shoulder as the plane banged around. “Helpful for you and me. Devon doesn’t care.”
Paige crinkled her brow.
“Day-walking vampire,” Dewey said. “A simple plane crash won’t kill him.
Well, unless he happened to land on a diamond-dipped blade on the ground, but the chances of that are…
pretty slim. The odds are that he just rises from the wreckage and walks away completely unscathed, while our bodies are a burned, mangled mess.
Maybe they’ll find some teeth to identify us–”
“OMG,” Paige shouted, rubbing her temples, “please stop talking.”
“Sorry,” Dewey said, with a shrug.
Paige sliced a hand through the air as the plane leaned hard to the left. “You are literally the worst in a crisis. Just the absolute worst.”
Dewey wrinkled his nose. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Uh, like the time we were stuck in that underground tunnel and you told me about all the thousands of tons of rock and dirt pressing down on me.”
Dewey puckered his lips. “Oh, I’m sorry I like being honest.”
“It’s completely unhelpful. The point is to not panic the other person.”
Dewey tapped his chin with a claw before he jabbed it in the air. “Oh, I know! This will help you calm down.”
“What is it?” Paige asked, squeezing her eyes closed as the plane jarred again.
“We can jump.”
Paige snapped her eyes open to stare at him. “That’s actually not a bad idea. We’ve done it once before. Maybe we should.”
“Yeah,” Dewey said, “then only the pilots will die a fiery death.”
Paige fiddled with her seat belt, unbuckling it and struggling to stand as the plane lurched. She raced toward the backpack parachute holder and flung the cabinet open.
Her eyes went wide, and she ran a hand along the empty interior. “No!”
“What is it?” Dewey asked, peering over the back of the couch.
“It’s empty!”
“Oh, right. We used it.”
“Don’t they replace it?” Paige cried.
“Yeah, but I mean, who could have figured we’d need it so soon after the last one?”
Paige ran her fingers through her hair as she chewed her thumbnail. “With my luck?”
Dewey grabbed the RP and tapped around on it.
“What are you doing?” Paige asked, rushing toward the couch and clinging to it as the plane tilted precariously again.
“Just putting a note in here for Ronnie to replace the parachute…unless we crash, then there’s no point.”
“OMG,” Paige groaned again as she planted her palm on her forehead.
The plane wobbled again, causing Paige to stumble forward and slam into the couch. She glanced up with pinched features as she adjusted her glasses. “This doesn’t seem good.”
The speakers crackled to life overhead. “We lost an engine. We’re trying to get it back, but things don’t look good.”
Paige hurried around the sofa, plopping down on the cushion next to Dewey and fastening a seat belt around her. A worried groan escaped her lips.
Dewey eyed her and bobbed his head up and down. “It’s okay, Paige. With your luck, we’ll die in a fiery crash and not feel a thing.”
“Dewey, that’s not helping.”
“I don’t know why everyone’s so upset,” Devon said. “We can bail out. We’ll be fine, outside of landing in some random spot with limited provisions. But we can take the backpacks. There’s water here and some food. We’ll load them up.”
Paige narrowed her eyes at him. “Did you miss the part where we don’t have a parachute? Let alone two of them. We don’t even have one for one of us.”
“Well, two,” Dewey said. “I’m small enough that I could go with either of you and not cause a weight issue.
My size actually is an advantage in this instance.
Though putting you both on one parachute could cause an issue.
Between his beefy muscles and that extra breadstick that you ate at the last pizza party–”
“Stop it!” Paige interrupted, with a wave of her hand. “It doesn’t matter how many breadsticks I ate. We have no parachute for me to be too heavy for!”
Devon stared at them with a crinkled brow. “Is everyone forgetting that I have wings?”
Paige stared at him with her jaw agape. “I didn’t know they worked.”
“Of course they work. Why wouldn’t they work?”
“I thought they were decorative.”
Devon’s brows knit tighter. “Why would they be–“
Paige shook her head and unbuckled her belt. “Never mind. Forget it.”
“She also thinks dragons and trolls hoard gold. Basically, she thinks everyone hoards gold. I’m surprised she hasn’t accused you of hoarding gold yet.”
“I do not think that. That’s not true,” Paige retorted, shooting a glance at Devon.
“Okay, well, either way, my wings work. I just need to morph into beast mode, and we can jump out of this plane with no problems.”
“What about her weight?” Dewey asked, poking a finger at Paige.
Paige pressed her lips together and shook her head.
“Not a problem. I could carry her in regular mode. She’s a lightweight for me in beast mode.”
She offered him a smile and nod. “Thank you.” She flicked her gaze to Dewey, with her chin raised. “See. I’m light.”
Dewey unbuckled his seat belt, fluttering into the air and crossing to his backpack. He grabbed a water bottle and tossed it into his bag before he loaded several more into Paige’s. “To be fair, Paige, in beast mode, he could probably carry a car.”
Paige pushed herself up to stand, falling back to the couch immediately as the plane shuddered again. “I’m going to see what they think is the most likely outcome. I’m not jumping out of a plane with a vampire into the middle of who-knows-where if we don’t have to.”
“Good idea. We’ll finish loading up the food, just in case,” Dewey called.
Paige stumbled to the front, pushing into the cockpit. Alarm bells blared as the pilots fought to steady the plane.
“Hey, guys, sorry to interrupt,” Paige said, nudging at her glasses, “looks like you’re pretty busy. But what would you say our odds are here? The reason I ask is because we’re going to bail out if we’re going to crash.”
“I would say the likelihood of a crash is good,” the pilot said through clenched teeth as he fought to control the stick.
“Oh, okay, well that’s not too good. Umm,” Paige said, glancing over her shoulder, “there are no parachutes on board since we used the one to jump into the mountains last time near the Mouth of Hell cave. But lucky for us, Devon has wings, so we’re going to use those. But umm–”
“Don’t worry about us. We have chutes up here. We’ll bail if needed. Best for you to go now, though.”
Paige’s heart thudded against her ribs as he answered. She tugged her lips into a disappointed frown. “Okay, umm, right. Great. Any idea of where we are?”
“Somewhere over the rainforest,” the pilot answered. “Good luck.”
Paige sucked in a breath as she stared at them fighting to control the plane for another second. Fingers wrapped around her arm and tugged her backward. “Well?” Devon asked.
Paige swallowed hard, her head bobbing around between both a nod and shake. “Not good. He wants us to bail out now.”
“Okay, we’re all set. Probably best for you to hang on to Dewey. You’ll also have to take all the bags. I can’t carry mine with the wings.”
“Right,” Paige said, with a nod. “Of course. I’ll just do everything, and you worry about flying.”
Dewey flew over to her, dangling his tiny pack from his paw. “Can you take mine, too?”
“Are you kidding me? I already have to take both backpacks and you.”
“But–”
“Carry it on your stomach,” Paige said with a shake of her head as she tugged her backpack onto her back, then loaded Devon’s onto her front.
“How are you going to hold me with that thing on you?”
“We can’t leave it,” Paige said. “We need the supplies.”
“But–”
Paige unzipped the top part of Devon’s pack. “Get in.”
Dewey flew backward, wrinkling his nose. “No. I’m not a piece of luggage to be packed.”
“You are now. Get in,” Paige said with a poke of her finger at the interior of the pack.
Dewey grimaced at her as he flew over and climbed into the bag. “Just don’t–” he started as Paige zipped it almost shut “–zip me in.”
He wriggled a claw out and pushed his arm out of the compartment.
“Ready?” Devon asked.
“I think so,” Paige said, with a nod. “Let’s do this.”
“Here we go.” Devon cracked his neck, rolling it from side to side before it bent at an odd angle.
Paige winced as his skin prickled before turning black. His jaw distended, and fangs poked from inside his mouth. Wings sprouted from his back as horns poked through his head.
In seconds, Devon’s hulking beast form glared at her with red eyes.
“Uhh,” Paige said, her forehead crinkling as she stared at him, “he knows what he’s doing right? Like he can hear us and see us and recognize us.”
“Yep. Pretty sure,” Dewey answered.
“Pretty sure?” Paige squealed, her voice an octave higher than normal. “I’d like to be one hundred percent sure.”
The central claw on Devon’s left foot tapped against the floor as he took a step forward. The plane dipped again as he trundled toward them. Paige winced as his flat face came closer to hers.
With a growl, he extended his arm and motioned for her to come closer with a blackened claw.
“Looks like he recognizes you,” Dewey said as the plane jarred again. “And not a moment too soon. Let’s blow this popsicle stand.”
“Right,” Paige said with a nod as she allowed Devon’s dark arms to wrap around her. He grunted something unintelligible. She wrapped her fingers around the door release.
“I hope you said to open this.”
She wrenched the handle and flung the door open. The wind ripped into the cabin, blowing her hair wildly. Devon clutched her tighter to him as they inched closer to the opening. Paige squinted her eyes as the wind assaulted her face.
“Ehhhh, please don’t drop me, Devon,” she whined as they teetered on the edge.
A grunt reverberated in her ear as his arm tightened around her. They leaned out the door. Paige groaned as the ground sped past under them.
“Okay, on three,” she shouted. “One, two–“
A scream escaped her lips instead of the last number as Devon flung himself out of the plane. Her stomach turned over as they plummeted toward the thick canopy of trees below.
“OMG, WE’RE GONNA DIE!” Dewey screamed.
“What?” Paige shrieked.
“WE’RE GONNA DIE!”
“But–”
“PUMP YOUR WINGS!” Dewey shouted as the wind blew his lips back from his teeth.
“DEVON!” Paige screeched. “FLY!”
They continued to drop toward the Earth. Tears blew out of Paige’s eyes despite her glasses shielding them, streaking back toward her hair. She swallowed the bile creeping up in her throat. Her fingernails dug into Devon’s arm as she braced for impact.
Devon’s body shifted as his massive wings jutted out from his back. Paige’s body lurched as he fought against gravity to slow their descent. She kicked her feet, despite there being nothing below them.
Their plunging halted, and they hovered above the trees. Paige pressed her lips together, forcing her breathing to slow from the frightened gasps she’d sucked in moments ago. She let her head fall back against Devon’s shoulder and squeezed her eyes closed.
“Oh, thank heavens,” she murmured.
He grunted in her ear again as Dewey poked his head out of the bag and peered down. “Whew, that was a close one.”
“Tell me about it,” Paige said. “Okay, down, boy. As grateful as I am to not be falling, I’ll feel better when my feet are on solid ground.”
Devon lowered them slowly, swooping through a break in the trees and landing in a warm stream. The water penetrated Paige’s shoes, soaking through to her skin.
“Ugh,” she moaned as she crawled from the hot water onto the bank. “You couldn’t have landed on the dry part?”
Devon’s beast form stalked from the tropical water onto the shore, where he shed his bulky shape and returned to his human one. “Sorry. My wings wouldn’t fit through the trees.”
Dewey scrambled out of the bag on Paige’s belly and buzzed into the air. “Where are we?”
“The jungle,” Paige said as she slid off her backpack and tossed it aside before collapsing onto her back.
“No kidding, Paige. That’s obvious. But where? Do you know how big the jungle is?”
“Too big,” she murmured.
Dewey wrangled the RP from within one of the discarded packs and powered it on. He fluttered into the air, waving it around. “Great, no signal.”
“Surprise,” Paige said, opening her eyes and rolling onto her side.
Devon plopped down next to Paige. “Were the pilots any more specific when you asked them?”
“They said, and I’m quoting here, ‘the rainforest.’ Though to be fair, they were kind of busy with the plane crashing.”
Dewey slipped deeper into the dense vegetation, disappearing from their sight for a moment.
Paige pushed herself up to sit. “Dewey! Dewey, don’t go too far. I don’t want you to get lost. Or eaten.”
Dewey buzzed back out a moment later. “I’m right here, Mom . Someone’s got to figure out where we are.”
“Going into the rainforest’s not going to help.”
“Actually, it may help,” Dewey argued. “And it did help. I think I know where we are.”
Paige’s eyes went wide, and she scrambled to pull her feet under her. “You do?”
Dewey nodded. “Yes. Based on the landmarks I spotted when we were plunging to our almost-deaths and local vegetation, I think I do.”
Paige splayed her arms out to the sides. “Where?”
“Pretty deep in the Brazil part of the rainforest,” Dewey answered. “We’re miles from any known civilization. Like, thousands of miles.”
“Oh, great,” Paige said, slapping her forehead with her palm. “So we’re as good as dead. Oh, unless we fly out of here. Can you fly for thousands of miles?”
Devon shook his head. “Not thousands of miles, no.”
“Shoot,” Paige said, with a sigh. “So we’re done for. Finished. Finito. As good as dead.”
She fell onto her side and pounded the earth with her fists as tears welled in her eyes. “We survived a plane crash, only to die in the rainforest.”