2. Lucky
Lucky
My grandfather helped me through the terminal with my luggage. I tried not to wince at the four huge suitcases we were rolling along between the two of us, plus the carry on slung over my shoulder, but I would be gone for thirty days in paradise! I needed my stuff!
We’d gotten to the local Moonhaven airport without any issues, but I hadn’t expected anything less. My chaos magic seemed to bounce right off my grandfather. As a matter of fact, he chuckled over it sometimes, saying it tickled.
It tickled.
The magic that made my life a living nightmare tickled him.
Must be nice to be a full-blooded leprechaun.
I had expected him to drive me to the Portland airport, but Finn and my grandfather had worked out a deal for one of King Draven’s shifter pilots to take me all the way to Maui. And I’d heard from Dice that they were paying him hazard pay for the trip.
The little hopper plane that we’d take from this airport would be switched for a larger jet in Portland, then we’d fly nonstop to Maui.
The whole trip was only supposed to take six hours or so, but my anxiety didn’t seem to care about the amount of time I’d be in the air because my hands were clammy and cold, and I would bet anything I was paler than a ghost right now.
“Your lips are turning blue, granddaughter,” my grandfather Liam said as he handed the luggage over to the attendant, and I scooped up my boarding pass when the attendant handed it across the counter.
Why I still needed one when I would be the only passenger, I had no idea. But I guess rules were rules.
I didn’t comment or look back as the attendant grunted as he tried to lift my luggage and lever it up onto the conveyor, though I could feel myself blushing.
Maybe I’d gone a bit overboard?
I thought about all of the things I’d brought with me to make my resort stay feel like home for the next thirty days and shook my head. Nope, I needed it all. I just hoped my luggage actually made it to Maui with me.
My grandfather put a gentle hand on my arm, stopping me from continuing on, and then pulled me into a hug when he could feel my whole body trembling in mortal terror.
“It’ll be alright, lass. I have a good feeling.”
I closed my eyes, resting my forehead against his shoulder.
“I’m going to be in a tin can flying thirty thousand feet in the air with chaos magic. What about this is giving you a good feeling?”
He chuckled. “Trust the leprechaun.”
I sighed, pulling away. My grandfather loved me, but he couldn’t understand what it was like to be me. But I would try, again, to keep some hope alive that this wouldn’t turn into a disaster. Even though every experience in my life had taught me that it would.
I only hoped I survived.
“Did you put leprechaun magic on my bags?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Right and tight, I did. It’ll all get there safely.”
I made a face. “Can you put leprechaun magic on me too?”
He flashed me a grin. “Now, lass, you know that kind of magic doesn’t work on people, just things.”
I grumbled under my breath as I picked up my carry on, and shouldered it again. “I wish you were coming with me.”
“I do too, but the Sheriff and I will be busy tracking down any leads we can find on clearing you of this chaos magic.” He paused, and then in a lower voice continued.
“He told me you’re willing to go vampire if we can’t find anything else.
” He paused again. Looking torn he finally said, “I can’t say, lass, that I would want that for you.
But, if it’s our last resort, I’m proud of you for being willing. ”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a vampire,” I argued lightly, checking where I was supposed to meet King Draven’s pilot. The text message gave me a gate number—there were only three at this airport—and I started heading in that direction. “Perfectly lovely people can be vampires.”
His smile was sad. “Yes, lass, they can. But you would be locked into the night for quite a while, and my granddaughter is a being who shines too brightly to be a creature of the night.”
“I would get to go out in the sun eventually,” I said quietly, avoiding his compassionate and too-knowing eyes. But it was a good point. It took a few hundred years for a vampire to be able to enjoy full sun again without pain.
Did I really want that?
I bit my lip. No. But if it was my only option... I’d do it. It was exhausting being me. After thirty-four years, I was due some peace.
My grandfather and I said our goodbyes shortly after.
I hustled through security—and made every machine beep so loudly they sounded like sirens.
When that was finally cleared up, and they’d gotten entirely too close and personal with me, I boarded the tiny plane, glaring at the rickety steps that creaked underneath me as I stepped inside the cool cabin.
There wasn’t a steward or stewardess—just me and the pilot with hazard pay—so I hurried to a seat by one of the windows that could open in an emergency.
I chose the aisle seat though, and pulled the window shade down so I couldn’t see out.
Then I did that for every seat near me and on the opposite side of the aisle, just in case.
I was terrified of heights—and flying. My fear of heights was so bad that if I even saw a camera pan up high on a movie my palms got sweaty.
And my fear of flying? Well, let’s just say my dreams the last few days had all been awful.
They had either been about me falling from a great height and waking up before I hit the ground, or else I was getting sucked out of an airplane, screaming like a banshee, while the airplane turned into a flaming ball of fire and exploded right before I woke up.
The Captain’s soothing voice came over the comm relaying the need for me to fasten my seatbelt, and to turn my phone to airplane mode. I did that with shaking hands, then clicked my seatbelt in, jerking up on the buckle to make sure it was secure.
I went to put away my phone, but saw that I’d gotten a text from Dice a few minutes ago.
Probably when security had been assaulting me.
The courage you used to rescue a unicorn from a bunch of idiot smugglers with guns, and to knock out two home invaders with a skillet? Find that. And have fun. Doctor’s orders.
I snorted as I shoved my phone into my purse.
Little did she know I’d been terrified the entire time during both of those instances.
Because I didn’t want to white-knuckle the armrests the entire time, I took a dose of Tizanidine I’d brought with me. One, if I was going to die today, I’d rather die in my sleep, thank you very much. And two, it was either the pills, or one very long, debilitating panic attack.
I chose to sleep instead.
We switched to a bigger jet in Portland, and I did the same ritual as before, closing all the blackout shades, and making sure I sat by a seat where there was an exit in case of an emergency.
I was still groggy from the Tizanidine earlier. The pilot had been forced to wake me up and get me hustling through the gates and toward the plane we were switching to.
Jerking up on my seatbelt, I made sure it was secure before I dug out my bottle of medicine again. I looked at the directions, then groaned. Our short hop from the central Oregon coast to Portland had only taken about an hour, and I couldn’t take another dose for another three hours!
Shakily, I put the pill bottle back inside my purse, and clutched the straps of my seatbelt to make sure it was secure again.
Then, when I started hyperventilating, I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing.
When that didn’t work, I unfastened my seatbelt, making a light above me ding angrily, and tore through my carry on in the compartment above my seat for my weighted stuffed dinosaur.
Finding him, I hurried to sit and fastened my seatbelt again, then grabbed a throw blanket and my dinosaur and tried not to pass out.
“Welcome aboard, Miss Carra. Our nonstop flight to Maui will take a little over six hours. Sit back, and try to get some sleep if you can. We’ll be there in no time.”
I wondered if there was a cabin camera pointed directly at me because my pilot was speaking to me in a low, calming voice as though he knew I was mid-panic attack and was trying to soothe me.
It wasn’t soothing.
I was pretty sure if the airplane didn’t kill me, a six-hour panic attack would.
I was trying to take a few deep breaths in through lungs roughly the size of a kiddie straw when the seat beside me suddenly went from empty to occupied.
Nick.
I glared at him just on principle for crashing my trip, but immediately felt bad because his mocha skin had instantly gone pale when he heard my pitiful too-fast wheezes and gasping breaths.
Still trying unsuccessfully to drag sweet oxygen into my lungs, I tried to distract myself with what Nick was wearing—a Hawaiian tee shirt, board shorts, and flip flops. Because of course he was. And his gargantuan frame filled his seat to capacity, spilling over into mine.
I didn’t mind, though, because I was suddenly so glad Nick had decided to pop in that I could have kissed him. If I had any air in my lungs, I would have. As it was, my lack of oxygen was making dark spots flash behind my eyes.
Nick reached for my hand and clutched it in his larger one, and I held onto him for dear life. Despite the high-pitched whine in my ears distracting me, I heard his knuckles pop from my tight grip. He didn’t complain, though.
“What are you,” gasp “doing here?” I was getting really lightheaded. I wished I could get more air into my lungs, but I couldn’t calm down enough to do it.
Nick’s smile, I was sure, was intended to be one hundred percent disarming, but I could read the deep concern in his light grey eyes. “I’m going on vacation with you. I took the entire month off.”
“No you’re not!”
He petted my arm like he was trying to soothe a fractious animal, then took my hand. “It’ll be okay, Lucks. Let’s get your breathing calmer first, and then you can yell at me all you want, okay?”
I whimpered, closing my eyes. This was freaking fantastic. Why did Nick have to see me all the time when I was at my worst? Just once could he see me at my best? When nothing embarrassing or chaotic was happening to me?
Sadly, I knew that would never happen. Chaos was basically my brand, unintentional though it was. Any other reasonable being would have been scared off by this point, but Nick seemed entirely unfazed.
Using his genie magic, he blinked something up that looked like a bright blue child’s toy, then handed it to me.
I took it from him in bewilderment, and I didn’t think it was the panic attack and the lightheadedness that was causing my confusion, because he’d just handed me a child’s toy like it was the answer to all of my problems.
“Breathe into it. You’re hyperventilating.”
He said it so genuinely, as if he were actually being helpful and I didn’t understand what was happening. And how, exactly, would a child’s toy help?
“Just trust me, sunshine,” Nick said, his body language tensed and stressed.
I didn’t have the breath to critique his Lucky rescuing skills, so I did as he asked.
It made a horrible rattling sound when I breathed into it, but the slight pressure was making a huge difference at slowing down my panicked breathing.
After a minute, my breaths were much calmer, and the lightheadedness had mostly passed.
I took it out of my mouth and inspected it in surprise. I was still lightheaded, but I wasn’t gasping for breath anymore, and that was a huge win for me. “Can I keep it?” I never knew when a good anti-hyperventilation device would come in handy.
Nick chuckled and the tension visibly bled out of him as he slumped down in his seat. I wanted to squeeze his hand in support, but didn’t. Coming to my rescue was basically his brand at this point.
“Of course. It was for you.”
“Thanks.” I stowed it in my purse, then turned back to the handsome detective. “Now, let’s try that again. Why are you crashing my vacation?”
“I needed more sunshine.” He held up his other hand as though swearing an oath. “I promise, you won’t even know I’m there.”
Famous last words.
I eyed him doubtfully as he refused to let go of my hand.
Why oh why did I have a funny feeling he was talking about needing more of me and not the flaming ball of plasma in the sky?
Well, at the very least, my vacation wouldn’t be boring.