Chapter 17
17
Esther
E sther woke to a rumbling under her cheek and a kink in her neck. She sat up with a squeaky whine as she stretched. Her hand hit the overhead call button, and a small wind tunnel attacked her face. She slapped buttons furiously until it was back in line.
Right. They were on a plane headed to Ashley’s parents in Iowa.
Neither of them could have predicted what a headache holiday flying would be. After traffic to the airport, followed by another hour through security, their plane was delayed because of bad weather—frost, if she remembered correctly. Two hours behind schedule, and she was really regretting forgetting to pack her water bottle. She swiped the top of her mouth with her tongue, trying to ease the dryness.
According to her phone, they were over halfway through their flight. Surely, the drink cart should be by soon. Esther craned her neck to check the back of the plane. A flight attendant offered a cup to the passenger two seats up the aisle. She’d missed her chance. Her shoulders slumped. Maybe she could get up and ask for a cup of water. She turned to Ashley to see if she wanted anything as well and froze.
Ashley sat hunched in her window seat, a sheet of her long hair covering her face, but Esther saw the rough way she was breathing. Short jagged breaths like it pained her to take in air. “Ashley?”
A rumbling deep in Ashley’s core was her only response.
Cautiously, Esther reached out and shifted Ashley’s hair. “Are you all right?”
They had the row to themselves, which offered a bit of privacy. Esther wasn’t sure what she would find behind that golden curtain, but she wasn’t prepared for this. The golden smiling girl from class was gone, and in her place was a vampire in all sense of the word. Her cheeks hollowed, her jaw flexed with tension and her nostrils flaring.
Ashley gazed fixedly at the upright tray in front of her. “Are we close?”
The flight wasn’t supposed to take this long. Neither of them had planned for the hours’ delayed access to blood, and Esther cursed their naivety that everything would work out the way it should. She pulled out her phone with a shaking hand.
“We should be landing in about an hour.” She did her best to keep her voice calm, but the way Ashley pinched her eyes shut told her that wouldn’t be soon enough.
Ashley’s gaze snapped to the front of the plane, following a man as he entered the small restroom.
“I have to pee.” She fumbled with her buckle.
“Wait—” Esther placed a hand over Ashley’s.
Her fangs came out with a snarl, fixing Esther with red-rimmed eyes, the skin around them pulled tight. Esther’s heartbeat ratcheted up ten notches, and she pulled her hands back to safety.
Ashley retreated into herself, hands covering her mouth, shoulders hiked to her ears.
“Esther, I’m so sorry. I would never…” Her words mumbled through her hands, and her head shook as though rejecting her own actions.
She was scared.
This brave, confident, starburst of a woman was scared by the needs of her own body.
“Hey, listen.” Esther didn’t try touching her again but unbuckled her own seat. “I have a plan, okay? I need you to trust me.”
Ashley’s frantic gaze darted around at the other passengers as Esther stood.
“Ashley.”
Ashley’s gaze snapped back to her.
“Keep your eyes on me. You are going to be fine.” She kept her words slow and measured. “I have a plan. Two minutes and you will feel better.”
Ashley pulled tight, her movements more nervous cat in a new space than human. She slunk from her seat, following Esther. Maybe Esther hadn’t thought this idea all the way through, but locking herself in a bathroom with Ashley seemed like a better plan than hoping Ashley didn’t lose whatever control she had left and rampage across the plane. It was a choice that involved other lives, but this was clearly the best option available.
They made it to the stall just as the man slid the bathroom door open to leave. Ashley stared as he passed, and Esther had to pull her from her trance and into the bathroom with her. There was barely room for the two of them. Esther straddled the small toilet while Ashley got the last two square feet in front of the door.
“All right.” Esther took off her black cardigan and placed it on the closed toilet seat beneath her. “The arm is the easiest spot to hide.”
She kept her tone methodical and confident, talking over the heavy beating of her heart. The last time she’d made a big decision involving Ashley, it had resulted in her kissing a vampire and led to this moment with her pretending to be her girlfriend. Try as she might to frame that as a bad thing, she had to work to keep the corner of her mouth from tugging up at the memory. She could offer a little bit of blood to get them through the flight.
Ashley’s brows furrowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Away from the crowds of people, she almost looked better, her body more relaxed. Or maybe she just trusted Esther, which activated a fluttery feeling in the pit of Esther’s stomach that could be flattery or nerves, depending on how she looked at it.
“Try to keep it near the elbow so my sleeve will cover it.” She held up her arm so Ashley had a better angle.
“No!” Ashley shoved her, sending her tumbling onto the toilet seat as Ashley suctioned her body to the door.
Well, that could have gone better.
“We both know you’re hungry.” Esther tried to stay kind but needed to be firm here. “I don’t mind.”
“I can’t… I’ve never—” Tears pooled and fell down Ashley’s cheeks as she tried to look anywhere but at Esther.
“Hey.” Pushing off the seat, Esther regained her footing and took Ashley’s hand. “What’s wrong?”
Ashley swallowed, her gaze fixed on the sink. Her words came out in barely a whisper. “I can’t stop.”
She sniffed and wiped her face with her sleeve.
“Okay.” Esther nodded confidently, but that complicated things. Of course, even a choice she made for herself had to have consequences. But they were in this now. She didn’t have an alternate option. “Okay, we’ll make this work.”
Distance. They just needed distance. And a lot of luck. She studied Ashley’s shrunken posture one more time and knew what she had to do. She propped her boot on the toilet lid and pulled out her emergency switchblade.
Ashley jumped as she flipped it open. “How do you have that on a plane?”
“Never mind that.” It was time to take action. Sucking in a fortifying breath, she cut down her arm. Nothing too deep, just an inch or so. Enough that red bubbled to the surface, spilling over the cut and dripping to her elbow.
A soft hiss came from Ashley as Esther tucked her blade away.
Confidence felt important at this moment. “Get on your knees and open your mouth.”
Ashley’s irises dilated to full black. She dropped to her knees at Esther’s feet. It was a little exhilarating. Being dominant wasn’t a usual kink for her, but the power of having someone like Ashley—a powerful, confident, sunflower of a vampire—obeying her was a heady cocktail in and of itself.
“You are not going to touch me, okay?” Esther said.
Ashley nodded. Esther braced one foot on the toilet seat and her healthy arm against the frame of the door so she hovered over Ashley.
At first, everything went as it should. Esther clenched her fist, and a drop of blood rolled down her elbow, landing on Ashley’s eager tongue. The second hit her bottom lip before Ashley licked it away, and Esther imagined that tongue on her body. Those lips pressed to her skin. Another drop fell, and Esther cursed the space between them. The flow was too slow, and she felt Ashley growing just as impatient.
Her arm grew heavy. That was what Esther told herself as slowly, it lowered closer and closer to Ashley’s lips until Ashley’s cool fingers curled like lover’s claws around her bicep and another around her wrist. She gasped at the feel of Ashley’s lips on her inner elbow and sank into the moment.
No consequences, no danger. Just Ashley’s skin on her own, Ashley’s tongue running down that sensitive joint, Ashley’s teeth scraping, testing the limit of her skin.
It wasn’t until a gentle tug from Ashley nearly knocked Esther over that she realized how dizzy she was.
“Ashley.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Ashley didn’t respond, and at first, Esther thought maybe she hadn’t heard her. This was fine. What a way to go, really. All pleasure and no pain.
But Esther remembered she wasn’t done living. She touched Ashley’s cheek. “Babe, you’re done.”
The hand around Esther’s bicep tightened. Ashley took a shuddering breath as she pulled away.
“Esther.” Something in Esther’s face must have been upsetting because Ashley’s eyes watered and her arm wrapped around Esther’s waist, helping her sit. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to go so long.”
“It’s all right.” Esther touched Ashley’s cheek, marveling at the slight flush to it. “Let’s go back to our seats.”