by Sophia Sharp
“Oh.” Nora blinked. She had forgotten all about that. “…no.”
“Now seems the best time,” Hunter said gently. “We’ll be going into the city soon, and he won’t be able to follow. And then, if everything works out, we’re bound on a plane to a different continent.”
Nora swallowed. She admitted to herself that maybe she hadn’t forgotten, per se, but rather decided not to think about it. She didn’t know how Gray would take it. Especially now, after he had been wounded. There was no way he could come with them though. And she didn’t know how long the trip would take, or…she gulped…or if she would even come back.
Hunter placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll understand what we need to do,” he said, “and at least you have the advantage of the connection with him.”
Nora nodded stiffly. Her eyes burned. Was she crying? No. This wouldn’t be the last time she would see Gray. She wouldn’t let herself cry over such silly thoughts.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Hunter said, stepping away. Glancing back once at Nora, and then again at Gray, he started slowly downhill. About halfway down, he stopped and sat down on the ground, looking up at the stars.
Nora turned toward Gray. She was dreading the moment she had to tell him. She was dreading his response. But Hunter was right. It had to be done now. And Gray had to understand.
He was looking curiously up at her as she walked to him. She sat down beside him, sighed, and only then let her hand fall onto his head to form the connection between their minds.
She started again by sending him another wave of appreciation. For what he did for her, for how he bravely rescued her and saved all of them in the process. And then – Nora knew this was going to be hard – she pictured the two of them, right where they were.
Then she made her image flicker. And slowly, the image of herself faded away, until there was only Gray left, by himself, on that spot.
She felt confusion come back to her. Confusion and…misunderstanding. As if he wasn’t clear on what she was telling him.
She sighed, and tried again. She thought back to the moment she first saw him, when Hunter lowered him into her arms. Back when she took full responsibility over him. She let him feel the accountability she remembered feeling at that moment and made him know that it was related to him.
Gray nuzzled the side of her arm, and Nora turned away. Her eyes were moist. Like it or not, this would likely be their final goodbye. She kept her arm on his back and continued transferring her thoughts through the link.
Next, she let him see how she saw him grow up, so very quickly, until the image of him in her mind was exactly as he was beside her right now. Confusion still echoed back through the bond.
Nora sent him her memories of being trapped in the tent. Of being bound to that wooden stake and knowing there was nowhere to go. And then of Gray arriving to heroically rescue her from her two captors.
She made him see how she watched him grow, from a nearly helpless cub to a fully grown, enormous bear. He could take care of himself now, and that was what she was trying to communicate to him. That he could take care of himself, and that he didn’t need her anymore.
A shockingly strong wave of hurt pulsed through the link. Nora blinked in confusion. She had only thought that last thought, and not communicated it with him through the emotions and images. And yet, his response was as strong as if he understood her completely. She frowned. Was there more to the connection that she believed?
She started thinking again through where she was going and why she would need to leave Gray. She couldn’t bring him into the city, and afterward, they would need to fly to Egypt. He couldn’t board a plane with her. But she would come back here as soon as she got back to find him again. It would be the first thing she would do, no matter what happened. The only question was whether she’d be able to get back. She would do everything in her power to make sure that happened, but it was nothing she could guarantee…
Concern echoed through the connection. Nora frowned and looked at Gray. He was looking at her through heavy eyes, but she was sure he understood what was going on. Instead of feeling upset or dejected over what she had to do, he understood, and the concern she felt was what he felt for her. Because she had communicated enough for him to understand that where she was going, she would not be completely safe.
She was impressed with how Gray was reacting to all of this. There was no bitterness, no sourness that she felt from him. Only simple concern for her wellbeing, as always. She threw her arms around him in a giant hug. “I’ll miss you when I’m gone.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
~Into the City~
“Good news,” Madison announced, as soon as Nora arrived. Nora had seen Madison and Alexander approaching Hunter while she was still taking care of Gray and had come down soon after. “I haven’t been keeping track, but tonight is a Friday night.”
“So?” Nora asked.
“So,” Madison smiled, “there are literally hundreds of people out celebrating the start of the weekend. We can easily blend right into the clamor.”
“And what’s more,” Alexander added, as he came up behind her, “ we managed to get you some decent clothes.” He tossed a red Macy’s bag to her.
“You…bought this?” Nora asked, as she caught the plastic bag. “How? I didn’t know you had any money.”
“I didn’t have any use for money in the short time you’ve known me,” Alexander laughed. “Which is not the same thing as not having any.” A small plastic card appeared in his hand, and he examined it casually. “Even a Vassiz needs to have a source of income to blend in with the humans.”
“Thanks,” Nora said, as she picked open the bag. Inside, she found a beautiful white blouse complete with a matching pair of light jeans. “Wow,” she breathed. “You really shouldn’t have.”
“Well, we wanted you to blend in,” Madison said. “And to do so, you need to look like you’re out enjoying the night.”
“Yes, but this is exquisite,” Nora replied. “You guys really shouldn’t have.”
“Yes, we should, and moreover, we needed to. You need to be kept safe, and that means looking like you belong in the high-end district of Portland.”
“That’s where we’re going?” Nora asked.
“Of course. That’s where all the action is tonight. And none at the hotel will raise an eyebrow at two young couples checking in in the middle of the night.” Madison winked. “It’s the fastest, and best, way of getting you to the hotel safely.”
“Before we have a chance to make good on those disguises, that is,” Alexander added. “And, moreover, Madison has already found where Jacob is.”
“You have?” Hunter asked. “How’d you do it so quickly?”
Madison shrugged, but a smile tugged the corner of her lips. “I asked around – obliquely, of course – and got exactly the answers I expected.”
“So he’s close then? You’ll be able to meet him tomorrow?”
“I think so,” Madison said. “We still need to be careful, of course, and I’ll have to do it myself as we discussed before…but there shouldn’t be any problems in making initial contact with him.”
“The trouble is getting him to agree to help us,” Alexander said, “and to do so while guaranteeing he won’t give us away.”
“I think I can manage that,” Madison said with a wink. “Tomorrow, I’ll set up the first meeting.”
“You should go on and change into that,” Alexander said to Nora. “We want to get down there before last call and the crowds die out.”
“Oh!” Nora exclaimed. “Sorry. I didn’t realize… I mean… I’ll be right back.” Gripping the Macy’s bag, she rushed back to the edge of the woods, where she hurriedly ripped off Borrak’s old shirt. Even though she didn’t find it quite as repulsive as she expected the first time she threw it on, finally getting it off was a relief. She rummaged through the bag to get the white blouse, and sighed as the delicate material fell on her s
houlders. After going so long without a change of clothes, and then being forced to wear something her captor once owned, having a nice piece of fabric lie against her skin was fantastic. She was also a little surprised when she found the blouse was an absolute perfect fit.
Next came the jeans, which were just as exquisite and felt just as good. They were a good cut even if the fit was a little snug.
She began to stuff Borrak’s shirt into the bag, and then thought better of it. She didn’t want to soil anything anyone had given her with that particular piece of clothing. Instead, she reached back and hurled the shirt as far away from her as possible. It flew through the air and snagged on a high tree branch just as it started coming down. Nora shrugged. So be it. Better there than anywhere around her.
She walked back down toward the others, and as soon as Alexander got a look at her, he whistled through his teeth.
“Looking good,” he said teasingly, and earned a jab in the stomach from Madison.
“You look beautiful,” Hunter told her softly, taking her hand and bringing it up to his mouth. Nora shivered as his lips brushed delicately against the top of her hand. As his hand dropped, he continued to look right at her with a gaze so intense and so powerful that Nora started to feel her cheeks go red. But she couldn’t look away. She felt, strangely enough, almost like she did that first time she saw Hunter walk into class, all powerful and confident and strong. And she was just the little girl caught in his tailwind.
Madison cleared her throat, breaking Nora out of her spell. “If you will,” she said sweetly, “we still need to get into town tonight. There’ll be plenty of time…in private…later on for both of you.” She winked surreptitiously at Nora.
“She’s right,” Alexander said, clapping Hunter on the shoulder. “We should get going if we want to blend in.”
“Of course,” Hunter said. “Forgive me.”
Nora stifled a giggle. Hunter, apologizing? She must have really had an effect on him in the new getup. She found herself wishing she could see what she looked like right there and then.
Hunter shot her an abashed look, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking – particularly about him – but then just shook his head and strolled forward. This time, Nora made no attempt to hold in her laugh. Alexander shrugged his shoulders at her, but then followed after Hunter. As he went forward, Nora thought she heard him say something dangerously close to “young love” under his breath.
“Come,” Madison said to Nora. “You’re going to fall in love with the hotel Alexander chose for us.” Nora smiled, nodded, and fell into step beside Madison.
From where they started, the distance to the outskirts of Portland was longer than Nora expected. But because they were all able to run, it flashed by in the blink of an eye. Before Nora knew it, she found herself walking the streets of a familiar and yet entirely new city.
It was familiar in that she had been there before – back when she was just a human girl – and remembered seeing some of the landmarks. Most of those stood out in the distance, and even against the night sky she could see some of the taller buildings she remembered from the shopping district. But it was entirely new because of the way it played with her senses.
At first, it had been nothing she could make comment on. Running toward the city, she had picked up wafts of strange, intense smells that she never noticed before. But as they got closer, all those smells intensified, until they blended together into a disharmonious cacophony of the senses. It was the smell of the buildings, of the hard concrete and cold cement, of the underground piping and sewer system that came to her first. But then all those smells kind of died in the background as she found herself walking closer and closer to the heart of the city, where the entertainment district was. Even from far away, she could already hear the sounds of raucous late night partying coming out from the bars and clubs that they were walking toward. And people began dotting the streets – a few, at first, but then a bit more, and then some more again, until she had to push through thick crowds just to keep up with Madison and the others.
The people, of course, were the source of the overwhelming smells. Each one of them had their own very unique scent that Nora could have picked out in the blink of an eye. And at first, when there were not many people around, it had been easier to ignore the tantalizing smell of blood. But when she was nearly drowning in a pool of unyielding, unrelenting smell, it seemed very much impossible to ignore the call of blood – whether she was satiated or not. But Nora could not possibly allow herself to lose control. She gritted her teeth and tried to breathe through her mouth to dull the sense. None of it worked, of course. She shuddered at the thought of being out here amongst so many people if she hadn’t recently fed.
“Here we are,” Madison said into her ear, looking at a building right in front of them. Nora had been so preoccupied trying to dull her sense of smell she hadn’t even realized where they were. She looked up and gasped.
In front of her was an enormous building – a skyscraper. Nora looked up, trying to get a sense of how many stories there were, and lost count at a hundred. The top of the building seemed to just blend in with the stars in the sky, reaching up into them and ever-higher.
And the structure looked delicate. Not delicate like it would collapse in a gust of wind, but delicate in the way that a very fine piece of jewelry might look. Everything about the building – from the golden tiles layered on the floor to the large, sparkling pieces of glass that opened up the lobby – was built with an expert hand and extraordinary care. The angles of the outside face had a very modern look, and different types of glittering metal formed the door frames and outer walls of the building. Everything about it screamed luxury.
“…Wow,” Nora finally managed. She had never been anywhere so obviously opulent, and after sleeping on the forest floor so many nights – back when she could sleep – this was just an unbelievable contrast.
“And the rooms inside are even better,” Madison said to her. Nora stepped aside as a couple rushed out into the night, right between her and Madison.
“How can you afford this…?” Nora began, but Madison cut her off.
“Don’t worry about it. We need somewhere to rest and recuperate. Besides, this is the last place any of the Vassiz would think to look for you. They know you as a destitute young girl, not a grown, powerful woman.”
Nora opened her mouth to reply, but Alexander stepped in before she had a chance. He produced a small key-card from his pocket, and handed it to Nora. “Here you are,” he said, “that’s the key to your room. Fifteenth floor, room 554.”
“554,” Nora repeated.
“Don’t worry about remembering – Hunter has a key as well.” Alexander smiled knowingly at her. Then he drew Madison into his arms. “Well, she and I should be going…”
“Where?” Nora asked. She jumped as someone put an arm around her waist, but then relaxed when she saw it was Hunter.
“Well, we figure the two of you could use some privacy,” Alexander smiled. “Besides, I haven’t been in this city for a very long time. It’ll be good to have a chance to look around.”
“We’ll meet you tomorrow morning in the lobby,” Madison said. “A half hour past the break of dawn.”
“We’ll be there,” Hunter confirmed.
“And…don’t you two have a room?” Nora asked.
“Yes, we do,” Alexander nodded. “More for show, really. I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you. Go upstairs and enjoy yourself. It’s not every day you get to stay at a place like this.”
“No,” Nora said to herself, “it definitely isn’t.” She didn’t know if it were her nerves, being among so many people, but something about the place felt a little bit off. And the way Madison and Alexander seemed to be so eager to leave…?
“We’ll see you guys in the morning,” Hunter said, and both Alexander and Madison turned and headed away from the building. Nora looked up at Hunter, who flashed a brilliant smile. “Ready to see what t
hey’ve prepared for us?” he asked.
Nora nodded.
Chapter Twenty-Five
~Jacob~
“What are you thinking about?”
Nora turned her head toward the voice. Hunter was looking at her from his perch on the bed. His shirt was off, and the covers were pulled up haphazardly to his waist.
Nora sighed. “My family.” She turned her head back toward the window, where the first rays of the morning sun were just starting to creep over the horizon. This early in the morning, the entire city in front of her seemed so peaceful. Everything seemed so simple. Only a few cars were moving over the landscape. She couldn’t see a single person from where she sat. She knew it was only temporary, though.
Pretty soon, the streets would fill with people going to work, or coming back from their night out, or whatever it is people do in the morning outside. And she and Hunter would be right back where they started, still hiding from other Vassiz while at the same time preparing their fight against the most powerful of all the Vassiz.
She heard Hunter get up and walk toward her. She didn’t move until he put his arms around her waist and leaned his head gently on her shoulder. “Do you miss them very much?” he asked, as he kissed the side of her neck.
“Yes,” Nora whispered. The feel of his skin against hers always made her feel…not nervous, exactly, but like a jolt of electricity had just come and gone through her entire body.
“You know how sorry I am for taking you away,” Hunter said softly. His kisses made their way up to her ear. “But as soon as all this is over – with the elders, and the torrial, and everything to do with that – the first thing we can do is go back to see them.”
“No.”
Hunter jerked back. Nora blinked. She didn’t realize how much venom she put into that one word.
“What I mean,” Nora said, more softly this time, “is that I can’t do that. Not to them. I can’t ever see them again, Hunter.”
He frowned…and shook his head. “That’s not true. Once we’ve dealt with everything that needs to be done, there’ll be no one who can tell you what you can or cannot do. Seeing your family – it’s what you want, isn’t it?”
