Part 3 (1/2)
”Well, maybe you should consider the real situation,” I admonish. ”Like the guy you're supposed to be watching? You know, the one crying out in pain and agony in the next room?”
Tanner rolls his eyes. ”Newbie vamps are always like that,” he rationalizes. ”Just like babies, sometimes it's best to let them cry it out.”
I squeeze my hands into fists. ”Well, I think maybe we should give him some blood.”
”He ate two hours ago.”
”Well, maybe he needs some more.” ”n.o.body likes a fat vampire, Sun.”
I grit my teeth. ”Just give me the d.a.m.n syringe, okay? I'll feed him myself.”
The two meathead vampires exchange glances. ”If you move away from the TV...”
I take a deliberate step to the side.
”Oh man!” Tanner cries, pointing at the flat screen. ”You made us miss the fight scene!”
I glare at him. ”If you don't give me the syringe this second, I'll start another one right here in the cabin.”
”Fine, fine,” Francis says, tossing me the kit. ”Go to town.” Then he and his buddy turn back to the TV.
Rolling my eyes, I head into the plane's small second bedroom, where Jayden sits on the decidedly less luxurious bed than the one in the master bedroom. His hands and feet are chained to the bedposts and he's staring listlessly at the television, which is, for some reason, tuned in to CSPAN.
Jayden's eyes light up as he sees me. ”I think they're hoping I'll stake myself from boredom before we get to England,” he says wryly, nodding his head toward the television. I grab the remote and turn the channel to Animal Planet. After all, I know he misses his dog and cat friends back in Vegas.
”Better?” I ask with a small smile as I sit down on the edge of the bed.
He grins. ”Much.” But from his look, I'm not sure he's referring to the TV.
”Are you okay?” I ask, looking him over. ”I heard you moaning in here. Are you in pain?”
”Ugh,” he says, looking sheepish. ”I didn't realize anyone could hear me. How embarra.s.sing.”
”It's okay,” I say, resisting the urge to reach out and give him a comforting touch. After all, I promised Magnus I'd stay at arm's length. ”Are you hungry?”
”Starving,” he admits. ”I've drunk tons of blood and it doesn't even begin to satisfy me. The only stuff that does...” He trails off, looking longingly at my neck bandage. ”And, let's just say, I don't want to be that guy.” He bites his lower lip. ”G.o.d, I'm already humiliated beyond belief that I just drank from you like that. I don't know what I was thinking! I mean, I guess I wasn't thinking at all. I was just so hungry. And once I started-well, I just couldn't stop myself.” He trails off, his face red as a tomato. ”I'm so sorry, Sunny. If I had hurt you...”
”It's okay,” I a.s.sure him, hating to see him so traumatized. ”I'm totally fine now. And hey, I don't blame you one bit! After all, everyone knows I'm just too, too delicious to resist!”
He grins. ”Like a hot fudge sundae with extra, extra whipped cream.”
”Really? I was thinking more like a b.l.o.o.d.y Mary.” I wink.
”Or maybe a bottle of Sunny D?” ”Sunny A-negative, to be precise.”
We both start giggling hysterically and for a moment everything seems like it's going to be okay. Then reality hits and we both sober.
”I'm so sorry this is happening to you, Jayden,” I say, reaching over to squeeze his hand. Yes, I know I'm not supposed to be touching him. But he's chained up. What harm could he do?
He squeezes my hand back with a vampire strength that makes me wince. Oh yeah. That harm. ”Sorry,” he says quickly, loosening his grip. ”I'm just glad you're here now. All of you. I was completely freaking out back in Vegas, on my own, not knowing what was going on or what I could do. But now I feel like I've got this whole vampire family looking out for me. I mean, even if this doesn't work-even if I'm doomed to be a vampire forever-at least I know the Blood Coven's got my back.”
I give him a sad smile, my heart wrenching at the hope in his voice. If only he knew the truth. That the Blood Coven isn't the happy family he so desperately wants it to be. That they would have put him to sleep in five seconds flat if it wasn't for my intervention.
But he doesn't need to know that. And once we cure him with blood from the Grail, he'll never have to deal with vampires again. Even if I can never go back to being normal myself, I can make sure that he does. And he deserves that, at the very least.
”I'm going to give you some of my blood,” I inform him, rising to my feet and walking to a nearby chair. ”If I drain it in here, will that bother you?”
He shakes his head. ”No, it's fine,” he says. ”As long as you talk to me while you're doing it.” He pauses, then adds shyly, ”I've missed you, you know.”
”I've missed you, too,” I admit as I sit down on the chair and tie a rubber band around my arm. It makes me feel like one of those heroin addicts you always see in movies. ”And I'm really sorry I didn't get in touch once I got back to Vegas. Things have been... Well, crazy doesn't even cover the half of it.”
”What happened?” Jayden asks. ”I thought everything was cool with the Blood Coven and you were just going back to Ma.s.sachusetts.”
I slap at my arm to find a nice vein to draw blood from. ”Yeah, so did we. Until our parents dropped the ultimate bombsh.e.l.l on us.” I stab at the vein with the hollow needle and a moment later thick, syrupy blood drains down a tube and into the awaiting blood bag. It hurts like a mother, but I remind myself that this small sacrifice may very well save my friend's life and so I'm going to have to deal.
Jayden leans forward in bed, his eyes greedily watching the process. ”Bombsh.e.l.l?” he manages to ask without drooling.
And so I give him the 411. About our fae heritage, the threat on our lives, hiding out at Slay School, being kidnapped by fairies. The works. And it's not 'til I come to the part about my dad sacrificing his life to save my sister that my voice cracks and the tears well up in my eyes.
”All this time we thought he was just a selfish jerk,” I blurt out, emotions. .h.i.tting me hard and fast. ”Abandoning us to start a new family-not caring whether we lived or died. But instead he was out there that whole time, forcing himself to stay away in an effort to keep us safe from harm. Before he died, he told us that not a day had gone by that he didn't think of us, wis.h.i.+ng there was some way to rejoin his family.” I make a face. ”Meanwhile I was basically sticking pins in a Dad-shaped voodoo doll, cursing his existence on the planet. Some daughter I am.”
Jayden gives me a sympathetic look. ”You didn't know,” he reminds me gently.
I scowl. ”I didn't bother to find out either. I just took it all at face value without questioning what was really going on. And now he's gone. And he's never coming back. And I'll never get a chance to tell him how much I love him. How much I've always loved him...”
”Maybe you didn't get a chance to tell him,” Jayden replies quietly, ”but I bet he knows all the same.”
I look over at him, through my veil of tears. ”I hope you're right.”
”I am,” he says, his voice leaving no room for argument. ”And I can tell you something else, too. Your father would definitely not have wanted you to be sitting here, beating yourself up over the 'what if's.' To negate his sacrifice with regrets. He'd want you to think of all the good times you shared together, don't you think?”
”I suppose so...”
”Try it. I mean, what's your favorite memory? Something the two of you shared.”
I don't even have to think before answering. ”Every night when we were little, he'd curl up in bed with me and Rayne and tell us the best bedtime stories known to man. They'd always start out exactly the same. 'Once upon a time there were two fairy princesses, Suns.h.i.+ne and Rayne.'” I grin. ”Who would have thought those stories were actually nonfiction?”
Jayden gives a low whistle. ”Fairy princesses. Seriously, that's, like, the sweetest thing ever, Sun!”
”I don't know about that.”
”So do you have...” Jayden pauses, grinning sheepishly. ”This seems so silly to ask.”
My face heats as I realize what he's wondering. ”What, wings? Yeah. I do.”
”Can I see them?” His voice betrays his eagerness, which totally makes me blush hard-core.