Page 7 of Justice

Liberty laughed. “He nailed it, didn’t he?”

Oak’s throat cleared, saving me. “About Dragon’s Eye . . .”

He let the words trail with nothing, in particular, to say about it. He was clearly trying to keep us focused, but my mind was running a million miles a minute. I wouldn’t be able to offer much help past what I already had. I looked down at the girl attached to my side, trying not to smile as she stifled a yawn.

“I think I’ll just sleep. We can talk in the morning when we land,” I said before reaching under my seat and grabbing a blanket to throw over Liberty.

“You can sleep when you’re dead,” Oak stated, no humor in his voice. “We need to do this now.”

Ellis’ eyes danced with humor. “Did Oak just make a vampire joke?”

Liberty sat up, and I had to fight not to chase her body warmth when it parted from my own. Laughter coated her voice. “I think he did.”

“I did not make a joke, only stating facts.” His voice held no humor.

“Except –” she leaned forward and grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer to her, “You all have been dead for two hundred years.”

She kissed him then, and the sight never got old. Over and over, I could watch her kiss Ellis or Oak, and it never once stopped the appeal toward her. It made me crave her, long for her, anticipate the next time it would be me under the assault of her lips. Oak made a sound before his hand wrapped around her hip and pulled her forward, letting her fall onto his lap as she straddled him.

She pulled away. “Can we please sleep, Oak? It won’t matter how much we plan if we are all too tired to carry it out.”

I could tell he wanted to deny her request. Oak was the person who needed everything in perfect order. He needed a plan laid out and a back-up plan in place. But we were going in blind, restricted to online photos and possibly dated information. There would be no plan b to create. We only had one chance.

He buried his head into her neck, and I was jealous, wishing it was my lap encased in her thighs. I saw his head shake in agreement before he pulled back. “Fine, we sleep. But as soon as we get to the cottage, we form a plan.”

Then he lifted Liberty into his arms as he stood before carrying her to the far end of the plane where plush couches and feathered pillows sat waiting. He gently laid her down before crawling into the space behind her.

When I openedmy eyes again, the seatbelt sign was blinking, reminding us to buckle up for the plane’s descent. I yawned while stretching my cramped limbs, trying to work out the kinks that I had accumulated over the last few hours. In front of me, Ellis was wide awake reading a magazine. I turned my head, searching for Liberty.

She and Oak were asleep, though I always suspected he never really slept. Still, his eyes were closed, and his arm held her close, and if I didn’t know he was a two-hundred-year-old fucker, or that someone was trying to kill her, I would almost say they looked peaceful.

“Stop staring. It’s making my skin crawl,” Oak mumbled, his voice thick from hours of silence. How the hell did he see me with his eyes closed?

“Don’t flatter yourself, Oak; I wasn’t staring at you.”

“Stop staring; it’s making my skin crawl,” Liberty repeated Oak’s words. Then she giggled before opening one eye to watch me. “Did you sleep well?”

“As well as I could considering we were thousands of miles in the air, your life is in danger, and my seat didn’t recline.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Whose fault is that? I see plenty of couch spaces around.”

“None with more of you on them.”

She laughed, the rich sound filling the cabin, and I wasn’t sure if the flopping in my stomach was from her or the plane’s sudden descent to earth. “There is room by my feet.”

She needn’t hint more; I was up and slipping into the spot by her feet before she could blink, disregarding the seatbelt sign to do so. Her feet fell into my lap as she stretched out, and I grabbed them, squeezing her toes. “Perfect.”

My sigh of content was quickly stifled by Ellis’ body plopping down on the couch in front of ours. “So, we are about to land.”

“No, shit,” I scoffed. “What gave it away? The blinking signs or the announcement that woke everyone up?”

He ignored me. “Are we taking a cab to the cottage?”

Oak and I both looked at him, gaging what he was thinking, before we both said, “No.”

Ellis groaned and threw his head back against the seat. He looked at Liberty with a pout. She sat up. “No, what?”

“We have a brother here, one of James’ other children,” I told her. It wasn’t that we disliked the others; we just didn’t know who we could trust without James here to compel loyalty.

---