Page 12 of Tainted Blood

“Yes, it is only the first part of the list,” he agreed, and it was painfully obvious he hated this as much as I was about to. “On to the next part…”

6

Watching as our bags were carried onto the plane, Alexius hovered at my side, anxious to get on with the trip.

A week had flown by. I had spent most of it studying the guest list Alexius had procured from Isaiah and the notes they had given me about who would be at this function.

“I wish Isaiah could have given it to us earlier,” I mumbled.

“He didn’t see anyone he thought was suspicious. Beyond that, not everyone he sent invitations to would attend. He needed to finalize the list.”

I snorted, having heard those excuses a few times this week since I brought it up every time I spoke to Alexius about the guest list.

“How are you so… relaxed about this?” I demanded, watching another load of our suitcases taken up the small jet’s stairs.

“It’s better to remain calm and work with what I have than try to rail against things I can’t change. I have to look forward, not backward.”

“We could have started working on this earlier. It would have been smarter.”

“We were, but intel is not easy to come by. Making sure you can protect yourself is a long-term endeavor that demanded my attention. Isaiah is working on this as well. We’re not alone. He’s the one in charge of security, for example. We’re going to this inane function to get information on the other vampires, perhaps even their opinions and feelings on current events. We’re not looking to catch anyone here. We can’t pry too deep and find ourselves stirring up trouble.”

“Still…”

“If we had spent months digging up everything about the others, they would have noticed and would have called Isaiah and Maria to complain. I am good at what I do, but I’m not invisible or infallible. If I’m suddenly trying to learn about people, most of them assume I am trying to build a case to…” Alexius looked around, and my eyes followed his. We were effectively alone on the tarmac, none of the humans too close to us.

“When I am looking into people, they assume I am trying to find a reason to execute them. Generally, it’s these people who call me in when they find themselves dealing with something that has stumped them in one way or another. If they don’t know why I’m looking into them, they could assume Isaiah is finally using me as an assassin, something he and I have done our best never to do or even imply it might happen.”

“So, we had to sit on our hands and do nothing for appearances?” I was frustrated. I’d spent a week reading over names and locations I could have learned weeks before and felt more comfortable with. I felt like I was going in blind, and I hated it.

“No,” he growled, leaning down. “I was making sure you can survive if one of them tries to kill you. It took precedence and willalwaystake precedence. Do you understand me? Whatever information we may find will always be there, even if the process of finding it changes. However, if I miss a single step in your training…You are just gone. You were faster than me in Alaska, Everly. The second you decided you were going to run, there was no hope of me catching you. In the space of losing track of you and finding you again, there were probably a dozen ways you could have gottenkilled. Therefore, I’ve trained you, and to me, that is worth all the time it’s taken and will continue to take until I am certain you will be able to handle whatever the world throws at you.”

I looked away. I couldn’t keep my eyes on him, not after that. The feeling of being shut down so effectively was one I wasn’t accustomed to, not the way he just did it. I wasn’t sure whether I should have felt guilty for not caring about my own training or if I was still angry that no research had been done. I didn’t know if he was saying I was stupid and going to get myself killed, or if he was just saying he didn’t want me to die, and that’s why it was important to him.

So, I didn’t know how to feel as we were told that it was time for us to board. Alexius went first, leaving me standing on the tarmac. He didn’t want me jumping onto the plane without one more step that the humans weren’t prepared for. He was checking for sabotage, bombs, or something suspicious. He finally came back, giving me a signal that it was safe for me to board.

We sat down in the expensive little private jet and waited. He picked the seat right next to me, even with several others available. Leaning away from him, I frowned at his proximity. We were both silent through takeoff, and once we were in the air, I got up to sit farther away from him.

“Are you going to do this the entire trip?” he asked me as I sat down.

“Do what? Think?” I glared over my shoulder at him, then dropped my bag on the free seat next to my newly chosen spot. He visibly winced, which took the wind out of my emotional turmoil and cooled my confusion-driven anger. “Sorry. What you said was… kind of harsh.”

“I know. I don’t know what came over me. All I want is for you to come out of this unharmed. That’s all.”

“Thanks for that,” I said, trying to smile because he’d answered one of my unasked questions with that simple statement. “Are we safe to… talk on the plane?”

“Yes. The humans on the ground weren’t sworn to secrecy, but everyone on the plane is. We can speak about anything we’d like. Nearly. They’re Isaiah’s people, so they might report to him on things we say.”

“Sir, we would never,” a human woman said with a smile as she walked into the cabin from the flight attendant area.

“Certainly,” Alexius replied deadpan as he got up and moved to sit across from me this time. He watched her the entire time until she realized he wasn’t going to ask for anything, and neither was I. After a few minutes, she left for her own seat, and Alexius turned his focus on me.

“They know we’re vampires, just as you did while working for Jacob.”

“Yeah, I should have put that together,” I mumbled, looking at the curtain that separated us from the humans on the plane. “You know, I’m not trying to get myself killed, okay? I just… feel bolder than I used to. Things feel less… terrifying in a lot of ways. I have more focus, more drive. I’m not sure how to explain it.”

“You’ve become an immortal. That’s changed your physiology, which, in turn, has altered the way your body responds to certain external factors—”

“That’s not it, not all of it. Some of it, sure, but that’s not all.” I picked at a string on my jeans. I had fought to wear more comfortable clothing for the flight because I didn’t see why I needed to be dressed up to arrive a night earlier than everyone else. I was definitely not going to fly in heels. “I want different things than I used to. I want to catch the assholes who helped Edwin and Turned those college students in Alaska… more than I’ve wanted anything in a long time. For the first time in my life, I feel…”

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