Page 42 of Kissed the Mark
“And that’s why the werewolf smelled likeyou.” Slowly but surely, the pieces were finally coming together.“What do we do about Mateo Rivera?”
“Nothing, right now. We have bigger fish tofry. Fish named Patricia.” Leandra slumped into her computer chair.“I’m sorry for throwing your suitcase. To be honest, you couldn’thave used any of that stuff, anyway. We could buy you a toothbrushin Europe.”
“How did I get stuck in all this?” I asked,more to myself than to her. For a moment, I wallowed in self-pity,nearly bringing myself to tears. Something we didn’t have timefor.
Leandra’s expression softened. “I did it,”she said. “And I’m sorry.”
But I’d brought myself into it, too. I’dsought out Matt Rivera the first time and started that whole cycleof events, and I’d gone along with Leandra in her schemes, even ifI hadn’t known what they entailed.
“Are you buying the plane tickets, or am I?”I asked.
“I’ll buy them right now.” She tapped on herphone screen. Idly, I pressed my thumb to the silver daggersheathed to my leg. I wasn’t a betting woman, but if I had togamble on it, I would say that the TSA would not let me take thedagger on the plane.
“Shit,” I said. “My passport.”
“Oh, damn you humans and your stupidairplane laws. You know back in my day, we could just—”
“You sound like a grandmother.”
“I’m offended,” Leandra said, followed by,“I ordered the tickets.”
“We have to get my passport, Leandra.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Fine, we’ll goback to your place. I wanted to say bye to Yuki anyway.”
?
“We’ll go to Lambert, which’ll take us toO’Hare, and then from O’Hare straight to Vienna,” Leandra explainedas I filled my bag with minor necessities. She had allowed me acarry on at least, and she would put my dagger in her suitcase sothat I could bring it with us. I didn’t know how long I would bethere, or if we would just live in Austria forever. I bit my lip,thinking maybe I was supposed to tell my family that I was going tobe on the lam from now on.
But I knew what they’d say:just comeback to the Unseelie court, we won’t let any vampires hurt you.A toxic protection that was also a curse.
“I’m ready,” I said to Leandra. She had paidan Uber driver extra to wait for us outside and we boarded the carnow, my nerves humming. I had texted Jian that if he didn’t hearfrom me in the next week, his responsibility was to take Yuki toBeatrice Newell, and she could figure out what to do with her. Ifelt numb at the thought that I might not see her again, but it wasalmost certain I’d die if I stayed here, and then I wouldn’t get tosee her, either.
“How long will it take to get there?” Iasked, wishing I’d thought to bring a book or something.
“It says around 13 hours? If not more. Wewon’t know about delays until we get there.”
I let out a big puff of air. 13 hourssounded like an awfully long time to someone in a big rush to skiptown.
“You ladies traveling?” the Uber driverasked over notes of classical music. He was awful, one of thosepeople who wanted to talk to you the whole way. Most drivers leftme alone. I looked decently normal, but Leandra was giving offI’ll-suck-your-blood vibes in waves.
“Yes, it’s our honeymoon!” Leandra said in avoice that didn’t sound a bit like hers. Comically, her hostileexpression did not match her tone at all.
“Really?” The driver turned to us. He had atoothpick between his lips that jostled when he talked, and asevere sunburn I could see even in the dark. “That’s great.Congratulations. Where ya going?”
“Morocco,” she said. “Our first triptogether.”
I elbowed her in the side, but she didn’tstop.
“How long you ladies been together?”
“Ten years,” Leandra said. “We’re highschool sweethearts.”
I had been out of high school more than tenyears ago, but I still glared at her. She continued to chat withthe driver, buttering him up with lies. If Mateo or Patricia tracedthis driver back to us and interrogated him, they’d have a wholelot of nonsense on their hands. And probably his dead body for notknowing anything.
The airport loomed ahead of us finally, andour obnoxious driver pulled into the drop-off area. “You gals havea good time, now,” he said as he extracted Leandra’s suitcase fromthe trunk of his car. She beamed at him, blasting her full charm.Even I wouldn’t have known she had blood-sucking fangs at firstglance.
Good, old-fashioned anxiety filled me as Ilooked upon the St. Louis Lambert International Airport, itswave-like window structure reminding me of the Sydney Opera House,and for just a moment, it was a little too quiet as my brain shutout the background noise in light of the new, irrational fear thatcame with waiting in long lines and somehow thinking that the TSAwould say your ID didn’t look like you and deny you entry onto theplane.
