“Fine, and I’m sorry. Really. I’m just positive someone is watching.”
At that moment, a flash of golden fur landed smack in front of us, and a brain-rattling “rrryyow” rent the night. Jo-Jo screamed, “Aaaiiieeee,” tightened his hold around me, and vaulted away from Pandora. Next thing I knew, I was dangling from Jo-Jo’s crooked arm, ten feet away from the bridge and a hundred feet over dark, churning water.
NINE
010
I froze, my limbs spread-eagled like the cartoon flying squirrel, my right arm plastered against something warmer than sheer air. As my afterlife flashed before my eyes, one coherent thought persisted: Flying was so not like surfing. On the upside, I wasn’t thrashing and flailing in hysterics. No, because I was far too angry.
“Why the hell did you do that?” I screamed at Pandora.
To get you off the ground, she answered in my head, paws on the barricade, regarding me with a feline smirk.
“A th-thousand pardons, Princess,” Jo-Jo yelled. “I’ll put you down as soon as that panther leaves.”
“Wait, Cesca, stay calm.” Saber held his hands out as if to soothe me, but he was struggling not to laugh. “Jo-Jo, as long as you’re out there, you might as well fly a couple of laps around the bridge.”
“No, Saber,” I yelled. “No lapping.”
“Honey, I swear I’ll make this up to you. Just do it.”
“Just do it? Since when am I a freaking poster girl for Nike?”
“It’s the best chance you’ll have to get a real feel for flying, Cesca. Seize the opportunity.”
“Grrrr,” I said, stiffening more when Jo-Jo grunted and his arm began to tremble. I craned my neck to look up at him. Maybe his face seemed more ashen because of the bridge lights, but his expression of horror was real.
“I-I’m truly sorry for not warning you before I jumped, Highness.”
“Forget it. Pandora surprised both of us. I’ll deal with her when we land.”
Humph, Pandora huffed.
“Does that mean I should do as your consort asks? Fly a few laps?”
“Might as well. Just don’t drop me, okay?”
“Never, Highness, but would you kindly remove your elbow from my crotch.”
Now I was fuming and flaming with embarrassment. Great.
We started slowly, with an easy loop from one end of the bridge to the other. Except for feeling like a piece of luggage under JoJo’s arm, the experience wasn’t bad. He kept up a patter of vampire flight control tips that helped me relax, and he even talked me into touching down on the roof of a motel on the island side of the bridge.
When he’d readjusted our positions into what he called a skater hold, I thought levitate for all I was worth. We took off again to make a short circuit around the bay, and I imagined we were skimming on the wind. Astounding but true, I actually supported my own weight part of the way. Not a solo flight, but it was progress.
Not that I was going to admit the thrill of victory to Pandora—or Saber either. Not with that big told-you-so grin on his face. As soon as Jo-Jo gently lowered both of us to the bridge walkway, Saber grabbed me for a hug and a smacking kiss.
“I knew you could do it, Cesca. Good work, Jo-Jo.”
I smacked Saber back, in the shoulder with my fist.
“We wouldn’t have been out there if we hadn’t been am-bushed. Did you know Pandora was skulking up the bridge?”
Saber crossed his arms. “No, I did not. I would’ve warned you if a two-hundred-pound cat that I don’t trust was about to pounce.”
“There is that.”
I patted the shoulder I’d hit and turned to eye Pandora, who gazed back with a bored expression. She had morphed to a house cat size and draped herself on the top rail of a barricade a few feet away, nonchalant as you please.
“All right, Pandora,” I said with hands on my hips and a rein on my temper. “Why did you scare Jo-Jo?”
“Yeah, that wasn’t sporting at all,” Jo-Jo scolded. Guess he felt braver with Pandora in her small form. Pandora shrugged. It is imperative that you claim this power, and it was merely expedient to startle you both. I dismissed her tone and focused on her choice of words.
“Why is it imperative that I learn to fly, and what do you know about it, anyway?”
She leveled me with her golden gaze. You and Triton must master your individual powers before you may come together.
“Come together for what?”
Pandora shook her head, rose, and arched her back in a long stretch. I have said enough, but trust me in this. You must practice your powers, vampire princess. Else Triton and all you love may be lost. With that, Pandora sprang from the railing and pranced off toward town.
“Cesca, you want to give us a translation?”
I glanced at Saber. “She said I have to master my powers.”
“I’ve been telling you the same thing, but why is a shape-shifter interested in your powers?”
I started to answer him but thought better of mentioning Triton with Jo-Jo there. “That’s where it gets fuzzy.”