“New York City,” Ezra replied without looking up from his book. “And then to Finland.”
“Finland?” I raised my eyebrow, completely caught off guard by his answer. “Peter’s in Finland?”
“I believe so.” He flipped a page. “Scandinavia has always been his favorite place to hide out, especially in winter. There’s hardly daylight for months, and the temperatures are usually below freezing.”
“So we’re just going there because that’s where he usually goes?” I still couldn’t wrap my mind around Peter hanging out in Finland. That just didn’t sound… exotic enough?
“No. Peter’s had a run-in in Finland. I don’t know exactly where he is, but I’m certain he’s there,” Ezra said.
“A ‘run-in?’ What happened?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” he said at length. “And I’d rather not speculate.”
“You’d rather not speculate?” I repeated. “I’m on a plane flying half-way across the world, and not only do you not know where we’re going, but you’d rather not even speculate on why we’re going?”
“Finland is not half-way around the world,” Ezra corrected me.
“Whatever.” I sunk down in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest. “I can’t speak Finnish.”
“You don’t need to. I can.” He flipped another page in his book, and I sighed.
“You’re gonna be a hoot to travel with if you’re like this whole time,” I muttered, and he laughed to himself.
I borrowed a book from Ezra so I had something to do with the rest the flight. After a couple hours of reading about native Finnish wildlife, I vowed to get as many magazines and books as I could when we landed at JFK. That was my plan until we actually started de-boarding the plane, and Ezra grasped my hand in his.
“There’s a layover here,” Ezra told me quietly as we walked. “You can’t eat until we get on the next plane, because you’re a mess when you eat. I need you to stay by me and never let go of my hand, no matter what. Is that clear?”
“Yeah but….” I was about to ask him why, but then we were stepping beyond the plane, and the smell hit me for the first time.
There hadn’t been that many people in the Minneapolis airport. In fact, I would go so far as to say there weren’t even that many people in Minneapolis. JFK terminal is a city unto itself, full of hot, sweaty people pressed up against each other.
Suddenly, my thirst appeared with a vengeance.
Waiting in the airport was torture. Most of the time, I had to grip Ezra’s hand so tightly, I don’t know how I didn’t break a bone or something. I sat rigidly, my eyes locked on my shoes in front of me.
Ezra sat next to me, a leg crossed over his knee, with a magazine open on his lap and telling me all about Martha Stewart’s recommendations for making Halloween treats. He was trying to keep me calm and focused, but hearing about making Rice Krispies treats orange made me want to vomit.
Going through security was very hard, but Ezra told me to keep saying the alphabet backwards in my head. It didn’t really soften the burning thirst inside of me, and I kept my eyes locked on the throbbing pulse in the security guard’s neck, but I didn’t bite him. So I counted that as a success.
Ezra gave me the window seat and belted me in, which made both of us feel better. I closed my eyes and tried not to think of Jack. He lurked painfully in my thoughts and only made my bloodlust increase. The whole situation felt very precarious, and I started to think that I wasn’t ready for this trip.
When the engines of the plane revved, Ezra leaned over and whispered, “If the plane crashes, it’ll be in the ocean. The ocean’s full of sharks, and they can kill us. You actually have something to be afraid of this time.”
“Is that supposed to comfort me?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“No, not at all. I wanted to scare the hell of out you so you’d stop thinking about… things.” He squeezed my hand back, and that felt reassuring somehow. “But it’s still true. Sharks are brutal.”
The instant we were free to move about, Ezra grabbed the cans of blood from the overhead bin and led me back to the restrooms. We got a lot of weird looks from the other passengers and the flight crew, but nobody stopped us. I doubted that any humans ever stopped Ezra. He was too beautiful and confident.
There was hardly enough room in the bathroom for one person, let alone two, so he swiftly lifted me up and set me on the sink. He set the cans on my lap, and I imagined that I could smell it and trembled with hunger.
“You are so pale,” Ezra murmured to himself. He pushed a strand of hair out off my face and looked at me fully in the eyes, inspecting them for their level of hunger. “I’m going to give you two cans, okay?”
“Yeah, whatever, fine,” I nodded quickly. I didn’t care at all what he said as long as I got the blood.
“This is gonna hit you hard, but I need you to walk back out to your seat, okay?” Ezra said. “And you can pass out as soon as you sit down.”