If the highs in July were in the sixties, she wasn’t certain she wanted to be here in January.
Then it occurred to her she’d be even farther north in January, though shehopefullywouldn’t have to go outside the missile silo to experience the far-below-freezing temperatures.
They met outside the garage and loaded up. It wasn’t just the flock going, but the daywalker girlfriends and boyfriends of some of the vampires, too. The bus carried fifteen people plus the driver, which meant they needed several three-row SUVs as well. Emmy sat on the bus beside Rhea, Felix across the aisle, and Maren looking out the window beside him.
“Six hours on a boat,” Rhea said, voice pitched to carry over the chatter. “Place your bets now on who throws up first.”
“My money’s on Toby,” Felix answered without missing a beat.
“I heard that,” Toby muttered from two rows ahead, though he didn’t bother turning around.
Rhea introduced her to Ajax and Arabella, who lived with married vampires in a home thirty minutes outside Anchorage. Ajax was huge with a bald, gleaming head, and her nose told her he was a werewolf. Arabella was tiny, her long blonde hair like something out of Faerie. Emmy’s nose told her Arabella was a swan, which explained the hair.
Her scent said she belonged to Ajax more than Emmy’s mother — Arabella’s Queen. Still, it was nice to smell her mom, even if only through one of her many subjects.
Emmy leaned her head against the seat and watched the trees whip by as they drove south, and listened to the people around her cutting up and talking about what they wanted to see on the boat ride.
By the time they hit Seward, the bus was warm with low-key laughter and a bunch of crazy stories Emmy hoped were only half true.
Spence handled logistics to get everyone onto the boat, and made sure every shifter had the three meal tickets he’d arranged, and the few humans had their single ticket.
The boat was bigger than Emmy expected, two decks with open railings and wide cabin windows below. No reserved seating here; tourists from all over crowded in, bright jackets and binoculars slung around their necks.
Spence steered their group to a corner of the cabin, not corralling them so much as creating a center of gravity everyone else naturally orbited. Emmy followed, brushing shoulders with strangers until their group settled at a cluster of tables.
Rhea invited Ajax and Arabella to sit with them, and Felix, Toby, Lana, and Maren filled in their table of eight.
Ajax loomed across the table from her, bald head now covered by a short, tight-knit black watch cap, with Arabella tucked neatly against his side like she could disappear into his ribcage if she tried hard enough. She gave Emmy a shy smile when their gazes met, which Emmy returned with a nod.
She noticed Ajax scanning exits automatically, and it reminded her he was some kind of security expert. Arabella relaxed a few minutes after sitting down, and told them, “I’ve never been on the ocean before. This is exciting.”
“First time for me too,” Felix told her. “If I fall in, I’llchangemid-air. Bet I can swim faster as a hare than a two-legged cringe gremlin.”
“You’ll drown faster,” Rhea shot back, rolling her eyes. “Ajax, throw him over so we can test it.”
Ajax didn’t even blink, but Arabella’s lips twitched like she was suppressing laughter.
A loudspeaker crackled to life, the captain welcoming them aboard and warning about rough patches of water once they were out of the inner bay, and before long, the boat pulled away from land.
The engines thrummed underfoot as they slid free of the dock, and Emmy stepped out onto the lower deck with Rhea at her side, the railing cold and slick. Felix, of course, was already leaning so far forward she half expected to see him topple over and splash into the wake.
The wind carried the sharp, clean scent of open salt water, tangy enough to assault her sinuses. It felt different than the mountain air she was used to, heavier, threaded with kelp and cold.
Seagulls wheeled overhead, screaming their greedy chorus, and Emmy watched one dive and snatch something from the water, wings slapping as it struggled back into the sky.
Tourists clustered at every railing, cameras raised. A few had enormous lenses, ready for the prize shot of the day. Emmy breathed in, filling her lungs, and looked around for Spence, but she didn’t see him.
A voice over the loudspeaker called their attention starboard. She followed the shift of bodies and saw dozens of puffins in flight, skimming low over the surface, wings beating too fast to seem real. A few bobbed in the swell like toy ducks, diving and resurfacing with tiny fish clamped in their absurd beaks.
Arabella gasped softly, pressing closer to Ajax’s side. Her small hands gripped his forearm, pale hair tangling in the wind. “They don’t even look real,” she said in her soft voice.
Ajax gave the barest grunt of agreement, but Emmy caught the tiny quirk at the corner of his mouth.
Felix elbowed Rhea, pointing. “Bet you five bucks one of those crashes headfirst into a wave.”
“Bet you five bucks you’re the one who goes overboard trying to take a selfie with them,” Rhea shot back.
Emmy laughed, shaking her head. “You’d look ridiculous with a puffin.”
