Letting the sun in.
In the middle of the day.
We climbed up and into the plane, and there, sitting at a table in the middle of the sunny airplane cabin with a thick layer of documents spread in front of him, was Caspian.
He looked up at us and smiled, motioning for us to take seats across from him. The woman followed us into the cabin, and hesmiled at her too. “I think we’re ready, Nina. Unless the two of you wanted something else before we leave?”
“Not at all,” Davin demurred, but he continued to hesitate there, just inside the door, while the woman turned and secured it shut.
Through the window, I could see the man in overalls rolling the staircase away, and decided that I didn’t especially want to continue standing around while the woman, clearly Caspian’s pilot, started heading down the runway.
I was clumsy enough without having to worry about staying on my feet at...hell, I didn’t even know how fast jets went. So I grabbed Davin with my free hand, setting the food and drinks from Teas(e) on the table, then went to shove our bags into one of the open compartments, and closed them up so they wouldn’t fall on our heads when the plane started moving.
Somewhere in all that, Davin seemed to get his shit together and started moving on his own, helping me secure our stuff. Not five minutes later, we were buckled into seats around the table Caspian was sitting at, each with a cup of tea, looking at a whole bunch of paper that seemed to be...“Are those blueprints?”
“Indeed,” Caspian agreed. “I doubt they’re entirely correct, but this is from the company that installed electricity in the castle about sixty-five years ago.” He motioned to a set of photos on another corner of the table. “Those are satellite photos taken this morning, and they at least follow the correct shape to be the same building as the blueprints. I couldn’t find information on any other work done, but given the time frame, I won’t rule out that I’ve simply missed something.” He turned his winning smile up at us. “I might have excellent connections, but I’m not a miracle worker.”
Me? I thought he was wrong.
The plane, which had been taxiing, made a turn and slowed down, and a second later the woman’s voice came over aspeaker. “We’re about to head down the runway, so you might want to secure your papers and drinks.”
Automatically, I turned to set my tea in one of the deep cupholders recessed into the table. Caspian gathered up a handful of papers and stuck them into a messenger bag, then lifted a strap that seemed to be attached to the table, securing the blueprints under it, so they could stay on the table without shifting during takeoff.
That, finally, was when Davin broke down. “The windows are open. You?—”
“Fire mage,” Caspian explained, not a bit of prevarication in it. “Very, exceptionally, ridiculously old fire mage. I can control how the sun affects me. I’m the only one I know who can, so I don’t go around advertising it.” He settled back into his comfortable seat, finally strapping himself in. “I will also be warding you against fire when we arrive there, Davin. Flynn doesn’t need it, and I can’t make anyone immune to being bitten in half if Tadhg has somehow gained the ability to transform, but no one will be dying of dragon fire in this siege.”
I breathed a sigh of relief at that, because it had actually been a major concern for me. Davin might be fast and strong as any vampire, but they weren’t generally immune to fire.
Him being protected from fire would be a huge load off my mind.
It was good to have one of the most powerful vampires in the world as a contact.
CHAPTER 24
Inverness, which was indeed where we were landing in northern Scotland, was beautiful at night. Not that I suspected most cities looked very different from each other from the air in the dark. Maybe really unusual ones, like Las Vegas or Paris or something, but mostly, it was just a swathe of bright lights against the dark.
We’d stopped to refuel somewhere on the East Coast, also in the dark, so I figured we might actually be getting close to morning.
It made more sense, Caspian constantly jetting all over the world, since he could go out in the sun. I couldn’t imagine how most vampires would do it. A private plane with a coffin-style room with no windows? That sounded pretty terrible to me.
Although...the bathroom in Mother’s plane was pretty enormous and had a little recessed seating area on one side that a person could lie down in, as well as very sturdy locks on the inside. So yeah, I supposed that was the answer.
We all stood and stretched after landing, and it was nice to be up and moving again. Twist was grumbling about the lack of dinner from her pocket, so I turned to Caspian. “We’re going toneed a whole lot of food. For the cat more than me, but I should probably fill up too.”
“Not to worry,” Caspian promised, waving me off as he stretched up onto his toes, and his back gave a little pop that I could almost feel myself. “I’ve got reservations at my favorite hotel in town. It’s lovely. We’ll take at least twenty-four hours to rest and ready ourselves, not to mention see if any further information pops up about renovations inside the castle. Wouldn’t want to miss out on anything we can get just because we rushed.”
“You don’t think he’ll be preparing for us?” Davin asked. That was my boyfriend, the worrier.
Fuck me, I loved that guy. It was really convenient that he remembered things like that, when I was just fantasizing about a big fluffy bed.
“I definitely think he’s preparing for us.” Caspian said the words like they were nothing. Not a threat or a concern, just a simple fact like the temperature outside.
The temperature was fucking freezing as Nina opened the door to let us out, leading to a stairway that the airport employees had already brought alongside the plane.
What the hell?
“Isn’t it summer here?” I asked, wrapping my arms around myself.
