“Bodyguard.” Van interrupted, sticking out his hand and laughing nervously. “I’m Alistair’s bodyguard. It’s great to meet you.”
Squinting, Xoah shook Van’s hand, his eyes bouncing like he was trying to truly assess Van. I kept looking between them, rubber-banding from the scrutinizing gaze Xoah was giving Van and the weird mix of panic and plea that was radiating off of Van. What the fuck was going on?
“Bodyguard.” Xoah echoed, scoffing a little as they ended their greeting. “Right.” He cleared his throat and gave me a smirk. “I’m assuming Priyanka already told you?”
“Told me what?”
Now I was the one looking panicked. I dug around my pockets looking for my phone, only to realize that I’d stuck it in the cats’ bag. I fished it out just as Xoah started talking. I had seven missed calls from Priyanka and two unread texts, as well as a text from Blue that I hadn’t seen either.
“Priyanka and Blue aren’t joining us as planned,” Xoah said, placing his hands on his hips. “She mentioned something about needing to hash out something with the place you played last night so she has to hang back. Blue offered to hang back so she didn’t have to fly commercial alone.”
Sure enough, both the texts from Priyanka and Blue said as much. Blue was texting me to let me know that he’d calm Priyanka down on the flight over and she was telling me she’d take care of the financial mishap that apparently was going on with someone at the stadium. I nodded at Xoah and sent a quick text to both saying thank you and that I would see then in Pennsylvania.
“Alright, I guess it’s just us then.” I slipped my phone into the pocket of my gray sweatpants and then beamed at Xoah. “Thanks again for agreeing to fly us for the entirety of the tour.”
Xoah chuckled, gesturing toward the plane and waving his hand at the open stairs that would allow us entry. “I’m considering it my grand finale before I stop flying. I’ve been ready to pursue other work and when I got the call from Priyanka, I thought it’d been a nice way to go out with pizzazz.” He leaned forward a bit, so that he was closer to me than he was to Van. “I’m actually a fan of your music, so it’s my honor to fly you.”
“Aww, that’s sweet, thank you so much.” I giggled. It was nice to know that I had fans in the Orb space as much as the human one. “Well, I’m glad to have you.”
“Right, shall we head out?” Xoah glanced at Van, narrowing his slitted eyes at him. “I’m sure you both have a lot to talk about during our hour and a half flight.”
Xoah stepped off then, leaving me to glare at Van and see the dumbfounded look on his face as our pilot stepped up into the vehicle we were about to be housed in. What the fuck was going on? What was I missing? I wasn’t sure if Van and Xoah knew each other or what, but I was damn sure going to get to the bottom of it before we made it to Pittsburgh.
We made our way on the plane, and Xoah was nice enough to give us a quick tour, letting us know where the bathroom was and pointing out the bottles of water and bags of chips if we needed them on the little kitchen counter area.
Once he sauntered off to the front of the plane, I noticed that Van seemed instantly more relaxed. It only further confirmed that something was going on that I wasn’t privy to, and I didn’t like it one bit. For some reason, I had the distinct feeling that whatever reason for Van’s reaction to Xoah had everything to do with what he’d been trying to tell me since the night we’dslept together at the hotel. Of course it could be something else entirely, but I was dying to put an end to this awkwardness that was wrapping around him tighter than the damn navy suit he was wearing.
I took a seat in the middle, just one row before the kitchen area. Sitting down the cat carrier next to me, I made sure to go into my girls’ bag and dig them out a couple treats for being such good sports about traveling. They meowed at me signs of contentment, lapping up their treats. I was sitting in the seat closest to the aisle, and Van was directly across from me, also taking an aisle seat. He looked nervous, but not the same level of nervous that he had when he’d been around Xoah.
With an exasperated sigh, I shook my head at him. “Will you tell me what the hell is going on?” His eyes flared like he hadn’t been expecting my outburst, but I didn’t understand how he didn’t. This had gone on long enough. “What’s going on with you and Xoah and why are you acting so weird?”
A heavy exhale left Van, telling me that he’d been holding on to it for a reason. At least everything was about to be out in the open. He looked around, like he feared that Xoah could come around the corner at any given moment. “Once we’re in the air, I’ll tell you everything.”
“Just tell me this,” I nodded. “Does your interaction have anything to do with the thing you wanted to tell me at the hotel?”
“Yes.” He answered honestly, tilting his head in the direction of the cockpit.
Xoah made a show of getting us in the air, making me a little worried about his flying skills. He’d at least come over the intercom to say that he was just messing around and we’d been in Pennsylvania before we knew it. Another five minutes went by and Van still hadn’t said anything. I’m sure he was nervous, because I could see a sheen of sweat lathering his forehead and bubbling against his skin. I was beginning to get a little restless,checking on Fawcett and Thiessen when I finally heard him take a chaste breath.
“I don’t regret what happened that night at the hotel.”
My head snapped back to him. I hadn’t expected for him to bring up us having sex. To be honest, I hadn’t been thinking he regretted it at all, but now that the thought was on the hypothetical table, I didn’t like how my mind felt after taking it in.
Not knowing what else to say, I just nodded and added, “I don’t regret it either.”
“I just want to start with that so you don’t think that what I’m about to tell you has to have a negative effect on us having sex.”
“Van, whatever it is, I’m not going to freak out.”
He huffed, rolling his shoulders knowingly. “Remember that you said that.”
“For fuck’s sake.” I chuckled. “Just tell me.”
Sighing again, Van turned as much of his body toward me as he could from his seat, balancing his arms on his knees that were bouncing nervously against the carpet. Our eyes locked, and I could see the absolute intense terror that was waiting for me in Van’s eyes. He was really scared. I hadn’t thought, at least on some level, he was scared because he feared my negative reaction.
I was going to tell him that I wasn’t going to freak out again, that he couldn’t tell me anything that would warrant how panicked and afraid he was acting, but he beat me to the punch by just blurting our the last three words I ever would have imagined he’d put together.
“I’m not human.”
