"Lissa, please do not make me place compulsion to stop this fretting, I don't like doing it," Merrill told me on the drive home. I drew in a shaky breath.
"I'll be fine," I whispered. "I just have to deal with this." Gavin and I were scheduled to leave the following evening. The private jet would be flying us to Tampa where a safe house was available for us to use. Wlodek said that Charles had already arranged to have blood delivered and stocked in the fridge for us. The weather would be much warmer in Florida, too—it was July and I was thankful for the shopping trip with Charles. I'd gotten quite a few sleeveless and short-sleeved things, all of which would be useful for a trip to the eastern edge of the gulf coast.
I used up some of my fretting energy to pack two bags, using the expensive ones that Charles had given me. "Do you need anything from the city?" Franklin knocked on my door and walked inside when I answered and invited him in.
"Franklin, you don't have to run after me," I told him.
"I have to go anyway," he shrugged.
"I need shampoo," I sighed, grateful I didn't have to worry about it. There were a couple of other things—my favorite soap and toothpaste—so Franklin wrote it down and told me he'd have it for me when I woke the next evening.
"Don't let that one upset you," Franklin said before leaving my bedroom. "Gavin was treating you as a criminal before because that's how Wlodek and the Council saw you. He was just doing his job. I don't know how he thought you were going to turn on a dime, though, and let all that go." Franklin shook his head in confusion over the whole thing.
"He didn't have to be such an ass**le about it either," I said, tossing shoes into one of the bags. "I couldn't even blink without his permission after he laid compulsion, and he chained me up anyway inside the jet. I wasn't able to look out the window or anything." I think I was close to tears.
"Lissa, vampires are a different breed. Some of them are as cold as the Arctic while others can be as warm as a summer day. They're like people, only they tend to go to the farthest of extremes. I know your turning wasn't supposed to be and that is a sad thing. But if they hadn't done it, here I would be, never having tasted the best mashed potatoes I've ever eaten." Franklin smiled.
"I told the Grand Master of the werewolves that he had to tell his grandchildren that he was rescued from a tree by a cookie baking vampire," I gave a shaky smile in return.
"And what did he say?"
"He said he would."
Franklin had placed my shampoo and other items in a plastic bag and set them outside my bedroom door when I got up the following evening, so I packed those things last, zipping up my cases. I had to force myself not to get the shivers again. Putting Gavin out of my mind forcefully worked temporarily, Merrill helped get my bags into the trunk of the Cadillac and we drove to the airport where the Council's private jet waited. This rogue wouldn't be coming back with us; Gavin intended to kill him but I was going along to help track him if I could. The rogue would be able to scent Gavin, but when I was mist, I didn't have a scent. I have no idea at all how that works, but it's true for all misters.
"If you need me, use this," Merrill placed a new cell phone box in my hand. "It's already charged up and programmed with my numbers plus Franklin's if it's an emergency and you can't reach me. He can get to Wlodek if he has to. And here's this," he handed a credit card to me that had my new name on it. I gulped.
"It's a freaking black American Express," I whispered, staring at my surrogate sire.
"Yes it is. Use it."
I'd put my envelope of cash in one of my bags. I still had more than forty thousand, mostly in large bills. I hadn't spent the reward money Winkler had given me and precious little of my paychecks. I stuffed the credit card into the small purse I carried and Merrill hugged me. "Be safe," he told me as I went toward the plane.
Gavin was already there, buckled into his seat. I didn't say anything to him and barely spared a glance in his direction. He'd taken a seat near the middle of the plane and since I had no desire to sit anywhere near him, I sat down and strapped myself in two rows in front of his. Maybe he would have preferred that I sit next to him, but he wasn't getting that. Nope. Not from me.
There was a car waiting at the airport when we arrived in Tampa—one of the local vampires had gotten it for us. Gavin barely thanked the local before getting in on the driver's side of the black Lincoln Town Car. I thought about getting in the back but didn't want to fight with Gavin over it, so I climbed in on the passenger side instead. I remembered when he'd first started working for Winkler and I'd thought he was a normal person that smelled really, really wonderful. Those were the good old days, all right.
"How are your lessons?" he asked as he drove. The GPS in the car was telling us where to turn as Gavin navigated through Tampa.
"Fine," I said, refusing to look at him.
"Is Merrill a good instructor?"
"Merrill is very good. I couldn't ask for better." I considered the conversations I'd had with Tony and how much fun those had been. Now Gavin was speaking to me and all I could do was shiver.
"What have you covered so far?"
"Rules one through three and a few other things. He tells me my fangs are so small that if I didn't drink so little blood I might have a feeding problem. And he had to force my claws to come out since they'd never done that before."
"You didn't know you had claws?"
"Not until I saw yours," I said sullenly.
"Christ," he muttered. "How did you kill those werewolves?"
"By breaking their necks or throwing them so far they broke most of the bones in their body and couldn't move or kicking their heads in or whatever else I could do. I wasn't thinking about it at the time, there wasn't any opportunity to analyze my fighting methods." I pulled my knees up so my feet rested on the edge of the seat and wrapped my arms around myself.
"I know why you do that. You're uncomfortable," he said, glancing my way briefly. I didn't answer.
The safe house was nice. It was a block east of the beach and about five miles south of Tampa, with a basement beneath the house. Yeah, it was unusual for a home to have a basement in Florida, but vampires have their own rules. We went through a heavy door in the floor of the master bedroom closet and found two bedrooms and a tiny kitchen below. Gavin punched in a code on a hidden keypad to get us into the basement in the beginning, closing off the door afterward and locking us inside. That wasn't frightening or anything. I was locked inside a basement with Gavin. He checked the fridge first thing, checking our blood supply. There was only one bathroom in the small space so we'd have to share. Also not comfortable. Gavin flipped on the television and found a local station that did re-runs of the evening news. I stood and watched as journalists were reporting the disappearance of yet another tourist. The man had gone nightclubbing and never returned to his hotel room.