“Not until I know anything. Jack can fill her in. ” He rolled onto his stomach and rested his head on the pillow. “Are you going to be okay with all of this?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I nodded, and I wasn’t sure if I was lying or not.
Rolling over so my back was to him, I allowed a few silent tears to slide down my cheeks. He didn’t say anything, and eventually, his breathing had the regulated quality that comes with sleep. Unfortunately, sleep wouldn’t be as easy for me.
Ezra tore open the shades while the sun was still up, and I squinted and pulled the blankets over my head. The little experience I had with the sun so far made me tired and cranky, and I had no urge to relive that. Fully dressed and whistling an old Neil Young song, Ezra went about the room, and I knew it was time to get up.
“What time is it?” I mumbled, still buried underneath the thin hotel comforter.
“It’s a little after one, but we need to get going. We’re burning daylight. ” He chuckled at his own joke, and I was starting to think that I didn’t agree with his sense of humor.
“You’re actually expecting me to get up now?” I poked my head out, braving the blinding light that filled the room.
“We do need to get going. ” He checked something on his phone, then he glanced back at the open window. “I can close the shades, if that helps. ”
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“You know it does,” I yawned.
Ezra complied, still fiddling around with his phone, and I hoped that meant that he had a lead on something. His half of the room was already completely straightened up, the bed made and everything, and I wondered what time he had gotten up.
“I wish I still drank coffee or Red Bull or something,” I said as I stumbled out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. (Fun fact: Vampires still pee. Blood is a liquid, after all. )
“Just take a cold shower. That’ll perk you right up,” he said.
Following his advice, I took a quick, cold shower, and it helped some. I dressed in a hurry and blow dried my hair so it wouldn’t freeze outside.
The hotel was alive with people today, and I pulled my scarf over my mouth and nose to muffle it. When we were walking out, I noticed the décor in the hotel was distinctly green. Potted plants were everywhere, probably to counteract the long winters and oblique white window views. I enjoyed winter, but it would be odd to live in a place that had snow eight months out of the year.
It really wasn’t that cold out, only in the low thirties, but I bundled up in a winter jacket and boots, like any normal person would. There wasn’t that much snow yet, only enough to crunch underneath my feet.
“So what’s the plan?” I followed him out of the building, and he walked towards the silver Range Rover he’d rented yesterday.
“We’re going for a drive,” Ezra answered vaguely, and I wondered if he was purposely infuriating or if it was just force of habit. He got in the driver’s side, so I hopped in.
Without looking, he whipped the Rover into reverse and sped out away from the hotel. Usually, he was a mild driver, but it became apparent where Jack’s driving skills came from. As he sped down the road, I pulled my hood up over my head and sunk lower in my seat, hiding myself from the sun’s rays as much as I could.
“How is this gonna work?” I yawned when we’d been on the road for ten minutes. Already, I felt like napping, and I knew as the day wore on, I would only get sleepier.
“We’ll be in tree cover most of the time. ” He motioned to the thick pine trees that filled the world around us. “You have your hood and sunglasses, and when we get back in the morning, we’ll both eat. We’ll be fine. ”
We traveled about a half hour or so when he turned off the road and parked in a small clearing. I’d been dozing a bit, but I sat up when the vehicle stopped. I leaned over to inspect the GPS system in the dash, hoping to find a clue about where we were. Finnish words and names looked like gibberish to me, so I didn’t gain any insight.
“Okay. What’s going on?” I asked, but Ezra turned off the car and jumped out in response. “Thanks. ”
I scrambled out after him, and I slipped on an icy patch of snow. When I tried to catch my fall by grabbing onto the car, I only succeeded in denting the side. It was pretty awesome having almost no control over my body. I couldn’t wait for the grace and strength to really kick in.
“Are you coming?” Ezra paused long enough for me to collect myself and scurry after him.
“Yeah. Where are we going?” I asked when I caught up with him.
“The woods. ” We were already walking into a very thick patch of trees, so he was doing nothing more than stating the obvious.
“You’re really becoming my least favorite person,” I muttered as I nearly tripped over a fallen log.
“I don’t know exactly where we’re going,” he reluctantly admitted. “I just know the area we’re supposed to be in, and this is it. ”
We were in the shadows thanks to cover of trees, so at least that was something. Looking around, though, everything appeared the same as everything. Evergreens blanketed the area, and somewhere up ahead, I could hear a river flowing.
Other than that, I had no idea how Ezra could tell one tree from another, or how he could possibly have any clue where we were. He was much more familiar with the area than I was, but I couldn’t see what distinguished these trees from the rest.
“Where are we?” I stopped walking and stared up through the trees at the sky.
“The lycan live around here. ”
I would’ve liked to press him further about it, but he didn’t want to talk. Ezra didn’t even slow down for me, so I learned my lesson about stopping for no reason. We trekked through the trees all afternoon, and while the sun didn’t directly shine on me, I felt a burst of energy when it finally went down.
Once night closed in completely, Ezra started to wait for me and insisted I stay close to him. During the day, other vampires were much less likely to be out, which was why he wanted to check things out then.
The biggest excitement of the night was when we saw a few reindeer walking in front of us. Ezra explained that many Europeans say that this is where Santa Clause lives, not the North Pole, partially because of the large reindeer population. We weren’t that far south from the North Pole anyway, so it wasn’t much of a stretch.
By the time the sun started to rise, I was completely exhausted. There’s a myth that vampires don’t ever get tired or run out of energy, and Ezra did seem to exemplify that. Maybe I’m just a wuss. I don’t really know. We made the long walk through the trees back to the car, and I was incredibly relieved when I sat down inside the Range Rover.
The gnawing hunger set in a few hours ago. Ezra’s pulse had gotten more noticeable, and my hands exhibited a fine tremor. The early morning light that filtered in through the windows only made it worse.
When we got back to the hotel, I must’ve been jonesing noticeably because Ezra put his arm securely around me when we walked inside. It was after seven in the morning, so the breakfast crowd filled the dining room. The scent of eggs and deer sausage made me sick. Over that, I smelled the delectable scent of blood, and I was grateful for Ezra’s strong arm steering me towards our room.
Once inside, I peeled off my jacket and kicked off my boots.
“That was a total waste of a day,” I said, squirming about the room. My clothes felt too heavy and uncomfortable, and it was hard not to take them off.
Ezra turned the temperature down low and filled the bathtub with ice and blood bags before we left last night, so the blood was still cool and intact. While I was in the room twitching and not taking off my clothes, he was in the bathroom getting food for us.
“We figured some things out. ” Ezra came out of the bathroom with a several bags of blood. “Tomorrow we’ll have a better idea of where we need to go. ”
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The blood was in sight so any petty complaint I had d
idn’t matter anymore. I practically ripped it from his hands. I downed it, and Ezra watched me with an odd look of fascination on his face. That wonderful warming effect spread over me, and I held out my hand for a second bag.
“Get ready for bed first,” he shook his head. “I’m not getting you in your pajamas after you’re passed out. ”
“Fine. Look away. ”
He did as he was told, and I took off my clothes as quickly as I could. That didn’t end up being all that fast because that tired, loose feeling took over me, and I almost fell over just taking off my shirt. When putting on my pajama pants, I fell back on the bed and didn’t bother to get up again.
“Done,” I announced and held out my hand to him.
“You’re going to have to learn to take it easier on these. I don’t think I packed enough for you to keep going at this rate,” he warned, but he handed it to me.
“I thought you’d be an over packer,” I said before gulping it down.
“I am. ” He looked at me severely and sat on his bed across from me.
“It’s the sun. ” My words already slurred. “The sun is super draining. I don’t think I can go back out in it again, not like that. And then walking around for like seventeen hours? It’s just too much for me…”
“It’s not too much for you. ” He shook his head as he watched me struggle to stay conscious. “You have almost infinite power, Alice. You’ve got to stop thinking like you’re human. ”
“You are!” I spouted, but clearly, that didn’t make sense.
“Yes, of course, I am,” he rolled his eyes.
I started to ask him a question, but I didn’t even know what it was. Pleasure rolled over me, and I didn’t want to fight it anymore. Ezra wanted me to express more self-control, but then again, he claimed that I was expressing self-control.
If this was me under control compared to other vampires, then I’d hate to see what they were like.
“Oh… the lycans are worse then this, aren’t they?” I groaned.
“I don’t really understand the question. ” Ezra got up and walked over to me. “Why don’t you get some sleep, Alice? You’ve had a long day. Get under the covers. ”
If Ezra had been driven on his pursuit of Peter the first day, the next day he was relentless. I refused to go out in the sun, so he let me sleep until four in the afternoon, but I’m not sure how much sleep he’d gotten. Using his phone and his laptop, he’d been busy trying to get coordinates for where he thought Peter would be.
When I got up, I responded to a couple text messages from Jack, got ready, and we left. Over ten hours later, I found myself in the middle of the Finnish Laplands, staring up at the spectacle of lights above me.
Dazzling green lights flashed across the clear night sky. We had crossed a river when I happened to look up and notice the aurora borealis dancing above us. I stopped on the frozen shore and stared at them in awe. They were breathtakingly beautiful, and even Ezra paused and looked.
My attention shifted from the Northern Lights when I heard a rustling sound coming from the woods. I could see something dark shifting through the trees, and I caught a whiff of the familiar farm-y smell of reindeer. A few yards down the river from us, six huge reindeer came barreling out through the trees and charged across a shallow part of the river.
“Alice,” Ezra whispered. He took a step back towards me, holding his arm out in front of me.
“What? They’re just reindeer. Did you have a run in with Blitzen once?” I teased, but he hissed at me.
“They wouldn’t be running like that at this time of night unless something was chasing them. ” His words were nearly drowned out in the splashing as they tore across the river.
I moved closer to Ezra, and strained to see what could be following the reindeer. I crossed my fingers for wolves, but I had a feeling that it was a something a little more anthropomorphic than that. Once the reindeer plummeted back in the woods, other than the sound of their depleting hooves, there was an odd silence.
Straining, I realized that wasn’t exactly right. There was silence, but not silence. I could see things, but not things. It was like every time I almost caught something, it was gone before I could even register it. Almost as if there was a ghost spooking the deer, and I thought hopefully, maybe it was just the run-of-the-mill ghost.
“Alice!” Ezra shouted suddenly and grabbed my arm.
- 6 -
The river splashed directly in front of us. Literally out of nowhere, a man leapt into the river. When the black water settled around him, I got a look at him under the glowing green lights.
He was shirtless, revealing well-muscled arms. His black hair went past his ears, and he was very attractive. But something in his black eyes unnerved me.
He stared at us, making my heart hammer nervously in my chest, and I was about to say something to break the tension, but I saw movement behind him.
Across the river, walking deliberately slow, two more vampires came out from the trees. They stood on the shore opposite us, flanking the one in the water, but they looked less imposing.
They were barefoot and wore ragged clothes. The blondish one on the right looked amused.
The other one appeared to be embarrassed about this little confrontation. He kept his dark brown hair shorter than the other two, but he had a thick stubble on his face. While he was well-toned, he was smaller than the others.
His eyes were the thing that caught me the most. They were gentle and large, reminding me of a puppy.
In the water, the first vampire crouched down lower, poised for an attack, and my mind raced to think of a way out of it. Mae and Jack warned me to run, but I couldn’t outrun him. I wasn’t even sure if Ezra could. He had to have some kind of super speed to appear out of nowhere like that.
“We don’t mean to bother you,” I said weakly, and Ezra squeezed my arm.
From the water, the vampire growled at me, but the one with the kind eyes stopped him.
“Stellan!” he snapped, and the vampire in the water made an argument in Finnish, but he cut him off.
“You’re American, yeah?” the amused blonde vampire asked, his tone lilting with an accent.
“Yes, we are,” Ezra responded. “I’m Ezra, and this is my sister, Alice. ”
“I’m Dodge,” he smirked at us. “I’m from Boston. ”
“Leif,” the kind vampire gestured to himself, and then to the vampire in the water. “That’s Stellan. ” Stellan turned back to him and retorted something in Finnish, but Leif shook his head.
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“What are you doing out here?” Dodge cocked an eyebrow at us. “It doesn’t look like you’re on a friendly hike. ”
There wasn’t really a good answer to the question. We didn’t look like vacationers or skiers, and these were probably the lycans after Peter.
“She’s never been here before,” Ezra chose his words carefully. “She wanted to explore. ”
“I like exploring,” I added, and Ezra shot me a look.
Dodge chuckled but that only infuriated Stellan. He stood up straighter, making himself larger and more imposing. To Dodge and Leif, we appeared to be a curiosity. Leif especially looked at us with tolerance, but Stellan seemed threatened.
Glancing back at Leif, Stellan shouted something in Finnish. He kept talking to Leif, but he didn’t take his eyes off us. Ezra could understand everything he said, but he played dumb.
“Did you know this was our territory?” Dodge asked when Stellan finished his rant.
“No. This is a National Park, isn’t it?” Ezra pretended to be confused.
Leif and Dodge exchanged looks. They seemed skeptical of our intentions. But based on Dodge’s casual shrug and Leif’s nod, they didn’t think we were a danger to them. We probably weren’t, so that made sense.
“This is lycan territory. ” Leif looked gravely at us. “It’s best if you don’t wander a
round here. ”
“We’ll be more careful in the future,” Ezra apologized.
“Make sure that you do,” Dodge said, abandoning his earlier humor. His face and voice hardened, resembling Stellan’s. They were threatening us.
Ezra nodded at them and ushered me away, back the way we came. The lycans didn’t move, and I felt their eyes on us as we hurried through the forest. Ezra kept his hand on my back, pushing me to go faster. I started to say something several times, but he shushed me until we got to the car.
“What are we doing?” I asked when he unlocked the Range Rover and got inside.
“Get in,” Ezra commanded and slammed his door shut.
“It’s only one-thirty. ” I climbed in after him. “We have plenty of time to look for Peter. ”
“If they caught us in the woods again tonight…” He trailed off.
He made sure the doors were locked before racing down the snowy road. He kept glancing in the rearview mirror, and I turned around, half expecting to see a pack of wolves chasing after us. But there was only an empty road.
“What’s going on? They didn’t really seem that bad. In fact, other than the Finnish one in the river, they seemed like ordinary vampires,” I said
“That’s not the whole pack. ” His eyes flitted back to the rearview mirror. “They were following us, and that’s why I wouldn’t let you say anything in the woods. Now they’ve seen us, and they know our vehicle. We can’t do anything more tonight. ”
“You’re just being paranoid. ” I shook my head, but his certainty was unnerving.
The road had patches of snow and black ice, and the signs on the side warned of reindeer crossing. In spite of that, Ezra sped up faster, and his eyes rarely stayed on the road in front of us.
“I don’t want to scare you,” he confessed randomly.
“Thanks,” I said.
“I’m not sure how many lycans are in his pack anymore. At times there were as many as fifteen or twenty, and other times there were as few as four. It depends on what kind of mood he’s in. He’ll wipe out his entire pack for the hell of it, and start over fresh,” Ezra talked as if he was explaining something to me, but he started in the middle of the idea.
“Who are you talking about?” I looked over at him.
“Gunnar. ” His eyes went to the mirror again, as if saying his name summoned him. “He’s led a pack in the Lapland for the better part of three centuries. They winter up here, and summer in Russia and Siberia. ”
“How do you know that he’s still the leader?” I asked.
“It’s been fifty years or more since I saw him last,” Ezra admitted. “But when I was told of Peter’s troubles, Gunnar was mentioned by name. ”
“So you knew exactly what you were getting into when we came here?” I narrowed my eyes at him, and he pursed his lips. “Then why are you so freaked out by this? If you knew that’s who were dealing with. ”
“I was hoping to avoid him entirely. I thought we’d find Peter and depart, before they knew we’d been here,” he sighed. “And that’s how I know Peter’s on a suicide mission. He was with me the last time we encountered Gunnar. ”