"Gavin and Anthony will meet you at the London station," Flavio informed me when Charles and I arrived. He still didn't remember me, but the mask was in place. Charles had talked him into this, I could tell.
"I'll take her in," Charles said.
"Are we driving or folding?" I asked. I remembered rides in Charles' car—he always drove like a maniac.
"I'll fold you in," Charles said. "And I have ID for you," he held up a tiny chip. "Unfortunately, this has to be placed beneath the skin. Ren is coming to do this for you."
"I like Renegar," I said. Actually, I'd liked all the Larentii I'd met and I couldn't explain that. I hadn't seen any more of them, either, since that first night at the villa. I was looking forward to seeing Renegar again.
"This is the little Queen?" A Larentii I hadn't seen before folded in with Renegar.
"Ferrigar," Flavio stood and nodded to the new Larentii. "This is the little Queen; anyway that's what my sources tell me. Charles seems very sure of her, and I trust my child."
"If you had witnessed what she did upon Kifirin, you would have no doubts, Sanguis Rex," Renegar said, taking the microchip from Charles by floating it off his finger with Power. "Little one," he turned to me, "this will not hurt at all." He placed the chip on the inside of my wrist and we both watched as it sank into the skin.
"That's amazing," I breathed.
"I find you amazing, little Queen," Ferrigar the Larentii came to stand beside me. "Seldom have I seen any creature I could not detect by using my Power, yet that is how it is with you. We find you fascinating, little one. We may wish to study you, sometime."
"Don't worry. They'll just stand around looking at you and communicating silently," Charles said. "Unless you get pregnant. Then they'll have their hands on you, but that won't hurt, either."
"I can't get pregnant so that won't happen," I said, examining the smooth skin of my wrist. I couldn't tell where the chip was at all.
"Come on then, I'll take you to the station," Charles said, lifting my bags. He had me folded away in very little time.
* * *
"The tracking chip has been placed, along with the identification chip," Renegar informed Griffin later. Griffin breathed a relieved sigh. "Only the Larentii will be able to detect the beacon, so she will be safe, and we will not track her unless it becomes a necessity," Renegar went on. Griffin nodded. The thought terrified him that none of them could find Lissa anywhere. They'd all been blinded to her, now. At least the Larentii could find her and that eased his mind. When she'd disappeared earlier, he worried that she'd disappeared for good. The information he and Merrill were forced to deliver guaranteed that Lissa would never forgive either of them.
* * *
"I do not like this," Gavin grumbled. Tony watched as Gavin fretted, which was completely uncharacteristic of the two thousand-year-old vampire. Gavin had the stone face and non-expression the oldest vampires mastered, but now the façade was beginning to crack.
"You don't have to deal with her if you don't want to—I'll do it," Tony offered. Gavin stared at Tony, unable to decide whether he appreciated that or not. Gavin growled softly. Tony didn't bother him again.
"Here we are," Charles walked in with Lissa, her bags in his hands.
* * *
Gavin was at his surly best—I could see that right away. I knew the look; I'd dealt with it before. I didn't say anything to him or Tony; I just sighed instead and took a seat on a nearby bank of chairs. Three hundred years had gone past and seating hadn't improved one bit at the airport.
"They'll call your flight and you'll load onto the shuttle, which will take you to the pod station," Charles explained quietly, sitting beside me. "I'll stay until you're called."
"Thanks, Charles," I gave him a weak smile. Yeah, I was going to get this over with quickly—no way I wanted to hang around the grumpy vampire. It made my heart ache to watch him. A part of me had been torn away and nothing could fill the void. Once again, I wondered why I was still alive.
"Here," Charles pulled a handkerchief from his inside jacket pocket and handed it to me. I wore a jacket, so I slipped the square of silk into a pocket. It might be needed soon if I didn't get my mind off Gavin. Our flight was called shortly after; Charles pecked me on the cheek and I followed Gavin and Tony to the door where the passengers were loading into the shuttle.
This was a new experience for me. The shuttle took us to the pod station and we were loaded into a bullet-shaped pod quickly, once we arrived. There were no windows on the pod, but each seat back held a vid screen where we could watch the entire journey (if we wanted). I was mesmerized. The pod detached and I watched my screen in fascination as we hurtled through space—I saw the Earth curving below us—clouds in swirls across oceans—everything. I'd never held any hope of doing anything like this, yet here I was. Tony and Gavin were bored—I imagine they'd done this too many times to count and it was old, now. They sat together; I was seated across the aisle, next to an executive who'd been in London, negotiating a contract. Now he was traveling back to L.A. He was also asking me out before the flight was over, and it wasn't that long to begin with.
"No, thanks, I'm working," I told him as gently as I could.
"Well, if you ever need anything," he handed me a business card. He was a lawyer, just as I thought. His recycled, holographic plastic card said so. I smiled and waved as he left the pod ahead of me. I waited for Gavin and Tony, pulled my own bags out of the overhead bin (the bins were huge and were the only cargo space the pod had) and followed my two vampires.
For me, it had only been a few months since I'd seen them—only a short while since René and Greg died and Xenides breathed his last. For Gavin and Tony, that had been three hundred years ago. It was difficult to wrap my head around.
The rental waiting for us was a hovercraft, with a cruising speed of two hundred fifty miles per hour. That wasn't scary or anything. Gavin drove; I sat in the back. He still hadn't said a word to me; Tony was the one telling me where I needed to go or what I had to do. He used mindspeech a couple of times, too, just to keep me from making mistakes. I was grateful for that.
The usual safe house waited for us, on a hill overlooking Morro Bay. Morro Rock shone in the water below us as I stood on the wide, safe house deck. "This is beautiful," I whispered to myself—Tony and Gavin had already gone to the basement. Dark clouds hung over the water west of the safe house, but the city twinkled below and I wondered if I could visit sometime when I wasn't working. The old Gavin would have been at my shoulder, calling me cara and kissing my neck. What had happened and why had they forgotten me? I had no explanation for that or any other part of my recent life. Maybe I'd ask Griffin someday what he was thinking. When I could bring myself to speak to him.