Chapter Seven

CHAPTER SEVEN

Roxy

My dreams got increasingly more salacious the longer I slept.

Even my subconscious mind wanted to pretend that the cold-skinned creature whose hands, lips, and tongue were sliding all over my overheated body wasn't the moody, distant Nathaniel.

That was likely why, for the majority of the dreams, his face was, well, hidden. If you know what I mean.

But right at the end there, his head tilted up, his icy eyes heavy-lidded and hungry even after having already gorged himself on me, leaving my body humming with pleasure.

There was no mistaking him.

It was right then that I snapped awake, confused by the dark, confined space and the comfortably cool form beneath me.

It wasn't that the coolness was new.

I may or may not have discovered a spell to keep my pillow cool no matter how long I slept back when I was a teenager, sweating in an un-airconditioned cabin while I spent my summers with my grandmother.

But this didn't feel like my comfortingly familiar ‘boyfriend' pillow. First, because of the complete lack of softness. Second, because the part of the ‘pillow' that wrapped around me wasn't just limply pressing against my body.

Oh, no.

It had wrapped me up.

Tight.

Suddenly, the fog of sleep drew backward with the first kiss of consciousness.

It all came rushing back.

The vampire in my kitchen.

The kidnapping.

The ‘arrangement.'

The break-in at the cathedral.

Then climbing back into the car with Nathaniel.

That was exactly where I still was.

But I was no longer safely on the other side of the car.

Oh, no.

In my sleep, I'd practically climbed onto the vampire's lap.

That wasn't exactly, you know, surprising.

It had been a long time since I'd had anything resembling human contact with someone else. Longer still since I'd been this close to a man. Let alone a frustratingly handsome one.

Of course my stupid unconscious self would want to climb him like a tree. In dreams and reality, it seemed.

What was surprising, though, was that he hadn't pushed me away. That he had wrapped an arm around me, had decided to hold me tightly against him.

"You scooted over in your sleep," Nathaniel's voice, sounding deeper and sexier up close, told me when he realized I'd woken up.

"I, ah, yeah," I said, forcing myself to pull away.

Not because it felt wrong.

But because it felt a little too right.

"I have a boyfriend pillow at home," I said. "I was probably just… seeking that in sleep."

"What is a boyfriend pillow?" he asked, that judgmental tone slipping back into his voice.

"A pillow that has one wide side, roughly the width of a person. Then a smaller part that goes behind your neck, and wraps around like an arm. It's not like that," I insisted at his raised brow.

"If you are seeking the comfort of a boyfriend, why not find a human one instead of a pillow form one?"

"I'm not seeking the comfort of a boyfriend ," I insisted. "I'm seeking a good night of sleep."

"Which you get by having a boyfriend-shaped pillow. So one would conclude that a human boyfriend would give you the same benefit. Amongst others."

"If you think human men have that many benefits, you haven't spent enough time around them."

"That… is likely fair," he agreed.

"Is there a reason we aren't on the plane yet?" I asked, my stomach letting out a small rumble.

What can I say? I didn't leave my apartment much. Snacks were something I grazed on pretty much all day. And it had been hours since the Chinese food Nathaniel hadn't even let me finish.

"No," he said, biting off the word as he pushed open his door and slid outside. Then offered me his hand.

Okay.

The old-fashioned manners were definitely growing on me.

I mean, earlier this week, some guy at my apartment building had slammed the door in my face.

So, yeah, this was a nice change.

"I don't need, like, a passport or anything?" I asked.

"Where do you think we are traveling?" he asked.

"You've been so forthcoming with details."

"We are heading toward Washington State," he said as he waited for me to start up the steps to the plane.

I'd been on a plane exactly once in my life. When I'd left my little town after my mother's passing to move to the city.

And the cramped accommodations stuck between a hysterical baby who was letting everyone know how much her ears hurt and some guy who kept taking up my armrest and ramming his arm into me hadn't exactly been luxurious.

This plane, though, made me consider my lack of ambition in life. Because this thing was stunning. I had the choice of bucket seats that reclined backward, a long bench that could easily be used as a makeshift bed, or a dinette area with two booths and a table.

There was even a small area that served as a kitchen, complete with a mini fridge and a coffee maker.

"How often do you travel?" I asked, turning back to find Nathaniel already watching me as I took in the aircraft.

"Reasonably often. Especially when I was doing research on the key and labyrinth. When I'm not using it, I rent it out to others with similar aversions to public transit."

"Oh, yes, my popcorn," I said, rushing over to the kitchenette to grab the bag of cheddar popcorn and one of the drinks I'd requested before choosing the bench, solely for the ability to stretch out my legs.

Alright, fine, the better angle to view the TV was part of it too.

While Nathaniel rolled his eyes as I made my selection, he said nothing as one of my shows filled the screen just before we took off.

The thing was, though, that I hadn't done quite as much running around in years as I had in the cathedral. So my body was exhausted. I barely got into the storyline before I was drifting off again.

I only woke up again as the plane landed on the tarmac, jolting me around wildly, making me shoot up.

A blanket pooled around my waist, and I realized that the only person who could have covered me was the grumpy vampire himself, since there was no staff, save for the pilot and co-pilot.

"We're here?" I asked, reaching up to push some of my hair out of my face, feeling a little disoriented as I slid my legs back to the floor.

"Yes," he confirmed. "And we must hurry to be off," he said, glancing at his watch.

"Isn't the sun up?" I asked, remembering the little golden tendrils spreading across the sky when we'd first gotten on the plane.

"Time difference," he reminded me. "We lucked out with rainy weather, but the sun should be out within the next hour," he told me, moving toward the door as the pilot came out of the cabin to lower the steps and offer Nathaniel his goodbyes.

"Roxanne," Nathaniel called, making me jolt as I slid my feet back into the uncomfortable shoes.

He was holding a hand out. Like he expected me to slip my hand into it.

The strangest thing was how much I wanted to do just that.

"Roxy," I corrected as I got to my feet.

"Roxy," he repeated, reaching for my hand when I didn't offer him mine. I couldn't tell what I was more stunned by. The way my belly flip-flopped at the sound of my name on his lips. Or the way his fingers slipped between mine, then held tight. "We have to be fast," he told me, holding my hand tighter.

I realized just a split second before it happened that he meant we had to do the super-speed thing. But this time, without his arms around me, it was even more disorienting to actually be pulled along behind him.

The wind whipped around me, making my hair fly out behind me as my belly bottomed out, and adrenaline made my heart trip into overdrive.

At the last second, before I was sure we were about to collide into the parked town car, Nathaniel twisted me, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me into the car and onto his lap the same way he had the last time.

The difference being that, this time, shock and fear weren't gripping my system.

Oh, no.

It was an entirely different set of feelings crashing through my system as we finally stopped moving, and I was settled against his body.

Namely, exhilaration.

And the undeniable spark of desire.

One that threatened a wildfire.

I wanted to stay just there. I wanted to wiggle and writhe against him, to get relief from the need that was a coiled ache in my core.

That was exactly the reason I slid my butt off and onto the seat beside him, then, a little more reluctantly, moved my legs off of him as well.

"You could sell rides to that," I said, pressing a hand to my still-frantic heart. Though, I think it had less to do with the run and more to do with the desire coursing through my bloodstream.

Nathaniel's brow raised, making me realize the other way that comment could have been taken.

"The flying thing," I said, sucking in a deep breath to calm the need. Only to breathe in his crisp, clean scent that only intensified the feelings I was trying to fend off.

"Right," he said, nodding stiffly. "Of course," he added, shifting in his seat, turning away from me to look out of the heavily darkened windows. "We just made it," he observed as the sun broke out from between the previously gray skies, banking the entire tarmac in fatally bright light.

"So, ah, about this labyrinth," I started.

"What about it?"

"It might be helpful if I knew more about it. Kinda gonna be walking around in the dark all by myself here."

"I will be with you," he said, making my head snap over.

"Come again?"

"I will be with you. In the labyrinth."

"But… how?" I asked, waving toward the outside of the window where the sun made it impossible for him to move around without becoming crispy.

"The labyrinth doesn't work with our rules," he said.

"But you said it's spelled."

"Not necessarily to keep me out. Simply to make it impossible for me to move through it on my own."

"What if it's a trap?" I asked.

"It's worth the risk."

"Why?" I pressed.

I mean, the vampire seemed to have everything anyone could ever want. All the money in the world. Super strength and speed. A library full of ridiculously boring books. Immortality.

Though, the whole not needing or enjoying food thing would be a major downside for me.

Why would he risk all of that?

"That is inconsequential for you," he said.

Clearly, he was back to his grumpy ways. I shouldn't have expected anything to change just because he put an arm around me while I slept on him and then covered me with a blanket.

It wasn't like he was suddenly going to fall in love with me.

Vampires couldn't love.

You needed a soul for that.

Something evil creatures were lacking.

"Fine," I huffed, reaching for the bag he'd left the plane with. As I suspected, it was full of my snacks.

I picked an iced tea and a cherry breakfast pastry, glad that I'd always been too lazy to get up and pop them in the toaster, so I'd long since learned to enjoy them uncooked.

I was halfway through the second one when I'd noticed Nathaniel's gaze on me.

No.

Not even on me . On my mouth. Like he was watching me eat.

"Ah, do you want one?" I asked, digging into the box to grab another of the foil packets. "I mean, I know you guys don't need to eat, but that doesn't mean you can't, right?"

"Right," he agreed, looking down at his lap when I tossed the food there.

"And, you know, it's bad manners to let someone eat alone," I claimed, not knowing if there was any truth in that or not.

But he nodded, reaching with those long, masculine fingers of his to pull open the foil, then produce one of the pastries, sniffing it tentatively before taking a bite.

"Good, right?" I asked, nodding.

Nathaniel swallowed, then rubbed his tongue across the top of his mouth.

"No."

"Gee, sorry it's not some fancy 1700s pastry made by someone who came from a long line of bakers. But this is modern-day America. We like our food fast, cheap, and full of sugar."

"You think I'm a snob," he concluded, passing the foil back to me. I wasn't about to let good food go to waste, so I went ahead and ate his portion too.

"I mean, yeah," I said over a mouthful.

"I ate peasant food when I was alive," he said. "Flaky bread. Stews with cheap vegetables and the occasional bite of meat. If I was lucky. This has nothing to do with snobbery. And everything to do with that… pastry tasting like cardboard covered in sugar and filled with jam of some undetermined fruit."

"It's cherry."

"If you say so," he said, shaking his head.

"How long of a drive do we have?" I asked after a few silent moments.

"Three hours until we are in the general area. From there, we are going to stop at a hotel."

"Why?"

"Because humans have needs that vampires do not," he said.

"Right," I agreed, capping my iced tea, not sure if my bladder would hold out for three hours if I finished it. "But, how can you stay at a hotel?" I asked.

"Drapes," he said, making a surprised laugh escape me. "We will stay there just until sunset. And then we will make our way to the labyrinth."

Adrenaline skittered across my nerve endings, wondering what, exactly, the maze might have in store for me. What kinds of challenges had been used to keep vampires and other witches away from… whatever was at the end of it?

Along the drive, all I could focus on was why the heck a vampire of Nathaniel's knowledge and means had settled for a witch like me.

I wasn't exactly a motivated witch.

And I wasn't a highly skilled witch, either.

So why me?

I glanced over at Nathaniel, seeing none of the openness I'd glimpsed in him in rare moments since we'd met.

I had a feeling there was no use asking for details.

He wasn't going to tell me the truth. Not when something was waiting at the end of the labyrinth that he was willing to risk both our lives for.