I turned a pointed look on Ray, my lips pursed.
“What?” he asked, shrugging. “What’d I do now?”
“Nothing,” I said, hiding a smile. “But it seems at every turn we’ve taken, we’re damn lucky to have you around. The cursed wolves are going to be extremely hard to deal with, and don’t think I’ve forgotten that the only reason my father is alive right now is because of you—and your new skill set.” Ray was a reaper and a vampire. His latent reaper genes had been activated by his transition into a vampire and a healthy dose of my blood. “Before this is over, I predict you’re going to be one tired reaper.”
Before Ray could respond, Rourke jumped out of the plane, handing Marcy what she needed from the pilots. He turned his attention on us, calling, “Naomi and Ray, you guys take to the sky immediately. We need you up there to get a read on our situation. If there are any planes in the air, we need to know which direction they’re coming in from.”
Ray nodded. “We’re on it. But by the time we come back, you need to be ready to vacate.”
“We’ll be ready.” Rourke waded over to me. “You and I will shift, but if the planes are already on their way, they’ll fly low, sweeping the area. Seeing a wolf and a big cat racing through the marsh is going to be an epic red flag. So Ray’s right—we need to leave immediately, and once we do, we need to move fast.”
“I have no doubt we can cover a lot of ground, but maybe Marcy can help us as well.” I turned and called, “Hey, is it possible for you to conceal our animal forms from humans if they fly over?”
She looked up from the hank of hair she held in her hand—Rourke’s contribution to the DNA. “Nope. Sorry to disappoint you. In order to do that, I’d need to be strapped to your back—which would be completely hilarious, and I’d be totally up for it, but something tells me that wouldn’t be your thing. If I had an ingestible spell with me, it would be a different story. And can I just take a moment here to say that if I would’ve known ahead of time you were going to be pursued by the scariest, most ancient supes on the planet, I would have brewed up some potions.” She leaned forward and cupped her empty hand around her mouth. “And, just between us, even though I’m not officially allowed to brew my own spells yet, they rock. It’s against Coven rules for a non-member to brew, blah, blah, blah. But my spells are superior to anything those hacks can produce.”
“I’m sure your spells are superior,” I said, “but you’re right, I’m not strapping you to my back, nor is Rourke. I’m sure we’ll be fine, but to ensure that we need to leave soon. Ray is going to fly you out and the plan is to meet up in two hours.”
She sighed. “I despise Vamp Air, but I guess it can’t be helped. I can’t even think about the amount of bugs that will be caught in my teeth over these swamplands.”
“Well, maybe it would help if you just keep your mouth shut—”
Jessica! Can you hear me? Tyler’s voice came rushing into my mind.
I grabbed Rourke’s hand and gave it a squeeze to let him know what was happening. Yes, I can hear you! Where are you?
The better question is where are you? Both Danny and I got a huge pulse of distress from you a few minutes ago, and then it all went silent. What’s going on?
“I do keep my mouth shut, so there,” Marcy muttered. “Other than the screaming part. Now I need your man to lift me into the plane so I can spell the pilots.”
Rourke nodded as he moved past me. “Stay here. I’ll get the witch on the plane. Then we leave.”
The plane we were in just went down. I’m sure that’s what you felt.
Went down, as in crashed?
Kind of, yes, I answered. It started with a strange call from Juanita warning me I was in danger, and then the electrical cut out. It would’ve been much worse if we didn’t have the vamps or Marcy on board. But now we’re stuck in the swamp. We have to get out of here before company comes. Where are you?
Did you say Juanita? Your Latina neighbor—that Juanita? His voice was strained. I could sense he was running.
One and the same.
Jesus, Jess, it would be nice if you stayed out of life-and-death scenarios for five minutes.
You’re telling me. I’d love nothing more than to go back to Rum Cay and leave all this crap behind, but unfortunately, that’s not a current option. Helping Dad is. Where are you? I’ve got limited time before I have to shift and run.
We’re just crossing the panhandle into Florida. It’s slow going whenever we have to maneuver around a large city, but we’re making good time. We’ll probably be close to you in about four or five hours.
Sounds good. Once we’re out of this area, I’ll hit you with our location. Stay safe.
You too.
Right as I signed off with my brother, Ray landed next to me.
It took everything I had not to jump. “Jeez, Ray, a little warning would be helpful.”
“You have supersonic hearing, Hannon,” Ray groused. “I shouldn’t have to announce my landing like a simpleton.”
He was right, of course. But I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of admitting I should’ve heard him. “I was having a conversation with Tyler in my head. Sometimes our senses are busy elsewhere.” I hadn’t realized it before, but when I talked internally, I did shut off almost everything else. In the future, it would be wise to keep things more open.