Alex and I make our way around the back of the school. I focus on studying the photo of Iceland, instead, trying to memorize every detail of the area, hoping I can get us there.
I’m almost ready to go when we duck behind the dumpster to Foresee away when I see something I wasn't expecting—a vampire feeding.
I gape at the scene in horror, realizing I know the victim.
“Professor Sterling?” I whisper. There’s so much blood all over him and the snow on the ground. “Oh, my God. No.”
This is all my fault, all of this: him being here, a vampire feeding off him, the world being run by evil.
Alex swipes a stick from the ground and aims it at the female vampire with the triangle mark on her neck, feeding off the professor. She keeps draining the professor’s blood as Alex stalks up behind her. With one quick motion, he stabs the stick through the back of chest, and her body obliterates to ashes that scatter across the snow.
Professor Sterling dazedly blinks up at us. “What happened . . . ? I don’t . . .” He presses his hand to the wound as Alex helps him to his feet and guides him away from the garbage can.
“Go inside and tell the nurse you were cut,” he instructs, pointing at the school.
Mr. Sterling deliriously nods his head then staggers for the back entrance of the school.
“Let’s get out of here,” Alex says, taking my hand.
I look down at the picture again, more determined than ever to get us there. I take in every detail from the snow lining the grass to the water in the distance to the shallow hills. Then I picture myself and Alex standing in the middle of it.
When I open my eyes, we’re there, on that little road I pointed at. But something feels—
“Son of a bitch,” Alex curses as the nose of an airplane dives for us.
I trip across the ice, almost getting taken out by a plane, but Alex's fingertips circle my wrist, and he swings me around in front of him and out of the way. We don’t stop running until we reach the chain link fence enclosing the runway.
I slip my fingers through the metal links, staring up at the barbwire on top. “How do we get over it?”
Alex walks the line of the fence, searching for another way out, while I check what’s beyond the side of the fence—a parking lot and some cars. Getting an idea, I focus on a red car as I reach over and slide my hand up Alex’s arm. I feel the zap, and then I Foresee us through the fence and next to the red car.
“Well, I guess that’s one way to do it.” He tries not to smile, but the corners of his mouth threaten to turn up. “You’re amazing. You know that?”
I blush from the compliment. “Let’s go find a taxi so we can track down your mom and stop more people from getting bitten by vampires.”
Nodding, Alex takes my hand and hikes across the parking lot to the entrance doors of the airport. The doors glide open, and we step inside then start searching for the taxi station. I’m nervous about being out in the open, worried every single person we pass might be a witch or vampire in disguise.
Thankfully, we find signs that lead us to the taxi station without running into any problems. Of course, there’s a line that we have to wait in, and Alex can’t seem to hold still, nervous energy flowing off him and through me.
When I start to sweat, I decide it’s time to distract him from whatever’s got him all jittery.
“So, about that thing . . .” I have no clue why I decide to talk about that other than it just kind of slips out.
He glances at me with his head cocked. “Thing?”
I point at my stomach. “That thing.”
His muscles tense, but the heat goes down a notch. “Oh.”
“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I say quickly, my words coming out in a nervous rush. “It just kind of feels like we should. I mean, I’m kind of freaking out . . . and you seem so . . . so quiet.”
He relaxes, releasing a breath. “I’m freaking out, too.”
A breath eases from my lips. I don’t know why, but knowing he’s nervous, too, makes me feel better, like I’m not crazy for being more worried than excited.