I walked through the airport with four men by my side. Greyson, Levi, and Dem couldn't decide who would go and who would stay, so in the interest of fairness, they all decided to come. Good thing they had leave, I guess.
Mathew, on the other hand, I wasn't too sure how he managed to get the time off, or maybe he didn't. All he would say on the matter was that he now had time off and that Mike sent him away with a smile.
Sasha, though, Sasha was the acting Head for House Van Helsing and couldn't come with us. I don't think I have ever seen a man pout like that before. But it was kind of cute. I had to spend a long time assuring him that four bodyguards would be more than enough to keep me safe before he finally relented and let me go.
And when I say he let me go, I don't mean that he gave me permission to go; I mean he finally stopped hugging my waist and refusing to let me move. Like I said, it was actually kind of cute. Especially when you weren't used to anything like that.
"Now boarding American Airlines flight AA2900 from LaGuardia to Los Angeles International Airport with a stop in St. Louis. All passengers, please go to gate 183 for boarding. Please remember to have a piece of ID with you along with your boarding pass. Once again, we are now boarding American Airlines flight AA2900—"
"Looks like we are ready to board," smiled Greyson as he picked up my carry-on bag. We had taken time to eat some breakfast at the airport first. It was an almost seven-and-a-half-hour flight, and I didn't know how much they were going to be feeding us.
The shifters especially couldn't go that long without two meals to hold them over. Lucky bastards.
'I am worried about you,' said my monster as I felt her shifting in the depths of my soul. 'I think something is going to go very, very wrong.'
I stopped walking for a moment, causing the four men to stop with me.
'Hey,' I said tentatively. I hadn't heard much from her since I told her that I didn't want to kill demons indiscriminately. In fact, I don't think she has said more than a dozen words to me since then.
'There is something off…' It sounded like my monster was searching for words that she just couldn't find. And, for someone who wove the strands of fate, that was not a good thing.
'Does it have anything to do with Vlad?' I asked, ignoring the look of concern on the faces of Greyson and Levi. Mathew and Dem simply turned their backs to me and kept an eye out in case something happened.
'No. I can't read it properly because it involves you. I know that there is going to be a life-changing moment, but I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing…' Once again, my monster trailed off, giving me nothing more than possibilities. However, at least one of the possibilities was good. I would go with that.
'I need to know what Vlad is up to. I think that he had a hand in the wolf killings, but no one is willing to believe me,' I answered, trying to get my monster to understand why I needed to go to Los Angeles.
'And you don't think to listen to those that know more than you?' sneered my monster, and I had to physically take a step back.
'It is not a matter of them knowing more than me or not. It is a matter that when it comes to friendships, people can put blinders on. Viktor and Lucas have known Vlad for centuries, and I think that something like that creates a bias. Either way. I don't think going on vacation is a bad thing.'
'But you aren't going on vacation. You are going on a hunt to track down a killer. What? Do you think you should be in House Van Helsing instead? Do you think that you should be The Van Helsing?'
I wasn't used to that type of venom coming from my monster, and for a brief second, I wondered if I could do something to push her back into the recess of my mind so I don't have to deal with it again. I honestly thought that what I was doing was right.
And without a crystal ball telling me my future, that was all I had to go on.
"Once again, this is the boarding call for flight AA2900 from LaGuardia to Los Angeles, California. All passengers, please make your way to the gate for boarding." The pleasant female voice cut through the conversation that I was having with my monster. I shook my head, trying to dispel the feeling that I was having, and looked around at the guys.
"All right, you heard her; let's get going," I said with a somewhat strained smile. This was the first time that I had even had an argument with my monster since I fully accepted her. Then again, it has only been a few months since we fully merged, so I guess some growing pains were in order.
"You good?" asked Greyson as he placed his hand under my chin and forced my eyes to meet his.
"Yeah, just an internal debate. Nothing to worry about," I said in my most reassuring voice. I don't think that all changes were for the worst. And if something bad did happen, then we could deal with it then. After all, I was no longer doing this on my own. I had four men by my side, two of them mates. What more could I ask for?
Okay, a vacation on a Caribbean Island with an all-you-can-eat buffet, none stop sun, and pristine waters sounded fantastic. But I would have to wait for that until people stopped trying to fuck up the natural order of things.
If that ever happened.