Without answering my question, Kai approached me with an unreadable expression as he rolled the shawl between his hands. "Put this over your head. I need you to cover your face before we enter the city," Kai instructed, draping the shawl over my head before I could fully react.
"I don't want to wear her shawl!" I protested, struggling against his hands, but my strength against him was in vain as he rolled the shawl over my hair.
"It's clean. It doesn't have any blood on it. So I need you to wear it because of that death sentence against you," Kai explained while adjusting the shawl to cover my head and part of my face.
"That death sentence is your fault! Besides, you paid my bail, so why should that matter now?" I argued, frustrated with him as he covered most of my lower face.
Firm in his tone, Kai adamantly demanded, "This isn't America. People disappear around here all the time, especially women. So I can't risk someone recognizing you or other vampires tracing your scent. Her scent should help cover yours from being detected by other vampires."
Meanwhile, Rome howled in laughter at my appearance. "Aw, look at how cute she looks," he chuckled. "Man, how I wish I still had my phone on me to snap a picture of this one."
"Rome, you would be so dead if you tried!" I threatened as my voice muffled through the fabric.
"What's that, Princess?" Rome teased, playfully cupping his ear, and pretended to misunderstand me."Did you say, 'You'd like to cherish this memory forever'?"
"Ugh!" I clutched my knuckles pale white as Rome continuously chuckled while walking towards the direction of the pyramids.
~~~
Before long, we reached Mr. Collin's hotel, and I finally tossed the shawl. A burning sensation simmered in the pit of my heart as we passed through the same glass doors I had used during my excavation. To my dismay, this was the very hotel where Mr. Collin had housed all his hired excavators, including me as the only trainee. For the moment, it was difficult for me to relive the flashbacks of my last memories of my team members and Tom, my ignorant boss, before Kai ate them after he awoke.
As I tackled through my haunted memories, the frantic voice of the woman at the front desk yanked me back to the present. "Sir Kai! Your father has been trying to reach you! Where have you been?"
Kai surprisingly responded with nonchalance. "We've been stranded in the desert due to a plane crash. I need the manager to deliver us fresh bottles of blood, new clothes, and chargers for our cell phones to our room."
Initially, my jaw nearly dropped to the floor when I thought he had spoken to a human. But just as quickly, I soon realized that the lady I had recognized from my previous stay during the excavation had never been human. Unbeknownst to me at the time, she was, in fact, a vampiress.
"A plane crash!" with widening eyes, she exclaimed before quickly shifting her gaze to me. "Is she okay?"
"Yes, she's fine," Kai reassured her. "I need the key card."
"Oh, right!" she frantically rummaged through the papers on the lobby desk. "Here you go. You should know your father is on his way here."
"What!" Kai snapped, snatching the card. "That's unnecessary! He should be with my mother!"
"He wouldn't need to come if you had just gone home as you were told. Goodness, Kai! You shouldn't be bringing your pregnant wife out here! Egypt is crawling with vampires!" she lectured, giving Kai a stern stink eye.
"Save the lecture," Kai huffed. "I'm not in the mood for it."
As Kai took my hand, the vampiress veered her gaze toward me, and deep regret filled her eyes. "It's good to see you again, my dear. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
"Forgive you..." I asked, puzzled. "For what?"
"Under Mr. Collin's orders, she had to report you to the authorities for your arrest," Glenn revealed.
Shock drew me utterly speechless to hear this new piece of information.
"I told them you returned to the hotel completely caked in your colleagues' blood," she confessed as tears moistened her eyes for how awful she felt.
While my head was still processing this new information, Jack added, "It was the only solution to keep you safe from Kai. He wasn't stable at the time to be near you."
"Enough!" Kai snapped, strictly interjecting. "There isn't any need to bring up old wounds! She's been through too much as it is!"
"I apologize. I felt like she deserved to know the whole truth. Your father explained his side of the story. But I haven't gotten a chance to tell my side. What I had to do eats at me every day," she explained while sadness drained from her heart.
I quickly responded before Kai's anger escalated higher. "I forgive you. Thank you for sharing your side of the story with me."
After glimpsing at her gentle smile one last time, Kai frustratedly led us to the elevators.
Under my breath, I whispered, "Who was she?"
As everyone's eyes lingered on the descending digits of the elevator, Kai quietly replied, "She's a friend of my parents and under my father's clan. She's also Dr. Riley's younger sister and her husband is the manager here."
"That explains the similarities and the lecture," I noted just as the doors to the elevator slid open.
Yet, Kai did not comment on my observation, but his silence spoke volumes with his irritation.
Altogether, we ascended to the highest floor, and I was relieved to avoid the floor I stayed at during my excavation. Heading inside our room, it opened into a spacious living room. A kitchen area, complete with an island bar, is on the right. Towards the back, a panel window viewed the balcony, and the bedrooms flanked on either side. Everything Kai had requested had already been placed here before our arrival as well.
"Finally, a plug outlet!" Ian cheered, darting to a small table near the balcony's glass doors from the corner of the wall.
He immediately plugged in his phone, and his eyes intensely stared at the screen as if doing that would generate it to charge faster.
To take a minute to relax from these chaotic days, everyone else retired to their bedrooms, so Kai and I entered our bedroom on the right side to do the same.
"You should get a shower," Kai suggested while looking through the closet to find something to wear.
"I was thinking of a warm bubble bath," I remarked.
Kai nodded in agreement before I went into the bathroom to prep a warm bath. Five minutes later, he decided to join me to unwind from his anxiety with a warm bubble bath. After we shared a relaxing bubble bath, I put on a robe and crawled into bed.
"Take this for me," Kai nicely insisted, popping open the last pill I had left to control my time gaps.
"Shouldn't I save it?" I questioned as he placed it into my palm.
"My dad will be here soon with more. You should take it before you pass out," Kai suggested, handing me a bottle of water before he sat down on the edge of the mattress with me.
To make him happy, I took the water and swallowed the pill. Once I laid back into bed, Kai began to play with my hair, and each gentle stroke felt incredibly calming.
"I wish... I could go to the museum with you..." I yawned.
"I'd feel better if you didn't," Kai's dulcet murmur resounded like a soothing lullaby.
Tiredness soon overtook me as the rhythmic motions of his fingers brushing through my hair strands were soothing me to sleep.