Mirror: Book One of the Valkanas Clan (32 page)

I could feel doubt begin to trickle through Tom’s mind.
But surely Damian…

…surely Damian loves Valerie too much to prevent her from getting something she so desperately wants
, I replied
.

But he told her she’d have to sacrifice it to the elves if it came to that, remember?

I paused. That was
true,
he had at least expressed the possibility of putting practical concerns over Valerie’s wishes. That comforted me, but not completely. Short of someone managing to kill Cesar without him getting a single word out of his mouth, I didn’t see how they could keep the horn’s existence hidden.

Cesar wanted us to get it rather than Temora’s people though, so surely he wouldn’t mention it in front of Marcus?

Only if he thinks he has a chance of getting it away from us later. If he genuinely believes he’s trapped, he might bring it up to try to distract or bribe Marcus. Having Temora’s people here makes this whole thing so much riskier—to Ava, to us, to Valerie’s desire to keep the horn. Do you think there’s any chance of getting rid of them?

And facing a powerful elf, a power-crazy Master vampire, and whatever resources he’s managed to accumulate down there, with only the six of us? Are you crazy? We need to stack the odds in our favor as much as possible. Marcus is the only one of us who’s ever even been in the Chaco province before—we’d be going in completely blind without him.

While we had been carrying on our mental conversation, Damian, Valerie, and Marcus had been carrying on a quiet one of their own on the other side of the plane. Jade and Orchid sat as silently as ever—I was beginning to wonder if they were even capable of speech, or making any kind of noise at all.

They turned their heads in eerie synchronicity, and a second later I heard the sound they were responding to: Luis’s car.
At last.
Now we could finally get moving. It only took Luis and Sam a few minutes to get on the plane—though, much to my
surprise,
they didn’t sit down next to us but rather headed for the cockpit.

“They’re the ones flying us?” I asked, incredulous.

“We left Temora’s regular pilot and co-pilot to finish their rest. Given that we had two capable pilots among us, there was no reason for them to get up after so little sleep,” Marcus glared at me with these last two words, making it clear he blamed the timing of my revelations for his own lack of beauty rest. Hell, as nasty as he looked right now, he could probably use as much beauty rest as he could get. “It also means there will be two fewer people knowing our real travel plans, which can only work to our advantage.”

Marcus looked over to Damian, who nodded.

“Our plan is fairly simple,” Damian said. “Our hope is to catch Cesar while he is still in Resistencia. Given the limited resources he currently has, he is probably travelling commercially, which means he’ll have to fly into Buenos Aires before picking up a local flight to the Chaco province. We have every reason to hope we might secure both he and Ava at the airport in Resistencia, since we will be heading directly to that airport.”

“Ava?” Marcus asked.

“My friend,” I said, perhaps a little too loudly.

“Ah, I
see,
the human. I did not know her name. My apologies,” Marcus said coolly, not sounding in the least contrite.

Tom, perhaps in response to reading my urge to throttle Marcus, distracted me with his own set of questions.

“What about Marielle? And what is our plan to protect Ava if Cesar spots us before we have secured him?” he asked.

“Since elves have more immediate means of transportation available, it is unlikely she is travelling with them. More likely, Cesar has sent her ahead to prepare for their arrival. Hopefully, it will not prove necessary to confront her directly,” Damian said, and it dawned on me just how much of this plan relied on “hopefully.” Hopefully somebody in this group was owed some really good karma, or we were in for a world of trouble.

“Why wouldn’t Marielle have just brought Cesar and Ava with her that way? She transported Cesar before, right?” I asked.

Marcus rolled his eyes, as if I were the most tiresome naïf he’d had the misfortune to encounter. I once again resisted the urge to tackle him, while a more detached part of me reflected that being around him was turning into really good anger management training.

I felt Tom stifling a chuckle beside me. Marcus glared at him while answering my question.

“As I thought you knew, it taxes elves greatly to bring other with them. It is unlikely she could have regained enough energy to bring Cesar along with her, much less Cesar plus a human.”

“Her
name
is
Ava
,” I said, mentally applauding myself at my restraint.

Given the looks I got from everyone else on the plane, however, they weren’t as inclined to applaud me—Marcus looked offended, Damian and Valerie amused and annoyed, Tom concerned, and
Jade
and Orchid…well, come to think of it, they looked just as distant as ever. I briefly wondered if they were even capable of facial responses, or if that part of them was just as muted as the rest. I took my cue from them, looking stoically at Marcus while his flicker of anger faded back into his usual mask of bored annoyance.

As we had been talking, the plane had powered up and begun to taxi to the runway.
Now we accelerated, lifting off with a roar of the engines that silenced all of us for a few minutes. Once we leveled off, I decided I might as well bring up my main concern now, to leave the maximum amount of time to figure out an alternate plan in case it proved necessary.

“Speaking of Ava,” I said, “it is extremely important to me that she returns home safely.”

“Yes, well, if that’s possible then we’ll be sure to do that,” Marcus said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“I think you misunderstand me.” I paused to gather my resolve, watching as my tone registered with everyone and six pairs of eyes came to rest on mine. I only had one card to play, and it was a risky one, given my status in the vampire pecking order, but Ava was too important to me not to take the risk. “I’ve been given to understand that my gift is of some…interest…to Temora. However, it’s very fickle, very temperamental. If I were distraught over the harm done to a loved one, well, I’m just not sure how well that gift would function.”

Marcus’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I see. I’ll be sure to…keep that in mind.” He looked at Jade and Orchid. “I’m sure everyone else will as well.”

Impressive.
Have you been studying up on the nuances of vampire politicking behind my back?
Tom asked, sounding slightly awed.

No, I just tried to imagine how Damian might have said it,
I replied. Tom chuckled silently.

Well, I wouldn’t count Marcus on your shortlist of friends any time soon. But I think you impressed Damian—and maybe even the silent twins over there.

I cast a sideways glance at Orchid and Jade. I couldn’t be sure, but there seemed to be the slightest hint of a smile lingering around the corners of their mouths. Well
well
, wonders never ceased.

Damian’s cautionary glance was easier to read, though he didn’t completely conceal the hint of pride in his eyes. I took both to heart. I’d risked ticking Marcus and Temora off enough with my threat—no point in getting myself in any more trouble if I could help it. I made a big show of stretching sleepily, then reclined my chair, shut my eyes, and took a nap for the rest of our trip.

A stray ray of sunlight crept in through a small hole in one of the plane’s window curtains, causing me to awaken with the beginnings of a nasty headache. I quickly fumbled through my purse for my sunglasses, heaving a sigh of relief as they slid into place. I then grabbed my heavy-duty all day sunscreen from my bag and went to find the plane’s lavatory to make sure I’d covered every inch of my exposed skin.

When I flicked on the light, I saw a small burn that was just beginning to heal on my face. Clearly yesterday’s application had worn off and I was in need of a new one—I was just glad I’d remembered to bring my bottle with me in my bag.

Once I was fully protected, I stepped out to check on everyone else. I didn’t want any other stray holes in the curtains sizzling any of my companions.

Well, maybe Marcus just a little.

Everyone looked fine, though, and they were all sleeping soundly, so I decided to pay Luis and Sam a visit. I was tired of the lingering tension between Sam and I anyway, and I figured now was as good a time as any to nudge things back towards normalcy.

I tapped lightly on the door that separated the cockpit from the cabin and Luis opened it a second later, gesturing towards a
jumpseat
as he returned to his chair next to Sam.

“I just wanted to see if you guys needed anything.”

“No, we’re fine, thank you” Sam said stiffly, and I actually found myself missing his usual sarcasm. I didn’t know quite how to respond to this newly cold and polite vampire.

“Thanks, but we’ve got everything we need,” Luis said in friendlier tones. “It won’t be much longer until we land anyway.”

As nice as this jet was, the thought of landing was far more appealing: I wanted the confrontation with Cesar over and done with. Then Luis’s comment struck a note of panic.

“Uh, guys, this is probably the worst time to be realizing this, but it just occurred to me that I don’t have my passport with me,” I said, mentally kicking myself for not having remembered this rather important detail previously.

Luis looked at me and smiled. “Don’t worry, bribery is far more effective than legitimate paperwork for what we want to accomplish anyway. Marcus has already set everything up with some local friends from what I understand. None of us will be going through customs. Resistencia airport isn’t really set up for that anyway.”

I gaped at him. Sure, it was bound to be a small airport—but having someone else comfortably bribing my way into a country I’d never even seen before shocked me.

“Is that generally how you all travel?”

Luis nodded.
“If it’s for business, yes.
When I travel on my own, I do things the normal way.”

If I hadn’t been looking in Sam’s direction already as I thought about this, I wouldn’t have noticed the lightning-fast glare he gave Luis, who abruptly became much less chatty and focused on the dials in front of him with renewed vigor, as if they were suddenly demanding his full attention. 

I sat there in silence, not yet ready to return to the darkened cabin now that I was awake, and more than a little tired of Sam’s silent treatment.

“So how often do you all fly planes?” I asked after a few moments ticked by.

“I usually try to get up in the air every month, but recently it’s been a few months since I’ve been up,” Luis replied, hesitantly flicking his eyes at Sam as he did so.

Sam didn’t say anything. I decided to try a more direct approach.

“Listen, Sam, I know I’m not your favorite vampire right now. Whatever I did, I’m sorry.” Granted, Tom’s explanation had given me a pretty good idea of what I—inadvertently—had done, but I didn’t want to make things worse by revealing that.

Sam only grunted in reply, but given that the tension perceptibly eased in the cockpit I decided that was good enough. With a quick mock salute, I eased my way back into the cabin, not wanting to press my luck.

You made nice with Sam?
Tom asked me as I re-entered the still-dark cabin, sounding slightly surprised. It took my eyes a second to readjust, and then I noticed that his eyes were open, though everyone else still appeared to be sleeping.