"Okay. If you weren't dragging me along, wouldyou have to go through all of this?"
"To some degree."
I'd have to find out more later, because we were nowin some sort of VIP line and no one needed to overhear that conversation. Notthat there were a lot of people here. Advantages to a regional airport forsure.
Ezra handed over a couple of tickets and a pair of ID'swhen it was our turn. What the hell?
The person checking documents scanned them, glanced atus, and gestured for us to move on.
"You know, I brought my ID."
"Yes." He handed one of them back to me.
"Wait...how..."
Ezra arched an eyebrow and for once my sarcasm failedme. "Fucker," I muttered.
He chuckled.
Somehow my bag did not set off any alarms when it wasscanned and neither did we. Nor did we have to take off shoes, and no oneblinked when I left my jacket on. Absolutely no one looked at Mayhem. I'd even almostforgotten about him.
"Well, that was easier than I expected," Isaid quietly when we were on the other side.
"Advantages of traveling with me," Ezra explained.
"So private jet doesn't mean private hanger onsome private airstrip?"
"Sometimes. It's not actually my jet, justchartered, and it was easier to do it this way."
"Huh."
Ezra seemed to know where he was going, and I followedhis directions until we got to another kiosk. He exchanged more paperwork hepulled out of nowhere. Summoned was probably the correct term. Then a womanwearing a sharp looking airline uniform led us out onto the tarmac.
I glanced at the demon prince. Yep, wearing sunglassesagain. It was bright out, but I supposed I was used to it. Maybe it was darkerin hell? Sabian had never seemed to care, but then, he was a shapeshifter.Maybe Ezra didn't have the same abilities?
Fighting off the insane urge to run my fingers throughhis hair and see if I could feel his horns even though I couldn't see them, Ishoved my hands into my jacket pockets. Yeah, I did have a pocketknife inthere. Oops. I knew Ezra actually did have horns that showed above his softblack curls. I wondered if he had wings, too, that I'd never seen?
"You're thinking awfully hard there, Chris,"he said quietly.
"Um, sorry, mate." I shivered at the way hecaressed my name with his voice. Fuck.
"I wasn't listening, but you're frowning like youdo when you're thinking."
"Just, uh, yeah...sorry." There was no way Iwas admitting what I was thinking if he didn't already know.
Ezra smiled and I focused on the small plane the womanwas leading us to. Even without an extensive knowledge of airplanes, I couldtell it was fancy.
"The demon prince thing comes with a bigpaycheck?"
"So many favors owed," Ezra replied.
"Oh." I shivered and decided I just wasn'tgoing to ask in the future.
Boarding was as simple as walking up a flight ofstairs and getting onboard. "Damn," I whispered as I beheld the insideof the plane. Fancy didn't even begin to cover it. At least I wouldn't becrammed into the back of a commercial jet surrounded by a ton of other people. "Somefavor."
"Do you want to know?" Ezra asked as hestashed my bag in a compartment.
"Nope. I'm good. Ignorance is bliss." Iflopped down into one of the forward-facing chairs, and Ezra took the oneopposite me so we could look at each other. Lucky me. No. Really. He wasdelicious to look at. Also, I couldn't help but notice it would keep us fromaccidently touching each other. Maybe I wasn't the only one that didn't want tobe glued to someone's hip. The need was still there, but it was far moremanageable than yesterday.
The rest of the procedure for getting off the groundwas somewhat familiar. A flight attendant made sure we had our seatbeltsfastened. Even Ezra buckled up. He gave us a quick safety spiel, and then wewere taxing down the runway.
I grinned in enjoyment as the acceleration pushed meback into the seat once we were able to take off and tried to settle in andrelax once we reached cruising altitude.
Then another advantage to being on a private jetbecame apparent. Really good wine and very tasty lunch. It wasn't as good aswhat Mal turned out on a daily basis, but it was far better than I'd expected.
Mayhem jumped up onto my lap and I fed him some of mylunch.
Once the flight attendant had us taken care of, heleft the cabin and we were alone.
"Safe to talk here?"
Ezra shook his head. "Not worth the risk."
"Okay." I settled in, attention glued to thewindow, trying not to stare at the handsome demon across from me. It was goingto be a long flight.
Chapter 6
Price
At some point I must have drifted off. I woke up whenthe airplane jolted onto the ground.
"Well, that's one way to make a flight go fast,"I said, glancing around.
Ezra nodded.
"Please tell me I wasn't snoring?"
He smiled but didn't answer.
"Jerk."
We taxied for a while, then the flight attendant toldus we could get up. I stretched when I stood and followed Ezra out of theplane. He grabbed my bag again, and I let him. Though I was reclaiming my holywater and my knife as soon as I could.
"So, we are going to talk soon, right? I'd liketo know what I'm getting into," I stated once we were moving through whatwas probably the private branch of a considerably larger airport. The humidityhad smacked me in the face as soon as we'd gotten off the plane and I was gladto be inside. I lived in the desert for a reason, damn it.
"Yes. We'll be someplace we can talk soon enough."
"Good."
The press of humanity was much thicker, and I automaticallyshifted in closer to Ezra. Not so much for protection, but to minimize interferencewith other people obviously in a hurry. I didn't particularly like gettingjostled. It always put me in a bad mood and made me want to fight. Something Icertainly didn't need to start in an airport. I was also used to home and ithad been quite a while since I'd been around this many other people. The eastwas certainly a different environment than the west. Even inside the
