Wanderlust (22 page)

I awoke to the twitching of Addie’s toes just under the tip of my nose. I’m not sure at what point in the night Eli left the room and Addie took his place, but, there she was.

“It’s about time you woke up,” she said with a chuckle. “I’ve been wiggling my feet forever trying to get your attention.”

Stretching my arms above my head, I let out an enormous yawn before hopping out from under the covers. I skipped over to the window and pulled open the drapes, letting sunlight burst into the room.

“Whoa there,” Addie exclaimed. “I didn’t mean you had to get out of bed. I was just kind of hoping we could catch up a bit before we get called down for breakfast. I heard that Giles guy poking around down there a good fifteen minutes ago, so I’m thinking we have about an hour before the smell of bacon wakes up the others.”

Bacon. How sweet. Maybe the savory scent would catch Eli’s attention, but unless the bacon was accompanied by a quart of fresh pig’s blood, the scent of it would do little to wake the dead. Addie meant well, but I had my doubts that Chip and Sylvie had slept at all. My guess was that they had spent the night plotting our course for the rest of the trip.

“Look, Addie, I’m sorry the trip hasn’t gone according to plan,” I said, grabbing her brush from the vanity and kneeling behind her on the bed. I began running it through her hair and separating it into sections so that I could braid it like we used to when we were kids.

“It’s not your fault,” she said, practically purring her contentment.

It was, but she didn’t need to know that.

“Still, I wish I had some way to make it up to you. Between Eli crashing our party at the airport, and Chip tagging along…I feel terrible.”

“Eli’s not so bad,” she said, “And, I actually really like Chip. We have way more in common than you and I ever did.”

We both laughed at that because we knew it was entirely true. Addie and I had always very little in common, and the older we got, the less we saw eye to eye. But, we’d known each other so long that it didn’t seem to matter, and we loved each other no less. After all, they say opposites attract. I decided to get her take on everything that had gone down since I last saw her, just to make sure she was still in the dark about the bigger picture.

“What happened last night, anyway?” I asked. “I thought we detoured to Lyon because there was some big fashion thing going on that you just couldn’t miss, but you and Chip never left the place once.”

“Yeah, that,” she said. “Turns out it got cancelled at the last minute. Sorry about that.”

“No worries. It was probably for the best anyway. You know, in case I needed to get to another clinic fast. At least here Sylvie could help me.”

“You two seem pretty chummy all of a sudden. What’s that all about?”

“She’s not that bad,” I said. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be her best friend or anything, but we called a truce for now. She’s going to tagalong another day or two just to be sure I’m okay. She speaks like six languages, and she has connections all over the place, so I figured there was no harm in it. You don’t mind, do you?”

Addie shook her head to signal that she was in agreement. Then, she burst into tears. I put down the brush and wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

“It’s okay, Addie. I’m going to be fine. It was just a little allergic reaction.” I hated lying to her, but it was all I could do to keep her safe.

“Oh, Addie. You’re being silly. You and Rob do this all the time. Just wait until we get home, and you’ll see. Once you’re back in his arms, everything will be fine.”

“I’m not so sure this time,” she said. “I sure hope I’ll have it figured out by then.”

As if on cue, the door creaked open, and Eli poked his head inside. A look that could only be described as shock and dismay was plastered across his face at the sight of the two of us entwined.

“Oh, no. You didn’t tell her, did you?” he asked quietly, his face turning a whiter shade of pale.

“No,” Addie and I said in unison.

We looked at each other then, and I knew she was thinking the same thing I was--what could I have to tell her, and vice versa? Eli seemed pleased either way, and he swept into the room like a tornado. Addie and I didn’t have time to investigate further because he had created such a distraction. He began tossing t-shirts and shorts in our general direction, and we tumbled over each other trying to grab them.

“Do we want to have breakfast up here, in the dining room, or out in the yard?” Eli asked once we had settled down. “Giles sent me up to ask.”

“If we eat outside, my hair will muss, and you did such a nice job braiding it,” Addie said.

“Outside is fine, Eli. Addie will make do.”

He laughed and left us to continue getting ready. When we were done, we packed our bags and left them just outside the door. Sylvie would be driving us to Zurich as soon as we were done eating, and Giles would be loading the vehicle. Which vehicle, I wasn’t sure since Balthazar had taken the Bentley, but I was fairly certain it would be every bit as fabulous if Sylvie was going to drive it. I would have felt bad letting an old man lift our heavy packs, but I knew better. That man wasn’t just old…he was ancient.

***

We didn’t see Chip or Sylvie at all during breakfast, which left me feeling a little on edge. They clearly had a lot of planning to do, and that made me nervous. If they truly felt I was safe in their care, why would they need to spend so long making arrangements? I pushed the thought out of my head and focused on the facts. I was no more or less safe here than I would be back home. It wasn’t much of a comfort, but it was something. I wasn’t any worse off anyway.

They finally appeared once Addie, Eli, and I were crowded into the backseat of the Rolls-Royce Phantom. Crowded was hardly the word for it, really, but any time Addie had to crammed between two people in the back of a vehicle, it was the only word to describe the reality of the situation.

Sylvie stayed with us two more nights, and in that time I had grown a little fonder of her. Though, it was still difficult being around her knowing the truth about her and Chaseyn. And, I still hadn’t heard from Chaseyn, which made my heart hurt more and more with each passing day. I had come on this trip to find out who I was without him, but what I learned was that I didn’t want to be anybody if I couldn’t be with him. Now, I had to try to cope with the possibility that he wanted to be without me. Oh, how the tides had turned.

After leaving Paris, it had felt a bit like we had been in hiding. At least it did to me, anyway. And, I guessed that we kind of were. We never left the “palace” in Lyon, and it took quite a bit of convincing to get Sylvie to allow me out of her sight once we arrived in Zurich. It turns out Switzerland isn’t just neutral in global affairs but also in vampire politics. There was some sort of unwritten code of conduct that prohibited vampires from “behaving badly” on Swiss soil. So, it was basically one big safe house for the duration of our stay there--which consisted of one evening.

As a general rule, vampires avoided Switzerland as a result of the code. Convenient. It made sense for us to reroute our journey through there because we could virtually travel sight unseen by any Soldier spies. Any undead that did live there refused to take part in any unseemly activities. I felt fairly certain that revealing the location of a mortal fugitive would qualify as just that.

We had spent the better part of the morning on the road, so it was late in the afternoon when I made my public debut since leaving Paris. Chip had to be at my side at all times so that she could use her sixth sense to scout out any vampires before they got too close. And, Eli was in constant combat mode. He walked backward more often than not so that he could scope out our surroundings.

During the afternoon, we took a river cruise past all of the sights and wandered the streets in search of Swiss souvenirs, which consisted of the stereotypical watches, chocolates, and cheese. But, what I remembered most about our brief visit to Zurich was that it was expensive. Very expensive. Luckily, I had long ago given up on accepting hand outs during the trip because one bottle of water cost as much as my food budget for one day.

We stayed in a cozy chalet--the kind you see in romantic mountain movies where the couple goes skiing and spends a weekend luxuriating in a cottage with walls constructed of logs and beds covered in mounds of down-filled duvets. I didn’t mind so much being trapped indoors in that kind of luxury. Trapped because, Eli decided that, despite the safety Switzerland supposedly provided, he just wasn’t convinced I would be completely safe once the sun had set. And, night time was, for obvious reasons, the most likely time of day to unexpectedly encounter one of the undead. We stayed in and watched movies instead.

***

The next afternoon, we set off for Venice. While this city was not a part of our original itinerary, I was extremely excited to be going there now. And, I was not disappointed.

Venice was like a water-color postcard come to life. It was incredible. In terms of vampires, Venice was a bit of a gamble. Sylvie had many friends who lived there full time, and just as many who summered there. She felt certain that, of all the cities beyond the safety of Switzerland, it was the one with the most promise for keeping me safe because we could rely on so many allies.

I wondered why we didn’t just stay in Switzerland a while longer, but she insisted that if we stayed long enough, the Soldiers would find a way to infiltrate the area without any of the others noticing they had broken the code. It made sense to me. If I thought it any safe to go home, I would, but Chip had explained that, by now, my entire town would be crawling with members of the Soldiers of Solace, and at least here, they couldn’t predict where I would be exactly at any given time. They would always be a step behind. I figured I might as well see the rest of Europe since, if Alexei or the Soldiers got their way, I may not have another opportunity. Terrified of the possibility? Yes. Dwelling on it? No. There was nothing more I could do, after all. Why tempt the fates? I shoved all thoughts of my threatened mortality out of mind and tried to enjoy the trip as much as I could given the circumstances.

As we wove our way through the narrow streets, I could imagine what it must have been like to live in this placed when wearing corsets and petticoats was fashionable. Despite the water-worn building facades and eroded cobblestone walkways, everything about the city seemed regal.

“I wish I was a dog,” Eli said as we crossed over yet another bridge.

“Fortunately, you don’t have too far to go,” I said with a laugh.

“Lia, that’s not nice,” Addie scolded. Since when did she care? Besides, it was clearly a joke--no one in their right mind would call Eli a dog.

“Fine,” I said, grimacing. “I’m sorry, Eli. What I meant to say is, why do you wish you were a dog?”

“Look,” he said pointing at one of the gondolas as it floated past.

While a man clad in the traditional black and white uniform pushed his massive paddle along the bottom of the canal, a dog lazed atop a plaid blanket on the backside of the boat--as far from the passengers as reasonably possible without dipping his tail in the murky water. We all laughed at the sight and nodded our agreement with Eli’s sentiments. To be a dog…

Ah, Venice. I wished I could stay there forever, and I decided that, as soon as possible, I would return with the love of my life. For now, I was content to chow down on the plethora of pastries and other goodies that Eli has insisted we purchase at the various bakeshops we had passed on our route to the Rialto Bridge from our hotel near the centre of St. Mark’s Square.

“Down here,” Chip said, waving for us to follow her down a series of seaside steps. She plunked her body down on a stone ledge and waited for us to catch up. As she did, she spread out several napkins as a makeshift tablecloth. She then proceeded to delicately place each of the pastries out for us to inspect.

“That one,” Addie said pointing to a flaky lobster tail. “That’s mine.”

“Fine by me,” I said, taking a big bite out of the cream-filled cannoli I had snatched from the pile before Eli could get his grubby hands on it. “I can’t seem to get enough of these.”

“I know, right?” Eli mumbled with a full mouth. “It’s like the guy who came up with the idea for these plucked a little piece of heaven right from the sky and wrapped it in puffed pastry.”

Chip, Addie, and I burst into laughter in unison. In fact, I laughed so hard that I almost rolled off the edge of the stone wall and into the water. Chip reached out lightning fast, using her special skills to balance on the balls of her feet as she single-handedly reeled me in to safety. If she hadn’t grabbed my arm, I would have been face first in a deep pool of dirty water.