“I realize it’s fast food, but can we pretty please get In ‘N Out?” I begged. “If you guys want to go on a nice date, just go through the drive-thru for me. I’ll be your best friend.” I batted my eyelashes at Dash from the backseat.
“Don’t ask me,” he said. “She’s the one in charge.” He nodded at Helene.
“That really does sound great. And that leaves more time for us to do something else,” Helene said.
“Like sight-see,” I joked.
“Actually, Camelback mountain at night has a pretty cool view,” Nick offered.
“So how do you know that? Did you and Beth go park up there or something?” I asked with a hint of jealousy.
“No comment,” was all Nick would say.
“Ooh, busted,” Dash added.
“Shut up, Dash,” Nick growled.
“Fine, whatever. As long as you take me there sometime,” I said.
“It’s a date,” Nick smiled at me.
We drove to the In ‘N Out closest to the airport and went inside. Dash ordered his food animal style and the guy in line behind us asked, “What’s that? I don’t see that on the menu.”
“Dude! Haven’t you ever eaten here? It’s on the secret menu,” Dash answered.
“I’m just passing through town and keep hearing all about this place. Thought I would finally check it out,” the guy answered.
“Well, get it animal style. That’s the way to go,” Dash offered.
It was nearly impossible to find seats together even at the late hour, but I saw a family about to leave and snagged their booth before anyone else could. While we ate, we told Dash and Helene about our travel plans. Dash gave me the names of his family in France if we wanted to visit them when we went up North to see Nick’s family. They lived just on the French side of the Alps where Nick’s family came from.
We said our goodbyes at the airport curb drop-off and Nick and I went to the check-in desk. I had everything I wanted for the long flight in an oversized handbag and we checked both of our suitcases so we wouldn’t have to worry about stowing them on the plane. I had Nonna’s book in my purse, but wasn’t sure if I would be able to take it out on the plane without it looking odd.
“If the flight attendant even noticed it, I’m sure she would just assume it was some sort of old book. It’s not like she’s going to think, ‘Oh my gosh, that girl has a spell book’,” Nick offered.
“Yeah, I guess. Maybe if I’ve already seen the in-flight movies.”
We hung out at the airport for a couple of hours because of a delay, so we didn’t end up leaving until 2 am. About two hours into the flight, I fell asleep and woke up nearly halfway to New York where we would switch planes. “Enjoy your little siesta?” Nick asked me.
I yawned and stretched my legs out as I answered, “Uh huh. Did I miss anything exciting?”
“Just the pilot announcing that there is a crack in the engine, but we will make it anyway,” he quoted from one of my favorite movies with a straight face.
“You can’t fool me. I know that movie by heart. What time is it anyway? Are we almost there yet?”
“Just about halfway, but then we have a four hour layover in New York. With the last minute travel plans, it was all they had available,” he answered.
“Ah crap, what are we supposed to do for four hours? It’s not really long enough to go do anything fun,” I complained.
“Well now you can talk to me,” he smiled.
I laced my arm through his and rested my head on his shoulder. “That sounds nice. What do you wanna talk about?”
“What are we going to do in Italy? Besides visit family I mean,” Nick answered.
“Well, Mamma gave me a list of stuff to do. My grandparents live in the old side of town up on the hill, but we’ll have a car so we can easily go wherever we want.”
“What’s some of the stuff on her list?” he asked.
“Definitely the beach. Apparently there’s one with beautiful, turquoise water. And I’m not really into Botanical Gardens, but they have a great one there I guess. We definitely have to see the castle.”
“I’ve actually always wanted to see a real castle,” Nick smiled.
“Plus, there’s a really cool market with lots of different stuff. Not just like a food market. And we can figure out when we want to go up north to see your family. Speaking of which, are they going to accept me? You never told me if they’re okay with all of this,” I asked, feeling a little nervous about meeting his extended family.
“So…”
“Oh crap, that already doesn’t sound good.”
“Well, Babbo’s mamma died when he was a teenager so it’s just Nonno and he’s super old and stubborn, so I don’t know how he feels about it. Babbo said he tried talking to him about it, but he’s really mad I didn’t marry a were girl.” I frowned. “But he lives with my aunt and she’s on board. She hasn’t ever gotten married and I think she’s just excited to see her nephew happy.”
“Do you think it’s still okay to see them? Or is your Nonno going to cuss me out in Italian when I walk in?”
Nick laughed, “I’m sure he’ll fall in love with you.”
“And what about your mamma’s family?” I asked, hoping they would be more receptive.
“All of my aunts are scattered around the world so we won’t see them, but two of them married humans so my grandparents are cool with it,” he whispered. If anyone heard us referring to someone as “marrying a human” they might look at us like we were creepy.
“You never mentioned your aunts being married to humans. How many of them are there?”
“Mamma has three sisters.”
“So how does that work since you can’t be bitten in and we live longer than humans?” I asked. In Mexico, Nick told me that you could only be born a were. It wasn’t like the movies where you could be bitten and turned. And though witches and wolves didn’t live forever like folklore, we did age slower and live longer than humans did.
“My uncles just know that they’re in it for as long as possible and someday my aunts will be alone. It’s kind of sad, but when you find someone you love, it doesn’t matter,” Nick answered. “What about witches? Do they ever marry humans?”
“Not really. I mean, there are some, but it doesn’t happen often.”
“Is it like with us where the spouses are sworn to secrecy?”
“Yeah, they have to take a blood oath. It’s pretty serious. If they break the oath, bad stuff happens,” I shivered at the thought. Blood magic was nothing you wanted to mess around with.
“Yikes. No thanks,” Nick squirmed.
“What’s wrong? Not a fan of blood? You did okay with our ceremony.”
“Yeah, but that was nothing and it didn’t matter because I was bonding myself to you, so I wouldn’t have cared what I had to do.” He kissed me softly.
“Exactly. The humans that marry witches don’t really care about the oath. They’re already permanently bonding themselves to someone. There’s no way to get out of that.”
We were sitting in business class and our two seats were together, but across the aisle there was an older guy who opened his eyes and gave us the stink eye. “Some of us are trying to sleep you know. I have a business meeting tomorrow.” At that, he closed his eyes and lay back in his seat again.
“Oops,” I whispered. “We should probably use our inside voices so we don’t piss off Professor Grumpypants over there.” Nick stifled a laugh.
We decided we should probably just watch a movie so the businessman next to us didn’t yell at us again. It was an action movie I hadn’t seen yet and it was pretty good.
After we landed in New York, we walked across the entire airport to where the international flights left from, grabbed a cinnamon roll for breakfast and sat down in the chairs by our gate. I fell asleep again while Nick watched the news on one of the overhead televisions.
Once I woke up, we went into the semi-nice restaurant to eat some lunch before o
ur 2 pm flight. It already felt like it had been forever since we left Phoenix. “I hope Dash got Helene home safely,” I said.
“Why don’t you text him?” Nick offered. I decided to call him rather than text. I could tell by his gruff voice that I had woken him up. He told me they stayed at the dance club until it closed at 4:30 a.m., went out to breakfast, watched the sunrise at Camelback mountain, and then drove back home.
After we hung up, I told Nick about their night out. We were both still surprised how serious Dash was about Helene.
“He’s always been that guy that had a girl of the moment,” Nick said.
“I’m actually amazed anyone ever dated him with the way he acted at school,” I added.
“There were a few girls from the other pack who only saw him outside of school. A couple of college girls he met at a frat party that he crashed one night.”
“Seriously? College girls?” I was stunned.
“He might be immature, but the girls always fell for him,” Nick shrugged.
“Well, I guess he is kinda easy on the eyes,” I smiled.
“Hey!” Nick frowned.
“Oh, I’m kidding. Well, what I mean is that all of you weres are cuter than the average guy. But you are definitely the hottest guy I’ve ever seen.”
“Now you’re just making stuff up.” I laughed at his reply.
Once we were settled into our cushy seats and the plane took off, flight attendant Brittany walked by to check on us and noticed our wedding band tattoos. “Beautiful,” she said. “Are you guys married? You look like babies.”
“Uh, yeah. Headed on our honeymoon,” I answered, annoyed. After asking us if we needed anything more, she left. “Hi, my name is Brittany,” I said in my most obnoxious valley girl voice.
“Shh, she’s going to hear you,” Nick put his hand over my mouth.
“I don’t care, she’s annoying. And we do not look like babies. She seriously can’t be that much older than us,” I grumbled. Nick laughed. “By the way, have you slept yet? You probably should if you haven’t already.”
“I rested my eyes while you had your head on my shoulder. I’m good really. I’m used to patrolling at night anyway,” he answered.
About halfway into our flight, Nick’s head fell over onto my shoulder and I could hear him softly snoring. He usually didn’t snore, so he must have been more tired than he admitted. He patrolled at night several times a week and though he claimed he didn’t need that much sleep, I figured he probably should be getting more.
I was a night owl and sometimes kept him awake talking after he got in from the woods. I realized I shouldn’t do that anymore. The wolves usually took turns, but since Nick was pack leader he felt like he should be out there a lot.
The sun was rising when we landed and I had to nudge Nick to wake up. “Whoa, how long was I out? I can’t believe I slept like that,” Nick asked.
“It’s my fault,” I said as I stood up. “I keep you up even after you’ve been out late.”
Nick took my hand as he stood up and said, “Ah, Bella Sofia, I love staying up late talking to you. You’re my best friend. Don’t ever feel bad about keeping me up.”
I smiled. “I’m really your best friend? Not Rene or Dash?” Before he could answer, I said, “Okay, so probably not Dash.”
“No, definitely too obnoxious. And Rene is my second, not my best friend.” As we got to the door to exit the plane, Brittany was standing there to wish everyone happy travels.
“By Brittany!” I said in my valley girl voice. Nick started laughing hard as we stepped into the tunnel.
~Chapter Nine~
We went through customs, got our luggage and found the rental car counter for the place Nick had rented from. “Okay, I know it might be cliché, but I got us a Fiat,” Nick smiled.
“Cool, as long as it has GPS so I don’t have to use my phone. I didn’t exactly call and set up an international plan,” I said.
We had to drive about twenty four miles from Nice, France where the airport was in order to get to Ventimiglia. It was a beautiful drive and we passed through the part of town where Nathalie’s family is from. “We can stop here for a few hours on the way back if you want,” Nick said as we flew through town at Nick-driving speed.
“That would be fun,” I smiled. “I’ve actually met her grandparents once when we were like ten years old or something. They came to visit for the summer. Her grandmére is amazingly sweet and kept making us Madelines. Maybe we should call ahead before we come by. I bet she’d make some for us if she knew I was coming to visit.”
“Do they know about us?” Nick asked as he turned to me.
“Eyes on the road when you’re driving this fast,” I shouted as he swerved around yet another car.
“Scusa, Bella.”
“You’re forgiven, but please don’t kill us. We aren’t even there yet. And to answer your question, yes, they know about us. Nonna told the entire coven, not just our family. And before you ask, they have accepted us.”
We drove silently as we listened to the GPS guide us to my grandparents’ house. It was incredible and I was instantly jealous that both my parents had grown up here. We wound our way up the hill towards the older part of town and I noticed Nick getting a little twitchy. “What’s a matter? Nervous?” I teased.
“Not at all. I’m just about to meet your giant family unannounced,” he said sarcastically. The GPS announced that we had arrived at our destination and Nick hesitated before pulling into the driveway.
I was so excited to finally be there that I practically skipped up to the house. I didn’t bother to knock. Mamma told me they usually left the door unlocked. “Ciao! È qualcuno in casa?” I shouted. I wasn’t sure if they would be there even though the door was unlocked, so I yelled out a couple of times before realizing it was still really early in the morning. “Maybe they’re still sleeping?” I asked Nick.
“If they were before, they’re not anymore after you yelled like that?” he laughed.
Finally, I heard the sound of shuffling feet. As Nonna rounded the corner, her eyes lit up at the sight of me. “Oh, Piccola! Is that really you? How are you here? Why didn’t you call?” she rattled off in Italian as she grabbed me in a giant hug. She was a tiny woman anyway at 5’2”, but I towered over her at 5’9” and had to bend way down to hug her back. She kissed me all over and rambled on about how wonderful it was to see my beautiful face in person.
Nonno rounded the corner yelling out in Italian, “What is going on? Why are you screaming so loud woman?” She released me, and as I stood up again, Nonno realized who I was. “Oh my bella Sofia. I never thought I would see this day.” I rushed over to him and grabbed him in a big hug. He was several inches taller than Nonna, but still shorter than me. They were both in their pajamas and I instantly felt bad for waking them with my yelling.
Nonna finally noticed Nick standing there and opened her arms widely to him. “Nico!” He stood there awkwardly until she waved him forward. “Come give your nonna a hug already,” she laughed. He went to her and smiled and told her how wonderful it was to meet them and be here in their home.
“How is she treating you?” Nonno asked. “Is she feeding you?” he nodded his head at me.
“Actually, Nonno, Nico is the one who cooks for me. His father, Aberto owns a restaurant in Arizona and he helps there,” I answered in Italian.
He raised his eyebrows at that. “Oh good, you are taking good care of our Sofia then.”
Nonna stood back staring at us. “I see it Giacomo. You see it too, no?” she faced my grandfather. Nick was next to me now, holding my hand and looking a little nervous.
“Sì,” Nonno answered. “What did Giuliana call it again?”
“Connection,” Nonna answered. Nick visibly relaxed hearing the good news. She ushered us further into the house to the kitchen where a newspaper and two steaming cups were sitting on the small table. “Come, sit. You must be tired after coming so far.”
My gran
dfather handed Nick a cup he had just filled for him and he sat down. He handed me one as I snuggled in by Nonna.
“Tell us everything,” she said.
I wasn’t sure where she wanted me to start so I just told her that we thought it would be nice to have a honeymoon before starting work and school. When Nick asked where we should go, I chose the one place I had always wanted to go. She insisted I go further back. “What do you want to know? What do you mean by everything?” I asked her.
“Everything, everything,” she repeated.
“She doesn’t know what you mean, Rosaria,” Nonno almost shouted.
“Geez, they’re as loud as my mamma,” Nick said in English. I laughed and Nonna scowled at me.
“The connection,” she said. “I want to know about the connection.”
“Oh, well, we were hoping you might know something about it,” I told her. “Is there anything about it in your book?”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” was all she said.
“Vague much?” I said to Nick in English.
Nonna swatted me on the arm. “Italian here. No English.”
“Mi dispiace,” I apologized. “How much has Mamma told you?” I asked her.
“I want you to tell me,” she huffed.
“Man, she’s bossy,” I said in English again. And again, I got a swat. I proceeded to tell her how Nick and I met at school.
Nick interrupted with his version of the first time he saw me. She put her hand on his and squeezed as she smiled. “I really did feel like something was pulling on me,” he went on. “I don’t exactly know how to describe it.”
“A cord,” she said matter-of-factly.
“What?” I asked.
“A cord,” she repeated but didn’t elaborate. I couldn’t decide if she was purposely being evasive or if she was losing it a little.
“I guess you could describe it that way,” Nick continued. “I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I was mad at myself because she and her circle were so mean to me.”
Destiny Revealed Page 10