“We will meet again.” She nodded with a tranquil smile.
Ethan and Josh wandered into the square, chatting and joking as they strolled. As they approached us, Josh noticed something was off first, his easy smile falling.
“Pack your shit,” Alec barked before they even had a chance to greet anyone. “We’ve been made. We have twenty minutes to get out of here.”
“Nina?” Josh ignored him and came forward to say hi.
“Oh man.” Ethan groaned. “I was just about to get something to eat.” His shoulders slumped as he turned to follow a marching Alec back to the house.
I took his hand. “Yeah, but you’re always about to get something to eat.”
“True.” He grinned at me.
Within fifteen minutes we were packed and at the start of the path. We said our goodbyes, and the villagers all went about their daily lives as if we’d never been there.
The young man with the invisibility—he didn’t look older than seventeen—was so excited to put his ability to use he was practically bouncing on the spot. He needed contact to keep us hidden, but as I reached for his hand, Nina grabbed my wrist and stepped between us. Without any thought for personal space, she placed her hand on the man’s chest and cocked her head. After a few moments, she smiled.
“When you can, head east,” she told him. “Your Vital is in Africa, somewhere south of Ethiopia.”
“Thank you!” The young man beamed, bowing repeatedly and grinning.
Nina stepped away, and I took the man’s hand, pushing Light to him in a steady stream. The others made a chain behind us, and we stood at the side of the path and waited.
It was almost too easy. The six men came walking up the path, barely breathing hard after the long, difficult climb. They were casually dressed, like tourists, but their expressions were hard, their eyes searching, and they barely talked.
They passed us without so much as a glance. Once they were well on their way to the center of the village, we moved down the path.
At the bottom of the mountain, we said our goodbyes to the youth who’d probably just saved our lives. He grinned, clearly happy to have been useful, as well as overjoyed at the knowledge Nina had shared about his Vital.
A beat-up old van pulled up next to us, and we piled in. The driver said a few short words to Nina but generally ignored us until he deposited us at a small airstrip.
We rushed from the van into a small plane, the engines already firing up as the door was pulled shut. The pilot was as quiet as the driver, not asking any questions and not sharing anything either.
As we settled into our seats, I finally took a few full breaths.
Ethan took my hand in his big one and promptly fell asleep. I smiled at him affectionately even as I cursed him out of envy. He really could sleep anywhere.
Just as fast as we’d arrived, we were leaving Japan, this time, hopefully, completely undetected.
I leaned my head on my fire fiend’s big shoulder and closed my eyes, hoping to get some sleep too.
Twenty-Six
Nina unbuckled her seatbelt and stood in the aisle, hands on her hips and an excited look on her face. “Time to go.”
She started pulling bags down from the overhead lockers.
“Time to go?” I shared a worried glance with Ethan. “Uh, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the fucking air.”
“We’re somewhere over the Mediterranean, right?” Tyler questioned, picking up one of the bags and starting to strap it to his body.
Holy fucking Heisenberg! They were going to make me jump out of this plane.
“Extraction?” Alec asked.
“Naturally.” Nina had her parachute in place and was adjusting a pair of goggles. “I have a boat coming to get us.”
Alec nodded, a smile pulling at his lips as he started to strap his parachute on. “Nice.”
“Nice?” I screeched. Ethan and I stood, holding on to the backs of our seats. He looked wary but not panicked like me. Josh remained in his seat, unfazed, still reading his book. “Not nice! No one said anything about jumping out of a plane! I’m not jumping out of a fucking plane!”
Alec grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the aisle. He planted both hands on my shoulders, piercing me with his blue-eyed stare. “Bailing out now while the pilot keeps going and lands somewhere far away means we evade anyone who might be tracking our flight on radar. We have all the equipment. This is the best move.”
I fisted my hands in his shirt, as if I could stop him from hurling me out of a plane. “Jumping out of a fucking plane is the best move? I don’t fucking think so!” My voice sounded frantic as my heart hammered in my chest.
“You get so sweary when you’re stressed.” Alec chuckled. “It’s cute.”
Tyler handed Ethan a harness. “You and Alec are closest in height—you can tandem jump with him.”
“Cool!” Ethan started putting the harness on. He looked more excited than scared now, as if this were an adrenaline experience and not a life-or-death situation.
We were twenty thousand feet in the air. Tyler said we were over the Mediterranean. We’d be landing in water. I quickly calculated terminal velocity—we would be falling somewhere between 120 and 150 miles per hour. Water is incompressible fluid, so hitting it at terminal velocity would be like hitting concrete. The likelihood of surviving a fall like that was . . . practically nonexistent.
My body screamed at me to sit back down and strap on my seatbelt. My mouth just started screaming. “No no no no no! Don’t make me do this! I’m not fucking doing this! We’re all going to die! Oh my god!”
“Did she just say god?” Ethan chuckled, leaning over Alec’s shoulder to look at me.
“Fuck, she’s really freaking out.” Tyler leaned over Alec’s other shoulder, frowning.
“Evie.” Alec shook my shoulders lightly, his voice firm. “Calm down.”
“Calm down?” I finally released his shirt and pulled myself up to my full height. “Calm down?! Never in the history of calming down has being told to calm down resulted in a person. Calming. Down. Alec!” I screamed into his face, letting all my fear and frustration loose.
Instead of getting pissed off or yelling back, he smirked as if I was amusing him. Then, before I could start yelling again, he leaned forward and kissed me. With one hand on the back of my neck and the other at the base of my spine, he pinned me against him and devoured my mouth with his. Involuntarily, I wrapped my arms around him and closed my eyes. It was one of those searing, all-consuming Alec kisses I loved so much.
Logically I knew this was a distraction—he was using physiology to override psychology. The tactic annoyed me slightly, but damn, if it wasn’t working.
After a few dizzying moments, he pulled back. “You’re safe. We’ve got you. Tyler and I have done this hundreds of times. Josh has a skydiving license. We know what we’re doing.”
Reluctantly, I nodded.
“Better?” he pressed.
“Better.” I nodded again, breathing him in. He made me feel strong, but I’d made it a point to avoid planes since . . . and now I was about to jump out of one, into water no less. Talk about triggering trauma. “I’m still scared, Alec.”
“I know. This isn’t like that night.” He knew where my freak-out was coming from. “We’re not crashing. You’re safe. You have to trust us, precious. We’d never let anything happen to you.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. If there was one thing I could be sure of, that was it. They put my safety above all else. I had to trust this was the best move.
“Two minutes!” Nina yelled from her spot near the door, one hand on the handle.
“Alec, Kid, get in position,” Tyler ordered. Alec dropped one last kiss to my forehead and went to stand next to Nina.
Ethan let him pass before pulling me into a hug. “Love you, baby. You’re gonna be fine.” He kissed me on the cheek and followed Alec. They attached their harnesses together, and Alec started giving Ethan i
nstructions.
“Eve, you’re with me. Josh, gear up.” Tyler handed me a harness, not dissimilar to the one they’d forced me into just before we rappelled down a building in Manhattan.
“Actually”—Josh closed his book and stood, the picture of calm—“I think Eve should go with me.”
I looked between them. Did Josh have more skydiving experience? Alec said he had a license, whatever that meant.
“One minute!” Nina called.
“Good thinking!” Tyler slapped him on the back. “I still want you strapped together though.”
Josh nodded, already putting his harness on. It didn’t seem to be attached to a large backpack containing a parachute though . . .
“See you down there.” Tyler gave me a brief kiss on the lips and moved toward the door, taking his position in line to jump out of a fucking plane.
I couldn’t believe we were doing this.
“Nina’s about to open the door.” Josh pulled me to him. “It’s going to be windy and loud.” As I tied my hair back, he explained the best way to skydive, what to expect, how to hold my arms and legs out.
He flashed me his perfect teeth in a grin just as Nina turned the lever and the door went flying.
Frigid wind whipped all around us with a deafening roar.
I gripped the back of the seat. Nina waved and flashed me a smile as if she were popping out to grab us some coffee, then she stepped out and disappeared. My stomach dropped.
Alec and Ethan shuffled forward, Ethan’s back strapped to Alec’s front. They leaned forward in the door, and Ethan whooped as they went plummeting.
Tyler checked his straps one last time and stepped out without hesitation.
Josh nudged me to face the aisle, and I felt him attach my harness to his. “It’s our turn,” he yelled over the noise. “Now, juice me up, babe!”
I turned my wide eyes over my shoulder, and he caught my lips in a kiss. I pushed Light to him as if my life depended on it, focusing on the feeling of his perfect lips on mine, the tingling, warm sensation of the Light transferring.
As he kissed me, Josh walked us forward, down the aisle and toward the open door.
He broke the kiss and smiled. “Ready?”
I faced forward. We were already at the door, Josh’s hands gripping the sides of the opening, bright sunshine and a few fluffy clouds visible beyond.
I dared not look down.
“No.” I shook my head. Every instinct I had, every scrap of self-preservation in me, screamed to step the fuck back!
But Josh shoved forward, and we were officially jumping out of a plane.
My heart lodged in my throat and stopped beating.
I tried to scream, but the intense rush of air whipping at my face took my breath away.
We don’t have a parachute!
My mind reminded me of this little fact now that we were already free-falling.
Somehow, some part of my brain was with it enough to follow Josh’s instruction. I held my arms out loosely at my sides, my knees bent slightly, and tucked my chin against my chest, creating a little pocket of air so I could breathe before I passed out.
My eyes watered, and my face felt numb from the frigid air.
Josh’s arms banded around my middle, and he reminded me why jumping without a parachute wasn’t a fatal mistake.
Our plummet toward certain death slowed. After a few moments, I felt the unmistakable nudge of Josh’s ability.
He was using his telekinesis to fly.
In a moment of panic, I slammed more Light into him. I had to make sure he had enough! I knew how draining it was for him to do the flying thing, how hard he’d had to train to get it, how much Light and concentration he needed to do it for any length of time.
He grunted, and his arms tightened around me. Then he chuckled. “Ease up, Eve. I’ve got plenty. I won’t drop us.”
He didn’t have to shout at all for me to hear him. Actually, all the overwhelming noise had ended. I stopped the Light flow, leaving the connection open in case he needed more, and looked around.
We’d come to a complete stop and were floating among fluffy white clouds.
My shoulders relaxed just a fraction, and I took a deep breath of the fresh air. I hugged Josh’s arms around myself, feeling the muscles and tendons in his forearms as I craned my neck to look at him.
He smiled, relaxed, confident in his ability and my Light needed to fuel it. I smiled back, some of the fear finally dissipating. I couldn’t even feel the harness tugging me or cutting into my legs; Josh held me in his arms and with his ability with no extra help needed.
I looked down just in time to see one, then two, then three parachutes unfurl and slow the others’ descent.
The bright sun sparkled off the water below, and coastline and islands gleamed green and gold in the distance. It was beautiful.
Josh started floating us down toward the water. Unlike the pace we’d been rocking only moments before, his speed now was closer to a rollercoaster than a missile. Much more enjoyable.
“This is like the coolest ride at the fair!” I told him through a smile.
He laughed, but instead of replying, he sent us sailing through the air in a perfectly smooth loop.
I couldn’t contain my laughter. I’d gone from abject terror to giddy glee within a matter of minutes. I decided not to consider the implications for my mental state too closely. That was just what being in a Bond meant. They could make me feel incredible no matter how bad things seemed.
As we continued our easy glide toward the glittering turquoise water, I relaxed into Josh’s embrace. He was so good at this, as if he’d been born with wings and had been flying his whole life.
As if to illustrate my point, he planted a soft, lazy kiss to the curve of my neck, not even paying full attention to keeping us both airborne. I smiled and wriggled against him, which made me think about how closely he was holding me. His front was against my back, not a breath of space between us, our feet tangling playfully.
“Hey, Josh?” I half turned my head so he could hear me.
“Hmm?” he hummed, his lips still at my neck.
“How long do you think you could keep us both in the air? Theoretically? And how hard would you need to concentrate for the duration of . . .”
He smiled against my neck, making me bite my bottom lip. I had no doubt he knew exactly what I was insinuating, but he decided to tease me anyway.
“For the duration of what? What exactly do you have on that fucking dirty mind of yours?”
I shivered against him. I loved it when he cursed. It gave me a glimpse of his freaky side—a side only I got to see . . . and sometimes the others.
“I think you know exactly what I have in mind.” I arched my back, pressing my ass into his groin. I wasn’t at all surprised to feel his erection.
He chuckled but put a tiny amount of space between us. “I think that can be arranged, but not right now, unless you want an audience?”
I looked back down. We were barely twenty feet away from the surface. The others had all landed and disconnected their parachutes, the colorful fabric floating in the water. A speedboat pulled up next to Nina, and a person reached down to help her over the side.
Ten feet. We were close enough to hear their voices but not make out what they were saying.
Ethan went next, Nina and the other man pulling him up while Alec and Tyler helped from the water.
Five feet.
It was Tyler’s turn. He was light and agile, only needing a hand over the edge from Ethan. Alec lifted himself into the boat before anyone could offer him help.
“Shit!” We were about to hit the water. I’d been too distracted watching them all climb to safety to notice. “Josh! I don’t want to go in the water, Josh. Josh!”
Our toes only just touched the surface, then he spun us around and farther up, away from the boat.
“It’s OK. It’s OK, Eve. I’ve got you.” He tightened his grip around my middle, and I rea
lized I was digging my fingers into his forearms. I released my grip immediately and rubbed over the nail marks I’d left in his skin.
“Sorry. Shit, I hurt you.”
“No, you didn’t. You OK? What’s going on?”
“I . . .” I wasn’t sure how to articulate it. I couldn’t remember hitting the water when the plane crashed, but apparently my body could. Approaching it from the sky made me panic in a way that was hard to explain. “I just really don’t wanna go in the water.”
“We don’t have to.” He was already steering us back toward the boat, coming in slower and slower. “Tuck your legs up.”
I wrapped my arms loosely around my knees. Josh approached the boat with such control I barely even felt us land. His feet touched down on the wooden boards, and the sensation of his ability disappeared.
Alec was at our side instantly, holding me in his arms as Tyler disconnected my harness from Josh’s, then set me on my feet. He watched me with a question in his eyes while his hands roamed, looking for injury. Tyler and Ethan eyed me warily too, clearly on edge.
“I’d love to meet you all properly, but it’s probably best if we don’t linger here too long.” The man at the front of the boat drew our attention, speaking in a thick Greek accent.
Working as a team, we pulled the soaking, thin fabric of the parachutes out of the water and dumped them in a corner. Everyone took a seat. Ethan pulled me down between him and Alec, and the speedboat took off.
It was a pretty smooth ride. The hot summer sun beat down from above, and the salty air whipped past our faces as the Greek man pushed the boat faster and faster. There weren’t any massive waves or bumpy bits; we just glided along the waters of the Mediterranean . . . for hours.
The noise made it hard to talk, so we spent most of the ride in silence, watching the water and the occasional bit of land in the distance. By the time the roar of the engine started to calm down, I was starving, a little seasick, and completely over the novelty of being in a speedboat.
Vivid Avowed (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 3) Page 30