the same way.
Being really attractive
is a weird thing to get used to.
Ezra got everything sorted for the next flight, and then we prepared ourselves to wait for our flight
out. This time, I made sure to hang out by a window. I had missed all of New York City, and I was
determined to at least admire the view of Helsinki. Not that there was a view from the
airport. It was mostly
planes, landing strips, and some traffic. But that was more than I had seen in New York.
“It really is a beautiful city,” Ezra admitted, coming up to stand next to me.
We watched as plane taxied down the runway, and I knew that wasn’t he was referring to.
He knew
that I was trying to catch a glimpse of something that I was going to miss entirely. I sighed but refused to
leave my post at the window. Besides, standing up for a change felt good.
“You’ve stayed here before?” I glanced him out of the corner of my eye even though I
thought I knew
the answer.
“Many times, mostly before Mae,” Ezra nodded. “I’ve managed to drag her out here a few
times, but
she doesn’t like to leave the city very much. But Peter loves it here.”
“How come?”
“The cold, the dark, the wilderness, the seclusion. He stays up further north mostly. There’s a couple
really fantastic national parks and some ski resorts, and that’s where he spends most of his time. And Helsinki,
Stockholm, Amsterdam, they’re all not that far away, whenever he requires bustling city life,”
Ezra explained.
The way he said “life” I knew he meant more than dinner and a show. Actually, he just
meant dinner.
Peter might enjoy seclusion, but he needed a population to eat, preferably a mixture of vampires and people.
Vampire bars and blood banks made eating so much easier, and the fewer the people, the
less the options.
“So that’s where we’re going? Up north?” I turned fully to Ezra. “What’d you call it? The Lapland?”
“Yeah. It’s just the northern most territory in Finland.” He took a deep breath, and he sounded
reluctant when he continued. “There’s something I haven’t told you.”
“There’s lots of things you haven’t told me,” I corrected him nervously.
27
“This is important.” He licked his lips and shifted his gaze. “You’ve heard of stories of werewolves,
right?”
My stomach dropped. Sure, I may be a vampire now, but there were certain things I couldn’t take.
Like finding out an endless stream of monsters and folklore were real. After this, maybe we’d roll with a Yeti
or go swimming with the Loch ness Monster and a Leprechaun. There had to be some point
where fiction
remained fiction, and I was determined that ended it immediately after vampires.
“No, no, no,” I shook my head. “Jack told me there weren’t any werewolves. There’s no
such thing.”
“No, there’s not!” Ezra agreed emphatically. “Shape shifting of any kind is a complete
impossibility.
Or at least as far as I know.”
“So…” My heart had slowed a little, but he was still holding something back, and that wasn’t comforting. “Why even bring them up? How do they relate?”
“You’ve heard the stories about them, though, haven’t you?” Ezra continued, his deep
brown eyes
looking at me intently.
“Yeah,” I answered uncertainly.
My knowledge of werewolves was very limited, and mostly based on Michael J. Fox’s
portrayal in Teen
Wolf . I had never thought the film was very factual, because I couldn’t imagine how surfing on a van could be
possible, werewolf or no. So I hadn’t given any credence to the lore, and the only thing I carried from it was
that wolves were good a basketball. This information did not seem pertinent to the situation.
“How the full moon makes them come out, and they attack without reproach?” Ezra went
on. “They
turn into vicious animals, unfettered by remorse or logic.”
“Okay, sure,” I nodded, hoping he would just hurry and make his