Chapter 26
“Is that the last of the ammo?” I ask Ace, shoving all our weapons into the back trunk. Let’s hope we don’t get pulled over anytime soon.
Ace nods, throwing another handgun into the car. “Yeah.”
“Good. We have food and stuff, too, right?”
“Yep.” He looks over to Riker and Lexi. “Any of you guys need to use the bathroom before we head out?”
Lexi throws him a dry look. “Funny.” And then she gets into the car, slamming the door.
Ace grins, turning to me. “Alright. Let’s go.”
The cars are packed full of ammunition and weapons. The Vinges don’t know we’re coming. We have the element of surprise on our hands. Lexi and Riker are riding in one car, and Ace, me, and Piers are in the other. We only have two days to get there. The attack is in five. That means we’ll have two extra days to plan and prepare for whatever’s coming our way.
“Piers, get off my sister before I break your fucking neck.”
Piers pulls away from the lip-lock he was sharing with Chelsea. He murmurs something to her, and she nods, smiling up at him. Piers comes over to us, and shoots me a smirk. When he opens the door to the backseat of the car, Ace shoves him in hard and slams the door. Piers throws him the finger, grinning.
Chelsea comes over to Ace and wraps her arms around him. He does the same, hugging her and burying his face into her hair. “Be safe, alright? I love you.” She tells him.
He nods. “I will. Love you too.”
He pulls away, but she grabs onto his arm, looking him dead in the eyes. “Don’t die, okay?”
Ace laughs a little bit. “I’ll try not to.”
“I’m serious, Ace.”
“I am too.” He kisses her head and then turns to me, nodding his head towards the car. “Get in.”
I smile at Chelsea. “If he gets his dumbass into trouble, I’ll save him for you.”
She brightens up a little bit. “Thanks, Scarlett.”
I get into the passenger seat and Ace into the driver’s seat. He’s the only one who can figure out how to get to Oregon from here. So once we’re there, Riker will lead the way to show us where they’re planning the broadcast. We wave goodbye to Chelsea, and once she’s out of view, I sigh.
Piers sighs too, digging into the backpack he brought with us. “Please, try to control yourselves while I’m back here.”
Ace looks at him in the mirror. “You didn’t control yourself when you were kissing my sister.”
I hear Piers pause in shuffling through the bag. “Touché.” I watch him through the mirror. He grabs a dark blue book from the bag, then lays down on the seats so he takes up all of the room. “I’m going to read. Leave me alone.”
I groan, already growing bored. “This is going to be such a long trip.”
“When Piers takes his turn to drive we’ll have a lot more fun, I promise.”
Piers snorts, flipping a page in his book. “Yeah, no, that’s not happening.”
I pop open a bag of kettle corn, kicking my feet onto the dashboard. Ace throws me a look for it, but I ignore him. “So the Vinges want humans to mate with vampires or they die? That’s just sick.”
Ace shrugs. “It’s their plan.”
“If they forced me to have sex with a vampire, they wouldn‘t have to kill me; I’d do it myself.” I wouldn’t give in to them. I also was wondering what would happen if all the humans turned into vampires; then what? There’s no more blood left. But Ace, with his smart ass remarks, just told me what he figured out himself: they have animals.
Ace just smirks, as if that did not affect him at all. “But if it were me you were mating with, you wouldn’t mind.”
I snort. “I’d castrate you.”
“Oh, c’mon babe, you want mini Aces running around.”
“First of all, do not call me ‘babe’. Second of all, I’m not having children with you.”
“And why the hell not? I’m the perfect candidate.”
“Because I have enough trouble in my life, thank you very much. I don’t need even more.”
He grins his cheesy grin. “You so want to have kids with me. Say it.”
“No.”
“Say it,” He whispers.
“Ace, stop it.”
“Say it,” He prods, reaching over to poke my stomach. I squirm, hitting him back.
“No! Stop! I don’t want any kids of yours!”
“Yes you do,” He says confidently. “You want tons and tons of them.”
“Piers,” I say desperately, giving him a look through the mirror. “Help me out here.”
He doesn’t even look at me. He’s too engrossed in his book. “See, this is why I wanted to ride with Lexi and Riker. I wouldn’t have to sit through the sexual tension.”
My mouth drops open as Ace bursts into smug laughter. Piers’s mouth wavers, as for a second he might start laughing too, but he simply just turns a page in his book. Ace smirks over to me, smugness radiating off him like the sun. “Even Piers thinks you should bare my children.”
“Okay, I’m done with you two.” I sink into my seat, stuffing more kettle corn into my mouth. “Good-for-nothing bastards.”
“I’ll remember that when I save your ass next time you get into trouble,” Ace shoots my way, smiling tauntingly.
“Asshole.”
_________________
When we get to the hotel, it’s around midnight, and we’re in the upper part of Nevada. There’s literally nothing here; just desert. We had to stop in Nevada, further up, because there’s going to be no other hotels or motels nearby. We’ll be in nothing, surrounded by nothing. So tomorrow we have a lot of driving around to do.
We check in to the rooms; two rooms with two beds. Ace hands us the keys. “Lexi and Riker in one room, me, Scar, and Piers in the other.”
Piers throws his hands up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I had to deal with you guys in the car ride. Let me have the room with Riker.”
Ace sighs flatly, knowing not to argue at midnight in the only hotel we have near us right now. “Fine. Lexi, you’re with us.”
Lexi sighs flatly also. “I knew that was coming.” Riker and Piers disappear into one of the elevators; we get into the next one. As we stand there, Lexi in the middle of us, it gets awkward real fast. But knowing Lexi, she always has something up her sleeve.
“I sleep naked, will that be a problem?”
And then the door dings, and she winks at us, her long straight hair flipping over her shoulder as she strolls out of the elevator.
“No, that will not be a problem,” Ace mutters underneath his breath, purposely making a point by watching her ass sway while she walks away from us. I glare at him, smacking his chest, feeling that terrible pain in the ball of my chest like I did when I saw him hug his sister for the first time. His eyebrows raises, as if to say, ‘are you jealous?’. I flip my hair and stalk away from him, knowing that Lexi only said that to bust my chops.
As I enter the room, I hear just in time for the bathroom door to slam shut. The shower water goes off a few seconds later, and I groan aloud. Who the hell takes a shower at midnight? I wanted to get into my pajamas. I grab the small suitcase that fits both my and Ace’s clothing. I take out my pajamas for the night.
Ace cocks an eyebrow, sitting down on the bed. “Where are you changing?”
“Here. Get out.”
He snorts. “You’re crazy.”
“I’m serious; get out.”
“No. This is my room too.” And with that, he proceeds to take off his shirt. I end up staring at his tattoo on his chest, because it’s amazing looking. He turns around for a second and I see on his back, the crescent moon. I almost forgot he had another one. He turns back around, but this time with a smirk, because he knows I was watching.
I force myself to look away and turn around. I take my shirt off, knowing he can only see my back, and throw my pajama shirt on so he can’t see anything. I slip off my jeans and realize the shirt is like a night gown on me. “Shit. This isn’t mine; its yours.”
He looks over to me, as if he wasn’t already. “Keep it on.”
“Why?”
“You look sexy as hell.”
I have no comeback to that. So I end up closing the suitcase and getting into the bed. He goes over to the case and pulls out a pair of grey sweatpants. He puts them on, but keeps his chest bare. And to tell you the truth, he looks hot.
Ace climbs into the bed with me. Instead of just laying down, he pulls me towards him, into his chest. “Why so clingy?”
He smiles, but it’s wary. “Just…want to spend the last free moments I have with you.”
Oh, he’s such a downer. “We’re not going to die fighting the Vinges, Ace. I promise you that.”
“I’m holding you to that.” For purpose, his hand slides up my bare thigh, squeezing it. I jerk away, grunting out a little noise. His eyebrows go up in amusement. “Something wrong?”
“No,” I grit out at him. “Ass.”
“You sure?” His hand trails along my legs. “Your legs are so soft…”
“Stop it,” I complain, grabbing his hand and putting it on my back. “Go to sleep.”
“Please,” A voice scoffs, coming out of the bathroom fully-clothed, quickly walking to her own bed. “Stop raping each other and get the hell to sleep.”
Ace playfully glares over at Lexi. “Stop being a bitch.”
“Stop being a douche bag.”
With that, the light flicks off.
_________________________________
Goddamn Novak Djokovic is really frigging hot.
You guys are going to love the new book I'm currently starting. I'm so glad I decided to actually start this one.
(So my dog ate an entire apple-cinnamon powdered donut the other day. It was the funniest shit I've watched in a long time.)