Changeling (Book 1) Rated R

Chapter 20

I sat in the airport lobby, willing myself not to cry.

How I had ended up all alone, searching for my family in a world full of monsters, I didn't know, but by hell, what I did know was that I wasn't giving up.

Christian or no Christian, my family was and would always be the most important thing to me.

And I'd be damned if a few supernatural creatures were going to stop me.

My eyes cast down to my purse with a new mission.

I eyed the charging stations in the airport lobby and rummaged through my bag until I found my IPhone.

As my fingers brushed over the cold, black metal there was no mistaking the feeling of a shattered screen. Realizing it must have broken when Stefan had thrown me into a wall, I accepted that my plan to contact Damian was probably just not meant to be.

After all, this wasn't something he could help me with.

I shut my eyes and drummed my fingers together as I waited. Damian's face flashed behind my closed eyelids, turned a fleshy pink color by the fluorescent lighting overhead. I could see him, his earnest blue-green gaze trained on me as I told him all about vampires and changelings and hybrids.

His face would pale, of course. I wouldn't expect any other reaction from gentle Damian. But then a fierceness would overcome his features, an overwhelming desire to make it better, as he always had. His strong jaw would clench and he'd belt out a game plan, always the optimist, the analytic all while brushing his curls out of his face with one overly muscular hand.

God, I missed Damian.

He seemed worlds away now, like he was someone I had known in a past life. Maybe everyone back home in Oregon were part of my past life. Maybe once I left the states, there was no coming back, at least not to the same life, not with me knowing what I now did about this world and about the creatures in it.

The number to my flight was called and I stood, gathering my small carry on with all that I had left to my name.

Thanks to Brandon's urging that I try my hand at a slot machine, I now had a thousand dollars in my pocket. It was enough to get me on the plane and maybe checked into a hotel room but after that, I wasn't sure what I'd do for money.

That would be a problem for another day, I decided.

For now, I just had to get on the plane and go to the Verlac Vineyard, located in a small town in Italy.

When I bent over to collect the last of my things, the necklace Christian had given me bounced against my neck.

I glanced down at it, frowning.

My fingers wrapped around it and pulled, causing the thin chain to break.

I stared at it for a moment before I let it fall to the ground, stepped around it and went to board my flight.

If Damian had reported me missing, no one from airport security had come to ask me any questions.

Which was a relief.

It's not like I needed more things to worry about.

The flight passed by uneventfully and I ended up sleeping through most of it.

When the lights overhead dinged and the captain's voice came over the speaker, I stirred.

At his instruction, I glanced out the window, my breath catching in my throat.

A seaside village climbed its way toward the top of a cliff like grapes on a vine. Rock jutted from the mountain, forming cliffs that overlook the ocean, with restaurants and shops resting by the seaside. The ocean was blue this time of day, but tinged with hues of orange and rose. Boats swayed idly with the tide and the sun was a disappearing ball of fire on the horizon.