14: Fortune's Favor

DRAKE POV

“I promise, we ain’t gon’ interrupt your time with your lady as long as you meet us here by 12:45,” Callum assures me, gesturing to the bright red phone booth next to us, one of the funky little features of the Easton outdoor shopping center, which consists of several blocks’ worth of various stores and restaurants with a more traditional indoor shopping mall at the center. “But all the same, if anything goes wrong, we’re just a text away.”

“Nothing’s gonna go wrong,” I assure him, although I’m far from calm. There’s only a couple minutes until noon, and I don’t want to be late. “I’ll see you back here at 12:45.” Without waiting for a reply, I start walking down the tree-lined avenue towards the fountain circle where Nikki and I agreed to meet. Callum and Xander can handle themselves, and frankly, I don’t care what they do while they’re here as long as they leave Nikki and me alone.

The walk isn’t long, but it seems to take forever, as nervous as I am. I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe she agreed to see me again. And Fortune has favored us with balmy temperatures and sunny weather. We’re not the only ones coming to Easton to take advantage of it; plenty of pedestrian and vehicle traffic keep me from getting lost in imaginings of how this might go, although more than once I nearly crash into a passerby. Come on, Drake, pull yourself together. There we go, just cross the street and…

Wow.

There she is, hair loose this time, wearing a red sundress that clings to her curves in the best possible way. She was stunning last night, but now….

My mouth is dry. I feel like I’m moving through molasses. How the hell am I going to get through this?! She turns. Our eyes meet. The whole world stops.

“Oh, there you are,” Nikki smiles disarmingly, sending the world crashing back into motion again. “I was worried I was in the wrong place.”

“Nope. This is it,” I gesture to our surroundings awkwardly with an even more awkward half-laugh. Fuck, this is awful. I’ve gotta do better, convince her that meeting me here wasn’t a mistake. “So. Bubble tea?”

“Absolutely. I’ve got to get some more caffeine. The chai I took to my study group ran out hours ago, and trying to do stats without caffeine is…well, even more torturous than stats with caffeine.”

“That bad, huh?” I start moving towards the bubble tea stand, surprised my legs remember how to work. What is she? No clues from scent; maybe she really is a human? Caffeine doesn’t usually have much effect on supernatural beings, as far as I know. But why would a human be so close with a vampire? And I’ve never seen a human move like she does….

“Let’s not talk about it. It’s over, and now we’re here, out in the sunshine, away from musty books and numbers and stuffy academic rooms.”

“Fair enough.”

“What can I get you?” the girl manning the bubble tea stand asks. I gesture for Nikki to order first.

“Umm…just a regular Thai tea with bubbles,” she answers.

She has good taste. “Make that two, please,” I add, pulling my wallet out of my back pocket.

“Are you sure? I can—” she starts, reaching into her purse, but I’m having none of it.

“I insist. It’s my pleasure.” I mean it. “Consider it a congratulatory gift, for conquering stats this morning.”

The cashier says something about our total and I go through the motions with the card reading machine, but I’m not really paying attention to it.

“I mean. I wouldn’t say we conquered it, but…. If you insist, then….” A hint of a blush highlights her cheekbones. She’s not used to other people doing things for her, giving her things. “Thank you.”

“Those’ll be right out,” the girl behind the counter says as the card reader beeps for me to retrieve my card.

“Of course. Are you hungry?” I ask Nikki.

“Not really, but I know it’s your lunch,” she replies, seeming…embarrassed? shy? What can she possibly have to be nervous about? “Wherever you want to go is fine.”

“I’m not really hungry, either.” I don’t actually think I can eat, with all the butterflies in my stomach. “And there’s food at home. If you’re not hungry, we can just…walk around, then?”

“That sounds perfect. This is a really nice shopping center. I’d love to do some exploring.”

“Then we’ll go exploring. You haven’t been to Easton before?”

“No. I’ve heard it’s a great place to go, but we’ve been so busy studying, and there’s a lot of shops and restaurants and stuff way closer to campus, so we’ve just…never made it out here.”

“Which university? I don’t think I asked, last night.”

“Ohio State, of course. What else is here?”

“Here are your Thais,” the girl behind the counter interjects, handing us our cups. “Don’t forget your straws.”

“Thank you so much,” Nikki smiles as she takes both tea and straw, then walks away towards a nearby bench.

“There’s…actually several universities around here,” I tell her as I scramble to catch up. “But that is the major one, yeah. You’re sure you don’t mind coming all the way out here? It’s a bit of a hike from campus, and I should have thought—”

“No, really, I’ve wanted to check Easton out for a while, and I just haven’t had the chance before. Thanks for giving me a reason.”

“It’s no problem. I like coming here. All the people-watching and everything.”

“Do you have a favorite spot for watching people, then? This should be a break for you, too. You’ve been working all morning.”

“I mean…. It kind of depends on the day. But you’ve never been here before. Let’s just wander, and if you see a place that looks good for people-watching, we’ll sit down there.”

“All right. Lead the way.”

***~O~***

ZOE POV

“Sasha says it’s just Drake,” I tell Rika. “No sign of the other two.”

“They must have dropped him off, then, and they’re probably still nearby,” Rika muses as she works one of her tiny cameras into a niche in the lycans’ entertainment stand. “This one’s ready for wiring.”

I take a piece of copper wire from my pocket and work on manipulating it to connect the camera with the power cable for one of their game systems; from what Rika tells me, the amount of electricity these cameras siphon is too small to be noticeable. The copper flows like liquid under my fingertips, easily finding the shortest possible route to achieve its intended purpose. “How many do you think we need down here?” I’ve lost count, but I think we’ve placed at least a dozen cameras and microphones in the kitchen and the combined living/dining space.

“This should be the last one. Then just the hall upstairs and each bedroom.”

“Do you really want surveillance in the bedrooms? Xander seems like the type for one-night stands—”

“We have to be thorough or there’s no point in doing this, and besides, I’m the one who’ll have to deal with that possibility.” She makes a face at the thought, but then determination hardens in her eyes. “If it helps keep Anselm off our backs, it’s worth it.”

“True that. This one’s done. Upstairs?”

“Upstairs.”