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sorting out his limbs and standing up. “You make it sound so appealing.”
“It’s ten hours in a tin can with me.” Dane gave Lindsay a genuinely charming smile. He was very
beautiful when he was human.
“You’re right, that is appealing.”
Dane drew the usual uncertain glances when they got on the plane. His darker skin and unusual
features and his size, no matter how pretty he was, made people nervous at times. Still, on this flight, the flight attendants seemed determined to flirt with him from the start. He ignored all of it and only wrinkled his nose with displeasure at the attention. Lindsay found himself tempted to growl on Dane’s behalf.
Lindsay let Dane sit near the window, and flipped up the arms of their seats so Dane could sit partly
sideways and straighten his legs without them being in the aisle. After the first offering of drinks and
snacks, he leaned over to curl up against Dane’s side. The flight attendants may have assumed that Lindsay
was too young to be anything but Dane’s teenaged son or charge, but Lindsay didn’t care. He knew better, and that was what mattered.
Dane slid his arm around Lindsay’s shoulders and pulled Lindsay close, so that Lindsay was snuggled
up against his chest. Maybe it comforted him as much as Lindsay. He sighed heavily, relaxing, and
something in his rib cage popped into place with a dull noise that translated clearly enough to Lindsay’s
ear. “You should sleep.”
Dane was right, but Lindsay wasn’t ready to sleep yet. He wriggled until he could sit up and kiss Dane
on the mouth.
“Going to make all the flight attendants jealous of me?” Dane teased, nipping at Lindsay’s lips.
“Of me, maybe.” Lindsay snorted, butting his nose against Dane’s chin. “I think you’re
overestimating my attractiveness to the general public.”
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“I’m not overestimating your capacity to make them think you’re the most beautiful thing they’ve
ever seen.” Dane slid his hand down to grope Lindsay’s ass.
“That doesn’t seem like a good way to not get noticed,” Lindsay pointed out.
“Yes, but who would care?” Dane nuzzled Lindsay’s nose with his own, smiling. “You might have to
ward off worshipers, but people do manage.”
Lindsay liked it when Dane teased like this. It made Dane smile, and Lindsay liked being involved
with anything that made Dane smile. “Sounds like a lot of trouble,” he said, gri
“You’re young and resilient. I think you’d cope.” Dane laughed and kissed him. “You’re pretty
brave.”
Brave. “Maybe.” Lindsay could be brave, even if the idea of using his magic still made something in
his gut twist and churn.
He wanted more than just these little kisses, and he knew what he had to do to get what he wanted.
Pulling back from Dane’s mouth, he closed his eyes and imagined them as they had been a moment ago,
with Lindsay tucked against Dane’s side, ready to fall asleep. He sent his magic out in one careful wave,
filling the airplane with his illusion, and then opened his eyes to look at Dane again.
Dane’s eyes were searching, his expression serious. “Think it worked?”
A flight attendant pushing a cart passed them by without a second glance. “Kiss me again, and we’ll
find out.”
Dane pulled Lindsay in for a real kiss, hot and shameless and possessive. Dane kissed Lindsay like he
wanted to make up for not being able to do anything more. Everything more. Like he wanted to make
Lindsay come from that alone. After a long while, he kissed away to Lindsay’s ear.
“How did you end up not sleeping?”
Lindsay laughed softly, but this time, he was more than willing to sleep. He was sated, worn out and
feeling blissful. He tucked his cheek against Dane’s chest and let the illusion go. Life around them went on as normal. Everyone was just as they’d been before—unharmed.
He wasn’t broken anymore. Lindsay felt more than just successful, he felt secure. Finally, he was
safely down in the depths of the world, not drifting exposed on the surface. “Wake me up when we’re
home.”
“I will.” Dane stroked Lindsay’s hair as he fell asleep to the sound of Dane’s big heart beating slow
and steady—all was right with the world.
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Chapter Fourteen
LaGuardia was too bright and too loud, after the dim, muted cabin of the airplane. Lindsay had slept
well, warm and safely tucked against Dane, but he was glad to be off the plane and out of the cramped
confines of his seat. He arched and stretched as they walked out of the gate, easing his muscles into
movement.
Dane kept a hand on him, looking around them warily. He hadn’t seemed this nervous in the forest or
on the streets of Cholula. His mood effectively shut down Lindsay’s lazy contentment. If it hadn’t been for the stress of wondering where Moore’s people were—if they were here at all—Lindsay would have loved
travelling with Dane.
“Luggage, then home,” Dane murmured.
“All right.” Lindsay tried to see what Dane saw, but he didn’t know what he was looking for. “Let’s
go.”
This was where they were going to be most vulnerable, Lindsay realized, between here and the safety
of Cyrus’s house. If they were followed, it could spell disaster for everyone. That thought almost frightened Lindsay more than the idea of being captured again.
At least if it was only him who got taken, the others would come for him. The thought startled
Lindsay so badly that he almost tripped over his own feet. He caught up to Dane with a hop and a skip.
They would come for him. He’d never had that feeling before, and he had no idea when it had crept in, but
all the time he’d spent with Dane had given him some secret hope that it was true.
“It’ll be okay,” Dane said, watching over his shoulder to make sure Lindsay came back to his side.
“Do you want me to…” Lindsay looked around them, at the crowds, at all the movement and light
around them. The air was full of voices rising to the ceiling, bouncing off the walls. There were so many of them. “I could try to hide us.” He could help. He wanted to help, to be useful, like the rest of them.
“I don’t want to lose track of you.” Dane guided him around a kiosk and headed for the luggage
carousel.
“I could exclude you. Like on the plane.” A tall man, cell phone pressed to his ear, bumped Lindsay
with his shoulder and knocked him back a pace. He stifled his noise of pain and took a few fast steps to
catch up with Dane again. He hated airports.
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“You think you can do that with this many people around?” Dane frowned. Lindsay could see him
calculating the distance between them by the way his eyes flicked over Lindsay and the way he reached for
Lindsay’s hand.
Even if Lindsay had ever wanted to resent the gesture, he simply couldn’t have—it felt too good and
safe, on a nearly primal level, to slide his cold hand into Dane’s warm one.
“I can try.” He let Dane draw him in close. Yes, he was getting better at taking care of himself, but
until they were with Cyrus and Vivian, neither he nor Dane could relax. Maybe not even then.
Dane’s beautiful human face was stern, and he stopped walking to draw Lindsay into the relative
shelter of an ATM kiosk. “Try,” he suggested. “If it doesn’t feel good, let it go.”
“Okay.”
Lindsay swallowed a stab of nervousness and straightened his shoulders. He had no idea how Dane
managed to focus in places like this. After the peace of the forest and the mystical calm of Ezqel’s house, Lindsay’s human senses were overwhelmed. Everyone else is overwhelmed too, he told himself. I can use that to my advantage. No one wants to notice us. No one cares. Hiding from people who didn’t care would be the easy part. He hoped it would work on the people who did care.