Ezra complied, still fiddling around with his phone, and I hoped that meant that he had a lead on something. His half of the room was already completely straightened up, the bed made and everything, and I wondered what time he had gotten up. I had slept terribly, tossing and turning all day long, and dreaming horrible things about Jack. I woke up feeling more tired than I had when I went to sleep. “I wish I still drank coffee or Red Bull or something,” I grumbled as I stumbled out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. (Fun fact: Vampires still pee. Blood is a liquid, after all.) “Just take a cold shower. That’ll perk you right up,” Ezra suggested. Following his advice, I took a quick, cold shower, and it helped some. I dressed in a hurry, then Ezra told me that I had to blow dry my hair so it wouldn’t freeze when we went outside. Instead of balking at the idea of being out in the sun, I just did as I was told. It would make the whole process faster. The hotel was alive with people today, and I pulled the scarf up over my mouth and nose to muffle it. When we were walking out, I noticed the décor in the hotel was distinctly green. There were potted plants everywhere, probably to counteract the seemingly endless winters and obliquely white window views. I personally enjoyed winter, but it would be odd to live in a place that had snow eight months out of the year. It really wasn’t that cold out, only in the low thirties, but I had bundled up in a winter jacket and boots, like any normal person would. There wasn’t that much snow yet, only enough to crunch underneath my feet. Fortunately, Ezra had packed an extra pair of sunglasses for me, so I wasn’t instantly blinded, but the sun didn’t thrill me either. “So what’s the plan?” I had followed him out of the building, and he was walking towards a silver Range Rover with snow tires. “What’s this?” “How we’re going to get around,” Ezra answered vaguely, and I wondered if he was purposely infuriating or if it was just force of habit. He got in the driver’s side, so I hopped in after him. “When did you get this?” I demanded when he started it. “While you were sleeping. I figured it would be best if I let you sleep as late as possible.” Without even looking, he whipped the Rover into reverse and sped out away from the hotel. Usually, Ezra was the mild driver, but it suddenly became apparent to me where Jack’s driving skills had come from.
As he sped down the road, I pulled my hood up over my head and sunk lower in my seat, trying to hide myself from the sun’s rays as much as I could. “How is this gonna work?” I yawned when he’d been on the road for ten minutes. Already, I felt like napping, and I knew as the day wore on, I would only get sleepier. “We’ll be in tree cover most of the time.” Ezra nodded to the think pine trees that filled the world around us. “You have your hood and sunglasses, and when we get back in the morning, we’ll both eat. We’ll be fine.” “Hmph,” I grumbled skeptically. We had traveled about a half hour or so when Ezra abruptly turned off the road and parked the Range Rover. I had been dozing a bit, but I sat up when the vehicle stopped. There was a GPS system in the dash, so I leaned over to inspect it, hoping to find some kind of clue as to where we were at. Unfortunately, Finnish words and town names kind of looked like gibberish to me, so I didn’t gain any insight. “Okay. What’s going?” I asked, but Ezra turned off the car and jumped out in response. “Thanks.” I scrambled out after him, and naturally, I slipped in an icy patch of snow. When I tried to catch my fall by grabbing onto the car, I only succeeded in denting the side horribly. It was pretty awesome having almost no control over my body. I couldn’t wait for the grace and strength to really kick in. “Are you coming?” Ezra had paused long enough for me to collect myself and scurry after him. “Yeah. Where are we going?” I asked when I caught up with him. “The woods.” We were already in walking into a very thick patch of trees, so he was doing nothing more than stating the obvious. “You’re really becoming my least favorite person,” I muttered as I nearly tripped over a fallen log. “I don’t know exactly where we’re going,” he reluctantly admitted. “I just know the area we’re supposed to be in, and this is it.” We were in the shadows thanks to the cover the trees, so at least that was something. Looking around, though, everything appeared the same as everything had before. Coniferous trees blanketed the area, and somewhere up ahead, I could hear a river flowing. Other than that, I had no idea how Ezra could tell one tree
from another, or he could possibly have any clue where we were at. Admittedly, this was an area he was much more familiar with than I was, but I couldn’t imagine what distinguished these trees from the rest. “What the hell is this area?” I stopped walking and just stared up through the trees at the sky. “The lycan live around here.” I would’ve liked to press him further about it, but it was obvious he didn’t want to talk. Ezra didn’t even slow down for me, so I learned my lesson about stopping for no reason. We trekked through the trees all afternoon, and while the sun didn’t directly shine on me, I felt a burst of energy when it finally down. We came across the river I had a heard, and Ezra convinced me to wade through it. Once night had closed in completely, Ezra started to wait for me and insisted that I stay close to him. During the day, other vampires weren’t a threat, which was probably part of the reason he’d want to check things out during the light. There would be very little chance of anyone attacking us, but we were lacking any form of safety. He didn’t slow much, though, and spoke very little. The biggest excitement of the night was when we saw a few reindeer walking in front of us. Ezra explained that many Europeans say that this is where Santa Clause lives, not the North Pole, partially because of the large reindeer population. In reality, we weren’t that far south from the North Pole anyway, so it wasn’t much of a stretch. By the time the sun started to rise, I was completely exhausted. There’s a myth that vampires don’t ever get tired or run out of energy, and Ezra did seem to exemplify stamina. Maybe I’m just a wuss. I don’t really know. When the sky started to lighten, we made the long walk through the trees back to the car, and I was incredibly relieved when I finally got to sit down inside the Range Rover. On top of that, that gnawing hunger had started setting in a few hours ago. Ezra’s pulse had gotten more noticeable, and my hands were exhibiting a fine tremor. The early morning light filtered in through the windows, and that only made it worse. I felt anxious and sore, and I couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel. I must’ve been jonesing noticeably because Ezra put his arm securely around me when we walked inside. It was after seven in the morning, so the breakfast crowd filled the dining room. The scent of eggs and
some kind of deer sausage made me sick, but over that, I could smell the delectable scent of blood, and I was grateful for Ezra’s strong arm steering me towards our room. Once inside, I peeled off my jacket and tossed it aside. If I had been able to sweat, I would’ve. Next time we went out, I’d have to remember to leave my coat in the car. Walking around like that gets the blood pumping too much, and it’s far too warm. I kicked off my boots, and I really, really wanted to tear off my jeans, but that didn’t seem like a good idea. “That was a total waste of a day,” I said, squirming about the room. My clothes felt too heavy and uncomfortable, and it was hard not to take them off. Ezra had turned the temperature down really low and refilled the duffel bag with ice sometime before we left last night, so the containers of blood were still intact and cool. He left the bag in the bathtub so that when the ice melted, it wouldn’t leak all over. While I was in the room twitching and not taking off my clothes, he was in the bathroom getting food for us. “We figured some things out,” Ezra insisted, coming out of the bathroom with a several canisters of blood. “Tomorrow we’ll have a better idea of where we need to go.” “If you say so.” The canisters were in sight so any petty complaint I had bottled up didn’t matter anymore. He unscrewed the lid, and I almost ripped it from his hands. Hurriedly, I downed it, and Ezra just watched me with an odd look of fascination on his face. That wonderful warming effect spread out over me, and I held out my hand for a second can. “Get ready for bed first,” he shook his head. “I’m not getting you in your pajamas after your passed out.” “Fine. Look away.” It was actually a smart idea, but I was pouty about it anyway. Ezra did as he was told, and I took off my clothes as quickly as I possible could. That really didn’t end up being all that fast because that tired, loose feeling was taking over me, and I almost fell over just taking off my shirt. Somewhere in the room, I knew I had clean pajamas, but the ones I wore last night were just laying