3 Arch 1 Chapter 3

Arch 1

Chapter 3

Max had thrown his jacket around her before they exited the building. He would have gotten clothes for her, but he couldn't begin to guess her size. And, of course, no one would have been brave enough to give her clothes if they'd been there, anyway, but as soon as Max took over, everyone else happily made themselves scarce.

Well that, and, quite frankly, it offended his sensibilities for any more people to see her naked.

She seemed tolerant, at least, of him holding her for a bit, but as soon as they got to Barlowe's car, he immediately placed her in the back seat because she was beginning to get that look that cats get when they've had enough. Which, in case you didn't know, is rather scary.

Max jumped in the front passenger's seat to give Eira some breathing room-even if he, himself, wanted to be back there with his arm around her, keeping her close to his side and safe-and Barlowe tore off, the pedal pressed flat to the floor.

"BARLOWE YOU'EE GOING TO KILL US!" Max protested while Eira went "WWWWWWEEEEEEEEE!" from the back seat, which did do to distract Max from the imminent terror a bit because it was kind of adorable.

"Am not!"

"We're gonna get pulled over!"

"It's funny, how you think they'd be able to catch me."

"I'm going to be an accessory to a high speed chase. My life is going to be over."

"Nah, just wave your arms out the window so they know you're not party to this."

"It worries me that this seems commonplace for you…though not exactly surprising. Where are we even going?"

"A few towns over, closer to the sea. We're going to get yer little girlfriend there some clothes and then I'm going to fly us out of here for a spell."

Max turned beat red and barely turned his head to look at Eira to see her reaction to the whole girlfriend thing. She seemed unfazed, looking out the window, and then getting startled when she hit the window controls on the door. That startle was quickly turned into fascination as she repeatedly made the window go up and down. She either hadn't noticed all together, but he figured it was much more likely that she had no concept of what a girlfriend was.

"You can fly a plane?" Max asked.

"First of all, I'm offended yeh even asked with that tone. Second of all, laddy, yes, I can fly a plane! What did yeh think I did in the military?"

"I didn't…know you were in the military?"

"Oh. Guess I don't talk about it much. That's where I met my Tess, you know. She was a nurse, and she was wearing that hotsy-totsy little uniform…"

"Ew, GAH! Ok, Barlowe, I get the picture."

"I actually have a picture."

"I'm sure you do."

"…Wanna see it?"

"NO!"

Barlowe threw his head back and cackled.

"Yer too easy, kid."

"Glad you're having fun at my expense EIRA DON'T HANG OUT THE WINDOW THAT FAR YOU'RE GOING TO FALL OUT!"

After a few too many near heart attacks, they finally pulled up in front of a cute little bed and breakfast. Max looked like his spirit had vacated his body and come back many times. As it turned out, when you knew nothing about the modern world, you weren't scared about the modern world. Not that he wasn't sure she was pretty indestructible, but that wasn't the point. Any small danger around her caused his heart to race and leap into his throat, no matter how ludicrous it may have seemed to someone on the outside.

"I'll get our rooms, aye? You wait out here with the girl until we're all checked in so we can get her right upstairs. I don't think she'd very much appreciate having to be around the people milling about the lobby."

"Thanks, Barlowe, but…you know you wouldn't have been implicated in any of this if you weren't helping us right now. I knocked out the security cameras and you were behind Claron and Gretchen before you knocked them out."

"Oh, Claron would've known, boy. Who else would have done it but me? Everyone else is too busy licking his boots for his approval. And besides, I ain't afraid ta go back to jail again."

"Wait what?"

But he was already shutting the car door and strolling towards the lobby while whistling "What Do We do With a Drunken Sailor?". Max turned in his seat to face Eira.

"Eira?"

"Yes?" she asked, turning towards him, too.

He forgot his words for a second, once again lost in those beautiful, peculiar eyes.

"Um…" he shook his head to clear it. "We're gonna be staying in this place, ok?" he said, pointing to the establishment with a sign hung out front that read "Little Sparrow Bed and Breakfast". "Now, we're going to have to take you past some people before we can get to our rooms, but it's going to be fine. You just stay close to me, ok? No one else is going to touch you, and definitely no one is going to hurt you. I can carry you again if you want."

She was quiet for a minute thinking over what he'd said. She was still a little slow on processing after having no conversation for over three millennia. But Max waited patiently for her to decide.

"I…trust Max. Max-you-can carry me. I do not…want to see the other people."

"You don't have to. You can just keep your face turned towards me. You don't have to even look at them."

"Ok."

Barlowe came back…with two room keys?!

"Barlowe, why are there only two room keys?!" Max whisper-yelled as he scooped Eira up in his arms. Eira, who immediately hid her head by burying her face in his chest.

She hadn't really paid attention to his scent before; she'd smelled it, but it hadn't sunk in. She realized he smelled like…she knew the words…she knew she knew the words! Pine needles! Her mind finally answered her. And…like the smoke from a campfire. A campfire where Norway Maple was burned. She closed her eyes.

Were those memories? she wondered.

And he was just…so warm.

"Warm Max." she murmured.

"I'm warm, huh? Still nothing compared to you. You're like a tiny little sun."

My tiny little sun…the tiny little sun…

"I only got two room keys," Barlowe explained. "Because I didn't think it was a good idea for…certain members of our party to be left unsupervised." he said, nodding to Eira subtly, even though she was curled away from him.

"I…" he wanted to somehow dispute it-well, he didn't actually want to, but felt like he should as a gentleman-but he really couldn't. What if he woke up and she was just gone? She didn't know how deeply her loyalty ran-and he couldn't blame her if she didn't have any to him at all just yet-but what if she ended up in another situation like she did with Claron? He hurt her, so it stood to reason that someone else could, too. And all those scars…she obviously didn't heal like a normal vampire. What if she actually wasn't as indestructible as she appeared? What if she ended up on the news? What if Claron was already trying to find them? What if she…killed somebody? "I…guess I can see how that would be a good thing."

"Ach, don't be so noble, boy. I know yer little heart is all a flutter."

"BARLOWE!"

"Is that yer favorite word'r somethin'?"

Max just groaned and carried Eira up the stairs to her-uh, their-room, following Barlowe, who had gotten them adjoining rooms. As promised, no one laid a hand on her. They probably thought he was carrying a sleeping child up to bed and stayed quiet and kept their distance out of courtesy.

It was a nice place, a bit bigger and a little fancier, perhaps, than what one usually thinks of when they picture a bed and breakfast, but it still had that rustic charm, with a stand for a pitcher and basin in one of the corners, knitted blankets over the quilts on the beds, and many, many doilies with things on them that could clearly break very easily that should have been behind glass, probably. Some of the things were really old, and likely worth something. Did these people never hear of stealing? Maybe not "people". He'd only seen an older woman behind the front desk, and just kind of figured she was the owner, and had seen nothing denoting anyone else there, helping her. She did have a certain loneliness in her eyes.

"Well, you guys get settled in. I'm going to go introduce myself to that lovely little receptionist at the front desk properly. Maybe I can get her to help me pick out some clothes for the girl. What do I know about such things, after all?" Barlowe said, vanishing before Max could protest, so he was just kind of left with his finger ready to wag at, and lungs full of air to reprimand no one.

"…Well ok, then." Max said, rolling his eyes as he plopped down in one of the cushy chairs that were placed in a semi-circle around a working fireplace, a few pieces of wood in a rack immediately beside it. Every room must have had one, because you would see small chimneys all over the roof from the outside. He wondered if it was still too warm to make a fire. It was Autumn, so it was a bit cooler, but they hadn't really had much bad weather aside from that monsoon of a Nor'easter they'd had weeks ago, and it'd been rather sunny since. "Are you tired?" he asked, looking around the chair at Eira, who was watching a sparrow-ironically-on the branch of an oak tree outside like a cat, which seemed to have given up early that year and shed its leaves as if had suddenly decided it wanted to be bald.

Eira swiveled her head towards him and blinked. She'd forgotten there was another person in the room, so transfixed was she by the bird.

"I…suppose I am." she said, a more pronounced accent coming through now that more words were coming back to her. It was English, but perhaps not so proper as some. "I did not sleep last night. Because I was going with M-with you."

"Why don't you go ahead and take a nap, then? Barlowe will be back soon, hopefully with some clothes for you…that actually fit."

"I can…sleep on the bed?"

"Of course. I think you've earned it after so long without one."

"You look weary as well, though."

"I'm fine right here." he assured her. "I have to call my mom first and…ugh, explain why I won't be home for family dinner tonight."

"…I have…troubled you?"

He furrowed his brows and shook his head.

"Oh, Eira, no, no. Don't talk like that. I knew what I was getting into when I decided I had to free you. That was not your fault at all. And I'd do it all over again if I had to."

"Why? You do not even know me."

"Because…" Because I'm crazy about you, but I can't tell you that. Because I couldn't stand leaving you every night, locked up in that cage like an animal. I couldn't stand them constantly watching you. I couldn't stand what they were doing to you and it made me feel like part of me was dying. "Because it was the right thing to do, and I care about you. What they were doing to you was wrong and you didn't deserve that."

She still looked a little confused, but she nodded and leaped up onto the bed. She made a sort of nest in the middle of it out of the blankets and quilts and pillows, curling up in it and falling to sleep almost instantly once she laid down, still wearing his jacket.

It seemed to Max that it should have been so much later in the day than it actually was. It seemed like an entire lifetime had passed since this morning when he disabled the security cameras to now. Barlowe had taken back roads and doubled back so many times, it had taken them a lot longer than it normally would have, and it was three in the afternoon now. The slanting shadows cast by the already setting sun made the room seem longer, and Eira farther away. It would definitely be cool enough for a fire by nightfall, so he stoked one up, falling back into the chair, bracing to call his mom. He was kind of dreading it, but if he needed backup, the rest of the pack needed to know. They'd help protect her, no matter what, because he had paired with her, and that was pack law: all mates of pack members got the protection of the pack itself.

She picked up on the first ring.

"Max?"

"Hey, mom…"

Of course, by the time they got off the phone, approximately 3/4 of the pack knew, and were going to tell the other 1/4 so they could basically prepare for war against Claron. Claron was part of the pack, but, as far as they were concerned, he had betrayed them all when he took up against that girl. Doing anything against a pack member's mate was considered high treason.

Mate. Max thought, looking back at Eira. She looked so different when she was sleeping…he had seen her asleep before in her cage, of course, but…she still looked like she had her senses working over time, like only half her brain slept at a time back then. And she'd just-she'd cry so much in her sleep, and wake up from what he could only presume was absolutely horrible nightmares with her chest heaving and her eyes wide. Now, with him, her chest rose and fell evenly, and she actually looked peaceful. Damn you, Claron. I'll get you back for this. You're going to pay!

His lips pulled back slightly from his teeth, revealing the long, sharp fangs that had sprouted from his canines on the top and bottom, his eyes blazing a glowing yellow as a low rumble grew in his chest.

Never again. No one's going to hurt her ever again.

He turned back around towards the fire, closing his eyes. He needed some rest, too. He fell to sleep, but awoke immediately when Barlowe came back, an instantaneous growl greeting him.

"Easy there, Max." Barlowe said quietly. "Only me."

Max's eyes darted to Eira, still asleep. He'd never seen her sleep through someone coming into the room back at the lab. She must have truly been dead to the world.

"I got her some clothes. Well, Violet picked them out. But I paid." he said giddily.

"Violet?" Max whispered.

"The receptionist. She also owns the place by herself after her husband passed. Whatever she doesn't like," he nodded towards Eira's sleeping form. "We can give to the Salvation Army or something. But, get her up. I also got food and none of us have eaten all day."

Max squinted out the window to find darkness on the other side.

"What time is it, even?"

"Seven. Now come on. I don't entertain that I'd not get my face bitten off if I were to wake her." he said, disappearing into his room, where they'd apparently be dining.

Max got up and padded over to the bed.

"Eira." he said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Her eyes flew open and they were blood red, and her whole body was vibrating with a growl. Max backed up quickly, taking his hand off of her.

"It's just me, Eira."

"Max." she breathed, finally looking up at him.

"Yes. Now, come on. Barlowe got us food, and we need to eat."

"Food?" she asked, her stomach sending out an I'M EMPTY! whine.

"Oh yes. And some clothes so you have something to wear other than my jacket." he said with a laugh.

She grinned back at him as he held out his hand to help her out of bed.

"You have some righteous bedhead, by the way."