Page 24 of Blood and Bone
Eoghan pulled out the phone insert which acted as a Faraday cage and showed it to Ari and he nodded in understanding, taking his out as well.
“Let me guess,” Ari said, after Eoghan sent her the trussed-up Wilkins photo and they’d shut off their phoneswith the cages in place. “You have an idea why she wants us to stay in Tahoe.”
“I have a feeling it has something to do with our vampire, King John,” Eoghan said. “I assume she’ll call me on the burner as soon as she’s ready to discuss it.” He pointed to the glove compartment and Ari extracted Eoghan’s burner phone.
Though, they each carried one, and Ari’s was tucked away in his pocket, they’d not had a reason to use them yet. Priest had emphasized they must be kept charged but only used in case of an emergency. He handed it to Eoghan who slipped the flip phone into his pocket. They charged them every month just to be extra careful. Ari hated the idea of being watched by someone within their own Agency, but if the chief had been right two months ago when King John of the Flagstaff vampire clan appeared in their life, it was smart to be careful.
“Yeah, okay.”
Eoghan nodded and started the car before pulling away from the curb and heading toward the tribal police station they’d passed driving through town. Ari turned toward the window, watching the passing scenery of pine trees and blue sky. He was surprised when he felt Eoghan’s hand slip into the one he’d rested in his lap, and when he turned to smile at him, his lover was grinning.
“What?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking about how nice it is here and how I’d like to take you on vacation someday. Would you like that?”
Ari returned his smile, squeezing his hand. “I’d love that. Where do you like to vacation?”
“I’m most definitely an outdoorsy guy. I love to camp. When I was a kid, my parents took me camping all the time.”
Ari nodded. “That’s really nice.”
“What about you? Do you like to camp?”
“Me? Hell no.” He pointed at his chest. “Army Special Forces, remember? I had enough of fucking camping in the goddamned Army.”
Eoghan laughed. “That’s funny. You guys camped a lot?”
Ari rolled his eyes at him. “I was in the Army for eight years, Eoghan. All we did was camp. Trust me, if I never see another tent or a canteen or wipe my ass with another leaf, I’ll be a happy man.”
Eoghan chuckled. “I get it. So, what do you like to do on vacation?”
“Actually, I don’t take vacations,” Ari said.
Eoghan glanced over at him. “What? Even when you were with the U.S. Marshals? The I.S.R. has great vacation benefits, so I’m pretty sure as a government job the civilian branch has something similar.”
“We had the benefits. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciated them every year when I got the vacation pay in lieu of taking the time off.”
“Are you telling me you’ve never been on vacation?” Eoghan asked, sounding shocked as they drove out of the forest and back onto the main road.
“Okay, I won’t tell you,” Ari said, smiling when he saw his mouth open in shock as he stared out the windshield. “I thought about it every now and then.”
“It’s not too late. You know we get two weeks off every year,” Eoghan said.
“I know. That boring woman down in personnel walked me through the whole benefit’s package when I was first hired at the I.S.R., remember?”
Eoghan tapped his chin. “Are you talking about Alexandra Stanislovskova?” He glanced over as Ari nodded. “She’s not boring. She’s Russian.”
Ari laughed. “She’s not boringbecauseshe’s Russian. She’s just…I don’t know, boring. She speaks in that really monotone voice. I nearly fell asleep when she was going over the dental package. Do you know we can have our teeth cleaned every six months for free?”
“In fact, I did. You sound overly happy about that.”
“You should never take your dental health for granted, Eoghan.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Eoghan said, chuckling. “So, if you had a choice, where would you go on vacation?”
“Anywhere?”
“Yeah.”