Milk Nights [20] -Napkins-

Chapter Twenty - Napkins

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Turns out that I had been 'passed out' for about twelve hours. Which in Jake's case was just enough time to charter a helicopter to pick us up and shuffle us off to London a full 24 hours before docking. So that meant, assuming that Jezebelle stayed on the QM2 (which she probably didn't), Jake and I had a full 24-hour head start.

 

He wasn't joking when he said he had reserved us a room at the Ritz. I was sad when he told me that we wouldn't be staying past nightfall. I think I was starting to master "the pout."

 

"How good are you at a British accent?" Jake said as he sat there watching me scarf down a bowl of my 'favoritest' cereal in the whole wide world.

 

We had a few hours to spare until London fell out of its perpetual grayness and into a true semblance of night. I really wanted to go stand in the rain, but Jake wouldn't hear of it. Apparently vampires sometimes have human's work for them. Naturally they don't know they're employers are a secret league of the living dead, but who's really asking when they shell out cash for dirty deeds done quietly? So my whole, "Hello, vampires can't get me if I'm out in the daylight." Not even the sunshine, even London's 'sunshine', wasn't safe anymore.

 

On the upside, the Ritz just so happened to have the greatest food ever. So I pigged out on croissants and jam until the half hour mark before sunset. That's when Jake finally rose from his little seat of mystery in the corner. I was half compelled to draw him sitting there in a dunce cap on his head, but as of yet, I still wasn't ready to put the pen to paper. "Are you packed?" He said, brushing imaginary wrinkles from his pristinely pressed jacket, which I ironed out of sheer boredom. So yes, I am going to gloat about it.

 

"Lookin' spiffy Mr. Spiff." I mumbled, trying to shove the last bit's of croissant and a pot of gold into my mouth before I knew Jake was going to whisk me away somewhere I knew for a fact I had never been before. For some reason I expected him to give me a look one would give to a child, because, even I could admit that I was acting like one. But to my lovely surprise, he smiled, walked over to me, gave my surprised little mouth a peck and picked up my bag for me.

 

Seriously, he's a kicker.

 

"We're going to the basement." He said, answering my obviously unsaid question. I guess he was getting reacquainted with my brain wave frequency. That or he was freakishly good at figuring out what I was thinking. Either way, the privacy that was my thoughts was slowly trickling away no matter what I tried to do about it.

 

Also: The basement, though being a place I hadn't been before, it wasn't the someplace new I had expected. "The basement?" I questioned, picking up stride beside Jake, as we exited the room and headed for the elevator at the end of a very long, and plush, hallway.

 

"No sun in the basement, quick escape."

 

"Isn't that the first place they'd look?"

 

Jake threw me down a nifty little smirk. "Jezebelle isn't very creative when it comes to chasing things she intends on catching."

 

"So she'll expect us to be down there, but then she'll expect us to expect that she thinks we're down there, and thus, think that in effect, we wouldn't be down there." I huffed out in one single breath.

 

"Precisely."

 

"Sweet."

 

So, we hid in the basement.

 

It wasn't leaky or drippy or wet in any sense of the stereotypical basement. It was the Ritz's basement; they'd probably be ashamed that their underskirts were moldy. But in any sense, as we hid in a room full of napkins, I couldn't find any room to complain. Jake kept looking at his watch, I kept practicing how to whistle, and the 30 minutes left until sunset ticked on buy.

 

I was just starting to get a hang on "Look at that puppy in the window" when Jake suddenly clamped one of his large hands over my pursed mouth. I looked at him, wide eyed and questioning, but didn't make a move or attempt to make a noise. He just held his finger up to his lips in a gesture of silence and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the obvious waste of the suggestion.

 

Seemingly without moving, Jake managed to turn the lights off. As much as being thrown into pitch darkness weirded me out, I didn't dare move from my cushy spot atop a pallet of pressed cotton linens. I couldn't tell if Jake was sitting next to me anymore, but I couldn't find the courage to reach out to feel if he was or not. Instead I just dug my fingers into the softness of the fabric beneath me. I almost started when the door slowly creaked open, letting a miniscule slant of light into the room; but not enough to allow me to identify the intruder. I hoped for the sake of whoever it was, that it wasn't a hotel employee. I was pretty sure Jake was attack-ready, and anything he was getting ready to pull would probably kill a normal person.

 

But, the only thing that continued to move, was in fact, the door.

 

And then, something I hadn't quite predicted happened. The door opened even more, and all the light pouring into the room fell directly at me. A black shadow stood in the doorway, something menacing and hunting. I know it sounds silly to look at a shadow and come with a description of "hunting" but if you saw what I saw, you'd say "hunting" too.

 

Still, only the shadow and the door continued to move. Even I sat rock solid on top of all those stupid napkins. Jake was no where to be seen. I was hoping he was hoping for a surprise attack.

 

And then it happened: The Surprise Attack.

 

It was a little quieter then I expected. One second I'm getting ready to pee my pants with the hunting shadow advancing on me, and then next, Jake is clamped onto the other guy (I think mouth-to-throat.) Of course, when you bite someone, blood is drawn. And I was having this unavoidable habit of passing out at the sight of blood. I hadn't seen it yet, at that moment. I did, however, feel a little of it splash on my hand. For some silly, naïve reason I thought it was spit.

 

Seeing red made me see nothing at all and before I knew it, consciousness was once again no where to be found.

A/N: Ahahahaaaa.... I bet sooo many of you are mad at me. Sorry? That's probably not good enough, but I do hope this update helps. I'm going to go read my messages now. I bet there's a lot of them.... It's going to be a long night. Anyways, please read, rate, message, c-box, email, whatever. Let me know what you think. 

 

:) Kathryn!