“What about campgrounds? Cabins? Hell, a ranger station?”
“Oh, they have them, ringed all around the outside edge of the woods, because most people are smart enough to stay out of the middle.”
Finn groaned.
“Why don’t you just run ahead?” I asked. “You can run a lot faster than I can, not to mention see in the dark. You could make it to a road or town much easier without me slowing you down. Send help back for me. I’ll stay right here.”
He suddenly looked very uncomfortable and glanced down at my bag. “I don’t want to leave you alone, especially with the pilot still out there, wandering around.”
“You could carry me,” I told him, somewhat insulted by the flicker of doubt that crossed his face.
“Well, that’s the bad news. We’ve walked for much longer than I thought. The sun’s going to come up in about an hour. And I haven’t had any blood in about eight hours. I don’t have the strength to carry you without feeding.”
I shot him a look that I could only describe as “extreme shade.” I wasn’t about to let him feed from me. I didn’t trust him not to take too much. Maybe he could control his thirst, maybe he couldn’t, but I wasn’t about to test the theory. We would just have to find some other way.
“I could keep going, try to find help on my own, while you sleep,” I offered. He smirked at me, as if he didn’t believe I could get five feet on my own. “That facial expression is unnecessary.”
“I’m not doubting that you could find your way out of here by yourself. I doubt that anybody could. You don’t know which way to go. You don’t have any supplies. And you’re dressed for the mall.”
I pursed my lips. I was equal parts relieved that his doubts weren’t rooted in me personally and annoyed that he was right. My shoes were decidedly mall-friendly. I pointed over the horizon. “Well, the plane was headed in that direction. I’m assuming that if we continued that way, eventually, we would run into other people.”
He looked vaguely impressed with my logic and nodded his head. “OK, but you’re dead on your feet, kitten. Fatigue sets in, you start making bad decisions, you could get even more lost, hurt, dehydrated.”
“I could make it,” I insisted, before adding snappishly, “OK, fine, I probably couldn’t. And don’t call me ‘kitten.’ ”
“Let’s just find somewhere to rest for the day. That will be challenge enough, kitten.”
I grimaced at the nickname but reasoned that he was right. I was tired and sore, and my feet felt like they were on fire. There was no way I was going to make it much farther in what was left of the night.
He tried to slip his arm under mine to tug me along, but I shrugged him off. He raised his hands defensively, as if he was so scared of the little human. We staggered on, Finn watching the sky warily, until we found a thicket of pine trees, the branches thick with needles.
Finn started stripping off boughs from the middle of the trunks and stacking them carefully on the lower branches, adding an extra layer of pine needles between him and the sky.
“Really?” I asked, watching him check for thin spots in the coverage.
“You were expecting the Ritz? Trust me, I’ve had to sleep outside a time or two in my years. This works.”
I wondered exactly how many years he was talking about, but I knew that age questions were considered rude in vampire circles.
“I just thought you would know how to find a cave or dig a hole or something.”
“Right, all vampires have a sense for the nearest caves, because we’re all part bat?”
“The sun is coming up. Is this really the time for undead cultural sensitivity training?” I shot back. “Wait, don’t you have some of that mega-SPF 500 sunscreen to protect you in situations like this?”
“Yes,” he said. “All vampires carry it on them for emergencies.”
“Great.”
“It’s in my carry-on. On the plane. Which has crashed.”
“Sonofabitch.” I sighed. “Well, if it makes you feel better, I have an effective, all-natural insect spray, which happens to repel both of the extremely bite-y species of poisonous spiders that live in Kentucky, but it’s in my luggage, too.”
“My being evaporated by the sun is a bit more of an issue than your getting a couple of bug bites, so no, that doesn’t make me feel better. And yes, I can sleep underground, but that wouldn’t provide you much protection, now, would it?”
“How much protection are you going to provide me when you’re technically dead for the day?”