Cameron

The knowledge that Alara was OK lifted my spirits as I hung up. I turned back to Dane and Leo asking, "Have you been given a location yet?"

There was something brooding in his dull eyes, "Did anyone tell you that patience is a virtue?"

"Did anyone tell you no one gives a shit," I snapped back, at my wits end with Dane. He merely scowled at me before turning back to his phone and furiously typing. His brows drew together in a look of concentration before he placed his phone back in his pocket and sighed.

"Cole isn't picking up, but I do have a vague idea where they might be, if I know anything about Cole and I do, he's like a brother to me, the only place he would think that would be safe enough for Alara would be his cabin the in the Eurus' forest.

"That's miles away," Leo commented, "There's no way they went that far."

I was tending towards agreeing with Leo before Dane revealed, "Well, my jet is gone from its landing zone so that might be an explanation as to how they got there that fast."

"Great, just great. How are we supposed to get there?" I said through clenched teeth.

"You don't have your own jet, I expected more from you Grayson." The patronising tone of Dane Laurier rubbed me the wrong way. I had to take a deep breath to stop myself from punching him square in the face.

"It's out of commission at the moment," I explained still biting my tongue against the string of curses I wanted to throw at him.

Leo had gone off to the side for a moment, his phone pulled out and his voice rushing into the receiver, after a moment or too he turned back to us with a lopsided grin, "Sorted."

"You have a jet?" Dane asked a gleam of respect in his voice.

"Even better," after stuffing his phone back in his pocket, "I have a friend with a helicopter."

"Who do you know that has a helicopter?" I asked genuinely surprised.

"Just you wait and see," with that cryptic response we all got into Leo's car and drove to the drop off point of his friends helicopter.

For the most part we all sat in silence, just watching the roads pass by just as quickly as we reached them. And before we knew it we were there.

Leo was the first to sprint off, running towards a figure that was leaning on the outside of helicopter, the purple streaks in their hair flowing with each spin of the blades, a broad smile on their lips.

"Hey babe," Leo called out wrapping Mel in a tight hug and kissing her softly.

"Since when did you know how to fly a helicopter?" I questioned as I pulled myself into the vehicle.

"There's a lot you don't know about me Cam," she responded with a wink, mischief in her eyes. Then she glared at Dane, her body going tense.

"Laurier," her voice was so much colder when addressing him and from the look she gave him I knew there was some history between the two, I made a mental note to find out more about that later.

"Melanie," Dane's tone was clipped and all the picture of distaste.

She scowled once more at him, before returning to the cock pit of the helicopter. She instructed us all to wear headphones that were specifically made to defend our ears from the deafening screech of the motor.

"Buckle up boys, this is going to be one hell of a ride," Mel called out to us as she pulled on the throttle control, lifting us up into the sky.

I held onto the bar above my head to steady myself, the wind rushing against me and pulling at my skin. The ground appeared to disappear beneath us as we took to the sky, away from the world we knew and into one that Mel would control.

I stole a glance at Dane to see that he had become incredibly pale, his eyes were closed and I could see his hand tremble a little as he grasped onto his seat.

"Don't tell me your afraid of heights Laurier," his eyes flew open and he gave me a look of pure hatred.

"And you were just boasting about your jet, how could you be afraid of heights," Leo added from his seat beside Mel.

"That's different, in a jet you are enclosed, you don't know that you are in the sky miles and miles away from anything, in here, you are constantly reminded at how far the ground is beneath you and I'm sorry if I find that daunting,"

He steeled his gaze, trying to be the picture of calm even though internally he felt very much afraid, "And it's not the heights I am afraid of, mon ami, it's the falling."

"How very profound," Mel called out, laughing a little at Dane's fear. Something told me she had already known about that specific phobia.

Then almost on purpose, Mel veered left causing Dane to be pressed further to the open door, his face went deathly white, his eyes catching how far in the sky we were, his hand clutching for dear life on the bar above him, flickering glances at his seat belt, silently praying it would hold.

"Fuck." Dane hissed as he pressed his eyes closed, no longer worrying about what the rest of us thought about his evident fear. His knuckles whitened at how tight his grip was.

"Oops," Mel's voice fluttered with laughter.

"You did that on purpose Melanie," there was venom in his tone but no one could take him seriously after his display of what some would call cowardice.

"It's Mel, you asshole," she snapped, before gunning the throttle and speeding up, we teetered and turned a little more until we reach a liminal speed, safe enough for Dane to finally pry his eyes back open.

A permanent scowl on his face and his pride in tatters.

About an hour later we had made it to our destination, with perfect accuracy Mel lowered us to the ground in a clearing before a forest, the blades of the helicopter still whirled with residual power before they finally came to a stop.

Mel jumped out after us, her sleeved rolled up as she hit the side of her helicopter, "When all's said and done you can count on Nessie to get you anywhere."

"Nessie, why did you name your helicopter?" Dane asked absentmindedly.

"Because I wanted to, now fuck off Dane. I've had enough of you."

"I think we all have," I agreed. Pulling Mel into a side hug, "Thanks so much Mel I really owe you,"

She punched my shoulder lightly, "Don't mention it, you're my boyfriends best friend, practically family to me, you know I'd do anything for you. Now go get my girl Alara,"

"I will."

Leo planted a chaste kiss on his girlfriends lips and stared deeply into her eyes, "What did I do to have someone as great as you?"

"A lot of praying is my guess," she laughed airily, "I'll meet you guys back here, just give me a call and I'll be right here."

With that she jumped back into her helicopter and flew off the way we had come.

"Let's get Alara back."