“I’ve gotta stretch my legs and powder my nose. Is that the bathroom over there?”
Tristan waved in the direction of the washroom. She kissed him on the cheek and whispered, “I’m okay, babe. I am.”
He nodded but didn’t smile. She gave his bicep a squeeze and made her way to the bathroom.
After doing her business as the toilet flushed she glanced in the direction of the bowl, and at that glimpse she flinched. Was that a reddish streak on the disappearing toilet tissue? She did a double take but it was too late. The toilet had emptied.
“Oh my god!” she gasped and yanked her clothes back down and got a wad of toilet paper and dabbed and then looked. Nothing.
Was that her mind playing tricks or was her period back? She stood there, heart thudding hard against her chest wall, freaking right out.
She wiped again trying to dip in a little. Nothing on the toilet paper.
She righted her clothes, zipped up and stood still, looking in the mirror, handfuls of her hair in her hands, having a total freak out.
After a minute there was a knock at the door and then she heard Tristan’s voice, “What’s wrong?”
He obviously felt her fear.
She was afraid to open the door. What if she set him off, what if she was about to get her period? He handled feeding but what’d happen if he was faced with her menstrual blood again?
If that was the start then within a very short time she’d be gushing again. He’d said she’d been out for over a day. Did she miss the dose of the period prevention pill? How the heck would she survive on a tiny plane up in the air if Tristan transformed to black-eyed gray hulky vamp? She’d be dead, the pilot and co-pilots would probably be killed, and then the plane would go down and kill Tristan, too.
Fuck!
“Kyla!”
The lock thunked open.
Shit!
“Tristan, wait!” she shouted, pointing at the door stupidly, as if he could see her pointy finger, “Stay there. I’m okay, just wait a second.”
She leaned against the door, unzipped, got more toilet paper and checked again.
Nothing.
“I need to know what the fuck is happening!”
She opened the door but just peeked out.
“I thought I saw blood in the toilet. I don’t know, though. It was as it was disappearing down the drain. I’m not sure.”
His eyes went round but remained blue. His skin tone was normal. Nothing was changing with him other than him appearing concerned. Very concerned.
She watched him a beat. “Did I miss a dose of that pill to stop my period?”
He shook his head, “No. I got it into you and you didn’t throw up that time. You haven’t thrown up since.”
She winced, “Barely even been a week since it stopped? I thought we’d have a month…”
“You don’t know for sure if it was blood?”
She shook her head, “No. I thought it might be, but the toilet was flushing when I saw what might’ve been blood, but I don’t know for sure. I’m not sure. A plane’ll be a very very bad place to be if this is what it is and it sets you off again!"
“Fuck.” He squeezed his eyes shut tight
After a beat he shook it off, “Okay, we land soon. Come sit down and let me think for a minute.”
She hesitated, “Let me check one more time. Get me my purse? I’ve got tampons in there. I’ll put one in, just in case. Maybe it’d stop it from coming out, stop you from scenting? I dunno. It’s worth a try.”
He nodded, “Good idea.”
She shut the door.
When he returned with her purse she checked again and nothing. She put a tampon in. She walked back to him and cautiously sat.
Kyla’s heart was racing. She hoped and prayed that she was mistaken with what she thought she saw, that the nectar was not about to make another entrance. She hadn’t been crampy, no zits or anything like that that often accompanied a period. Maybe she hadn’t seen what she thought she’d seen.
Tristan fidgeted until they were told that they had to buckle up for landing.
When they got out into the airport he said, “I’m putting you in a hotel room while I figure out whether or not Adrian’s is safe. I’ll get us disposable phones. If you start bleeding, you call me and we’ll go from there.”
He hailed a cab and got her to a ritzy hotel. He checked in under an alias and then left to get a rental car and head to Adrian’s. He did this with focus, despite Kyla feeling like the world crumbling around her was imminent. When she was finally alone with her bags, with the rest of Tristan’s bug out bag money, just in case (he’d insisted), with two large boxes of super tampons that the concierge had delivered, and with a disposable phone that had been programmed with Tristan’s disposable phone’s number and thankfully, no sign of bleeding, she collapsed onto the king-sized bed and took slow breath after slow breath.