Otherworld Challenger. Jane Godman

taken them across the vast airport complex and deposited them on the other side. Trying not to show her confusion, Vashti had followed Jethro as he showed identification to a guard on a gate and then made his way onto an airfield.

      He grinned. “Are you asking to see my pilot certification?”

      “No, I’m walking away.”

      Jethro shrugged, throwing his bag into the plane. “Seems a strange way to observe me—particularly since you don’t know where I’m going—but, as I said, I’m not waiting around for you.”

      Vashti bit her lip. The message was clear. Go with him or be stranded. “You really know how to do this?”

      “I have over a thousand hours flying time and a commercial pilot’s license.”

      He swung into the cockpit. Swallowing her nervousness, Vashti walked around to the other side of the aircraft and clambered into the passenger seat. It was a cramped space. Behind the seats there was a small space, barely large enough to stow their bags. She watched Jethro’s hands as they busied themselves checking the various instruments. They were strong, capable hands and she was about to place her life in them. “What does that mean?”

      “It means if I wanted to, I could make my living as a pilot.”

      “Wouldn’t you need your own plane to do that?”

      “This is my plane.” His glance flickered her way briefly. “One of them.”

      Vashti studied his profile. The concentration on his face was absolute. She started to relax. “Maybe you should think about doing this instead of being a mercenary.”

      “It doesn’t pay as well.” One corner of his mouth lifted in a wry smile. “Although it would be a hell of a lot safer.” He held out a pair of headphones. “Put these on. Once the engines start, you’ll need them. It gets noisy and the only way we can talk to each other will be through the microphones.”

      After a few final checks, Jethro started the engines and the little craft juddered into life. Completely at home with the confusing array of controls, he steered it out onto the open runway, listening to the instructions in his earpiece.

      “What are we waiting for?” Vashti frowned as they stopped.

      “Our turn. We’re in a queue.”

      “Can’t we go to the front anyway?”

      “No, because we have a thing here called manners.”

      She groaned and rolled her eyes. “I wish I was mortal so I could wait around in more lines.”

      Jethro took his eyes off the runway long enough to cast a sidelong glance in her direction. “Just what I don’t need when I’m trying to concentrate...a sarcastic faerie in my earpiece.”

      They were moving forward again now, gaining pace rapidly, and Vashti forgot her impatience as the plane rose off the ground, wobbling from side to side as it seemed to struggle to find its balance. The airfield below them grew smaller and then the world tilted as Jethro banked the plane around to the right. Vashti fought the impulse to grab his arm and force him to bring it back so it was level again. The contrast between the jet they had traveled on earlier when there had been no sensation of movement and this plane that swayed and bobbed as it climbed higher into the blue sky could not have been more marked.

      “How long will it take?” She was suddenly aware of feeling intensely tired. Perhaps it was as a result of not having slept for two nights. Or maybe it was the nerves caused by wondering if this fragile little craft was going to hurtle to the ground at any minute.

      “It will depend on the wind, but it’s not too bad today. Less than an hour.”

      An hour of living on a knife edge of pressure. I can cope with that. And there were compensations. Being this close to Jethro wasn’t the hardship she had always imagined it would be. How have I gone from loathing physical contact to craving it in such a small space of time? She studied her own slender, jeans-clad thigh as it bumped against the muscular length of Jethro’s leg with the movement of the plane. But it wasn’t just anyone she wanted in her personal space. It was him. The thought annoyed her as much as it thrilled her. I don’t even like this man, yet here I am hoping he’ll tilt the plane again so I get thrown up against him! How pathetic is that?

      Nevertheless, she took the opportunity to lean across him to ask questions about various landmarks, reveling in his warm breath on her cheek and his upper arm resting casually against her breast. Having never been a schoolgirl, I didn’t get the chance to have a schoolgirl crush. I’m making up for lost time with a vengeance. Her body seemed to be suddenly awakening to a world of new possibilities. All of them directed toward the wrong man.

      Vashti was starting to enjoy the soaring, swooping sensation of the flight when she felt a light touch on her shoulder. Swinging around with a sense of shock, she found herself face-to-face with the smug vampire who had followed them from Orkney. She recoiled in horror. There was no way he had been in the plane with them when they’d taken off.

      “How the hell did you get in here?”

      Her voice in the headphones alerted Jethro and he glanced quickly behind him. It took only a few seconds for them to reach the same conclusion. They spoke into their microphones at the same time. “Iago.”

      Right first time. Although they couldn’t hear him above the sound of the engine, Iago mouthed the words. Silent laughter racked his body. The sorcerer was clearly enjoying himself at their expense.

      Jethro’s voice was a furious growl. “Tibor didn’t send two vampires to follow me. The woman was my tail. This trickster bastard obviously tagged along then used his invisibility to sneak into the plane.” In time with Jethro’s words, the vampire’s features changed, shifting and becoming Iago’s sharp-featured, black-bearded face. She would know that face anywhere. It was imprinted in her memory from the first time she’d met him when Moncoya had brought him to Spae before her father escaped imprisonment. Iago’s green eyes gleamed with enjoyment.

      “Leave this to me.” Vashti unbuckled her seat belt.

      “Don’t be so fucking—”

      She didn’t stick around to hear the rest of what Jethro had to say. Discarding her headphones, Vashti scrambled over the back of her seat. It was a tight squeeze and she landed in an undignified heap in Iago’s lap. It wasn’t the best way to intimidate someone, but it did have the element of surprise, particularly as Iago, without the benefit of headphones, hadn’t been expecting her.

      In one fluid movement she curled into a ball, gripping the sides of the rear seat on either side of Iago’s thighs and bringing her knees up hard under his chin. The sorcerer’s head jerked back and Vashti was willing to bet he saw stars. With grim satisfaction, she watched the smile disappear from his face.

      The little aircraft rocked wildly from side to side as Jethro craned his neck to try to get a glimpse of what was going on behind him. Willing him to trust her and keep his attention on the plane, Vashti focused on her task. Iago had so many tricks at his disposal she had to neutralize him as quickly as she could. Not an easy feat in such a tight space. Since Moncoya had ensured his daughters were trained in every aspect of combat, Vashti was as comfortable wielding a samurai sword as she was in a boxing ring. Her instructor’s words about being trapped in a confined space with a larger opponent came back to her now. If you can’t outrun him, go for the eyes first then the groin.

      Launching herself at Iago with her thumbs extended, Vashti prepared to put her training into practice.

      * * *

      Jethro had flown planes in some tricky situations. There had been that one time he had been caught in a violent sandstorm over the Sahara. Or the other when he’d been forced to make an emergency landing on a deserted highway when the canopy flew off just after take-off. And who could forget the death-defying spiral he’d had to fight his way out of when his rudder pedal had jammed on his first solo flight? But trying to control a plane while a faerie princess and a sorcerer slugged