Arrival (Narrative)
The plane landed in Electric City a good deal earlier than it was supposed to.
Piotr had met Rayne again at the pub where they'd first encountered one another. He had spent the day teaching his classes and arranging for an immediate emergency leave of absence from the school. He had packed his things and locked his door. His new room in the faculty dorms was much like his old one. Very secure. Reinforced. Paranoid. He had not bothered to transfer the safety measures from one to the other, just outfitted the new one. Some kid was living in his old dorm room and had no idea the truths behind the walls, the strength of the door. It gave Piotr a bit of a kick to think about.
When Piotr had packed, he had put it all in two cases. A bigger one that would be checked, and a smaller one that would go with him. Both bags had weapons inside. The bag that he would carry on had a false bottom with safety measures which blocked the packed guns from xray. As far as the machines were concerned, all that was in there was a change of clothes, his toiletries, a few books, and a sketch pad. Inside of the secret compartment, Piotr had stored a pair of automatic pistols with extra clips and silencers, a trio of incendiary devices, and a couple of blades of varying sorts. All safely nestled in foam to keep them from moving around.
The bigger bag held more clothing, and more weapons. Again a secret compartment. Again with foam. But a much larger assortment.
The books had been for Rayne. Information about the world, the universe, America and one about Russia. He wanted her to know what she was getting into. The one about America talked about the culture there. The way that people were. He didn't want her to be surprised by the way that people would talk or the clothing that she would see. The cars, the lights, the grandiose amount of food that would come on places she ordered, even if she had no plans to eat anything.
Piotr had arranged for their seats to be at the very front of the nose in first class. Nobody in front of them could open a window and expose Rayne to the sun. He still didn't know if she couldn't deal with the sun at all, or if it just weakened her. But he wasn't going to risk anything. There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask her, really. He had decided to save them all until they were safely at their destination. Piotr got the feeling that Rayne didn't want to talk about what she was in any place where she might be overheard. He would respect that and keep all queries to himself until they were safely within the suite of rooms he had arranged to be waiting for them.
The plane had made too good of time, however, and they got to Electric City while the sun was still up. Piotr sheepishly explained to the flight attendant that his companion had taken sleeping medication because she was not a very good flyer. He was asked if he needed help, and he declined it. He said that he merely needed to wait until the other passengers were off the plane so that he wouldn't jostle her or accidentally run into anybody else. They happily allowed for this.
Piotr strode through the airport with Rayne bundled in his arms, pressed against his chest. They had given him a thin blanket to cover her with, so she would not be gawked at nor bothered by the light. He was glad of this, since he didn't know if the sun coming through the windows of the throughway would bother her. His carry-on was also easily carried. Adding anything more, however, would be a bit awkward. For this reason, Piotr hired the services of a Skycap, and instructed the man to retrieve the bigger bag and find a cab.
While standing in the shadows with Rayne, watching for his bag so he could point it out, Piotr retrieved one of the guns from the false bottom in his carry-on. He tucked it neatly at the small of his back. He did all of this without putting the vampire down. She was his charge. In need of his protection. He would not let her down.
Almost as soon as the luggage carousel began to function, the Skycap had his bag on the cart and they were out of the airport entirely. Piotr tipped the man a large amount, but not so big that he would be remembered for long.
They were in Electric City. Hopefully the answers would be found soon.