Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
“Our pack owes you a great debt, Adam,” Galbraith grumbled from his seat at the bar table. Chatter from the pack bubbled around us, along with chinking glasses and occasional laughter, while a baseball game streamed on the wall-mounted TV.
It had been a few days since we’d dealt with Jenny and gotten Galbraith to safety. Duke was doing okay. He’d had his puncture wounds cleaned and wrapped, but refused painkillers, so he glared from a barstool, eying us as though waiting for a true reveal in which we’d been the killers all along.
Galbraith had gotten his leg stitched back on by Mia, the vet. It turned out Duke’s licking had helped, kinda like vampire saliva helped heal their bites, and Zee claimed victory over Victor for knowing more than him regarding werewolf tongues.
Everything appeared to be back to normal for this part of the rural north west.
“But maybe don’t make a career out of sleuthing,” Galbraith suggested, taking a swig of his beer.
I chuckled into my whiskey. We hadn’t really been all that good at solving a murder, but despite our chaotic methods, we did get the job done. And nobody else had died, regardless of Jenny’s best efforts.
“You ever need a favor, Adam of the San Francisco City Pack, we’ll be here,” Galbraith said.
I nodded our thanks. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that. These people had already gone through enough, especially Zander. He chatted at the bar with Zee, the pair of them engaged in lots of arm waving—Zander’s still in a sling—and back slapping.
“Where are you headed now?” Galbraith asked.
That was a good question... One I did not have the answer to. We’d already stayed too long and did need to get back on the road, but I had no idea where to.
Galbraith picked up on my hesitation, probably sensing uncertainty. “You’re more’n welcome to hole up here. Motel’s gonna need new management and I hear you got experience.”
“Thank you, but we already have our hands full with our hotel.”
“Alright, then. Well, good luck to you.”
“If you’re ever in San Francisco, drop by,” I told him. “The SOS Hotel is supernaturally safe for all.”
Galbraith’s grin stretched across his whiskered face. He glanced at the bar where Victor, Zee, and Zander continued their animated conversation. Although Victor mostly just watched on stoically. “I might just do that. The three of you make formidable allies.”
“What about Zander?” I asked. “I spoke to our barman—uh acting manager, Tom Collins—and we have an extra room.” Tom had called Zee earlier in the day and yelled at him in profanity-riddled threats to never hang up, ever again, or Tom would distribute all Zee’s dildos to the gremlins. After that traumatic declaration, Tom had confirmed that the weird, average-looking guy—my brother—had left the hotel a few days ago. Which was both good and bad news.
“We’ll take Zander back, if he wants to return,” Galbraith admitted. “With Cameron gone, and seein’ what our shunning did to the girl, we’re comin’ around to the idea it may have been misguided to shut folks out.”
“The different ones bring the best ideas. You should look out for each other.”
Zee continued his dramatic hand and tail waving, prompting Zander to laugh.
“We gave him Jenny’s truck, since he’s not much of a biker. What he does now is up to him.” Galbraith extended his massive hand. I reached out and braced for the bone-crushing grip. The painful handshake was over in a few seconds, but I’d be feeling it for a few hours. “The Whiteacre Falls pack thanks you. I reckon whatever you’re running from will realize they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.”
“Running?” I spluttered. “Ha, ha. What?” More spluttered laughter fell out of me. “We’re not... it’s not... it’s just... No. What? That’s not a thing we’re doing.” More laughter. Did it sound strained? “Anyhoo.” I stood, scratching the chair legs across the sticky floor. “We uh... we’d better get back on the road. Destiny uh... waits for no one. I guess.”
Galbraith saluted me with his beer glass. “See you ’round, Adam Vex.”
I caught Victor’s eye and nodded, signaling it was time to leave, and he tapped Zee on the shoulder. Zee saw me, gave Zander a sudden, massive hug, then blew a kiss at the growling Duke and the three of us filed out of the bar into the foggy parking lot.
“Not gonna miss this murk,” Zee said, snarling at the overhanging blanket of mist. He stretched his wings out and raised them over his head, trying to divert the drizzle. “Zander said he might take us up on our offer to stay,” Zee added. “They gave him Jenny’s beat-up ol’ truck so he can come visit, but he’s gonna try and mend ties with the pack first.”
“That seems sensible for a man who collects dildos as ornaments,” Victor remarked.
“Judgy McFancy Fangs over here can’t talk when he owns a frog ornament... like a psycho.”
“That you gave me as a gift, if you recall.”
“Ssh, nobody likes vampires. Also, I was very drunk and you took advantage of my inebriated, vulnerable self,” Zee said, with a grin. Victor opened his mouth, probably to deny doing any such thing, but Zee spoke over him. “So, where to next? Vegas, right? Say fuckin’ Vegas. I’m fuckin’ made for Vegas, baby. The lights, the drama, the rampant gambling addictions, the glitz, the fuckin’ glam, and mental-health implications!” He moaned as though he were deprived of pleasure. “Come to Uncle Zee.”
“If we wish to keep our whereabouts a secret, putting you in the middle of Sin City is a terrible idea.”
“Victor’s right.”
“Ugh.” Zee rolled his eyes, horns, shoulders, and wings until all of him had visibly deflated, but he soon brightened again as an idea must have formed. “I can do boring Zee, remember?”
I did remember, but honestly, boring Zee was just as attention grabbing as normal Zee. Zee was always going to be Zee, no matter what glamor he wore.
“Or as a last resort, Jasyn-with-a-y?” Zee fluttered a hand over himself, vanishing his wings, and wove the glamor of his dull-human disguise. “Remember this guy? So average, so human, but also incredibly handsome and a big hit with the police commissioner’s wife?”
“Frankly, I’d prefer to forget,” Victor grumbled.
I laughed as they both headed toward the van. “I’ll grab our bags. You guys get the van warmed up.”
Zee bounced along, pretending to be human, and Victor followed, eyebrows raised in disbelief.
“Don’t forget the Oreos!” Zee called.
“Right.” I broke into a jog, eager to get us on the road again.
Zee’s sing-song voice sailed across the lot. “Vegas, baby, here we come.”
We were not going to Vegas. I couldn’t think of anywhere Zee was more likely to be recognized, then put on a pedestal and worshipped by all his adoring fans. The chances of him being subtle were about as likely as Victor wearing a rainbow shirt and singing “YMCA” in heels. Impossible.
I pushed open the motel room door—and jolted to a stop.
My brother stood in the middle of the room.
My heart stopped too, and my thoughts. Every part of me seized, frozen by fear.
“Close the door, Mydros.” His voice was deeper than his appearance suggested, and his accent sounded strange to my American-tuned ears.
Swallowing, I closed the door on the distant voices of Victor and Zee arguing over how Vegas was both a brilliant and terrible idea. They had to leave, they had to go now or Syros would kill them.
I had to get them away.
If I could distract Syros, they might have a chance.
I had to do something.
Anything.
I stared. Stuck.
He shouldn’t have been here.
How had he found us?
Was he alone?
“It took a while to find you.” He tapped the tower of Oreo boxes. “When you run, you run hard. I remember that. But your demon friend made the mistake of posting about these cookies on his social media feeds, and it just so happened the name of this motel was in the background of one of those images.”
Oh, Zee . . .
“I’ll go with you,” I blurted, voice small. “Let’s go. You and me. Right now.”
Syros’s smirk cut like a slash across his face. The corner of his lips tugged on the vicious scar in his cheek. He could have used glamor to hide it, but instead he kept it on display... for me. “No, our original deal is off the table. You had your chance to save them and failed.”
He was going to kill Victor and Zee. They’d try to fight, and they’d hold out for a while, but even if we worked together, we wouldn’t be strong enough to stop him.
He’d kill them because he could, because he wanted to, because they were nothing to him and everything to me... because I deserved it.
Syros tucked his thumbs into his pockets, making himself look approachable. We even looked alike. Brothers. So human, so harmless, definitely not dragons the size of this motel and the bar combined.
My disguise had been perfect, and so was his.
“You always knew I was coming for you,” he said.
“I thought you were dead.”
“You believed you’d killed me?” His thick, wicked laugh brought back all the times he’d hunted me down. All the times I’d barely escaped his jaws. All the times I’d fled, broken and bleeding. “Ah, baby brother. You always were delusional.” He shrugged and looked around the motel room. “I gotta thank you, though, for doing all the heavy lifting this side of the veil. Seems like folks here aren’t afraid of dragons. It’ll make things easier when I take it all for myself.”
The hungry, predatory gleam in his eyes left no room for doubt. Gideon Cain had had aspirations of becoming a god, but he was always going to be just a megalomaniac sorcerer. My brother, however... He could level a city in minutes. He could raze the US capital. He could burn millions of innocent people in the blink of an eye.
No, no . . . this was . . . very bad.
“But don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you straight away. You can watch as I burn everything you love... burn it all and make myself king of this world. Won’t that be fun? Just like old times.”
“Just like old times...” I echoed, remembering the home I’d fled, full of fire and ashes.
No. Nope. Not going to happen. Not here, not ever again.
We would stop him. We had to. I wasn’t alone anymore. I had Zee, and Victor, and the demons, a few hundred gremlins, and maybe a few extra werewolves? But I couldn’t stop him here, not now. I wasn’t ready. If we fought, everyone around me would die. I needed space and time to figure it out.
“Yeah... I guess... okay.” I scratched my chin, buying precious seconds. “Seems like I don’t have a choice, so—” A sudden shove, and over went the tower of Oreos. My brother’s yelp followed as I dashed out of the room and bolted toward the van. “Start the engine!” I yelled, arms waving.
Victor was behind the wheel, with Zee—his Jasyn disguise gone—leaning on the open passenger door. They stopped chatting and looked over.
“Victor! Start it, right now!” My shoes splashed through puddles. I almost tripped, then righted myself.
They both stared, surprised, and their eyes widened when they saw what must have been Syros leaving the motel room behind me.
“Who’s this guy?” Zee asked.
“Get in the back!” I barked. Zee poofed into the back of the van just as I reached the door, swung around it, and flung myself into the front passenger seat. “Go, go, go.”
Victor turned the key, but the old van coughed and whined, its engine struggling to start.
“C’mon,” I whined. “We need to go right now .”
Zee leaned between the two front seats. “He doesn’t look like much. I can take ’im,” he growled, staring through the windshield.
I looked up, and there he was—Syros, walking toward us as though he had all the time in the world. If Zee went out there, Syros would crush him like a bug.
“No, you can’t, Zee,” I snapped. “Victor, make the van go!”
“I am attempting to do exactly that.” He flicked the key off then on again, and pumped the throttle pedal as the engine whined.
Syros was almost on us. His smile filled his face. His scar stood out crimson against his skin.
The engine coughed again, then stuttered, almost catching.
“Uhm . . . Adam?” Zee mumbled. “What the?—”
Syros’s human glamor exploded, and in the wake of that sudden blast of power came the unfurling of a scaled body a whole lot bigger than our van, and growing.
Zee gulped. “The fuck?”
Bigger, Syros grew. Glossy green scales filled the windshield.
“It’s a dragon! Sweet baby Gareth, we gonna die,” Zee squeaked. “Adam, it’s a fuckin’ dragon!”
“I know!”
The van’s engine caught with a shudder. Victor rammed it into reverse and spun the vehicle backward, away from the enormous, still-growing dragon. He swung the van in a savage J-turn, squealing the tires as we hit the asphalt of the road.
Zee shifted to the back of the van now, and peered out the rear window. “Drive!”
Thrusting the stick into gear, Victor lurched our beat-up old van forward, plowing into the murk.
“Guys, Godzilla with wings is comin’.”
I peered in the side mirror and saw Syros’s massive jaws snap together close to the back of the van. Another lunge like that, and he’d swallow us in one bite.
Zee yelped. “Faster!”
Victor’s glance caught mine. The accelerator pedal was on the floor. The van was maxed out.
“I’m too young to die in this shitty rental van. There’s too much I want to do. I haven’t ridden a camel yet! Victor, do something!”
“I’m doing it!”
If I jumped out of the van and shifted, I could slow Syros down enough that they’d be able to escape. It might just work. They’d be alright?—
I grabbed the door handle.
“No!” Victor warned, knowing exactly what I was thinking. “We are in this together.”
A massive clawed foot slammed down behind us. The impact rocked the ground, shuddering through the van and us.
A bend in the road sprang out of the murk. Victor shifted down a gear, the van lurched, and we skidded sideways around the corner. Syros plowed on, uprooting countless trees, sending them flying around us. Trunks, dirt, and branches rained, slamming onto the road.
“There!” I pointed left, at a side road.
Victor yanked on the wheel, veering us onto the narrow winding road that wasn’t much more than a fire break. If I couldn’t fight Syros, then hiding was our best bet. While he was huge, and we were tiny in comparison, we might just be able to sneak away.
“Slower . . . Slow down.”
Victor put the brakes on, and the van bounced, skidding on gravel.
“Slower,” I urged again.
“Should we not be going faster?” Victor asked, checking the mirrors.
“Trust me. He’s too big and too angry to notice us now. But we gotta go slow and quiet.”
Victor idled the van down the track. The ground trembled, like earthquake after earthquake, shaking the trees lining our track, but gradually, the shaking faded.
A blast of orange light made the mist glow.
Dragon fire . . . but far in the distance.
We were going to be alright.
This time.
We trundled on, driving until we met up with a main stretch of road again. Victor planted his foot to the floor and the van growled away, leaving my brother and Whiteacre Falls far behind. He might return to the bar, but Galbraith would ensure he would not get a warm welcome. I could only hope Syros didn’t try to bleed information out of them.
“So uh...” Zee spoke first, breaking the silence several hours after our escape. “I’m guessing we just met your brother?”
“Yeah . . .”
“I’m all for meeting family, but yours tried to eat us.”
“Uhm. Sorry.”
Zee reached between the front seats and grabbed my hand. “Can’t choose ’em, right.”
“Yeah.”
It had been close. Too close. We had to run harder and faster. We needed to get further away.
After driving through the night, Victor pulled the van into a gas station to refuel. “We need a plan,” he said, switching to the back seat so Zee could drive.
“We have to go somewhere no one will ever think to look,” I added. “Somewhere far away, where nobody asks questions.”
“Somewhere weird, so our brand blends right in,” Zee said, adjusting the seat to accommodate his long legs.
Where could we go where a vampire, demon, and human wouldn’t raise eyebrows? Where our notoriety wouldn’t be recognized, and where nobody would sell us out? “Somewhere with nice people.” Was it too much to ask?
“Mexico?” Zee asked.
“Minnesota,” Victor declared.
To be continued... in SOS HOTEL 9: Icy Reception
Read on for a sneaky snippet of what’s to come...