Chapter 14

The next fewdays passed in a blur of damage control. Claymore still wasn’t back, and since Gideon hadn’t gloated about kidnapping my head of security and handyman gargoyle, I began to assume he’d wandered off somewhere, and would show up eventually. In the meantime, I had a hotel to run.

Detective Somers came snooping around, unconvinced we were all as innocent as we claimed to be. He was right, but he didn’t have proof. Noreen wrote a story about the Chaos Unleashed at SOS Hotel. Zee learned his attic space now belonged to our newest monosyllabic resident, Shadow, but was otherwise back to his typically flamboyant self. He’d also gained tens of thousands of new followers on his socials, but hated how they’d come via Reynard.

I hadn’t seen Reynard since he’d left me with a very sick Zee. But he still had his room paid for, so I assumed he’d be back.

“Have you seen this?” Zee asked, thrusting his phone under my nose in the bar. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was looking at, other than a pretty young woman talking to the camera about how her mind was blown. “Hashtag Reyzee, that’s what they’re calling it. Like we’re a couple. Lord Fuck-Hard and moi?” He gave a dismissive snort. “Can you believe it? I have standards, and I don’t do suckers. They’re bad for business.”

“Reyzee?”

“Our names smooshed together.” He plonked his ass on the barstool beside mine and flicked his tail out. “My name should be first, and there is no way I’d put my priceless dick anywhere near Reynard’s hard ass.”

“Like . . . Zeenard?”

“Exactly.” He clicked his fingers and Tom appeared with a beer. “The internet thinks we’re a couple since he put out that cry for help looking all fucked-up and interesting. Still can’t believe that prick spoke up for me. He’s clearly up to something.”

“I couldn’t have saved you without him.” Reynard hadn’t been around for Zee to thank, but he deserved some credit. Without him, I wouldn’t have been able to get close to Cain, wouldn’t even have known where Zee was to rescue him.

“About that,” Zee smirked. “I assume you fucked him too?”

“What?” I spluttered.

“Did you fuck, the both of you?” He waved his hands. “Something’s been off since I woke up. You can’t look me in the eye whenever you say his name. No judgment. You fucked me and I know I ain’t special, so?—”

“No, we didn’t... do that. Exactly?” Zee was special. More special to me than he probably should be. “And you and me... It’s not... We...” What was I even trying to say? Zee and I hadn’t talked about our sexual escapade. We’d both been too busy since he’d recovered. And I’d have preferred not to talk about it at all, since every time I remembered how close we’d been, and how good it had felt, I got hard, but also remembered how I’d nearly let my glamor slip, and how he’d almost asked the one question I couldn’t answer.

Zee side-eyed me. “Did your dick enter his person?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but no.”

“You’re right, it’s none of my business, but did his dick enter any of that?” He waved a hand at me.

“No.” His teeth had felt like his dick sliding in. Did that count?

“So why are you being weird right now? It doesn’t matter to me. It’s not like you and I are anything special.”

“Special? What?” I laughed. “Of course not. No. It was just... a thing we did.”

“Just sex.”

“Just sex.”

“Exactly.” He shrugged. “I was hungry, you were there, we had some fun, a one-and-done deal.” He stared at the untouched drink Tom had placed in front of him, and I stared at mine. A few excruciating minutes ticked by until the words he’d been holding in all bubbled up at once. “Because if we were anything serious, that makes everything a whole lot more complicated, and I’d feel pretty shit about using you—which I don’t, since you were there, and knew what you were getting into, and agreed. And it was just a dicks-in-holes scenario, just biological lust. Nothing meaningful whatsoever.”

“Right.” My heart contracted, shriveling up, since I’d foolishly, maybe hopefully, wanted it to mean something. Something more. But clearly, he didn’t, and I should have known that. Did know it. Zee would never want to settle down with someone like me. And why should he? He loved his life the way it was—a life that had nothing to do with me—and if he wanted to maintain an easy life, it was best we stayed apart anyway.

“Right. So if you wanna fuck the humorless vampire with a stick up his ass, I figure that’s your prerogative.”

Thankfully, we were back on the topic of Reynard. “We didn’t... It’s not... He got beaten up and took some of my blood. That’s all.”

Zee blinked.

“Twice.”

“Twice?” His tail ticked.

“It was an accident.”

“He tripped and his fangs fell into your neck?”

“Uh, no. The first time I was a bit drunk and feeling sorry for myself, and the second time was... Well, he needed a blood sacrifice to trap the shadowbeast.”

“Oh, okay, so he was performing a ritual. That makes me feel so much better. Does that make you feel better, knowing he performs blood magic? And what does that mean, his taking your blood? Does it have some significance for vampires? Because his consuming your bodily fluids seems pretty personal to me.”

“Pfft. I doubt it meant anything.”

“Are you sure about that?”

I huffed. I had wanted him to take my blood, both times. And the desire to have him close hadn’t waned. If anything, it had grown stronger since he’d helped save Zee—as he’d probably known it would. We’d also made a little agreement, that he could snack on my veins whenever he wanted, just so long as he bought me dinner first. There was no doubt about it, Reynard could be manipulating me, or he was just genuinely being helpful. How was I supposed to know the difference? “No, I’m not sure. Which is why I needed you back, because I have a blindspot when it comes to Reynard, and his taking my blood was probably a bad idea but it felt really good—both times.”

“You’re fucking right it was a bad idea.” He swiveled on the stool and looked me dead in the eyes. “Understand this. Fuck a lust demon too many times without protection and they own your soul. Same applies to vampires. If you let him sink his fangs into you, guess who gets owned by Vampire Daddy?”

For humans maybe, but I wasn’t one of those—which Zee thankfully didn’t seem to remember I’d confessed. And he seemed to have forgotten how he’d had the tiniest taste of the real me while we’d lain together. “And this is why you and I make a great team.” I grinned.

He loosened up, shaking his wings out, and chinked his beer bottle against mine. “The best fucking team.”

“To the SOS Hotel.”

“To the SOS Hotel, the Friendly Sanctuary for the Fiendishly Fucking Fabulous.”

Now all I had to do was hold it all together, avoid the authorities, keep my guests safe, refrain from sleeping with Zee or letting Reynard sample my veins, and figure out a way to kill Gideon Cain before he exposed my biggest secret to the entire world.

Welcome to just another boring day at the SOS Hotel.

To be continued . . .