Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

“Management meeting. Conference room. Right now.”

Zee had found Victor and me chatting with Madame Matase at reception less than half an hour after our breakthrough with Seb.

He headed on over, making the universal T sign for timeout, then dove straight into the musty, unused conference-slash-storage room. With his wings out, his presence took up most of the room that wasn’t occupied by stacks of old mismatched chairs and dusty tables.

Victor and I squeezed into the cramped space and closed the door.

“Zee, can you maybe hide the wings?”

“No, I fucking cannot. I’m outta fucks.” He knotted his arms crossed. “Except for one fuck, and that fuck needs to get the fuck out of our fucking hotel.”

It took a while to decipher exactly, but Victor got there first. “Sebastien needs to go.”

“I know,” I sighed. “And he will. But as much as I hate to say it, we need him. He’s the only one who can tell us about Cain.”

Zee rolled his eyes and lolled his head. “And for all we know, it’s all fucking lies, Kitten.” He flung his arms wide, gesturing wildly, while his tail knotted like a headless snake beside him. “Cain kicked him out of Evil Club because Seb’s a self-centred, epic dick, so now he’s yanking our chains.”

That was likely true. “It’s a risk for him to come here, though. He knows we hate him. Tom could poison him, we could have the gremlins attack him in his sleep, I’ve got an anti-ward ring and a shotgun behind the bar. He’s not exactly safe with us.”

“The other aspect I do not believe you have considered, Adam,” Victor began in his we’re - all - doomed voice. “Is that Gideon could have sent him here, like he has other spies in the past. Tom Collins, for example, and the guests we overheard while hiding in the closet.”

Zee’s face scrunched up. “You guys hide in closets too?” I was about to explain how it had only been once, when he added, “I thought I was the only one who did that. Frank, the new arrival in room three, has a weird thing for playing naked chess with himself... while playing with himself.”

Victor blinked.

Okay. “Uhm... so, maybe don’t spy on the guests, Zee?”

“It’s not spying . I’m checking for gremlins. I’m not interested in what Frank does with his little pawn. Obviously.”

“Shall we focus on Sebastien?” Victor steered us back on topic. “We need confirmation as to whether his information is true. Until we have that, we should treat everything he says as highly unreliable.”

“Agreed. Trusting that asshole is like trusting a frog not to eat your face.”

Frogs definitely did that. “Zee.” I scooped up his hand and held it against my chest. His fingers spread wide, absorbing my heart’s beat. “I hate to admit it, but earlier tonight I nearly died from breathing. I kinda need to get my bead back—not just to stop him, but to be me again. Being human isn’t all that great, yah know? I stubbed my toe and it hurt —a lot. An insane amount, considering it’s just one toe that doesn’t do anything, as far as I can tell. I have four others, and they seem real vulnerable to bed posts too.” I shrugged. “What is the point of toes anyway?”

“They aid balance.”

“That’s your opinion, Doctor Vampire,” Zee drawled. “But that’s not what toes are for.”

“Then what are they for, demon?”

“Sucking.”

As was often the case when speaking with Zee, Victor hesitated, briefly confused. “I admit to being slightly intrigued, and somewhat envious of the interminably wondrous world you inhabit, Zodiac.”

“I’ve no idea what you just said, but toes—and feet—are one of several erotic zones. Adam knows, he asks me to lick his feet all the time.”

“Uh, no I don’t, Zee.”

“You haven’t?” He shifted closer, filling the tiny room and looming over me, but his smile was soft and his big eyes brimmed with understanding. He scooped my hands up in his. “I know you need this, and I know I’m being an asshole. Having Seb under this roof is one fuck-off enormous trigger, and triggers are usually my to-do list, but not with him. I have a low-grade fucking ward headache trying to punch out my eyeballs thanks to the endless wards around this hotel. I’m hungry, grouchy, afraid imma hurt you, and not in a good headspace right now, so yeah... Imma be an asshole.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt you. None of us want him here. But can you tolerate him, just for a few days, while I work on getting the information we need to stop Cain? After I get my power back, assuming my glamor is in tatters now, I’ll murder Seb for you.”

“I’d like that. A lot.” Zee scooped me against his side, where I fit so perfectly. “But if you eat him, you should know he’s probably poisonous.”

“Dragons have great metabolism.”

“I bet they do.” He ruffled my hair, then beckoned for Victor. “Bring it in, Daddy Spice. Group hug.”

“I don’t believe that’s necess?—”

Zee grabbed Victor by the sleeve and hauled him into the hug. “There it is. We got this. Just the three of us. Best hotel management this side of the fucking bay. Living the fuckin’ dream.”

I caught a glimmer of Victor’s almost-hidden smile and sent him a small smile back. We were a little bit broken, a little bit lost, but we’d made it this far together. We’d see it to the end, whatever that end looked like.

The door flung open and a glitzy Sebastien loomed, pierced and jeweled wings sparkling. “Is this a fucking private orgy or can anyone join?”

Just like before, Zee lunged, only this time Victor wasn’t foolish enough to get in the way. The wards smacked Zee back. He reeled, and stumbled into the stacks of chairs, almost toppling them. “Fuckin’-piece-of-numb-nuts-ball-aching-rabid-gods-be-damned-motherfucking-butt-plugging-fuckface-ragged-sack-of-frogs!”

The outburst left Zee panting and draped over the chairs, clinging to them so he didn’t fling himself at Sebastien all over again.

Seb smirked and dug into his pants pocket. “I couldn’t help but listen through the keyhole. You tiny-dicked losers want proof? I got all the proof right here.” He dug out a fake-gem-encrusted phone, flicked it open, and showed us a full-screen photograph of Gideon Cain standing at a podium, shaking hands with someone who clearly had no idea of the monster he was, and accepting a hideous gold award for something.

“All I see are two dicks stroking each other’s dicks on a stage,” Zee grunted.

Seb took the phone back, pinched the screen, then showed it to us again, but this time he’d zoomed in on a grainy blue gem poking out from under Gideon’s open collar. “The pendant?”

A jolt of recognition lit me up, and a more typical growl rumbled up my throat. “That’s mine.”

“Boom. What did I say? There it is, around his neck. That’s your magic bean, right?”

“Bead,” I corrected. Bean just . . . sounded wrong.

“We have to get it back,” I told Victor, drawing his gaze to me.

“Indeed. But how?”

“Cut off his head?” Zee suggested. “I haven’t whipped out Shareen in a while and it worked for Queen Vampire.”

Seb laughed. “That was you?! Fuck... Daisy kept that quiet. Cain’ll see you coming, pet. His mansion is warded to the balls, his bodyguards are heavily into BDSM, and he has a pocket full of spells. There ain’t no way you’re getting that bean from around his neck unless he takes it off.”

“Then you’re fucking useless to us. So why are we keeping you around again if you don’t know how to get Adam’s bean back?”

“Bead,” I corrected—again.

Seb dropped his phone back into his pocket and leaned a shoulder against the doorframe. “Because, Cain trusts me, and I know how you can get to it.”

“Right, like he trusts you with his evil plan?” Zee had straightened now, and even with a wing clamped, he stood tall. “You... a pimp... and a real shitty one. Nah, dawg. You are full of bullshit.”

Seb’s smile twitched, and seeing Zee stalking forward, he backed up into the foyer. Zee ducked through the doorway and circled around Seb. He didn’t mean him harm, or the wards would stop him, but he was putting on a damn good show of puffing himself up and making it seem as though he could snap at any second.

“Agatha de La Cour. You heard of her?” Seb asked, side-eyeing Zee stalking him.

“Yeah, we know Agatha,” I said, glancing at Victor, since Agatha had been his bestie from long ago. Agatha was the fae Zee had nicknamed Tinkerbell. She’d tried to kill us in a giant fishtank, then bargained for bits of Zee to grind up and be used in her FaeMade ? face creams. “Wasn’t she arrested?”

“Arrested and released under commissioner Musashi. Nothing sticks to her. She’s a jeweler, makes all kinds of gems—lots of ’em warded.” Seb parted his wings, showing off their smattering of gawdy bling. Most of it looked fake, but a few could have been real. “She met with Gideon yesterday. My guess, she’s going to make him some kind of ward-infused setting for the bean, so he can tap into its power without it taking his head off. Right? She made that pendant round his neck. Makes a lot of shiny shit for him. They’re tight. Get to her, and you’ll get to the magic bean—probably.”

Zee snorted a disbelieving laugh. “Or they’re fuck buddies, and she’s just a crazy fae bitch who grinds up demon dick to rub on her face.”

“Agatha does have a chain of jewelry stores,” Victor said. “One near Union Square, in fact.”

Zee made a show of slowly turning toward Victor. “And you’re just fucking mentioning this now?”

“Her penchant for making and selling jewelry has not been relevant until this moment.”

“Okay.” I stepped in before this escalated, like it always did. “Victor, restrain Seb for his own safety.”

Victor’s dark eyes widened, and the voice that crawled out of him was a long way from his polite, haughty tone, and more like the ruthless killer I rarely heard . “My pleasure.”

“Wh—” Seb barely got a word out before Victor had collected a length of rope used to secure the stacks of chairs in the conference room, grabbed Seb’s wings, clamped them together, and looped the rope around him like a fly caught in a web. “The fuck!?” Seb dropped to his knees. “You can’t fucking do this. The wards! Your wards. I’m a fuckin’ guest!”

“Oh, we’re not hurting you. We wouldn’t want you stumbling about the hotel and getting hurt by gremlins, would we?”

Luckily there wasn’t anyone else in the foyer to witness this treatment of our latest guest. Just Madame Matase, who carried on knitting as though nothing out of the ordinary was taking place.

Seb’s shocked gaze settled on me. Was he just now figuring out how we did things at the SOS Hotel? “I’m helping you!”

“Gag him.”

Victor tore the tie from around his neck, snapped its length in his hands and did the necessary, leaving Seb mumbling on his knees, giftwrapped like Psycho Santa Claus’s next delivery.

“Fucking hallelujah!” Zee clapped his hands. “This is what I’m talkin’ about. Oh, Seb baby, did you bite off more than you can chew coming here?” He strutted over to the kneeling Seb and stopped only to tower over him. Then, absorbing every delicious moment, he used a finger to tip Seb’s chin up. The wards fizzled, tightening the air, but didn’t lash out. “How the snake has turned.”

“Do you mean how the worm has turned?” Victor provided.

“This worm is on his fuckin’ knees, where he belongs.” Zee bent double and braced his hands on his thighs, putting his face inches from Seb’s. “You had better hope your so-called lead pans out, because people who fuck with us disappear. You feel me?” Zee patted Seb’s head and straightened with a broad grin on his face.

“Put him in the conference room,” I told Victor, not even needing to look over to know it would be done.

In a blur, Seb was gone, the conference-room door slammed, and Victor strode back toward us, brushing dust from his hands. He had the look of a man on a mission, a man who’d let nothing stand in his way. A man who would kill for what he believed in. Mercy, he was hot .

He dropped the conference-room door key into my hand. Seb would not be getting any visitors.

Zee’s hungry eyes blazed, and even my human body was buzzing with all kinds of excitement.

For the first time since I’d lost my powers, we had a plan! “Let’s go take a quick look at Agatha’s store,” I told them. “Maybe there’s something Gideon related there?”

“She’s unlikely to be at the store at this time of night.”

“Even better.” I smiled. “What’s the harm in us walking by? Maybe looking in? Maybe... more?”

“Wait, what?” Zee’s wings fell. “No, no, no, Kitten. You’re staying here.”

“Not goin’ to happen.”

Victor grumbled a disapproving sound. “Zodiac is right. Your current situation leaves you vulnerable.”

“Nope.” I grabbed my coat off the hook by the desk and handed Madame Matase the conference-room key with a smile. She nodded, and dropped it into her top drawer.

“If I have to drink one more of Tom’s cold decaffeinated teas I’m going to lose my mind,” I told them. “I have the two most capable, badass bodyguards in all San Francisco on either arm to keep me safe. It’s just a little trip across town to check out a fae jewelry store. What can go wrong?”

“A store belonging to a fae who recently attempted to kill us,” Victor reminded me.

I gave Victor a broad grin. “Who is also an old friend of yours. It’s fine. We’ve got this.”

“Adam, you are no longer a dragon,” he reminded—again.

“I will be again the sooner we get this done.” I headed for the door, but they weren’t following. That was fine. I knew exactly how to get them moving “Better hurry along or I might trip and fall off the sidewalk into the path of an oncoming bus.”

“Fuck,” Zee snapped, then poofed outside, striding in front of me. “Stay behind me and in front of Fancy Fangs. You’re the squishy filling in our badass sandwich, alright?”

I shrugged. That worked for me.

Victor followed. “This is not advisable.”

“Objection noted.” I thrust my hands into my pockets and breathed in the smell of the city at night. There was one good thing about being human. How all the little things were suddenly bigger, like the smell of the sea, the sound of the breeze in the long grasses out front, and the feeling that I had a purpose. No evil sorcerer was going to stop me from getting my power back. And when I did, everyone on my Bad People list was getting a taste of exactly what it meant to piss off a dragon.

Or more accurately... I would be tasting them.