It neared four a.m., and the hotel was closed, but I had no trouble letting myself in. The corridor lined with shops led to the center attraction. Innumerable swaths of crystals surrounded the floating bar at the heart of the hotel. It hung so anyone from at least five floors could look out over the ledge and view the chandelier-like installation. The soft yellow lighting made it feel like being inside a giant glass of champagne.
I followed a winding path of pink crystal flooring to the entrance.
I can do this. I can do this one thing without making an absolute mess of everything.
The men who ran my brain were oddly silently but intently paying attention to my every move.
Galina sat at the bar, sipping on something steaming in a white mug. Stylish horn-rimmed glasses rested on her face, and she wore flowing, white-linen loungewear. Her dark hair was slicked back. In this repose, she could have modeled for either the cover ofForbesorVogue.
Cats covered every spare chair and tufted seat in the bar. Her envoys surrounded her. Some paused licking themselves to look up at me. They watched me with unerring intensity. Galina seemed absorbed in the magazine she flipped through, only looking up when I stopped ten feet from her.
Neither of us spoke for a long moment. I adjusted the leather duster around my shoulders. I missed Cookie Monster something fierce, but this would do.
Finally, she said, “I thought you’d come.”
I rocked back on my feet. “Yeah, well, some things you said to me have begun to penetrate, so I thought we should have another chat.” I shrugged and tried to count how many cats were around me. Forty, maybe fifty? The cat goddess was literally the mother of all crazy cat ladies.
A nearly Cheshire grin curled her mouth. “Then you see how much better everything is?”
“Where is Sekhmet?” I asked, trying to sound casual as I neared her.
“I almost worried you would hold Grim’s demise against me,” she went on, without answering.
“Is she feeding?” I didn’t want the Original vampire goddess sneaking up behind me with what I was about to do.
Galina removed her glasses and set them on top of her magazine. “My sister was…overwhelmed, so I put her away for a little while.”
Finally, I stopped next to where she sat. “Put her away? She’s not some toy that goes in a chest.”
“Being asleep for so long…” Galina trailed off, seeming to go somewhere else in her mind. A pinch formed between her brows. “This world differs greatly from the one she lived in. And now she has an excess of energy I am helping her cope with.”
She removed her glasses, setting them on the counter. Galina arched an eyebrow, scanning me from top to bottom. “There is something different about you.”
Could she tell my renewed calm came from having Grim back? I couldn’t risk messing this up, or I’d end up on the ground with a broken back again, except this time, I’d doubt she’d let me live to change my mind.
I tried to keep my tone airy. “You could say my attitude has changed. I have a whole new outlook on life.”
Suspicion lurked under her perfect bone structure, so I looked down at myself as if searching for the same thing.
Galina seemed to shrug off whatever bothered her, and I internally sighed in relief.
“So now what?” I asked. “Are you going to tell me what the big master plan is?”
As Galina opened her mouth, I pulled Apep’s fang out from under my coat and stabbed at her chest.
Before the tip could meet her flesh, something flew into my face, sending me careening backward. Whatever attacked me, sent me to the ground. I blinked and found myself covered in hissing, pissed-off felines. I recognized the Maine coon from before, with wild, electric green eyes. He’d eat my nose and ears just for the fun of it.
Fuckity fuck nuggets. I missed it. I missed my chance for the clean kill and things would only get uglier.
I did my best to brush off the angry horde of cats, but even as I tried to scoot back and get away, they clawed and jumped on me like a cat version of the horror movieThe Birds.
“You’ve seen Apep?” Galina asked in a disgusted voice, eyeing the fang I still gripped in one hand.
I would have responded, but I was a little busy at the moment trying to bat off fifty felines. I knew they were Galina’s envoys, but I also didn’t consider myself to be the kind of vampire to kill cats.
You are a mega badass vampire, you can handle a fluffle of cats, I insisted to myself, even as they continued to barrage me in a violent mass.
A tiny yip penetrated through the hisses and cat screeches. Cupcake stood on the ground nearby. She yipped again with all the ferocity she could muster. My heart swelled with emotion as she charged the cats and yanked one back by the scruff of its neck.
