She pinched her elegant blue dress. “Inthis?”
“I’m half-naked. Do you have a better suggestion? Christian can’t go.”
“And why the feck not?”
I chuckled. “Because of the way you talk to people. If you get arrested, who’s going to help us get Viktor out?”
“I can be charming when I want to,” he muttered.
Gem raised her hand. “What if Wyatt and I go?”
Shepherd barked out a laugh. “He looks like a Christmas troll.”
“Exactly!” she said with a snap of her fingers. “We’ll make up a story about bringing some of the animals to see Santa.”
Christian chortled. “Are you mental?”
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” I said. “You mean like a charity function to promote adoption?”
“Precisely!” Gem’s eyes lit up. “Wyatt looks the part, and so do I. We can tell them we’re working at the mall or something and stopped by on our break for information. If two of us go, we might be able to split up and see more.”
Blue pulled away her hood, her eyes bleary as she looked back at Gem. “I like that idea. Just make sure they don’t snap any pictures of you with their phones. People do that when they see someone in a costume, and we need to keep a low profile. Someone should guard the place tonight and make sure they don’t transport him elsewhere.” Blue stood up and walked between the beds. She tapped the phone with her finger. “I’ll do it after I make the call. Just let me know what time you two are leaving tomorrow. I’ll fly back and fill everyone in on the overnight situation. It looks like the staff parks in the back, so I can see how many they have working after hours.”
Christian clapped his hands together. “Sounds grand. So we’re all set on breaking our leader out of the kennel? I want to be sure we’re all on the same page so we can get back to resurrecting the dead. And let’s not forget that we’re homeless.”
Claude stood and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll let Lenore know the plan. Can I have the key to your room? I’ll sleep there in case she needs my services.”
Christian tossed him the key. “Careful who you service, lad.”
“Forgive my departure, but I want to check on Wyatt.” Niko followed Claude to the door. “I don’t think he’s coping with his situation very well.”
“I don’t see why not,” Blue said, stating what we were all thinking. “Nothing changed for him. He sees dead people all the time.”
Niko half turned, showing us his profile. “I think we can agree that there’s a difference between seeing the dead and being dead. Wyatt has a deeper understanding of what happens to those who pass on, and perhaps he hasn’t shared the extent of it. Gravewalkers deal with death differently than the rest of us do—they’re attuned to the struggles of the dead, and that’s why many help them. But it takes its toll. He’s mentioned their loss of memory and confusion of past lives. It’s possible he might be dreading that as his own fate.”
“We all are, Niko.” I strode to the window, the view blurred from the thin film of grime on the pane. “But we can’t control the unknown. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can only handle one day at a time. If I stop too long to think about the future, I’ll either fall apart or destroy everything in a blind rage.”
That was what I said. But what I was thinking was how we needed to take everything back. Take back our leader, take back our people, take back our home, take back our lives. Instead of sharing that with everyone, I kept it to myself. What good could come of my speech if Viktor had other plans? Did I really want to be the one who sowed doubt against him and galvanized our team into dissention?
That said, if Viktor wanted us to sit around and wait for destiny to help us, he wasn’t the leader that I thought he was.
CHAPTER10
Just after sunset, Christian relieved Claude from guarding Lenore’s door. She didn’t need our protection, but it was what Viktor would have wanted us to do. I didn’t hear a sound coming from her room—not even the TV. Christian once told me that ancients could sit for long periods, lost in their thoughts. Cities hadn’t always been open twenty-four seven. He explained that before electricity, Vampires would often read in the late hours to occupy their mind. Others just sat. Christian preferred reading to avoid madness, which was where he acquired his bizarre fascination with animal facts.
I missed Christian in my bed, but this wasn’t my bed. This wasn’t my room. The root of my anger had to do with our displacement. I wasn’t ready to give up everything I’d busted my ass for, and now I stood to lose it all.
There wasn’t much to do the next morning but wait for Gem and Wyatt to return from the animal shelter. Shepherd went up to the sixth floor to get money from Christian so we could keep the rooms. He paid the guy in the lobby extra to smooth things over. While all that was going on, I hung out with Claude and Niko, watching reruns ofGilligan’s Island,Dennis the Menace, and a few boring soap operas that Claude became invested in. I missed food. Not that I was hungry, but meals brought people together. It brought comfort.
At around noon, Wyatt pounded his fist on the door. “Open sesame!”
Niko got up from the other bed to answer. Wyatt and Gem bustled in, and I couldn’t help but snicker at his elf costume. Soon it wouldn’t be so funny, but right now I needed the laugh.
“I never want to take the elevator again,” Gem announced while hopping onto the dresser and crossing her legs. The lights twinkled on her dress. “There was a dead guy in there.”
“Scared the ghost out of me.” Wyatt plopped down at the foot of my bed, one leg drawn up so he could turn to look at me. “I thought he was a guest until he spun around.”
Gem shuddered. “He didn’t have a face. Just an eyeball dangling from his socket.”
