I rolled over and pulled the thick comforter around me like a cocoon while I watched Doryu disappear into the bathroom. The small apartment didn’t afford much privacy, as I could hear the sound of his urine hitting the toilet water. He was so tall it had a long way to go down. I covered my head and pretended I didn’t hear anything.
“You hiding from the day?” Doryu asked a few minutes later.
Moving the blanket enough to poke my mouth and nose out, I groaned before replying. “No, just not ready to leave such a peaceful night.”
“I’m going to shower. You snooze a bit longer.” He went back into the bathroom, and soon I heard the water running. I tried to stay awake, but the next thing I knew Doryu was humming me awake. He tugged at the blanket, so I uncovered my face. “Time to get up, sleepy lady.”
Before I spoke, I covered my mouth with the blanket so my morning breath wouldn’t hit him in the face. “Do you happen to have a spare toothbrush?”
“Actually, I do. It’s one of the things we’ve already stocked for the coming families. Hop in the shower, and I’ll go get one. I laid out clean towels.”
As I rinsed the shampoo from my hair I heard a tap on the door. “Come in,” I called. His shower curtain was not see-through, so I was covered.
“Here’s your toothbrush,” he said. “And Alexander stopped by and left you a change of clothes. We’re to meet him in his office after you change and eat.”
“Thanks.” I was finished showering, but waited until I heard the click of the door before stepping out. Alexander had done well; he even chose comfortable undies for me, instead of what I figured he’d do—go for the sexiest, which were also the most uncomfortable.
“You even made breakfast? I could get used to such a treatment,” I said as I left the steamy bathroom. I toweled my hair and eyeballed the omelets on the table. “What do you think he wants?”
“I don’t know, but I hope it’s to do with finding those babies.”
Oh how I agreed with him. I wolfed down my breakfast.
Doryu gave me a funny look but increased the speed of his chewing. “Curious?”
I nodded, chewing too fast to talk. “It’s delicious,” I said between bites. “But, I’ve been begging to help, and if he’s going to let me, I’m ready.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Doryu knew the way to Alexander’s office, luckily. It was nothing like I would’ve expected, based on the decor of the castle. I had expected to walk in another man cave, full of dark woods and thick fabrics, but the room was the opposite.
“This isn’t what I expected,” I said. Alexander sat behind a large desk that couldn’t have been more different from the one at the castle. It was black, and made of planks of smooth black wood. The entire thing was seamless and had no drawers—unless they were hidden.
Alexander tapped at his laptop while I looked around the room. A file cabinet to match the desk sat behind me, near the door. Other than a set of chairs in front of his desk for visitors and a minimalist black couch against the far wall, the room was bare.
“Alexander?”
“Mmm?” He didn’t look up from his laptop.
“What’s wrong with this building?” His office was the first I’d seen with windows, yet from the outside it looked like a stereotypical four story office building. Brick, windows, the lot. It would’ve been at home on any block in AnyCity, USA.
“It’s bigger on the inside. It’s spelled. This office, for example, is in an office building in California. The other rooms are in other places. It’s a safety measure. There’s a secret way out of here that only I and one witch know of so if we were to be attacked while we were in this room, we could escape easily.”
“Why not hide a secret portal in here and leave the building the size it looks?”
He finally looked up from his work. “I don’t know. I didn’t build the place,” he said with a wink. “I just chose where to escape to.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Doryu asked. “Are we going to go after the babies? We can’t leave Sárkány children in the hands of those monsters.”
“I agree, but we’re spinning our wheels with Dumadi. I’m beginning to believe he has no idea about the clones.” He tapped his hand on the laptop. “And Kelly has done nothing but run her shop. We’ve got the place bugged from one end to the other, and she hasn’t had a visitor that talked about anything but cooking and books all week.”
He was going to ask me to get involved. I moaned. I didn’t know if I could do it. “You want me to talk to her, don’t you?”
Closing his eyes, he scrunched his face before looking at me. “I don’t know. I thought you two might have an idea of another course of action besides capturing Kelly. I’m afraid if we do, we’ll alert the Leyak that we know too much.”
“I do.” I’d been mulling it over. “But I don’t know if I can pull it off. I’m a horrible liar.” Doryu looked at me expectantly.
“I’ll go to her place for lunch and if I can, act like nothing’s wrong. While I’m there I’ll mention that Riley’s baby is sick and the healers think the cross breeding was a bad match or something. We can work out the specifics, but it needs to sound like something she needs to immediately report to her superiors.”
