Don’t want to burn through all our supplies, though.
Sighing, Zina got up and positioned herself by the front window of the room, giving her a view of the driveway, the reception area, and most of the other rooms – not all, though, since the building curved around, and so she couldn’t see the parking lot either. But there wasn’t a lot she could do about that.
Thanks to her nap, she didn’t feel tired, even as the hours slid by one after another. The motel had twenty-four-hour check-in, so the light in the reception area never went out, and Zina kept a close eye on it, but no one arrived. There was nothing outside but sand, starlight, and the clear, dark sky.
That was, at least, until a cold shiver passed down her back, setting all the hair on the back of her neck standing on end.
Zina pulled in a sharp breath, sitting up straighter.
What was that?!
Leaning forward, Zina strained her eyes, looking out into the night.
But nothing moved – outside, there was only complete stillness.
Maybe she was just being jumpy, Zina thought as she stood, moving across the window to try to get a view from a different angle.
But even as she thought it, she knew she’d be wrong to ignore her instincts – especially if, as she suspected, her shifter senses were finally starting to come back.
“Trent,” she whispered, not daring to tear her gaze away from the motel driveway. “Trent.”
“Huh?” Behind her, she heard Trent jerk awake. “Zina? What’s –”
“I don’t know yet,” Zina said, eyes scanning the darkness. “I just… I just had afeeling…”
“No, you were right to listen to it,” Trent said. “What kind of feeling did you –”
Zina blinked, her blood rushing suddenly in her ears, and she didn’t hear the end of Trent’s question.
Oh. Ohno.I know what this is –
Just as she thought it, a figure – a huge,toweringfigure, even taller than Trent – came striding around the side of the building, followed a moment later by a car roaring up the driveway.
“Ohshit,” Zina muttered, backing away from the window. “Shit, shit,shit!”
“Zina, what is it?” Trent sounded alarmed, and Zina didn’t blame him. Heshouldhave been alarmed. They both should’ve been.
“I don’t have much time to explain,” Zina said, diving for her bag. “In fact, I don’t haveanytime.”
She scrabbled through her belongings, looking for theotherbox of things she shouldn’t have, buried inside a hidden inside pocket.
Outside, she heard the squeal of brakes as the car pulled up, followed by a loudbang.
“Zina, what’s going on?” Trent asked again, as she finally found what she was looking for. “Are those guys Hargreaves?”
“Yes,” Zina said. “But you don’t know the half of it.”
From outside, she heard anotherbang.
“Uh, well, one of them is kicking in every door in this motel,” Trent said. “Looking for us, I guess – but how the hell did they track ushere?”
Zina bit her lip as she tore the lid off the box revealing the syringes and tiny bottles within. The bottles containing the serum that would suppress any shifter’s shifted form, though only for a limited time.
I don’t have much left – only enough for a small dose.
It’d have to do, though.
“Like I said, I don’t have much time to explain,” she said, as she grabbed the bottles and syringes. “But that guy – the huge one, kicking in doors – they call him the Bloodhound. He’s one of Hargreaves’s special ops guys, and I meanspecial.”
