Page 5

“Yup, sure. I’ll be there. Still a great day!” he called, then vanished again, raining purple sparks.

Alone in the corridor, I sighed, rubbed my face, and eyed the locked bedroom door. This couldn’t be a Gideon Cain thing, could it? No, probably not. Why would he open a portal in my room . . . and how? But I needed to bring Victor up to speed, just in case. Plus, he had to pay for Gremlins Gone.

It was definitely time to chat with Daddy Vampire, without mentioning the enormous prophesied elephant in the room that was me.

I tried his room, but after getting no reply I headed down to reception. He was probably at Reynard Technologies, hopefully shutting down the monitoring system I’d discovered during my brief visit to his office. Reynard Technologies had been spying on Lost Ones, so we’d discussed it and agreed he needed to get rid of it. We’d also been discussing how the vampire royals wanted to take over the world, and how they might be using Reynard Technologies to do it.

Which was something I definitely could not get involved in, and had nothing to do with me. At all. I already had enough plates spinning, with the hotel and gremlins and bodies in chimneys.

Back at reception, McDongle and two assistants were wheeling in giant boxes with all their equipment inside. While they clanged and hollered directions at each other, I headed for Madame Matase at the front desk.

“Did you see Reynard leave for work today?” I asked, as she rummaged around in her drawers, muttering about the Out of Order sign we’d slung on Tom Collins during his murderbot crisis.

Wow, it had been a really weird and excessive few weeks, huh?

“Oh, darling, yes. Lord Reynard checked out early this morning.”

My insides swooped in a horrible roller-coaster lurch. “Checked out?!”

“Ah, there it is.” Madame Matase straightened, now holding the sign. “Yes, darling. Paid up and closed his account. I assumed you knew?”

“Knew? No . . .” I mumbled, and clung to the desk. Oh no. This was my fault. I shouldn’t have told him what I was, should have kept it a secret for longer. Forever. And now he was gone. The truth had driven him away, like it did everyone.

Why had I let him read the guide?

I’d known he’d leave. I’d feared exactly this.

My legs wobbled. A whistling started in my ears, like a rush of wind, as I fell through my emotions.

“Adam?”

We’d been fine, better than ever. But he’d left?

It didn’t make any sense.

We’d talked, and we had some differences, but we were working them out . . . I’d been angry about his secrets, but we’d had tea in the bar, and I’d thought he’d . . . liked me.

“Adam, dear. Do you need a doctor?” Madame Matase’s voice drifted, far away.

“I just . . .” I breathed long and deep and slow. My heart’s plummet slowed and the ringing in my ears gradually cleared.

No. Victor wouldn’t leave. He had a reason for everything. And he’d left that flower outside my room as a message. If he’d checked out, then something must have forced him to go. Or someone. His family? Daisy? She’d been applying pressure, trying to get him to hand me over in exchange for a title and standing among the vampires.

“Did he say anything?” I asked.

“Well, no. Not really?”

“Nothing at all?”

“He did say something which was a little odd. He said, it’s for the best.”

He thought leaving me was the right thing to do, because of what I was. Because of who he was. He thought he was protecting me and the hotel from Daisy. But he couldn’t see how we were protecting him.

Daisy would interrogate him. And when he didn’t give me up, she’d kill him.

He should have stayed with us, where he was safe and cared for and . . . loved.

Victor Reynard was mine.