Page 56

“Hey? Daddy Spice?”

“Yes?”

Zee’s grin broke out. “The fact you answer to that makes this inevitable.” He crossed the deck, reached up to touch Victor’s hard, lean face, and hesitated just a moment, probably to make sure Victor wasn’t going to lash out.

Victor’s vampire eyes softened, his lips parted, and he looked into Zee’s gaze, perhaps for the first time really seeing Zee as the complicated, lovable, brilliant person he was, and not feeling guilty about caring for his enemy. Zee kissed him softly this time. Just a little hint, a tease. A promise. Victor’s throat moved in a soft swallow, and Zee stepped back. “Rest up. We’re safe here, all of us. Including you, Fancy Fangs. Now you’re one of us.”

Victor blinked. “Yes. I . . .” he croaked. “Thank you, Zodiac.” After turning on his heels, he hurried inside the hotel.

Zee leaned against the porch pillar, softly chuckling. “Did he just thank me for kissing him?”

“I think he thanked you for more than that.”

He shrugged a shoulder. “I should fucking thank him. I know what he did for me back there. And the birthday . . . That was . . . a surprise. Don’t go thinking I’m soft on suckers, though. They are all the worst. Just maybe not him. I like him. It’s weird. He’s so not my type. Am I messed up?” Zee asked, sunlight catching in his purple and black hair.

“No.” I tucked myself against his side.

“We should get cleaned up too.”

“Wanna get cleaned up together in your shower?”

He pecked a kiss on the top of my head. “Always, Kitten.” We lingered a while, watching the sun rise. The hotel settled and creaked behind us, preparing for another chaotic day. Hopefully those were good noises and not signs of imminent structural collapse. Even bursting at the seams with gremlins, I sensed the old building was content.

“Do you think Victor would like to get cleaned up with us?” I asked.

“That is a fucking question.”

“We could ask him, right? If you’re okay with it?”

“Kitten, I am always okay with more dicks.”

We headed inside. Madame Matase looked up from her knitting and smiled, as she always did. She never asked about our drama, or the state of our clothes, or the fact I had blood stains on my shirt.

We headed up to Victor’s floor, using the stairs. The elevator was still out. I probably should have someone check it over, and would add that to my long to-do list. Stopping outside Victor’s door, I caught Zee’s nod and knocked. “Hey, Victor?”

“One moment.”

Zee leaned against the wall, but his smile slipped sideways, turning downwards. He winced, as though this may no longer be a good idea.

“Is he okay?” I whispered. Zee had clearly picked up on Victor’s emotion and not liked what he’d tasted.

Zee cringed. “Don’t wanna creep on him, but no. Maybe this isn’t a⁠—”

“You may as well enter, both of you.”

I slowly opened the door. The drapes were drawn, but it was light outside, so the room wasn’t all that dark. Victor sat on the floor against his bed, knees drawn up, arms draped over them. And he didn’t look . . . happy. Not that he ever looked happy, but I didn’t need to be Zee to sense his sadness.

“Hey.” There was no hesitation, not from me or Zee. I knelt at Victor’s side, then twisted, to drop next to him. “Do you want to be alone?”

“No. Please, stay.”

We had just destroyed his life’s work on this side of the veil, and the last remnants of anything he owned or controlled. He was adrift, without a family. No wife, no purpose, and with the entire vampire race against him. He’d never been so alone.

I knew exactly how he felt.

The empty, endless burn of emotion that slowly devoured you from the inside out. I took his hand and gently squeezed. This hotel had saved me, and Zee. We’d saved each other. And maybe that included Victor now too.

“Wow, you kept the frog ornament,” Zee remarked, after he’d decided to take himself on a tour around Victor’s room. “Weird.”