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I chewed on my lip. There was a huge vacation-shaped elephant in the room. Someone was back at the hotel asking after us, and they all knew I knew who he was . . . Someone I was running from. This whole trip north was a lie.

Victor pushed from the sill. “As we were saying before being rudely interrupted by our Wi-Fi barman, I’ll examine the body, and you two speak with Zander and find out what he knows that the beast doesn’t want revealed.”

“Alrighty then! To the Murder Machine!” Zee was out the door and marching toward the van without a second’s hesitation.

I let out a sigh and smiled sheepishly at Victor. “Thank you.”

“As I said, we’re here to listen when you’re ready.”

I swept into his arms and hugged him hard. “You know when you protected me by luring the beast away?” I mumbled into his shirt. He always smelled so good—woody and spicy, cinnamon and pine.

“Of course.”

“This is like that.”

The weight of his hand stroking my hair had a throaty purr rumbling through me. “I understand, Adam.”

I had to pinch myself every day to believe Victor and Zee were mine and I wasn’t in some dream. I owed them so much. Without them, the SOS Hotel would not exist, and neither would I.

“Adam.” Victor brought his hand to my face and tilted my head up. His eyes tried to capture my heart—a heart he already owned. People said vampires were soulless, but that wasn’t true. They just hid their souls down so deep, where only they could keep them safe. But Victor showed me his now, and every time he looked at me like this. Like I was the special one.

His mouth ticked into a small, genuine smile. “I’ve always wanted to go on vacation to a pay-by-the-hour motel in the middle of the Pacific North West with a sex demon who exhibits an unhealthy obsession for Oreos and an exceedingly average human.”

“Oh . . . that’s good.”

Zee honked the van’s wheezy horn.

“That’s our cue,” Victor prompted.

After reluctantly extracting myself from his comforting hug, I gave him a soft, shy smile. We left the room together but split up outside—Victor headed left toward the bar, and I crossed the lot, approaching our minivan.

“You good?” Zee asked, when I climbed into the passenger seat beside him. He probably sensed he may have missed a moment.

Watching Victor stride across the lot, long hair messily restrained into a ponytail swishing against his back, I smiled after him. “Yeah.”

Zee pulled the van out of the lot, and we were on the road again.

“So . . .” Zee sang. “That creeper guy Tom mentioned?”

I side-eyed him. “Trust me. He’s nothing we need to worry about right now.”

“Okay then.” We drove a little way up the road before Zee blurted, “Because if anyone’s threatening you, don’t let my sunny disposition and amazing fuckin’ hair fool you. I will fly back there and fuck them over so hard they’ll be eating through a straw for the rest of their agony-filled days.” He flashed a murderous grin. “Just puttin’ that out there.”

“Thank you, Zee.”

Happy now that he’d issued some threats to kill, Zee settled into driving and I stared out the passenger window.

But if it came to a Zee and Victor showdown with my brother, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

CHAPTER 9

Whiteacre Falls seemed to be a sleepy, out-of-season tourist town made up of one main street sporting a combined hardware and grocery store, a café, post office, and not much else. The small veterinary hospital Zee had flown Zander to was probably the biggest building on the outskirts of the whole town.

Zee pulled our beat-up van into a bay and cut the chugging engine, and as we climbed out, I squinted into the sun’s glare, shielding my eyes. The warmth was weak, but coming from the gloom that seemed to permanently hang over the No Tel Motel, it felt like a summer’s day.

Zee led the way into the vet clinic where a couple of people waited next to pet crates containing their unwell pets.

A whole bunch of kitties suddenly got real hissy. I winced, and stepped back outside so they didn’t blow my cover.