Chapter 202: Chapter 202
Heather
"Take my number," I said. "Call me when you decide."
"I don’t need it. I’ll just scry for you. If what you said is true, we’ll help. But if it’s not..."
Sirens wailed in the distance. "Do you hear that?" I said to no one in particular.
Hearing what I heard, the wolves all started moving toward the car, but when the witches didn’t, I paused for a second to explain. "Cops are coming," I said to Claudia. "We can’t stay here."
Claudia nodded. "Let’s go."
"I’m sorry," the witch said. "My actions—If I’m wrong, I’ll make it up to you."
I believed her. Maybe it was stupid, but I really did.
I believe her, too.
That made me feel better about my decision to let her go. "Better leave now. Or else we’ll spend our night answering the cops’ questions."
She spun and started running, but then stopped. "I’ll be in touch. Either way," she said, looking back at me.
It was a little bit of a threat, but we weren’t lying so it didn’t bother me in the least. "We’ll be waiting."
Everyone piled back in the cars. I put the SUV in drive and exited the parking lot. Do we actually have a lead?
We do. Nicely done, cherie. I thought she was one of Luciana’s, but you talked her down.
"You did good," Donovan said.
"Even though I let her go?" I was seriously hoping it wasn’t going to turn into a problem.
"No," Serena said. "You had to. If we forced her, she would’ve had that much more reason to believe Luciana’s lies. At least letting her go might gain us some allies. We’re going to need them."
I rolled my shoulders back, letting go of some of the tension.
This was good. Everything was moving along, and we had someone who could lead us straight to Luciana. We were right, and she’d realize that.
As we made our way through the streets of Santa Fe, the window being gone was actually a good thing. We listened for the sound of sirens, making sure to keep them in the distance as I drove through the night.
The cops gave up after a few minutes. The sirens stopped, and the tension in the car eased. Brent turned on the radio, and the group finally agreed that any motel would do at this point.
It was late by the time we found a place, and I was bone tired. I’d only had a few hours of sleep last night, and after so many in a row, I was well into the red zone of sleep deprivation. I parked the car, hoping no one tried to steal the SUV with the broken window.
While Claudia went to check us in, everyone piled out and started grabbing bags. By the time she came back holding keycard envelopes, we were ready to head inside.
"How’d it go?" I asked.
"No one recognized me," Claudia said. "I paid cash for three nights. We’ve got two adjoining rooms on the second floor." We’d decided to keep the rooms to a minimum so we’d be in the same place if any other disasters happened.
"Perfect," Brent said. "We’ve got the sleeping bags."
I didn’t care what the room was like or the sleeping situation was. As we walked up the stairs, my muscles ached and my skin itched—a sure sign that my wolf was closer to the surface than I’d like. If I didn’t rest and eat soon, she’d take matters into her own hands.
Letting my wolf out now—when cops, witches, and Lord only knew what else—were hunting me was not an option.
Brent wrapped his arm around my shoulders. Just a little bit more. Then rest.
I knew it wasn’t far away, but I wanted all this drama with Luciana over. Now. I wanted to start my life with him. And I didn’t want any more curve balls thrown at me.
But we still had the fight in the church to look forward to. I just hoped the New Mexico coven came through before that happened. If my vision could be avoided, that would be amazing.
For once, I wanted something to be easy, but there was no way a fight with Luciana was going to be anything other than horrible.
The room smelled like a mixture of piss, mildew, and pizza. The first two made it difficult to eat the pizza, but after a brutally hot shower, even with the overwhelming stench, I’d managed to eat two all by myself—which was a lot, even for a Were. As I ate, the wolf slowly settled back down. At least that was one worry scratched off the list.
The potions brewing in the bathtub added to the general funk. We’d adjusted batches two and six, and were hoping they’d do more damage this time.
Batches one, three through five, and seven through ten had worked well enough on the major demon at my parents’ house, so we made more using the same recipe.
Now we were on dinner break. Cosette had potion-stirring duty in the bathroom while the rest of us took turns looking up churches in the yellow pages. Who knew hotels still had phonebooks?
We narrowed the options down to five spots to check tomorrow. Scrying for Luciana was still a bust, and we didn’t want to go anywhere blind in the dark. Everyone had agreed that if we had to go up against another demon, we wanted to do it in daylight. And hopefully the witch would be in contact with us by morning.
"Ugh! What are we watching?" Serena chucked a packet of Parmesan cheese at Adrian. "Change the channel."
We’d all crammed into one room, everyone sitting where they could find space on beds, chairs, and the floor. Brent and I sat on a towel on the floor between the beds, mostly because I refused to sit on the carpet. It was a deep brown, with very short, bristly fibers, and it smelled. Bad. Plus there were mystery spots all over it.
There was no way I wanted to risk getting a vision from it. This place would be a minefield if I wasn’t careful.
Serena complained about the TV again, and I stood up taller, so I could see around the crowd. I’d been so concerned about stuffing my face that I hadn’t taken the time to check what they were watching.
"Oh my God." I hit Brent’s shoulder. "What are they watching?"
"See," Serena said. "Heather doesn’t want to watch it either."
I would’ve sworn that the TV was older than me. The snow-filled picture flickered in and out. I tried to make out the action but couldn’t. "No. Seriously. Are they having sex or killing each other? I’m going cross-eyed trying to follow it." The noises and movements could’ve been either.
"I can’t tell," Shane said. "That’s why we stopped on this channel."
"And it was the only channel that wasn’t talking about the pack. I think it’s pay-per-view and we haven’t paid, so we get a scrambled picture. But it’s fun to try and figure out what’s going on. I think they’re having sex," Adrian said. "Shane thinks it’s a horror movie."
Lucas grunted, and Donovan shared a look with him.
"What?"
Donovan shrugged. "Nothing. Just feeling a wee bit old at the moment."
"What? Eating pizza in a shitty motel too good for you, old man?" Serena said.
"Not if you’re here," he said with a flash of grin.
Xander and Adrian made gagging sounds.
"Oh, God. Please don’t make that noise. It makes me think about the smells in the room," Claudia said.
"Does anyone else think the carpet feels moist?" I asked.
"You’ve got to be kidding me!" Serena jumped up to stand on the bed and swiped her hands over her butt. "I thought it was just me, but the blanket is damp, too." The springs in the mattress gave a squeaky cry, caving in under her feet.
She fell into the dent, flailing her arms in the air.
Donovan caught her and pulled her out before she could fall. "Calm down, a ghrá," Donovan said. "You’re going to break your neck with all this carrying on." His Irish accent thickened as he started laughing at her, too.
I don’t know why that made me laugh so hard—I was probably more than a bit punch drunk—but I couldn’t stop. "You should see your face." My words were strangled through gasps.
Glass shattered in the bathroom, drowning out our laughter. Cosette cursed and then a soft, pearly light glowed from the cracked door.
"You okay in there?" I called.
"Peachy."
Yeah. It was getting to be time to have a talk with her, whether or not people listened in. Cosette was still wearing her suspicious glove, and I’d rocked that style for enough years of my life to know that she wasn’t trying to make a fashion statement with it. Something was up.
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