Page 102 of Memories Like Fangs
I shook my head. “He would have to be a new kind of stupid to take on an enchantment with just him and a blood witch-fae. To just take on one dragon, we bring a team of at least twenty. He would need an army, and it still might not be enough for an enchantment as large as what Talli is describing.”
“That’s not that hard to gather,” Cody said. “Hunters would happily go on that mission, even before whatever payout those two were offering, just for the glory alone. He would just need to put out the call on Deathroll, and I’m sure he would get enough idiots to come along. He would still need a couple of days to get enough people, though.”
“Um, Deathroll?”
“It’s a hunter app for finding missions, especially ones that the Council doesn’t know about. You need a special encrypted and magicked phone to download it. That’s why none of us have it on ours,” Cole answered Maisie.
“Oh, an underground hunting deadpool system on your phone that your governing party has no control over? Happy to hear you guys are hip with the times. That sounds so appropriate for the era we live in.” Maisie shook her head.
“How much time do you think Lilah needs to recover, Talli?” Everett asked.
She thought about it for a moment. “I’m not a Blood Witch-Fae, but to gain anywhere near the power she needs from blood would take at least three days. Probably more if she doesn’t have access to dragon blood or something just as rare.”
“That’s enough time for us to get to Chicago and warn everyone of the shitstorm headed their way,” Byrd said, steeling against me. “What’s the fastest way to get there?”
Byrd’s question made us launch into the logistics. With Lilah having a lock on the witches’ magic now, shelikely had a spell or trap in place,so teleporting was out.Flying, sailing, or even taking our own cars were all out, as Cooper would know immediately with his access to the tracker we had on our vehicles and the connections hunters had with the government. He likely had APBs in place to keep an eye on all of us in case we tried anything.
But, I hastily realized his tricks could only work if you were stuck in the hunter-sphere and didn’t talk to anyone outside of it. Calling in a favor from an only mildly shifty shark-shifter whose life I had saved from a kraken-shifting serial killer, I managed to get us a brand new Chevy Suburban and two motorcycles, complete with gear and weapons.
“Uh, Jet, what exactly do you do for work where you have all of this at the ready?” Simone had asked, marveling at the full arsenal that he had access to with every weapon known to man and bands upon bands of cash in the open.
“Looking to change careers, Princess?” Jet had smiled wolfishly at her, making Cole move her behind him protectively. Jet laughed it off like Cole wasn’t thinking of how to turn him into one of those singing bass props to give to Simone for her birthday.
I did say he was onlymildlyshifty.
After dropping Clarkson and Dinah off at the Archive for the Guardians to watch them—Clarkson wasobsessedwith Rhoisimmediately and Dinah with Izzy, which amused Journee to no end—and packing up, we left in the wee hours of the morning for the twelve-plus-hour drive.
We went for as long as we could before we were all too tired to go much further. Thankfully, we managed to stop just outside of Indianapolis, about three hours away, to rest for the night and be in top shape for the rest of the drive tomorrow. I found us the only hotel that had more than two rooms available to accommodate us. Luckily, and conveniently, it was a four-star hotel with room service. I paid for it in cash to keep Cooper off our trail.
There were only five rooms available. Talli, Everett, and Teddy decided to room together in one room with two King beds, while the others fought over who would stay in the two other double suite rooms. Ultimately, Simone, Maisie, and Nat commandeered one room, and the boys took another. There was something about what Cody had said to Maisie on the ride here, but I just rolled my eyes and gave Cole one room key and Simone the other. That, of course, left the only room they had available: a suite with a single King-sized bed.
“Oh, no! Thelesbianmatesget a room to themselves with justonebed! Why do y’all get one room to yourselves and the rest of us have to bunk together?” Cody pouted.
“One, I’m paying for it. Two, they didn’t have enough rooms for everyone to have their own because it’s the holidays. And, three—most importantly—” I pointed the same fingers I had been counting off the reasons on at Byrd. “Do youseeher in this jacket,primo?Of course, we are getting the single bed.”
Byrd, Maisie, Simone, Nat, and Teddy laughed while Everett cringed. “The little numskull justhadto ask.”
“He always does.” Cole shook his head. “He loves to touch the fucking stove.”
Shortly after, we made our way to the elevator to get to our rooms. Since our room was two floors above everyone else’s, we parted ways with the others as they left the elevator toward their rooms. Byrd and I held hands as we made our way down the hall.
The suite was everything you could expect from a four-star hotel while also being anything but a traditional hotel room. Holding the door for Byrd to enter first and me to follow, we were both hit with the faint smell of oil and oak, like the ghosts of machinery still lived in the walls. Exposed white brick lined one side of the room, brightening the gray walls and high ceilings along with the vintage-style sconces. The gray carpet was plush, and it made me want to take off my boots before I got too far into the room. The king-sized bed with an elegant fabric headboard dominated the space, wrapped in crisp white linens, fluffed pillows, and a thick charcoal throw elegantly placed in the corner. The bed was flanked by reclaimed wood nightstands with Edison bulb lamps and a modern yet retro-looking alarm clock on top. Underneath the massive 75” TV was an industrial desk stretching against the brick wall, its surface worn smooth from time and polished to a warm sheen with a minibar on top of it. An oversized armchair tucked into the corner beside the window was perfect for brooding and staring at the distant glow of the city lights beyond the tree line below. The window itself was tall, took up most of the far wall, and was framed in black metal. There was a bathroom to our right of the suite’s entrance that was spa-grade with cool tile, a rainfall showerhead, thick, plush robes hanging from hooks, and lighting that could make even exhaustion look a little romantic. It was industrial and indulgent all at once. After several hours on the road, though, a clean, comfortable, and warm bed would have been more than enough with everything else as a bonus.
Byrd squealed in glee as she took in the room. “This room isbeautiful, babe!”
“Only the best for you, Sweetness,” I said, dropping our bags onto the luggage stand at the end of the desk.
Byrd toyed with her mom’s necklace out of pensive nerves. “Is it bad that this feels more like a getaway than a life-saving mission?”
“Not at all!” After taking off my motorcycle jacket, I turned to lean against the desk. “I don’t see anything wrong with treating this moment as a little vacation, especially with everything that has happened and what is ahead. You said yourself we need to steal as much good from the bad as we can.”
“I did indeed say that. Speaking of things that were said…” Byrd turned on her heels to face me with a tilted head, a crooked smirk, and a mischievous look in her eyes. There was a spark of something hot through our bond that made me raise an eyebrow. “What was that that you said about me in this jacket earlier?”
I chuckled, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from sweeping over Byrd slowly and deliberately. I easily thought Byrd was fucking sexy whether she wore a paper bag or nothing at all, but her in this outfit with the leather and fabric hugging every curve? I wanted to lock her in this hotel room and not come back out until I fucked our very names out of each other. “You will have to be more specific, Sweets. Are you referring to me thinking about you the whole drive here or just that one comment I made earlier?”
“All of the above, I think. You know, I was wearing leather when we first met, too.” Byrd closed the distance between us in two slow, methodical steps. She slid her arms around my neck and rested her body against me. The leather and cloth of her outfit managed to feel as wonderfully cool against me as she always did.
“You do look like you were born to wear leather and wreck hearts, babes. I’m lucky you’re only interested in wreckingmine,” I hummed, gripping her hips and pulling her close to me. For a moment, I savored the feeling of how perfectly we fit together.
