“You all right?” he asked softly. He’d turned toward me, but he still kept his distance.
The tires still rumbled over the road as I lifted my arms. I flexed my hands and wiggled my fingers as I swallowed hard. “They cut off my fingers. One by one.” I let out a shaky breath and closed my eyes again. “Can we stop for an energy drink or something?”
The car remained quiet, and I opened my eyes just in time to see Luke and Grey share a look.
“What?” I demanded looking between the two of them.
Luke picked up one of my hands and started massaging the fingers. After what just happened to them, it felt great. But, he looked out the window while he did it without answering me.
Grey gave me a wink. “You were only out five minutes. Gabby said the Urbat seem to be tracking us. We’re heading for the interstate. She’ll let us know as soon as it’s safe to stop.”
I groaned and dropped my head back to the seat. Even with Luke holding my hand, I’d dreamt of death. It wasn’t enough.
Shifting my position often and rolling the window down to let in the cold air helped, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to fight off the dreams while sitting still like this.
Five deaths later, we finally pulled into a nice hotel crawling with people. Our four vehicles parked close together. Michelle’s brothers tumbled out of the car, climbing over a laughing Jim. Emmitt quickly walked around the front to open the doors for Michelle and Nana. Thomas did the same for Charlene. Clay opened the door and stood aside while Gabby slid out. She looked tired, too.
As soon as Carlos put our car in park, I flung open my door and scrambled out. My skin still crawled from the last dream. Charlene and Thomas walked ahead to book us rooms. I hurried after them.
“No credits cards,” I said to Charlene, walking beside her. She nodded and approached the desk.
I waited for Michelle to enter the lobby. “How much cash do you have?”
She looked at Emmitt. “Three hundred,” he said.
Shaking my head, I glanced at Gabby who had joined our group. “You said we needed to go east. We need enough cash to make it there. I don’t know how deep the Urbat are into the human world. If they have any connections, they could use credit card transactions to track us. ”
“I have no doubt Blake could,” Michelle said, keeping her voice soft. Her eyes followed Jim as he took the boys down a side hall to check the pool. “I have someone I trust who can wire me some money.”
“Good.” I turned and almost ran into Luke. He caught my arms before I could walk into him. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
Just behind him, Charlene turned away from the desk. “They only had five rooms,” she said joining our group. “One is the honeymoon suite.” She handed a key card to Emmitt with a smile. “The others are double queens.”
She held up the remaining cards.
“Sam can room with us,” Gabby quickly offered. I didn’t miss Clay reaching up to sooth her back. She looked over her shoulder to give him a shy smile.
“I thought you and the boys could sleep with us, Nana,” Charlene suggested. Nana agreed, and Michelle looked relieved. Her brothers would be well protected.
“Jim can join us,” Grey said, looking up at Carlos. “Right, darling?” Grey teased.
Carlos stoically agreed.
Luke grabbed the remaining room card without a word. A room to ourselves. A room with two beds. Yeah, I didn’t let my hopes get too high.
“Let’s meet in the suite first,” I suggested. “If they catch up to us, I want a plan laid out.”
Five minutes later, we gathered in the suite minus Jim, the boys, and Nana. They splashed in the pool.
“I’ve been all over the board with my explanations. So let me be clear with what I’m trying to avoid. Dying. It’s not fun,” I said. “We need to stop their power trip. I don’t mean just in this life and cycle but future lives and cycles, too. We need to rob them of their chance to control us in this life. We need to make their search hard and their goal nearly impossible.” I did not want to live through another brutal death in my next life. Old age would be a new experience for me.
The thought sparked inspiration. “We need to change the game,” I said with a growing smile.
“What do you have in mind?” Sam asked.
Taking a deep breath, I braced myself for the argument that I knew would ensue. “As I mentioned, there are six of us. We represent different things. Prosperity, Hope, Wisdom, Strength, Peace, and Courage. According to Gabby and Michelle, the Urbat already have one of us. Courage. They can’t have any of us because all of us are needed to make a Judgement this cycle.” I knew in my heart I spoke the truth. The world was so unbalanced it wobbled. “We can’t get to Courage. There’s just no way with our numbers. That’s why we need to expose werewolves and Urbat to the humans.”
As expected, denial broke out.
“You can’t be serious,” Thomas said.
“We’ll be at their mercy,” Sam added. “We don’t go to hospitals for a reason.”