Chapter Thirteen
Now I know why you chose a room located all by itself on the roof,” I remarked as Bones dropped us down in a graceful landing on the outside courtyard of our suite. After several hours of practicing, I probably could’ve managed to land myself, but I might have taken out some of the wrought-iron furniture in the process.
“Comes in right handy now,” he said, with a meaningful glance at his ripped pants and shirt, casualties of my midair grab on him before. Between that, our wet clothes, and our dripping hair, we’d give any snooty patrons of the hotel a heart attack if we took the normal way in through the lobby.
I smirked. “Told you I’d get you back.”
His laugh was its own caress on my senses. Even wet and smelling like a stinky river, Bones still managed to entice me. His clothes might be ripped and his leather jacket dripping water, but he made that look sexy. Maybe because being waterlogged meant his pants and shirt clung to all the lines of his body with explicit snugness, highlighting the lean muscles and hard planes like they’d been molded onto him.
He leaned down. “Dare I hope that vengeance was sufficient enough to make you forget your other vow of retribution?”
My hands trailed over his chest, pausing near his nipples, which were rigid due to his wet clothes—or because he knew how those tight buds practically screamed to be touched. Without conscious thought, I licked my lips.
“And let you go back on your promise to work hard to change my mind?” I couldn’t keep the husky catch from my voice. “That wouldn’t be smart of me, would it?”
He moved closer, pressing his chest more firmly against my hands until I could feel all the play of his muscles as his arms rose to encircle me.
“No, not smart at all,” he murmured, his breath landing on exactly the right spot near my ear.
I closed my eyes, savoring the sensations rising in me. Then I pushed him away and began digging in my pants. Just a short distance away from us was a bedroom. That’s where we needed to be, and the sooner the better.
“Hope the room card didn’t fall out . . . ah, thank God for button pockets,” I said, pulling out my card. This outdoor courtyard had key card entry access, though I’d bet it hadn’t been used as the first way into the room before.
But when I went to the exterior door, Bones following closely enough for his energy to throb along my back, nothing happened when I pressed the card to the slot. I did it again, double-checking that the arrow was in the right position. It was, but still no green light.
“Try yours,” I said, frowning.
After a few moments, Bones had his card out and in the correct position, but several tries later, the door still didn’t open.
“Getting them wet must’ve shorted the magnetic strip,” he said, shrugging. “Wait here. I’ll go back through the lobby and let you in once I’ve gotten new cards.”
“Dressed like that?” I asked with a laugh. “I should let you just because I’ll crack up imagining the looks on people’s faces, but I’ll go. I might be just as wet as you, but at least my clothes aren’t ripped half off, and my jacket’s dry because you left it by the bridge before I pulled you into the river.”
“I don’t care what any of those toffs think,” he replied dismissively.
No matter that I’d done far more questionable things myself in recent months, shades of my rigid upbringing insisted that one did not appear with indecent gaps in their clothing in public if one could avoid it. I tried another tactic.
“Come on, have mercy on any older women who might be in the lobby. You don’t want to give them heart attacks if they catch a glimpse of your goods,” I teased, trailing my fingers down the front of his torn pants.
His hand closed around mine, bringing it flush up against the goods in question. Things low inside me clenched in response, drawing a short moan. God, feeling him grow thick and hard in my grip almost ended my control right there. It was all I could do not to drop to my knees and replace my hand with my mouth.
“I’m leaving,” I said, the words hoarse from the willpower it took for me to pull my hand away. “I won’t be long.”
His eyes were bright green, matching the hunger in his expression, fangs tantalizing me from underneath those perfectly sculpted lips.
“Hurry.”
I jumped off the roof without even looking to make sure someone wasn’t below me until I’d almost reached the ground. Good thing it was almost four in the morning, late even for most of this city’s residents to be out and about.
Then I rounded the corner and went into the Ritz, giving a brief nod to the doorman. One short elevator ride later and I was in the lobby, pretending not to notice the surprised looks the employees gave my wet hair and shoes. I pulled out my driver’s license—fake, but registered to the same last name Bones booked this room under—and explained my room key was somehow not working. While I waited for my new cards, a man checked in, holding a sleeping little girl in one arm while awkwardly signing his forms with the other. From his hushed voice, it was obvious he was hoping to have her in bed before she woke, and after hearing his weary comment about airport delays, it was also obvious he was just as tired.
I got my new cards at the same time the employee finished checking the man in, so we waited for the elevator together. He blinked a little at the drips of water that pooled at my feet when we stepped into the elevator, but said nothing.
“Tripped and fell in a big puddle,” I whispered.
“Ah” was his equally quiet reply. At least he didn’t give me the same kind of stink eye that the fur-wearing, plumber-banging older woman had.
We’d gone up about ten floors when all of a sudden a booming noise preceded the elevator shuddering like we were caught in an earthquake. The man staggered and I grabbed him so he wouldn’t accidentally drop the little girl, who awoke with a cry. I had a split second of confusion before dread slid up my spine. Supernatural energy filled the air, coming from the top of the elevator, where moments ago, it sounded as if a boulder had dropped on us.
Except boulders didn’t drop from nice hotels onto elevators, and they also didn’t make ominous growling noises.
Oh shit, I thought, right before I heard the first cable snap.
“Get in the corner!” I ordered, shoving the man when he just stood there.
“What’s going on?” he shouted. His little girl began to wail. The elevator shuddered again, this time accompanied by a horrible whipping noise that sounded like another cable being ripped away. At the same time, pounding began on the roof of the car. I ignored that, plunging my hands into the seam in the elevator doors hard enough to bloody my fingers before shoving them apart. A slab of concrete and steel met my vision, no open spaces to escape through. The elevator was suspended between floors, but not for long, judging from the latest snapping sound.
“Oh God, what is that?” the man screamed.
Metal, plaster, and glass rained down on us as a hole appeared in the roof where none had been before. A ghoul’s face came into view, a savage smile lighting his features as he spotted me.
“Reaper,” he hissed.
I pushed the man aside just in time to knock him away from the ghoul’s grasping hands as he lunged for me.
“Get down!” I yelled, trying to fight off the ghoul while standing under the hole he’d torn open. If the ghoul got inside, both father and daughter would be dead in seconds, and that’s only if they were lucky enough for the elevator not to drop before then.
Pain slashed across my arms and face, red immediately coloring my gaze. He’s got a knife. A silver knife, I realized, judging from the burn it left on my skin. I tried to avoid that flashing blade while still keeping the ghoul from dropping into the elevator. Another snapping noise and the car dropped a few feet before coming to an abrupt stop, metal groaning under the strain of a last brake kicking in to hold the elevator up.
But one good thing had come out of the elevator’s fall. Now, shiny steel doors took up part of the concrete and metal wall. The car had dropped halfway to the opening of a new floor.
“Pull those doors open and get out now!” I shouted, a crimson-filled glance revealing that the man was crouched in the same spot as before, clutching his daughter while gaping up at us.
He still couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away. Dammit, he was in shock, and it wouldn’t be long before either the ghoul got into the elevator or the strain of two supernaturals fighting proved too much for the last emergency brake. I braced my arms on the support railings lining the car, using them for leverage as I flipped upside down and then kicked the ghoul with everything I had. The railings broke, landing me on my ass with enough force to make the elevator shake dangerously again, but for the moment, the ghoul was gone from the hole in the roof.
I wrenched those doors open and yanked the sobbing little girl from her father’s arms, shoving her through the space. She landed on the adjoining floor with a cry that filled me with joy, because while she might be bruised, she was now also safe. Before I could shove her father through the same opening, however, a roar filled the air as the ghoul jumped through the hole in the roof and landed in the elevator with us.
The elevator shook hard enough that I felt sure it would drop. I didn’t have time to reach in my coat for my weapons, but ran headlong into the ghoul, knocking him away from the man. Amidst the screeching of metal, the man’s screams, and the solid thumps of the ghoul and me crashing around the elevator locked in a death struggle, I heard something else. An enraged English snarl.
“Come here you bloody bastards!”
I had a split second of dizzying relief. Bones was here, so the father and I would make it out of this. If I wasn’t worried about keeping the ghoul away from the huddled man—a careless stomp or swipe from the flesh-eater would snap his neck like a twig—I could’ve gone for my weapons and evened the odds a little. But my relief vanished in the next instant as a loud cracking noise preceded the ground dropping beneath my feet.
Oh Jesus. The elevator was falling!