“They don’t know you’re at this hotel. And I doubt they’d waste time and resources tracking you by day. As far as I know, they don’t have a lot of daywalkers in their employ.” Jenner watched Jez eat with blatant disgust. He lay sprawled on the couch, shirtless and ghostly white.
Returning to Caesars had been simple enough. Pulling the limo up to the entry just beneath the Augustus Tower elevator had given us enough shade to get the wounded vampires safely inside. Now we tackled the task of healing them by nightfall and somehow resting up. Fatigue teased me, making my eyelids heavy. My mind refused to give in. How could I sleep when Shaz was out there?
I nibbled on a chicken wing. I should have been ravenous after the night I’d just had, but the constant turning of my stomach made it hard to swallow.
Jenner watched us eat; his face twisted into a grimace. “That’s just about the ugliest thing I’ve seen in ages. When do I get to eat?”
Jez had wasted no time ordering room service and digging in to the meat dishes on the cart. She shot Jenner a dirty look and flung a chicken bone at him. “Stop f**king watching us then.”
“Should be any time now,” Arys said. His blue gaze strayed to the door. He too lay haphazardly along the opposite end of the couch. Dark circles lined his eyes though most of the bruises and gashes had faded. The gaping hole in his sternum had closed. It was covered with a thick, pink scar.
The healing time of a vampire far exceeded that of a wolf. An injury that would take a human weeks to heal would take me a few days, though for Arys, it could be just minutes or hours. However, without blood, healing would take longer, especially as far as his metaphysical abilities went. To help replace the energy that the vamps had expended, we were expecting four escorts to arrive at any moment.
I shifted in my chair, uncomfortable and sore. Feeling stiff and tired, I shoved my plate back onto the room service cart, opting for water instead.
“Do we have a plan?” I inquired when I noticed Arys watching me. He was going to get after me about eating if I didn’t change the subject. “Do we even know where to find them?”
“We don’t find them. We let them find us.” His knowing gaze strayed from me to the room service cart. “Between now and nightfall, we regain our strength and rest up.”
“Do we absolutely have to keep him?” Jez gestured to Jenner with her fork, and he scowled. “I don’t like the way he’s looking at me.”
“Yes, we do,” I said, shooting a warning look Jenner’s way. “He owes us for this entire night of hell.”
Jenner sat up straighter, brow raised. “Excuse me? I told you to leave town. You chose to stay. Not my problem.”
“You withheld information that endangered us all,” I snapped, my fists clenched. “Not to mention that bullshit you pulled with the poker game.”
Jenner’s mirthless laugh warmed the atmosphere. “I won that game fair and f**king square.”
“Yes, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.” I was far too exhausted to waste energy on anger, but Jenner was the one I blamed for whatever Shaz was going through right that moment.
Arys sighed and held up a hand. “There’s no point arguing. What’s done is done. We must focus on the next step.”
“I say me and Jez find them. Today. Take them out during daylight.” Even as I said it, I knew I wouldn’t have the strength. I just hated feeling so helpless.
“Like hell you will,” Arys objected. “You’re not going anywhere without me, not as long as we’re in this city.”
I expected to find that blue spark burning in his eyes, the one that preceded every fight we ever had. Instead, I found concern. He had thought it was over. I couldn’t blame him for feeling so protective. Running off without him to confront the blood ring vamps would be stupid.
“I just can’t stand the thought of Shaz being out there.” I hung my head so my hair fell to hide my face as I blinked back tears.
Arys reached out to touch my thigh. His hand was cold, a sure indicator he needed to feed. There was a knock on the door at the same moment my cell phone rang. Both Arys and Jenner rose. I didn’t want to watch them steal the life force from unsuspecting women so I slipped away to the bathroom to talk in private.
“You really know how to make a guy crazy, don’t you?” Kale’s low, smooth tone greeted me. “I must have called you a dozen times.”
“More than that actually.” I found myself smiling. He almost sounded like himself again rather than the manic fiend I’d left behind. It was an illusion though. Kale would never come back from the kind of crazy that claimed him.
“Obviously, you’re still alive. Is everything ok? I knew you wouldn’t want me to send Falon, but the only way to find you was through Shya’s demon mark.”