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I reached across the bar and took her hand, squeezing it gently.
She shook her head as if clearing it and smiled through her tears. “I swear I won’t always be this morose. I’m a lousy drunk.” Her eyes widened. “Ohhh, what about clover?”
My grip on her tightened. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I’ve had my stash for decades. It’s safe,” she reassured me, but I politely declined. Ciara didn’t push me. Instead, she recounted the last two hundred years of her sex life. We’d only reached the 1980s—a decade she referred to as her vampire era—when she fell silent. A moment later, she was slumped against the bar, snoring.
Ciara was petite, but there was no way I was getting her upstairs. I probably couldn’t even get her to the elevator. I closed my eyes, wishing I had any other option, and touched my necklace.
Lachlan appeared next to me instantly.
“You got her to sleep.” He sounded impressed. I tried and failed not to stare at him. It must have been late, because he’d changed out of his suit into a ribbed, cotton T-shirt that stretched taut across his chest and biceps and showed off an impressive amount of tattoos. But it was the pair of silk pajama bottoms that hung low on his narrow hips that nearly undid me. The loose black fabric did little to hide the powerful muscle of his thighs, and it took effort to keep my eyes from moving inward to see what else was on display. His hair was wet, as if he’d just gotten out of the shower, a few strands dripping onto his broad shoulders. I itched to reach out and comb them back with my fingers—
I cleared my throat and focused on his sister. “I can’t take all the credit. The three bottles of Scotch and hundred-year-old clover she just took probably knocked her out.” I studied her peaceful face more closely. “Is she going to be okay?”
“She’ll sleep until noon, but she’ll be fine.” He scooped her into those arms, tattoos winding and flashing around them.
I followed him into the elevator, realizing I had no idea where she actually lived. Or, for that matter, where I was expected to stay. Once we were inside, he nodded to the panel. “Top floor.”
That made sense. I punched the button for the thirteenth floor and shifted to the opposite side of the compartment. He tracked the movement but didn’t speak. When we reached the top, he angled his body to keep the doors from closing, cradling his sister carefully. “Welcome home.”
I started to remind him that the Avalon was not my home, but the retort died on my lips when my gaze turned to the stunning foyer. A round mahogany table sat in the middle of the gold-veined marble floor, the extravagant arrangement of white roses, lilies, and peonies at its center filling the air with their perfume. On one side of the foyer were two corridors. I couldn’t see the ends of them. It was as if they stretched infinitely, but that would be…impossible. On the entry’s other side was a single black door.
I took a small step toward the table, not quite trusting whatever magic was clearly at work. Lachlan just strode past me and began down one of the long corridors to the left. I scrambled to keep up with him, nearly tripping as the floor shifted to plush ivory carpeting. Eventually, he stopped and nudged a black-lacquered door open with his bare foot.
Ciara’s bedroom was actually fit for a princess. A tufted bed framed with ornate gold carvings sat in disarray, piled with pillows and blankets in a palette of elegant blush shades. Two arched windows rose above it on either side, their long, gold curtains tied back while still left to pool on the oak floors. Moonlight seeped through the glass and glinted off the dark chandelier that hung in the center of the coffered ceiling. The powdery softness of rose petals filled the air, either from Ciara’s natural scent or the numerous perfume bottles arranged on an antique vanity in the corner. A gilded mirror was propped against the wall, the pink slipper chair by it strewn with lacy bras and several pairs of heels. A few magazines and a half-eaten box of chocolates lay on a cream fur rug that extended past the bed’s tufted footboard.
Lachlan placed her on the bed, removed her shoes, and then pulled a soft sheet over her.
“Maybe I should stay with her?” I brushed her hair back so it was easier to see the steady rhythm of her breathing.
“She’s absolutely fine. The wraiths will watch over her.”
I shivered. “They’re here, too? How?”
“The Avalon exists half inside my world and half inside yours.”
The wraiths were one thing I wished stayed in the Otherworld, especially if they liked to watch people sleep. But I supposed that existing between our worlds might explain the hotel’s strange layout. A yawn overtook me.
“I’ll show you to your room.” He moved to the door and waited as I stood and tucked the blanket around Ciara’s shoulders before joining him.
Lachlan was quiet as we made our way back to the foyer, but before we reached it, he broke the stony silence, his voice low and rumbly. “Is she okay?”
“She’s unhappy.” I wouldn’t lie to him. Not about this. Maybe Ciara understood his reasoning, maybe the alliance with the Infernal Court would get trinity off the streets of the city, maybe I could live with it, but I wouldn’t sugarcoat the truth. “She doesn’t want to get married.”
“If there’s any other way, I can’t see it.”
I stopped a step short of the foyer’s marble floor. “Why are you really doing it?”
“I told you. An alliance with the Infernal—”
“No, that’s not it.” I planted my hands on my hips and studied him. Not his muscular body or his crushing green eyes but him. The way his wary, guarded eyes never seemed to match his smirking, arrogant mouth. The fact that his broad, strong shoulders were defined by the weight he had to carry and never show. The fleeting, changing tattoos that told me he might not be speaking but he was thinking—I had Shaw to thank for that knowledge. “Do you even know why you’re doing it?”
He stared back at me, the look piercing straight through me. What did he see? “If—”
“Ciara finally out?” Shaw strolled into the foyer and stopped to pluck a petal from one of the roses.
Lachlan’s nostrils flared slightly, but he turned to his brother. “We just tucked her in.”