My knee bobs again. This time, I let it go.
Stomach knotting, I follow them into the hotel lobby and hide my surprise when the overworked overnight clerk shakes her head.
“You’re catching us at a really bad time, I’m sorry to say. We only have one room left with two double beds.”
“It’s fine,” Lacey assures the woman with a hasty grin. “We’ll take it.”
I glance between the clerk and Grayson as though there’s something that can be done with panic alone. He stares ahead at the wall until he catches me looking.
His grin isn’t soft, but it’s familiar in the way it pulls his cheeks high.
Colt slides a credit card across the desk and once the paperwork is filled out, we take the key to the last room. As though the fates are not smiling down on us. As though they’re playing some kind of crazy game to see how far into my worry I’ll drown.
Anxiety drips into the hole inside me with every footstep to the room on the second floor, the iron railing overlooking the parking lot.
The keypad peeps when the card slides home and the door swings open with a small push.
Inside, the tile floor is clean. The beds are made with thin comforters in orange and tan like the owners took style advice from some old ninety’s television show.
Lacey moves in first and flings herself on the bed farthest away from the window. “I’m so glad you guys are cool with sleeping on the floor so the girls can have the beds,” she calls out. “How awesome of you!”
Colt grumbles at her tease. “I guess it’s been decided, then.”
She grabs one of the pillows and throws it at him. He moves with preternatural speed to catch it and toss it at her face.
“You’re no fun,” she says, breaking off on a yawn, the pillow bouncing harmlessly to the bed.
“I’m fine with the floor,” Grayson assures me. “I’m not delicate.”
He’s doing a hell of a lot better after taking the suppression potion. No more scratching or listening to phantom voices. But the last thing we need is for him to sleep on the floor and have something happen to set him off. We’re close to the full moon.
He’s been lucky so far.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“I need a couple of blankets. One of those pillows too, if you don’t mind. I’ll be fine,” he assures me.
I pull the comforter off the bed and hold it out to him. “If you get too cold or…”
“Mandi.” He stops, taking my hands through the blanket and squeezing. “You worry too much.”
He has no idea.
Once Colt is settled on the floor near the bathroom door and Grayson between the two beds, the vampires sleep.
We closed the curtains and secured them with hair ties, even moving one of the chairs over to make sure no light gets in. And although I know I need to sleep, it’s not happening.
I’m too worked up to rest.
I manage to close my eyes for a full hour before they pop open again, the digital red numbers of the clock proudly showing eight a.m.
My stomach rumbles, an ominous reminder of our failure to pack snacks.
Colt and Lacey don’t have to eat like the rest of us.
I peel the thin blanket off my legs and creep over to the door with the money RJ tossed me like a softball.Enough to get us by, she’d said.
Enough for the vending machine, anyway.