Shamus & Shifter by Layla Lawlor

Author:Layla Lawlor [Lawlor, Layla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Icefall Press
Published: 2023-03-30T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

By the time they got back to the hotel, Genna was half asleep in the backseat and put up only token protests about being packed off to bed. James took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and sponged the mud off a protesting Oz in the sink. He was rinsing a dragon bite, while Oz sulked damply on his pillow, when he had to go answer a knock at the door. Aliette came in with a plastic bag.

"It turns out even in a swanky place like this, the kitchen's not open in the middle of the night," she said. "But they do have vending machines. If you want, I also have half a bottle of whiskey in my room, which you look like you could use."

"I'll pass on that, but thanks for the snacks," James said wryly. His shoulder was starting to purple up brilliantly, and he had scrapes and bruises all over from the fall through the trees.

"What did that to your face?"

"Owl, I think."

"Did you disinfect it? That's not a place you want an infected scratch."

Oz stopped sulking and raised his head anxiously.

"I didn't want to go down to the front desk for a first-aid kit. It's all right, I'll be fine."

"There's soap in the bathroom, you dink. Let me get it."

James sat on the bed and dumped Aliette's bag of snacks. Oz claimed a package of cheese crackers and retreated to the pillow to eat it with tiny growling noises. James firmly suppressed any comments about adorableness, but he wasn't sure how long he could hold out.

Aliette came back with a washcloth and a tiny bottle of hotel shampoo. "You'll smell like grapefruit, but it's better than flesh-eating face bacteria," she told him. "Tilt your face my way. And start talking. I want to hear the entire story."

While Aliette cleaned his face, returning to the bathroom occasionally to rinse out the washcloth, James filled her in on the night's events.

"Cult Camp is probably where Peter is, assuming he's still alive," James finished. "For all I know, he was one of the ones chasing me. It's not like I'd be able to tell in the dark."

"What do you think the odds are that he's alive?" Her face was very close to his as she dabbed at his cheek, lips pursed with concentration. She was wearing no makeup and there were shadows under her blue-gray eyes. It was very distracting.

"I don't know," James said, opting to look at the ceiling instead. "Right now, I'm not going to speculate. But we need to get back to that camp. I used to have a map in my jacket, but after the night I've had, it's probably a loss."

"Way ahead of you," Aliette said. She sat back on the bed and fished in her jacket pocket. "There's a whole rack of local maps in the lobby. I grabbed one on my way out to get you, because I needed to know where the roads went."

They unfolded the map and spread it on the bed.

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