“I read kinkier books than you do,” she said simply. “Actually, I’m just going to go back up to my room. I want to hit the hay before Maximus starts snoring.”
I squeezed her arm harder, my eyes searching her face. She’d already taken off her makeup, which normally made her look more innocent but that wasn’t the case here. There was a weighty quality behind her eyes, like she was beyond tired. Maybe sleep would be best for everyone, even though it was still early and we were in Manhattan of all places.
“What did you want to talk about?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “It can wait.” She shot me a quick smile and when I wouldn’t let go of her, she rolled her eyes and gave out a heavy sigh. There was the Ada I knew. I released her and she started down the hallway toward the elevators and stairwell.
She paused a few steps away and looked over her shoulder at me. “I’ll talk to you in the morning. Oh, and by the way, stay away from the sixth floor. There seems to be a demon down there. I’d take the stairs from now on, if I were you.”
And then she disappeared around the corner.
I stared at the empty hallway and shivered. Okay, there was definitely something to talk about. I turned back to the room and Dex was now standing by the window and looking outside of it, completely naked. While I spent a second admiring his ass, there was something about the sight that brought the shiver back down my spine.
“Are you okay?” I asked, stepping back into the room and closing the door behind me.
He didn’t say anything, didn’t move. His hands were down at his side and the tissues were still on the bed. A drop of blood fell to the floor.
I breathed in deeply, trying to shake off the unease and walked over to him.
“Dex,” I said gently, afraid to touch him, as if he were a sleepwalker.
I stood behind him for a moment. Finally he seemed to notice my presence and turned around. A congealed river of blood had formed beneath his nose. His eyes were dark as coal and strangely blank. He blinked a few times and then said, “Sorry, were you saying something?”
“Not really,” I told him with a nervous smile. “I was just talking to Ada. What are you doing, trying to give the neighbors a peep show?”
He looked down at his dick and then let out a laugh. It sounded hollow. “I guess so, huh,” he said. He then stretched, his arms above his head and let out a yawn. “I think I’m going to turn in.”
“Your nose is still a bit bloody, by the way,” I said to him as he brushed past me and headed right for the bed.
“I’ll deal,” he said, getting under the sheets. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
Didn’t you hear what me and Ada were talking about? I wanted to ask him. Demons on the sixth floor? That doesn’t interest you at all?
But then again, this wasn’t Experiment in Terror. That baby had been put to sleep and bringing up demons and weird shit at a time like this probably wasn’t the best idea. Tomorrow I’d talk to Ada properly and get Dex checked out and hopefully this whole maddening event could be put behind us.
Besides, my parents were coming in the morning. Every single one of us needed our strength for that. Oh, the horror, the horror.
I crawled into bed beside Dex and turned out the lights. The sky outside the window was now the darkest indigo, lit by orange neon lampposts. It was more comforting to have that light from the inside seeping in, to know that the world outside was carrying on as usual, even if our lives were anything but.
Still, I didn’t fall asleep for the longest time and when I finally did, my dreams were filled with things that would make the lightest nights seem black.
I dreamed that the man I was lying beside, the man I was set to marry, the love of my life, was not that man at all.
But I didn’t know who he was.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Dex
I woke up feeling like a nun’s ass – all dried out and tight as a rubber band, my head absolutely pounding from a headache that wouldn’t go away. I must have pressed snoozed a million times before I got out of bed, and by snooze, I mean I swatted at Perry every time she tried to shake me awake. I could have slept forever.
But she did remind me each time that her parents would be showing up at the hotel soon with pitchforks and since I was to be their future son-in-law, I needed to show them some respect. That wasn’t exactly her words, of course. She just didn’t want me to get frozen by the Swedish Queen of Planet Frigid.
Eventually I pulled myself out of bed and staggered right over to the shower. One look in the mirror and I was certain Perry would be calling off the wedding. My cheekbones were sticking out like Ziggy Stardust and my face had taken this pasty shade of grey. The dried blood beneath my nose didn’t help but at least it matched the red in my bloodshot eyes.
I felt a little more alive with hot water flowing on my face but my mind kept wanting to float to things that I wasn’t sure I could afford to entertain. It wanted to think about Michael. It wanted to think about the sixth floor of this hotel. It wanted to think about the beginning of the end.
Dude, I need an IV drip of coffee, I thought to myself, trying to rip that last thought from head. The beginning of then end? What the hell was wrong with me? When did I turn into such a fatalistic douche?
Since my brother apparently abducted me, I guess. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. The facts just made no sense¸ even though they were the facts and the only things we had to go on.
“Dex!” Perry cried out, pounding on the bathroom door.
The franticness of her voice surprised me. I blinked a few times, realizing I was staring at myself in the bathroom mirror, water slowly dripping off of me and pooling at my feet.
I tore my eyes away from my reflection to answer her but as I did so, the reflection in the mirror changed. Even though it was out of the corner of my eye, I could see the face in the mirror open its eyes and mouth wide in a distorted scream.
My breath froze in my chest and I immediately looked at the mirror dead on. It was just me, staring at myself with a look of shock.
I willed my pulse to return to normal and quickly opened the door, no longer wanting to look at myself.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice cracking a bit.
Perry was totally dressed, her hair and makeup done. “What are you doing in there?” she asked, sounding more concerned than annoyed.
“I don’t know, showering?”