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Travis sighed. “Can’t say I didn’t try.” He turned around to see Lace peering at him over her shoulder, the glow of the television flickering across her features.

“He left, didn’t he?” she asked.

“Yup. Probably hiding in the upstairs fireplaces again.”

She returned to sketching. “As long as no monsters come out of them,” she muttered.

Travis grimaced. “I have nightmares about that now.”

He crossed the room and sat back down. He rarely had nightmares, but he’d had several since the Blood Moon, and he knew what Loren had told them about the fireplaces was to blame. Hell’s Gate was their home, the one place where they never had to look over their shoulders. And now, Travis often found himself staring into the gaping mouth of the fireplace in his suite in the late hours of the night, wondering if anything lurked in there. Watching. Waiting to devour him.

He grabbed the remote and turned up the volume. “I don’t think I’ll be going to sleep for a while now.” Not until he was too tired to keep his eyes open. Ever since Darien and the others left, he awoke several times throughout the night, the lack of group protection putting him on edge. The Seven Devils functioned best as a unit, and since the day they’d formed, they had never been separated like this.

Lace kept drawing, but Travis knew her well enough to spot the tension in her shoulders. “Want to sleep on the couches?” she asked.

Call them cowards, but those creatures in Spirit Terra were the kind of monsters everyone should fear.

Travis nodded. “Absolutely.”

51

Motel 58

STATE OF WITHEREDGE

Dawn poured into the motel room.

Shay slowly stirred awake, stretching her limbs and groaning softly into the pillow.

She’d had a really good sleep. Which was unexpected, given the gods-awful Surge that had assaulted her mind last night—

Wait a minute…

She bolted up in bed, clutching the covers to her chest. Glanced about the room.

Roman wasn’t in here.

Had last night actually happened? Had she dreamt it?

The longer she sat there, fully waking up, she realized that she had not dreamt it at all. She was slightly sore between the legs, and when she dared to look, she saw a tiny burn mark on her ass cheek.

Shay hung her head in her hands. “Seriously, Shayla?” she hissed into her palms. She thrashed her feet under the blankets and squeezed her hair in tight fists. She wanted to rip it out! Maybe that would teach her not to do such…such idiotic things. “Why are you so stupid?”

She’d let Roman touch her, and she’d enjoyed it—two big mistakes.

“Okay, don’t freak out,” she told herself. She lifted her head and took several slow, deep breaths. “Don’t freak out. He probably doesn’t think it was a big deal. And it wasn’t—it wasn’t a big deal. It. Won’t. Happen. Again.” She took another few breaths—and groaned. “You are such an idiot!”

She threw the blankets aside, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and headed into the bathroom to get ready—and hide from Roman before he came back.

Maybe he’d truly left this time. The thought didn’t make her panic as much as it used to. If he did leave, it was probably for the best.

Once she was showered and dressed, her hair and teeth brushed, she put on her shoes, gave Nugget a pat on the head as she left, and made her way to the communal kitchen. She half-expected Roman to be in there already, stuffing his face with the double-chocolate muffins and croissants he ate as if he might die tomorrow. But he was nowhere to be found.

She made herself a cup of green tea, sweetened it with honey, and loaded up a paper plate with fresh-cut melon, sliced strawberries, a bunch of grapes, and a couple of those mini chocolate-drizzled croissants Roman loved so much. But hey, she liked them too. She grabbed the tea and plate and made her way through the parking lot.

It was boiling out, her shirt clinging to her back. Her lungs felt heavy, and although the sky was blue as could be, she felt the beginnings of a migraine prickling at the back of her neck. Joy.

There was no sound out here but the buzz of cicadas and the hum of air conditioning units as she passed by the other motel rooms.