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What shedidknow was that Shadows hadn’t liked that.

Too bad, so sad. He couldn’t have it both ways—couldn’t tell her that he wanted her gone one minute and then tell complete strangers that she was taken the next. Unless he was going to come forward and express how hereallyfelt about her…well, as far as she was concerned, she was very single. And she refused to let some indecisive, brooding asshole of a Shadowmaster with commitment issues lay claim to her. She deserved better than that.

A bell chimed in the night. Boots crunched in dry dirt.

Dean rounded the corner of the motel with Bobby and A.J.

“Any luck?” Roman asked through his open window.

Dean smiled and held up a key. “Four rooms. You guys are in nine.” He tossed Roman the key. “Two beds, plus a pull-out. Since you’re both very much single.” He braced his hands on his knees and bent down to see inside the car, his teasing smile spreading as he glanced between them.

Shay’s brows bumped up. Number nine?Seriously?

Heads turned toward her, Roman’s included.

Oh shit, had she said that out loud?

Dean said, “You superstitious? You can have one of the others, if you want. But they don’t have a pull-out couch.”

What were the other numbers? Nineteen, ninety, and ninety-nine? Good gods, she wouldn’t doubt it.

She cleared her throat. “Nine is fine. It just…reminded me of something.”

Dean’s smile grew impossibly big. “Another pull-out incident?”

Roman rubbed the stubble on his chin. The corner of his mouth was tipped up, as if he were fighting a smile.

Shay’s face warmed.

Dean wheezed a laugh. “I’m just joshing. Anyway, your room is sandwiched between ours. You need anything, you just bang on the wall, okay?”

Roman nodded. “Yeah, alright.”

“Don’t worry about anything. Living it twice, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember.” But he sighed, and hedidlook worried.

“At ease, Rome,” Dean insisted. He drummed a hand against the roof of the car in farewell. “Have a nice time with the pull-out.”

A.J. and Bobby chuckled.

Shay slithered lower in her seat and cupped a hand against her brow.

“We’ll see you in the a.m.,” Dean called.

In the a.m. Sure. All she had to do was make it through another night without jumping Roman Devlin’s bones.

Pfft. Easier said than done.

Shay had beenasleep for barely an hour when she was jolted out of her dreams by a painful Surge.

With a sharp gasp, she sat up, her head spinning as she took in the motel room with eyes that flashed between the Sight and regular vision.

Nugget was partially covered with a blanket that stifled his glow, rendering her surroundings too dark to see. But the room was quiet enough to suggest that Roman and Pax were fast asleep on the other bed and the pull-out couch. Chance was snoring, Sayagul’s nose was whistling, and Itzel was slumbering in the mini fridge. Everyone was having a wonderfully deep and peaceful sleep.

Everyone except her. Joy.

Gods, her heart was racing so fast, it was painful. Lightning crackled through her blood, threatening to sear her veins and char her flesh.Burn her alive?—