Page 45

Oh my god, what the fuck is happening?

“We need to wash this off you now,” he says, his voice rock solid, though it doesn’t do much to ease my anxiety because I’m totally screaming on the inside, because what the fuck, what the fuck!?

He places me in the bathtub on my feet and my hands are fluttering beside me and I don’t know what to do, I can’t see, I can’t open my mouth to speak, or to cry, or to scream.

Water sprays me as he turns the shower on. “Might be a bit cold, sorry.” He grabs my shoulders and pulls me into the stream, the water cold but quickly turning warm.

“Get your clothes off,” he says.

What? I say in my head. In front of you?

“Give me a break, Ada,” he scoffs.

Then he turns me around so my back is to him, thank god, and grabs the hem of my pajama top, pulling it up. I raise my arms and he takes it off of me, then tugs down at my pants until I’m wiggling out of them.

Yeah, and of course I’m wearing a tiny pair of white lacey underwear that shows off most of my ass. I mean, at least they aren’t granny panties.

I start rubbing at my eyes and my face, trying to wash the ashes away, opening my eyes just to see Max’s wet arm reaching for the hotel soap in front of me.

Then he gathers my hair at the base of my neck and lifts it up, then starts running the soap over my shoulders, down my spine, stopping just at my ass. It would feel nice if the circumstances weren’t so batshit.

Then his hand with soap in it appears in front of my face.

“Here,” he says from behind me. “You can take care of the rest.”

I take the soap from him and then I hear the bathroom door close.

I whirl around to find myself alone.

Stare down at the ashes in the water.

Meanwhile my favorite pajamas are in the corner of the tub, the top disintegrating before my eyes. What the fuck? When I got the demon dust on me yesterday it didn’t happen quite like that. I guess I’m lucky that only my upper half got covered in that shit.

And at that I wash my hair four times and condition it five with the shitty hotel toiletries to make sure all the dust is gone. The last thing I want is for my hair to fall out. Losing my favorite PJs is one thing, but I swear to god if my hair is ruined, I’m going straight back home.

Eventually, when I think I’ve rubbed my skin raw, I step out and towel off, then wrap it around me and step out into the hotel room.

Max is standing there, leaning back against the dresser, ankles crossed, beer dangling from his fingertips, wearing a white t-shirt and green plaid pajama pants. He’s staring at my bed which is completely covered in ash and black goo.

He pulls his eyes away from the scene and looks at me, expression grim. “That was lucky,” he says, his voice low.

I nod quickly. “Can I tell you how much I approve of that sword?” I walk over to him, keeping my towel on tightly while I swipe the beer from his hand, knocking back a sip. “What happened? And where did this beer come from?”

“Got your priorities straight, don’t you?” He moves, bending over to open the mini bar, taking out another beer, plus two tiny bottles of vodka. He tosses a vodka to me which I catch with one hand.

He cracks the one he has open and shoots it back, and I put down my beer and do the same, feeling the burn down my throat. If there was ever a reason to get drunk…

He wipes the back of his mouth and nods at the door.

“She came in through the door.”

“The demon? How? You let her in?”

His eyes fall closed for a moment. “No. I was asleep.”

“Then how did you know?”

“The door was open when I woke up and she was over your bed. I had to think fast.”

Holy fuck.

That scares the shit out of me.

My heart lurches thinking of how close I just came to dying. And from the pained look on Max’s face, he’s thinking the same thing.

If I die, he dies.

“Thank god for you,” I say after a moment.

He looks at me, his expression anguished. “I should have known. I mean, I felt it. I was trying not to fall asleep because I thought maybe a demon would try something. Because of what I felt earlier. I just thought…I thought they would come in through a portal. That I would wake up in time, have some fair warning. But it was almost too late.”

I don’t like seeing him like this. I go over to him and place my hand on his forearm. “Max. You did good. I’m here. The only thing ruined are my pajamas. Speaking of which, my top is totally dissolved. Why didn’t that happen with the ashes from the other night?”