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“Shit?” I finished for him, not in a whisper. “Yeah, I didn’t say anything with the first one to leave your mouth, but I’m saying something now. You really shouldn’t be swearing, you’re just a boy.”

He looked up at me with those big brown eyes of his that were so large, they looked in danger of popping right out of his head.

The man stopped screaming and his body fell forward. He landed on his face in the dirt. His entire body was now one controlled ball of fire that would eventually put itself out.

I placed my hand on Brighton’s shoulder and gently shoved him forward. “Let’s get a move on. That screaming wasn’t exactly quiet. I’m surprised someone hasn’t come running out here yet.”

His eyes were still too large on his face, but he took direction well, and we started walking again. Honestly, I was very surprised no one had come to check and make sure Adrian was okay. That seemed strange to me, and I hadn’t worried about it earlier because I was so relieved to be out of there, but I still had no idea how we’d gotten out of that hole in the first place.

Now I really wanted to know.

We skirted around the man on fire and kept right on walking, neither of us speaking. I no longer needed his guidance to get to the motel since it was directly in front of us, and I took the lead, moving so I walked in front of Brighton. If something came at us, I wanted it to hit me first. I didn’t want Brighton to be a target at all.

“It’s too quiet.”

I couldn’t agree more. Then again, nothing was ever right at this place. Every time I’d come here, it felt like either something weird happened or I learned something I never wanted to know in the first place.

“Perhaps you should wait out here. Hide somewhere and keep yourself out of trouble. My coven will be here soon. Tell Quinton I’m inside and I said for him to look after you.”

He snorted. “Like you left me when I told you to? Not likely.”

Stubborn. I should have known better.

The torches were lit in front of every door.

I didn’t try to hide as I strolled right around the building and into the backyard. There was an entrance back here that led to the other part of the motel where the members of the Council actually lived. I thought I could get to it through one of the rooms out front, but I wasn’t in the mood to go from door to door until I found it.

The backyard was empty of people, but there were plenty of picnic tables and outdoor furniture scattered all over the place in little clusters. There was enough space between the groupings to give them all a little bit of privacy, and there were fairy lights strewn about everywhere. It was my favorite part of this whole place, but I had no desire to spend any time out here.

I had tainted memories of this whole place.

No one tried to stop us as we walked right up to the backdoor and slipped inside because there was no one around to stop us. The place was eerily deserted.

The backdoor opened up to a mudroom/laundry room that was just a weird placement to me. Maybe it was where the original motel had kept their laundry space for the people staying here. I wouldn’t have wanted to walk all the way around to the back of the building to do my laundry if I were staying here though. Not that I would ever stay at some creepy motel out in the middle of the woods, because that was just asking to be slaughtered by some backwoods type of people.

No thank you.

There was a long hallway to the left with a bunch of closed doors along it. It ran the opposite direction of where the motel rooms were, almost as if this part of the building had been an add on to the building and wasn’t actually an original part of the motel.

We went that way down the hall and stopped directly outside the first closed door. I put my hand on the knob and twisted it. Locked. Go figure.

I placed my palm on the door, just above the lock, and closed my eyes. I could see the lock turning in my mind, and I heard the click of it unlocking.

I turned the knob again, this time getting no resistance, and pushed the door open.

The walls were lined with shelves full of glass jars. Some of them had pickles in them and various other vegetables and things that looked to have been grown in a garden and canned with love.

They were all labeled, and there were a bunch of them that looked like they just had different plants in them.

Brighton shoved inside behind me. He pointed toward the corner of the room. “We go around the shelf. Then we go down.”

Down? Oh no, I didn’t think we needed to be going down anywhere. Nothing good ever happened when you went down to the basement levels. That was where all the really, really bad shit happened.

I didn’t have balls, but if ever there was a time to man the fuck up, this was it.

I felt the tug on my bond, and somehow I knew Dash was close. I just hoped he wasn’t alone, because I really needed to see them all.

I moved around the shelf and, sure enough, there was an opening in the floor with a set of stairs leading down.