Page 20
CHAPTER 20
I stood, rattling the cuffs against the table. “Brother.”
Play it cool, play it calm. There was no other way with him. If I showed any sign of weakness, he’d tear into me.
“Look at you.” He ambled into the room, and behind him another familiar face appeared. Jenny— Gen Z as Zee had called her—the shapeshifting loup-garou. She smirked too.
The door clanged closed, sealing me alone with two formidable enemies. Cameras stared from the corners, but they’d be no help if Syros decided to end me here.
“Didn’t expect to see me, huh?” Jenny said, following Syros to my table. “When you throw someone off a cliff, least you can do is check they’re dead. Villain one-oh-one.”
“I was busy trying to save werewolf lives at the time.”
“And end mine.”
“I’m also not the villain here,” I argued.
“Not a villain?” Syros laughed and slid into the bolted-down chair opposite mine. “Tell that to Gideon Cain’s surviving kin, or the staff of the Stephanie Hotel who are now out of a job.”
“They shouldn’t have poisoned the sandwiches. That’s no way to run a hotel.”
“What about the cat lady who owned the SOS Hotel before you?” Syros asked. “What happened to her, huh? Did you get a little peckish?”
Yeah, okay, I had eaten her. “What do you want?”
“I always knew you were weak and pathetic—the runt. I knew once I got you cornered you’d roll over and show me your belly. But you’re even weaker than I remember. Those fools you keep around at that trashy SOS Hotel? They didn’t even care you’d gone, and when Jenny stepped in, you know what she learned?” Syros laughed again. “Nobody there gives a crap about Adam Vex. The woman at the front desk... Madame something, gypsy ward weaver? I was worried about her, but she didn’t even notice you were gone... or that you were back when Jenny wore your glamor. And that broken AI barman? Wow... The way he talks, the disdain? I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to kill you.”
“Yeah, honestly? Me too.”
“There’s gremlins everywhere, the pixie has no respect for authority or anyone, and I took a look at your accounts, brother. You’re one broken pipe away from going bust.”
That all sounded... accurate. And I missed that crazy place like a hole in my heart. “I see you had the full SOS Hotel experience.”
“That place is a dump, populated by mewing prey.”
“Maybe.” But even broken things could be remade stronger when they came together. My brother had just told me he’d underestimated our SOS Hotel family. They’d played him, strung him along, made him think he was winning, but all the while, behind the scenes, they’d plotted against him to bring him here, to me, right now...
I glanced at the cameras, and the dark outside the windows.
I trusted Tom, Leomaris, Madame Matase, Little Jimmy, all of them. They’d come through, any second now...
“Waiting for a save?” Syros chuckled, prompting Jenny to snigger too. He leaned forward. “Nobody is coming for you. You’ll rot here, while outside, I take it all. When this world is on its knees, maybe then I’ll come get you out, brother. Or maybe I’ll just leave you here to die like the humans have left all the other troublesome Lost Ones.” He rose to his feet. “Stupid humans got that right. Cut out the rot. It’s the only way. You killed the rest of our kin because I let you. Easier that way. But not me, brother... You didn’t get me.”
I swallowed. My heart fluttered. They would come through.
But there wasn’t much time left. Syros turned his back on me. I had to stop him, buy more time, do something instead of just siting and taking it.
“Wait.”
He stopped, turned again and waited, eyebrows raised. Jenny stopped beside him, waiting for my big speech too.
“I uh...” I got to my feet, buying a few more seconds to find my words. “I mean... You know... I never really understood what it meant to have a family.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Our kin? They weren’t a real family. They were killers. I’m talking about people you care for, people who care for you. Not because of blood, or some kinda bond they didn’t have a choice in, or destiny. People who choose to be around you, who choose to love you.”
Syros snorted. “And you think you know what that is now? Those losers at that hotel barely know you exist. I could kill you here now and nobody would notice.”
It was my turn to smirk. He had no idea what it meant to be loved, and never would. It was so alien to him, he couldn’t even see it when it had been right in front of his face the moment he stepped into the SOS Hotel.
“Why are you smiling?” Syros stomped toward me. “Huh? What have you got to smile about? You’re stuck in here and I’m out there! I’m free! And I’m going to make this world my sandbox. There’s nothing to smile about.”
“I dunno...” I shrugged. “I think there is.”
“What?!?” he snapped. “Huh?”
Jenny glanced at him, watching him lose his cool. Maybe she was beginning to realize the unhinged monster she’d buddied up with would turn on her too.
“I’m smiling because I know, without a single doubt, that I’ll never be alone.”
He barked a dismissive laugh. “You’re alone right now, idiot.”
Jenny’s gaze caught mine, and held it. My heartbeat quickened.
I wasn’t alone.
But Syros was.
He narrowed his eyes on me, then looked at Jenny and opened his mouth to ask why we were bonding over a glance, but a screeching siren beat him to it.
The lights went out, plunging us into a blink of darkness before the emergency lighting kicked in. Green Fire Exit signs lit the way.
A phone rang somewhere nearby, behind a door or that long mirror.
Here we go...
“What’s going on?” Syros strode for the door.
Jenny hung back, dug into her pocket and tossed me a key. She winked, proving my unlikely hunch right. She wasn’t here with Syros, although she’d told him she was. She was here for me. I had no idea how or why she’d switched sides, but now wasn’t the time to get into it.
I slotted the little key into the cuffs and flicked them open, tossing them onto the metal table.
Syros turned again, saw I was free, and glanced at Jenny. “You dare betray me?”
“Bro, you’re low-key an asshole.”
He lunged toward her, but I lunged for Syros, tackling him around the waist. My momentum knocked him off his feet, and I got a few strides under me before my brother slammed his fist between my shoulders. Pain flashed up my spine. I lost my footing. We both tumbled, hit the wall beneath the mirror, and sprawled to the floor.
The phone still rang, right behind the glass. I staggered to my feet, leaning back against the window.
Syros bounced to his feet, and turned on me with a roar. He clenched his right hand into a fist and swung. I ducked. Glass shattered, exploding into millions of tiny tempered pieces—designed to shatter.
He’d opened up a hole into another room, like a viewing gallery. I vaulted the sill, spotted the phone on the far wall, and dashed for it.
Syros slammed into my back, and smacked me face first against the wall right next to the phone. I reached for it. Syros grabbed my arm by the wrist, and yanked me around.
“You remember when we fought like this?” He sneered in my face. “You always lost.”
“I remember... I let you win.” I smacked my head forward, smashing my skull into his nose, crunching it. He howled, and staggered away.
Twisting, I grabbed the phone’s receiver and held it to my ear. “Tom?!”
“Welcome to the best bar in San Francisco...” Tom’s static voice came back, and a shock of power jolted down the handset, making it leap from my hand. It clattered against the wall, then swung back and forth, spewing static-filled smoke.
Syros watched, hands cupped over his bloody nose, realization dawning.
The distinct outline of our bartender began to take shape in the smoke.
Syros bolted for the door, tore it open, and dashed out.
Guards should have been out there, but whatever commotion had triggered the alarms had distracted them too.
I poked my head outside the door.
No guards, just sirens.
I had to go after Syros. If he got away, we’d be back to square one again. It had to end now.
“Finally found some balls?” Tom Collins asked, standing next to me. His outline spat static, but he looked solid and real in a silk burgundy waistcoat and pressed black pants. With his hair slicked back, there was that slightly unsettling murderous gleam in his eyes. Even more murderous than normal.
“Thanks for coming.” I beamed.
“Someone had to save your ineffective, pathetic asses.”
“Did Leomaris threaten to arrest you for the drugs if you didn’t help?”
Tom snorted a non-answer. “Go get your brother. I’ve got work to do here.”
That sounded concerning. But I definitely needed the distraction.
“Hey, thanks for this, Tom. I mean it.”
He smiled. “Now go break shit. I’m about to.” His outline turned ghostly, then fizzled into a thread that funneled back into the phone. Somewhere nearby, another phone rang. He’d keep some of the guards busy.
I figured my brother had bolted toward the glowing green exit arrow, so I dashed in the same direction, hoping to catch up. Dim emergency lighting lit the sterile, white-walled corridors lined with locked metal doors and no windows. This place was a maze. If I didn’t catch up with Syros soon, I might never find him.
Turning a corner, I ran right toward a guard armed with a sparking cattle prod.
“Stop!”
I skidded and tried to look innocent in my bright orange jumpsuit. “Oh uh... hi.”
“You Lost Ones are all the fucking same! Get back in your cell!”
He jabbed the prod toward me. I sprang back. I could maybe get around him, but I’d have to be fast?—
The guard jerked upright, a look of shock on his face. His back arched, his eyes bulged, he grunted and bucked as though possessed, then dropped to his knees, shuddering. I kicked the prod away, and looked up to see a swathe of purple light filling the corridor, and then the demon it belonged to rounded the corner in full sparkly sex-god glory.
Oh... The guard wasn’t dying then, just real... excited.
“Kitten, the Fucking God has arrived! Also, this is the most fun I’ve had since a lock-in orgy at Razorsedge. Free orgasms for everyone.”
“Zee!” I flung my arms around him, ignoring the pleasant tingles the touch sparked all over me.
“Hello, Kitten... I am on fucking fire! Watch me burn.”
“But how... the wards?”
“I’m guessin’ the fire alarm disabled some of ’em. Nobody wants inmates burning to death. Bad fucking PR. No idea who triggered the fire alarm—fuck, what if there is a fire?”
There wasn’t a fire. “Tom Collins is here,” I told him.
“Oh, fuck.” His eyes lit up. “This party’s gonna get wild.”
“Syros is too, but he got away. I thought he came this way, but if you’re here, I guess not. Let’s double back.” Zee jogged along beside me. “How’d you get out of your cell?”
He grinned brilliantly. “Orgasmed my way out. Humans will do anything once they’re puddles on the floor.”
“And Victor?”
“No idea, but I bet he’s working on something.”
We might have a chance, might actually pull this off... We just needed to find and stop Syros. If he stayed within the wards, he’d be as restrained as the rest of us.
After racing down the corridors, we eventually came to a grated door wedged open by the unconscious guard sprawled through it.
“Not my handiwork,” Zee said, stepping over him.
“Syros.”
A few more switchback corridors delivered us to some kind of internal foyer. A guard bolted, running from the room where the door was swinging shut. I sprinted over, shoved it open, and stumbled inside.
Syros stood at a bank of screens. He whirled when I entered, and brandished a cattle prod he’d taken off the unconscious guard. “Good, you’re here. You know, I’m starting to think you’re somehow behind this chaos—” His eyes widened as Zee entered the room behind me. “Stay there! Or I free every single criminal in this prison, and I know even you don’t want that, brother.”
I shrugged. “Actually, I’m okay with it. Zee?”
Zee shrugged too, making his wings bounce. “Meh. Have at it. Half of ’em shouldn’t be in here anyway.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be the good guys?” Syros scoffed. “SOS Hotel heroes?”
Yeah, being official heroes had sounded good, but the shine had worn off. “Honestly, we just kinda want to be left alone to run our hotel.”
“Yeah, this hero schtick is crazy bad for my mental health. My therapist says it’s all about balance. He was making a drink and sprinkling coke over it at the time... but the point is, being bad is sometimes good. So you go right ahead and press that big ol’ red button, let all the Bad People out. We’ll watch.”
“You know there are Lost Ones behind these bars who wanna chew up this world and spit it out?”
“Then you’ll have company,” I said.
He hesitated, hand hovering over the actual big red button. “Why would you want me to do this?”
“Maybe you were right and we’re tired of being heroes?” I inched closer. “Or maybe we were the villains all along. Isn’t that right, Zee?”
“I am livin’ my villain era right now. So press that fuckin’ button, dragon. I dare yah.”
Syros wanted this world, but he wanted to be the one to ruin it. He wouldn’t press that button. He might be crazy, but he wasn’t that crazy. He pulled his hand back. “You’re more unhinged than I?—”
Zee clicked his fingers.
As a wave of pleasure rolled up Syros’s back. He gasped, fell back, and reaching out to stop himself from falling, his hand slammed down on the big red button.
Bigger, louder, more alarming alarms sounded.
The green exit lights turned red—the universal color of very bad stuff.
“Zee?!” I dashed to the consoles where, on screen, all the cell doors had flung open.
He joined me and cringed. “Oh my fuck!”
The prisoners emerged.
Zee flung his hands up to cover his face, then peeked through his fingers. “Is it bad?”
“I mean...” Lost Ones surged out of their cells, pouring like a river down the corridors. “Yeah. It’s pretty bad.” Imagine twenty, maybe fifty Gideon Cains on the loose. This party really was about to get wild.
Zee jabbed the button again, but it made a comical sad trombone sound. “The fuck?! Why does this big button not also lock the doors? Who designed these fuckin’ controls?”
“What have you done?!” Syros bellowed, staring at the screens.
“Made you come. Was it as good for you as it was for me?” Zee grinned at my recovering brother.
Syros snarled, and thrust the cattle prod into Zee’s middle, jolting him, then he ran. Zee dropped in a twitching, sparkling heap. I grabbed him, pulling him close so he didn’t convulse too hard and break something.
“Gah... go, Kitten!” he growled through gritted teeth.
But I didn’t want to leave him.
But I had to stop Syros before he got outside the wards.
But, but, but...
Zee bucked, gasping. “Fuck, ow...”
“My dears...” Victor’s firm, comforting arms wrapped around us both. “I’m here.” He sounded pissed off, afraid, furious, wary. “I feared the worst...”
“It’s alright,” Zee grumbled. “We’re alright.” He twitched again. “Sparky stick. Very ouch.”
“Why am I not surprised to find you three here?” Tom snapped, appearing behind Victor. “Did you not stop Syros from unleashing the entire prison?!”
“Hi, Tom.” I waved. “Uh... actually, we did that.”
“You unlocked all the doors?” Tom strode toward the consoles, his outline fizzing with static. “Well fucking done. We’re all fucked. And that’s my cue to leave, quit the hotel, and hop on a phone line to Hawaii. Have a great end of the world!”
“You can’t leave.” I shot to my feet.
“Why?”
“You uh... you just got here?”
Zee reached up. I grabbed his hand and helped haul him back onto his legs.
Victor was already at the screens, face pale in their glow. “This is indeed alarming.”
“So... how are we going to fix this?” Zee asked.
“Uhm...” Zee and I joined Tom and Victor at the consoles to admire the carnage. “Ask them nicely?”
Tom rolled his eyes and folded his arms. “Ask the cutesy fluffy mass murderers nicely?”
We didn’t have time for this. “I have to stop my brother, or none of this will matter anyway.”
“Adam, you may be right about asking them nicely...” Victor said. “If I can find a way to project my voice throughout the facility, I may be able to command them to return to their cells. Or at least slow their escape.”
Tom grabbed what looked like a golf ball on a stick. “Like this PA system?”
“Yes... That is perfect.”
“Perfect is what keeps my customers coming back for more.”
“Sounds like something I’d say.” Zee ruffled his wings, shaking off a few purple sparks.
I knew what had to be done. They had to stay here and contain this riot, while I went after Syros. If I stayed too, he’d get away. And I wasn’t needed here. I had to go. Now.
Turning away, I headed for the door. I had to leave them. This was the right thing. It was always going to happen this way anyway. Me and Syros. A rematch.
“Kitten?”
“It’s alright, I’ll...” I grasped the door frame and smiled over my shoulder. Victor frowned, and Zee just looked... hopeful, as though maybe these wouldn’t be our last ever moments together. “I’ll be right back.”
“Hey...” Zee ran to my side and grabbed my shoulders, giving me a soft shake. “If you say something stupid like “It was always going to end this way” or “I have to keep you guys safe,” then imma get mad... and sad... and nobody wants that. So I’m coming with you, and if you think you’re gonna brush me off by being an actual hero, you should know that one not-so-human dragon cannot give me the slip.”
“Zee, but?—”
He pressed a finger to my lips. “Nope. It’s both of us or Syros goes free.”
I blinked and peered up at him. If Syros shifted into his dragon form, Zee would be nothing to him, no more bothersome than a fly he’d swat out of the air.
Zee’s eyes got all intense and sparkly, the humor all gone now, replaced by no-holds-barred warrior intent. “You wanna argue, Kitten? That’s fine. But there’s not much time, and I’d rather tie you up and throw you over my shoulder than let you go alone, and I reckon Victor will help. He’s good with knots.”
I mumbled around his finger.
“What’s that? Zee is the best and also right?”
Another mumble.
He scowled and plucked his finger away. “Choose your next words carefully, Adam Vex.”
“I love you.” I grabbed his face, pulled him down, and smacked a kiss on his lips, then held him there, peering into his glowing eyes. “Let’s go.”
“If you perish, just know my grief will turn day into night,” Victor vowed. “And I will not rest until my vengeance has burned through what remains of my empty soul.”
“Fucking hell... Is this goodbye going to go on much longer?” Tom rolled his eyes again. “Adam. You had better not die, my paycheck needs to clear.”
I was sure, in his own way, Tom loved us too. Probably.
“Wait, Tom. You’re plugged into the cameras, right? That’s a thing you can do?” I asked.
“Bartender one-oh-one, always watch your customers.”
Yeah... I wasn’t sure that was the bartender’s number one rule. “Where’s Syros right now?”
Tom reached out and flicked his fingers, but those fingers turned into static streams of sparkly energy and vanished into the screen nearest him. “In the exercise yard, trying to get through the fence.
“We can’t let that happen.” I caught Victor’s stricken gaze. He wanted to come too, wanted to protect us, but he also had several thousand Lost Ones to contain.
“Join us, Vic, when you’re done saving the prison,” Zee said.
“Keep him safe.”
“I will,” both Zee and I said together.
“This romantic moment is nice an’ all, but stop making eyes at each other and go already!”
“Right, yeah, okay... uh, bye.” We ducked out the door and raced down the corridor.
We could do this, we had to do this. I had faith.
And the best demon there ever was at my side.