Page 16 of Icy Reception (SOS HOTEL #9)
CHAPTER 16
As I’d said to Zee, as dragon I was not a precision weapon. Fire consumed everything in front of me. The blast of heat and flame tore off the front of the hotel and flung it, scorched and burning, across the snow-laden street.
Then I kept right on burning until all the air in my dragon lungs was gone and I could be sure Frostweaver was ash.
When I stopped, a strange, soft kind of peace fell over the hotel and me. A few broken floorboards fell from above and clattered to the scorched hotel tiles. With a huff, I plodded through the giant hole I’d made, shook bits of glass and debris off my scales, and searched for my friends and partners.
There, gathered together in a small group down the street, stood the hotel guests, with Zee and Wesley among them.
“Whoohoo!” Zee cheered.
The others chimed in too, and my withered dragon heart swelled. Maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t the bad dragon my whole family had made me out to be. Maybe I’d always been the only good one, and that was why they’d all wanted me gone .
I grinned. They stopped clapping, shrinking back.
Okay, so maybe a mouthful of enormous dragon teeth wasn’t the most comforting of sights.
The snow had stopped, and a few breaks in the cloud showed glimpses of crisp blue sky.
Stephanie may not have survived, or her hotel, or her beloved, or the chef, but the rest of us had. That wasn’t so bad.
Now to check on Victor.
“Hey, big guy...” Zee had made his way over and stood between my two front feet. Each of my claws was as long as he was tall. “I’ll go get Fancy Fangs and the others. Just enjoy being you for a little while.” His grin slipped sideways. “You’re fuckin’ huge, in a badass dragon kinda way.”
He was sweet. I chuffed a laugh and watched him flap his wings, hopping over the hotel debris.
The SOS cosplayers gradually made their way over—it’s not every day you get to see a dragon up close. Most days folks ran screaming, but not today.
Resting my snout on my front legs, I let them amble around. Of course they took pictures, and now the storm was gone those pictures were probably already online. Syros would come, but I’d worry about that in a little while.
Right now it was nice just to be me, and to not have people running away screaming.
After a little while, I spotted a vehicle at the far end of the street, its warning lights flashing. A huge scoop swept up the snow ahead of it, fanning it to one side.
A chill skittered through my bones, and I lifted my head to the sky. Clouds had snuffed out the brief moment of blue sky and sunlight, and although it would be back, it was time for us to leave.
Huffing at the people to back up, I gave myself a shake, and reluctantly packed all my dragon self back into its tiny human package, then brushed the dirt off my clothes and from my hair. A whole bunch of thankful people crowded around, eager to shake my hand and slap me on the back. It was all very embarrassing, but heartwarming too. We really could make a difference.
“Dragons are awesome!” one of the SOS Hotel Adam lookalikes said.
“Not all of them,” I warned, then with a goodbye smile, headed around the back of the hotel to where we’d left the van.
Its pink paint was almost hidden under snow. We needed to move on before anyone called the SSD or local police. Any delay would give my brother the advantage. I started sweeping the snow off the van, then one of the guests joined in, and another. They didn’t ask why we had to go, but I was beginning to think they might suspect we weren’t just on vacation.
Wesley and Eddie arrived, with Eddie wrapped in a fluffy hotel gown.
“Is she gone?” Wesley asked, his hand laced with Eddie’s.
“She’s definitely gone.” I yanked open the van door and hopped into the driver’s seat. If the rusted heap of junk started, it would be a miracle... but the old girl hadn’t let us down yet. Apart from that time she hadn’t started outside the No Tel Motel and my brother had almost eaten us all.
“You could stay around for a few days?” Wesley suggested. “The press will want?—”
“Uhm, no. We uh . . . we have a thing . . . down the road . . . Hero assignment. Very important.”
Wesley smiled but narrowed his eyes too. “Right.”
I pressed the van’s start button. It coughed, shuddered, whined, then grumbled to life. “Huh.” After a quick pat on the steering wheel, I turned to face Wesley. “Have you seen Victor and Zee? ”
“Oh yeah, they’re on their way over.”
The pair of them were making their way through the slushy snow, carrying our bags. I caught the tail end of Victor’s incredulous question... “You failed to bring a woman to climax?”
“Why you gotta make it sound weird?”
“My dear Zodiac, you already made it uncomfortable several minutes ago when initiating this conversation.”
“I was just tryin’ to fuckin’ explain how we’re never gonna speak of it ever again, right?”
“Of course.” Victor’s glinting gaze caught mine. “Never again. Certainly not on the hour, every hour, during the next leg of our impromptu journey.”
A surge of relief lifted a great weight off my back and pulled a grin onto my face. He was okay. “Hey, there you are. You okay?”
“I’m fine, as are the rest of those who were in the cellar. They’d like to meet you, my dear. Their infamous dragon savior.”
A quick glance at the sky revealed heavy clouds—clouds a dragon could hide behind. “I’d uh, like that, but I think we need to get moving.”
“Where are you guys headed?” Eddie asked, sliding open the back door so Zee could load our bags.
“Somewhere hot,” Zee said. “With sun and swimming pools and the only ice we got is cubes in mah cocktail.”
Speaking of cocktails. “Where’s Tom?” I asked.
“He left. Said he still had a hotel to run and that when we’ve stopped fucking around our hotel will be waiting for us. He also said that now he’s a manager he’s given himself a pay rise. Can he do that. Can I do that?”
“Frankly, I doubt we could stop him,” Victor said, climbing into the back of the van. If we were going somewhere sunny and warm, he was going to need the UV-protected back windows.
“It was nice meeting yah.” Eddie smiled and reached out to take my hand in a grateful shake.
“Likewise.”
“I guess suckers aren’t all bad,” Zee admitted, sliding into the front passenger seat next to me.
“Just the bad ones, huh?” Wesley grinned. “Will we ever see you guys again?”
“Given how trouble finds us, you should probably hope you don’t,” Victor said, then gave them a little saluting wave and slid the back door closed.
“Well, thanks again, and good luck on your next adventure.”
Wesley waved us off, and with a bit of care, I trundled the van out of the slush-covered lot and onto the freshly plowed street. A few of the guests stood outside the ruined hotel, waving, and Zee hung out the passenger window to wave back.
I’d have liked to stay and help clear up the mess, but we needed to get as much road under us as possible. Our little pink van was going to have to keep on rolling non-stop for several days and nights.
And in that time, I had to think of a way of stopping my brother.
Zee was getting stronger.
What about Victor? I flicked my gaze to him in the rearview mirror, and caught his quick glance back. We should try some one-on-one personal time to test if he got a boost like Zee.
“What is on your mind, my dear?” Victor asked.
“A few things . . .”
“You didn’t fuckin’ ask me, but imma tell you anyway.” Zee plucked a lollipop from somewhere and sucked it between his lips. “Wall-to-wall sunshine, pristine beaches, top-to-tail body massage, and nobody out to get us.”
“I doubt that place exists outside of your alarming imagination.”
“It must, right? This is America. They got everything here. We just keep driving south, and eventually we’ll find paradise. Right, Adam?”
“Sure.” Wherever we went next, it couldn’t be worse than the Stephanie Hotel.