Page 4 of Icy Reception (SOS HOTEL #9)

CHAPTER 4

Zee was gone long enough that we began to worry he’d been caught, or kidnapped, or distracted by something shiny. Thankfully, not long after midnight, he poofed back into our room in a hail of sparks carrying an armful of plastic-wrapped mini sandwiches.

“You guys hungry?” His eyebrows bounced. He dumped the mini sandwiches on the table and tore off the wrap. “I met the chef. He was gonna throw all this out, so I rescued ’em. Destination, my fuckin’ insides.”

“You do recall your objective was to spy, which implies by its very nature that you were not to be seen?” Victor said cooly.

“Yeah, but it was just the chef. The rest of the place is deserted.” Zee flopped into a chair and tossed a tiny sandwich into his mouth, devouring it in a single bite. “I vote we stay here, ignore all the creepy shit, eat the tiny sandwiches, and check out in the morning.”

I gripped the back of a chair and glared at Zee. “We talked about this; we can’t leave. What else did you find—where’s Larimer? ”

“Larry is not at the front desk, and I even rang the bell.”

Victor sighed heavily enough for the both of us. “Demon, ringing the bell is also not stealthy.”

“Yeah, but there wasn’t anyone around, like I said. Who the fuck am I hiding from? All the guests are in their rooms. If our guests were this well behaved, managing our hotel would be so much fuckin’ easier. Maybe we should lock our hotel doors at night.”

“We can’t lock guests in, it’s wrong.”

“Did you learn anything of use besides how to get free sandwiches?” Victor asked, striding back to the table.

“Actually, Fancy Fangs, I did.” Grinning, Zee sat forward, rested his elbows on the table, and devoured another tiny sandwich. “The chef said shit got weird a few weeks ago when a new and mysterious management took over.”

“Interesting.” Victor eyed the pile of plastic-wrapped sandwiches. “Did the chef further enlighten you as to who this management were?”

“He did, actually. He said he’d heard they all wore suits.”

“Vampires,” Victor and I said together.

“Nobody fuckin’ likes vampires.”

I recalled the strange coat-wearing person I’d seen in the foyer. “When we arrived, I spotted someone I thought might be a vampire in reception, but when he saw me he left.”

“Was he wearing a suit and projecting epic-asshole accountant vibes?”

“No, he had on a winter coat, which was why I wasn’t certain. But maybe my instincts were onto something.”

“As the vampire representative in this conversation, I feel I must point out that not all vampires wear suits.”

Both Zee and I stared at Victor, currently wearing a crumpled suit. The jacket was draped over a nearby chair.

“But they are all assholes,” Zee confirmed .

“Regrettably,” Victor sighed. “I find myself agreeing with that sweeping generalization.”

“So what happens when a bunch of suckers takes over a hotel full of Lost Ones and humans, then locks ’em in?”

“Nothing good,” Victor said. “Although... elemental powers are not generally a vampire’s forte, suggesting they are likely working with another Lost One.”

“So what you’re saying is, the suckers outsourced the murdering.” Zee leaned back. “Like you did that time a million years ago when you hired werewolves to kill that nice old defenseless dragon.”

“I doubt that dragon was nice or defenseless,” I clarified. “But yeah, Zee’s probably right. This could be vampires working with a sorcerer. Gideon Cain’s ego was the only thing preventing him from doing the same with Daisy, the vampire queen.”

“But why?” Victor asked. “What is their intention?”

“It’s vampires.” Zee flapped a hand. “Probably killing time in their long boring fucked-up lives.”

When Victor didn’t immediately deny it, I looked up, and sure enough he was nodding. “Zodiac may be correct,” he said. “Since the fall of the queens and the rise of an elected council, many vampires find themselves directionless. There is no war here, and no queen to serve. While many like myself wish to integrate into human society, there are others who prefer we enslave it... but some are also likely bored. Immortality can be exceedingly dull.”

“Bored bloodthirsty suckers running a hotel? Fuck, I would not wanna stay there. Kitten, remind me why you didn’t pack Shareen?”

“Yeah, uh . . . uhm . . . I probably should have done that.”

Victor picked up a dainty sandwich and began to methodically study its angles. “There are other Lost Ones staying at the hotel. Perhaps we should engage their aid? ”

“We’d have to be careful not to reveal who we really are, though,” I reminded them. “If anyone posts about Reyzee on social media, Syros will see it.”

“Fuck your brother.”

“Indeed.”

“You gonna eat that sandwich or eye-fuck it some more?” Zee asked Victor.

Victor nibbled a small bite. “It is marginally better than satisfactory with an unusual hint of pepper.”

“See. Good things come in small packages, especially if you eat ’em all at once.”

Taking a seat, I tucked into the sandwiches. We had a few hours until morning, when the management would have to open the doors. As soon as we were able to freely walk about the hotel again, we could begin recruiting some of the guests and dig deeper into the Stephanie Hotel’s new vampire management.

The snick of the lock jolted me awake.

Ding-dong! “Good morning, guests. Please note the storm is still in full swing. We highly recommend you remain in the hotel for your own safety. Breakfast is about to be served in the restaurant.”

“Ooh, breakfast.” Zee was already up, towel-drying his hair while he walked around the room. He was shirtless, wings out and dusting glitter that vanished when it hit the floor, and looking effortlessly delicious in low-slung pants, especially to my sleep-addled brain. I admired him from my pillow... how his hips swayed, and his tail lazily flip-flopped. Watching him meant I didn’t have to think about the day ahead, but also, Zee was always worth watching.

Victor emerged from the bathroom, quick fingers buttoning his perfect shirt. His belt hung open, but he set that right pretty fast too, marching toward the door as though about to give the hotel management a proper talking to.

“I am going to investigate the restaurant and keep an eye on Larimer. Join me for breakfast when you’re ready, Adam.” And with that, he left.

I sat up and draped my wrists over my knees. Zee looked over, his towel-drying paused.

“That was abrupt,” I said.

“He doesn’t like being shut in. I tried to help ease some of that daddy tension, but I dunno if I helped. I mean, I sensed he enjoyed it, but there’s a lot going on in that handsome ancient head.” Zee tossed the towel over the back of a chair, parked his ass on the end of the bed, and grabbed my feet under the blanket, like he did sometimes when he needed to think. “He knows when I say I hate suckers I don’t mean him, right?”

“For sure. But do you think he’s angry the bad guys are vampires?” I asked. “Again.”

“Probably. Can’t be easy knowing your whole race are murdering assholes...” Zee trailed off as he saw my face. “Ah, yeah, right. I guess you know what that’s like.”

“Yeah. It gets exhausting.” Yawning, I ruffled my hair and rubbed the weariness from my face. We’d talked more ideas around and around last night, but without being able to leave our room we hadn’t made much progress, and after being locked in we’d all been too on-edge to indulge in each other. “We’d better go down for breakfast.”

“I got Daddy Vampire.” Zee got to his feet and grabbed a shirt from over the back of a chair, but he only managed three buttons before getting bored and abandoning the others. He’d have looked good dressed in a trash bag and crocs. “Meet us there when you’re ready.”

“You sure?”

“Pfft. I am a pro at melting emotional walls of ice like the one Fancy Fangs puts up to keep everyone at arm’s length. I have definitely got this.”

“Okay, Zee.” I flung the sheets off my legs, then added with a grin, “Hey, keep him out of trouble.”

Zee saluted, vanished his wings, and headed out of the room, clicking the door closed behind him. He would keep Victor safe. Despite their bickering, name slinging, verbal abuse, endless teasing, disagreements, and occasional off-the-charts sexual tension, they made a great team.

I showered fast, and had a go at controlling my bouncy hair with Zee’s weird hair wax, but somehow I glued myself to a towel. Once free, I pulled on a faded yellow T-shirt and jeans and was about to head out when a soft knock sounded at the door.

Zee wouldn’t knock, he’d just poof in, and Victor’s knock consisted of three perfect knuckle raps, each equally timed.

This knock belonged to someone else.

Standing on my tiptoes, I peeked through the peephole but found it blacked out. Huh.

The handle dipped. The door inched inward.

Someone was coming in.

I hopped behind the opening door and plastered my back against the wall. I probably should have said something like hello. Not everyone was a murderer. Maybe it was housekeeping?

Fabric rustled, and a hulking figure ventured into the room step by shuffling step.

Housekeeping probably didn’t carry an axe... but this person did.

Oh, okay then.

Maybe there was a perfectly good reason to enter guests’ rooms with an axe?

Their fingers flexed on the thick leather-wrapped handle, but the hood of their sweater hid their head, obscuring their facial features. Maybe I could rush them, take them down... but that would mean more attention on us, and as I was supposed to be human, again... What would a human do?

The figure took two more steps into the middle of the room, and paused as though... waiting?

I bolted from behind the door, dashed from the room, bounced off the hallway wall, sprinted down the corridor, and tore down the huge staircase. Taking the treads two at a time, I made it to the ground floor, followed the arrows to the restaurant, and burst in on the breakfast service.

A few people looked up. One of the staff tried to stop me and ask for a room number. I spotted Zee getting coffee from a machine and Victor alone at table and hurried over.

“Uh, Victor.” I dropped into a seat opposite him, and breathing hard whispered, “So... uhm... there’s-an-axe-murderer-in-our-room .”

Victor frowned. “Adam, take a moment and please repeat.”

“In our room . . . an axe . . . a man . . . or a woman, I’m not sure . . . holding an axe . . . like this.” I demonstrated, hands up, gripping an imaginary axe over my shoulder, still huffing. “Big . . . axe . . . I ran.”

Victor’s scowl turned thoughtful. “Was the axe bloodstained?”

“Oh uh... No?” I should have thought of that. Maybe the whole thing had been innocent?

“Did you speak with them?”

“No, I uh—the axe didn’t look friendly.”

Zee appeared, carrying two plates of stacked pancakes. “Kitten, I have pancakes with blueberries or pancakes with bacon. I’m thinking mix and match, then more bacon for dessert.”

“Adam was just alarmed to find someone entering our room carrying an axe. ”

“What?” Zee straightened and dumped the plates on the table with a clatter. “Imma see about that.” Tiny purple sparks danced over the white tablecloth. He was gearing up to translocate.

“Don’t.” I grabbed his wrist. “We’re supposed to be human . No poofing .”

“You mean I gotta walk my fabulous ass up all those stairs again?”

“Zodiac, you and I will investigate,” Victor said, leaving his chair. “Adam, remain here and eat some breakfast. It appears you will need the energy.”

“And don’t let anyone steal our table. That French couple over there look sus,” Zee added, eyeing the packed room, tail lashing, as though suspecting every person of wanting to steal his seat and his pancakes.

He stabbed a piece of pancake with a fork, shoved it into his mouth, and the pair of them strode off, trying not to rush. They did draw a few gazes, probably for being in LARP costume at breakfast.

I sighed and sat back, trying to relax. They were capable of handling an axe-wielding maybe-murderer, but so was I. I should have talked to the axe person. “Hello, that’s a nice axe...” Maybe they’d wandered into the wrong room? Although... the door had been locked, unless Zee had accidentally left it open. That’s probably what had happened. Someone in costume had mistaken our room for theirs.

Not being human while pretending to be human again was turning out to be very confusing.

I devoured a few pancakes, counting down the seconds, then the minutes, and just as I readied myself to head back upstairs, Zee and Victor returned, their expressions guarded. “And?” I urged as they sat down at our table. Their mutual silence was concerning.

“So uhm... Kitten?” Zee leaned closer and whispered, “ Did you leave the guy alive or dead when you fled the scene?”

I did not like where this was going. “Alive. Why?”

Zee glanced at Victor, and it was Victor who said, “Because alive is not how we found him.”

“He’s dead?” I whispered harder. Victor nodded.

“Are you sure you didn’t kill him?” Zee asked. “By accident?”

“Accidentally killing someone is not something that—wait, never mind.” We had definitely killed people by accident more than once. But not this time.

“I had to ask. Sometimes you’re real strong without knowing it, which is a fuckin’ turn-on, just maybe not for the axe-wielding maniac.”

Couldn’t we go anywhere without people dying around us? “Look, I’m sure I didn’t kill him. He was in the middle of the room when I ran, like humans run. Remember, we’re being humans pretending to be us? So I couldn’t confront him. Now I wish I had.”

“If you had, you’d have an axe-shaped hole in your chest.” Zee grabbed the plate of cold pancakes and tucked in. “Hm, bacon ish the besht, an’ ish made of vegshtables so ish healfy too.”

Wait, bacon was a vegetable? That was a discussion for another time. “So where is he?”

“Where all dead bodies go,” Zee said, then shoveled more bacon between his lips. “Ihn the closhet.”

“Oh. Okay.” I sat back. “Uhm... This is not good.”

“I know! Thersh no maple shrrup.”

Victor sat in silence, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Zodiac, must you eat at this precise moment?”

Zee rolled his eyes and wiped a napkin over his mouth. “I’m not allowed on my socials, so yeah. Unless you wanna head back up to the hotel room and fuck my brains out, then imma eat.”

Victor held Zee’s glare. “That can easily be arranged.”

Zee gulped. “Fuck.” He choked on a cough. Sexual tension sizzled between them, and Zee’s pupils swelled, probably some other parts of him too. “I mean, with a dead guy in the closet? I guess that’s like an average Saturday for suckers. Kink unlocked. For the record, I am not saying no, I’m just internally working through some hang-ups while deciding?—”

“Not with a body in the closet,” I interrupted, before their combined sexual tension spontaneously combusted our table.

“Right, yeah.” Zee rolled his eyes. “Not with a body in the closet. Eew, Fancy Fangs. What were you thinking? Suckers are so weird.”

This wasn’t the SOS Hotel. We couldn’t just shove a body into a portal and forget about it. Or have the gremlins eat it. Or bury it in the flower beds. “We need to deal with him.”

Maybe Zee’s new chef friend could chop him up and put him in tiny sandwiches?

Unlikely.

“We have to go back to the room and figure out what to do with the dead guy.”

After charging the breakfast to our room, we headed upstairs. Victor swiped the room card, unlocked the door, and in we all went. Everything appeared as it should. I spotted the camera in the corner, still smeared in hair wax—it wouldn’t have seen or heard anything—there weren’t any blood stains or signs of a struggle, and the air smelled of clean linen and Zee’s shampoo.

“You ready?” Zee approached the closet, one of four built-ins meant for guests’ suits and dresses.

“Yup.” I’d seen more corpses than was probably normal. Eaten a few too. Like Zee, dragons needed a lot of fuel to dragon, and sometimes that meant eating whatever was around... but I mostly ate small ones. I could technically eat this big guy, but it would be time consuming and real messy.

Zee opened the closet door to reveal?—

An empty closet.

“The fuck—” He rummaged through a fallen pile of those zip-up suit bag things, then opened the next closet, then the next, until all four were open and not a body in sight.

“This is unexpected,” Victor said from behind me.

“Yah think?” Zee stomped back to the first cupboard. “He was right there, Kitten. We squished him inside, which wasn’t easy. He was not fuckin’ small.”

I approached the cupboard and got a good look inside. No blood. No scuffs. Nothing. It didn’t even smell like it would if a dead guy had been inside it. “Are you sure you guys put a dead body in here?”

“As sure as my wings are the best.” Zee threw his hands open at Victor, inviting him to explain, but Victor just stood back, arms folded, rubbing his chin in thought. “Hello, Fancy Fangs? You wanna chime in here?”

“It appears the body has been removed.”

“Wow, thank you for that enlightening fuckin’ assessment. We are so glad you’re the clever one.”

“But by who?” I asked. Crouching, I poked through the suit zip-bags Zee had thrown around. If the body had been removed and the closet cleaned, we’d smell cleaning spray. I believed them—they weren’t likely to mistake a body—but its sudden absence didn’t make sense. Neither did its sudden arrival.

What was going on here?

A clunk sounded as something heavy clanged against the bottom of the closet. Digging the bags out revealed an old metal key lying on the cupboard floor—one of those big dramatic-looking skeleton keys. We had a few like it that unlocked the oldest and probably haunted parts of the SOS Hotel.

“What’s that?” Zee leaned over my shoulder as I picked up the key. On its thick middle part, scratches gleamed. I brushed a thumb over the marks, clearing off the dust and lint. Not scratches... engravings.

“Are those words?” Zee asked.

Taking the key to the nearest lamp, I flicked it on and shoved the key under the light. They were words, for sure. “Verity hides beneath light’s prison,” I read aloud.

Zee huffed and his tail thrashed, whipping up his anger and frustration. “Who the fuck is Verity, and why is her key in this closet where a dead guy is supposed to be?”

“It’s not a name. Verity means truth,” Victor explained, joining us by the lamp. “May I see?” He took the key from me and examined it. “This key is as old as this hotel. I estimate at least one hundred and fifty years.”

It was probably valuable. “Should we take it to lost property?”

“Should we? Yes. Will we?” Victor handed it back. “That may be unwise. There are malevolent forces at work within this hotel. Endless storms, frozen bodies, disappearing corpses, and that’s without mentioning the surveillance.”

“You just mentioned it,” Zee said, pointing a finger.

Victor ignored him. “Had the key been here before, Zodiac would have discovered it when he rummaged through every cupboard and drawer upon our arrival.”

“That’s true. It wasn’t in there earlier.”

“So someone took the body of the axe murderer and left us this old key?” It seemed... unlikely. Welcome to my life, where every day was unlikely. “Why?”

“To solve the riddle,” Victor said.

“Why do we have to solve it?” Zee whined. “Why does weird shit always happen to us? I vote we check out, get back on the road, and wave bonjour to this weird-ass hotel and its creepy concierge.”

“We can still do that.” The key had warmed from my touch. It had to be for this hotel, and it did seem as though it had been deliberately left for us to find. Perhaps we should walk away. We already had enough going on with my brother hunting us across North America. But I wasn’t sure I could walk away from the key and its riddle. I’d always wonder... why. I looked up and met Zee’s unimpressed frown. “Aren’t you curious?”

His purple eyebrows hiked up his forehead. “Nope.”

“Really?” He was always curious.

“No fuckin’ way.” He folded his arms. “Curiosity killed the bat. Do you wanna be like the bats, Kitten? Extinct?”

“Bats are not extinct,” Victor said.

“Well, they would be if they went chasing after creepy riddles.” A gust of howling wind rattled the window. “See, even the weather fuckin’ agrees.”

“We cannot leave until this storm passes,” Victor said.

I approached Zee and dangled the key in front of his face. His gaze tracked its swing. “Not even a little bit intrigued? We’re stuck here anyway. What’s the harm in looking around to kill time?”

Huffing, he turned his face away. “Nuh-uh. Nope. No.”

“An old key with a mysterious riddle in an ancient hotel? What if it leads to shiny treasure?”

He pouted. His tail flopped, no longer thrashing. “What kind of shiny treasure?” He side-eyed me.

“We won’t know if we don’t look,” I sang.

Victor joined me and Zee in the middle of the room. “If there is something of value hidden in this hotel, then that is likely why the vampires are here.”

“Suckers are after this?” Zee swiped the key from my fingers and scowled at it. “Fuck. Fine. I’m in. Whatever it opens, vampires getting their hands on it will be bad.” He handed it back and I dropped its heavy weight into my pocket.

“Alright, so we’re doing this, which means we need to figure out the clue.”

“Agreed. But we must remain vigilant. Whoever moved the body had access to this room while it was locked. Nowhere in this hotel is safe.”

“What a bundle of fuckin’ laughs you are.” Zee huffed and folded his arms again, clearly still not entirely on board with the riddle-solving idea. “So, if we gonna find this Verity girl, we have to find light’s prison?”

“Not a person,” Victor said again. “But if we want to find the truth , then we must determine what light’s prison is .”

“A lamp?” I suggested, glancing at the one we’d used to read the key under.

“There are like... five hundred lamps in this hotel.” Zee flopped into a chair and kicked his boots up onto the table, getting comfortable now we were officially staying. “You know who’d be good at riddling this shit out? Tom Collins. You remember he wrote those cryptic clues on the bar ceiling for us to find?”

He had done that. He could just have written “Gone to Gideon Cain’s,” but instead he’d decided to be cryptic, for reasons known only to him.

“If you enjoy inciting his wrath,” Victor said, moving to the window again to watch the snowflakes flutter against the glass. “By all means, call him.”

“Sounds like Daddy Fangs is scared of our barman.”

“With good reason. Anyone who is not a little wary around a djinn is a fool.”

Zee rolled his eyes at Victor’s gloomy tone and slipped his phone from his pocket. “Fuck.” He waved it around. “No signal. ”

“The storm is likely blocking it, and the hotel does not have Wi-Fi,” Victor explained.

Zee tossed his now useless phone onto the table. “Then you, Brainy McFangs, figure something out.”

“If we get access to a landline, we can call our hotel’s reception desk,” Victor said. “Tom Collins will then be able to join us in a limited capacity... assuming he agrees to assist us.”

Having Tom here would be like having our own profanity-riddled ghost. With the potential for the doors to be locked again, and Zee’s questionable stealth skills, Tom could be useful.

“There’s a phone on Larimer’s front desk,” I said, then settled my gaze on Zee.

Victor was looking at Zee too.

Zee’s grin grew. “Hark, did I just hear the word... distraction ?”

“Can you lure Larimer away from his desk long enough for me to make a call?” I asked.

“Kitten.” He cracked his knuckles in front of him and jumped to his feet. “You do be askin’ an artiste . Now lemme cook.” He strutted out of the room, calling back, “You guys comin’?”

“This will be interesting,” Victor mused, with a little sparkle of anticipation in his silver eyes.