Page 6 of Icy Reception (SOS HOTEL #9)

CHAPTER 6

I flung on a fluffy white hotel gown and dashed from the room. Fire alarms wailed, and the sprinklers still rained all over me and others leaving their rooms, but I didn’t care about any of that.

Victor . . . I had to find Victor.

I’d done something to Zee. Something bad .

“Victor?!”

I’d left Zee on the bed, not moving... breathing but not moving. Out cold.

What if I’d hurt him? Really hurt him?

Where was Victor? “Victor?!”

“Adam.” Victor appeared, meeting me halfway down the grand staircase. He must have seen the fear on my face. He grabbed my shoulders, holding firm.

“I think I hurt him,” I mumbled.

“Back to the room.” Victor stuck by my side as we hurried back up the stairs.

“We were uhm... you know... and it was good. Real good. But then... I don’t know.” We reached the landing. The sprinklers had stopped but the carpet squished under my bare feet. “I think I maybe hurt him with too much sex,” I whispered.

“He’s an incubus. There’s no such thing as too much sex.”

What was the opposite of hurting someone? Cuddling them? No, that wasn’t it.

Victor flung open our suite door, letting out a flood of purple light.

Neon purple poured over us, radiating off the figure in the middle of the room. Enormous sparkling wings throbbed with purple fire. Zee turned to face us, cocked a hip, and grinned. “Guys, I am so fucking high right now. Like... I can see into the fucking future or some shit, and it’s so bright. There are bubbles and butterflies.”

He was alright! More than alright. He was glowing and talking and brilliant.

“Close the door,” Victor urged. “Before someone sees him.”

I clicked the door closed and snicked the lock over, just in case Wesley got any ideas. “Zee, are you okay?”

“Am I okay? Am I fucking okay?!” he laughed. “Kitten, I’m like... It’s like I’m on a roller coaster, an orgy roller coaster, riding the climax! I can feel everyone in this fuckin’ hotel—feel what they’re feeling—and it’s a fuckin’ rush. Whooo!” His purple hue brightened, throbbing with its own kind of beat.

“Perhaps you can tone down the light show?” Victor asked, squinting away.

“Nope, tried. I’m on literal fuckin’ fire!” He strutted over to Victor, raining sparks with every hip-swaying step, then finger-walked up Victor’s chest. “I could eat you right up, Daddy Vampire. Imma blow your mind while I blow your load.”

Victor’s silvery eyes reflected Zee’s purple sparks, and for a breathless second he almost looked as though he’d take Zee up on that offer. They stood in some kind of silent standoff, with Zee slowly and provocatively licking his lips and Victor’s fangs gradually growing.

“Uh... Just so we’re clear, you are okay, Zee?” I asked.

“Kitten, I am more than okay. I am a sex god. Pretty sure I could make everyone in this hotel come with a click of my fingers.” He raised his right hand, fingers poised.

“Don’t do that,” Victor warned in his thick, gravelly, post-sex voice.

“It’d be fun, though, wouldn’t it?” Zee grinned.

Clearing his throat, Victor took a few steps back, adjusting his trousers. “I uh... I need a moment.” He moved to the table, then gripped the back of the chair and bent forward, breathing hard.

“I can help you with that painful case of wanting to fuck me.”

Victor’s responding growl was one of restraint. “Zodiac, your allure is out of control.”

“I know. It’s fuckin’ awesome.”

“Not awesome. Exceedingly overpowering.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, still trying to catch up with whether this was a good or a bad thing, and how it had even happened.

“I’m a sex god is what’s going on. Look at me. Peak fuckin’ incubus, right here.”

“Adam, have you and Zodiac been intimate since your curse failed and you stopped hiding who you really are?” Victor asked, forcing the words through his gritted teeth.

“Sure, lots of times.”

“Without me?”

“Uh...” I glanced at Zee for his help remembering, but he’d moved to the mirror and was busy striking poses to admire his flaming wings. “Maybe not?”

“I suspect, in the absence of your third providing balance, your innate power has boosted Zodiac beyond his normal limits,” Victor said, finally straightening and looking over at me. “We witnessed it with the SOS Hotel wards. All of that energy focused on Zee has resulted in... this.”

“ This ?” Zee pressed his wings closed, like a resting butterfly, and eyed Victor through narrow slits. “Now who’s jealous?”

“I am not jealous. I’m struggling to think clearly around the desperate urge to both feed from you and fuck you, and if I’m feeling this, then so will everyone else in the hotel. You must stay here. You cannot leave this room.”

“Fuck that. Imma show off my wings. Those fake Zees can get on their knees and worship me like the god I am.”

Even I suspected that would be a bad idea. “I think Victor’s right.”

“No, nope.” Zee folded his arms. “I haven’t felt this good in forever. These last few days have sucked. Imma enjoy it.”

“Vanish your wings,” Victor told him.

“Huh?”

“Hide your wings.”

Zee shrugged a shoulder and looked away. “I don’t want to right now.”

“You can’t.”

“Yes I can.”

“Do it then. Hide them.”

“I’ll do it later.”

Oh dear. He couldn’t turn off the power-up. There was no way we could investigate the riddle and find Wesley’s missing friend with a walking purple firework beside us demanding everyone look at him. Worse, he’d end up alluring all the humans in the hotel, turning them into Zodiac-obsessed zombies.

I threw off the gown and shrugged my shirt back on. “ Sorry Zee. I think you need to stay here or we’ll have a riot on our hands as well as everything else going on.”

“You’re benching me because you gave great head?” He dropped onto the end of the bed. “How is this my fault?”

“It’s for your own safety,” I said. “You saw what happened with the bead, remember?” He’d swallowed a magic power-up bead and something similar had happened then, making everyone suddenly go crazy around him. “But now we know we can uhm... boost you with a blow job, I guess.”

He rolled his eyes. “Just so you guys understand what you’ve got, I could reduce your badass dragon brother to a quivering, desperate wreck of a man right now, Kitten. Bench me at your peril.”

Victor broke from his invisible restraints, dashed across the room and bent Zee almost backwards in his arms as he landed a kiss designed to carve out his soul. Zee’s wings flared, burning so brightly with that cool purple flame that I couldn’t make out who was who, and then Victor backed off. “I will make it up to you... personally.”

Zee wiped a thumb across his own bottom lip. “You’d better, vampire.”

“Adam, while we wait for this spontaneous chaos Zodiac has created to subside, it might be a good time to further investigate the hotel and see if we can decipher the clue found on the key.”

“We have news on that.” I told Victor everything Tom had said during his brief visit, and Victor agreed, the chandelier was a great place to start. “Zee, you’re staying here?” I checked.

“Yes. Fine. Ugh. Have fun without me, I guess.” He flopped back, and without looking, stuck his middle finger up at Victor. “You suck.”

We stepped out into the hall and locked the door behind us—to keep others out, not Zee in. Zee could just poof out if he wanted to.

“He’s truly very powerful, Adam. His allure is overwhelming. I have confidence that he could in this moment bring your brother to his knees.”

“Maybe.” It was worth noting for when—if Syros caught up with us.

The lobby was a hive of activity, with guests crowding out Larimer’s desk, keeping him more than occupied. Victor and I carved a path through the mingling people and came to a stop beneath the enormous sparkling glass chandelier. The truth was under it, so... I stepped back and looked down at the patterned tiled floor and immediately spotted something odd. The repeating tiles all mapped out the same geometric design of tiny squares and triangles, but the tile beneath the chandelier was a different color to the others.

This had to be it.

Victor saw it too, and knelt to tie his shoelace.

There were enough people in the foyer that nobody paid attention to us, but I kept an eye out for anyone nearby, readying an excuse.

Victor used a nail to pick at the tile’s edges, but it wasn’t budging.

I could do it. With a snick , I freed the claws on my right hand and switched places with him. Now it was my turn to tie my shoelace. Digging around the tile’s edge, I managed to sink a claw beneath it and pop it out. Inside, covered in decades if dust and old cobwebs, sat a small wooden box no larger than my hand. I lifted it out, popped it into my pocket, and replaced the tile.

My grin met Victor’s slanted smile.

We had our prize.

And that should have been it, until a smooth, gorgeous, playful voice sailed from behind the bar door.. .

“You can stand under my umbrella.”

I knew that voice. I checked Victor’s face. He closed his eyes and gave his head a single exasperated shake. “I believe he’s singing ‘Umbrella,’” Victor said. “By Rihanna.”

Of course he was. Because the one place Zee shouldn’t be while brimming with incubus allure was the hotel bar singing “Umbrella.”

The groups of people in the lobby began to file into the bar, like moths to a flame, and by the time we managed to squeeze into the room, Zee’s epic performance was reaching its climax. There was no hiding who he was, not when his every step shook glitter from his wings and he owned that bartop as though he were performing in Vegas. Or like Tom Holland’s “Umbrella” Lip Sync battle video that Zee demanded I watch on repeat.

“I fear this is the end of our attempt to hide,” Victor confirmed, eyes glued to Zee’s sensual dancing.

The demon cat was well and truly out of the bag and grinding someone’s umbrella. To be fair to Zee, asking him to sit this one out while he was high on power was probably always going to be a long shot.

Most of the crowd were filming him, and probably trying to live stream it too. Hopefully, the storm would keep them from posting on social media.

“He did pretty well to last this long.”

“Indeed, but the last thing he needs is more power.”

The crowd were enthralled. He really did need to be careful. There were humans here, and we’d seen what his allure could do to a susceptible human mind. It didn’t end well for them.

But he did appear to have the crowd under control. Nobody was trying to rush him, and they were all having a great time.

While Zee gave it his all, making the most of his wings and tail, scattering brilliant sparks over his audience, I dug the old wooden box from my pocket and moved to the back wall. Nobody was going to pay us any attention with Zee in his prime. They were all dancing and jumping along to the energetic song anyway.

Victor leaned against my arm, and as he watched I dug out the riddle key, slotted it into the keyhole, and popped the box’s lid. An old moth-eaten bit of rag concealed something inside.

“I do hope it’s not a finger.”

I grinned at Victor’s joke, and taking the heavy item from inside, I handed the box to him and carefully unwrapped the gift. Polished silver shimmered under Zee’s purple hue. I peeled more of the old rag away, revealing a silver concierge bell just like the one on Larimer’s desk. Perhaps the hotel’s original service bell?

“Remarkable.”

I handed over the bell, and watched as he turned it over in his hands, examining every sculpted curve.

“This is pure silver, Adam.”

“Why would someone hide it under the floor and then write a riddle on a key to find it?”

“It is an intriguing mystery.”

“Do you think the new vampire management are looking for this bell?”

“That is highly likely, but as for what it has to do with trapping guests in this hotel, I do not know.”

“Perhaps it’s just worth a lot of money?”

“Undoubtedly, but I do not think money is their motivation. Perhaps it’s time we reveal who we are.” He lifted his gaze to Zee’s closing crescendo. “So that I might introduce myself in an official capacity to the management.”

Zee closed out to rapturous applause, grinning and glowing like the powerful incubus he was. Seeing that smile, there was no way I could stop him from being himself.

“Hey, are you the Adam Vex?” a guest asked after approaching us.

“Uh . . . yeah?”

“You’re a real dragon, right?” His smile grew, eyes widening.

“Uhm, yes, I am, I guess.”

The young guy thrust out his hand. “You stopped that dick, Cain.”

“Well uhm, not alone,” I said, shaking his hand. “Victor and uh, Zee?—”

“This is the coolest thing ever!” He shook Victor’s hand too, and waved over his friends. “Heroes of the City right here!”

It looked as though we were all coming out.