Page 9 of Icy Reception (SOS HOTEL #9)

CHAPTER 9

How do you talk down an angry ice witch who thinks you’re trespassing without getting stabbed by a bunch of icy shards?

Her blue lips rippled in a snarl. She raised her right hand, and inside her grasp, a dagger-like piece of translucent ice formed.

“Wait!”

Surprisingly she hesitated, hand raised, nails glistening like tiny icicles.

Now I had to say something... something to convince her we weren’t here to do her harm unless she meant us harm, but also something to convince her I absolutely could do her harm if it came to that. “So uh... here’s the thing.”

“Is it the vampire?” Zee called, his voice muffled behind the ice door. “I get it, nobody likes vampires. I can get rid of him if that helps?”

She tilted her head and blinked. I really didn’t think it was Victor’s presence in particular making her angry, but all of us.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said again. What was that, three times now? But I hadn’t been stabbed again, so maybe it was progress? “We’re just trying to figure out what’s going on. If this is your house, then I’m sorry, we didn’t realize.”

Blue light glinted off the jagged shard in her fist.

“We’ll go . . . it’s just, those people . . . the frozen ones? Are they dead?”

“Who are you?” Her voice was soft but held an air of authority, and the accent wasn’t local or even American. Perhaps European of some kind?

“I’m Adam.” I touched my chest. “And the warrior demon is Zee. The vampire is Victor.”

Her shining eyes narrowed. “You have strength, Adam. You are of the old world.”

“I’m a Lost One. A uh... dragon?” Sometimes revealing what I was had people intrigued, other times it made them run screaming. As she studied me, she seemed to be leaning more toward intrigued.

“Dragon.” She lowered the ice dagger and with a wrist-flick, vanished it altogether. “It has been many seasons since I’ve conversed with your kind. Are your kin still oppressive kings of the wild lands?”

“Uh... Yeah, mostly. Although I’m kind of the only one left.” Sort of.

“That is good. Sad, but good.”

I had to agree with her, although I wasn’t all that sad about being the last.

As she wasn’t brandishing a dagger anymore, were we friends now?

“This is my home, Adam. You are trespassing. Why are you here?” Her voice tinkled like sighing ice, while crystals sparkled in her white hair.

“Hello?” Zee called. “Are we good? Or do I need to come back there and turn Elsa into a slushie?”

“It’s alright...” I checked the witch’s gaze. She nodded but remained suspicious. “Uh, can you maybe melt the door?” I asked the nice ice lady. “I promise they won’t hurt you.” At this moment. I wasn’t making any promises for later, not yet.

“Very well, but their actions are on you, dragon.” She jerked her head and the ice door dissolved, turning into a puddle of water.

Zee and Victor looked on, equal parts concerned and frustrated. Victor’s shirt was all bloody from the melted ice daggers that had just a few moments ago been stuck in his chest. He seemed to be doing okay, though.

“It’s fine, guys. We’re chatting. Nobody is going to hurt anyone, right...”

Victor’s fangs were out, and Zee’s tail was poised like a cobra about to strike. They were one wrong word away from attacking. “Uhm... What’s your name?” I asked her, hoping some time might defuse things.

“I am Stephanie Frostweaver.”

Oh. Like the hotel. The Stephanie Hotel. Huh. It really was her house.

“Huh, so is this your hotel?” Zee asked, coming to the same conclusion as me. He gave his head a shake, relaxing his stance. “Because we run a hotel too, and lady, you could use some pointers. Cameras in rooms... big no-no. Axe-wielding murder golems... also no. Turning people into popsicles?—”

“Zodiac,” Victor grumbled. “It may be wise to allow Frostweaver to answer your question before assuming you know how she should manage her own hotel.”

Stephanie scowled at Zee, then skipped her glittering gaze to Victor. “You, vampire, are of the old ways too.”

“Indeed.”

She swept her hands over her face and head, then down her sides, shaking off the icy blue aura and smoky cloak, replacing it with a much more subdued, pale-blue lace dress. But the lace was all messy and patched, as though it had been mended time and time again. Her braided white hair was almost as long as Victor’s, and fell over her shoulder in a single chunky braid. Tipped ears poked out from the hair on either side of her head. She was fae, like Agent Leomaris, but different, more... untamed. And I suspected, a whole lot more ancient, although she didn’t look much older than me.

Stephanie Frostweaver was likely the source of the storm and the frozen people.

“What is this word... hotel ?” Stephanie asked. She tilted her head, her movements small and sharp, like a bird’s tiny precise motions.

“Wait, you don’t know your home is a hotel?” I asked.

“I do not know what that word means.”

“How long have you been on this side of the veil, Frostweaver?” Victor asked, not using her first name. But from him, Frostweaver sounded right.

“It has been so long, vampire, I forget where the snowdrops fall and the ice recedes. Long before, these bricks fenced me in, and the incessant humming of machines drove me downward, into the earth.”

“Then you’ve been here several centuries, since before North America was settled?”

“Time and the seasons have passed beyond my grasp, but yes, before those from across the vast ocean claimed this land as their own. They fought their wars, and brought their great machines.”

“I see. And who built this dwelling around you?”

“My beloved... a mortal.” Ice crackled in her blue eyes. “He is gone now, like you should all be gone. You and the others and the endless stream of strangers trampling on my land. My guardian will see to it.”

“I see...” Victor discreetly caught my eye, then flicked his gaze back toward Stephanie. “A hotel is a place where people pay to rest overnight before moving on. Is this not your intended purpose for your home?”

“People... pay?” She blinked, clearly surprised. “Pay whom?”

“That appears to be the pertinent question.” Victor nodded for me to join him for a private chat at the other end of the chamber.

“Can we please uh... discuss this a moment? Me and my partners, I mean?” I asked Stephanie.

“As you wish. Then it is time for you to leave... for you all to leave. I am tired of it... of you.”

I waved Zee to join me with Victor at the far end of the chamber, by the staircase.

“This is weird, right?” Zee said. “It’s her home but she doesn’t know what’s going on above her head, and she keeps frozen dead people in giant jars?”

“She is one of the old fae,” Victor explained. “Those who dwelled on this side of the veil long before the influx of Lost Ones in recent times. Like early vampires, several fae integrated among humans many centuries ago?—”

Zee coughed—“So old!”—into his fist.

“She is a creature of the land,” Victor continued. “This beloved she spoke of, either took advantage of her and profited from the building constructed in her name, or more likely, someone else has since taken over its management and legacy without her knowledge. She is rightly angry and confused by her current situation. To her, everyone is a trespasser, and she probably keeps those who she believes wronged her in those glass containers. The golem is her protector. She’s been here so long, she is confused.”

“And afraid,” I added. “She lashed out because she fears the world she’s in now. I... feel it.”

“Yeah, but dead people in jars? Although Adam eats his enemies, so... I guess it’s not that weird. ”

“I do not eat—okay yeah, I do.” I cleared my throat. “Anyhoo, everything has to be connected to her, right? The new management, the riddle.”

“Maybe the new vampire management took over the hotel and are trying to get rid of her, but they haven’t been able to find her,” Zee suggested.

“That is possible,” Victor agreed. “I’d like to speak with her alone. Forgive my bluntness, but I’m more familiar with the ways of the Old Ones?—”

“Is it because you’re as old as the constitution?” Zee asked, fluttering his lashes.

“Older, and yes.”

“Ugh, you take all the fun out of it when you agree.”

“Agreement is not necessary when one is stating a fact.”

“Remind me why I love you again?”

Victor grinned... and as it was so rare, Zee and I stopped to stare. He cleared his throat and wiped the smile off his face. “Apologies. Zodiac’s confession briefly undermined my stoic barriers.”

“Alright,” I said. Now was not the time for the two of them to go all goofy for each other. “If you’re well enough, Victor, maybe see if you can get her to explain what she thinks is going on, and see if Eddie is down here, while Zee and I head back upstairs and see if her golem is gone. We’ll find Wesley too. I’m beginning to think he knows more than he’s letting on.”

“Yes, he did solve that riddle rather easily, and he has been missing during pertinent events.”

“Fuck yes. I am up for fangboy question time.” Zee cracked his knuckles and flashed a broad grin. “Violence is fun.”

“Adam, I do believe that if this is indeed Stephanie’s home and she is being exploited, then we should help her reclaim it. If we truly are heroes, then helping her is our responsibility and likely why we are here.”

“Destiny?” I smiled, agreeing with him.

“Perhaps,” he said coyly.

“Let’s go break some vampire legs.” At Victor’s frown, Zee quickly corrected himself. “I meant, let’s have a friendly chat with sucker-boy Wesley, obviously. And if he happens to fall out a window, then oops .”

As we turned to leave, Victor muttered, “Please do leave Wesley alive for later questioning.”

I grinned and gave Victor a little wave. It wasn’t as though I was going to eat Wesley, although Zee might give him anxiety. It depended on what the young vampire really knew about Stephanie Frostweaver’s hotel.