Page 20 of Dark Fey Captive

I nodded, accepting the food.

“Stay here,” he repeated. Then he shocked the heck out of me by grabbing the back of my head and leaning in.

Shit. Was he going for a kiss?

Before I could decide how to react, he pressed his forehead to mine and closed his eyes.

Stunned, I stared at the up-close view of his nose. It was a nice nose. Long. Straight with a slight bump on the bridge.

“Be safe, Arena.”

He turned and left, closing the room’s door firmly behind him. I stood there, unsure how to interpret what had just happened. He’d obviously wanted more from me than information, but he hadn’t pushed for it. Not to trade, and not before he left.

Was he really going to wait for me to be willing, or was he already thinking of Gwen? She was tall, blonde, and had the athletic build guys tended to go for—lean, but with plenty of curves.

Knowing I didn’t have much time before he returned, I hurriedly checked the room for anything useful. The nightstands and dresser were empty. But I found the shredded remains of my clothes behind the shower curtain. It looked like he’d ripped everything from me. None of it was usable.

Not even my bra to signal the group.

I needed to find another one. The hotel was easily visible from the docks. If I hung a bra from a top-floor window, the others would see it and leave me.

Looking down at the damp mess, I realized my coat and underwear were missing. So were his clothes.

Shivering, I hurried back to the bed to soak up his residual heat and consider what to do next. First, I needed clothes. Then, I needed to figure out whether I was infected. And while figuring that out, I needed to keep Nav’s attention on me so he didn’t think of the others. How did I do that without pushing him into “I’ll take what I want” territory?

A groan sounded in the hallway.

I tensed and looked at the door, noticing the broken trim for the first time.

Fuck.

Slipping from the covers, I crept across the space and stood on my toes to look through the peephole. It was hard to see anything in the dimly lit hallway.

However, something thumped out there, letting me know it wasn’t empty.

Barely breathing, I watched. Something moved at the edge of the peephole’s range.

An infected slowly shambled into view.

With shaking fingers, I reached for the safety latch.

Screeech…

The metal-on-metal squeal was like a dinner bell. The infected let out a loud call that turned my blood cold. It ran forward.

Thump-thump-thump-thump.

I slammed the latch into place and backpedaled from the door as the infected collided with it. The door moved inward, but the latch held, stopping it.

Grey, decaying fingers tried to worm through the gap.

It called out again.

Several more answered from outside.

I spun toward the window. In the street, a handful of infected ran toward the hotel, closing in on the long shadows stretching across the parking lot.

Were the main doors still open? The door to the stairs? Wait, I thought they couldn’t climb. Had this one been on the second floor already? It’d been so long since I’d gone on a supply run that I wasn’t exactly sure what they could do now.