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“I’m not sensing a lot of love from you right now, vampire. You can’t leave me in there. I am useful to have around. For one, as you’re now homeless and out of work, Your Lordship, someone has to pay the hotel’s bills. And two . . . two . . . I got nothing. There’s only one good reason. Fuck, why am I even here?”

“You can poof out, Zee. Like you did before.”

“Oh right, yeah, I forgot. Two, I can obviously translocate, so it makes sense that I’ll go in there. Again. Because it was so much fucking fun the first time.”

“Perhaps try and make it through⁠—”

“I fucking know how a pussy—portal works. I know how to portal. Ugh, you’re distracting with all your grumpy, sexy, dom-ness.”

“I’m not sure this is a good idea. We might be a bit too drunk—” I began, but then Zee poofed out of sight. “And he’s gone.”

“He’ll be fine.” Victor shrugged, in a very un-Victor-like, “meh” reaction.

Hm, there was definitely something different about Victor. Perhaps he wasn’t an angry drunk, but more of an irresponsible drunk. Which made me the responsible one? Oh dear. “I liked sensible Victor. We need more of him, and less of whoever you are right now.”

His lips ticked. “I have to admit, I’m rather enjoying this party, and your company, and—more alarmingly—Zodiac’s presence, despite his attempts to have me vocalize various genitalia.”

He sounded the same, but there was a definite shimmer to his gaze. “Are you drunk?”

“Fractionally inebriated.”

Was that a yes?

Zee poofed back into the room between us and the portal, dripping goo, just like before. “I am shooketh.” He flicked bits of gelatinous slime from his fingers and tail. “Whoever made that portal needs a good talking to about using too much lube.”

“It’s like witnessing a demon birth. Perhaps now you’ll mature at the same rate as the rest of us,” Victor said.

Zee showed him his middle finger.

“Did you make it through?” I asked.

“Of course I fucking did. I am the master of penetration. And get this. At first, I thought I was in some weird-ass closet, but then, what do I see? A fancy logo of two letters. And guess what those letters were?”

Oh no.

“Fucking right. RT.”

“What?” Reynard’s humor vanished.

“I fucking know, right?! This portal goes straight to your front door, Your Royal Fuckness. Actually, it goes to the inside of a closet that Gideon Cain hasn’t stamped his name on yet. But outside the closet is super shiny and expensive.”

“It goes to Reynard Technologies?” Victor asked, making sure.

“Exactly. Should have known. Maybe you did know, huh? Is this a vampire conspiracy to get inside our hotel?”

“That’s not . . .” Victor trailed off as he approached the portal. “No, of course not.”

Zee’s raised eyebrow and questioning glance had my heart sinking. We’d had some trust issues with Victor, but we’d worked through them. He hoarded secrets like I hoarded cat ornaments. But something like this portal was too important to keep from me—from us. There was no way he’d known where it went, or he’d have told us.

“There are easier ways to get inside,” I said. “Like the front door.”

We couldn’t keep vampires out—or Gideon’s spies apparently—only those who had ill intent, like Daisy. Which meant this portal wasn’t for nefarious means, or the wards wouldn’t have allowed it. So why was it here?

“It’s not possible . . .” Victor muttered, staring up at the pulsing doorway.

“Clearly it is, as I have bits of lube in parts of me not even Adam has explored.” Zee squelched to the portal beside Victor. “You goin’ to explain why there’s a fucking black Eye of Sauron right over Adam’s bed that happens to go directly to your evil tower, Fancy Pants?”

Victor’s gaze found me. “I have a theory, but it’s a conversation Adam and I need to have alone.”