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“See, Adam thought of that,” Zee echoed. “Anyway, I can poof out, and Fancy Fangs will turn into bats and fly through the vents, so it was never an issue for us.”
Wesley’s eyes widened. “You can turn into—”
“No.” Victor cut him off.
“Just because we’ve never seen Shadow Daddy turn into bats, doesn’t mean he can’t.”
I was mostly certain Victor could not turn into bats, or he would have done so multiple times during our past encounters with the folks on my Bad People list.
“Do you think there’s a chance Eddie is still in the hotel somewhere?” Wesley asked.
“It’s possible.” Maybe the management kidnapped Eddie for the same reasons they were keeping the storm raging outside and guests locked up—we really needed to know what that reason was—or as it had been a few weeks, maybe Eddie was . . . unalive. Hopefully he had just upped and left, and maybe his phone battery had died and he hadn’t found a charger . . . for a long time.
A plastic wrapper rustling drew all our gazes to Zee. He’d unwrapped a lollipop and popped it between his lips.
“And it’s best we do not eat the food,” Victor reminded everyone and frowned harder at Zee.
“Uh-huh,” Zee said, sucking on his lollipop.
“Including lollipops.”
Zee grinned around the lollipop. “Watching you say lollipop is right up there with making you say genitals.”
“Zee, stop sucking the lollipop,” I said. “It’s drugged.”
“Nah, I’m good.” He popped it back in his mouth, then took it out again to say, “Tom’s always spiking my drinks. At this point, I’m better off with drugs than without.”
“Did you guys really foil the sorcerer and stop him from leveling San Francisco?” Wesley asked, his tone doubtful.
“I know it seems unlikely, but yeah. I know we don’t look like much, but together we are actually badasses. Okay, so, we have a plan. After lights out we meet . . . where?”
“Not the lobby, Larimer will see us.”
“The top-floor landing,” Victor said. “From there we shall split into pairs and investigate the hotel a floor at a time.”
“Alrighty. That’s my floor.” Wesley beamed. “I feel like we might be getting somewhere, finally. I’ve been on my own, trying to figure this out and getting nowhere. Thank you . . . all three of you, for your help.” He dipped his chin at Victor. “Especially you, Lord Reynard.”
“You know Daddy Spice is not the boss of us, right?” Zee asked. “If anyone is the boss, it’s Adam.”
Wesley winced. “Daddy uh . . . Spice?”
“Go with it.” I smiled.
“Whatcha got there?” Wesley asked Victor, as his gaze dropped to the cloth spread in front of him.
“It is—”
“Don’t tell him,” Zee said, and pointed his lollipop at Wesley. “He’s a vampire.”
“So am I,” Victor grumbled.
“Yeah, but he’s not in our trio of trust. No offense,” Zee said, clearly meaning to offend.
“Can I take a look?” Wesley asked, reaching for the cloth. “Maybe I can help?”
“Don’t do it,” Zee urged.
Victor looked to me, and I shrugged. We could use Wesley’s local knowledge on this, and we were the Heroes of San Francisco. He was just one vampire who’d be silly to try anything.
