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“Exactly.”
“Why didn’t you tell us this?”
“Uh, hello, you have a vampire council member on your team. Vampires are not exactly trustworthy.”
“Bro, you’re a vampire,” Zee snorted.
“But I’m a newbie, not like Victorveus.” Wesley shuddered as he said Victor’s name. Was that a good shudder? A bad shudder? A sexual shudder?
“Do not tremble like that, it’s gross. He’s like a thousand times older than you,” Zee said. “The only folks allowed to tremble around Fancy Fangs are us.”
“Sorry, I . . . He’s a lot. And I know vampires have a bad rep, even though I am one. How can I trust you when you have an Old One on your team? They are all notorious for being . . . well . . . awful.”
“That is fuckin’ valid,” Zee said. “He is real old. I wouldn’t trust him either.”
Zee was not helping.
“Okay, can we all just agree we want the same thing?” I butted in and glared at the both of them. “To stop bad things from happening in this hotel.”
“Yeah,” Zee said, tucking his handcuffs away.
“Yeah, for sure.” Wesley nodded. “Me and Eddie were getting close, that’s why he disappeared. The staff got to him, or Stephanie did. I have to find him. Help me or don’t, but I have to find him.”
“I kinda hate to say it.” Zee was going to say it anyway. “But if Eddie’s not a popsicle in the cellar, then he was definitely in the sandwiches.”
“Popsicle?” Wesley whispered, the trauma of all this beginning to sink in.
“After following the clues we found Stephanie Frostweaver in the cellar,” I explained finally. “She’s an ancient fae who we think is using the hotel as a trap . . . or it’s her prison, we’re not really sure. Maybe both? She’s keeping frozen people in jars.”
Wesley’s face paled. He thrust his hands into his hair and started to pace. “If he’s frozen, then maybe he can be saved, right? People get frozen in ice all the time and they thaw out fine, don’t they?”
“Erm . . .” Zee looked over at me for confirmation. I shook my head. “Yeah, sure,” Zee said. “Happens all the time.”
“She’s in the cellar? I have to get down there. I have to find him!” Wesley vampire-sped out the door, leaving Zee and me staring after him.
“She’s gonna freeze Wesley,” Zee said, after a few seconds pause to digest everything we’d just learned. “It’s not like we didn’t fuckin’ warn him.” Zee spun the handcuffs again. “So sad. Wanna have fluffy handcuff sex while we wait for Fancy Fangs?”
“I think we need to find our vampire before Wesley barges in and upsets the mass-murdering fae.”
The door Wesley had left open slammed shut so hard the frame cracked. Ice climbed around its hinges, snapping outward across the wall like strikes of ice lightning.
“I got this.” Zee waved his master keycard over the lock, flashing it to green, and yanked on the door, snapping the ice before it could take hold. We hurried outside into the hallway. As soon as Zee let the door go, it slammed shut again, and ice instantly crusted the frame.
“I think she knows we’re coming,” I said, starting back along the hallway toward the stairs. If she knew we were coming, and she didn’t want us to, what was she doing to Victor?
“Maybe it’s Wesley she doesn’t like?” Zee suggested. “That was his room, an’ you can’t blame her for not liking vampires.”
“I hope so.” I clenched my hands into fists, making my knuckles ache. “Because if she’s hurt Victor, I’ll burn this place down with everyone in it.”
Zee matched my stride, walking fast beside me. He didn’t try and tell me to stop, didn’t warn me off, didn’t tell me to calm down. When it came down to it, to save Victor, Zee would be right beside me when everything burned.
We got to the stairs and started downward, feet thumping the treads. “So . . . Wesley is good-ish,” Zee began. “Eddie is missing, the vampire management is fake, Larry is the management, and in the basement there’s an all-powerful fae who likes to collect frozen people using this hotel and its staff as her fly trap while it’s also her prison?”
“That about sums it up, yeah.”
“And we fell for it, leaving Victor down there after her confused ancient-one act . . .”
“He’s alright.” I hoped. “Like you said, they’re probably comparing stories about the good old days.”
