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Zee tiptoed behind me, spinning on his heels then ducking to get a look under the tables, searching for frogs. The frogs had gone, just like that creature made up of angry customers had vanished for me. But Victor’s fear of losing control was a part of him, and now he was on the loose, in our hotel.

Zee jogged to the bar. “So . . . as we all know, I have a badass sword and I’m the most well equipped to gleefully murder suckers, but Sassy Fangs has grown on me, an’ I’m not feeling the murder vibe. So . . . ideas, Tom Collins?”

Tom Collins frowned. “You’re coming to me for advice with your vampire problem?”

“You know about the curse,” I said.

“I know what I told you. And I also made it fucking clear that problems on that side of the bar are your problems, not mine.”

Zee’s tail lashed. “Grrr, why are we friends again?”

“Not friends.”

“Wait, I got this . . .” I tossed a twenty onto the bar. “Tom Collins, I’d like a Bellini, please.”

“Certainly, sir. Would you like some sarcasm with that?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Please make the drink . . . I’m having a bad night, and we really need your help.”

“Fine.” He turned and grabbed a glass, then set about making the drink. “What do you want to know?”

“How do we stop Victor?” I asked.

“A wooden stake should do the trick.”

“Not terminally. Just enough to get him back under control again.”

“I suspect Zodiac knows exactly how to stop a vampire engaged in a murder spree. This is his specialty as a mass vampire murderer.”

“As much as I’d love to throw down with Victor Fancy Fangs, you didn’t see him out there. He’s feral. I don’t—” Zee caught the hitch in his voice and swallowed. “I don’t wanna hurt him.”

Tom placed my drink on the bar and frowned. “You’ll need to lure him out of the shadows with something he can’t resist, then subdue him enough so that his control can reassert itself.”

“He can’t resist Adam,” Zee said.

“That’s true,” Tom agreed. “But he’s not here already, so clearly Adam is not enough.”

“My blood?” I wondered aloud.

Tom nodded.

Zee leaned an arm against the bar and arched an eyebrow. “He does get off on your blood.”

“My blood is uh . . . well, it’s different, so . . . uhm . . . I’m not sure if it’s safe to use as bait. It could make him worse.” The last thing we needed was a supercharged rabid murder vampire on the loose.

Tom shrugged. “Dunno then. Find something he wants, he’ll come. Beyond that, I got nothing. Your vampire, your problem.”

Tom sauntered off to rattle some bottles and make himself look busy.

“You drinking that?” Zee asked me, eyeing my Bellini.

“Nah, go ahead.”

He switched seats to the one next to me, scooped up my drink, and downed it in one.

“Zee?” I sighed. “We have a hotel full of guests. Victor could kill them all.”

I’d seen Victor in hunting mode. He was a murder machine. He killed without hesitation, without stopping to take a breath. The wards should stop Victor from directly attacking someone, but as this was a fae curse that had already gotten around those wards, they may not activate. He’d tear into Zee without blinking. They cared deeply for each other, but their races were also ancient enemies. I didn’t want either of them to get hurt. Or anyone to get hurt. The whole point of this hotel was keeping people safe.