Page 17

Familiar Motel Guests

Klaus

When I got to the Elfknot Motel for my shift that evening, there were only four cars in the parking lot. Which meant it was going to be a very long and boring night.

Like most nights here.

It was raining, the chilly air making me shiver as I locked the door of my ancient car. The neon VACANCIES sign above the motel’s front office sent splashes of electric pink across the puddle-streaked ground in the dark, and I could see that only a couple of the rooms had lights on behind the drawn curtains.

My Aunt Greta was behind the desk reading a romance novel from the eighties when I hurried into the front office, mussing my curls so the rain didn’t dry them flat.

“Hi, cookie.” She dog-eared the page and closed the book, reaching for her purse. “How was your weekend?”

“Hi, Auntie.” I shucked my jacket and hung it up on the coat rack. “Eh, it was fine. Had a bad date.”

“Another one?” She tutted, standing up and shoving the book into her bag. “I’m sorry, honey. You’ll meet someone who fits you, I promise.”

“Yep.” My smile was brittle and fleeting. I took her place behind the desk as she crossed the room to grab her coat. “Any bookings to check in tonight?”

“Just one.”

I nodded, watching morosely as I noted that she was wearing the burgundy floral dress with the big shoulder pads that she’d had since I was born. Which meant…

“Uncle Bernie taking you out?”

My aunt and uncle, a gargoyle and incubus, were all about keeping their marriage fresh and lively and passionate by going on lots of dates. And cruises. I was pretty sure they’d been swingers for a while in the nineties.

“Yes, he is.” She beamed, fluffing up her puffy bangs. She’d had the same hairstyle since I was born too. “La Canard Mort,” she told me in a slightly smug voice, referring to the expensive ghoul-run restaurant in town.

My brows shot up. “Ooh, the fancy place. Nice. Have fun.”

“We will, cookie.” She reached for the door but paused, giving me that little pitying smile all aunties seemed to have perfected. “You’ll find a nice man, Klaus. One who deserves you. And when you do, you take as many nights off as you want for dates. We’ll just get Louis to cover your shifts.”

I snorted, grinning at her. Louis was my Uncle Bernie’s godson, offspring of his longtime best friend, and the two of us split the night shifts at the motel. He was a shadowperson, so staying up all night didn’t bother him, whereas I only took the graveyard shifts so my aunt and uncle didn’t have to. They were getting up there in age now. Plus, they gave me more weekends off than they gave Louis.

Louis was fine, I guessed, but he was a few years younger than me and he liked to remind me often. As if, at the ripe age of twenty-five, I was a decrepit bag of bones compared to him. Except that sentiment didn’t seem to extend to Nat, who he had a gigantic crush on, even though Nat and I were the same age.

“Thanks, Auntie,” I told Greta. “Enjoy your night. I hear the breadsticks are great there.”

“Oh, they are.” She opened the door, and the sound of rain pattering over concrete filtered in from outside. “Be safe tonight, cookie.”

“I will.”

Once the door had closed behind her, I rested my chin in my hand and gazed out through the little window beside the desk with a wistful sigh.

I wished I had someone who wanted to take me to fancy ghoul restaurants. And on cruises. And go swinging with me, if we were both into that.

I pulled my phone out of my bag and fiddled with it. Clarence had texted me earlier, telling me he’d enjoyed our date and that he ‘believed our sexual vibes really resonated together.’ He’d asked me when he was going to see me again.

Not if he could see me again. When he was going to see me again.

Did he honestly think last night had gone well? I’d jerked someone else off through a glory hole midway through our date, for fuck’s sake. He didn’t know about that part, but still. Our ‘sexual vibes’ were ‘resonating together’?

Were they, Clarence? Because I’m an incubus, and I didn’t feel that at all. Especially not while another man’s big, beautiful penis was throbbing in my hand.

I hadn’t replied to the text yet, and I was utterly, completely ashamed to admit that part of the reason why was because…

Well, because I wasn’t totally sure if I wanted to cut off any chance of a second date just yet.