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“Crap.” She blew out a breath. “All right. It’s not like I plan to tell her where I went or who I was with.”
“She won’t hear it from me. You have my word.”
“Good. And you have my word, too.” She turned back to the door.
“Hang on.” I set my hand on the wood. “What about your phone? Can your mother track you?”
“I took out the SIM card while you were upstairs. The GPS in my laptop is already disabled.”
“Good.”
We hurried down the walk, both of us keeping a wary eye on the shadows. But nobody appeared to stop us. I stowed the duffel bag and we got on the Honda.
By then it was after one a.m. Sunrise was less than five hours away. We’d have to hurry if we were going to make Toronto before dawn.
“It’s going to be a hard ride,” I warned.
“Just get me out of Montreal.” She put her arms around my waist and slipped into the shadows until we’d left the city behind us.
We rode straight to Toronto with only a quick stop for gas, but by the time we reached the outer suburbs, thin fingers of pink and gold had spread over the sky. Behind me, Zoe slipped on sunglasses and pulled her hood over her face.
I frowned at her over my shoulder. She was so young for a vampire. “You can’t take even a little sunlight, can you?”
“I’m okay,” she muttered, then spoiled it by resting her head against my shoulder. A moment later, her hands slid limply down to my thighs.
I swore and grabbed her wrists, holding them against my waist with one hand while operating the bike with the other.
“Zoe.” I elbowed her in the ribcage. “Wake up, damn it. You can’t fall asleep—not yet.”
She grumbled under her breath in French but woke up enough to grab my hips again. I aimed for the nearest exit and the cheap hotel I’d spotted. I zoomed into the hotel’s parking lot and grabbed for my last bit of magic to conjure a glamour. All I could manage was something quick and dirty: lighter hair and a bend in my nose so it looked like it had been broken at some point.
I hustled Zoe into the lobby. “A room.” I threw a credit card at the clerk. “Now.”
Five minutes later, we were upstairs. I had Zoe wait in the hall while I went into the room and pulled the rubber-backed curtains across the windows to block the sunlight.
When I went to get her, she was wavering on her feet, eyes half-closed. I drew her inside. “I’m okay,” she mumbled.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re superwoman, right?”
She chuckled.
I helped her out of her jacket and gloves. She stumbled past me and sank onto the mattress. She smoothed a hand over the blue polyester comforter.
“We did it,” she said with a crooked smile. “They’ll never look for me here.”
I grinned back, then leapt to catch her as she slid bonelessly off the bed. “Are you okay? I should have stopped sooner. You should’ve told me—”
She touched my cheek. “Hey. I’m fine. Just…sleepy.” She closed her eyes and went limp in my arms.
I placed her back on the bed, then took off her boots and removed her hoodie, leaving her in a tee and jeans. Her face had a touch of sunburn—her long cheekbones were touched pink, and the tip of her nose was peeling.
I ran a finger down her petal-soft cheek. Not even a flicker of her eyes from behind her closed lids. She was completely out…helpless.
The Tremblay Princess at the mercy of a Kral.
My heart clenched. “You do trust me,” I murmured. “A little, anyway.”
Two years ago, I’d have done anything to have Zoe under my control, defenseless. I’d pictured how I’d snap cuffs onto her slim wrists, make her beg, maybe even give that pretty ass of hers a few hard smacks.
