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Javi gets the message pretty quickly, his gaze darting between the two of us.
I think he’s about to storm out, but he doesn’t. “Come in,” Dom says. “There’s something we need to talk to you about.”
Javi nods. He takes a step toward us and closes the door softly behind himself. “I don’t get to decide who you sleep with,” Javi says, turning to look at me. “But a heads up would’ve been nice.”
“I know this sounds like a cliche, but it just happened,” I say. “I wanted to tell him about what happened between us last night, and he was…I don’t know. Pretty understanding. He said it didn’t need to be a competition.”
“It doesn’t need to be a competition,” Dom says. “If Alana is okay with…you know, whatever this is, I’m okay with it.”
Javi cocks his head. I think he’s about to storm off, but his eyes finally meet mine. “Are you okay with this?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say, a little too quickly. My own reaction surprises me, but I’m serious. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings and I’m surprised that neither one of them seem particularly upset. But it’s nice, I’m glad this isn’t turning into a thing, and the two of them seem fine with it. “I mean, if you two don’t mind, I don’t mind. Plus, like we talked about, but we won’t tell anyone. It’s just, you know, temporary.”
Javi thinks about this for a second, his head cocked. “Right,” he says. “That works for me. Dom?”
Dom nods. “It works for me too,” he says, looking at me when he does. “I want this to last as long as possible. If this is how it has to be, then that’s that.”
Javi nods, and I immediately feel a sense of relief wash through me. At least that’s taken care of. I don’t expect it to last. Dom motions toward Bryony’s bed and Javi furrows his brow, but he sits down without saying anything.
“We saw something,” I say. “Something up on the roof. It was fucking scary, Javi. It hurt Dom.”
“Something? Or someone?”
“Something,” Dom replies. “It was definitely not a person.”
We explain what happened, show Javi the wound on Dom’s neck, and he does nothing but listen until we’re done. When we are, he narrows his eyes. “Something happened last night.”
I sit on my bed as I wait for him, but Dom keeps pacing around, his hands in his pockets. “What happened?”
“There was a man behind the stage, but, I don’t know, he felt like more than a man. He felt…strange. Surreal. A security guard threw him out during the show.”
“But did you see him?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No, I didn’t see him, exactly. The security guard just ushered him out. But I felt him, and honestly, it was weird. It was unsettling. Not as unsettling as what happened to you.”
Dom pinches the bridge of his nose. “We need to figure out a way to get this under control. We don’t know if this presence is attached to the hotel.”
“You don’t think it is?” Javi asks.
“Maybe? I have a feeling that whatever is happening, it’s related to Trine. From my understanding of her case, her presence can often exacerbate whatever is already going on.”
“So what do we do?” Javi asks.
“Wedon’t do anything,” Dom says. “I’m going to figure this out, okay? In the meantime, I need you two to keep your head down and stay out of the way. This is my job. I’m good at it. I just need to make sure that you two are okay.”
I want to ask him why he cares so much about us, but I don’t. I understand I need to let him do his job, so all I do is nod. “Okay,” I say. “What do you want or need from us? How can we help you?”
“Like I said, stay safe. Javi, you just avoid going up on the roof and make sure everyone else does. Alana…”
“What?”
“I think you might need to help me talk to Trine.”
Alana
It’snotasecretthat I didn’t exactly believe Trine when everything was going down. She’s never said anything about it, I don’t think she resents me for it or anything, but the rest of the girls in the band are a bit more receptive to that supernatural shit.
Or were, until I saw what I saw.
