But I didn’t.

Twenty-eight

There was an unfamiliar car next to Nick’s dented pickup when we pulled into the motel’s lot. Ivy was driving, and I watched her eyes go everywhere before she turned the wheel and stopped in an open spot. It was a black BMW with a rental sticker. At least it appeared black; it was hard to tell in the streetlight. Engine still running, Ivy looked at it, her gaze giving nothing away. Thinking Walter had changed his mind, I went to get out.

“Wait,” Ivy said, and I tensed.

From our room, a shaft of light spilled from a curtain being pulled aside. Nick’s long face peered out, and upon seeing us, he let the fabric fall. Ivy cut the engine, the low rumble dying to leave only the memory of it echoing. “Okay,” she said. “Now you can get out.”

I would have gotten out even if it had been Water, but relieved, I yanked the door open and eased from the leather seats. Our cut-short conversation at the trolley stop had left me unsettled. I’d let her think all she had to do was say no and everything was settled, but she would be replaying the conversation in her head for days. And when the time was right, I was going to bring it up again. Maybe over a carton of red curry takeout.

I got our bags from the back, their soft rattle mixing with the aggressive rumble of the street-racer escort we had to the motel. “I hate plastic,” Ivy said, taking the bags from me and rolling them so they quit rattling.

The door to our room opened and I squinted at the light. So that’s why Ivy always used canvas bags. It wasn’t because she was especially ecominded. They were quiet.

The light cut off as Nick slipped out and eased the door shut behind him. The street Weres in the lot across the road revved their cars, and I waved sarcastically to them. They didn’t wave back, but I saw the flicker of a lighter when they lit up and settled in.

Nick looked more than a little concerned as he came to meet us, his eyes fixed on the Weres. His tall, gaunt stature still leaned slightly, and he favored his left foot. “Your vampire friends are here,” he said, pulling his attention from the Weres to touch on the black BMW. “They flew in from Chicago on a puddle jumper soon as the sun was down.”

My attention jerked to the motel room door and I stopped moving. Great. I looked like warmed-up crap. “What are they doing here already?” I asked no one in particular. “They aren’t supposed to be here until almost dawn. I don’t have any of my spells made up yet.”

Ivy looked bothered too. “Apparently they wanted some time to settle in before sunrise,” she said, running her hands down her leather pants and tugging her coat straight.

Rudely knocking Nick’s shoulder, she pushed past him. I fell into place behind her, ignoring Nick trying to get my attention. Jenks had been running interference for me, telling Nick I was tired from too much spelling and the scuffle with the Weres. He didn’t know Ivy and I had had a blood tryst, and though I didn’t give a fig leaf what the bastard thought, I was guiltily glad that the collar of my jacket made it hard to see my tiny stitches.