Page 21 of SOS Hotel: Halloween: One Star Nightmare

Zee carefully set the glass down on the bartop. “You don’t have to tell me how dangerous vampires are, Adam.”

When Zee got serious, it usually meant the situation had just gotten a whole lot worse.

We had to stop Victor. Somehow. And we had to do it fast.

“This sucks,” Zee said. “This whole thing sucks, and it’s my fault. If I hadn’t complained about that review . . . got all sassy about the one star . . . then Victor wouldn’t be all grr . . .” Zee made claw hands and bared his teeth. “And you had to fight a mind monster, and there were so many frogs . . . Ugh.” He squeezed the glass in his grip. “When I saw you behind the front desk . . . We couldn’t reach you, we tried, but you . . . you were gone, and Adam . . . we were afraid for you, so afraid.”

The glass in his hand exploded, shattered by his grip.

“Oh, fuck . . .” Zee dropped the jagged fragments.

“You gotta clean that up, demon!” Tom Collins called from the other end of the bar.

I reached toward his cut hand. “Hey, you okay? Let me help.”

The shadows across the room by the door rippled in the corner of my eye. I turned my head to get a look at who had just arrived in the bar, but the door remained closed.

“Huh . . .”

Zee looked too. “Huh . . . what?”

“Dunno. I just thought . . .” There, again . . . on the far side of the bar, where the dull lights didn’t push all the shadows back. A ripple against the wall. A shadow hid inside another shadow. Victor could conceal himself in shadows.

It had to be him.

But why was he here? What had lured him back? Was it just us . . . or something more?

The broken glass.

Order.

Precision.

Control.

He hated broken things. Messy things. Chaotic things. He hated mess, more than he loved blood.

I met Zee’s gaze. Zee frowned and stilled, sensing how my body language had changed. Victor would sense it too, if he hadn’t already. I knew what to do.

Zee discreetly scooped up a jagged piece of glass.

I dipped my chin. He dipped his.

Alright, if we were going to do this, it had to be now.

It was time to wrangle a vampire.

I dropped off the stool, grabbed the chair from the nearest table set, lifted it, and brought it down on the floor hard. The chair shattered, breaking into bits of broken wood.

Even before the fragments of furniture had fallen, Victor flew out of the darkness, claws and fangs extended. I gasped, slow to react, even knowing he’d attack.

Zee dropped off the stool, spun, and jolted Victor to a stop, the jagged piece of glass at his throat.

“Demon!” Victor seethed. “How dare you stop me!”

“Easy there, Shadow Daddy. This is for your own good.”

Victor bared his fangs and used his voice. “Get out of my way!”