Kitty's Big Trouble (Kitty Norville 9)

* * *

BEN WASN’T going to let himself sleep, either. His muscles under me were tense. With all this vigilance around me, I should have been able to nap a little. But I’d drift off for a few minutes, then start awake, convinced I heard the sounds of battle right outside the door. Every time, Ben would touch me, comforting me.

I still couldn’t get over how much the two vampires lying agai

nst the far wall looked like corpses.

“Should have learned Chinese,” Cormac murmured, breaking the quiet. Only it wasn’t him, because he wasn’t looking at the door anymore; he was studying the characters Grace had written on the wall. “It was next on the list, after Arabic and Hebrew. But I never got ’round to it. I suppose I can, now.”

It sounded like Cormac, but as far as I knew he’d never harbored any ambitions of learning any foreign languages. I might accept what had happened, but I would never get used to hearing Amelia’s words spoken in Cormac’s voice.

“Amelia, I think we need Cormac here,” I said. “Just until we don’t need the crossbow anymore.”

He/she sighed. “I used to be reasonably handy with a crossbow. But you’re probably right.”

After blinking a moment and rubbing his eyes, Cormac returned to looking at the door.

“I didn’t drift off there, did I?”

“No. You handed the wheel over for a few minutes,” I said.

“Ah.” With no other reaction than that.

We couldn’t see how close the sun was to setting. Now that I was still and thinking about it, I could have really used a restroom. I could not wait to get back to the hotel room. A hot bath, some takeout, some alone time with Ben … It made a worthy goal to work toward. We’d get out of this. We would.

Henry twitched. Just a spasm in his hand.

We all jumped. Cormac swung his crossbow around.

“Don’t shoot!” I hissed, holding out my arm in front of him. He didn’t move, keeping Henry in his sights. I was sort of offended. Not like a bolt would kill me, but it was the principle of the matter.

Grace started awake. She sat up, looked around, a hand on her head as if she had a headache.

“You okay?” I asked.

She seemed to need a moment to focus on me. “Yeah, just some really weird dreams. You didn’t see a five-inch-long dragon in here at any point, did you?”

“No. I think that was a Disney movie,” I said.

“God, this is the worst night of my life,” she muttered.

Oddly enough, this had not yet reached the level of being the worst night in my life. It might not even rate in the worst three. But we weren’t quite finished yet.

“You have another candle?” Cormac said to Grace. “The light’s about out.” The quartz crystal was sputtering. Grace dug in her bag and found another stub of a candle, which Cormac lit with a lighter. I squinted and turned away from the sudden flare. Ben made an unhappy growl.

Henry was definitely waking up, an arm shifting to rest on his chest, head tilting—asleep now, not dead.

My sense of relief that he was moving—no longer unconscious or under Roman’s spell—was tempered. When he woke up, would he still be Henry? Would he recognize us, or would he be in some monstrous, blood-fueled frenzy?

I crouched, balanced on one hand, waiting to see which way I’d have to jump.

“Henry?” I prompted, cautious.

The vampire moaned, an oddly Frankenstein’s monsterish sound. I could almost hear Cormac’s finger twitching on the trigger. No, just another second, just to see.

“Henry?” I prompted again.

“Yeah?” he said tiredly.