Riders (Riders, #1)(68)

Once we got to the room, I set Jode on the bed. “Don’t get too comfortable,” I told Daryn. Then I got on the hotel phone and requested a bigger room. I expected some kickback, since it was two a.m. by then, but my request was accepted right away. Apparently if money talked, nothing was chattier than Jode’s bank account.

Fifteen minutes later, Marcus and Bastian were with us as we walked into the penthouse suite. They’d taken Shadow out to the hotel’s garden, where Bas had discreetly unsummoned her.

In the suite, I dumped Jode in the first bedroom I saw, then took a look around. The suite’s first floor had two bedrooms and a huge living room with a bar. Upstairs, there was a rooftop patio with a hot tub and a small garden. I had a pretty good eye for spotting quality in art, from listening to Anna my whole life. Everything in the suite was top-notch.

“This place has to be worth a fortune,” Bastian said.

I looked at him and found myself smiling. He was my favorite fellow horseman, and I was glad to have him back. “We need the space and we couldn’t stay in the other room. Find somewhere to crash.”

He and Marcus collapsed on the couches before I’d finished speaking. After the cross-country flight, the fight at the airport, and then the fight at the Vatican, we were all smoked.

I looked at Daryn. “Hey, Martin.” I tipped my head to the stairs. “You and me. Hot-tub time.”

She rolled her eyes. “Keep dreaming.” She set her backpack down on a chair. “Will you let me take a look at your nose?”

“Sure,” I said. The way she was looking at me, I’d have said yes to anything.

We went to the bathroom that adjoined one of the bedrooms. I sat on the edge of the ornate marble tub as Daryn ran a towel under some water. She came over and knelt on the rug in front of me. Suddenly I wasn’t tired anymore.

She scooted closer and pressed the towel to my nose. I had a cut on the bridge. With the swelling, it’d been in my peripheral vision for a while but the pain felt distant. I knew I’d already begun to heal. And I was focused on one thing only, and it wasn’t my nose.

“He did this?” she said. “Samrael?”

“No. Technically, I think I did it.” I was pretty sure it’d happened when I slammed into him on the street.

I felt her eyes move to mine, but I kept my gaze on the pulse beating at her throat. The necklace was right there. I didn’t want to think about it right now.

She dabbed at the cut and around my mouth and chin. I felt weird having her clean up after me. Mopping up my dried blood and snot. There were a lot of things I wouldn’t have minded happening between us. This wasn’t on the list.

“We have to start acting together,” she said.

“We will,” I said. We were up against forces that were far more powerful than any one of us. Our only shot was by working together. But my team—an actor, a drunk, and a sociopath—didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Still. I had to find a way to work with them. “I met Ra’om tonight.”

I wasn’t sure why I’d added that. I just couldn’t stop thinking about him. I couldn’t stop seeing his red eyes in the darkness. I couldn’t think of Anna without picturing her ripping at her face. All the images were right there. Lurking. It felt like Ra’om had planted land mines in my brain.

Daryn drew the towel away. “I thought you might have.” She sank onto her ankles and looked at me. “You’re … okay?”

“Yeah.” I made myself hold in place.

She stayed watching me for a long moment. Then she stood and rinsed out the towel. “Tomorrow,” she said. Then she came back for another pass on my nose. “We’re all together now. Tomorrow I’ll tell you more.”

I nodded and we went quiet for a little while. I knew we were almost done. She’d leave soon, and I didn’t want that. “You told me your sister wanted to be a doctor. You, too? You seem pretty good at this.”

“No. Not me.”

“What did little Daryn want to be when she grew up? You owe me three more answers. You promised at the airport. I think you promised me ten, but I’ll settle for three. Time to pay up.”

She smiled. “Okay. Three more. Little Daryn hadn’t thought past college when her life was turned upside down. But the one thing she knew was that she wanted to keep running. She’d run track in high school.”

That made a lot of sense. “What event?”

“Hurdles.”

“Hot, Martin. And cool. Really cool.”

“Thanks. I loved it. I was good at it, too. You’re fast. Both you and Marcus.”

“I’m faster. I could beat him.”

Daryn laughed but I wasn’t sure why that was funny.

She swept her hair behind her ear. “Okay. Second thing?”

“Fifth. Let’s just keep numbering up instead of doing two rounds of three.”

“We could recategorize this set as A, B, C?”

“If we were trying to make me unhappy, we could.”

She shook her head. “You’re so odd. Okay, fifth.” She stared at the fancy wallpaper, narrowing her eyes in thought. Her mouth was curved into a smile, and she looked incredible.

I wanted to kiss her neck. Kind of badly. I also kind of wanted to bite her, too. Not to hurt her, of course. She just looked so good. All that smooth skin. She made me feel a little vampirish and crazy. I wanted to be all over her. Always. But especially when she was this close.