This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5)(31)

After a few moments, Bones had his card out and in the correct position, but several tries later, the door still didn’t open.

“Getting them wet must’ve shorted the magnetic strip,” he said, shrugging. “Wait here. I’ll go back through the lobby and let you in once I’ve gotten new cards.”

“Dressed like that?” I asked with a laugh. “I should let you just because I’ll crack up imagining the looks on people’s faces, but I’ll go. I might be just as wet as you, but at least my clothes aren’t ripped half off, and my jacket’s dry because you left it by the bridge before I pulled you into the river.”

“I don’t care what any of those toffs think,” he replied dismissively.

No matter that I’d done far more questionable things myself in recent months, shades of my rigid upbringing insisted that one did not appear with indecent gaps in their clothing in public if one could avoid it. I tried another tactic.

“Come on, have mercy on any older women who might be in the lobby. You don’t want to give them heart attacks if they catch a glimpse of your goods,” I teased, trailing my fingers down the front of his torn pants.

His hand closed around mine, bringing it flush up against the goods in question. Things low inside me clenched in response, drawing a short moan. God, feeling him grow thick and hard in my grip almost ended my control right there. It was all I could do not to drop to my knees and replace my hand with my mouth.

“I’m leaving,” I said, the words hoarse from the willpower it took for me to pull my hand away. “I won’t be long.”

His eyes were bright green, matching the hunger in his expression, fangs tantalizing me from underneath those perfectly sculpted lips.

“Hurry.”

I jumped off the roof without even looking to make sure someone wasn’t below me until I’d almost reached the ground. Good thing it was almost four in the morning, late even for most of this city’s residents to be out and about.

Then I rounded the corner and went into the Ritz, giving a brief nod to the doorman. One short elevator ride later and I was in the lobby, pretending not to notice the surprised looks the employees gave my wet hair and shoes. I pulled out my driver’s license—fake, but registered to the same last name Bones booked this room under—and explained my room key was somehow not working. While I waited for my new cards, a man checked in, holding a sleeping little girl in one arm while awkwardly signing his forms with the other. From his hushed voice, it was obvious he was hoping to have her in bed before she woke, and after hearing his weary comment about airport delays, it was also obvious he was just as tired.

I got my new cards at the same time the employee finished checking the man in, so we waited for the elevator together. He blinked a little at the drips of water that pooled at my feet when we stepped into the elevator, but said nothing.

“Tripped and fell in a big puddle,” I whispered.

“Ah” was his equally quiet reply. At least he didn’t give me the same kind of stink eye that the fur-wearing, plumber-banging older woman had.

We’d gone up about ten floors when all of a sudden a booming noise preceded the elevator shuddering like we were caught in an earthquake. The man staggered and I grabbed him so he wouldn’t accidentally drop the little girl, who awoke with a cry. I had a split second of confusion before dread slid up my spine. Supernatural energy filled the air, coming from the top of the elevator, where moments ago, it sounded as if a boulder had dropped on us.

Except boulders didn’t drop from nice hotels onto elevators, and they also didn’t make ominous growling noises.

Oh shit, I thought, right before I heard the first cable snap.

“Get in the corner!” I ordered, shoving the man when he just stood there.

“What’s going on?” he shouted. His little girl began to wail. The elevator shuddered again, this time accompanied by a horrible whipping noise that sounded like another cable being ripped away. At the same time, pounding began on the roof of the car. I ignored that, plunging my hands into the seam in the elevator doors hard enough to bloody my fingers before shoving them apart. A slab of concrete and steel met my vision, no open spaces to escape through. The elevator was suspended between floors, but not for long, judging from the latest snapping sound.

“Oh God, what is that?” the man screamed.

Metal, plaster, and glass rained down on us as a hole appeared in the roof where none had been before. A ghoul’s face came into view, a savage smile lighting his features as he spotted me.

“Reaper,” he hissed.

I pushed the man aside just in time to knock him away from the ghoul’s grasping hands as he lunged for me.

“Get down!” I yelled, trying to fight off the ghoul while standing under the hole he’d torn open. If the ghoul got inside, both father and daughter would be dead in seconds, and that’s only if they were lucky enough for the elevator not to drop before then.

Pain slashed across my arms and face, red immediately coloring my gaze. He’s got a knife. A silver knife, I realized, judging from the burn it left on my skin. I tried to avoid that flashing blade while still keeping the ghoul from dropping into the elevator. Another snapping noise and the car dropped a few feet before coming to an abrupt stop, metal groaning under the strain of a last brake kicking in to hold the elevator up.

But one good thing had come out of the elevator’s fall. Now, shiny steel doors took up part of the concrete and metal wall. The car had dropped halfway to the opening of a new floor.