It was one of those mornings where you find yourself hungover and toxic, blinking at the light coming through the blinds in an unknown hotel room.

Freaking Schroder didn’t want me to figure out where his island was, so to pay the price for leaving, I needed to be heavily sedated. And that only covered half of the price tag. To pay the other half, I had to take the bloodsucker with me everywhere I went once we arrived back at civilization.

Thus, I ended up lying on a hotel bed handcuffed to a slumbering vampire watching cable in French because I couldn’t figure out how to change the language with the stupid remote.

This wasn’t a permanent arrangement. He wasn’t sleeping because it was daytime. He was sleeping because he had been awake all the previous night getting us back to the city while I slept like Psyche on valium. Unconscious like the dead, I didn’t even know how we got off the island. Via boat? Via helicopter? No idea.

Now in the hotel room, the phone was yanked out of the socket and on the other side of the room. He’d ordered food and it sat on a tray next to the bed. Get this. I was supposed to wake him up if I had to go to the bathroom.

Even though I was not uncomfortable, I was still groggy from the drugs, so I fell asleep, too.

***

That evening, Schroder and I got up and I convinced him to let me plug in the phone so I could make a couple of calls. My brain had been murky from all the drugs, but now that I was somewhat back to myself, I could figure out where to pick up my investigation.

First, I called my mother.

“I haven’t seen London,” she said, like her patience with me was wearing thin. “All her stuff is still here. Sweeper, it shouldn’t bother you that she met someone before you. She’s two years older than you and someday a nice man will notice how special you are.”

When my mother said this, I had to cover my mouth either to stop myself from laughing or to stop myself from crying. I couldn’t tell which. She was so wrapped up in wishing London well, she hadn’t even noticed I had been missing for over a week.

“Okay,” I said, trying not to let my voice alert her to my distress. “Please give me a call if you hear from her. I’ve got a bunch of her work piling up at our place.” The last bit wasn’t true, but it sounded true, which was good enough.

“Can’t you take care of that for her, Sweeper? If it gets unmanageable, I’ll come up and help you.”

“That’s okay. I’ll manage. Don’t come. Besides,” I said, sort of trying to be funny, “I’ve got a boyfriend too.” I looked at Schroder. “He can help me if I need him to.”

“That’s wonderful, honey. What’s he like?” She didn’t believe me, she was only pretending, but I didn’t care. This was a game I felt like playing.

“He’s…” I let my gaze sweep over the vampire across the room. He was wearing a black bandana on his head to hide the gauze. For some reason, he reminded me of a monk. Even if my mother saw him, there was no way she would recognize him as London’s teenage boyfriend. “He’s the rough on the outside, sweet on the inside type. You’ll love him.”

Schroder gave me a disappointed glance. Then he gave me a wrap-it-up signal with his hand.

“Gotta go, Mom. Don’t forget to tell me if you hear from London.” I hung up.

Next, I needed to call Dudley and Marshall, but I was hesitant to get on the phone with either of them. I didn’t want Schroder and Dudley to run into each other, since Schroder still wanted revenge.

“Is there anyone you can call who might know where London and Garth have slipped off to?” I asked, holding the phone out to him.

Schroder snorted. “My connections are spoiled. I can’t talk to the humans I was working with. They probably think I turned them in because there’s no doubt in my mind that Pierce has brought them in. They’re probably all waiting in jail by now. We could talk to Marshall.”

“Don’t you think we should go to Garth’s?” I suggested, trying to move our investigation away from Dudley.

The vampire shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know where that punk lives. I wasn’t thinking very clearly when I made him the offer. All I knew about him was that he was desperate for vampire blood and he had the kind of face that would draw in London. Since he looked like I used to.”

“You don’t even know where he lives?” I asked incredulously.

“Give me a break. I should have found out, but I didn’t think of it. I had five bullets in my head.”

I rolled my eyes and decided to let it go. “Okay then. I want to talk to Pierce to find out how capturing your coven went. What’s his number?”

“You can’t call him. The police are looking for you. If you called him, the number would be traced and they’d be here before you could hang up the phone.”

“Then I’ll have to go see him in person,” I snarled.

Schroder looked at me disapprovingly. “How am I supposed to go with you to do that? Pierce is on the hunt for me, too.”

“Then I’ll go by myself, and you can follow me.”

Schroder looked at me. Then he looked away. He had to think about it. He tried to get up, pulled on my handcuffs, and brought me up with him as he began pacing the room, dragging me in tow.

“Stop it,” I shouted after I had been taken on two full circuits of the room and bashed into him three times.

“Fine. I guess it’s got to be like that since I can’t think of any other leads. Do you need to go to the bathroom?”

“No.”

“Good. Then,” he said, taking out a second set of handcuffs and taking my other wrist in his hand.

“Then what?” I squawked.

“Then you have to wait for me here while I go get ready.”

I gave him my wrist reluctantly and he handcuffed me to the headboard. “Go get ready?” I asked skeptically.

“I need a disguise if I’m going to see Pierce.”

He fetched a key out of the bottom drawer of the nightstand on his side of the bed and unlocked the set of handcuffs that kept the two of us bound together. I never would have guessed the key had been somewhere so simple. Idiot! I didn’t even try looking for a key and it was there all along. I smacked myself on the forehead with my free hand.

“You won’t find the key for that set,” he said darkly, flicking my bound wrist. “Come on. Don’t lose your spirit now. I’m giving you what you want.”

I winced.

He nodded at me before he put his coat and shoes on. He shook his keys in his pocket and went out, locking the door behind him.

Instead of watching crappy cable, I slept some more. And you know what? I slept so much better with Schroder out of the room. I didn’t realize how miserable his shabby form made me feel until he was gone. Being with him was like hanging out with the Phantom of the Opera without his mask all the time. It felt particularly awful because I had been the one who beheaded and burned him.  At least I hadn’t been the one to make him crazy.