I watched as she pulled Perry into an awkward embrace. Perry stiffened, unsure of what to do, and I silently encouraged her to just suck it up and enjoy her mother’s affection while it lasted.
Perry, however, for all her telekinetic abilities, didn’t seem to pick up on that thought. Her mother embraced her and then let her go. Her sharp Nordic features instantly became severe, perhaps because Perry didn’t give when she wanted her to. For the first time I was acutely aware that their relationship was more of a two-way street than Perry made it out to be.
Of course, the affection and concern didn’t last for very long. Suddenly her mother launched into near hysterics, about how irresponsible she was for jetting off here, for the money she wasted, for the danger she put her sister in. All the while, her father, Daniel, was staring me down with that Mafia-look he sometimes had. I’d learned not to be intimidated by it over time, but now he was especially Pacino-esque.
I mean, it was all my fault they were here, wasn’t it?
“You know,” her father said, stepping toward me, “if you just wanted to go to New York, we wouldn’t have cared. You’re both free to do what you want and Dex, you’re a man of your own will, you can do what you want as well. But to involve Ada…” he shook his head, disappointed and looked away, jamming his hands in his pockets, “I just don’t know what you were thinking.”
Obviously Perry had tried to explain to them what really happened but the truth never settled very well with her parents. Actually, it never settled well with anyone, even with us. So we let them think what they were going to think anyway. Eventually, they’d get over it.
When her mom had calmed down a bit, she shot me a nervous glance. I thought that was kind of strange since her looks usually consisted of the glacial variety. I wasn’t used to her acting anxious around me. I had to wonder if I still had blood on my face. Maybe I smelled. I subtly pressed my nose to my shoulders and breathed in. Yeah. Time to buy new clothes.
I smiled at them. “Now that you’re here, have you been checked in? Why don’t we all go out for lunch, do some shopping?”
“Our room isn’t ready yet,” Daniel said sternly.
The door from the stairwell swung open, saving my ass. It was Ada and she ran right into her mother’s arms with a big smile on her face.
Her mother hugged her tight, then pulled back and held her stiffly by the shoulders, and the whole lecture she gave Perry came out once more. At least this time Ada was seen to be at fault almost as much as the rest of us were.
When it was all said and done though, Ada offered for her parents to store her bags in her room until their room was ready. I noticed that she didn’t mention Maximus, which was probably a good thing. I know the burly redhead had been a favorite of theirs back when Perry was possessed but I wasn’t sure if this was going to go over too well with them. A nearly sixteen-year old sharing a room with a man who may have been thousands of years old?
Well, they didn’t have to know about the thousands of years/ex-immortal/supernatural guide part. Thirty-two year old ginger was bad enough.
Her parents brought their luggage over to the elevator but Ada flinched and immediately headed to the stairs. “I’ll catch up with you, I’m on floor eleven. I need the exercise.” She shot Perry a ‘are you coming?’ look but Perry only shook her head. It would look weird if all of us decided to walk up eleven floors when the elevator was right there.
Though I wasn’t feeling much trepidation about this so-called demon on the sixth floor – after all, her parents were far scarier and relevant – Perry seemed to shudder and then resign herself. She caught me staring at her and attempted a reassuring smile that didn’t quite work.
We got into the elevator with her parents and watched the floor numbers as we slowly ascended. It was more than a tad awkward, squished in there with them. I could feel the animosity coming off of them, just fumes at first, then building to smoke of pure hatred.
At least, I thought the hate was from them. But when the elevator unexpectedly stopped at the sixth floor and I felt the feeling intensify, practically wrapping itself around my neck and choking me, I knew it hadn’t been coming from her parents.
It was coming from what was on the other side of the elevator doors.
It was waiting for me.
“Oh, what now?” her father said, jabbing his finger on the elevator button repeatedly. I could feel Perry glance at me in worry but I couldn’t take my eyes way from the door.
The doors slowly parted with a metallic groan.
At the end of the hallway opposite us was a tall, muscular figure, standing with its side to us, absolutely still. It was about seven feet tall, with cow-like horns on top of its head that nearly grazed the ceiling. It was naked, resembling a mixture of a human and a bull, all hard and sinewy and black as sin. I wasn’t sure if there was skin or short fur but it was so dark and dense that it felt like you were looking into something, rather than at something.