Strays

Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"You!"

I reared back as the tip of a thick, grubby finger was shoved in my face. I was half-considering the urge to bite it off when Elton snatched it back, a flicker of fear flashing in his black eyes before he went back to glaring at me.

"You," he repeated, his voice laced with irritation. "You think this job has a revolving door holiday policy?"

"No?"

He opened his mouth to retort, his cheeks growing splotchy with anger, but he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Ricardo on a jumper a few paces away. He looked a lot more dishevelled than he had a few hours ago; there were a few buttons missing from the front of his shirt and little wisps of hair had escaped from the bun at the back of his head.

The vampire hopped down from the disc, barely sparing me a glance as he strode toward Elton.

"Elton, you have got to do something that... that woman," he said exasperatedly.

Elton cut me a dark look. "I am."

"Not Juliet," Ric snapped. "Courtney. If she tries to stick her hand down my pants one more time —"

"This bloody place can't afford another sexual harassment suit," Elton spat. "Man up, Fangs. Take it like a man. You —" His fathomless black eyes returned to me. "No more days off or cleaning toilets will be child's play compared to the literal shit you'll have to wade through. You got that?"

"Loud and clear."

As soon as his back was turned, I rolled my eyes — because, really, who the hell did he think cleaned his personal bathroom?

Ricardo offered me a tense smile as Elton moved out of earshot. "You're welcome."

I eyed him warily. "I was handling it."

"Well, now you don't have to."

I scowled. I wanted to tell him where he could shove his 'help' — the last thing I wanted was to owe him any favours, especially when he knew as much as he did. Maybe even more, now, since we were staying at his sire's bar — but I kept my mouth shut.

One bad word from him and we were out the door.

And then we're stuck. Stuck in London. Stuck in the bar. And stuck with Michael.

"I'm done in there," I said stiffly, jerking my head at the bathroom door behind me.

"Good. You're needed up on fifth. They just wrapped up one of the scenes for Courtney's new war epic and she wants the set dismantled as soon as possible. Try to stay out of her way, though, yeah?"

I nodded and hurried to catch one of the jumpers before they disappeared again.

"Fifth floor," I instructed clearly before my world dissolved in a whirl of black.

I landed in the atrium of the fifth floor. It was the middle of the night so I expected the place to be deserted — but instead, it felt like I'd walked right into the middle of a trap.

My muscles tensed automatically and a wall of pure fear slammed into me.

There had to be a hundred of them.

Hundreds of Guard uniforms spread out across the atrium, some of them crashing on the plush seats in the corner while others chugged down coffee and chatted amongst themselves.