Slaves of the Night

Chapter 16 - Sparks of Hope

Chapter 16: Sparks of Hope

Alex's Point of View

    Nothing.

    We had found a severe lack of evidence to point us in the general direction of her. The endless hours of driving and searching for clues had left the lot of us more irritable than usual and the anxiety level among us to rise tenfold. It had been me who had forced us to stop for the night so that we could regain our strength--and take a break from each other before we turned on one another.

    "Are we really going to go through this again?" I sighed, staring up to the dingy ceiling of the motel room. A resounding grunt from the floor was my only reply. Once again Wes had taken the refuge of the floor, his presence both pushing me off the edge of irritation and somehow comforting me. There was no valid reason for him to be guarding me like some sort of dog.

    More moments passed with the tension crackling the air, each passing one taking my blood pressure up to the next level until I couldn't take it anymore.

    Sitting straight up in bed I glared down at his dark figure, "Either sleep on the other side of the bed or get the hell out of here."

    There was no response, just the whirring of the squeaky air conditioner. I knew the stupid oaf wasn't asleep because I could practically feel his dark gaze on me as I felt my face heat up with anger. What was it with being a woman that made everything you said mean nothing when it hit a man's ears?

    Enough was enough.

    I hopped down from the bed, swiftly planting a jabbing kick to his ribs with force. The action barely rushed the air from his lungs but it did however manage to rouse him from his mechanical stupor. With a growl he sat up and grabbed my leg by the ankle before I could do it again.

    "Try that again and you'll be wishing you would have stayed home," he spoke darkly, the rumble of his voice actually startling me after going so long in the quiet of the room. But I recovered quickly and wrenched by leg out of his grasp.

    "Then go back to your own room!" I snarled, "I did not ask you to be here and take up all the floor space so you could satisfy your brutish desire to be in charge over anyone you deem less able than you."

    My eyes were now adjusted fully to the dark, able to make out the subtle eye roll over my tone. Nothing would have pleased me more than to kick him straight in the head to knock him into unconsciousness but I highly doubt I would be able to raise my leg in little enough time so that it would catch him off-guard again.

    He flopped back down on the floor again with a short chuckle, "Whatever, just let me sleep."

    With my jaw clenched a growl came from deep within my throat but I knew that short of getting the strength to push his dead weight (for he would be no help) out the door, he wouldn't be letting me have the room to myself. Snatching the pillow I had been using off the bed, I stomped past his large frame that took up nearly the expanse of the open floor space and went out the door.

    Being that it was a motel at best the door opened straight to the outdoors, letting in a whoosh of cool summer night air. The startling difference in temperature tickled the bare skin on my legs below my shorts but I ignored it and slammed the door shut behind me.

    One of my biggest problems was the fact that I tended to act before I thought about the consequences of my actions. The terms of me storming out the door left me barefoot and clad in only the sleep-ware of a tank top and shorts as I marched towards the car. The gravel wasn't foreign to my calloused feet but after the weariness of the day I wanted nothing more to crawl back into a bed.