I tried to concentrate just on putting one foot in front of the other and leave the putrid smell far from my mind, but that was a feat all on its own. One that I wasn't completely prepared for.
We made our way through the entryway and into the building. Right away Xander shone his flashlight on the hotel check-in desk, and my stomach did a flip at the sight of another swelled body slumped over it.
"Let me guess, that's where we need to go?" I groaned.
"You're catching on." I couldn't see Xander's face but I could tell by the muffle in his voice that he held his shirt over his nose too.
Even trained killers can't stomach the smell of dead bodies.
The realization made me feel the tiniest bit better about my vomiting episode in the bushes outside.
I was strong, but I wasn't strong enough to stomach going near another body again. At least not for a few minutes while I focused on controlling my own bleeding, so I let Xander do the heavy lifting on that one— quite literally.
I watched as he effortlessly picked up the body of the man and brought him to a supply closet, gently setting the body down inside and closing the door. I watched as he grabbed a towel and shoved it underneath the crack in the door.
Xander's kind of a genius. I thought, glad I didn't just blurt it out like I had done other times. I knew if I did, I would have never lived it down.
I couldn't help but notice the care and respect that he showed the body, and it made me think back to what Draydon had scolded me for.
Had I really stopped seeing people as people? Had I really lost my ability to empathize?
It was something that seemed so effortless to do. Something that was so easy that even Xander could do it, in-between all of his brooding and bossing.
So why couldn't I?
What inside of my fucking demon soul was so broken that I couldn't?
I knew better than to blame it on the fact that I was really a demon, because if that were true, I would have been that way my entire life, but that wasn’t true.
“A little help here would be appreciated.” Xander’s voice pulled me from the self-loathing thoughts that plagued my mind like a disease.
I looked up to see him rummaging through some papers that lay on the desk.
I made my way to him and started to rummage too, even though I had absolutely no idea what it was I was looking for.
“A map.” Xander spoke the words so fast that I would have sworn that he was the one who could read minds.
Just the thought of reading minds made a twinge of sadness run through me. I missed Colt.
I nodded, not knowing how to answer the phenomenon, until I uncovered a color-filled map beneath a stack of room invoices.
I handed it to Xander, with a small surge of pride that I’d found it instead of him.
Just another point to add up on my I’m not useless tally inside my head.
“There, the basement is where we want to go. A place as big as this has to have a generator. We switch that baby on and our chance of securing it goes through the roof.”
Again I found myself glad that Xander was there. We’d started out rocky— okay rocky was an understatement, I may or may not have hated his guts.
And he was a prick, but he was the kind who grew on you, and that was all that mattered because he also came with a library of information inside his head that was molded by years of specialty experience in situations like this.
He didn’t bat an eye at that dead body when I could barely lay an eye on it. There were things that he knew that I needed to learn, and I would.
But not now.
I wiped at the beads of sweat that had accumulated on my forehead with the back of my hand.
I couldn't tell if it was just me or if it was actually getting hotter inside the hotel, but either way I knew if we didn't do something about it soon, I'd pass out. I wasn't too well versed on demons and their mortality, but I guessed that even they weren't immune to heat strokes.
Xander clutched the map in one hand and held his flashlight out with the other. I thought it was brave that he had decided to forego his weapon for a flashlight.
I, on the other hand, held on to my gun for dear life. I wasn't about to let anyone get the jump on me.
The hotel's creepiness factor was through the roof, especially because of the near pitch-black darkness that engulfed it. But the heat was so damn distracting that I almost didn't have the energy to be afraid because I used so much of it overheating.
I watched Xander creep around in his element. It was what he trained for, after all, and it was attractive to watch it play out in real time now that I was getting past hating him.
Somewhere ahead of us there was a loud crash. Its sound reverberated against the walls to us. I nearly jumped, but I was on such high alert that instead my finger squeezed the trigger firing loudly.
Xander jumped, and the bullet just missed him and pelted into the wall on the other side of the hallway.
He spun around so fast that I would have sworn he teleported. His flashlight shone brightly in my face making it impossible to make his face out from the white blob of light staring at me, but I didn't need to see his face.
He was pissed. And rightfully so. I would have been slightly agitated if my partner had almost accidentally sent me to the underworld— prematurely I might add.
"Way to let the entire world know that we're here." He said through gritted teeth.
I wondered if he was able to see my cheeks that burned bright red underneath the harsh light.
I hoped not.
I didn't have a chance to apologize because Xander spun around, dropped the map and pulled his gun from his holster.
I did it now. I sunk my teeth into my bottom lip.
Maybe I was on a roll to make everyone in the group hate me. Maybe I was destined to be alone.
Maybe they were better off without me.
I shoved the self-loathing thoughts to the back of my mind and stuck closely to Xander. He was no longer looking for the basement, I could tell that the shock of the unexpected gunfire had flipped a switch inside his head. He was no longer just in his element— he was his element. He was immersed now, I didn't know if it was some form of magical PTSD or just his instincts being thrown into overdrive, but he was on a mission.
I knew better than to stand in the way of that.
We turned the hallway corner and barely had enough time to react when a handsome stranger stepped out from the shadows. He had slick black hair and a chiseled jaw. He wore a black suit that was perfectly pressed and not a single bead of sweat graced his forehead.
He looked very well put together— too put together. It was obvious that he didn't belong. How the hell had he survived inside the scorching heat with absolutely no power, and still looked that perfect?
Xander stood in front of me, and common sense said he should have been the first person whom the stranger laid eyes on, but his eyes snapped to me. It was like Xander wasn't even there.
Xander didn't care, though, firing his gun immediately.
I watched the bullet tear through the suit, through his body, and heard it connect with the wall behind him.
He cocked his head to the side, finally acknowledging Xander's presence.
He looked from me, to Xander, and back to me.
"It's you." Were the first words to fall from his lips.
The gunshot wound didn't bleed. In fact it didn't seem to faze him at all besides destroying a nearly flawless suit of course.