Free Cloud City (Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles) by Jeanne Stein Page A

pocket.”
    Jonathan and Leticia barely take the time to wave on their way out.
    Great. If I could hear Prendergast pecking at his computer and talking on the phone, what will it be like when those two start going at it?
    I stay behind with Sophie to help her clear away the debris from her spell making and scrub the pentagram from the floor. We don’t speak. I imagine it’s a relief for Sophie to be alone with her own thoughts so I don’t intrude with small talk.
    We part at the hotel lobby and I go reluctantly up to my room. It’s been a couple of hours, but the bed springs are still singing next door and the mingled moans of Jonathan and Leticia keep me awake long past dawn. The windows are open and once in awhile a whiff of sex and blood drifts in, making my own hormones jump into overdrive.
    Tomorrow, I ask for a different room.
     

 
    CHAPTER TWENTY
     
    The ringing of a telephone wakens me from a deep sleep. With a groan, I roll over and look at the clock.
    Ten A.M.
    Between listening to Jonathan (I’ve already started thinking of Prendergast as Jonathan) and Leticia’s uninhibited cavorting and trying to come to terms with the morality (or immorality) of what we did last night, I didn’t get much sleep.
    I pick up the receiver and croak, “What?”
    “Well, good morning to you, too.”
    Leticia sounds much too perky, too cheerful. Her voice grates in my ear like nails on a chalkboard.
    “You sound well-laid,” I grumble.
    She laughs. “And you don’t. You’re next door, aren’t you?” As if testing, she knocks on the wall. “Sorry if we disturbed you.”
    “I’m sure. Is there a reason for this wake-up call?”
    “We’re meeting Sophie downstairs at eleven. Will you join us?”
    I tell her I will and hang up. I’ve no sooner swung my legs out of bed when I hear Leticia squeal with delight. I huff out a breath. “Jesus. Not again.”
    And beat it into the shower.
    I stand under a stream of scalding water, fighting emotions battling in my mind and body like prizefighters seeking the knock out punch. It’s not just aggravation I’m feeling. It’s jealousy. The closest I’ve come to a relationship like theirs was with a vamp I ended up killing. I don’t seemed destined for a happily-ever-after.
    At eleven, I’m dressed and waiting in the lobby. I’m the first one down. Leticia and Jonathan are probably going another round. But where is Sophie? I got the impression she called this meeting.
    I take a seat in the lobby and watch people come and go. Ordinary mortals, some with kids in tow, heading out for a day of sightseeing or hiking or fishing. They all have a plan. A destination.
    What do I have?
    No doubt about it. I’m in a funk. I need to get home and go back to work. I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and pull up my pilot’s number. I’m just about to hit send when the elevator door opens.
    Leticia and Jonathan spill out like teenagers on a first date, all smiles and giggles and roving hands. Their skin is glowing, the effect sex has on a vampire’s constitution. It heats the blood and floods us with warmth. Leticia is wearing the same clothes as last night. Not surprising since she didn’t exactly arrive in Leadville with a suitcase. But Jonathan has washed the slickness from his hair and it falls over his eyes and tickles the collar of his shirt. He looks younger and relaxed and
healthy
. Far different from the Prendergast of old.
    I watch them approach with narrowed eyes.
    I’m jealous again.
    “What’s the matter, Anna?” Leticia asks, plopping herself down on the chair next to me. Jonathan squeezes in beside her.
    Naturally.
    “You look like you want to bite the head off a chicken.”
    I puff out a breath and try to wipe the resentment off my face. I go for a smile but I’m doubtful I succeed in anything more than a grimace. “Just tired,” I say in an attempt to cover up the unreasonable hostility eating at my gut. “Where’s Sophie? I thought she was going to meet