Serena noticed, deepening her frown as she watched Nel. “I’ll try to stay awake, but I might sleep through part of the day. Don’t leave me alone with her. I’d rather you didn’t leave the room at all, but if you have to, wrap me up in some blankets and dump me in the bathroom. Just take Nel with you.”
Eva blinked. She hadn’t been planning on leaving at all. She still had research to do. Even if she needed a break from that, there was probably a television.
Except, while she could go without food for a time, Nel would probably be starving by nightfall.
“We might leave for food at some point in the day. I’ll be sure she goes with me.”
“Thank you.”
—
“We’re stopping again?” Nel asked as the group pulled into another side-of-the-road motel. “But we’re almost there.”
Eva glanced over her shoulder at the augur. She had been fairly quiet over the course of their three-day journey. She never spoke to Serena and really only spoke to Eva while the vampire was asleep. Nel herself only slept while in the truck. Since they only drove for a handful of hours a night, she was looking awfully tired.
Bags lined her eyes and her lids drooped as she looked out the truck window.
Maybe Eva would do her a favor and slip a sleeping potion into her drink tonight. She could understand nervousness and paranoia given who they were after, but there was a point at which it just became reckless and damaging to everyone else.
“Still have some preparations. If we want Serena with us, it would be better to start off on a fresh night, rather than one half gone. Unless you want to go and fight Sawyer on your own with no help.”
Nel fell silent, glancing down at her feet.
“I’ll get us a room,” Serena said as she cut off the engine and hopped out of the truck.
Ever since that first night, Eva had kept herself hidden from as many people as possible. Serena could pass herself off as a human much better than Eva could. Vampires did so all the time. With Eva’s distinctive appearance, no one wanted any rumors about her to spread around and potentially reach Sawyer’s ears.
“How long will these preparations take?”
“Potentially all day tomorrow. I’ve got one ritual in particular that I want to try as soon as we get the room set up. A few things depend on the success of that ritual.”
“What will it do?”
“I’d rather not get your hopes up. If it works, you’ll see. If it doesn’t, no hopes dashed.”
Frowning, Nel gave a slight nod of her head.
Neither of them spoke until Serena returned. There was a small trickle of red dripping down her chin that did not go unnoticed by Nel.
Nel’s face turned colors as she pointed at the vampire’s lips. “You didn’t!”
“It was just a quick snack,” Serena said with a shrug as she licked the blood from her mouth. “He won’t even feel anemic when he wakes up. More importantly,” she held up a key.
“Don’t worry about it,” Eva cut in before Nel could make a scene. “Let’s just get everything set up. Unless you want to spend even longer outside of Ylva’s presence.”
That silenced Nel faster than anything else. It was something that Eva had picked up on over the past few days. Nel had a problem with Serena, that much was clear. But she had a bigger problem being away from Ylva. The hel represented safety and protection for her, or something like that.
Argument over, they quickly carted everything they needed into their room. Nel and Serena actually managed to work together in duct taping thick blankets over the windows. Eva shoved one of the beds out of the way and got to work.
The ritual circle didn’t need to be all that large, thankfully. Her room would work just fine. Performing it out in the middle of the parking lot would reveal herself to all spectators or passers-by that were around and create more chances that Sawyer would hear of their proximity to his location.
After finishing with the windows, Nel covered up the smoke detectors and set up a miniature altar. As soon as she was done, she lit up some frankincense.
Ever since she had first met the augur, Nel had always had the scent of frankincense clinging to her person and clothes. Eva had never spent enough time in her presence to become so thoroughly disgusted with the scent. She really had no idea how the augur could stand it. Three days of being stuck in a stuffy car and tiny motel rooms with Nel almost had Eva in a murderous rage.
As soon as she finished up with Sawyer, Eva vowed to research and invent time magics that would allow her to go back and
It was made worse in that it didn’t help. Nel couldn’t see Sawyer. All that pungent scent of pine and lemon did was tell them that Sawyer hadn’t moved much since the day before.
Serena never seemed to mind, but Eva wouldn’t be surprised to find out that all of her senses were dulled unless blood was involved.
