Chapter Four – Hunter

 

“Thanks for the ride, sir!” I shouted, waving cheerily at the truck’s old driver as he pulled out from the hotel, having dropped us right in front with our packs.

“Jesus, you really are a conman,” Kris said, hefting her bag higher on her shoulder. “Did you come up with that story on the fly?”

“People up north like to help other people,” I said, my smile dropping a little, and my voice slipping back into its more normal range. I’d had to keep up my gee-willikers Midwestern personality for longer than I liked, and my cheeks were already hurting from all the smiling while talking to the older gentleman. “It was just easier to let him believe we were incompetent.”

“Did you have to sell it so thoroughly?” she asked, a note of disgust in her voice. She turned and headed for the lobby entrance. “I know how to use a snowmobile. There’s no way I would’ve gotten it stuck like that.”

“Well, he didn’t know that.” I smirked at her back, a little thrill going through my body as I remembered how it had felt to have been in the air mere hours before. “And neither did I. Remember, it’s always easier to make someone doubt your qualifications than it is to make people believe in them.”

Kris grunted as we stepped into the warm lobby. “I’ll try and remember that the next time I ask you to help me with something.” We came to a stop in front of the empty desk, and she rang the bell.

The lobby was nothing more spectacular than you’d expect in any two star, business class hotel on the road. A large desk dominated one side, and a small bar was through a set of open doors on the other. Genuinely real office plants adorned the area, adding a little bit of green to the world.

“That’s not exactly fair, is it?” I asked as I leaned against the reception desk. “One little fib doesn’t perpetually make me a scoundrel, does it?”

She looked for a moment as if she was on the verge of saying something, but, with a shake of her head, quickly caught herself. “You formulated a whole back story about our relationship, Hunter. Do you know how fucking weird that is?”

“Weird?” I shrugged. “Some would call it another part of a valuable skill set.”

“Uh-huh. Right. Keep telling yourself that.”

The hotel employee finally arrived, saving me from my own self.

“A room for the evening?” the clerk asked, her round face and full cheeks just gleaming and bursting with the promise of excellent customer service.

Kris glanced sideways at me from beneath a raised eyebrow. “Rooms. Plural. Please.”

The clerk’s eyes and mouth both went as round as her face as I smiled at her and held up two fingers. “I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice breathless with embarrassment.

Our plan was to contact FMS and get Tabitha to arrange a flight for us in the morning. As much as I wanted to fly straight to St. Louis under my own power, even I knew how poor of an idea that was. We’d managed to avoid any kind of detection, or being seen by anything but passing fowl and caribou, but that was in the mountains of one of the most deserted places on Earth. If radar had even picked us up, they probably thought our little blip wasn’t more than a flock of migratory birds.

There was no chance, no chance whatsoever, that we’d be able to do the same while flying over the Rockies or the Great Plains. Montana alone was like midtown Manhattan compared to Alaska.

Forms completed and key cards in hand, we both headed for the elevator. Our rooms were both on the fourth floor, but on opposite ends of the building. According to the rosy-cheeked clerk, it was the best they could do on such short notice.

As for Kris’s part, it seemed not to faze her in the slightest. Nor did it me.

Neither of us said a word as Kris punched the number four in the elevator, and the doors slid closed. With that heavy feeling of force slightly pushing down on our shoulders, reminding us that we were, for the time being, creatures of the earth and not of the skies, we rose higher.

“Soon as I get out of this coat, I’ll get Tabitha on the phone and get a flight for us. When I have a time, I’ll call your room.”

I nodded. “Perfect.”

Not that it was perfect, of course. Like the current state of gravity in this elevator ride, the imperfections of all this were weighing more heavily on me than before. Particularly after I’d had time to consider everything on our long, languid flight down from the top of the world.

What did Harrington want from both of us? I mean, really want? Why had he gone to such elaborate lengths to ensure Kris joined? He was more than capable of running an organization like the PDB on his own. He didn’t necessarily need her help for the administration tasks, or to lead any fire teams.

And why not the rest of the shifters at FMS? Was it really because he was so focused on family? Because I could smell malarkey from a mile away, and that statement certainly stank to high heaven.

He was up to something. I just wasn’t sure what exactly.

The door chimed as we came to a stop on the fourth floor, and the door slid open moments later. As we stepped out into the hall, we both glanced up and down the floor, our eyes silently searching for exits and entrances. Her instincts may have come from commando training, while mine came from years of being on the wrong side of the law, but the results were virtually identical. If you wanted to maintain your safety and security in this world, you needed to be observant and aware of the rapid changes all around you. And one way to do that, was to pay attention to the potential.

Here, though? There was little potential for anything other than blessed, banal blandness. Relatively thick hotel carpeting in muted reds and blues, fake plants every four or five rooms, and that curious sense of silence every place like this had.

Side by side, we headed down the hall towards our rooms, not saying a word, simply observing the quiet this place afforded as if we were in some sacred cathedral. The numbers and rooms slid by us as surely as if we’d been together in the sky, again.

God, that had been magical, to fly with another of my kind once more. I could hardly remember the last time I’d even dared a flight that far. Furthermore, I couldn’t even remember the last flight I’d taken with another dragon. Truth be told, we were few and far between. Kris was last of her line, just like I was of mine. We’d never been plentiful to begin with, and modern times weren’t exactly conducive to our existence, especially when secrecy was the keystone of our continued survival.

Struck by a sudden urge to say thank you for her company on the way down, I glanced sideways at her. I stopped myself before I could open my mouth and seem foolish, though. She didn’t want my thanks. She was her own dragon. Likely, she probably didn’t even appreciate my company for what it was.

“This is me, here,” Kris said, coming to an abrupt stop in front of a door about halfway down. “What room are you in again?” she asked as she slid the card in the lock, producing an audible click.

I glanced down at my card. “430.”

“Right. I’ll let you know what time the flight is as soon as I find out,” she replied without even turning around to face me.

“Yes,” I said, inadvertently releasing a little sigh. “Flight. Right.” I opened my mouth to her back, tempted to complete my unfinished thought from seconds earlier.

But, moments later, she was in her room, and the door was shutting behind her with a heavy finality.

I stood there for a second, just looking at her door, not sure what exactly I should do.

Unpack.

Get cleaned up.

Prepare for tomorrow.

And somehow convince her she needed to join up with Harrington.