must have taken a heroic effort for him to be as lucid in conversation as he’d been; he dropped off into sleep in no time, snoring quietly.
Despite my caffeine jitters, it didn’t take long for me to join him.
Chapter 17
I woke before Chaz. He’d shifted to his back in his sleep, the movement jarring me when he tugged me along. At my nudging, he eased up his grip on me, and I slid further up his body to peer down at him. The planes of his face were hard, angular, drawn with strain. Icy blue eyes fogged with sleep gazed up at me half-lidded, questioning. I pressed a hand to his cheek, a soothing stroke that soon had him closing his eyes again. He reached up to gently cradle my face, pulling me down to meet him. His lips found mine, and we tasted each other for a time, a simple, loving gesture that spoke more of comfort than desire.
We lay sprawled together like that for quite a while. He needed the rest, and I didn’t protest when he ended the kiss and settled to a slow, lazy caress of my back.
Just as my eyes were drifting shut again, the sudden realization of what the slant of the sun against the curtains meant alarmed me into wakefulness.
We’d lost a number of hours of daylight. We wouldn’t have much time to investigate and hunt down the people who were after Chaz before the moon would force the shift on the Sunstrikers—and possibly Chaz’s enemies—again. My eyes fell on a scrap of white; another note had been slid under the door, the thick black ink visible from across the room.
Chaz stirred as I pulled away, padding over to the door and picking up the folded sheet of paper. Despite the block letters, the handwriting was a little different. The message was essentially the same.
ATTN: THE WINDOW-LICKING JOHN MADDEN THROWBACK IN CABIN 27
LAST CHANCE FOR U + UR GIRLFRIEND! GTFO BEFORE NIGHTFALL OR THE NIGHTSTRIKERS WILL PWN U!
I tossed it on the table along with the paperwork I’d been working on last night. I jumped when Chaz’s hand reached past me, picking up the note so he could stare at it. He’d been so quiet, I hadn’t heard him come up behind me.
His grumpy expression shifted to anger, and the paper was soon crumpled in his fist. He dropped it and stalked across the room, dug through the drawers until he had some fresh clothes, and yanked them on with quick, savage movements.
“Get dressed. We’re going to find whoever is writing these notes and put a stop to this—right now.”
I hurried to comply, grabbing some jeans and a bulky sweatshirt to combat the chill in the air. Chaz didn’t wait for me to tug on my sneakers before he was out the door, stalking purposefully down the path and calling out for the Sunstrikers to assemble.
Sleepy people stumbled out of the cabins, some of them tugging on shirts or shoes as they hurried to join us. Simon hadn’t bothered with a shirt; his abs were crisscrossed with long scars, marring otherwise flawless pale brown skin. His dark, slanted eyes narrowed when they lit on me, but he returned my nod of greeting. Dillon barely glanced at me as he took his place next to Chaz. Everyone looked tired but wary, and all but a handful were giving both me and Chaz questioning looks.
Once most of the Sunstrikers had gathered by our cabin, Chaz turned to me. He kept his voice low and level, but it did nothing to disguise his irritation. “Shia, which cabin were those people staying in?”
“Number three.”
The others glanced between themselves, shrugging and muttering questions, but Chaz offered no explanation. We followed him as he stalked in the direction of cabin number three, a disorderly mass halting behind him at the door. He didn’t bother to knock. Instead, he kicked the door in, splintering the lock, and stalked inside. A few of us, including myself, Simon, and Dillon, followed him in.
The place was a mess. There were empty soda cans and chip bags everywhere. Junk crunched underfoot. Some kind of gaming console was hooked up to a TV in the corner, and there were dirty clothes and comic books scattered all over the floor. Unwashed dishes were stacked in the sink and on the counter. The place reeked like old cheese mixed with Were musk, a combination that had the Weres around me covering their noses and making gagging noises.