Oath Sworn - K.N. Banet Page 0,30

motel and gas station combo in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere?”

“What’s a werecat doing here?” he fired back.

“On Duty,” I answered. “Do you have a room for me or not?”

“Oh shit. Yeah.” He grabbed a key from the back wall and I resisted shaking my head again. The motel was so old it was using keys instead of cards. One would think a fae trying to live in the modern world actually would update, but apparently not. “It’ll be sixty a night. Cash or card?”

I considered my answer before pulling my wallet out. I could have run to the gas station and used the ATM for cash but I had multiple names for this very reason. Everyone in Texas knew me as Jacky Leon, so I could use my fake ID cards. I handed him the credit card with Jane Brown on it and let him do his thing.

“I’ll close out the account when you check out. Be safe and good luck on your Duty.” He was respectful now, and I knew it was because one day, he might need it. No one fucked with a werecat on Duty, except, apparently, for the werewolves dead in my bar. I grabbed my credit card back from him, tucking it away safely in my wallet again.

“Keep an eye out for something, would ya? Werewolves. I don’t care what they say. If you see any, please let me know.”

“Can do.”

I nodded once to him and left with the key, not bothering to say thank you. I wasn’t an idiot. No one thanked the fae.

When I parked my hatchback in front of my room, I sighed, looking over to Carey. It was time to wake her up and bring her back to the nightmare that was her life now. I knew the idea of it was depressing, but it was the truth.

I didn’t wake her up immediately, though. I grabbed our things and bags, taking them into the room, leaving her for last. It was night out and no one was around. The fae was trustworthy in a sense. He wouldn’t get involved in werewolf politics, no matter what they offered him. If he was caught messing around outside his own kind like that, his kind would kill him, probably in a painfully slow way. He could help a feline in her Duty, though, and that was what I needed.

Finally, I was bent over Carey, undoing her seat belt. The pop of the seatbelt was what finally did it. She jumped awake, gasping for air.

“Woah. Woah, Carey. We’re safe. I found a motel we can hide in.” I grabbed her shoulders, holding gently. I really didn’t need her screaming bloody murder. “Please calm down.”

She stopped moving, closed her mouth, and gave me a baleful stare. My heart broke a little more each time I saw those grey-blue eyes. Once, just once, I had gotten them to lighten up to a pretty summer sky, but now they were just a dreary sky.

“Come on,” I whispered, holding a hand out for her to take. “Everything else is inside.”

She just nodded, grabbing my hand and letting me help her. She was so tiny, only about four and a half feet tall. I remembered being taller at her age. I think. Eleven was a dead spot in my memory.

I locked my hatchback as she went inside. Not following her, I rubbed my face. How did I end up here again? Oh yeah, that’s right. Not even twenty-four hours before, she showed up at my back door and called me to Duty to protect her until she was safe again and would be safe if I let her go.

Sighing, I turned and walked into the room. It had a single queen and a decently large flat-screen television. For being a poor, seemingly run-down motel, the fae who ran it kept it updated in some ways, which made it odd. Carey was already sitting on the bed, kicking her shoes off.

“Want to watch a movie?” I asked as I closed the door and locked it. Then I looked at it and realized there was more than one lock and did the second.

“Sure.”

I grabbed the remote from the dresser the TV was sitting on and sat on the other side of the bed. The comforter was scratchy and a floral print, like most motels or hotels. The carpet was beige and the furniture was all a light wood I didn’t like. It was a long way off my dark hardwood floors