This time, our voices woke Sydney. She rolled over toward us, her eyes squinting at the light coming through the badly screened window. "What time is it?" she asked, stretching her limbs.
"Not sure." I had no watch. "Probably past midday. Three? Four?"
She sat up almost as quickly as Dimitri had. "In the afternoon? " The sunlight gave her the answer. "Damn you guys and your unholy schedule."
"Did you just say "damn"? Isn't that against Alchemist rules?" I teased.
"Sometimes it's necessary." She rubbed her eyes and glanced toward the door. The faint noises I'd heard in the rest of the house were louder now, audible even to her ears.
"I guess we need a plan."
"We have one," I said. "Find Lissa's sibling."
"I never entirely agreed to that," she reminded me. "And you guys keep thinking I can just magically type away like some movie hacker to find all your answers."
"Well, at least it's a place to—" A thought occurred to me, one that could seriously mess things up. "Crap. Your laptop won't even work out here."
"It's got a satellite modem, but it's the battery we have to worry about." Sydney sighed and stood up, smoothing her rumpled clothes with dismay. "I need a coffee shop or something."
"I think I saw one in a cave down the road," I said.
That almost got a smile from her. "There's got to be some town close by where I could use my laptop."
"But it's probably not a good idea to take the car out anywhere in this state," said Dimitri. "Just in case someone at the motel got your license plate number."
"I know," she said grimly. "I was thinking about that too."
Our brilliant scheming was interrupted by a knock at the door. Without waiting for an answer, Sarah stuck her head inside and smiled. "Oh, good. You"re all awake. We"re getting breakfast ready if you want to join us."
Through the doorway, scents of what seemed like a normal breakfast drifted in: bacon, eggs . . . The bread had gotten me through the night, but I was ready for real food and willing to roll the dice on whatever Raymond's family had to offer.
In the house's main section, we found a flurry of domestic activity. Raymond appeared to be cooking something over the fireplace while Paulette set the long table. It already had a platter of perfectly ordinary scrambled eggs and more slices of yesterday's bread. Raymond rose from the fireplace, holding a large metal sheet covered in crisp bacon. A smile split his bearded face when he spotted us. The more of these Keepers I saw, the more I kept noticing something. They made no attempts to hide their fangs. From childhood, my Moroi were taught to smile and speak in a way that minimized fang exposure, in case they were out in human cities. There was nothing like that here.
"Good morning," said Raymond, carefully pushing the bacon onto another platter on the table. "I hope you"re all hungry."
"Do you think that's, like, real bacon?" I whispered to Sydney and Dimitri. "And not like squirrel or something?"
"Looks real to me," said Dimitri.
"I'd say so too," said Sydney. "Though, I guarantee it's from their own pigs and not a grocery store."
Dimitri laughed at whatever expression crossed my face. "I always love seeing what worries you. Strigoi? No. Questionable food? Yes."
"What about Strigoi?"
Joshua and Angeline entered the house. He had a bowl of blackberries, and she was pushing the little kids along. From their squirming and dirty faces, they clearly wanted to go back outside. It was Angeline who had asked the question.
Dimitri covered for my squeamishness. "Just talking about some of Rose's Strigoi kills."
Joshua came to a standstill and stared at me, those pretty blue eyes wide with amazement. "You"ve killed the Lost? Er—Strigoi?" I admired his attempt to use "our"
term. "How many?"
I shrugged. "I don't really know anymore."
"Don't you use the marks?" Raymond scolded. "I didn't think the Tainted had abandoned those."
"The marks—oh. Yeah. Our tattoos? We do." I turned around and lifted up my hair. I heard a scuffling of feet and then felt a finger touching my skin. I flinched and whipped back around, just in time to see Joshua lowering his hand sheepishly.