Lethal Blow: (Succubus Hitwoman Book 2) by Eliza Hendrix (love books to read TXT) 📕

Where is everyone? The entire casino is empty. Slot machines are silent, poker tables vacant, and the air around me is colder than usual. It’s so quiet I can hear my breath. That and the air coming from the ventilation system.

What the fuck happened? Is this what Devania was talking about? Wasting no time, I run as fast as I can to the elevator and press the button.

It dings, the sound echoing loudly as if being emitted through a speakerphone.

The ride up feels like it’ll never end. I’m freaking out inside. How could everything have changed so much within a few hours?

The second I reach the twenty-sixth floor, I swipe my card through my hotel room’s card slot and wait for the signal to turn green.

Nothing happens. Why isn’t it opening? I swipe it again. Nothing.

“Hello?” I shout, now blasting my fist against the door.

Something’s wrong.

Gripping the handle, I nudge my shoulder into the door and it bursts open.

Thank the goddesses for my super strength.

When I step foot inside my hotel room, I’m not surprised to find it empty. Where is everyone? Something happened. I’m not sure what it is yet, but I intend to find out.

In the lounge area are my empty beer bottles, which means no one has come by to clean up. If that’s the case, then whatever happened must have happened soon after I went into the Hall of Hallows, and it must have affected the entire Dark Hall.

Here’s what I’d like to know: how long was I actually in there?

Did time mess up? That tends to happen when traveling through dimensions or toying with reality. Did I even leave the Hall of Hollows? Am I still there now?

Time.

That’s what I need to find.

Rushing across the room, I make my way over to the hotel room’s telephone. It looks more like a display unit than anything with its wide screen, small speaker, and sleek white design.

At the corner of the screen is a time and date stamp:

3:03 a.m., April 17

What the fuck? It was the eleventh yesterday. This thing has got to be busted. No way has that much time passed without Rachel trying to find me through one of her portals.

I’m tempted to rub my Battalion ring, but I have a hunch Devania won’t be in the mood to see me so soon. Besides, for all I know, this is another test.

I’m about to head over to the fridge to ease my soul with a nice cold beer when a small slip of paper catches my eye. It looks like a tattered sticky note left for a month in someone’s back pocket.

The writing is poor—childlike, even.

Couldn’t find u anywhere. Zerachu weird. Stole the rest of my book and talisman. Drax and I had to evacuate with everyone.

PS: Took ur wallet 4 money 4 motel. Lucky Cheetah. 308.

Rachel.

Fuck. Is she trying to tell me that she’s lost the entire Book of Origin now? First, the vampires sent by Lucius stole some of its pages, and now she’s lost the rest. And on top of that, the Heart of Danu was taken, too. This is why I didn’t want a young fucking witch holding on to something so powerful.

What was I thinking?

Closing my eyes, I inhale the seductive smell of beer while gliding its cool glass lip across mine. I want this more than anything, but I also know that shit just got real. It takes everything in me to put the bottle down, but I do it.

This is the first time I ever hear of the Dark Hall being evacuated, which means things are bad.

Beyond bad.

Now, some evil and powerful witch has the Book of Origin and the Heart of Danu.

We’re all fucked.

Chapter 15

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The Lucky Cheetah looks like someone built it for the sole purpose of allowing underpaid prostitutes to do their jobs. It’s surely owned by a slumlord or a pimp. Everything about it screams dirty, rundown, and cheap. Even the sign hangs on an angle, and from where I’m standing, it looks like a pair of panties are stuck on the giant L.

I go to room number 308 like Rachel’s note instructed and knock on the door. I know I’m at the right place when Mr. Mushroom barks and claws at the front door.

Sometimes, I think he wishes he were a Rottweiler. Either that or he thinks he is.

Several door locks unlatch and Rachel’s face appears in a narrow crack between the doorframe and the door, a rusted chain dangling across her forehead.

I suck on my front teeth and grab my hips as if to say, Well, you gonna let me in, or what?

Quickly, she unlatches the chain and flings the door open.

Barging in, I say, “You steal my wallet and you get a room in a shithole like this?”

“I was trying to save you money,” Rachel says.

I should be thanking her, but I’m filthy rich now. The last thing I want to do is hang out in a place that reminds me of my apartment.

At the other end of the room, Drax sits on the one bed in the room with smoke floating around his head. When he catches me watching him, he slaps the air in front of him and coughs. “It’s about time.”

“About time?” I say. “What the fuck is going on?”

Drax and Rachel exchange a look, which leads me to believe I’m missing something.

“We should be asking you that,” Drax says. “You ditched us for a week and then shit hit the fan at the casino. Where the hell have you been?”

My jaw hangs loose. A week? How is that even possible?

“What’re you talking about, Drax? I was gone for a few hours.”

With bloodshot eyes,