The Demon Road Trilogy: The Complete Collection: Demon Road; Desolation; American Monsters

Something scraped against her door. Fingernails.

Someone whispered through the keyhole.

Amber waited for morning.

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SHE DIDN’T SLEEP.

She was tired and her eyes wanted to close, but she didn’t sleep, not with Glen having been snatched away, not with Milo missing, not with those … people out there. Nor did she change back. She kept her horns and fangs and talons, as much of a comfort to her as a gun to a soldier.

A half-hour before dawn, the silence left the hotel. Amber heard footsteps in the room above. She heard a window close in the room below. They were returning.

When dawn broke the darkness, the curtains let through a few weak strands of early morning sunlight. Gradually, she heard the sounds of normality seep through the floorboards. Doors opening and closing. Voices bidding each other good morning.

She waited until seven, until the sun was up and the day had properly begun. She got up. Opened the curtains. Cascade Falls lay fresh-faced before her.

She pushed the dresser back into place, and unlocked her door. When nobody came rushing in, she took a deep breath, and felt her horns retract.

She stepped out, careful to move as quietly as possible. She crept to Milo’s room, reached for the handle, but the door opened before she touched it.

Amber yelped, and Milo jumped back.

“Jesus,” he breathed, scowling at her.

She pushed by him, into the room.

“Where were you?” she whispered.

He looked at the open door, then at her, and then he closed it. “I’m sorry?”

“Last night, you disappeared. You took the car.”

He nodded. “Veronica wanted to go for a ride. She’d never been in a Charger before. Why?”

“They took Glen.”

“Who did?”

“Varga,” she said. “Varga and the others took Glen.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“They were flying around last night and they dragged him right out the window!”

Milo looked at her.

She glared. “Don’t you dare say I imagined it all.”

“I wasn’t about to,” he murmured. He went to the bed, pulled his bag out from underneath, and removed his gun and holster from a side pocket. He clipped the holster to his belt and slid it out of sight. Then he put his jacket on over it.

He led the way out, and over to Glen’s room. He listened at the door for a moment, then pushed it open. Glen’s gentle snoring was the first thing to greet them.

Milo parted the curtains and Glen woke, turned over, gazing at them both blearily.

“What are you doing in my room?” he asked, his voice thick.

“What happened?” Amber asked.

“Sorry?”

“Last night,” said Milo. “Amber, start from the beginning.”

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said, “so I opened the window. I saw Varga and maybe five or six others climbing down the wall. No ropes, no gear, they were sticking to the bricks. Then they … then they let go and they flew.”

Glen frowned. “They flew?”

“Yes,” she snapped, then ignored him and turned back to Milo. “Then I went to get you, but you were gone. Glen came out, and we went outside to look for the car.”

“That was gone, too,” said Glen unhelpfully.

“But there were people out there with us,” Amber said, “and I could hear more of them flying overhead. They almost got Glen, but we got back inside, went to my room … I’d closed the window before I left, but it was open, and Glen went over to it and he was pulled out.”

Glen frowned. “I was?”

She whirled. “You were pulled out the window, Glen.”

He processed the information. “Ohhh,” he said. “That’s what happened.”

Amber was ready to kill him. “What?”

“I woke up on the ground,” said Glen. “I must have fallen out.”

“You didn’t fall. You were pulled! If you had fallen, half your bones would be broken!”

He shook his head. “Not necessarily. If my body had been completely limp on the way down, I’d stand a good chance of—”

“Shut up, Glen! How can you not remember?”

“I must have blacked out. I remember everything you said, except the bits I didn’t see, like, and I remember getting to your room and then waking up outside. I went back in, knocked on your door, but you were asleep—”

“I was not asleep.”

“Well, then you didn’t hear me, so I just went back to bed.”

“And, if that was you, you did not knock. You scraped.”

Glen’s frown deepened. “Why would I do that?”