Amazed, page 2
And he didn’t even want to think about the witch–shifter matings.
The only sensible mating in this town was his own with Phoenix! Though she had weird ideas about humans, given she’d been raised as one. He shook his head. Not the point. “Phoenix. Glory,” he growled.
They both looked at him.
“How are we going to operate a shifter bar in the middle of a hotel, no matter its magical state, that’s run by a human?”
Glory grinned. “Very carefully, Travis.”
“This is going to be so much fun!” Phoenix exclaimed.
Travis groaned. There was no way things weren’t going to get out of hand very fast.
Chapter 3
HARRY STARED AS Phoenix came bustling in that afternoon, followed by a ton of people he’d never even met before. “Hi, Harry!” She exclaimed cheerfully. “We’re just bringing in some supplies and then we’re going to work on getting the bar into shape.” She turned to the crowd behind her. “This way, guys!” She led them through the lobby and around the corner, heading Harry assumed, for the bar.
He sighed. This should be interesting.
At least the bar was on the first floor.
And he’d give them rooms on the fourth floor like always. Hopefully they wouldn’t notice anything amiss on the floors in between.
After an hour of watching people wander through the lobby area, some of them heading for the bar and some of them heading out the front door, Harry couldn’t stand it any longer. After carefully placing his petal back in his wallet and pocketing the crystal, he set up the sign that said “Ring for Service” and headed for the bar.
He found controlled chaos inside.
Phoenix was issuing orders like a general and her troops were dusting, sweeping, mopping and scrubbing every surface in the room.
Harry wandered over. “Can I help with anything, Phoenix?”
“Oh, no, Harry. Not at all. I promised we would take care of everything and we will. You won’t have to do a thing. In fact, I’m thinking by the time we’re finished here, you may have a working bar you can keep open for the townspeople.”
Harry thought that was a terrible idea. He wasn’t even sure he was going to keep the hotel open. Every day he stayed here without Lily was like rubbing salt in the wound. Maybe his mother was right and flower or no, it had all been his overactive imagination.
“Don’t give up, Harry,” Megan said as she walked up.
“Oh, hi, Megan. I didn’t see you come in,” Harry told her. “What do you mean?”
“You still have that crystal I gave you, right?”
Feeling a little foolish, Harry fished it out of his pocket. “Right here.”
Megan smiled and reaching out, placed her hand on top of his so the crystal was trapped between them.
Was it just his imagination or did the crystal heat up a bit?
“It’s not quite time yet, Harry, but as soon as you’re ready, the crystal will be as well.”
As soon as he was ready? He’d been ready since he was six years old and he’d met his best friend who was a fairy! “I’m ready now, Megan.”
She smiled at him. “Not quite. But almost, Harry. Don’t give up, okay?” And she turned and walked away.
“What was that all about?” Phoenix asked.
Harry closed his fist around the crystal and carefully slid it back into his pocket. He shook his head. “I just hope she’s right.”
Chapter 4
LILY SAT ON the bar and watched the shifters scrub everything in sight.
“Do you think this is going to work?” Logan asked at her side.
“I don’t know, but I had to do something.” She leaned down and snagged a bottle of FeyLines and two glasses from below the bar. She sat up, set the glasses between them, opened the bottle and gave them each a liberal splash. She handed one of the glasses to Logan, then lifted her own. “To open minds.”
They downed their drinks in one gulp, then sat in silence for a moment. Finally, Logan sighed. “We should probably get back.”
Lily nodded. “I hate leaving him. I’m always leaving him.”
“I know, but he’ll be here when we get back. The shifters and witches will keep him here now.”
Chapter 5
“SERIOUSLY, HARRY?” TRAVIS demanded. “You haven’t fixed this damn elevator yet?”
Harry sighed. “Trust me. There’s no fixing that elevator.”
Travis’ eyes narrowed. “Is it even broken?”
“Depends on your definition of broken.” Why Harry felt compelled to provoke Travis was anyone’s guess. He was though. Completely compelled.
Travis huffed and stabbed the button for the elevator, and of course, it began a very slow descent from the upper floors to the lobby.
Harry sighed. That elevator was going to take Travis places he never wanted to go.
It would serve him right too.
The man always sneered whenever he came around the hotel. And okay, not exactly without reason. The hotel certainly wasn’t the Ritz or any of the other high-end hotels Harry had managed through the years, but it was still Harry’s.
The one hotel that meant something to him.
His only link to Lily.
Of course, the hotel had resisted all efforts to clean it up. No matter what Harry did, it always looked shabby.
He’d repaired the stupid lights on the sign outside seventeen times since moving here and always within an hour, the O and the T were out again, leaving the hotel labeled H_ _EL.
He’d even had local electricians out to try and fix it. No deal. They found nothing wrong with the wiring and just replaced the bulbs like he’d done a million times before and then, within a couple hours, the O and T were out again.
Truthfully, Harry’d gotten to the point where he kind of liked that sign, even though he felt as though the universe was playing a cosmic joke on him.
The elevator dinged at that moment and Harry wrestled with his conscience. Should he warn Travis?
Before he could decide, Travis stepped inside the elevator and the doors began to close.
“Wait for me!” Phoenix darted across the lobby.
Shit. “Wait!” Harry shouted. “Don’t—” but it was too late. Phoenix disappeared into the elevator with Travis and the doors shut behind them.
* * *
“Well, hello, darling.” Travis grinned at his mate. She was so beautiful. Even in these shabby surroundings, she lit up his world.
“Hi. Where are we going?”
Travis held up a key. “Got our room number. Same one you stayed in before. Thought I’d check it out. Beat Harry to a pulp if it’s as disgusting as it used to be.”
Phoenix gave him a look, the one that always made him smile. She was trying to look mean, but she just didn’t have it in her. Instead, she just looked kind of sultry.
“Are you seriously expecting the hotel to be all fancy now when Harry obviously has no money and no guests? Of course, it’s going to look the same. And you’re going to be nice about it, Travis.”
Travis grinned. “If you say so, darling.” He pushed the fourth floor button and dragged her close. “We’ll have to test out the sturdiness of the bed, just to make sure it’ll hold a big, grumpy bear and his mate.” He leaned down to kiss her and the elevator shuddered to a halt.
He sighed and looked up. The needle above the door had halted between two and three.
Fabulous.
They were stuck.
“Travis.” Phoenix’s eyes narrowed. “Are we even supposed to be taking the elevator?”
Travis scowled.
“It was still out of order, wasn’t it?”
“Harry implied the elevator worked.”
Phoenix raised an eyebrow.
“Sort of.”
“Travis.”
He groaned. “He said something about how it couldn’t be fixed and when I asked if it was really broken, he said it depended on my definition of it.”
“So you decided to take a ride on a broken elevator?”
“He said it might not be broken!”
“No. He said it depended on your definition of broken. My definition of a broken elevator is one that won’t take me where I need to go! And now we’re stuck!”
The doors opened.
* * *
At that moment, the most amazing scent permeated the elevator, and the koala inside Phoenix woke with a vengeance. It lunged for the surface and for a moment, they were caught in human clothing, but then they were free and tearing across the land, lunging upward. Up and up and up.
Home.
* * *
Travis couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
The elevator doors had opened, not onto the hotel corridor or to a space between the two floors as he’d really expected, but to an outside landscape he’d never seen before. Tall, thin trees stretched before them, a veritable forest inside the hotel!
Before he could even decide what to do, his mate let out a sound he’d never heard from her before and suddenly shifted. She lunged out of the elevator and raced across the forest floor.
Travis flung himself after her. The minute he crossed the barrier between the elevator and the land beyond, his black bear exploded from his form in a fury of sound and he was free.
He raced after the koala, thrilled to see his mate in her shifted form. Her koala slept so many hours of the day, they rarely had the chance to cuddle and play.
Phoenix lunged upward, claws digging into the trunk of a tree as she raced up it to settle in the nook of a couple branches.
Travis wandered around the tree, examining it carefully, before choosing a spot to climb. He made his way up and over so that he was just above his mate.
Stretching out on a branch, he dropped a large paw down and dangled it in front of her.
Her mouth was full of leaves. Her claws too.
She quickly stuffed more leaves in her mouth, then reached up and grabbed hold with her claws. She climbed up his arm and settled on his back.
Every once in a while, she reached up and grabbed more leaves to chew. But mostly, she rested along the top of his back, nestling her head into his fur, rubbing his ears and scratching his back with her claws.
The weight of his mate, the feel of her heart beating against his back, the gentle scratching of her claws, the soft rustle of leaves and of chewing — it all lulled him to a kind of waking peace.
Home.
Chapter 6
HARRY WAS WORRIED. He hadn’t seen Phoenix or Travis in a couple days. Not since they’d disappeared into the elevator of doom.
Which didn’t have to mean anything bad. Maybe he’d just missed them. Or they were busy somewhere else.
It’s not like elevators went around eating people or anything.
There had to be a perfectly logical explanation.
Like they were probably just in their room, enjoying some peace and quiet.
Except Harry had knocked on their door several times over the last couple days and neither had answered.
Maybe they’d sneaked out and were staying somewhere else though.
It could be possible.
Still, he was starting to think he needed to bring in the cavalry.
Which was how he ended up here, right inside the double doors of the bar, looking for Travis’ sister, Glory.
Of course, the minute he stepped inside, he lost all sense of his mission.
The bar was completely transformed!
Every single surface gleamed.
How was that even possible?
Since taking over the hotel, Harry had cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and nothing ever looked better. The surfaces were all still grimy and dust-covered, the carpets and wallpaper still faded and ugly, the lighting still dingy and shadowed. But here, the mirror above the bar shone brilliantly, the floors were clean enough to eat from and all the natural beauty of the hotel he’d once loved lived again.
He stared around him in awe.
Glory and Megan were standing by the bar chatting. He headed for them. “How’d you do it?”
“What do you mean?” Glory asked.
“I’ve been cleaning rooms in this hotel every day for four years now and nothing ever looks even a little bit better. It just goes back to its old faded, shabby looks almost instantly. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. But now–” He looked around the bar and shook his head. He felt like he’d fallen into the Twilight Zone.
Glory just looked at him. “Did you ever try to clean in here?”
“Well, no. The bar wasn’t a priority, but still—”
“It was just waiting for a little magic.” Megan winked at him.
Magic.
He’d been waiting for the magic too.
He’d truly believed just by walking through the doors, the magic would wake for him, and Lily would come home.
Why would the hotel’s magic come alive for these people, but not for him?
Megan placed her hand on his arm. “Patience, Harry. Everything in its time.”
He’d already been patient! Four years he’d been patient!
He wanted to say this to Megan. He wanted to rage. He wanted to shout at Lily to come back already and what was she waiting for?
But he was afraid there was no one waiting at all. He was afraid it was all in his head. And the more time that passed, the more he disbelieved his own memories.
Not responding to Megan’s assurances, not knowing what to say, Harry walked out of the bar. As the double doors quietly swung shut behind him, he turned and stared at them. They were gorgeous wooden doors with etched glass that shone. Now that all the years of grime had been scrubbed away, he could clearly see the name of the bar for the first time.
Shenanigans.
As he stood there and stared at that word, he remembered suddenly running down this hallway with Lily when they were younger. They’d been holding hands and laughing. As they’d raced by the doors, he’d glanced up and seen the name clearly. At six, he couldn’t read the word, but he could feel the power behind it.
He pulled Lily to a stop and pointed at it. “What’s it say, Lily?”
“Shenanigans.”
“What’s it mean?”
“It means it’s a safe haven.”
“What’s a haven?”
“A place where you can go and be safe and be yourself and no one will hate you because of who you are.”
“You mean you can go there and no one will mind that you’re a fairy.”
“Exactly.”
Harry worried about that a minute. His mom had a lot of experience waitressing so while his dad worked at the front desk, she took care of the restaurant. “But my mom doesn’t like fairies.”
“I know. It’s why no one ever goes to Shenanigans anymore. It’s no longer a safe haven for the people of the realms.”
Those words rang in Harry’s ears as he slowly walked back to the reception area. He didn’t think the people cleaning up the bar were fairies. None of them had wings. But maybe they weren’t human either.
He thought about that a minute. If they weren’t human, maybe that was the trick.
Maybe he was the wrong person to own the hotel. Maybe it required someone magical like a fairy to help the hotel thrive.
Except his dad had been human. And his granddad before him. And the hotel had thrived in their times.
For a split second, Harry contemplated the possibility that maybe they hadn’t been human. But that didn’t make sense when Harry himself clearly was.
Settling behind the reception desk, he pulled out his crystal and extracted the petal from his wallet. He set them down on the counter in front of him and stared at them.
He gently touched the petal.
It was still so soft.
“Lily,” he whispered to it. “I’m waiting.”
When nothing happened, he sighed, climbed to his feet and went to grab a rag and cleaner. After carefully putting away the petal and the crystal, he stared at the countertop and remembered Megan telling him that he wasn’t quite ready yet. He wasn’t sure what she’d meant by that, but maybe she meant Lily couldn’t return to him until he’d finally figured out how to make this hotel shine with his own two hands.
He stroked a hand along the countertop and whispered to it, “I remember when you gleamed with magic. At least that’s what it seemed like to me, when I was a little boy. Everywhere I went, every room, every single nook and cranny was filled with the magic of possibility. You were truly the heart and home of my childhood. Come back to life please. For me. For Lily.”
And with that quiet plea, he began to scrub.
* * *
“I think we’re finally done!” Glory said as she slowly walked through the bar, checking to make sure it was fully stocked and ready for business.
“Yep,” Max agreed from where he stood on the other side of the bar.
Glory rolled her eyes. It wasn’t like Max had been a big help or anything. Instead, her mate had hung around mostly for the kisses, sweeping her into his embrace at the most inconvenient of times, generally making a nuisance of himself for the past two days.
At this point, though, everything was pretty much done, even without his help. Or the help of her worthless brother and his mate.
She knew Travis hadn’t approved of this plan, but it had been Phoenix’s idea! Glory couldn’t believe Phoenix had just abandoned them like that.
Of course, she was a koala.
For all Glory knew, Phoenix had decided to sleep when her koala did, which basically meant they’d never see her again, since the koala pretty much slept twenty-two hours a day.
Thank goodness for friends though, because Glory would never have gotten everything finished if it weren’t for the cougars and wolves and witches. There weren’t that many people left at this point – just Megan and her sisters and their mates – but most everyone who spent time in Shenanigans had stopped by at some point over the past two days to offer assistance.
The only thing left to figure out was whether they wanted to make use of the full kitchen in back. They actually had the ability to serve more than peanuts if they wanted and had cleaned it to shining perfection, just in case.
