The Unveiled

Veiled Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Complications

It was about eight in the morning when his utter exhaustion gave way enough that his pain, hunger, thirst, and dreadful need to urinate could no longer be ignored. He rose slowly and groaned. The pain in his ribs had lessened greatly by this point, but the upper part of his back had basically been skinned.

While he'd slept the dog had moved to curl up at his feet. He stood with some effort and made his way over to the window. He extended his senses, there was nothing malevolent nearby, which was good considering in his current condition he'd practically be useless. He made his way to the bathroom to relieve himself and took a look into the mirror above the sink. He was pale and his cheeks were gaunt. He almost looked worth hunting.

When he walked out his companions were where he left them. Turid was sleeping on her back snoring slightly though she'd never admit it, she had the covers up all the way to her chin. That's when he really took note of the goosebumps on his own flesh. He turned the dial up on the heater and was relieved when it started battling the chill in the room. Judging by how rundown this place was, he wasn't expecting much from the heating system.

He sat back down on the side of the bed. He should lay back down and get some more sleep. He was starving, but what little food they had left was out in the car, and he had no desire to go out into the cold to get it. He sighed and turned to slip his legs under the covers, but he couldn't muster up the desire to lay back down. He was still exhausted, despite the fact it was nearing twenty hours since they'd gotten here. He wasn't used to inactivity, even when injured.

He turned to Turid. There was an empty can of soup sitting on the bedside table. He didn't think she'd slept the whole twenty hours. He wondered what time she went back to sleep? He sighed and looked around. Usually in moments like this he would busy himself on looking for another hunt. if he didn't find anything right away then he'd be readying himself for a trip back home to visit the family, and Turid, but that was no longer an option.

He reached into his pocket looking for his phone before remembering that he'd left it behind. He sighed and grabbed Turid's off the table, she wouldn't mind and really this down time was driving him nuts. Before he started to search for another hunt some instinct told him to enter the name of the town that they'd been in during the dragon attack. He cursed low under his breath when he pulled up a news story.

Nights Stay Inn burns to the ground

Around three thirty this morning 911 received a call from the desk clerk at the Nights Stay inn off HWY 54, stating that the building was on fire. When the police and Firefighters arrived on the scene over ninety three percent of the structure was ablaze. Luckily, there are no injuries or fatalities to report. As for what may have started the fire, the investigation is still ongoing. Authorities are looking for Jonathan and Abigail Stone, who checked in two nights before, and were the only ones unaccounted for.

He cursed under his breath again. It wasn't like this sort of thing didn't happen, their kind had been wanted for crimes before. Some of the things they hunted blended well into human society, and when they slew them, well to anyone out of the know it would look just like any other murder.

Thefts, arson, breaking and entering, it happened. Normally he took care of messes like this by himself. All he had to do was make the right parties forget it ever happened, and it was pretty much like it hadn't, but he and Turid couldn't go back and clean this mess up. The dragon could still be in the area hunting them for one, and for two it was simply too far to back track at this point. Not that they had a heading in mind.

He sighed again and stood making his way across the small room to his bag, he pulled out the last of his clean clothes. He wanted a shower to clean him off, and possibly wake himself up more, but it was impossible with his back bandaged as it was.