Page 70 of Demon Hunger
On the contrary, Drevan had arranged for dozens of minor inconveniences along the way. Kody would be dealing with one very soon. His luggage would not arrive with him. Poor guy! I felt sorry for him. If everything had gone as planned, he’d already dealt with a delay in his connecting flight, a seat mix-up that kicked him all the way to the back of a very crowded plane, an overflowing toilet, stale pretzels, flat coke, and who knew what else Drevan’s demons had devised.
At the hotel, Jenna and I got an adjacent room to Sage and Benjamin’s, with a connecting door in the middle. When we arrived, our luggage was already there, waiting for us. We refreshed ourselves and rested for a bit, and went down to the lobby when Drevan got word through his demon grapevine that Kody had arrived.
“C’mon, let’s go.” Jenna grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room.
A few moments later, we were in the lobby, wearing matching T-shirts with a fake logo of the LDH Magazine. We peered at a bedraggle-looking Kody as he dragged his feet across the lobby. Sweat plastered his hair to his forehead, and he had a red stain down the front of his white button-up shirt.
“What happened to you? You look terrible!” Jenna exclaimed, scanning him up and down. His new white sneakers and the bottom of his black pants were covered in dust. He looked as if he’d trekked through the desert.
“The shuttle dropped me off at the wrong hotel,” he said. “It wasn’t far—at least that’s how it looked in my maps app—but it took forever to get here. I just seemed to walk in circles for twenty minutes. I think the app was being flaky.”
“Weird!” Jenna said. “We had no trouble at all.”
Kody huffed and approached the counter, where he told the receptionist he had a reservation under Kody Jeong.
The blonde typed on her computer, then frowned. “How do you spell your first name?”
“K-O-D-Y.”
“Oh, Kody with aK. That’s probably why I can’t find it.” She frowned again. “I must have your last name wrong, too. How do you spell it?”
“J-E-O-N-G.”
“Yep, I was missing theE.” The blonde smiled, but the frown returned quickly. “Could the reservation be under another name, Mr. Jeong?”
Kody glanced in our direction.
I shrugged. “The main office made all the reservations. We gave them your name.”
Jenna put on a worried expression. “I hope they didn’t mess up like last time.”
“I’m sure they didn’t.” I smiled, trying to look embarrassed.
Kody’s right eye twitched as he reached for his wallet and pulled out a credit card. “I guess I’ll just have to pay for it myself.”
“So sorry, Kody.” Jenna winced.
The blonde at the counter put on an apologetic face. “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re booked for theAll About Hot Dogsevent. We don’t have any more rooms available at the moment.”
Hand trembling and face growing red, Kody squeezed his wallet. He looked ready to blow his top. Whatever Drevan’s demons had put him through since he left New York seemed to have reached a boiling point. He opened his mouth to say something when suddenly the blonde blinked at her computer terminal.
“Oh, gosh!” she exclaimed. “It seems our computers are very slow today. Your reservation just pulled up.”
Kody deflated like a balloon. “Are there any clothing stores nearby?”
“Not nearby,” the blonde answered. “There’s a mall 25 miles north, though.” She smiled hugely, her perfect white teeth resplendent.
I had a feeling Kody wanted to punch them out, but miraculously, he held it together. He started walking toward the elevators, key card in hand.
“The competition is in an hour,” Jenna said. “We have to leave shortly.”
Everything was planned so that he had just enough time to arrive at the competition. On top of that, his return flight was tomorrow at 5 AM.
He turned very slowly to face us. “Do you think I have time for a quick shower?”
“Averyquick one,” I said. “Ten minutes tops.”
His anger seemed to dissolve into resignation. “I won’t take long.”
