Read Online Hotel Hex by Linda Wisdom - Free Book Online Page A

doesn’t.”
    “How much you want to bet only Mrs. Babbington has the answers,” she snarled, returning to the stairs.
    “No bet. And no way she’ll tell us either.”
     
     
    Chapter 7
     
    “There is something seriously wrong with that woman.” Jazz stumbled when her balance shifted from a gentle rocking motion under her feet. She reached out a hand to the door as it wavered in front of her while the wallpaper on either side shifted from dark pink cabbage roses to a gold fleur di lis on a cream background. “What the—?” Before she could finish her sentence the wallpaper returned to its original state. “That was strange.” She opened the door then stopped short.
    “Something tells me this isn’t our room.” Nick echoed her thoughts as he stared past her shoulder.
    “This is really bad,” Puff announced from Jazz’s feet.
    “Very bad,” Fluff agreed.
    Vivid shades of red, gold, orange, and green assaulted their eyes as they stared at colorful filmy drapes along the walls and arrayed across a bed the size of a small country. The bed was piled with enough pillows to fill the Grand Canyon. Heated air scented with a heavy musk caused Jazz and the slippers to sneeze.
    Jazz shook her head and slammed the door closed. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before she cautiously opened the door again and peeked in.
    The room was restored to the condition in which she and Nick had left it. 
    “Dude, it looked like something out of Tales of the Arabian Nights !” Fluff and Puff abandoned Jazz and skittered across the carpet then onto the couch. They settled on a plump black velvet pillow. “Smelled weird but kinda cool.”
    “So not my style.” Jazz wasting no time exploring the bedroom and examining the walls, even getting down on the floor to look under the bed. She cast her senses out and found nothing but non-magick air. “This makes no sense.”
    “You can’t perform magick right now, remember? That probably means you can’t sense it either.” Nick poured himself a healthy dose of whiskey and downed the contents in one gulp.              
    “I hate people who make sense.” Jazz settled gingerly on a chair. “First the kitchen looks like a slaughterhouse. Then it looks normal. These rooms looked like something out of a seraglio then it is back to Victorian furniture.” She pulled up her legs and briskly rubbed her feet. She started to open her mouth then closed it. “I guess my flats won’t come in here on their own,” she mumbled, pushing herself out of her chair and walking into the bedroom.
    “It may not be a good idea to stay here too long. We’ve got too much to do,” Nick told her when she returned with her substitute footwear.
    “I bet Derwood would be happy to help us.”
    “We’ll have to tell him what happened to Beatrice.”
    “Good idea since it wouldn’t be good for him to find out on his own.” She grimaced as the lights flickered. “The lights going out is all we’d need.” She started to stand up but Nick pressed lightly down on her shoulder.
    “Tell you what, let me go talk to him,” he suggested. “You take some time and indulge in a hot bath. Beatrice and her room aren’t going anywhere.”
    The prospect of hot water and bubbles had her smiling. “You talked me into it.”
     
    Once Nick was gone, Jazz wasted no time gathering up her favorite bubble bath, loofah mitt and iPod. She smiled at the sight of the bunny slippers snoozing comfortably on the bed.
    “Perfect,” she sighed, slipping into the bubble-filled steamy water and resting her neck against a rolled up towel braced on the lip of the claw foot tub.
    With the sounds of her Let’s Keep Jazz Relaxed playlist as background, Jazz closed her eyes and allowed her mind to wander. She knew the way her thoughts sometimes tended to jump here and there would torment most people, but for some reason she found it a good way to figure things out.
    Magick that isn’t