We pulled into a parking lot of a motel. Matt said we were on the outskirts of the town of his contacts and he didn't want to get much closer. We could have slept in the car, I'm sure that's what Matt was used to with this job, but it was too cramped to be comfortable now. Everyone climbed out grateful for the chance to stretch their legs. We wandered around the parking lot while Matt checked us in inside.

He came back out a minute later, "Lets go get some rest." He gave each of us a room key as we walked inside. "These are not permission to go wandering about in the middle of the night. These are for just in case of emergency."

The room Matt got was small but we were on a budget now. No more endless wallets of safe house money.

I kicked my shoes off and sat down on the bed. Why was I so tired? I hadn't done anything but sit in a car today. Maybe it was the excitement of this really happening. I don't know.

I quickly burrowed under the covers and fell asleep. Waking some time later to the sound of talking.

"How can I be sure this is really him?" The muffled voice asked. Matt was on the phone with his contact.

"Because I'm back," Matt said.

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Eight years ago you and Scott came up with the phrase 'truly a heater' as code for there being a big nest of vampires."

"Anyone could know that. We aren't only contacts for the Bat Man."

"Just give me a location of a nest and you'll see."

I yawned and drifted back to sleep. Matt would have the location of one when we woke up tomorrow and we would be back in the car for who knows how long. I needed to sleep while I had the arm room.

Another noise woke me. I looked over to where Matt was and he was asleep. It wasn't him talking on the phone this time. I glanced at the small digital clock as my eyelids started to droop when I heard a grunt again. I sat up but no one else looked to be awake. Whoever it was, was likely in the bathroom trying to be quiet.

I got up and looked closely at all the blanket wrapped people, Simon was the only one I couldn't find.

I knocked softly on the bathroom door.

"Simon?" I said quietly. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said but it wasn't convincing enough. I knew something wasn't right.

I turned the door handle to test it, Simon hadn't locked it. He realized this after I was opening the door.

"Chloe no," He begged.

I stepped in and quickly shut the door so the light wouldn't wake the others. Simon was gripping the edges of the sink with his head hanging down. Every visible muscle was tensed and the magic mark on his finger was burning bright red.

"What's going on?" I asked, walking up to him.

Simon looked up at me, his eyes were bloodshot from tension.

"The magic needs an outlet, its building up too much."

"Ok," I nodded. Sounded easy enough. "So let's do some spells then."

His arm tensed. "I have been, it's not helping."

I had an idea that was stupid but it might work.

"You probably need to do stronger spells then."

Simon chuckled, "Yeah? Like what?"

"Like healing spells," I suggested.

Before Simon could respond, I knocked the nearest razor off the counter and stomped on it as hard as I could with my bare foot. Breaking it and sending the blades deep into my skin. I bit down on my lip to keep from screaming.

"Chloe!" Simon realized what I had done.

He grabbed my foot and tried to dig out the razor blades with his fingers but couldn't get a grip with all the blood.

"Use magic," I told him.

Simon glared at me but did. He muttered a spell that pulled the razor blades and then set to work healing the wound and cleaning the bloody floor.

By the time Simon was done, the tension had left his body and his finger mark returned to normal.

"That was stupid," Simon said as he washed his hands.

"I know," I nodded. "But it worked, didn't it?"

I knew I wasn't going to get a thank you out of Simon for that, he was too angry at my willingness to jump into risky behavior. But he looked back to normal which was the important part.

If it wasn't for the blood loss, I would have stayed up to make sure Simon stayed ok and got some sleep. But I again fell asleep as my head hit the pillow.