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My forehead crinkles with confusion. It seems like I’ve slept for only moments, not hours. I look around the room for any sign of time, but there are no clocks in sight and the backdrop behind the deep burgundy drapes only tell me that it’s sometime in the night.
I sit up slowly, acclimating, glancing at the designer store bag with a pile of clothes peeking out of the top. A store I’ve walked past a thousand times, admiring the beautiful mannequins in the window but never daring to go in for being shooed away by the clerks. I pull the covers back and sit up, feeling a little bit off center but much better than I did before. “What time is it?”
She glances at the small silver watch around her right wrist. “It’s well after midnight.”
I swallow through the embarrassment of my dream. This is not good. I’ve been sleeping at a male’s home, in his bed for hours. My chest tightens with angst, knowing that any man who finds out about this in my father’s realm will most certainly question my virginity. “I’ll shower and then go and talk with Master Botosoni about the rogues, the shifters, and the stones. But then, I have to go home. I can’t stay here. It’s not proper. What will people think?” I ask aloud, not so much to her but instead to myself as she returns from delivering the toiletries to the ensuite.
I pick up the bag and walk toward the bathroom. “If I don’t remember to tell you later, thank you for everything that you did. You were so kind, and I really appreciate it, Clara.”
She gives me a gentle smile. “Go get ready, love. Things will feel better after a nice, long shower. Just don’t take too long. The chef has prepared a huge feast for all the visitors, and they don’t plan to eat until you’ve come down to join them for the meal tonight.”
My eyes go wide, and my blood races for a different reason now. More people. It’s bad enough that two people know I’ve been here all night, but having a group know anything is definitely not the way to keep a secret that will cost my family their dignity in the circles that they keep. Their spinster daughter will be the death of them all. The city may be sprawling these days, spreading with renewed growth after years of famine, but everyone knows someone who knows someone else, and there’s nothing better than telling a juicy little story like this.
I’ll figure a way out of this, to keep my indecency from blowing back on my family. I have to. “I’ll hurry,” I say to Clara, closing the door behind me. I stroke the long burgundy bath sheets that hang on a large scrolly towel holder, monogrammed with a scrolly letter B, and then touch the others on a rack below it, taking in the warmth of the material never having seen such opulence as what’s in the master bathroom or even heard of a towel warmer before.
I turn the old fashion faucet, taking note of the shampoo, conditioner, bodywash and pink razor still in the package on one shelf in the shower and the other manly toiletries neatly organized on the other. The razor is surely for me. The thought of the monstrous brute using something so feminine, and pink, makes me smile even as I think of a way out of this monumental mess.
I slip out of my nightgown when the water is the perfect temperature to touch, stepping into the large, oval tub, and drawing the curtain around me to keep the warmth inside and around my still somewhat chilled body. The water is silky and smooth, the spray massaging my scalp as I shampoo and wash away the events of the night. It should help to clear my head, but the cap on the manly bodywash has been left open and fills my nostrils with the scent of him next to my bed.
Curiosity and the need to capture this experience to memory slows my movements in the shower as I take in every detail, every scent of his personal products while washing and trying hard not to think of him or my dream.
There’s no way a master vampire, a powerful and known leader in the community, is kidnapping someone and keeping them against their will.
No matter what he said…
I’ll get dried off and dressed, go downstairs, share a meal with him and his friends. There’s no way I’m going to get out of that without appearing flat out rude, and that, I do not want to do, because that too will come back to look bad on the family. “Damn it all to hell. I’m in a lose lose situation. I wrack my brain for a civil way out of this mess.
The best I can hope for is to be able to act with honor, give the vampires what they want to know, tell the truth, and bear the wrath of my family when they eventually get word that I spent time in a vampire’s bed, let him feed me, and even completely undressed myself with him and others in the house to shower in his lair.
I rummage through the bag of clothes left for me, unfolding layers of tissue paper, revealing one lacy undergarment after another, caressing the soft luxurious lace trim on the silky sets in burgundy, deep purple, and bright flaming red. A far cry from the items I arrived in, that’s for sure. I slide into the sexy set, before pulling on a designer label pair of pencil cut jeans with silver stitching on the back pockets that hug my figure as though the seamstress made them just for me. I pull on the dark wine-colored sweater, slipping on the silky socks and pewter-colored heeled boots before twirling in front of the mirror so differently dressed than the girl who arrived at the coffee shop to read fortunes not that long ago.
But the visions and shadows of night dwellers are not going to rest. They keep floating in the back of my mind and swirl with increased intensity, a fog of denseness wrapping around the red and yellow eyes that invade every recess of my mind as the predators draw near.
And I already know, there’s really no way out…
Chapter 7
Botosoni
My eyes shift to the clock on the wall as the group drinks the Descallia Red and nibbles on hor d’oeuvres the chef and his staff made for the group as we wait for more information from the lords and soldiers to come in. It’s only midnight, but Catina has been in my bed for hours Yet, it feels like only moments ago that the softness of her lips and warmth of her tongue curled around the tender pieces of chicken offered between my fingers.
Waiting for tomorrow will be hard. If I hadn’t stumbled upon Catina, we could have gone after the rogues tonight, but that could have proven fatal without understanding the full magnitude of the stones. Each and every one of the vampire masters and their significant others understands destiny, and that the Vade Mecum will lead us on a journey of its choosing and not one that we would have necessarily selected for ourselves. So, we wait, until everyone returns and we learn anything else from Catina.
Overmaster Descallia’s impatience shows as he swirls his glass, but a soothing hand on his arm by Lucianna seems to calm our fearless leader. At least for a while, but waiting is not his strong suit, nor is it mine, and the dark-haired beauty has had as long as I can give her to rest. “Clara went to wake Catina. She’ll be down to join us and tell us what she knows about the rogues and the stones when she’s finished showering and getting dressed.”
Willow, Raven, and Madria who have been openly talking with each other, their mates, and Lucianna this whole time exchange a pointed look. Lucianna’s glowing green eyes do not miss a thing. She points a finger from one to the next of them and tilts her head. “What was that look? Do tell,” she says, her eyebrows raising on one side while the three look as guilty as they should.
Madria strokes her stone, glancing from Willow to Raven for silent assurance. “I think we’re just curious what this woman knows about the stones. I mean, we each know the history of our stones, but how does she know the history of them?” Madria gives me a pointed look. “You told us that she told you that you have to wait for the stone. That you won’t be able to find the rogues until it lights the way. If you try to go up the mountain without it, you’ll fail, each and every single time you will fail, over and over again.”
My jaw tightens with annoyance. Why I feel the need to explain yet again, to someone who has just joined our group, but Sardinia’s arm around her and Lucianna’s nod tell me more than words can say. They trust what she says, and so should I. “Catina has powers; that’s why I was sent to see her by some of the lords who have used her time and time again for things such as this. It did not take her long to see the rogues or the shifters in a vision. In all honesty, I wasn’t quite convinced myself until the minute I was introduced to you this very evening.”
Madria tilts her head in question as Sardinia’s arm tightens around the petite young woman with large eyes whose stone seems to be the source of all of Catina’s warnings. She strokes the stone again, and my eyes follow the action, unsure how to explain the powers Catina holds.
I clear my throat, looking straight at the woman named Madria. “She mentioned you by name. Although I had no idea who you were or knowledge that you would be coming with Overmaster Descallia and the group.” Sardinia’s brows raise, his eyes darkening with protective challenge.
I will alleviate any concern he may have of me blaming Madria for anything, but Catina did not lie, and I want them to know that too. I keep my eyes on Madria, even while feeling the heat of Sardinia’s gaze. “I’m glad that you were able to accompany Sardinia and the others, Madria. It will help us make quick work of figuring out the puzzle of these stones. There is no way she could have known your name, or that a person named Madria has a stone, or that we needed to wait for you to arrive before chasing the rogues and shifters up the east side of the mountain. I’ve gone over it too many times in my mind. I believe what she says. She did not lie.”
Lucianna’s green eyes glow, and all the others are focused on me now. I don’t tell them that I could feel every beat of her heart, as it sped up, as it rested, was listening for a lie or change of pattern or breath that never came. I know she didn’t lie, but I also don’t know how her powers work, or more importantly—their origin. And that may be the biggest unspoken concern for not only myself, but the entire group at the moment. Unknown powers can be deadly, and we’ve had far too many traitors in our midst that we thought were our friends, to accept a stranger at her word.
