Page 36 of Crave Me

Relief flooded me as I turned the knob with no resistance. It wasn’t locked. One less thing to deal with.

Scanning my immediate area and determining no one was near, I slipped inside.

While the exterior was all Georgian, the interior decorating of the mansion was straight out of the Victorian era. Heavy fabric and curtains, fancy upholstery, detailed walls and woodwork.

I’d made it halfway through the ground floor, encountering two guards, but managing to evade them and keep my presence undetected.

This seemed to either be a home Elijah didn’t use often, or one he’d commandeered, possibly a recent foreclosure. The latter made more sense, because if it was actually one of his properties, Cas would’ve already raided it looking for us.

Fuck, I had no doubt he was going absolutely insane trying to find us. The sooner we got back the better, for all of our sakes. I couldn’t even imagine how Sky was handling this either. I hoped to God it hadn’t caused her to backslide into all that darkness that we’d managed to pull her from.

Voices reached me as I finished clearing the last room on the ground floor, a space filled with antiques and not much else.

I pushed out of the room and followed the sounds to the stairs leading up to the second floor.

“Fuck, yeah, that was real good.”

“You’re telling me.”

“Gonna have some real sweet dreams after that.”

“His whimpers added a nice touch too.”

“Elijah’s gonna bring in the girls soon. It’s gonna be another level.”

“Can’t wait to see Rowland squirm.”

“The begging’s finally gonna start then.”

Three sets of voices.

The content of the conversation had my nausea reaching a whole other level.

I slapped my hand to my mouth as my stomach lurched and it was a fight to keep myself from actually vomiting.

I heard them coming down the stairs and I staggered into the antique room, flattening my back behind the door, as I watched them pass on by talking about getting some shut-eye.

I waited until the sounds completely dissipated, and then I crept out of the room and made my way up the stairs.

Every step I took caused a massive strain on my body. I had to use my shivs for support a couple of times, digging them into the steps.

My heart sank as I finally made it up to the second floor only to find a corridor with ten fucking doors, five on either side.

I leaned against the wall and listened carefully.

A whirring sound caught my attention.

Then… spluttering?

It was coming from the first door on the right, the one closest to me.

I pushed off the wall and walked to it, noting that it was slightly ajar.

With my shivs at the ready, I pushed it open carefully with my elbow.

Inch by inch I opened it more, not seeing any guards lying in wait near the door or anything.

And then I caught sight of the bed.

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