Page 17 of Bewitched By a Vampire

Or not.

Her eyes widened as she counted at least three vampires in the foyer below her and four humans. Blast. She ran through her options, which were limited. Either she gave up and returned to her room, or she braved the front door. The window in her room was out of the question, since she would need to use magic to break her fall and the vampires would sense it. Her cover would be blown. The staircase before her was the only way to reach the ground floor, so she couldn’t sneak down another way and leave via a window lower down.

And giving up wasn’t an option.

She needed to talk to Gillian, face to face not via a message or a phone call. She needed to see her friend and look her in the eye when she made Gillian tell her she was doing the right thing and that everything would be okay and she wasn’t going to end up shackled to a vampire for the rest of her days.

The front door was her only real option.

She could do this. The vampires were all distracted, none of them paying any real attention to the servants milling around the foyer offering them glasses of blood.

She calmed herself and then started down the stairs, walking casually in an attempt to avoid drawing attention to herself. Several more vampires crossed the entrance hall, all of them beautiful women.

In fact, every woman in the foyer—vampire or human—was incredibly beautiful.

She tried not to imagine what Night was up to right that second, put it out of her head and focused on getting out of the house.

It was going well, and she had almost reached the bottom step without anyone paying her any heed, but then she looked off to her right, under the second staircase. A brunet male had a female pinned against the wall there, his back to Lilian as he openly fed from the human’s vein. The woman clutched his shoulders, tugging at his black suit jacket as he bit down again, and moaned like he was sinking more than his fangs into her. Lilian told herself to keep moving as the woman writhed against the vampire, rocking her hips into his as she hooked one leg around his waist and he gripped her under her thigh, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from them.

Was the male Night?

He had the same build and same style of dress.

The vampire lifted his head and looked to his right as another female approached him.

Lilian released the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding.

It wasn’t Night.

She turned away, towards the exit.

And squeaked when she came face to face with a large man.

The vampire stood only inches from her, had snuck up on her without her noticing, and she wanted to curse as his crimson eyes locked with hers and she felt the familiar prodding sensation in her mind. He was trying to place her under his thrall.

This wasn’t good.

“If you would excuse me.” She dipped in a curtsey. “I have drinks to serve.”

“The only thing you’ll be serving is me,” he grunted and snapped his hand around her arm in a lightning-fast move that her eyes couldn’t keep up with.

She twisted her arm, trying to free herself as her fingers tingled with magic and panic spiked her veins with adrenaline, but his grip was like iron.

He yanked her from the bottom step and she landed awkwardly on her right foot. Her ankle gave out and he pulled her up onto her feet.

He grinned over his broad shoulder at her, flashing fangs. “Let’s get better acquainted.”

“Like hell,” she muttered and kicked him in the shin. “Let me go.”

Several vampires paused to stare, their whispered comments not lost on her. A human under thrall wouldn’t talk back to a vampire or fight him, and an owned human would have experienced the same sharp burst of pain as the vampire groping them.

Which meant she was neither of those things.

The knowledge seemed to spur the brute on and he tugged her to him, so she crashed into his chest. Magic sparked in her veins, spells rising unbidden into her mind, and she fought to keep control. She couldn’t attack this vampire with her magic. She couldn’t reveal what she was.

But the thought that he wanted to bite her, that he wanted to hurt her and do things to her against her will, had control slipping through her fingers.

Electricity skittered through her veins, heading for his hand, and he grunted as she hit him with it. The second he released her, she bolted for the door.

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