Page 72 of Of Blood and Smoke

“New guards?”

“You’ll have new ones in a few minutes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t accept failure.” Josiah crossed the room and opened a closet door. “You’ll find a change of clothes in here. If anything isn’t to your liking, let me know.”

Stepping into the huge walk-in, I looked around. Racks of women’s clothing covered one side of the wide, open space with an island in the middle. Chandeliers with dangling crystals hung overhead, shedding a soft, golden light.

“Do you have to kill Brett?” I asked softly.

Josiah’s eyes narrowed and then he stopped moving completely so it seemed he’d stopped functioning as a living being. As if someone had flicked a light switch, he reanimated and spoke. “Little One, if I grant him life, he won’t stop coming after you. I’ve claimed you, and now you’re marked.”

“Marked?”

“Your scent is all over me, and mine—you. There is no hiding it.”

Spotting leggings on a shelf, I grabbed them while thinking of beingmarked. “Is that how you found me so quickly?”

I felt him press against me as I searched for a comfortable shirt, and he slid his hands up and down my upper arms. “Yes, and I can’t tell you how infuriating it is to smell you on the man. If only I had found you sooner,” he stated wistfully. “Then no one else ever would’ve touched you.”

“Are you killing him because he took me without permission or because he touched me?”

The grin in his voice was heard loud and clear. “Both.”

While I was flattered, it seemed a bit overkill to me.Overkill. I huffed a short laugh at my own thoughts. “How many people?”If he needed blood to live, I could only imagine the number was unfathomable.

As I tugged a soft shirt from the pile, he said, “Legions.”

It wasn’t a shocker. “Do you just bite people?”

Josiah laughed. “No, although of course I do that as well. I mold the execution to the crime whenever possible.”

For a moment, I pictured Josiah covered with blood, reminiscent of the times we’d made love, and he’d feasted on me. He didn’t drink from me each time, but it was a regular occurrence. I couldn’t say I didn’t enjoy the thrill of him enjoying every part of me, and he was ridiculously sexy covered in blood.

My body warmed at the visuals as I began to change out of my dress. He stepped behind me and slowly slid my zipper down, his finger smoothing over my skin and his other hand at my waist. My body was craving his as I melted into his touch. My head tilted back against him, baring my neck and he answered my silent plea, running his lips up and down the length.

“Della, I have business to take care of. When I come back, I’ll take care of you,” he said, his voice low and heated. He ran his fingernails down my side, making me wiggle against him. “I promise." I let out a decidedly unsexy grunt and turned around.

“If you want anything to eat, just pick up the phone by the bed and it will be brought to you,” he said.

Josiah left the bedroom, closing the door behind him. I finished getting changed and then wandered into the bathroom. I opened cabinets and drawers, poking around to see where things were.

Josiah had all the cosmetics and toiletries I normally used stocked and ready for me, right down to the brand of toothpaste. He’d assured me I didn’t need to pack any of my things, and now I could see why.

It seemed like entirely too much trouble to expect someone to bring food up to me when I could easily get myself something. Plus, I had a manor to explore.

THIRTY-THREE

Della

First, I wandered down the hall to the left of the bedroom door. There was nothing of interest, just a lot of spare bedrooms and some rooms that appeared they were for storage. Then, I wandered down to the right and discovered the same thing, only there was a narrower corridor in the distance that seemed to join two sections of the house. I moved forward to check it out and stopped in the middle to look through the windows. There was a garden below, walled in by the house, with a wrought iron bench, cherub water fountain, and a meandering brick-lain pathway.

My stomach growled angrily, and I circled back, heading for the staircase. Everything was deathly quiet, including the seemingly lone uniformed house employee that wandered past the landing at the bottom. She was so silent she may as well have been gliding. My own feet made no noise as I slowly descended the stairs.

I knew Josiah had “business” to attend to, but I wished there’d been time to give me a tour of the home before he left. It appeared there were a hundred ways to get lost in the building’s sprawling corridors and living spaces.

As I headed toward what I hoped was the back of the home, where I assumed the kitchen was, I ducked my head into a few of the rooms, spotting a vast office and library and a living room. Ignoring the compulsion to poke around in any more of them, I kept on going.

---