Page 16 of Tainted Blood

“Fantastic. I’ll go with them to look over the rooms, then we’ll retire to my private sitting room. You know Alexius.” Isaiah turned to us, his eyes landing on me, assessing me quickly. “But you haven’t met Miss Everly yet,” he continued. “Everly, this is my butler, Jonathan. He does what Rupert does for Alexius while I’m at this house.”

Stepping forward, I waved at the man standing on the other side of Isaiah.

“Nice to meet you, Jonathan,” I greeted, trying to smile and hide my teeth at the same time.

“It’s a pleasure,” the man said, inclining his head.

“I know where their rooms are, so if you can just make sure my sitting room is ready, that would be great. I’ll take them through the estate.”

“Of course, sir.” Jonathan bowed to Isaiah before leaving us. Looking around, I realized our driver and all of Isaiah’s entourage had already disappeared.

We were very alone, with an empty SUV behind us.

“Where did everyone go so fast?” I asked softly.

“Your eyes turned red, so they went to quickly inform the staff to get out of sight,” Isaiah explained. “Just in case.”

“You hyper-focused on something when you got out of the car. What was it?” Alexius asked me.

“Heartbeats. I was counting how many heartbeats I could hear,” I explained. “I wasn’t aiming to attack or anything.”

“Not saying you were. The staff has specific protocols, and you are still a young vampire. Precaution is better than recklessness in these situations,” Isaiah said with a smile. “It’s fine. No one is going to think you’ll eat them, not here. You’re not going to be wandering the halls alone with only humans around while fed, much less hungry. We shift the staff around and hide nonessential employees because sometimes a vampire will go for the easiest and closest meal before anyone can react. Hence why we are still out here, and they are doing all of that inside without us in their way.”

“I’m sorry. I—”

“You did nothing wrong.” Alexius sounded tense. He’d been tense for half the drive, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. “Isaiah trains new vampires here and allows his bloodline to bring their newly Turned here as well. The household is accustomed to young vampires. Better here than in the city. You haven’t inconvenienced anyone.”

I nodded, hating how childish it all still felt—the safety precautions, the gentle handling, the placating. I wasn’t nearly as isolated as I had been earlier in the year, but I was stillnew,and new meant I could snap and hurt someone. It was necessary, even if I was frustrated with it. Guilt at being a danger, frustration I couldn’t stop that impression, annoyance I was talked to like a child who didn’t know enough yet. There was more, but I didn’t have a therapist on hand to help me untangle the entire problem.

The complicated mix of feelings stayed with me as we finally entered Isaiah’s country home.

I took it all in. The grand entrance hall, with its double staircase and floors in rich mahogany and opulent dark tile, made an impression of what I would find in the rest of the house. Between those stairs was a hall leading deeper into the first floor, where two small tables were positioned on each wall. On each side of the stairs, archways trimmed in the same mahogany looked into sitting rooms, though one seemed set up for security, not entertaining visitors. A chandelier hung overhead as the centerpiece of the entry hall, low enough that someone could jump for it from the landing at the top of the stairs. Low enough to be seen and appreciated. It took a moment for me to tear my eyes off it and appreciate the floor, which had a pattern—a sun and moon design under our feet, with stars dancing around the two celestial bodies. The center of the design was directly under the chandelier.

It screamed old money in a timeless way. I wanted to think of it as gaudy, but there was care in how the colors worked together, forest greens, deep browns with hints of understated red, and gold. The few pieces of gold, like the chandelier, didn’t seem out of place. They blended, creating a cohesive look. The design of the tile was done with tiles just slightly different shades instead of something more contrasting. If someone wasn’t paying attention, they would have missed that detail entirely, making it disappear if someone wasn’t looking directly at it.

“You’ll be staying in the basement, as Alexius and I have already discussed,” Isaiah said as he walked between the grand staircases and past the tables, forcing me to abandon the gorgeous entry hall to follow him. I saw coat closets as we passed each table. “There are three staircases to the basement. One…” He stopped and turned around, pointing to his left. I followed his gaze to see a door on the back of the right-hand staircase. “That will take you to the center of the basement, which is an entertainment and living area. The other two staircases are at the end of each wing. You can’t miss them. You’ll be right next to one of them, in fact, along with an emergency exit. I’ll show you both.” He waved for us to follow and opened the door.

“I know your house,” Alexius said stiffly, going first.

“Yes, but I’m playing host for Everly. I think she deserves to know exactly how to get around, don’t you?”

“Of course.” Alexius disappeared, and I caught Isaiah rolling his eyes before he looked at me.

8

Iwent after Alexius, not waiting to be told. The winding stairs put us in a small hall, the clear invitation to enter the double doors directly in front of me. There were two other doors, one on each side of me, but when I reached for one, Isaiah’s hand stopped me from pulling it open.

“Staff entrance. Vampires outside of my nest are forbidden from using them,” he explained. “The other one goes to my family quarters, which you will see shortly.”

“So, we have to go through the living area to get to the bedrooms,” I said, frowning.

“From this staircase, yes.”

“The security of that… If someone wants to get to their room without being bothered…”

“There are pros and cons of the security choices made here, but we both know why you don’t like this design choice.” He smirked. “Use the stairs next to your room if you don’t feel like being watched by a group of nosy old vampires when you’re wandering about. It’s not difficult.”

“Yeah…” I sighed, looking at Alexius, who seemed to be waiting for our conversation to be finished. He pushed open the double doors and went through them in the same movement.

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