Page 33 of Accidental Vampire

The pounding stopped, leaving me reeling and a bit dizzy.

He raised an eyebrow at me as if to tell methat was cute, but get on with it.

“Better question,” I jutted my chin out and stared at him in defiance, “who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Shaw.” He said with a little bow of the head.

“Well, be a dear, Shaw,” I said, testing his name on my tongue, “and fetch me some socks.” The second thing you learn from those podcasts is to not act like a victim. No, the second you learn was to always get the DNA of your attacker under your fingernails. Third was victim shit. I was too tired to be a victim.

I looked him up and down. He was taller than Lachlan, but only just, thicker around the waist and shoulders, too. He definitely could pick me up and… my breath caught. No, no, no. I was not about to have one of those moments of uncontrolled sexual frenzy and jump this weirdo. I swallowed hard and tucked my hands under me to keep still. I knew it was ridiculous for me to be demanding shit, but here I was.

“Alright, Princess,” he said with a smooth edge to his voice, “but first tell me who made you?”

I jumped at a thundering boom that shook the entire room like Thor himself was protesting. Shaw was unfazed.Who made me? I didn’t even know how to answer that if I wanted to.

“When a mommy bird and a daddy bird love each other very much…” I let my voice trail off into petulant, condescending disdain. He laughed at that and nodded his head, like that was the right answer.

He stood, graceful like Lachlan, but more solid. I braced, sitting up straighter. I expected him to loom over me and extract what he wanted.

He sauntered toward the door. He bent down and pulled a foot-long metal spike out of the floor. It held the door closed, I guessed. The sound of metal scraping on metal sent a chill up me. Yup. That was it, and not the sight of his ass in tight jeans. He put the piece of metal in his back pocket and turned to me. I swallowed.

“This is my house, Princess. I expect you to control yourself and behave.”

He reached high over his head to pull another metal rod holding the top of the door shut, giving me a quick glimpse at endless abs.

“Yes Daddy,” I said with so much sass that Monique would be proud.

He hesitated before pulling the door open. He turned to look me up and down over his shoulder.

“Good girl,” he purred, sending a shiver through every single cell of my body. Shit. I might have taken this one too far. Don’t taunt the monsters.

He pulled the door open. Lachlan filled the space beyond. I could feel energy crackling off of him, even at this distance. He threw a desperate look my way, like he had to know I was in one piece.

Relief washed over me like liquid Xanax. Some of the tension in my neck and shoulders eased.

“Sorry,” Shaw said like he wasn’t sorry at all.

Whatever was happening between these two men was fucking uncomfortable. Their auras, or whatever, were crashing into each other and sending out shock-waves. It was the personification of chewing on tin foil.

“That applies to you, too.” Shaw’s words were soft, but they landed hard.

Lachlan bristled. I suspect he wasn’t used to being spoken to this way. He shot a look at me like I was the reminder he needed to be on his very best behavior. My skin crawled from the energy flowing between them.

Lachlan raised his chin as if to say these little rules were beneath him, but he’d play along for now. Shaw’s back was to me and I was desperate to see what his face was doing. Whatever nonverbal communication the two were rocking was apparently sufficient for Shaw. He touched a depression in the door and he turned and disappeared out of sight. I half expected him to do that shoulder bump thing the gym bros were so fond of when they wanted to be physically passive aggressive.

Lachlan stepped in and his eyes locked on me like he was taking an inventory of all my bits and pieces. He spent a few fruitless moments trying to figure out how to lock the door behind him. Those spike things must have been the only way to secure it, and Shaw had taken them.

When he turned toward me, his energy just evaporated. Normal people could pick up on someone’s vibe, but this was uncanny. I didn’t quite know how to describe it. Lachlan was all keyed up, then he just melted into something else, something softer, with hints of heartbreak.

“Alright?” he asked.

I was still all bundled up in this blanket, pulling it tighter around me as Lachlan and Shaw were doing battle with their Jedi mind tricks. I wiggled both my arms out, and I looked down at my hands. I didn’t want to be relieved that he was here. I didn’t want to feel that tummy butterfly thing when he looked at me. There was nothing good or normal about this situation. I shouldn’t be feeling good or normal.

I took a harder look at my hands, turning them over, inspecting them. There was rusty brown under my fingernails and in the creases of my palms. Dirt or blood? I wasn’t an expert, but someone had tried cleaning them and didn’t do a good job. I could feel panic clawing to get out of me. Then I noticed the shirt. It was torn and bloody. So blood, not dirt. Great. I could see dried blood on my skin through the gaping holes. I wrapped myself back up tight and squeezed my eyes shut.

“You’re OK. It’s just blood.”

“Just blood. Right.Just blood.” There were a few bottles of water on a desk by the door. He grabbed one and handed it to me.

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