Page 45 of Chain Me
“Are you going to kill me?” I wondered, surprised by how calm I sounded. My heart lurched and I almost couldn’t resist the urge to panic. Scream. Fight. Something in his gaze kept me still, however.
“No! Of course not.” He eyed the knife in his grip and gulped. Then he shoved it hastily into his pocket without taking care with the blade. The way he flinched led me to suspect he’d cut himself. “I came to help you.”
But those men had revealed one bitter truth during their banter.“The kid said…”
“Do you work for my sister?” Posing the question at all hurt.
But his contrite frown stung more. “I workwithher,” he admitted. “But she isn’t why I’m here now.” He glanced over his shoulder, his brow furrowing. “In fact, I need to move you—”
“Don’t touch me!” I scrambled back, desperate for a weapon. I might have had one already. The firmness within my grasp alerted me to the fact that I was still holding the cross. Odd. After everything in the crypt, I should have dropped it. Upon closer inspection, I noted its odd shape. The long, thin arms of the cross seemed designed to conform to my fingers regardless if they formed a fist around it or not. Readjusting my grip, I brandished one of the pointed ends. “Take me home now,” I rasped. “And I will forget this ever happened.”
“Home?” François cocked his head, his eyes wide. “You don’t have any idea what’s going on, do you?” He chuckled helplessly, raking his fingers through his hair. He was still wearing his nondescript driver’s uniform—a plain black suit and white undershirt—yet he was sporting one glaring violation of the manor’s dress code.
Blood speckled the collar, painting it red.
“Ms. Gray.” When he met my gaze again, his eyes reflected something far worse than betrayal: pity. “I don’t want to scare you, but by getting to you first, I may have just saved your life.”
No. I ignored the confession. It was too horrifying to think about just yet.
“Tell me,” I blurted, changing the subject. “Have you always been a member of Georgie’s…club? Where is she by the way?”
“The Grayne?” He shot me an odd look. “To be honest, I thought you knew. Your sister tasked me to look after you while she went away. A damn good job I’ve done of that.” He eyed me from head to toe, frowning at the blood drying on my hands. “I need to get you to a doctor—”
“Why?” I demanded. “If Georgie had you watch over me, then why are those people looking for me? Friends of yours?”
He looked away, his frown even more pronounced. “It’s complicated, Ms. Gray.”
“Complicated.” I laughed, thinking over all of the drastic, terrifying, horrifying events I’d been through in the past few days—Dublin’s return notwithstanding. “Complicated doesn’t cut it. Explain. Now!”
“Okay! Okay!” He held his hands out before him in a placating gesture and sighed. “All I know is that I was ordered to protect you. Your sister asked me personally. Then you went missing that day, by the church…” He waited as if expecting an explanation.
One I never gave.
Sighing again, he soldiered on. “After that, I was contacted by a member, but it wasn’t your sister.” His eyes narrowed as though he were still processing the information himself. “She hasn’t contacted me in a while, mind you. But that day, my directive changed. If you returned to the house, I was to inform another member immediately.Notyour sister. In addition, they said I would be removed from your direct detail. No one could tell me why. It didn’t feel right, so I kept an ear to the ground. At the same time, I learned that a certain powerful figure had returned to the city. Someone with a rather gruesome reputation and a connection to you. Let’s just say I put two and two together.”
That mysterious, dangerous figure needed no introduction—Dublin Helos.
“Who were those men?” I asked. “What do they want with me?”
“Let’s just say the kind of people who don’t get assigned to babysitting detail,” François admitted. “I’m just glad I could get to you first.”
“Why?”
He grinned sheepishly and shrugged. “You were different than what the rumors made it seem. Not some naïve, insane lady who fell prey to vampires—” He broke off, coughing into his fist. “I mean…I know your sister wouldn’t want this. Until I hear from her, I’ll do as she asked. That’s all that matters.”
“Where is she?” Her avoidance of me was one thing. But if even François hadn’t heard from her…
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But trust me, she can handle herself. If you don’t mind me saying this, miss, you should focus on yourself.”
I blinked, my eyes burning. From guilt? Or maybe pain. When liquid began to dribble down my cheeks, I knew from the consistency that it wasn’t tears.
“I…I need more than a doctor,” I whispered. The nearest wall was my only stability as the world seesawed beneath me and I clung to it, my knuckles whitening. “It won’t stop.”
François hissed and shrugged his jacket off, wadding up a sleeve. “Here. Try this.”
He pressed the fabric near my left temple, but the bleeding didn’t slow. If anything, the pressure seemed to encourage more to drain. With every passing second, I felt dizzier. Thinking took deliberate effort and any coherent thought lacked the urgency I needed to possess. They floated within my skull, increasingly silly. For instance,If I were a surly vampire, where would I be?
The cathedral? The manor? In Hell?
