Page 72 of Bitten By Desire
“Well, he probably only needed a sample because he thought I was only here for a couple of weeks. Then I’d be gone and he could pretend to be Theo Gold with golden eyes.”
“That’s farfetched.”
“Well, did you find anything in his drawers?”
“He wears boxer briefs. Sexy, right? Back to the handcuff thing. Do you think he handcuffs women to his bed or does he like being handcuffed? I can honestly picture it both ways.”
Why were we talking about the handcuffs? “Zoey, did you look at anything besides his underwear?”
“Yeah. But there’s nothing unusual. Just normal guy stuff. Some sweat pants. Some T-shirts. Jeans. Nothing sinister at all.”
I sighed. She was right. That was all normal. And an empty contact lens case wasn’t proof of anything. I put them back in the drawer exactly as I’d found them and closed it. “Time to go in the attic then.”
Chapter 21
Monday
Zoey ran after me. “Please no. Anywhere but the attic.”
We had to check the attic. This wasn’t up for negotiation. “And if he’s not hiding something in the attic, we’ll have to break into those locked rooms. Because there’s definitely something in those. And then the garage.” I shivered at the thought of finding bloody tools or something in Theo’s garage. The attic was a much safer place to explore. I wasn’t sure why Zoey was freaking out so much. The worst part about attics were mice. Or maybe bats. And hopefully lots of secrets to uncover.
“Or maybe all the locked rooms are empty and he doesn’t want to have to clean them and you’ve lost your damn mind!” she said as I pulled down the stepladder to the attic.
“You don’t have to come up, Zoey. I’ve got this. Just stay here stand guard.”
“And what am I supposed to do if Theo shows up?”
“Distract him.”
“How?”
“Like you always do with men. Show him your tits or something.”
She laughed. “You want me to flash Theo? I thought you had a crush on him? That would be very counterproductive.”
I didn’t have a crush on Theo. I hated him. “Just do whatever’s necessary.”
“Like a blowjob?”
I didn’t have time to tell her what a terrible idea that was. Because Theo could be back any minute. Or second. Or maybe he was already in the attic lurking around like the creeper he was. I climbed up the ladder and slowly poked my head through the cutout in the ceiling. I smiled. It was filled with boxes. “This is it!” I called down to her.
I climbed into the attic and opened the closest box. I coughed as I opened the lid. It was filled with moth balls. And…weird cloaks? Okay, that wasn’t what I was looking for. But at least there weren’t any mice jumping out at me. I ran my hand over the velvety material. Seriously, why did he have so many of these fancy cloaks? I closed the box and opened the next one. It had a bunch of strange, dusty hats and more moth balls. He must have been a fan of roleplaying in addition to handcuffing women to his bed.
The next box was filled with leathers. I cringed as I lifted up a leather strap. What the hell was this used for? Probably some kind of weird BDSM to go with his roleplaying. But as I explored the box more, nothing really resembled a whip or anything. And the leather seemed really worn.
I reached down farther and my hand wrapped around something metal. I shifted it through the box of leathers and looked down at…a stirrup. Was all this stuff for a saddle? I didn’t take Theo for a horse lover. Or a lover of anything really. Although he did seem to love messing with me.
I dropped the stirrup back in the box and a cloud of dust puffed up around me. I coughed and moved to the next box. As soon as I lifted the flap and saw all the feathers, I fell backward and covered my face, waiting to be mauled by a huge bird. But…nothing happened. There wasn’t even a squawk of anger. I slowly opened my eyes and peered back at the box. It wasn’t moving. I inched forward and lifted the flap again.
It wasn’t a bird at all. I breathed a sigh of relief as I picked up one of the feathers. It was just a box full of loose feathers. Why? What on earth was Theo doing with a bunch of feathers? Was he secretly into arts and crafts? I dropped the feather back in the box and reached in further to see if there was anything else. My hand collided with a glass jar. It was filled with black liquid. I looked back at the feathers. Most of them just looked like they’d been plucked right from some huge bird. But a few had black on the very tips. I tilted the glass jar and the thick black liquid slowly moved with it. Ink. The box was full of old-fashioned feathered quill pens. Honestly, that was probably weirder than if he had them for arts and crafts.
I moved to the next box. It was filled with unused candles. And not the fun scented kind. Just normal, boring white candlesticks. I closed the flap on the box and froze. Wait. Candlesticks. Like I’d seen in the windows of his creepy Gothic mansion.
The strange hats. The cloaks. The horse stuff. The feathered quill pens. The candlesticks. He wasn’t playing dress-up. He’d used these things. Ages ago. God, I was right. He was a vampire. He’d been alive for decades. Centuries, even.
“I was right!” I called down to Zoey. “He’s definitely a vampire! That portrait at that mansion had to have been him! He’s been alive since at least the 1700s!” I remembered the portrait of Sir William Evans so clearly. The golden eyes. The same golden eyes as Callum Walsh. As Theo Gold. They were all the same person. I freaking knew it!
Zoey didn’t respond. She was probably playing with his handcuffs or something. Or eating a cucumber out of her purse as she stood watch. I went back and took pictures of the contents of all the boxes I’d opened. This was definitely evidence.
