Page 18 of Taken By the Vampires
“Yes. Beautiful.”
I glanced at him, but his attention had drifted to the shelf above and I had to wonder to what he had directed his comment. “You may like to flip through these as well. Ah, you have your hands full. Here, come and sit down. You can start with the book you’ve chosen and I’ll find a couple of others you may find interesting as well.”
I followed him to a padded armchair that looked as though it belonged to the last century. He helped me sit and then brought a small side table next to me, where he placed my cup of coffee in easy reach.
“Thank you,” I said.
He smiled and yet there seemed to be something more cautious in his gaze. “You never know what mystery you may solve in those pages.”
“What mystery would that be?”
“Maybe of life itself, you never know.” He winked and the playful Cassius was back.
Leaning back into the chair, I watched him a moment while he became lost in thought and selected a book from the shelves for himself. He sat in the chair next to me and started to read without another word. So, I wasn’t going to be left to myself.
Strangely, his company was a comfort. I watched him for a moment, but he was deep in his book. It had been so long since I’d been able to do something as simple as sit and read. Especially with someone who joined me.
I settled the book I had chosen on my lap and opened the cover. The smell of old parchment and mustiness rose from the old treasure. These books were positively ancient and that only served to stir my interest.
Maybe reading was a good option. It was certainly better than trying to work out if I was missing something really, really important, or if I was merely out of sorts and this entire situation was just my imagination.
Chapter Twelve
My mother sat at the fire, which was strange because we didn’t have an open fire in our house. Not like this one. Our little house was far too small for one this size. The flames danced high, the thick mantle the only protection between it and the house.
Our house. I was home!
“Mom!” I took a step towards her, but invisible hands held me back as three men approached her from behind. I couldn’t see their faces with the light, but Mom seemed completely unaware of their existence.
She didn’t look well. Her bony hands clutched the armrests of the chair, while her head was slumped over her chest, dozing. She looked small and frail. She’d lost weight because I wasn’t there to feed her. Judging by the state of her hair, clothing and the disheveled room, no one else had looked after her, either.
I had to get to her and tend her. I struggled against immovable hands. “Let me go! Let me get to her.”
But I remained restrained in place as the three shadowed figures surrounded her. One of the men brushed the hair from her neck and knelt at her side. She didn’t stir, even with that intimate gesture.
Panic seized me, making me short of breath. “What are you doing to her?”
I didn’t know if they heard me or if they merely ignored me. My heart pounded and I struggled anew as one of the men came nose to nose with her. He opened his mouth and I stopped breathing when his canine teeth descended into thin, white deadly points. He bent his head to her neck. His teeth sunk into her skin, latching on to her jugular. She didn’t even stir.
I struggled more, but it made no difference. I was helpless but to watch. Finally, he slowly and almost tenderly withdrew. Mom’s head fell to the side. She could be asleep, but I couldn’t see her chest rise. She was still. Too still. Blood ran from twin points from her neck to stain the collar of her white shirt.
“What have you done to her?”
His face turned to me, lips coated with blood, teeth grotesquely distended.
Red, so much red.
His eyes pierced me. The others turned. White teeth glinted in the firelight at the corner of their mouths. I gasped. Davon. Cassius. Xander.
Xander stood and wiped the corner of his mouth. Blood smeared on the back of his hand as he stalked toward me. Davon and Cassius flanked him. Slow, determined steps brought them closer.
A sound came from my mouth, unlike any I’d made before. Something a small, horrified animal might make in the face of abject terror. Even then, I couldn’t look away and I stared straight into eyes that were so changed from what they once were.
Black pupils were edged by blood-red. Gone was the caramel, the greens of the ocean and the blue of the sky. All were trained on me. Predators seeing their prey.
My feet slipped, but there was no traction. Nothing to keep me rooted in place and nothing to stop them from the intent that was clear on their faces. And what I saw made me hollow inside.
“What are you doing?”
