Page 10 of Taken By the Vampires
“Surely you have a vehicle of some kind. Everyone needs to go into town for supplies. Come to think of it, why haven’t I seen you in town?” I would have remembered their faces. They were the kind of faces teenage girls plastered on their bedroom walls and dreamed about. Everyone also needed a vehicle of some sort around here. It was just common sense. Looking about the modern room, it would seem that they had to have traveled from somewhere to get this place built and move the furniture in.
“We don’t have need to go into town,” Davon said.
“Then you have a helicopter.” It was the only thing I could think of. Maybe they were so decadently rich they could just fly in and out. It would make sense. Why come into a dinky little town if you didn’t need to?
A fleeting smile dusted across Cassius’ face. “We’re pretty self-sufficient here. No need to go out much at all.”
Something really wasn’t right with these guys. Ice-cold doubt slid through my drowsiness. I couldn’t afford to become complacent, no matter how nicely they treated me. “But everyone needs to go out. There are things that people just need to do.”
“They do, indeed, Tu Ena. And what you need to do right now is to rest.”
I peered up at Xander, catching a glimpse of a very sharp, white tooth that made me pause for a moment. “I’m not ready to sleep. I don’t want to sleep.”
He moved me so that he could stare directly at me. “You’re not well, Tu Ena. You need to rest. We’ll speak of this more in the morning. There’s time enough for all the answers you seek.”
My gaze tangled with his. I tried to look away, but I was compelled not to. “That’s not…not an answer.”
He stared at me and I was drawn into his hypnotizing gaze. I was so tired. Sleep, that’s what I needed. Sleep called for me. I should just give in and let it take me away. My eyelids drooped. I blinked heavily, working hard to keep them open.
“Stop fighting. I will gift you this one night of peace. It’s the least I can do,” Xander said.
“Peace?” But thoughts were becoming hard work. And why was I panicking so much anyway? All would be better in the morning. Just after I had a good night’s sleep. “Doesn’t make…sense.” My eyelids fluttered closed and I gave way to the lethargy pulling at my limbs, despite knowing I needed to keep my wits about me.
“It will. Goddess help me, it will.”
Chapter Seven
I woke, surfacing slowly through the layers of awareness until my eyes opened to a light room. I was back in bed, covered in thick, warm blankets. The fire was crackling merrily in the hearth and the winged back chairs were empty.
In fact, the whole room was empty. And completely silent, bar the soft crackling of the flames.
I sat up, wincing as various cuts and bruises made themselves known, but it was nothing like the last time I woke. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, aware that Xander had lied about the pyjamas. Beneath the sheets, I was still naked.
And there was no towel.
My face flamed a little, knowing that they’d seen me naked. But then again, they’d seen me naked for six days while I was out of it. Then Davon had bathed me…and more. My twisted thoughts were aggravating my stomach. I couldn’t mull over what had been done, only what I could do now. I was stronger. More alert. And determined that nothing like that would happen again. It wasn’t too far from how I lived my life in town.
No one saw me as a sexual being – apart from Gary, but I was more a conquest for him. A conquest that would never happen. I had come to terms a long time ago that lust and maybe even love were not in the cards for me. There was no reason why that would change because of a chance tumble down a mountainside.
Now that no one was around, I could take the opportunity to really see where I was. I stood, shaky on my feet, my body telling me that I had been quite ill. It was all a bit fuzzy, but I did know I’d been barely cognizant the past few days. There were snatches of conversation that made no sense without the full picture. Not surprising, if I’d had a fever, but there was something they’d done to me that made it all go away. Nothing short of miraculous, seeing as how much I’d recovered in a very short amount of time.
I wrapped the blanket from the top of the covers that had been piled on me around my shoulders, feeling a little better that it hid my nudity. I really had to ask them about clothing. I wasn’t going to run around here in the buff for anyone’s viewing pleasure.
The room was extremely large and contained the bed I’d occupied. Several assorted high-backed chairs upholstered in crimson velvet were arranged around the massive, sleek black mantle. More towards the center of the room were couches with a low table between them. Various cabinets lined the walls, all in dark mahogany, and intricately carved. They wouldn’t look out of place in an historical mansion. Maybe they’d decorated to keep with the style of the building.
The bathroom door where Davon had taken me was slightly ajar. The light was on, showing gleaming white tiles and a modern interior, which were at such odds with the general look and feel of the Gothic style room I was in.
Along one wall ran shelving bursting with books. Actual leather-bound, old books. I didn’t know anyone who actually owned books now. My library was mostly electronic.
My Grimoire!
I hadn’t thought about it until now. A quick glance at all available surfaces came up empty. My heart leapt in my throat. I’d held it when I’d tumbled down the mountainside, but then what?
What if it was destroyed, left out in the elements? The book itself was priceless, but the information inside it was more precious than that. What if people had come to look for me and had found it? What if the Holy Trinity had it in their possession? They’d waste no time rounding up my mother. And Mom – what if she was sick and I wasn’t there to help her?
Frantic, I went to the window and opened the curtain, revealing a burgeoning snowstorm that raged from mushrooming clouds and an angry wind that bent the tallest branches and whipped them about. Frost clung to the exterior windowpane, strung like frozen cobwebs along the edges. I pressed my palm to the glass. Although toasty warm inside, the glass instantly cooled my skin. It was crazy that a snowstorm was like this. It was only mid-November.
I clutched the blanket at my throat, reeling away from the window. There was no way I could walk out into a blizzard like that to find my Grimoire, let alone get back to Mom. My God, what was I going to do? I could only hope she was all right and that I’d be able to leave as soon as the storm passed. And as for having no phones or internet – that just sounded damn wrong. I’d need to keep my wits about me and that included not showering with sexy men while they handed out orgasms.
