Page 7 of Your Coffin or Mine
“Fine.”
I hold back a smile as Doyle’s eyes widen with disbelief. It is worth getting Wi-Fi just to see his expression of surprise, and we have to keep our little human happy.
“Whatever theguestswant, they shall get,” I say with a wave of my hand.
“Right. So does that mean you’re going to eat again? Because you are starting to look like you’re decomposing. No one wants white hair in their soup.” A smirk lifts one side of his mouth and his eyes twinkle.
“Bugger off.”
His smirk morphs into a toothy grin. “She’s quite pretty, don’t you think?”
A whirlwind of messy blonde hair, pert nose, and bright-blue eyes on a heart-shaped face comes to mind.
“I suppose. I was a bit busy fighting my instincts to eat her to take note of her features.” I lie, shaking my head at the absurdity of this plan. “How in the hells did you ever think it was a good idea to bring humans here?”
“The price is seven thousand pounds a night per room, Vlad. That’s my thinking.” He looks at me and shrugs nonchalantly. “Once you get some nourishment, you will be less grumpy. Besides, you look like a homeless retirement-home reject and here I am just trying to keep you afloat. Help me help you.”
I point a boney finger at him. “I will kill you.”
“Not until you get a healthy diet of O negative, you won’t. You’re decrepit and dodder around the castle like an invalid.”
I growl at his impudence. “I will make you eat those words,” I bite out, wishing for once that I hadn’t allowed my body to wither.
“Looking forward to it, Father Time.”
“If it weren’t for our disastrous circumstances, it wouldn’t be an issue,” I mumble.
Doyle glances at me, a strange light forming behind his eyes, and he straightens his suit tie. “Maybe it’s a good thing. Finally, something to snap you out of whatever it is you’ve been doing for the past century. I’ve got to go get our guest room ready. Try not to fall and break a hip on your way to the kitchen. The fridge is stocked.”
The door shuts behind him and I’m left with only my thoughts for company.
The fridge is stocked, he says.Useless ingrate. I am perfectly fine wasting away. Centuries of being undead have left me a hollow shell; there is little in life that brings me joy, and I only want to be left in peace, away from everyone.
My lips lift into a snarl. Doyle and his machinations have made it so I have little choice but to heal myself. Mind control is surely impossible with my body this wasted, and I’m sure the little strumpet will get into trouble.
I must remember to instruct Doyle that no guests are to find themselves in my rooms. Hilda would be impossible to explain away.
“Ahnnnn.”
Speak of the devil. Her white skeletal hand drops two blood bags on the table next to me as her skull dips into sight. “Hilda, stop your coddling and leave me.”
The creaking of her joints echoes through the room as she moves away, and with a sharp screech of metal, I’m left in silence once more. I need to remind Doyle to oil that door.
Blood bags. I grimace and bite into one, swallowing the bland liquid, then finish on a sigh as I watch the flesh on my hands begin to glow with life. Humans inmycastle.
This is going to be a disaster.
Chapter 3
AUBREY
Vibrations wake me.My eyes are so gritty it feels like I’ve been rubbing my face against a beach, and I groan as I swipe at them.Please stop calling me.
Chad’s name lights up on the screen.Oh, hell no.I press the ignore button, letting it go to voicemail, but the small amount of satisfaction I get out of that is gone in the next instant when I see the time.Six a.m.? You cannot be serious.Continents away and the asshole is still finding ways to fuck up my day.
The sheets stick uncomfortably to my skin, and I frown. Why is it so hot?
I harrumph as my mind once more snags on the fact that I’m halfway around the world, getting woken up by the cheating bastard, when the dick was average and the orgasms almost nonexistent. It is laughable.
