An unreasonable amount of anger filled me at the sound of it. I couldn’t have them, so they had to rub it in my face? They couldn’t take their women to their room and defile them there?
My blood raged in my veins as I ripped the door open. I recognized the broad back pressing a blonde-haired woman against the wall immediately. Drake. Of course, it would be Drake. The smug bastard couldn’t leave well enough alone.
Ready to give the man a piece of my mind, I cleared my throat. “Do you mind?”
Slowly, Drake turned from the woman, and I gasped. His eyes practically glowed in the dim hallway and had a sinister hunger in them. Drake licked his lips where a dark liquid covered his chin and lower lip.
My hand came up to my mouth as I stifled a gasp.
Drake let the women in his arms go, and she sagged to the floor, her eyes closed. I didn’t have the courage to check if she was still alive as Drake was moving toward me. I scrambled backward and barely got the door closed and locked before he began to bang on it.
“Pretty girl, come out and play,” Drake crooned through the wood. When I didn’t answer, he banged on the door some more and said sweet nothings to try and get me to open up.
“Don’t you want to know what it feels like?”
I shook my head, though he couldn’t see it. I pressed my back up hard against the wood of the door, my legs trembling beneath me.
“I know you do,” he purred, his voice reached parts of me that tightened and moistened despite my fear. “I can smell you, you know. Every time you think no one can hear you in the safety of your little room, we can smell your arousal, hear your gasps of pleasure.”
My face heated at his words. Could they really? The thought didn’t anger me as much as it had when Antoine had made me think they were spying on me.
“Let me in, Piper.” He murmured my name like a caress against my skin. “Let me show you just how good it would be.”
Moving away from the door for a moment, my hand reached for the doorknob and then another voice joined Drake’s.
“What are you doing?”
Antoine.
His voice snapped me out of whatever trance I’d been in, and I jerked my hand away from the door. I backed all the way up until I was on my bed, my eyes never leaving the door. I wrapped my arms around my knees and rocked back and forth as I stared at the door.
“Just having a bit of fun.” Drake huffed a laugh.
“Not with her. Get back downstairs and take your... guest with you.”
Drake didn’t argue, and then after a moment of silence, I thought they had gone. Then Antoine spoke again.
“Are you alright, Miss Billings?”
I didn’t answer, too petrified to move let alone speak.
“Piper?” My name in his accented voice shocked me out of my debilitating fear.
Clearing my throat, I blinked. “Yes, I’m fine.”
“Good.” He paused and then added, “Don’t open your door again.”
“I won’t.” I barely got the words out, but there was no answer and no retreating footsteps. I was tempted to check and see if he was gone, but his warning rang clear in my mind.
Lying in bed with the light next to the bed on, my thoughts whirled a mile a minute at what I had seen, not wanting to believe it was true.
It makes sense when I think about it. I glanced down at the book I had been reading. Vampires.
No. No way. I shook my head against the thought. I was just reading too much into it.
Are you though?
The heavy drapes. The barely eating, if at all. I had never seen them eat besides that one cookie with Rayne but that was barely a nibble. Besides that, I’d only ever seen them drink those silver containers which now that I thought of it, that red liquid on Rayne’s lips had not been beet juice but blood.
How had I been so stupid? All the signs were there. They didn’t come out until night time, well, there was the occasional run-in, but it was always at early morning. Then there were the warnings to not interact with them and to lock my door at night. They had tried to tell me in their own way.
Even Darren trying to get rid of me the first day had been a warning. He had tried to keep me from getting hurt. My heart warmed slightly at the man’s unorthodox way of showing he cared. He obviously knew about them. Gretchen probably didn’t. She didn’t come in often enough, but it would be easy for me to figure it out. I was surprised I hadn’t until now.
You were too caught up in your fantasies of them to care.
I scowled at myself for my sex driven brain. I could have easily let myself be eaten by them with all the times I was alone with them, and when I thought about it, I almost had. The incident with Drake came to mind, and I shuddered at how close I’d been to getting bit.
There were no more incidents for the rest of the night. Drake must have given up and gone back to his victim for the night. I worried about the woman and the rest of the guest’s downstairs, but my own survival was my primary concern. I was no hero, that was for sure, not that I’d ever claimed to be. The only thing on my mind was getting out of there without getting bit or, worse, killed.
Man, I really had loved this job.