Chapter 3
Rayne
My ears strained tohear what Piper and Darren were talking about, but the damn butler had been around us too long. All I could hear was water running.
"Fuck," I growled and shifted on my bed. I shoved my fingers into my pillow, trying to make it more comfortable so that I could sleep, but that sweet release was far from my reach.
The basement where my brothers and I spent our days sleeping was almost as big as the mansion above it. Five twin beds were lined up the wood paneled walls. That wood covered up the cold concrete that made up the basement, like the wooden floors hid the hideous cold floors. Not that the cold would have bothered any of us. Temperatures didn't really register when you're dead.
Correction, undead.
As well as the well-appointed sleeping quarters, we had a fully stocked fridge filled with blood and any other snacks we might be craving. Add that to the flat screen T.V. and the bathroom we had to share, and it was the perfect hideaway for any modern vampire. There was no reason to leave or go upstairs to the main house, not if we didn't want to.
Except it didn't have one thing.
Piper.
Sweet, sexy, smart-mouthed Piper Billings.
That mouthy maid had wormed her way into our house and our lives. Not one of us in the family hadn't been affected by her. Even Marcus with all his silent brooding couldn’t resist her.
"What's got you in a mood?" Wynn tossed a book at my bed, and I jolted up and caught it before it hit me. With a smug grin, he lounged back on his bed, shirtless and flipping the pages of another book sitting in his lap at leisure. I wasn't even sure if he was reading it.
"Nothing, just tired." I put the book on the nightstand next to me rather than throwing it back.
Wynn noticed. He cocked his head to the side, and his black hair fell over his face. Those icy blue eyes of his bored into me and made me even more annoyed. It was almost like he could read my mind which was impossible.
"Something happened, didn't it?" He threw his legs over the side of the bed and leaned toward me with a fang-toothed grin. "With Piper."
"What happened with Piper?" Drake asked, glancing over his shoulder from where he and his twin, Allister sat on the couch. They were playing the latest video game, something about hunting vampires. Ironic.
With hair a dark brown one shade away from being black, the twins were big men with more muscle then should be possible without going to the gym every day. They were a perfect match, almost down to the dimples in their cheeks. Even their abilities complimented each other, Drake with his stronger than usual sexual allure and Allister with his silver tongue. He could probably talk the Pope into committing mass murder. Together, they would have been unstoppable.
Well, if they weren't living the quiet life in the middle of Georgia.
"Nothing happened," I tried to reassure them so they'd leave me alone, but I should have known better. The more I denied it, the more they would probe me.
"Just tell me that it wasn't something the little human isn’t going to bitch about to me tomorrow?" Antoine demanded from his desk in the corner. He was still working. Hell, he was always working.
They were all down here with me tonight, a rare occurrence. Usually, at least Antoine was upstairs doing paperwork or taking calls he couldn't take after hours. If I weren't so irritated, I'd think it was nice to have their company.
"No, it was nothing." I walked to the fridge and pulled out a container of blood. Only Gretchen was allowed down here to refill the fridge. Even Piper had to stay upstairs, so it was up to us to keep the place relatively clean. No one wanted to live in a pig sty.
"But something did happen." Wynn appeared next to me in a flash and grabbed his container of blood before I could close the door to the fridge.
I shook my head and begged that they would let it go.
"It's alright, we all find Piper interesting. You wouldn't be the first to lose your head over a human." Wynn wagged his brows suggestively.
Wynn wanted anyone with a heartbeat and tits, so it wasn't surprising he wanted Piper. She obviously wanted him too. I didn't need to be a mind reader to figure that out. The twins, too, had a weird fascination with her. It wasn’t quite adoration, more like the interest you'd have for a child or pet. It wasn’t quite attraction either, but they couldn’t stop messing with her either.
Now, Antoine was something else.
I always had a hard time getting a good read on him. It might be because he was so much older than the rest of us, or he was just good at blocking his mind from me. Either way, I couldn't tell if he even cared if Piper lived or died. Not that I hadn't tried to find out.
Thankfully, Marcus was the only one of us who didn't care one way or the other about the maid. Sure, he noticed her, but if he had any feelings for her, he has kept them firmly in check and out of his mind. He sat on his bed with his eyes closed but ears open as usual, listening but not engaging in the conversation.
I sat down on the edge of my bed and took a long drink of the blood. With a sigh, I confessed, "She's been avoiding me."