And then she met his gaze and practically fell into his eyes. They were slightly paler than James’s eyes, but still a striking blue.
“Fabio. It’s nice to finally meet you.” She was amazed she got the sentence out without sounding like a dork.
His hair was slightly longer than his shoulders and it was perfect. She couldn’t wait to run her hands over it. Through it. Brush it out of the way to get to his neck. Hair held the scents in beautifully.
Marco let go of her, and she walked to this new man. He smelled of big cat and alpha male, and she wanted to lick him and then get a good taste of him, but she pushed the need down. It wouldn’t do for her to lose control within the first five minutes. “I look forward to my time with you tonight, upon rising. I’m sorry I can’t give you a definite time. I’m assuming I’ll rise about an hour before the sun sets.”
“If you gentlemen can take care of our lady’s bags,” Marco told them, “I’d like to take her inside and handle our little ceremony in private.”
Without waiting for an answer, Marco took her by the hand and walked her inside.
Before meeting James, Kelsey had expected to live in a mancave, with leather sofas, bare-bones curtains bought at the local big-box store, and large screen televisions on the walls but no art. She’d seen satellite images of the outside of the house, but it was hidden from the street view, and there were no real estate pictures showing the inside.
Now that she’d met him, the fancy foyer and well decorated living room didn’t surprise her. The furniture was sturdy and well built. Italian renaissance, with lots of tans and creams. A huge pale marble fireplace dominated the classically decorated room. Elaborate lighting fixtures hung over her head, similar but unique, which likely meant they were created by a skilled metals craftsman.
And not a television in sight.
Marco walked to an upholstered chair with elaborate carved wooden arms and legs, and he sat.
Kelsey knew what was expected, and she walked to him and kneeled before him. She’d long ago memorized the words, and the first sentence spilled from her mouth as if it were instinct.
“I come to you a lone vampire, Masterless, pleading to be taken in from the cold, to the cold.”
All sounds around her stopped, meaning he’d put a dome around them to be certain the ceremony stayed private. Marco responded to her entreaties and supplications as the customs demanded. He put drops of his blood on her forehead, eyes, nostrils, tongue, and ears, and he spliced her left nipple and drank a few drops to seal her words when she promised her fealty to him even when she was strong enough to break their bond without help, and that these vows she’d made on this night would hold until he or his successor released her from them.
Usually, a Master vampire engages in sex after the ceremony, but instead, he lifted her from the floor, sat her in his lap, and wrapped his arms around her as a father would, rather than a lover.
“I’m on a tight schedule on this night. I regret I can’t spend more time with you, but I look forward to doing so in the near future. Aaron Drake has a phone for you, and my contact information will be in it.”
His voice sounded in her head. I prefer a text to make certain I can speak telepathically, but in an emergency, you may knock, as we did before cellphones.
Thank you, Master.
She walked him out onto the front porch and watched him walk into the woods. Thirty seconds later, his energy signature was gone.
The other men weren’t outside, and she wasn’t certain what to do or where to go. She turned back to the door, and it was locked.
Her heart raced, and she suddenly heard the heartbeats of dozens of animals in the forest surrounding the house. Logic told her they were probably small animals indigenous here, but panic took hold of her, took her over, and she beat on the door.
Twenty seconds later, the door was yanked open by a pissed off male who smelled of ferret, or mink, but she quickly placed him as Eunice, which meant she scented mongoose.
“What the fuck is your problem!?” He glared at her with startlingly blue eyes, but these weren’t sexy. Electric blue. Furious.
She looked down to see he slept naked and had answered the door without getting dressed. He had a gun in one hand, the door in the other, and he looked angry as a wet cat.
She breathed in and smelled the gun, the explosives in the bullets, and terror clawed at her heart.
Kelsey didn’t know what to do. Running into the woods didn’t seem a good idea with all of those heartbeats out there, but she was terrified of the beast in front of her.
She vaulted over the porch’s rail, landed on the ground below, and snugged up in the corner between concrete and mountain stone.
“Shit. Fuck.” The mongoose walked onto the porch and looked down at her from above.
“You’re Kelsey?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but couldn’t get her voice to work.
“What the hell, Eunice?”
She recognized James’s voice, but stayed in her dark little corner.
“I don’t know. She knocked on the door like something was after her, and then jumped off the porch when I opened the damned door!”
James landed on the ground in front of her and went to his knees. “Hey there, did the asshole scare you? I’d like to tell you he’s mostly bark and not much bite, but you’d know I was lying. Still, so long as you behave, you’ll be safe with him. C’mon, I’ll introduce you.”
He offered his hand, she took it, and they stood together.
“Ya’ll must think I’m the most pathetic vampire ever.”
In a deadpan voice, James said, “Eunice, this is Kelsey. Kelsey, Eunice.” He turned to her and went back to a conversational tone. “Let’s get you settled into your room and show you the mechanism for your daytime resting compartment.”
Fancy vampire lairs have fire, smoke, and motion detectors, and will dump you from your bed into a fireproof compartment if one of the sensors is tripped. The less expensive option is a nice flammable room with a fireproof compartment in the wall or floor. Vampires never want to be where fire or vampire killer can get to them while they’re dead to the world and defenseless. Her room here would have a hidey-hole for her to go into.
She breathed a little easier when the scary mongoose shifter went back inside, but if James had let go of her hand, it was likely she’d have stayed at the foot of the stairs and wouldn’t have gone up with him.
James stopped at the door and motioned her to stand in front of the number pad. “Today is November third. Punch eleven-oh-three on the number pad and then open the door. It’ll change on the first and fifteenth of every month, but you’ll know the night before what it will be changed to. We rarely use dates, but this seems safe, and easily remembered.”
She punched the number in, a tiny light turned green, and she pushed down on the handle. The door opened, and a little of her tension faded away. She had a house now. She could get into it when she wanted.
“Thank you.” No need in telling him it would be oh-three-eleven in Australia. She needed to get used to the way Americans denote the day and month anyway. Maybe this would help.
“Stop thanking me for everything. As stipulated in your contract, Drake will pay your rent for three months, and then you’ll pay it. Your room was made into a vampire guest room shortly after we moved in, and Drake Security pays me to house visiting vampires who prefer a private residence over the two vampire capable hotels in town. We put your bags in the largest of the two basement guest rooms, but you can change to the other if you’d like.”