“Don’t be so arrogant. Just think it over.” Tannis drops their arm and backs up a few steps. “In the meantime, I’ll teach her a few simple things to help her in a pinch.”
“There’s nothing to think about.” Gray sneers.
I clear my throat loud enough to draw their attention to me. With a wave, I say, “Hey, still here. Do I get a say in all of this?”
Gray stiffens, but Tannis grins. “Well, cousin, does she?”
My vampire runs a hand through his disheveled hair and groans. “There’s nothing more to say.”
“It’s not worth discussing? I mean, if it’s my safety that’s involved, shouldn’t I have the opportunity to consider all of my options?” It wasn’t that I was won over by the ‘thrall’ concept, exactly. Mostly intrigued by the idea. I can’t say it isn’t tempting to want a little more power and control over my well being. Whatirked me was that he was doing it again. Deciding for me without offering every detail down to the letter.
“She has a point,” Tannis agrees. They like to stir the pot, that’s obvious.
Gray gives me a pleading look. I cross my arms and stand my ground, though. Gray scowls between the two of us, and with a hard shove, pushes Tannis out of his way.
“No. End of discussion,” Gray says, and then he’s out the door, leaving us behind.
“So much for staying close,” I grumble as I hurry down the long hallway.
After Gray made his abrupt and grand departure, Tannis announced that they would be returning to their bedroom. Their invited guest had been waiting too long, and after that fight, Tannis was famished. Before they left, though, we exchanged numbers, and they gave me directions to Gray’s old room. If he went anywhere, it was likely that he found his way back to his old digs.
“Tomorrow night,” Tannis said with one final sweep of the room, “I’ll teach you what I can.”
“Thanks,” was all I could manage before they were gone, too. I left shortly after.
According to Tannis, Gray’s room is on the left at the end of the hallway. For it being such a huge place, I’m surprised that he doesn’t have his own wing. Still, I find his room with ease. It’s surprisingly isolated from the rest of the mansion, and surprisingly empty. There’s no artwork or statues or plants at the end of the hall. It’s barren except for a thin table propped against the back wall with an empty candelabra.
Was it always like this, or did Tannis have it stripped while Gray was gone?I think back to Henry’s boxes in the basement and how they were put aside after he died. Maybe this was something like that. Maybe Tannis, after losing their cousin, cleared all the decor away because the space wasn’t being lived in.
But Gray is alive, and they know that now.I hoped it meant that it would go back to normal now that Gray had returned. Which means if he’s finally home, then he might not come home with me. The thought makes my heart drop.
“Knock, knock?” I rap my knuckles against the door, and ease it open to let myself through.
Unlike the hallway, this room is untouched. A king-sized bed, draped with a black comforter overflowing onto the floor, gives the room a lived-in look. Pillows litter the area by a carved, dark wood headboard. Iron gothic sconces hang against the wall, and a big chandelier is poised above the bed. Heavy, velvet-like curtains cover the wall on the other side of the room, hiding what I would guess are windows. I feel like I’ve stepped inside a time capsule. There are old pictures against the wall, mostly portraits, some scenic landscapes, and a writing desk with an unfinished letter left on its surface.
It’s dramatic and dark and everything I imagined a vampire’s room to be.
Excluding me, the only other modern thing inside his room is a light fixture beside the side table. It’s lit, casting a golden white glow across the shimmering surface of the comforter. Half of Gray’s face is bathed in its light. On his back, hands across his chest, his face is turned toward the ceiling. The closer I get, the more normal he looks now. Pointed ears are gone, and the sharp edge to his features has softened. He looks no more intimidating than the headboard, and that’s saying something. The bed alone looks like it could swallow him whole.
“Wanna talk?” I ask, pressing my palms onto the bed so I can lean forward.
His eyes blink open. Just red, no black. “I apologize.”
“For what?” I spin on my heel and then collapse against the bed myself, jostling him. “Fighting your cousin? Walking away? You know, there are vampireseverywherein this place. I bumped into three of them in the hallway a minute ago. They invited me to be their blood sacrifice at tonight’s after-party orgy.”
Gray rolls onto his stomach with laughter, and I prop myself up on my side. I like the way he laughs and the way it sounds. There’s something so human about laughter. It didn’t matter to me that he was undead, that he was a vampire and I wasn’t. What mattered was that on some level, we were similar.
“What if I told you thiswasthe after-party orgy?” he asks, pressing up on his arms. The light still casts itself over one half of his face, and I’m glad to see it’s full of amusement now. Pissed off, I get, but it’s easier to talk when the other half isn’t angry.
I frown, disappointed. “So I’m not the blood sacrifice?”
“Afraid not,” he mocks, mimicking my frown.
“Oh well.” I shrug. “Guess it’s for the best, anyway. Can’t fight off vampires if I don’t have my strength.”
For a silent moment, he contemplates his next words carefully.
“Millie…” He dips his head to the side, dropping his gaze to the black comforter.
