Mollie held her breath when Mike’s dirt-streaked hand gripped the knob. There was no way the door would be unlocked. Maybe the Savages didn’t have the best security around this place, because what was the point if you lived on an island full of vamps? But they would lock their doors, right? But then what would be the point of that?
She got her answer when the knob turned beneath his hand, and he held the door as it swung inward. Mollie couldn’t hear anything over the blood rushing through her ears as she gazed into the kitchen. It couldn’t really be this easy; it just couldn’t.
The skin on her neck crawled, and she glanced behind her toward the woods line, but she saw nothing there. Doug was also watching the trees and could see far more than she did, but if he wasn’t raising the alarm, then they had to be alone, for now.
When Mike stepped away from her, Mollie snatched his hand before he made it more than two steps inside. Something was wrong here; it had to be. They were walking into a trap or the dragon’s lair orsomethingawful. And Aida might be dead center in the middle of it.
Mike’s eyebrows drew together while he gazed questioningly at her. His hand turned over to grip hers, and he squeezed it. The look of panic didn’t lessen from her face, and her grip didn’t ease on him. She feared forhim, he realized, both pleased and saddened by it. It was good to know she cared for him too, but he hated that she was constantly in fear.
Then Mollie threw back her shoulders and gave him a decisive nod. She may be afraid, but she would not back down from this. Wrapping his other hand around the back of her head, Mike pulled her close and kissed her before releasing her.
Mollie let go of Mike’s hand as she followed him into a kitchen that would have made Martha Stewart jealous. A single recessed light over the double, stainless steel sink illuminated the room. The kitchen was a little too much for a houseful of vampires, especially when she recalled the meals tossed into their cages. Those meals consisted of little more than bread and water with some sandwich meat tossed in. None of it warranted a kitchen this size or with this much modern equipment.
“Why do they have this?” she whispered.
“Many vampires like to have the best, even if it’s unnecessary,” Mike said.
Apparently,Mollie thought as he led her around the island with two stoves and a basin sink set into the black marble counter. The copper pots hanging from a rack over the island were polished to a shine. She doubted any of it was ever used, but she didn’t see a speck of dust anywhere.
Mike led the way out of the kitchen and into a dark hallway that seemed to stretch on endlessly in both directions. On either end of the hall, light shone from under closed doors, but he didn’t sense anyone else nearby. His gaze traveled to the ceiling as he strained to hear anything above, but the house didn’t even creak.
Turning to the right, he led Mollie down the hall until they encountered a spacious living room on their left. The arched beams of the vaulted ceiling reminded him of the skeleton of a boat as the mahogany wood stretched all the way across the room.
A multi-hued, stained-glass lamp situated next to a tan, overstuffed armchair was turned on in the corner. Its muted glow cast shards of color and shadows across the thick, black drapes drawn over the window beside it. Three more, eight-foot-tall and four-foot-wide, arched windows spanned the front of the house. If the curtains were thrown open, sunlight would illuminate this room for hours every day, but Mike doubted the room ever saw the light of day.
The rest of the room contained furniture matching the armchair, three glass coffee tables, and a white throw rug in the middle of the dark, hardwood floor. Mike glanced at the floor-to-ceiling, gray stone fireplace before turning away from the room and continuing down the hall. Mollie stayed close on his heels, and Doug followed her.
Stopping outside the next closed door, he pressed his ear against it to listen but heard nothing within. Cautiously, he turned the knob and swung the door open to reveal a game room with a chessboard on a tree trunk table, a pool table, and three card tables.
He closed the door and moved on. The next three doors opened to reveal luxurious bedrooms with king-sized beds and bathrooms that looked like mini-spas with their hot tubs and steam showers. One of the rooms had a tray within and on it sat a crystal decanter of blood. The next two doors along the hall concealed a bathroom and linen closet.
At the end of the hall, Mike paused outside the final room, the one with light filtering around the edges of the door and spilling onto the hardwood floors from the crack underneath. He heard nothing moving inside and no voices, but he scented smoke and liquor as well as something more pungent.
Unease churned in his gut as the caustic aroma caused a memory to niggle at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t bring it forth. Something was off about this room. Glancing back at Mollie, he discovered she’d removed the rifle from her back and held it before her. The look on her face was one of steely determination as she eyed the door.
Mike looked to Doug who had his attention focused on the hall to make sure no one tried to sneak up behind them. Turning away, Mike rested his hand on the knob. He had no choice but to see what the room held; they couldn’t leave here without exploring as much of the place as possible.
When the door opened enough to reveal the room, he tried to jerk it closed again, but Mollie’s gasp told him she’d already seen the horror within.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Mollie hadn’t knownwhat to make of the mansion while they wandered through it; everything seemed so normal for a vampire residence, and much of it was beautiful. Though she didn’t know what normal was for a mansion, or a vampire residence, as she’d never been in either before.
But now she knew normal and beautiful was only a cover for the atrocities the residents of this place committed.
She thrust her hand out when Mike started to close the door. The rest of this place had given them no answers so far, and as much as she yearned to shut the door and try to forget what she’d seen in the hideous room, it might be their only chance to figure out what was going on here. Plus, she only caught a glimpse of what lay beyond, but there would be no forgetting what she’d seen.
When Mollie held her hand out to stop him, Mike hesitated before pushing the door open again to reveal a room the size of a small house. He met Doug’s eyes over her head, and when he saw the questioning look in his friend’s gaze, Mike realized Doug hadn’t seen what lay beyond. Taking a deep breath, Mike stepped into the room, and Mollie and Doug followed.
Doug inhaled sharply and froze in the doorway before continuing into the room with the wooden step of a marionette. Mike edged around Mollie and Doug to grab the door. He searched the hallway for anyone hiding in the shadows, before quietly closing the door.
Mollie tried to absorb everything she saw as she ambled around the room; her eyes took it all in, but her brain screamed denials at the gruesome scene. However, she couldn’t hide behind those denials and forced herself to examine the heads mounted on the back wall.
The top three feet of the red wall remained open, but the bottom ten feet were crammed so full that there was only a sliver of space between each of the heads. The eyes of the dead, which looked far too real buthadto be glass, followed her every step.
The faces were all forever pulled into different, frozen expressions. Some had their mouths shaped into O’s, as if they were screaming in terror; others had their lips pulled back to reveal glistening fangs, while some revealed no fangs. Some of them had their lips sewn together and their eyes downcast as if they were cringing from something.
The worst were the ones grinning as broadly as the Joker would after he killed Batman. Their broad smiles were completely out of place with the fact their heads had been severed from their bodies, stuffed with something, and nailed to a wall.
