“How do you know?”
“Because those Savages outside didn’t come in here and kill me. Because I’m still here and they’re still using—”
She clamped her mouth shut when she realized she might have given away too much.
“They’re still using you for what?” Saxon asked.
“Nothing.”
Before he could reply, the lights went out.
Chapter Eight
The only soundin the room was the wind battering the windows as it howled through the mountains. She tried to see Saxon through the gloom, but the shadows had swallowed him. She pressed her back more firmly against the door as her heart thundered. She was trapped in this cabin with a predator, and she couldn’t see him.
“Are there any flashlights or candles?” he asked.
“There are some flashlights in the kitchen,” she answered, unwilling to peel herself away from the door.
“I’ll get them.”
She didn’t hear him move, but she sensed he’d left the room. “They’re in the drawer next to the fridge!” she called after him.
“Got it!”
She listened as he opened the drawer and shuffled through the contents. Something clicked on a couple of seconds later, and a beam bounced around the kitchen. Water splashed into the kitchen sink before the light came back toward her. Saxon strode into the living room, turned on another flashlight, and set it on an end table so the beam pointed at the ceiling.
“I’m glad it’s not well water,” he said.
“I don’t know what it is.”
“If it were well, it probably wouldn’t be working now. If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a shower before the hot water’s all gone.” He also wanted to give her some time to relax and hopefully grow to trust him a little. “I’d like to get this blood off me.”
She’d like it if he did too.
“The bathroom’s the first door down the hall,” she said and pointed at the hallway. “There are towels in the closet.”
“Would you like to take one before me?”
“I’ll wait. I think you need it more than me.”
He hesitated as he stared at her. “Don’t run out into the blizzard while I’m gone.”
Though it was an enticing prospect, she had enough of nearly freezing to death earlier. The idea of sitting around and waiting for him to come back out to question her was as appealing as a root canal, but it was more appealing than death.
No matter how fucked up her life had become these last nine months, she still preferred to live it. But then, she’d gotten used to having a screwed-up life when she was twelve.
“I’ll be here,” she said. “There are some men’s clothes in the guest room, which is the first door on the right. They’ll probably be too small on you, but at least they’re not coated in blood.”
He glanced down at his blood-caked clothes before her words sank in. “Does someone else live here?”
“Most of the time, the guards stay somewhere outside, but at least one of them spends the night here. They rotated through who would stay inside, but they all kept some of their things here.”
He would have to find out where they’d slept outside. “So that’s how they got around the invite.”
“What invite?” she asked.
“A vampire must be invited into a residence before they can enter it, but if they were living here on a rotating basis, then they could enter at any time, and they could invite others inside.”
