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Allister laughed. "Well, can you blame her?"
"You're a dick to her the whole time she's here," Drake pointed out before pausing his game. He and Allister turned around in near-perfect unison and threw an arm a piece over the back of the couch as they faced me.
"Then you played the hero and saved her from Valentine," Allister continued with a mocking grin.
Drake made a kissing face before chuckling. "And not only did you steal a kiss, but you got a taste of that delicious blood of hers." The twins both closed their eyes and hummed as if they tasted it for themselves. Drake opened his eyes first and looked at me. "Who knew it would be the least of us to get the first taste?"
I scowled and, without a word, picked up the book from my nightstand and threw it at his head. Unfortunately, Drake caught it between his hands and only laughed harder at my expense.
"Fuck off." I flopped back down on my bed and turned my back to them. I'd had enough of their teasing for the day.
"Language," Antoine warned from his desk. We were vampires, and all he cared about was if we were cursing. What a joke.
There was a shift in the air in the room as Marcus finally spoke. "I am less concerned about Rayne's adolescent habits and more concerned about what they are keeping from us."
"They who?" Drake asked.
"Piper and Darren," Wynn explained from somewhere near the twins. I had my back to them, but I could feel them moving around, their minds racing with different thoughts. Allister, the dumbass, was the only one not thinking about the two humans in the house. His mind was focused on his vampire killer video game and how he could get beat the next level.
Drake ignored his brother's need to play the game and stood from the couch. He moved across the room until he was on the other side of Antoine still sitting at his desk. "He's your blood servant. Aren't you worried?"
He was now in my line of sight, and I could see the tension in his large shoulders... and I could also see the sigil of our house tattooed over his chest through the thin, white tank top he wore.
I'd never thought about getting a tattoo before, certainly not before I became a vampire. However, when we finally had permission to leave our sire's home and make a house of our own, it was mandatory to solidify our bond and loyalty to the House of Durand. I hadn't regretted taking the mark, not a single day of my undead life since I'd been here and certainly not today.
"I am not as concerned as you are about my blood servant. Darren will confide in me when he believes it is worth my attention." Antoine calmly went back to writing on whatever he was working on. He always chose to write over using the computer. It was sort of strange, as if he were trying to separate himself from this century. I supposed there was something we all clung to from our past.
"They have been acting suspiciously for days," Drake tried again as he gestured to the room. "We've all noticed it. The tension in them, the way they stop talking when they think we are close. It's dangerous."
Antoine placed his pen down and turned in his chair to locking eyes with Drake. He didn't even have to speak or raise his voice to make the large man flinch, just that look. With Drake cowed, Antoine crossed one long leg over the other and placed his hands on top of his knee.
"And what, pray tell, would you have me do?” he probed. “They are allowed their privacy. Should I force them to spill all their secrets to me? What about you? Do you have secrets that you wish to tell?"
"Of course, not but—"
"Then it is prudent to not require absolute honesty from our family members and staff, else we will find ourselves without either." Antoine's gaze softened. "Now, I trust Darren. He will do what he thinks is right until the time comes that he will need our assistance. I did not make him my blood servant simply for his pretty face."
Wynn snorted at that.
Antoine didn't move his head, but his next words were definitely directed at Wynn. "Speak, and I will remove your tongue. Let you spend the next week practicing your sign language."
Wynn had brains enough not to speak any further, and the tension in the room settled after a moment or two. Drake went back to the couch with Allister and began his video game once more, but now there were a few more curses and growls as they played.
Good for them. We all had to get our anger out some way or the other, and at least the twins had found a healthy outlet for it. They had their games. Meanwhile, Wynn screwed everything that walked, I painted, and Antoine buried himself in work. Marcus, well, no one really knew how Marcus dealt with his anger, if he even had any. Some days I thought he was more robot than vampire.
I wondered what Piper did to blow off steam.
I spent the rest of the day thinking up all the different things she might do before I finally drifted off into oblivion.
