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I took in their exchange with a bored expression, something I had grown proficient at in the service of the Durands. The more worried I looked, the more likely they would think something was going on. I couldn’t let them think that.
“Can I go?” I asked, keeping my voice neutral.
The guards looked at each other once more and then nodded. “Fine. You can take it with you but don’t make trouble. We don’t want to pay for it.”
“Understood.” I inclined my head as one servant to another.
The guard I entered with ushered me through the doorway and to the left. Two doors, one left, four guards, then six guards. I could only imagine how many guards they had during the day if they had so many watching them when they were awake.
“It’s just down here,” my guide instructed me.
We passed a few servants and a few humans with bite marks on their neck. The servants didn’t even blink twice at me and the ones with bites only gave me a curious look before lowering their gaze and skittering away.
How many humans did they employ here? Were all of them here of their own volitions or were some of them bought and paid for?
It was something to think about later. Right now, I had to focus on the task at hand.
Four doors and then a right. Two doors and then...
“Right here.” The guard stopped before the door and then lifted his hand and knocked briefly.
To my surprise, he didn’t stay.
The door opened a moment later and an older woman in a peasant dress that was more like those of when before I came to work for Antoine. Her eyes shot to my face and a look of relief came over it.
“Thank the maker,” the woman cried out and grabbed me by the arm and jerked me into the room. “Maybe you can get her to calm down.”
“I told you to get out of here, Agnes,” Piper’s voice screeched out of what I could only assume was the bathroom followed by the sound of several things breaking.
I restrained myself from rushing to Piper’s side. “What’s going on?”
Agnes grimaced and then gave me a clearly forced smile. “Oh, you know. Second trimester woes and all that. She will be delighted to see you though.”
We stopped before the door and Agnes didn’t bother knocking before pushing the door open. “Piper, look who has come to see you!”
Littered in broken glass and towels, you could barely see the bathroom floor or what there was of it. Then there was Piper sitting in the middle of the floor in a bathrobe, her face blotchy, both hands clutching handfuls of tissues.
“Darren?” Piper asked through blurry eyes and then screamed and threw the tissue box at me. It hit me in the chest with a soft thud. “You did this to me. Look at me? I'm a disgusting mess.”
“I can see...” I let my eyes trail over the disaster she had created in the bathroom. “I have to say I’m a little disappointed.”
“I’ll just let you two get reacquainted.” Agnes patted me on the arm and ducked out of the room.
“Disappointed?” Piper gaped at me. “Disappointed? I have spent the last...” she counted on her fingers and then growled, “fucking who knows how long here without any of you to help me while I growyourchild,” she pointed a shaky finger at me.
Arching a brow, I sat the box on the counter nearby. Then calmly approached her.
“No. No. Go away.” She waved me off and scooched across the floor. “I don’t want to see you.”
“Oh?” I questioned, kneeling at her side. “So, I should leave?”
“No!” she practically launched herself at me, her nails biting into my arm. “Don’t you dare leave. I can’t do this without you.” She shook her head, and leaned against me, her shoulders shaking through her sobs. “You don’t know what it’s like here. I’d rather be fighting rogue vampires than deal with these sociopaths. And this,” she gestured down at her swelling stomach. “This thing hates me. I can feel it.”
My lips ticked up on one side. “I highly doubt that.”
“How would you know?” Piper glared at me before waddling to her feet. The sight would have made me chuckle had she not already been in a mood. “You don’t have a demon spawn growing inside of you.”
I stayed on the ground where I was watching as she slowly made her way to the sink. “Is that how you really feel? That it’s some kind of demonic creature?”
