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The hunter did as she was told, pulling the ties so tightly that I was fairly sure she had cut the circulation off to my hands. The plastic bit into my skin and I didn’t dare struggle against them for fear I would make them tighter or accidentally slice my wrists on them, or cause myself some other type of injury.
While Jonathon and the hunter were focused on securely tying me to the wooden chair, I took the opportunity to glance out the windows. We certainly were no longer in the city.
There was no traffic noise, no sounds of people talking and going about their day, and the air smelled cleaner, less tarnished by humans, more natural like we were on the edge of a forest or something. Although there was a chemical undertone in the air, so maybe a farm? Or maybe that was just cleaner that they used in the house?
No matter where it was that I'd ended up, it appeared to be somewhere that screaming for help wouldn’t work.
We were in some kind of abandoned house. Most of the furniture, which seemed to consist of a few tables and chairs, was covered with white sheets and there was a solid layer of dust on every exposed surface. The overhead light had no shade which explained why it was so bright.
The chair I was bound to was, from what I could tell, something like a dining room chair with wood arms. I couldn't help but hope that if it came to it, I'd be able to break free, even if it meant breaking my arm in the process.
I continued to scan my surroundings, taking in as much information as I could. There were people outside, but the windows were dirty, making it difficult to tell what was going ong.
In the fading light, I could tell that there were fields on both sides of the house. My stomach sank. I'd guessed we were out in the country, but a new realization hit me. Even if I were to get free of the chair, and somehow the house, I had nowhere to go and nowhere to hide, at least not that I could see from the windows available to me.
As I watched and tried to figure something out, the shadowy forms of two men outside came into view. They appeared to be slowly walking around the perimeter of the house. One was bigger than the other, but the other was taller. One had long hair, the other had a short buzz cut.
Rook could take them both if he was here. Cross too. I knew neither of the men outside could pose a threat to my vampires, which begged the question, what exactly did they have planned?
I had no idea what it was, but they were definitely focused on some task, probably something menial handed down by Jonathon, a job he thought he was above doing himself. I hoped that it wasn’t a trap for Rook and Cross, and even though the amount of time I’d spent with the vampire hunters was short and I hadn't interacted with many of them, it led me to believe that they would be pulling out all the stops. Which made the hope of it not being some kind of trap fairly pointless.
This was their one chance to take down one of their biggest targets, the vampire prince, and they weren’t going to blow it for lack of trying. Fear skated over me and I tried to focus on anything other than the people that were outside setting up who knows what in anticipation of Rook's arrival.
Looking out toward the sky, I knew that we had arrived at the agreed upon location much earlier than I had told Rook to meet us. While not completely unexpected, since I knew they'd want to set up the ambush properly, it was worrisome, and my stomach churned. That fact added to the way I was being tied down and watched made me realize that something wasn’t right.
I turned my attention back to Jonathon who had just been joined by Milo. They both stood, arms crossed, watching me, delighting in the fear spreading across my face. Milo's dark eyes looked like he was staring at me with malice and the very depths of hell in his soul, while Jonathon's gray eyes looked like they wanted to freeze me in place, if such a thing were possible.
A vampire hunter I hadn't seen before burst through the front door. “Everything is set,” he explained, giving a thumbs up sign to Jonathon. He looked...cheerful. As though he was going into a football game that he knew he'd win.
I'd been right about fearing traps. Whatever they had planned, they were confident that it would work and Rook would pay the price for relying on the fact that he was a vampire.
"What's going on?" I asked, trying to keep the panic in my voice to a minimum. I twisted my wrists and clenched my fists as they began to tingle from the restraints. I didn’t really think they would answer, but I had to try.
"You should have kept your word," Jonathon said coldly. "Then you could have walked away."
22
Cordelia
“Kept my word? I did everything you…” I watched as Jonathon reached into his jacket pocket and pulled Rook's dagger out by the handle, blade down. It was the same dagger Rook had given me to keep me safe from other vampires, the one with the royal crest on it. Little did he know that it would be humans I needed most to be protected from.
Jonathon handed the dagger to Milo, who looked at it longingly before turning his attention to me. What did he want with that dagger? The possible answers that popped into my mind weren't the kind I was comfortable thinking about.
"You should have kept your word," Jonathon said coldly. "Then you could have walked away."
It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard it the first time he said it or that his tone left any room for misinterpretation. I looked at him and thought he was the kind of guy who liked to hear his own voice. I didn’t know if there was a way I could use that information, but I tucked it away.
Milo nodded at Jonathon in agreement, his dark gaze fixed on the man he so clearly worshiped. “Should’ve kept her word.” When his gaze flicked to me once more nausea rolled through me. His stare wasn't just cold, but slimy somehow as well, making my skin crawl.
Something about hearing it a third time confused and terrified me. Why did they keep repeating it? What did they mean?
I had kept my word and followed their instructions down to the last detail. Rook was coming to the place they demanded and I’d lured him here for them. Just as they’d demanded.
Milo walked closer to me, reaching out with the dagger and rubbing the flat side of the blade gently up and down my left arm. He smiled, gleeful at whatever he was about to tell me. "You see, Cordie, you've got a bad little habit of talking in your sleep. Lucky for us, we've had a front row seat to your conversations with Rook."
What?
My heart stopped in my chest.
