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I know better than to fight a losing battle, but my foolish heart has run away with my mouth. “Please, Lizzie. You’re more than the weapon they use you for. You could be so much more.” I don’t want to change her. Never that. But what could she be if she was actually free of her family’s shackles? I never would have dared ask if I wasn’t scared for my life.
She crosses to me and catches my chin lightly. Her dark eyes are fathomless. “I honestly can’t tell if you’re trying to manipulate me or if you actually believe that.” She shakes her head slowly. “Either way, it won’t work. I have no need to be more than a weapon. I enjoy being a weapon.” Her grip goes tight and for several beats I think she might do something truly shocking, like kiss me. Even though I know better, I go a little soft in response.
Then she pushes me away. “Get out.”
I don’t have a heart left to break. Life is cruel and merciless at the best of times, and people even more so. I know that. Of course I know that. It doesn’t change the fact that it hurts to have the woman I’ve spent six months sleeping with basically admit that she doesn’t care if I live or die.
On the heels of the emotional turmoil from last night, there’s a part of me that wants to curl up and just let what will happen happen.
The impulse doesn’t last long, but it shames me nonetheless.
I watch Lizzie walk out of the room, her stride long and predatory. She’s not even going to stick around to ensure I make it to an exit before her mother comes calling. That’s all I’m worth to her. Less than nothing.
The thought is at least a little bit a lie, but somehow that just makes it hurt worse. She does care about me, but not enough to stand between me and her family. Not enough to save my life. “You are such a bitch sometimes, Lizzie.”
I’m not going down like this.
I go to my knees and reach under the bed to pull out the pack I stashed there the second time Lizzie brought me to her house. As Bunny used to say, always have an exit route or six planned. It pays to be prepared for any eventuality in normal life, and sleeping with a vampire makes that doubly true. You never know when you’ll run into your not-girlfriend’s murderous mother.
I sling the backpack on and turn to the window. We’re on the second floor facing the front of the house, so that exit is out of the question. No reason to present a target. There’s a staircase used by the human servants near the back of the house; a door there will get me out. It means hiking through the forest that surrounds the estate, but it’s a small price to pay.
I start for the door, but pause in front of the dresser with the big antique mirror attached to it. Lizzie doesn’t wear jewelry as a general rule, but there’s a bowl of it just sitting there for the taking. Bracelets, necklaces, rings, and brooches, all studded with jewels. Many of the pieces look like they’re hundreds of years old. This kind of haul could set me up for years … or at least a few months of lavish living.
I don’t make a habit of stealing from friends or lovers, but Lizzie’s just proven that she’s neither. That makes this jewelry fair game. I cast one furious look at the door and then shrug out of my backpack to dump the jewelry into it. The satisfaction I feel at the thought of her rage when she finds it gone …
I’m being petty and I don’t give a fuck.
The hallway is blessedly empty and I don’t bother to be quiet as I sprint toward the stairs. It’s not like I can effectively hide from a vampire of Lizzie’s family. Their magic is even more blood-based than normal bloodline vampires. In addition to a whole host of tricks, they can sense any creature with blood in their bodies within a certain range.
Makes for a quick game of hide-and-seek, I imagine.
I take the staircase down, moving so fast, I almost trip. I’d love to say all the sex with Lizzie has improved my cardio, but the truth is that I only run when jobs go bad, and my jobs rarely go bad. If you have to run, you’re already fucked.
Each breath feels like a knife in my lungs, but I can’t afford to slow down. Not a single person appears as I burst out of the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. Where’s the door? I clocked it when I explored the house, but adrenaline and my hangover make my head buzz and muddy my memory. There are dozens of doors dotting this hallway. Servants’ quarters? Was the exit four doors down or five?
A shiver shoots down my spine as my sensing ward around the house pings the presence of … Five. Ten. Twenty-five. Oh fuck, that’s a lot of vampires. What is this, a family reunion?
I yank open the fourth door and rush through. Right into a dusty sitting room. I stop short. “What the fuck?” I was sure this was the way out. A moth-eaten couch squats against one wall, directly across from two equally decaying chairs. There’s a dresser that appears one sneeze away from collapsing and a large swivel mirror on a stand that seems completely out of place.
Hushed voices sound in the hallway, accompanied by the sound of quick footsteps. I scan them without thinking. Humans, but that doesn’t mean I want to get caught. I pull the door shut softly behind me and hold my breath as I wait for them to move past.
Except they don’t.
They stop a few feet away from my door and continue speaking in soft, harried tones. I could wait them out, but I have mere minutes before the vampires reach the house.
The window it is.
I head for the window, scrunching my nose as each step sends up clouds of dust. Why don’t the maids clean this room? Every other part of this house I’ve explored has been pristine. I shove the curtains aside and instantly regret it when a sneeze threatens. It doesn’t matter. I just have to get the window open …
It’s painted shut.
“You have got to be kidding me.” I don’t have time to cut the damn thing open. Surely there’s another exit somewhere. I take a few steps toward the door but pause when the mirror in the room flickers oddly. Even knowing I don’t have time to explore, curiosity takes hold. It will take only a moment to investigate. I move to it and send a flicker of my magic at it. What I find makes me grin.
“Lizzie, you’ve been keeping secrets.” She’s got a portal in her house. No wonder this room is forbidden to the staff. Having them fall through a portal when they try to clean the mirror would be a nightmare to deal with.
Where does it go, though?
I glance at the door and bite my lip. Trying to find the exit is still a good plan, but I can’t move as fast as the vampires outside, and if Lizzie figures out I stole from her, she’ll come after me. And not in a fun way.
