“Erin. Erin Prescott.” I started forward with my hand extended toward vampire.
His smile turned into a wide, amused grin as he actually stepped back, keeping his hands in his pockets. The skin around his dark brown eyes crinkled with suppressed laughter. “You really don’t know anything about us, do you?” he murmured.
I stopped, awkwardly dropping my hand to my side. “I’m guessing that Stefan hasn’t been overly forthcoming with me.”
Knox gave a little snort. “If you knew Stefan like we did, you’d understand why we’re surprised you exist at all.”
“What do you mean by that?” I snapped.
His smile dimmed and the expression in his eyes became more sympathetic. “It means that tonight is going to be a very long, very bad night for you.”
“Yeah, I kind of gathered that already. It’s just that no one has bothered to tell me exactly in what way. What are we doing here? And why the hell has someone decided to fucking frame me for murder?” My voice rose with each question to the point where I was about to stomp my feet and throw a temper tantrum that would have made three-year-old me proud.
“I’ll see what I can do,” the vampire said calmly, though his smile had disappeared and he was looking more than little thoughtful. I wasn’t sure I liked thoughtful on a vampire. It left me feeling like he was plotting something, which couldn’t be good. He gave a little shake of his head and motion toward the side of the large, foreboding building before us. “Let’s find you something else to wear that doesn’t scream guilty.”
I looked down at the ugly bright orange prison suit I was still in. In the darkness, I was sure I resembled a bright traffic cone. I didn’t know who I was going before this evening, but prison chic was not going to be the preferred style.
“That’d be great,” I murmured, stumbling along behind my new companion.
Knox escorted me around the building to a hidden side entrance that almost immediately led to a steep set of stairs that plunged deep under the earth. A chill ran through me at the thought of being shown where the vampires spent the daylight hours. This couldn’t be good. They had to fiercely guard this location. If I was being guided through here, I was sure that escaping this place wasn’t going to be an easy thing.
Along the way, we passed a couple dozen vampires and humans. The vampires were easy to pick out in low light by their pale skin and liquid movements. It was like they were all boneless figures that flowed across the room on the wind. They watched me closely as we passed through opulently decorated hallways and rooms. I wished I could have admired the rich tapestries and ornate furniture, but my attention was always drawn to their stares. They looked at me with hunger and malice. I couldn’t decide if I was on the dinner menu or if they hated me because I was invading their space.
“Why does everyone look at me as if I either kicked their puppy or like I’m the main course at dinner tonight?” I whispered to Knox when we passed through what looked to be an empty hallway. Sharp, harsh laughter broke out behind me and I twisted around to find vampires laughing down in the room we had just left.
“Our hearing is quite good,” Knox said with a benevolent smile. “But I will try to explain more once we’re settled behind closed doors.”
We continued to walk a short distance before reaching a large room with an enormous canopy bed. The black sheets were rumpled as if someone had just gotten up for the night. Two small suitcases were open on the floor. The occupants had dropped in for only a short stay. Knox shut the door behind me and immediately went over to the suitcase that held a woman’s clothes. He shuffled through it, pulling out a couple tops. He then paused and looked at me as if measuring me before returning to the suitcase.
“It looks as if you are a bit larger than my mistress,” he murmured as he straightened with clothes strewn over his arms. “But I think this skirt will still fit you.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, looking away from him. I hadn’t really considered myself overweight. Well, sure, I could stand to lose a few pounds, but I didn’t ever stress about it. Stefan had never complained over my figure.
“No,” Knox sharply said, drawing my eyes back to his face. “It was not a criticism. The vampire these clothes belong to is old and it is very likely she was malnourished by today’s standards when she was turned. She cannot change her size even if she wished it.”
His kind reassurance made me smile. Knox was different from Stefan in that he seemed far more at ease with humans. It made me wonder if he had had a human sister who’d been too concerned with her weight. Or maybe an old girlfriend. Standing so close to him, I took a moment to marvel at his handsome face. He had a nice, angular jaw and dark eyes that all combined to make him too sexy to be real, but he wasn’t Stefan. He smiled too easily, laughed too easily, seemed all around to at ease with the world so that I wasn’t quite sure what to believe. Maybe he wasn’t real.
“Whose clothes are these?” I asked, shoving those wandering thoughts away.
“The vampire to whom I have sworn allegiance,” he said cryptically. “You’ll meet her soon enough. Now go into the bathroom and change. Unless you’d rather change in here with me?”
Giving the vampire a quelling glare, I turned on heel and walked into the bathroom. I stopped just over the threshold and turned back to Knox in confusion. “Why do vampires have bathrooms?”
“1. We like to bath regularly,” he said, ticking off each point on his fingers. “2. We regularly have living guests who do have need to use the facilities. And 3. Don’t refer to us as vampires. We prefer the term nightwalkers.” Leaning against a low bureau, he looked quite serious on the last point. I’d heard Stefan use the term as well, but he’d never asked that I refrain from calling him a vampire.
A part of me wanted to tell him where he could shove his preferred term, but I bit my tongue. I was cranky and he was trying to help. If the vampires didn’t want to be called vampires, I could do that. They probably viewed it as a derogatory slang word. I certainly didn’t get any warm and fuzzy feelings over it.
I started to shut the bathroom door and stopped, leaving it open a crack so I could talk to Knox as I got changed. While I was sure that he could hear me through the door, I wasn’t so confident that I could hear his answers.
“You sure your… mistress isn’t going to mind me borrowing her clothes?” I called out as I looked over the skirt and blouse. While the black skirt fell to my ankles, it was slit on both sides up to the thigh. The blouse was dark red silk that buttoned up the front. However, the first button was extremely low, leaving the shirt open to the tops of my breasts. Neither was what I’d call conservative. They also both felt as if they cost more than I made in a month.
“Considering the alternative?”
I stepped out of the scratchy prison garb and was ready to burn the stuff, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to end up back in it when the night was over. “True, but I’m not sure I can afford to replace this if something happens to them.”
“Don’t worry about it. She said it’s fine.”
I stopped in the act of pulling up the skirt and stared at my reflection as I turned over his words. “You asked her already?”
“In a manner,” he said evasively. I could almost hear the laughter in his voice as if he were enjoying my mounting frustration.
I sighed and finished getting dressed. “I know it’s stupid to ask, but can you at least tell me what’s going on?”
“That’s my job,” he said firmly, the last of the teasing leaving his voice. “What has Stefan told you?”
“Not much,” I muttered.
Pausing in front of the mirror once I had the clothes on, I inspected myself for signs of trauma. Other than some dark circles under my eyes, I didn’t look any different. And that was frightening.
“He said that the woman found dead in my apartment belonged to another vam—nightwalker and that she was a pet.” I wrinkled my nose at the term, but shoved aside the question that went along with that. I was
n’t sure I wanted to know what a pet was in the nightwalker world. “He said that I’m to be put on trial for the murder.”
I grabbed up the brush on the sink counter and ran it through my windblown hair so that it no longer looked like rat’s nest. On a whim, I even started to rummage through the female vampire’s make-up. Her color choices were much bolder than mine, but then I like neutrals and warm colors. I put on a quick layer of a pale pink lipstick. I figured she couldn’t mind since we couldn’t give each other cooties.
“Did you kill her?”
Clenching my teeth together, I jerked open the door and stepped out. “No, damnit! Of course not!”
Knox stared at me for several seconds, his body perfectly still as if he were a classic Roman marble statue wrapped in Ralph Lauren. “I didn’t think so, but it might have been better if you had.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Do you have any combat training?” Knox asked, ignoring my question.
“What?”
“Fight experience? Can you use a knife?”
“I had a couple self-defense classes back in college,” I said, my uneasiness growing by the moment. “Why do I need to know how to fight? I thought this was a trial.”
Knox ran one hand through his thick dark hair and frowned, looking a bit lost for words as he stared at the floor. Apparently things were not going as well as he hoped. That made two of us. “Sit down, please. I will try to explain,” he finally said, motioning toward the large canopy bed that dominated the room.
When I hesitated, the nightwalker stood and started to walk toward me, but stopped after two steps and cocked his head slightly to the side as if he were listening to something, though I had heard anything to indicate someone else was near.
“Merda,” he cursed, his eyes squeezing shut.
“What?” I demanded warily. My Italian might not be that good, but I did know a curse when I heard one.
“They’re ready for you,” he said harshly. When he opened his eyes, they were filled with sympathy or at the very least pity. “I didn’t think they’d be ready for you so quickly.”
“I take it that’s not a good sign.”
“No, it’s not.”
Gently taking my arm, Knox started to pull me toward the bedroom door. I dug my heels in and tried to pull free. The nightwalker stopped walking, but didn’t release me. “I can’t go up there. You haven’t explained anything to me yet. I don’t understand what’s going on.”
“I know, but being late isn’t going to help your cause either,” he said sharply, giving me a small jerk to get me moving again.
“Wait. I’m not wearing any shoes.”
Knox looked down to see my bare toes poking up from under the long black skirt. “It works for this outfit and I really doubt anyone is going to notice.”
There was no stalling after that as he half pulled me back down the long ornate hallways we had passed through not much earlier. The only difference this time was that I didn’t see anyone along the way. All the nightwalkers and their companions had disappeared, but I had a sneaking suspicion that they were already in the court room waiting for the show I was about to provide for them.
“What’s going to happen?” I demanded as we started to mount the stairs.
“They’re going to ask you questions about what happened. Keep your temper, watch your tongue, and tell the truth,” Knox said sharply.
“I don’t remember anything,” I nearly cried as panic started to take hold.
Knox stopped on the stairs and turned sharply around to look at me. “No! Don’t cry. Don’t ever cry in front of them. I take back what I said.”
“What?”
“Lose your temper. Hold onto that anger you felt earlier. Think about how nightwalkers are destroying your life.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Anger and venom will keep you alive longer than tears and pleading. Do you understand?”
I nodded. Anger gave the appearance of strength. Tears were a sign of weakness. Stefan had taught me enough to understand that nightwalkers were all about power and control.
“Good girl.” Knox resumed walking at a brisk pace with me in tow.
At the top of the stairs, we turned down a different hall, but stopped just before the door. The nightwalker turned and grabbed both of my shoulders. “I need to give you two pieces of advice before you go in. First, this isn’t about you. This is about another nightwalker trying to either manipulate Stefan or weaken him. I think he will try to save you, but he won’t sacrifice himself to do it. It’s just not our way.” Knox paused and gave me a little smile as if it to soften the blow of the news. It wasn’t big news since I’d known far too few humans within my lifetime who would sacrifice themselves for another and Stefan hadn’t struck me as the self-sacrificing sort.
“Help him help you,” he continued, his smile disappearing. “Don’t say anything that could trap him or put him into a corner. In fact, the less you say the better. Let the nightwalkers do the arguing.”
“I understand. And the other piece of advice?”
“Stefan has few allies in there. Beyond him, you have no one on your side, but that could change for reasons you may not understand. If it looks like someone else might be willing to… come to your aid, don’t turn it down. It may be your only chance of survival.”
Horror cut through me at his words. “Are you telling me to… sell myself to another nightwalker?”
“If it means living to see another day, yes, I do, but I’m hoping it won’t come to that.”
Knox didn’t give me that chance to argue further with him. Grabbing my elbow, he jerked open the door and stepped into the yawning darkness, dragging me behind him. It was time to face the nightwalkers.
Chapter 6
The room was enormous. The black marble floor stretched out in front of me like a frozen lake at midnight. It reflected the light of dozens of torches and candles. Three-story ceilings soared overhead with ancient flags and banners hanging from their rafters. On my right, nightwalkers stood in clusters and lounged in chairs along the wall as if they were all gathered to watch a show. Their clothes were a strange motley of black leather, silver chains, designer silks, and blue jeans. All classes and lifestyles were gathered; joined by a single common thread — they all drank blood to survive.
I glanced back at Knox, who motioned for me to continue into the center of the black lake. It was only then that I finally looked to my left and noticed the tiered dais with the four thrones covered in gold leaf. Three of the four were occupied with nightwalkers, but that wasn’t what caused my heart to skip. Stefan sat among them.
My feet stopped before I reached the center of the room and I stared dumbfounded at his grim expression. When he spoke of his job, he’d always alluded to the fact that he was in a position of importance and power, but I hadn’t expected something like this. The throne room and the chairs made me think that he was some kind of king or prince among his people.
A loud cackle jerked me from my inner thoughts as I heard a nightwalker sneer in an overly loud whisper, “She didn’t know who he was.”
No, I didn’t know, but now that I did, I wasn’t sure if I was in a better or worse position for it. It made it all a little easier to understand why someone might be out to get Stefan or at least manipulate him. It was just a damn shame that I was getting stuck in the middle of this mess.
Ignoring the murmur of laughter that was rippling through the room, I continued to walk to the center of the room. The floor was wet and slightly sticky, as if someone had recently cleaned up a spill but missed a few spots. I ventured a glance down to see that the soles of my feet were now stained red with blood. My stomach lurched and I had to take a couple deep breaths to keep from getting sick. That would have been a great first impression. Stefan and Knox had made it perfectly clear that my life was on the line here, but I could have done without that sickening reminder. Jerking my eyes back up to the dais, I stopped
so that I was now standing directly in front of Stefan and the empty chair. My hands were balled tightly at my side to hide my trembling fingers.
There was a regal, dark-haired woman sitting on Stefan’s left. There was something about the woman’s bearing and posture that made me think that she had been something akin to royalty during the Middle Ages. She was small and slight in form, but there was a strength to her that seemed to radiate from deep within her. And despite her small size, this woman had the strength to take what she wanted.
On the far right of Stefan seated in the other chair was woman with long red hair that resembled a living flame. She was dressed in black leather pants and clingy sleeveless shirt that accentuated her slender figure. She lounged in her chair as if she didn’t have a care in the world, but she reminded me of a leopard draped across a tree limb. She might seem like she was relaxing, but there was coiled power to her as if she were ready to leap on a victim in the blink of an eye. While the brutnette’s expression matched Stefan’s neutral gaze, the redhead’s was more... curious.
Unlike the others, this woman also had a man standing behind her right shoulder. Broad shouldered, the man was obviously a battle-hardened warrior. It was stamped in the way he stood with his arms folded over his chest and frowned at me. His black hair hung down, brushing his shoulders, threatening to obscure his face, but there was no missing his stunning blue eyes. They were almost an electric blue and as cold as Stefan’s when he was pissed about something. Was he the redhead’s bodyguard? Lover? Both?
At the bottom of the stairs closest to the pair, Knox stood with his hands shoved in his pockets. His expression was blank, but I took his placement as a sign. Was I wearing the redhead’s clothes? Was she the one who was trying to give Stefan a small helping hand? If I could garner someone else’s assistance, she might be the one who would step forward.
“Woman,” the small nightwalker on the dais said, capturing my wandering attention.
“Erin. Erin Prescott,” I corrected with a stiff smile.
Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) Page 7
