Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Silent tears trickle down my face, soaking the expensive shirt under my cheek.
I know it’s costly because the softness of the fabric is like nothing I’ve ever felt before.
Blurry images of my surroundings pass by while I’m carried through the hallway.
The lobby is deathly silent as the monster cradling me to his chest strides purposely through it.
Numbly, I watch the hanging chandeliers with their soft-yellow glow sparkle through my tear-filled gaze.
The painted ceiling tiles—or whatever they are called—don’t inspire awe in me anymore.
They resemble twisted, laughing faces, gloating at my predicament.
No one says a word. I can’t even hear their footsteps until we reach the elevators.
I can feel the presence of all three monsters like a fist around my heart.
I’m so cold. With each passing moment, the chill settles more firmly in my soul, in my bones.
Almost jumping out of my skin when the soft ding sounds before the doors slide open, I’m surprised the monster doesn’t drop me.
When my body jerks at the sound, he only tightens his hold on me slightly.
He stops with one foot inside the elevators, and from the corners of my eyes, I see two different hands lash out at each side of the entrance, holding the doors open for him.
They should let them close now and crush me alongside the monster.
It’s a better way to die than whatever they have planned for me.
“I will take the stairs with her.” The baritone vibrates through his chest into mine and settles. A current of energy follows it, racing through my spine from my tailbone and all the way to the top of my head.
“We will all go—” Andrei starts, but a low growl cuts him off. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end from the sound.
“You two will go clean up the…” the Sire trails off, and his face tilts down, glancing at me. “Clean up the mess upstairs before I bring her there.”
Before he turns around, Marcus and Andrei slide into the elevator without any further comments.
Even in my state, I can’t help but wonder what kind of a mess they need to clean up.
What does a monster’s place look like? Will I see other humans tortured and killed before I meet my end?
Crazy images of horror after horror float in my mind while the monster carries me to his den.
He is surprisingly gentle for a killer.
I still haven’t been jostled, even when he starts climbing the stairs.
Every step he takes on the soft red carpet under his feet is purposeful and slow, either for my benefit, which I doubt, or to give the other two time to clean up whatever mess he didn’t want me to see.
Why that mattered to him is beyond me. Then again, almost everything is beyond me at this point.
The shaking of my body continues, and now my teeth start chattering as well.
The tears haven’t stopped sliding down my face, and the white shirt is beginning to look gray, no doubt from all the dirt I’m smudging on it with my tears.
In the middle of it all, the scent of the man holding me enters my stuffy nostrils, creating a tingling sensation in the center of my chest. With great effort, I move my hand there, pressing my fingers between my breasts in hopes to make it go away.
It only makes me tremble harder.
“Do not fear me.” His words make my head snap up, lodging my heart in my throat. “You should never fear me.” Looking down at me, he doesn’t stop climbing the stairs.
The neon lights that glow above our heads create star-like specks in his black eyes.
My face is so close to his, I should be able to see his pupils.
I see none. Only blackness sprinkled with white specks, like staring at the universe sprinkled with stars.
It’s challenging to take a breath, my lungs shriveling in my chest. Something ancient is lurking behind his gaze. Something alien and powerful.
Something deadly.
Duh, April. He is a damn monster that feeds on the blood of humans, you idiot. My mind screams at me, and flinching, I snap my focus away from his face. What the hell is the matter with me?
“I know you are scared,” he murmurs, almost making me believe we are taking a stroll instead of him taking me to my death.
“What they have done to you cannot be taken back.” I can feel his eyes staring at the top of my head.
I don’t dare move. “I believe it can be healed.” We keep going for a few long minutes before he sighs. “I will do everything so you can heal.”
Keeping my face down and hidden from him, my eyebrows incredulously climb all the way up to my hairline.
Maybe everyone is scared of these Italians because they are all mental.
Listening to him talk, part of me thinks I have finally found myself a guardian angel that will protect me.
That from this moment on, I’ll be safe. It’s so stupid that I almost laugh.
“I know you understand me and that you can talk,” Sire blabs on, and if he doesn’t stop soon, I’ll think he is trying to fill the silence with nonsense. “You have been suffering for very long, and you need time.”
We continue climbing, and all I can feel is him around me.
His softly spoken words overwhelm my senses while they are reverberating from him to me as he holds me to his chest. I tune out whatever he is saying, but I can’t ignore the sound of his voice and all the shit it’s stirring inside me.
To make everything worse, the damn red carpet stretches in front of us, looking like blood.
My stomach churns. A monster is taking me to my death, walking through a river of blood.
We exit the stairwell, thankfully before my hysteria hits the point of no return.
My breathing is accelerated, and the shaking is reaching some crazy levels.
Sire only tightens his hold on me, pressing me firmly to his chest, and his long legs eat up the space to the thick, cream door at the end of the hallway.
We are a few steps away from the door when it swings open.
Marcus zeroes in on me straight away, and his face scrunches up in worry.
Even Andrei lurks in the background, tilting his head to see us better around Marcus.
All I can focus on in front of me is a gaping hole leading to the pits of my personal hell.
I know deep into my very being that if I cross that threshold, my life, no matter how short it is, will never be the same again.
It’s not some gut feeling or fear talking.
No. It’s a knowing from somewhere deep in my soul.
Regardless of what these monsters will do to me, this knowing is more terrifying. It’s more final than death.
I have no idea why I thought that. All I’ve ever wanted was to survive.
I’ve never actually sat down to try to contemplate life.
Not until recently, when I convinced myself that fear is useless.
These monsters, this hotel with its beautifully decorated walls, floors, and ceiling, and especially that stupid door coming closer, they all feel like physical hands that are gripping an invisible rope tied at the center of my soul.
Sire is still talking, his words becoming clearer, and I hear them like some curse echoing around me in the unnaturally silent space.
“…this is your home, and I will kill anyone that will try to harm you.” With those words, he crosses the threshold.
My chest is zapped, a bolt of lightning hitting right in the middle of it. My body convulses so sharply in his arms he nearly drops me. My eyes roll to the back of my head. Before I lose consciousness, a scream so tortured, that will haunt me even after death, scares the shit out of me.
That scream came from me.