Chapter 4 Maeve #2
“Right.” The woman with the rack of dresses clapped her hands as she spoke and two huge men who looked like security guys on steroids blocked the doorway behind her.
She glanced at Ciara. “Oh, hello, dear.” But her tone was patronizing, her voice dripping with saccharine, the sweetness there artificial.
“I’m hungry,” Ciara muttered.
“I see.” And the woman narrowed her eyes like she really did see. She waved her hand toward one of the security guys. “A smoothie, I think.” Her delicate gold bracelet glittered in the light where it dangled from her arm as she moved with a grace I’d never seen in my life.
She looked similar to the woman I’d followed before I ended up here—same almost translucent skin, same captivating inner glow, same white-blonde hair.
Interesting. They even had the same pale blue eyes. They could almost have been sisters, if coloring was the only thing that mattered. But their bone structure was entirely different. As I looked more closely at this woman, her differences to Clémence became more apparent.
“Bruno,” the woman said to one of the security guys, “take Ciara to eat.”
“Wait. I’m hungry, too.” Penny stirred in the bed, rolling over as she spoke, her voice still rough and sleepy.
The pale woman laughed. “You can wait,” she said. “We’ve got things to do.” She nudged one of the brunette girls she’d brought in with her. “I’ll start with you,” she said.
“Wait.”
After I spoke, the pale woman looked at me, and her eyes turned icy. I almost shivered, but I tensed my muscles and held her gaze.
“Who are you?” Okay, so my question wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing at all, and I was supposed to be asking things and finding shit out.
“Nicole,” she said, and it had perfect French pronunciation.
I nodded. I had no follow-up questions to ask, although I was totally curious why Ciara had been sent to get something to eat and the rest of us had to remain here.
“I’m Maeve,” I said to the closest woman.
“Angelica,” she whispered, and she nodded to the other woman with her. “And she’s Krissy.”
I nodded. “Sister?” I kept my voce down but from the way Nicole angled her head, she could hear every word, and she was listening.
That woman had the hearing of a bat, if that was the case.
And I was just asking the question to tick it off my list. Angelica and Krissy looked as if they could have been twins.
But Angelica shook her head as Nicole drew Krissy forward, toward the rack of beautiful dresses.
“Nah, we’re just best friends. Been inseparable all our lives.
We do everything together.” She smiled, but it was just a stretch of her lips.
“Although this hasn’t been our best experience.
Being abducted wasn’t such a great idea. ”
“At least you have each other?” I cringed as I spoke. That was a kind of shitty thing to say, but I often started my mouth up before I put my brain in gear.
“True.” Angelica shrugged. “Although I’d rather Krissy didn’t have to go through this. Look how thin she’s gotten.”
I glanced at the other woman. Both of them were far too thin, and it was the reason I’d made my mistake. Ordinarily, they probably didn’t look at all like each other, but they were both so hungry and emaciated that they were the same shape now.
Nicole grabbed a floor-length black dress from the rack, and the thin fabric fluttered as she swished it through the air, the movement creating a disturbance in the air.
Penelope shivered next to me. “I’m cold,” she whispered.
“You’re hungry and tired,” I whispered back. “Maybe if we go along with whatever this is, they’ll feed us.” I glanced at the security guy still by the door. There wasn’t any point in making a run for it. He looked like he could snap two of us in half at the same time.
“But they’ve taken Ciara to get something to eat. Why not us?” Penelope’s stomach grumbled as she whined, and I lifted my shoulders in a deliberate shrug.
I had an idea why Ciara’s hunger was more pressing than ours, but I couldn’t voice it. After all, I’d sound like a proper nutjob if I explained that if they left Ciara hungry, then we were probably the food.
“We’ll get a turn,” I whispered instead.
If only I felt as sure as I sounded about that.
“At least we have something to keep us occupied right now?” I shrugged again as I gestured toward Nicole and the other two women as Nicole pushed coat hangers to one side on her rack, sending floor-length dresses fluttering with the abrupt movements.
“These are gorgeous!” Krissy’s voice was an excited squeal as she ran her hand over some of the fabric. “Which one should I try first?” There was something hysterical about her speech, something too bright-eyed about the way she looked at the dresses.
Was she acting or playing along, desperate to be set free, or were they somehow forcing her cooperation another way?
I stepped back, happy to let someone else be a guinea pig rather than me.
All of the dresses were a little too black, a little too like Nicole had raided Morticia Addams’s closet on her way here.
They all looked funereal, and damn Nicole right to hell if she thought I was dressing up to attend my own funeral.
Or my own virgin sacrifice, or whatever the hell this was.
I cast a quick glance at the women in the room with me. What were the chances we were all virgins? It wasn’t like anyone could tell these days or even that we pretended we could anymore. It was just another thing that didn’t matter to anyone who was worth our time.
Krissy squealed again as Nicole held a dress against her thin frame. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed, as she bunched the fabric in her fists. “It’ so pretty!” She glanced up, her eyes alight with out-of-place excitement.
Angelica nodded. “Sure, hon. You’re going to look like a princess.” But she rolled her eyes a tiny amount at the end of her sentence as Krissy turned her attention back to the dress.
“Can I try it on? What’s it made of? Is it expensive?” Krissy peppered Nicole with questions, and Nicole’s beatific smile slipped to a strained tug of her lips.
“You all need to choose dresses,” Nicole said, the words pointed as she included Penny, Angelica, and me in her audience. She laughed, but it was a grating sound. “You all get to look like princesses.” Her voice was as sharp and fragile as ice, and I winced as it sliced through the air between us.
“Maybe we’ll find our princes.” Krissy looked down at the dress she held against her body as she swayed, making the skirt flare around her legs, like she was dancing at a ball.
Angelica started to shake her head, and I could almost feel her panic saturating the air between us.
But Nicole whipped her head around, her nostrils flaring. “Sounds like a plan,” she purred at Krissy while she narrowed her eyes in apparent warning at Angelica.
I shuddered. Whatever was going on tonight wasn’t going to be good.
Apparently, Angelica had read a warning in Nicole’s expression, too, because she was as quiet as her best friend had been enthusiastic when it was her turn to try the dresses.
Her movements were efficient, even though her face was pinched and her fingers formed skeletal claws as she gripped the luxurious fabrics in hands that shook just enough to showcase her fear.
I pressed myself back against the nearest wall, my heart sinking as Nicole eventually dismissed Angelica to the side and turned her focus full beam on me.
Still, maybe better me than Penelope. At least I seemed primed to detect something really, truly off here.
This wasn’t just a normal abduction experience.
This was an escape room on crack cocaine, and I hadn’t put all of the puzzle pieces together yet.
As Nicole glanced between Penelope and me, seeming to weigh up her options, I stepped in front of my friend, shielding her.
Nicole smiled, and the tip of one of her canines glinted. “Your turn next?” She pointed at me.
I smiled back at her, hoping my effort was even half as mean as hers. “I don’t think so. I’m not picking out which dress I die in.”
As I spoke, the bedroom door opened, and Ciara was shoved inside the room. She looked between Nicole and me, not even taking a moment to recalibrate to her new surroundings.
“Everything okay?”
“Sure.” Having her back filled me with fresh bravado. “I was just telling little miss Fashion Assistant over here that I have no need to be dressed like a reaper on anyone’s account today.”
Nicole snarled, the sound otherworldly, and her eyes dimmed to a deep ruby red, the color bleeding into the pale blue.
I gasped, but before I could move, Ciara had moved to stand between Nicole and me. It was like she’d beamed herself there somehow. I hadn’t seen her take even a step.
Then, as soon as Nicole lunged forward, she was jerking back, clutching her cheek and Ciara was shaking her fist.
“God damn, woman,” Ciara said. “Sharp cheekbones much?”
I burbled a nervous giggle at the obvious evidence Ciara had just punched Nicole—shit was definitely about to go down now, and it was maybe the last shit I’d ever see. Especially if we were, as I believed, in the middle of a nest of fucking vampires.
One of the guards jerking my arm cut my giggle off abruptly, and he yanked me toward the door.
“Get off me.” The other guard had Ciara and she struggled against his vise-like grip. “Let me go, you bastard.” She sent a couple of quick punches to his face and one landed, the resulting meaty sound wet and dense.
The guard growled, but I grew more docile, allowing myself to be pulled along. What the hell had I just seen? Red eyes? Glinting teeth? Movement too fast to be seen?
Hell, even if I was going to die here, I’d find out what was going on first.