Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
Cora
Cora slept like shit. She’d really hoped that maybe something was shifting in her body after passing out so easily in the car and then again in the hotel room, but last night had been back to the usual tossing and turning.
Not even the orgasm she’d given herself relaxed her enough to drift off.
In fact, it might have made things worse.
All she could think about afterward was how much better it would have been with Saiden’s fingers instead of hers.
She’d felt like he was there at first, like she could sense his presence nearby, and it drove her wild. Then it faded, taking the relaxation that had accompanied her release along with it.
It was like her body craved him and nothing else would do.
More than once she’d debated going in search of him just to see how he would respond.
He’d made it clear he was attracted to her, but he also hadn’t tried to make a move when they were alone in his room.
It was only that reminder that kept her butt in the bed.
On the off-chance that his interest in her had been a fleeting amusement, she wasn’t about to risk her dignity by throwing herself at him.
She opted instead to let herself suffer all night long until birds outside began their morning song, and a knock on her door had her dragging her ass from the luxurious bed. She was surprised to see not Saiden but Tressa on the other side, holding a tray of croissants and orange juice.
“Breakfast?” the chipper vamp offered.
“Uh, thanks,” she said groggily, taking the overflowing platter of pastries and setting it on the dresser. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Sure, I did,” she beamed. “You’re our guest, and I thought you might enjoy a little room service.”
“Thanks,” Cora repeated, unsure of what else to say since her brain was running on zero hours of sleep.
“My pleasure. I’d love to show you the gardens after you’ve eaten and dressed. How about meeting me at the front of the compound in an hour? Does that work?”
Cora blinked, about to decline the perky vampire’s offer when a tiny hint of warmth rolled through her brain.
A smile tugged at her lips. Everyone here had been nothing but nice to her so far.
Hell, she’d received better treatment here than she had at most hotels.
Of course she could join Tressa on a morning stroll.
“I’m in,” she said with a grin. “I’ll meet you up front as soon as I’m ready.” She paused, considering the long trek Saiden had taken her on last night. “Or I will if I can find wherever ‘up front’ is in this place.”
“Oh, it’s easy,” Tressa insisted. “Take the last left at the end of this hall, followed by a right, and you can’t miss it. You’ll get used to the layout eventually. We all did. See you in a bit!”
Cora watched Tressa flounce off down the hall then returned to her room to snag a quick bite and a shower. The flaky croissant was so buttery and delicious that she completely forgot to worry about what Tressa had meant by ‘eventually.’
Tressa hadn’t exaggerated when she said the gardens were incredible.
They must have gone on for acres, featuring some plants that Cora was pretty sure shouldn’t be growing on this continent.
Regardless, she allowed herself to get swept up in the magic of the beautifully manicured hedges, the flowers with vibrant colors, and the thick luxurious grass that had her tossing her shoes next to Tressa’s so they could roam barefoot.
Hours later they returned to the house and were joined by a British vamp named Raven.
Intense but still kind, the new woman seemed very keen on getting to know Cora which made little to no sense.
Cora was a boring human, and these were vampires who lived multiple lifetimes and visited countless places.
She could only imagine what they had witnessed.
World Wars, the Industrial Revolution, not to mention they might have gotten to meet Bela Lugosi. How cool would that have been?
Her fascination made it easy to forget that they were dangerous vampires and not just slightly strange girlfriends she’d known for years.
Currently they were lounging on a back patio, sipping chocolate martinis in the dappled shadows of oak trees, and it was all just so…
normal. By the time she was on her second drink, she’d nearly forgotten about Saiden and the quasi-kidnapping.
“Thank you, Donna,” Tressa said when a portly woman in her early sixties with more gray than brown in her tight bun placed a tray loaded with crackers smothered in brown paste on the table.
Cora wrinkled her nose at the smell. “As good as your taste in drinks is, your taste in snacks leaves a lot to be desired. What even is that?”
Tressa laughed. “It’s chicken liver crostini. One of Saiden’s old family recipes from Sicily. I can have Donna bring you something else if you’d like. I’m sure it’s way past lunchtime, so you’re due a proper meal.”
Cora’s belly rumbled, and she couldn’t deny drinking martinis on an empty stomach was one of her less than stellar ideas. The two bites of croissant she had hours earlier weren’t absorbing anything.
“I guess I could eat, and I’m open to just about any kind of food.” She eyed the liver dish, wondering if it was worth attempting. “Well, almost any kind.”
“Donna,” Raven called, and the older woman reappeared as if by magic. “Would you bring our guest something a little more appropriate for a young American human? Thank you much.”
Cora waited for the woman to leave then asked, “So does everyone here know that you’re vampires?
” The mansion had appeared empty when they toured last night, but she glimpsed a couple humans in the kitchen this morning, and Donna never seemed far from Tressa’s side since they came back from the garden.
“Of course,” Tressa replied. “This is our home. We don’t want to hide who we are, and the humans who work for us would never betray our truth.
In fact, most of them have lived here for generations.
We pay them exorbitantly well, and they get to enjoy all the luxuries of this place.
Plus, they all know whenever they are ready to leave that we’ll simply compel the details of their time here from their minds and send them off with a generous severance package.
They retain only the knowledge that we were excellent employers, and we would love to have them back should they ever want to return. ”
Tressa popped a cracker in her mouth as Raven added, “Donna was with us for nearly a decade when she was younger, then she left to become a concert pianist. She only returned once her arthritis set in. You should ask her to play for you some time. She’s still quite good.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to do that,” Cora said, wondering exactly how long they planned to keep her there. She got the impression it would be a quick conversation with Marquin then back to her life one way or the other.
Shit, Marquin.
She knew she kept forgetting something. Damn delicious chocolate martinis making her all fuzzy headed.
Cora couldn’t even remember the last time she’d gotten drunk since she usually called it after a single beer.
Alcohol wasn’t recommended with some of her medications, but for some reason when Tressa had suggested cocktails on the patio she’d agreed without hesitation.
“Hey, so do you guys know if Marquin is back yet? I’m supposed to plead my case to him.” Cora looked around as if Marquin might be hiding behind one of the Grecian statues that flanked the French patio doors.
The look Tressa gave Raven was so fast that Cora almost missed it.
“What?” she asked warily, afraid her good time was about to come crashing to a halt.
“Marquin is going to be away from the compound for a bit longer,” Raven said, taking another sip of her martini.
“What?” Cora barked, jumping to her feet then immediately regretting the action when the world tilted sideways. Gravity dropped her into the chair before she could fight back.
“It’s okay,” Tressa soothed, and Cora blinked at the raven-haired beauty across the table.
Heh. Raven wasn’t the raven-haired one, she thought, chuckling to herself.
Wait, this situation wasn’t funny. Angry, that’s what she was.
Except she couldn’t manage to keep a firm grasp on her anger. It just kept slipping through her fingers like fine sand.
“So, where is he,” she asked. Before one of them could answer, Donna reappeared carrying a plate loaded with mini burgers and breaded cheese sticks. All other thoughts vanished from Cora’s mind when the smell of fried food reached her.
Bless Donna and her vamp-loving heart.
Cora grabbed a slider and tore into it. Through a mouthful of food, she proclaimed, “Donna, you are a goddess.”
The older lady just gave her a wan smile then disappeared back into the house.
Swallowing the tiny burger, she grabbed two of the cheese sticks. You’d think she hadn’t eaten in days with how viciously she attacked the appetizers, but there was just something so enticing about comfort food that it was practically begging to be devoured in seconds.
Cora shoved a hunk of melty mozzarella into her mouth, and the taste of fried bread had just hit her tongue when, to her complete horror, her throat seized up.
Gasping for air, she clawed at her neck, but things only worsened when her face began to spasm, her bottom lip pulling uncontrollably to the left side.
Not now, she pleaded. Please, not now.
“Are you alright?” Tressa’s concerned face swam in Cora’s vision and someone, probably Raven, pulled her chair back from the table, giving her space to stand.
Not that she was able to get up. In fact, Cora knew that hunching over was the exact opposite of what she was supposed to do, but she just couldn’t fight the rising panic that crippled her body.
“What’s wrong with her?” Raven demanded, appearing next to Tressa. Both women kneeled in front of Cora, their faces painted with worry and confusion.
“I think she’s choking,” Tressa replied, her voice laced with trepidation. “I don’t know how to do the Heimlich. I think you’re supposed to pound on their chest? Or is that CPR?”
“Oh, for Lilith’s sake,” came a soft voice from somewhere behind Cora.
A pair of arms slid around her midsection and lifted her off the chair as if she were no weightier than an infant. Her unknown savior gave two sharp thrusts, and a chunk of melted cheese flew from her mouth to land smack in the middle of the liver crostini platter.
Between the alcohol and the nearly dying, Cora lost all sense of control over her body. She swayed and tilted in the breeze for a moment, then she was falling backward, the blue sky suddenly the only thing in her field of view.
She waited for the painful strike of impact, but her body made contact with the stone patio so gently that somebody must have laid her down. She remained there unmoving while the clouds above danced in and out of focus.
What was in that martini? Had they drugged her? Or was she that much of a lightweight now?
Her eyes blinked shut for a second, and when they reopened, there was a new face staring down at her. The woman glowed with a holy light, her long blonde hair creating a frame of gold around the edges of Cora's fuzzy vision so all she could see was smooth pale skin, icy blue eyes, and rosy lips.
An angel, Cora thought, finally succumbing to the fatigue that dragged her off unwillingly into a deep sleep.