Next thing I knew, there were hands around my throat.
Chapter 16
My eyes blinked open.I wasn’t sure what time it was, or how long I’d been asleep. I hardly remembered leaving Victoria’s coffee shop, much less getting home and climbing into bed.
As I came to, I realized that Iwasn’thome. It was too quiet. No country music filtered through the cracked doorway, nor were there any sounds of my rambunctious dog wreaking havoc on my fiancé.
Blurred shapes and shadows formed from bleary eyes: a ceiling fan that didn’t belong to me, soft, cotton sheets with a thread count higher than I could imagine—also not mine.
Head pounding and my throat on fire, I pulled myself to a sitting position on the unfamiliar mattress. The fleece blanket covering me pooled in my lap. I glanced around the room. Blackout curtains plunged the space into darkness, casting shadows across the midnight-painted walls. An antique armchair sat in one corner, a vintage chestnut dresser in the other.
My gaze landed on a glass of water on the nightstand. Condensation beaded and slid down the glass, and it was still cold when I grabbed it. I took a few big gulps of the cool liquid, instantly regretting it. My throat protested, and it took all I hadnot to spit it back out. It was then that I remembered the hands around my throat.
I didn’t know where I was or how I’d got there, but I knew that James was somewhere in the house. I could feel him.
Rubbing my aching head, I pulled myself to my feet. While I felt like I could sleep for another year, my bladder was having none of it.
I padded across the floor, noticing that I was still fully dressed. My jacket was draped over the armchair, and my shoes were… nowhere to be found.
I crept out the door, trying to stay quiet. Pristine white walls came into view, and a grand staircase that I recognized: I was in Gabriel’s house.
How had I ended up here? Had he saved me from my attacker?
Downstairs, a quick glance toward the living room windows revealed that it must have been the middle of the night, if not the early hours of the morning. Frost dusted the windows, and a roaring fire crackled in the fireplace. I rubbed my arms, as if the sight of it made me realize how cold it was. The flames licked across disintegrating logs and seemed to beckon me closer.
“You’re awake.”
Startled, I whirled around to face the hallway on my right. James stood there, checking me over as if he were looking for invisible injuries.
“Hi,” I croaked. “What are we doing here?”
My body drifted closer to his, as if being pulled by some invisible force. I didn’t fight it; his arms around me felt good. James’s lips pressed to my hair, and I nuzzled into his neck. “Gabriel called me. He said you were sitting outside of your car, with no jacket on, feverish and confused. He brought you here to recover and I raced over. How are you feeling?”
“Like I was sideswiped by a linebacker—and my throat’s killing me.”
“Sit down. I’ll bring you a hot drink.”
At the mention of liquid, my stomach cramped, reminding me of what forced me out of bed to begin with. “Bathroom?”
“There.” James pointed at a cracked door before he disappeared, and I sluggishly trudged into the small half bath and shut myself inside.
After I washed my hands, I leaned over to splash ice cold water on my face, hoping it would help with the brain fog.
It didn’t.
My first thought was that Victoria had done something, but that didn’t make sense. If she wanted to hurt me, why would she have let me leave the coffee shop? I’d spent the entire evening sitting within grabbing distance of her and all of her… witchy stuff.
The front door crashed open, and I ran out of time to think about it.
Voices traveled down the hallway, past the closed bathroom door and into the kitchen.
I left the room, following shouting into the kitchen. Was that…
“Luke?” I coughed around the ache in my throat at simply saying his name.
Luke thrashed about, fighting to free himself from the arm Gabriel had around his waist. He scrabbled at the vampire’s hand, but Gabriel only raised a brow and dug his fingers in tighter. Luke realized that he didn’t stand a chance, and slumped against Gabriel’s chest.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
