I grimaced. By day, maybe. By night, it made a perfect place for a vampire to stalk prey.
Henrik sullenly led us up seven flights of stairs in a hundred-year-old building that had seen better days. Then he pulled a key hidden behind a heating pipe and opened the door. Everyone peered in, but no one took the first step.
“Not interested? Good. Go elsewhere,” Henrik sniffed, stepping inside.
“Definitely interested,” Gen murmured, following him.
My tiger snarled at the idea of her entering a vampire’s lair, and I practically body-checked Marius out of the way to follow her.
“What’s the hurry?” he grumbled.
I kept my lips sealed as my inner beast roared.
Big hurry. She’s my mate.
Oh, no, she wasn’t. She was just a beguiling woman I’d been semi-obsessed with since the day we’d met. A woman I’d shared a couch with the previous night.
My body heated, and my eyes itched — a sure sign of the glow building within.
I blinked hard, fighting my beast for control.
Gen followed Henrik down a narrow hallway and into the salon, followed by the rest of us.
“Don’t touch anything,” Henrik snapped, proving himself as generous a host as I’d expected.
“Oh. My,” Gen murmured, looking around.
Marius grimaced. “Maybe we should take the Super Express in Saint-Denis.”
“What did you expect? IKEA furniture and fairy lights?” Bene asked.
“This is exactly what I expected and why I want out,” Marius groused.
I was with him on that. Heavy velvet curtains — burgundy — were pinched back by thick sashes — gold, with tassels — while the room was crowded with ornate furniture fit for a much grander space. The wallpaper featured equally dark, rich colors in a swirly pattern. So many, they almost gave the place a psychedelic vibe.
“It’s kind of seventies,” Bene observed. “1770s, I mean.”
Gen chuckled. “Call it Transylvanian Nouveau.”
“Better yet, Neo-Gothic Chic,” Bene tried.
Gen giggled. “Wait. I got it. The Undead Urban Loft.”
“Parisian Crypt-Conversion,” Bene shot back.
They both folded into laughter.
I dropped the small bag I’d packed and got down to business by assigning quarters, starting with the two small bedrooms. “Marius and Mina can take this room. Henrik, I take it that’s yours?”
He nodded, blocking the view into his bedroom. All I glimpsed were the heavy blackout curtains.
Meanwhile, Bene and Gen were still at it in the salon.
“I’m serious,” he said, anything but. “IKEA should make a line of furniture like this. They could call it Gloomsta.”
“Noctornö,” Gen tried, running her hand along a coffee table with thick, scrolled legs.
They both hooted away.
