And I’m about to meet him.
My pulse races, probably for all the wrong reasons. He’s a vampire. A monster. I… I shouldn’t beexcitedto see him.
Yet I can’t help the way I feel.
When aclicksounds through the room, I hold my breath and wait.
But the door doesn’t open.
Frowning, I stare at it, then try the handle and find it unlocked.
“Why are you…?” I trail off when I reveal an empty hallway beyond the threshold. “Umm.” I peek out to look left and then right. “Okay…”
So the door auto-unlocks.
“Yeah, that’s not creepy at all,” I mutter to myself.
My heels—which not only fit me perfectly but also make me three inches taller—clack against the wood floor of the corridor as I leave the bedroom. I found them in a box beside the red dress on the bed, along with a note that readMs. Dalca, Dinner is at 7:00 p.m. Dress appropriately.
I’m not sure howappropriatethis clingy gown is, as it feels more like lingerie than a dress, but at least I’m not cold.
Negru Castle’s exterior may boast an otherworldly and historic appeal, but the interior is definitely current with the times.
There are modern features throughout—such as motion-sensor lights and warm water that automatically turn on with a single wave of a hand—and thermostats to control the temperature in the bedroom and en-suite bathroom.
When Marius showed me the kitchen earlier, I noted all the advanced tech while wondering idly if vampires actually eat food.
There are no drafts anywhere that I’ve felt, not even in the big open spaces like the grand staircase that I’m walking down now.
The massive front doors are latched shut, making me wonder if they’re locked on the insideandthe outside. But I don’t bothertrying to test the theory as I pass through the foyer. There’s no point. I’m not running. I’ve been craving this day for years.
With my shoulders back, I head through the front living area—there are several others throughout, only two of which I actually saw on my brief tour with Marius—and into a space with a cocktail bar and lounge chairs.
“For an empty castle, there sure are a lot of places to socialize,” I told Marius earlier.
He chuckled in response, then took me into the kitchen, which is where I go next.
It’s huge, the size of which I would expect to find bordering a cafeteria, not a traditional dining hall. Though, I suppose the oversized room does have a table large enough for at least twenty chairs to sit around it.
Still, this all feels rather extravagant for a single vampire.
“Does anyone work in the castle?” I asked during my tour.
“Yes” was Marius’s reply. He didn’t elaborate. However, I’ve yet to see a single person other than him today. Probably because I’ve only actually been here for about three hours—it was a long drive—and I spent most of that time locked in a bedroom.
With drawers and drawers of lingerie, I think, shivering.
Count Negru must have had a former mistress. Maybe another vampire. Or a human. But that’s the only explanation I have for the closet of formal gowns and the dresser of sexy nightwear.
The fact that it all seemed to be my size is… well, it has to be a coincidence. There’s no way he bought all of that in less than twenty-four hours. And I’m pretty sure some of those labels were in French, suggesting they would have been shipped in from France.
Count Negru couldn’t have known that I existed until last night, and that’s assuming Marius even told him about me at all.
Well, he had to have saidsomethingsince I’m here.
Still, there’s no way the count had time to purchase all of those items for me in such a short amount of time.
Unless meeting Marius wasn’t a coincidence at all.That thought is one that’s occurred to me several times today, ever since I realized that Marius wasn’t really a tour guide. And that he might be a familiar or something else entirely.
