No answer. Thalia frowned.
Odd. Perhaps she’d misheard something, or maybe the noise had been outside. One of the chickens or goats no doubt bumping into something.
A knock sounded, and Thalia turned toward the front door. But the knocking wasn’t coming from there; it was coming from behind her.
Thalia swallowed, following the sound, her footsteps too loud in her ears.
“Hello?” she called.
The knocking grew insistent, and she hurried down the hall.Maybe someone’s at the back door?
Thalia faltered when she got to a set of stairs that led down into the lower levels—the knocking was coming from a door at the base.
Maybe Cassius or Keegan had locked themselves in accidentally?
“Cassius?” Thalia called, taking a step into the stairwell.
The knocking stopped.
Thalia swallowed, sure she’d imagined it, until a muffled voice floated from under the threshold.
“Help.”
Thalia took another step down the stairs, her heart pounding. “Is someone in there?”
The door rattled slightly as another muffled word escaped. “Help.”
Thalia made it to the base of the stairs before she realized she’d even moved.
The door handle jiggled, and Thalia placed her hand on it. “Are you stuck?”
“Help,” a distinctly female voice said.
Thalia’s stomach clenched. Maybe it was the same woman whose room she’d been in.How the hell has she locked herself in there?
“Hang on,” Thalia called. She tried the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Thalia cursed. “Give me a second.”
Thalia didn’t hear the woman’s reply as she took the stairs two at a time, heading into the kitchen until she spotted a butter knife.
She grabbed it before running back to the door, which now rattled with intensity.
“I’m here,” Thalia said breathlessly. She jammed the knife into the keyhole, wiggling it around. “Almost there—” The lock clicked, and Thalia breathed a sigh of relief, swinging the door open. “How did you—”
Her words died in her throat.
A woman stood on the other side of the threshold. Long auburn hair fell to her waist in a tangled mess. She wore only a simple nightdress, the fabric tattered and dirty. Her golden eyes widened, the irises hazy as she took Thalia in.
But it was the foaming droplets falling from the woman’s torn lips that had Thalia stepping back. The droplets splattered onto her dress, leaving tracks in their wake.
Thalia’s heart started to climb, and the Vampyr’s nostrils flared. Once. Then twice.
“Help,” the bitten Vampyr said, revealing her canines.
Thalia ran.
She made it to the top of the stairs before hands grasped her shoulders.
The Vampyr slammed her back into the wall hard enough that Thalia’s bones groaned.
