Yes.
But right now, that’s fantasy.
So I take a breath again, turn from the elevator, and go searching for the kitchen.
It’s sleek, modern, untouched it seems by food. Which makes my mouth twist into a semblance of a smile.
Of course there isn’t food per se. He’s a vampire. He doesn’t need to eat food. There’s a fruit bowl filled with protein bars, and when I open the giant fridge that’s integrated into the cabinetry, my breath catches.
Blood. Five pouches. Dated. And I want one. One? I want themall.
I start to reach out, but snatch my hand away, and instead close the door and grab a few of the protein bars, shoving them in my pocket.
Next, I spend some time exploring. The space is the entire top floor, and I think it covers the whole block VMR sits on.
Since the sun pours in but doesn’t touch me at all, no heat, nothing, I’m guessing the windows are specially designed, but I don’t care about that. I don’t care about the lore to do with the sun and I’m no sun freak, either. Who would be in a place like Tenebris? Already I can see dark clouds gathering in the distance.
There are two enclosed decks, one with a dipping pool. There’s a gym, a locked room, and two other living areas, both cozy, one with a big TV.
He has a library full of old and new books.
There are about six bathrooms, though I’m not sure the seal’s been broken on any toilet or toilet tissue roll.
I move along. He has four guest rooms, and his main suite with a king-size bed. Though it has the walls of glass, it also has black-out blinds. It’s done in whites and grays, and out of all the rooms I’ve explored, this one actually feels lived in.
I trail a hand over the pale gray of the sofa, body throbbing as I keep looking at the bed.
“I can’t be in here,” I mutter. I need to get the fuck out of his room. It’s like being surrounded by Lucian, the man who turnedme, killed his old lover, and probably did something horrific to my friend.
What if…?
I push the thought away, glad I didn’t guzzle the blood. Unless it’s fresh from the source, I’ll stick to the bars.
My stomach knots and twists.
Nope, no blood. At all. It clouds my mind.
I force myself out of his room and keep exploring until I find a huge study.
It’s a room for show, and as I look around, I see it’s also for function.
The study has the same feel as his office downstairs on his floor at VMR, intimidating but practical.
I go to the computer, open it and turn it on, hoping there’s no password.
I sit shakily in the leather chair as the computer comes to life. This place up here has to be harder to get into than Fort Knox, I’m sure.
But to my surprise, the desktop flashes on the screen. The computer is seemingly an open book, and I go through it, poking into everything. The financial files, emails from other vampires—do they email each other?—or business people. There’s a whole business deal proposition from someone named Santiago Angelus who wants a merger between VMR and Sanguine, an online powerhouse that organically grew from short, succinct posts online.
They own, silently, movie studios, and online news feeds that look like rivals to VMR but complement instead. In fact, when I was first investigating VMR after Kayla disappeared, I had thought Sanguine was VMR under another name.
Is there another group of vampires out there running parts of the world under the noses of humans?
It makes my skin crawl.
As I continue my snooping, I find other offers, too. For instance, Heather McMannus in Scotland, a land I can see vampires loving, is looking for partnership for her newspaper empire.
But there’s no mention of my friend.
