Pushing open the door, he gestured for herto go ahead of him. She stepped into the tiny cabin and glancedaround at the sparse furnishings in the living room to her right.The brown leather couch faced the small stone fireplace across theway. A single wagon wheel coffee table was before the couch, with awooden stand sitting off to the side. The fluffy white rug in themiddle of the room reminded her of a giant marshmallow. She wantednothing more than to take her sneakers off and sink her toes intothe fluffy material.
“This definitely wasn’t what I was expectingfrom Brian or Stefan,” Ian muttered as he caught her staring at thecabin.
“Who is this Brian guy?”
“A family… acquaintance,” he replied. “Heand Stefan used to be good friends. This was once their place, butBrian is the one who has been using it recently.”
She glanced at him, but he was focused onthe kitchen now and the small window over the basin sink. Thewindow sagged in its wooden frame. The glass in it had blurredlines and odd colors dancing through the thick pane.
“That glass is old, original to the cabin.”Ian murmured more to himself than to her.
She tried to pretend she found no interestin anything he had to say about the cabin. Everything within thiscabin, except for some of the furniture, appeared to be from whenit was originally built. What year that was she had no idea, but ifshe had to guess she would say the late eighteen hundreds. Thesmell of the thick, wooden, beam walls permeated the air andtickled her nose. The morning sun rising higher in the sky didlittle to illuminate the dim interior. Shadows danced across thefloor and walls as the breeze stirred the trees outside. The firein the living room helped to ease some of the coolness of the air;the logs popped as sparks flew toward the chimney.
“What were you expecting their cabin to looklike?” she inquired.
He shook his head. “I don’t know, notthis.”
“At least it has indoor plumbing,” shesaid.
That had been her polite way of telling himshe had to use the bathroom. She walked down the small hall, pastthe tiny, rustic bedroom she’d first woken up in. The log cabinwalls of the room were completely bare; the thick gray curtainsbeing the only decoration in the room.
She stepped into the small bathroom on theother side of the bedroom. It had a small standing-only showerstall, toilet and sink, but it was far better than an outhouse.Glancing back at him, she stepped into the room and closed thedoor. She did what she had to do quickly and opened the door oncemore.
Poking her head out, she was amazed to findhe wasn’t standing guard outside the door. Walking back through thecabin, she didn’t see him anywhere. There were pieces of furnitureshe could break to use for a weapon, but after seeing the way he’dmoved earlier, she didn’t think she’d have much of a chance to usea stake on him. Besides, he would notice broken furniture beforeshe ever got the jump on him.
Turning into the kitchen, she opened thecabinets to find most of them bare, but one had some canned goodsstashed inside. She opened the two drawers beside the sink; therewasn’t even a spoon in them, let alone a knife she might be able touse to whittle something down or stab someone. It may not kill himbut it might slow him down, or it might just make him rip her headoff. But then, she was really beginning to question if he reallydid have any intention of hurting her. He’d certainly had plenty ofchances to do so already, and she was still healthy andstanding.
She supposed it made sense for a vampirehome not to have silverware or cooking utensils in it. They had noneed for them after all, she decided as she closed the drawer. Shewalked back out of the kitchen and toward the main door.
She spotted him outside, standing in theshed when she stepped onto the porch. As she watched, he pulledfishing poles from inside and placed them against the building. Theroof of the wooden shed sagged toward the middle; a few of theboards at the bottom of it had been broken off. She would bet moneyon a raccoon or some other animal having a comfy little home underthat floor.
She glanced around the clearing; she couldtry and make a run for it. He wasn’t paying attention to her, andwith enough of a head start she may be able to make it into thetrees before he knew she was out of the bathroom. He pulled someoars from the shed too and turned them over in his hand to inspectthem.
He’d done nothing to indicate he knew shewas there, but she had a feeling if she ran he would be on herbefore she made it the hundred feet to the trees. Resting the oarsagainst the side of the shed, he bent to pull a canoe out andplaced it in front of the shed. Beneath his black wife beater, theetched muscles of his shoulders and back rippled with hismovements. She was riveted by the play of his skin over hischiseled flesh. She hated his species, despised everything aboutthem, but she found herself fascinated by the amount of power heexuded and thankful he seemed not to feel the cold as much as shedid, otherwise he’d be wearing far more than that shirt.
Being held captive had fried her brain andshort-circuited her common sense, she decided.
Thrusting her shoulders back, she firmlytook control of her thoughts again.Stay focused on the mission,on regaining your freedom,she reminded herself. She may notlike having to stay here, but maybe she could learn from it. She’dnever interacted this closely, or for this much time with a vampirebefore, if she worked this right maybe she could learn more oftheir weaknesses and how to defeat them.
“You’re not going to run?” he inquiredwithout looking at her.
His words proved he’d been aware of her thewhole time. “You’d only kill me if I did.”
He still didn’t look at her as he pulled outa tent and then some lanterns from within the shed. “I can assureyou no matter what happens, you will walk out of here alive.”
“With my memories intact?”
“That remains to be seen, but we may have nochoice.”
“Then why am I here? Why not let me go?”
He finally turned toward her and placed alantern on the ground. “Because I have to make sure my family issafe. You may not like this situation, I certainly don’t, but youcan’t be free until then.”
“I don’t know where you live, where yourfamily lives, or how to find you.”
“You know what I look like, and what somemembers of my family look like. I’m not willing to risk anyone’slife. You may think we’re all evil, bloodsucking fiends, but we’renot. There are far too many younger members of my family who areunable to protect themselves against uneducated people such asyourself.”
“I amnotuneducated! I’ve seenfirsthand the horrific, revolting things your kind can do!”
