Page 32 of No One’s Daughter

​This was the first time I’d actually seen it, and somehow that just made everything worse. Because it didn't look like a prison and I was starting to think something was seriously off with these two.

​A house like this didn’t belong to people like them.

​Or maybe it did and I just didn’t know anything anymore.

​Marlette—the female vampire in charge of my care… if you could call it that—allowed me a quick shower and provided me with some of my clothing. I didn’t like the thought of them rummaging through my belongings, but I was glad to get into something clean that actually belonged to me.

The last of the light faded a little further, shadows deepening around the edges of the property, creeping closer as the front door opened. I stiffened instinctively, my attention snapping toward the movement.

It was him. Of course it was.

But, he looked… different.

Not in any obvious, dramatic way. He was still unmistakingly the same man who had dragged me here, the same sharp features, the same controlled presence but something was different.

His dark hair was more dishevelled than before, cutting across his forehead in tousled waves. And his clothing was far more casual, dark jeans and a t-shirt with a worn flannel shirt thrown over it, its sleeves pushed up his forearms. It shouldn’t have made a difference, but it did because without the edge of whatever role he’d been playing before, there was something far more distracting about him. Something annoyingly… attractive. I hated that my brain even registered it. Hated that despite everything, my first coherent thought was that—of course he looked good.

Frankly, it was unfair.

He straightened slightly as his gaze landed on me. Whatever brief ease had been there settled back into that more familiar closed off, controlled facade.

He looked at me, and for reasons I preferred not to overthink, I found myself looking right back. The irises of his eyes appeared a warm brown, but upon closer inspection, there were indeed some silvery specs close to his pupils—I thought I must have imagined that part before, because it wasn’t just odd, I’d never seen eyes like that. Ever. It must have been a vampire thing.

He noticed my attention on him and his mouth twitched—just slightly, not quite a smile. Worse, like he found me amusing. “See something you like?” he winked.

“No,” I spat out defensively, way too quickly. “I just… I’ve never seen someone with silver flecks in their brown eyes.” I folded my arms tighter, more out of instinct than anything else, forcing my expression into something that resembled indifference.

He hummed his response, still set on the idea that I was checking him out as he led the way out of the courtyard towards a garage.

I didn’t want to admit it, but I supposed I kind of was.

I wasn’t blind for fucks sake. The man was objectively hot.

Was I attracted to him?

Surely not, I laughed inwardly. The brute had quite literally chased me down, drugged me, kidnapped me and made me his prisoner.

Perhaps it was by design. He deliberately flirted to get my guard down. Either way, I needed to get answers more than he did, so even if I had a choice, I was keen to see this trip through.

​Of course I had asked where the fuck we were going now. Several times. And eventually, Marlette had told me that we’d be ‘looking for answers’, whatever that meant, as she manhandled me into the garage and towards a car. Oh, and I’d learned that these answers would be coming from a witch. An honest to shit, real witch, because of course those were real too.

​At this point, I wasn’t sure anything would surprise me anymore.

​I was probably deep in denial, but for some reason it all made sense to me.

“In,” Davien ordered, half shoving me into the back seat of a shiny black car. I might have been mildly impressed, had I not been so thoroughly annoyed.

There in that small space, where for a moment it was just him and I, it hit me—his scent. Deeply masculine, like pine needles damp from lingering rain, layered with exhaust smoke and something darker beneath it.

Blood.

It rolled over me in a wave, thick and unmistakable, settling somewhere deep and instinctive. Every inch of this man—no, vampire—screamed danger, and every instinct told me to run.

But where? And how?

I lifted my shackled hands, giving them a pointed shake. “Are these really necessary?”

“Yes,” he said, already moving to close the car door.