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She gave me a sharp nod and walked away.

Not only was I going to ransack the house once she left, but I was also going to lick every utensil. Then I would drink straight out of the juice and milk bottles and leave backwash. Lastly, I’ll sneeze on their cookies.

Not really, but it was fun to think about. I could let them think that I had? Maybe not... but I would come up with something to terrorize them.

After the lady left, I painstakingly combed through every room I could access. Some doors were locked, leading me to try and pick the locks with a fork from the forbidden room. The prongs were way too big and bracing a foot against door frames while I yanked on doorknobs didn’t work, either.

Much of the house seemed unused but then I hit pay dirt. The door was locked, but it hadn’t been pulled shut properly. Going by the cherry-red strands in a hairbrush, the room had to be Leander’s.

There wasn’t much of anything to give me any insight into the man. The books stacked on the nightstand appeared to have come from the library downstairs and were about plants. Everything was folded to department store precision in his dresser drawers. I couldn’t decide if he was nerdy or just boring. To his credit, one of the books was about toxic plants. I set it back down with a shrug, wishing I could borrow it.

There were a couple of tie pins in a small dish, but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary or very important. I pocketed one anyway, just in case Kiam wanted it, and headed across the room.

The closet was full of gorgeous suits, and I rifled through the pockets, searching for forgotten items before I slammed the door shut. Whatever cologne the man used, he didn’t deserve to smell so good.

Before I left, I snagged some of the hairs from the brush and wrapped them as securely as I could around the tie pin.

When I left, I made sure the room was closed securely behind me, but after I did that, I had to wonder if I had just failed some sneaky test. It was entirely possible the door had been left ajar on purpose.

Every other room I entered was either empty guest quarters or a storage space.

Hopefully, the hair and jewelry were enough. It would have been great if there was a diary or journal, but there hadn’t been a single piece of scrap paper in sight. There wasn’t even a crumpled tissue in a garbage can.

I had returned to my room and was lying on my bed when the door opened and Adrian appeared. He looked tired, worn down, and the difference was startling. His nose wrinkled the second he crossed the threshold, and he stopped in his tracks.

“What the fuck did you do?” he demanded. “God damned whore.”

He marched across the room, and I scrambled up the bed, hitting the wall. “Did you think we didn’t know?” He hissed. “That we didn’t know you were sneaking out every night to fuck your bloodsucker?”

Adrian’s face was inches from my own; his silver irises flashing. I had forgotten my flowery, makeshift weapon downstairs and regretted not having it.

“How would I stop him from taking me?” I added some whining to my voice. “I’m powerless against him.”

He braced his arms and shoved himself back up. “You took his blood,” he accused.

Keeping myself small, I said, “What was I supposed to do?”

He turned to face the door. “Lee!” He yelled.

Leander pushed the door fully open and stepped inside, his eyes rimmed in red. He had been crying, I realized.

“Yes?” He asked, giving me a passing glance before he swung his head back my way. Then he looked at his friend. “Fuck,” he muttered.

“All things considered, no one would blame us for just killing her,” Adrian stated.

My heart thumped in my chest. During my exploration of the home, I’d unlocked several windows, including one closest to the bed. While they talked, I tried to estimate how long it would take me to reach it.

Leander strolled across the floor, stopping halfway across the room. “We can’t have a vampire in possession of a diamond. It's bad enough humans were blessed as caretakers,” he said.

Adrian swung his gaze at me. “Those two words don’t belong in the same sentence,” he snarled and glanced back at Leander. “We were only gone for two days, that’s all it took for this bitch.”

I would have to somehow get off this huge bed, take two large steps, and shove the window open. Three seconds? Two? I was willing to bet these men could move faster than that.

I scooted over to the side a little bit, shaving maybe half a second off the timer.

“What if the return helps with healing? Can we risk that?” Leander suggested.

“That’s an excellent point.” Adrian shoved his hand through his hair. “This is taking too long; we should be home, assisting the court.”