Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
I clutch my chest, my heart threatening to vacate the premises. With careful steps, I edge around the door. Black wings greet me as the male vampire stuffs all the bedding into a large canvas laundry sack.
“Hi?” I don’t know what to say. It’s been so long since I’ve seen anyone else here in the castle—not counting the horrors of the ball.
“Hi yourself.” He keeps working, his back to me.
“I’m—”
“I know who you are.” He sighs and starts grabbing the clothes from the bureau. “What a pig this guy was.”
“Are you the new staff?” I ask.
He whirls. “Staff?” His black eyebrows draw together. His skin is a warm bronze, his eyes green, his hair black and curly. And he’s large. So much so that he reminds me of Coal. “You think I’m staff?”
“I don’t know. I was just … I mean, Valen said he had new staff and you,” my words are falling all over each other, “you were in here doing housekeeping so I thought maybe you were the new staff person he got to replace …” I can’t say her name, especially not in the same sentence with the word ‘replace’. Melody is irreplaceable.
“Housekeeping?” He runs a hand through his hair, and I get the distinct feeling that he might be all right. Not like the vampires at the ball. But I can’t trust that instinct, not when he has fangs and I don’t.
“Sorry, I’ll just go.” I edge toward the door.
“I’m not a housekeeper,” he says. “I’m not supposed to be, anyway.” He jams some of Gorsky’s clothes into the bag. “Yes, I cleaned up what was left of this guy, and now I’m cleaning up this pile of filth, but—”
“You were the one outside Valen’s room?” I ask. “After … After he …”
“Yeah.” He shakes his head, his curls falling across his forehead. “Valen always takes shit too far, but that was … I mean, I could only find bone shards, no actual bones. And a few teeth.” He sounds impressed.
My stomach gives an ugly lurch.
He stops violently packing clothes into the bag. “I’m Drui—I mean David. I’m David.”
He’s obviously lying about his name, but I let it go. It’s not as if I expect anything from him. “Hi David. I’m Georgia.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“So you’re a Corvidion?” I ask.
One of his wings twitches. “What gave it away?” he drawls.
I can’t tell if he’s being mean or funny. Given that he’s a vampire, I have to assume the former. “I’ll um, leave you to it.” I back toward the door.
“Sure.” He grabs another fistful of clothes and stuffs them into the bag. “I’ll come get you later. Valen said it’s garden time for you tonight.”
A thrill goes through me. Outside. I get to go outside. “Okay.”
He stops, his eyes meeting mine. “Don’t try anything while we’re out there.” He flexes his wings, my eyes going wide as they spread, black webbing covering bone. “I can catch you easily.”
I stare as he pulls them in and tucks them against his back.
“You keep looking at me like that and Valen will tear my wings off and feed them to me.” He yanks a drawer open and grabs more clothes. “See you in an hour.”
True to his word, he’s in my hallway an hour later. He doesn’t knock so much as bang on my door with a fist in a bam-bam-bam … bam-bam sort of rhythm.
“Let’s go.” He jerks his chin toward the stairs when I open the door.
I walk along with him, my gaze always drawn back to his wings. I’d love to know the structures, how they connect to his back, what muscles they use.
“Seriously, you have to stop staring.” He doesn’t even look back at me as we enter the elevator hallway.
“Sorry.” A blush creeps across my cheeks, which is idiotic. Of course I’m going to stare. Humanity didn’t even know vampires existed a year ago. “It’s just that I don’t see wings every day.”
“You’re with us now.”
“Us?”
“Vampires.” He closes the elevator gate and swipes the lever. “You should get used to it.”
I can’t tell if he’s annoyed or simply straightforward. Not that I’ve ever been good at reading people, but this is a new level of confusion. “I saw some at the ball, and Valen’s friend Coal—”
“That’s right, you met Coal.” He opens the grate once we reach the top. “He’s the head of my Blood.”
“Corvidion.”
“Yes.” He walks out ahead of me, the moon just a sliver behind wispy clouds. The air is heavy, like storms either just passed or are on the way. I breathe in deeply, the musky scent of the garden and the crisp air like a balm on my battered soul.
“Like I said, don’t try anything.” He crosses his arms over his wide chest, his gray t-shirt straining.
“I won’t.” I made the same promise to Melody.