A Fall of Secrets (A Shade of Vampire #15)(25)

“So you brought Joseph back with you?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Jeramiah replied.

She appeared in the doorway, still wearing nothing but a thin white sheet, Jeramiah standing behind her. She was pretty with large brown eyes and pale, freckled skin. She gazed up at me, squinting in the light.

“You’ll have to excuse my girlfriend,” Jeramiah said, sliding his hands around her waist and kissing her shoulder. “Marilyn can’t be expected to look presentable at this time of day.”

“Hi, Joseph,” she said, winking at me. “Nice to meet you.” Her eyes roamed my body as if she were undressing me in her mind.

Apparently noticing, Jeramiah gripped the back of her head and pulled it down as he planted a forceful kiss on her lips. “Watch where your eyes wander,” he said.

He rolled his eyes at me before leading me away from the bedroom. I caught Marilyn still eyeing me from the doorway as we walked away. Jeramiah took me into a large kitchen. There was a beautifully carved rosewood table in the center. Stored in cabinets above the sink were silver cutlery and a number of crystal glasses.

The vampire strolled over to the tall fridge in the corner. When he opened it, it was filled with shelf upon shelf of jugs filled with blood, except for the bottom level, which appeared to have some human food—Marilyn’s, I assumed. He pulled out two large glasses from one of the cabinets and set them down on the table. He filled them up with blood and handed one to me. I eyed the glass, sniffing it before taking the first sip.

The cool liquid glided down my throat like sweet ecstasy, lighting up my taste buds. This was the most delicious blood I had tasted since turning into a vampire.

Jeramiah was watching my reaction with mild amusement. He raised his dark brows. “Good?”

“Yeah. Really good. Where do you get this blood?”

Jeramiah flashed a smile. “Let’s save some surprises for later, shall we?”

He began drinking from his glass, draining it in seven gulps. He poured another glass for himself, then topped mine up. I stopped after three glasses. I could have consumed more, but I was still holding out hope that I might be able to wean myself off human blood and replace it with animal blood. So while I was here I wanted to accept only what was absolutely necessary for me to not feel hungry.

“Shall I take you to your room now?” Jeramiah asked. “You look like you could do with some rest.”

I gave him a faint smile. I doubted I’d be able to sleep, but I was eager to be alone. “Yeah, I’m pretty exhausted.”

Jeramiah stood up and placed the blood back in the fridge. He gestured casually to the glasses. “My servant will clean those up.”

“Marilyn is your servant?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“No, no. She’s my girlfriend. There’s another half-blood living in the rooms at the back of my apartment.”

Truth be told, I was surprised that Jeramiah had made a girlfriend out of the half-blood. I had just expected them all to be used as servants. It made me feel at least a little better about this place, that not all half-bloods were enslaved.

We exited Jeramiah’s apartment, stepping back onto the open veranda connecting all the apartments. He pointed to a door on the same level, on the opposite side of the atrium.

“We lost a member of our coven recently,” he said. “He used to live over there. You can have his place now.”

“What happened to him?” I asked.

“He tempted fate. Got drunk out of his mind one night, ended up leaving our base and wandering around outside in the desert… You see, our witches have secured this place from the hunters. But the protective boundary only stretches so far around The Oasis. This vampire was foolish enough to step outside of it. Hunters are notorious for having people positioned around this area. Our coven has annoyed them too many times for them to give us an easy ride anymore. So let that be a lesson to you. Don’t go more than five miles from this place if you want to avoid being burned from the inside by a hunter’s bullet.”

“Thanks for the tip,” I said grimly.

We arrived outside the door to the apartment. It wasn’t locked, so Jeramiah pushed it right open. He switched on the lights to reveal an apartment very much like his own. He took me on a short tour, showing me the master bedroom, two smaller bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large kitchen, a sitting room, servant quarters right at the back, and to my surprise a sauna—at least, it looked like a sauna.

He noticed my confusion as I looked at the wooden room.

“Yes, this is what it looks like. A sauna. Just a basic courtesy for the half-bloods living among us. Since they are not fully vampires and only display partial symptoms, being cold all the time can become uncomfortable. Saunas help to ease some of the discomfort.”

“I see. Well, I won’t need any half-bloods in my quarters,” I said.

Jeramiah gave me an odd look, holding my gaze for a moment, before shrugging. “As you wish… I’ll leave you now. Have a good rest.”

I saw him to the door and closed it as he left. I leaned back against the wall, taking in the atmosphere of the apartment. There was a subtle aroma of sandalwood in the air—incense perhaps. I walked into the master bedroom. One entire wall was taken up by the mural of an exotic-looking beach. I smiled bitterly. It reminded me of my mother’s Sun Room. How far away I am from there now…