Love Me to Death (Underveil, #1)(91)

She and Claude were taken to separate rooms off the same hallway, and she took note of where he’d been taken in case she’d misjudged the vampire and needed to find Claude in a pinch. Nadia entered the room with Elena and locked the door behind them, then slipped the key into her pocket.

“You cannot teleport in this wing of the castle, so don’t waste your time or energy.”

Elena gave the woman her best “screw you” glare, but it had no effect whatsoever.

“Please assist Miss Arcos with her bath,” Nadia said in a clear voice. No one else was in the room, at least no one visible.

The click of the tumblers seemed unnaturally loud as Nadia left and locked it from the outside. She was a prisoner. Again. Nik was being tortured in the Slayer fortress, and the thought of that made her want to vomit. She had to get out of here somehow.

“You *!” she shouted to the vampire, hoping it was as loud in his head as it was in the room. “I have things to do! You can’t just lock me up. I’m the reason you’re free at all, you ungrateful, bloodsucking…”

The sensation of being watched crawled over her neck like a spider, and she spun to again, find no one.

“Who’s here?”

A scratching drew her attention to the corner. She almost screamed when a tiny gray mouse lifted its head high, whiskers circling as it sniffed the air.

Surely not. Not even in this messed up world.

The mouse recoiled when she narrowed her eyes to a glare, and then it scurried under an armoire.

“You can’t just lock me into this vermin-infested hellhole, Vlad!” she shouted.

“I can and will.” The voice was deep and menacing, and close—right behind her. His breath ruffled the hair on the back of her neck, but she didn’t flinch or react at all other than to ball her fists at her side as he continued to speak. “Keep your voice low and level in my home, please. And maintain your control.”

“It’s a little hard to control myself when I’m a prisoner.”

He rested his hands on her shoulders and kept his voice a bare whisper. “You are not a prisoner. You are a secured, temporary guest. I have something I must do. It is important and you will wait here.”

She shrugged off his hands and faced him, then took a step back because he was way too close for her comfort. “Why? So you can go make some other poor girl moan while you drain her blood?”

He gave a long-suffering sigh. “I wish that were my mission. I could do with more fuel after being starved for months. I could do with a lot of things.” His crimson eyes scanned her from head to toe, and ended on her lips.

“Screw you,” she said.

“Are you offering?”

She took a step back. “No.” He wasn’t someone to trifle with, yet here she was provoking him.

“Good, because it would be a tremendous conflict of interest for me and I have things I need to do.”

“I need to save Nik.” And possibly the entire human race.

“My mission is more important at this juncture. You will wait here until I return.”

Bossy jackass.

“See she bathes,” he ordered the empty room, just like Nadia had.

There was that bath thing again, coming from Mr. Dungeon Dweller. “Maybe you should bathe.”

“I fully intend to. I, however, do not smell of fear and bear blood. You will upset my household. Please do as instructed.”

God, she hated controlling men. And ever since the convenience store, that’s all she’d encountered. Maybe that’s all there was in the Underveil…that, and people who turn into animals and kill boys. Her heart constricted as she thought of the poor little dog shifter who died in the barn.

The vampire reached out, as if to comfort her, then dropped his hand, blurred, and disappeared. Evidently the teleportation block wasn’t in place here, like it was at the fortress. Well, good. She had no intention of allowing Mr. Bossy Pants to keep her prisoner. She’d freed herself from the cord that bound her to Nik, and there was no way she’d let herself be held captive again. Even if he had saved her from the Slayers in the barn.

Nik needed her. She had to get to him. Focusing all her energy, she imagined the wall outside Aleksi’s room. Her body went warm for a moment, then returned to normal, still in the same room.

Maybe this part of the fortress really was teleport proof. Again, she closed her eyes. This time, she focused on the room where she had just been. Nothing.

“Shit!”

The hall outside the door. Nope.

The bed across the room. Nada.

“I hate this place. I hate vampires and shifters and every damn freaky thing that lives under the Veil. You all suck!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Covering her face, she slumped to the floor, legs folded under her. Before getting shot in the convenience store, she’d just gone along with the ebb and flow of life, never fighting fate’s current. Now, she felt like she was constantly struggling to swim upstream—like those salmon that fight and fight to reach some place at the top of the river, only to breed and die. She rubbed her hand over her belly. Well, she sure as hell wasn’t going to be one of those salmon. If being part of this freaky existence had taught her anything, it was to be proactive. Being helpless and going with the flow was as much of her past as her humanity.

Pushing to her feet, she took in her surroundings. It looked like one of those museum castles she’d seen on television. The walls were stone, as was the floor, with heavy, rough-hewn, wooden support beams overhead. A small, ornate four-poster bed with emerald damask curtains tied back with gold cords stood in the center of the room, the only furniture other than the armoire. A door on the opposite side of the room stood open with a view to a modern bathroom.