The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(51)

He pulled my head close to his and whispered into my hair. “There are cameras in here. I will do everything I can to help you. I’ll make this up to you, but I will die if I’m caught.”

Finally alert, I whispered back, “If you get me out, I promise you protection.”

He released me and nodded. He backed away and turned to grab his guitar case. “It’s been nice knowing you, Chloe. I’m truly sorry.”

With some hope finally rushing through my body, I played up the show a bit. “See you in hell, *.”

Lifting his fist to the metal on the door he rapped on it a couple times. The locks released and he slipped out. Only seconds later, I heard the locks click back into place.

“Damn it,” I whispered and went into my bedroom. I flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking.

Well, it was September, so that meant I was a least going to be safe until November. I still had a few months to figure out a plan. There had to be a way to get out of here. Maybe he was lying about the sprinklers and stuff. I tried looking harder at the ceiling to see if I could find any evidence of hidden sprinklers. It was pretty far up, but nothing I could see indicated there were any up there.

Oh well. I’d just burn myself alive if I tried lighting the place up. I hated being trapped. I jumped up and tore the dress off my body. I wanted to get clean. I really hoped there weren’t any cameras in the bathroom, even though I knew chances on that were slim.

I stuck the dress into the trashcan and turned the water on in the shower. I let it run for a few minutes and then stepped underneath. The water was hotter than I expected, but the sting on my skin felt good, because it was washing away dirt and grime, the filth of the evening.

I closed my eyes and tipped my head back, letting the water rush down over my face and shoulders, down my hair and back. I breathed in deeply through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. I wished for the Hunters—for my family—most of all, for my mother.

I opened my eyes and reached for the towel hanging over the door. I wiped the water out of my eyes before they could begin to sting and pulled the towel away.

When I opened my eyes, Sostrate was there, in the shower with me.

“Ah!” I Screamed. “What are you doing here?” I tried to cover myself with my hands. When that wasn’t sufficient I yanked the towel off the door and held it over myself.

“Shhh…” Sostrate held her finger to her lips. “This is the only safe place to speak with you.”

Her face and body were surrounded with steam, but I could see she wore the same crude leather over the only areas that needed to be covered. Her beautiful dark hair was loose and flowing. The water didn’t seem to touch her body at all.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered.

“Do you not need me?”

“Of course I need you! I need to get out of this house. I need to get back home before my own father kills me.”

“There isn’t much time,” she leaned in to whisper to me. “This place is the only place you will not be seen.”

“Great,” I muttered.

“Chloe, on the other side of this wall is the outside.” She touched the wall above the faucet. “You can escape.”

I think she forgot that the wall was completely tiled over. “Sostrate, this is a shower wall. Those tiles are grouted in there.” Even as I spoke, I realized what she was telling me.

“You can do this.” She told me in a whisper, and then she shimmered and faded into the steam.

Quickly, I moved to her side of the shower and inspected the wall. It was the only part of the walls in the whole suite that wasn’t covered with steel. The tiles were small, blue squares, sealed in with grout. I’d once seen my mother re-tile the back splash in our kitchen.

She was right. I could do this.

I washed my hair as fast as I could and scrubbed the grime off my body. After I turned the shower off I wrapped myself in the wet towel and sped over to the shelf where the dry towels were. I wanted as little naked time in front of the cameras as possible.

I finally wrapped the dry towel around myself and threw the wet one into the shower. Then, I opened the medicine cabinet behind the mirror and searched around. I needed something for my puncture wound on my thigh. The bottle of peroxide was hidden behind the bandages. I grabbed both and sat on the toilet to pour the peroxide onto the wound. Afterward I covered it with the bandage and hoped it would heal itself like my finger did that time.

Back out in my bedroom, I shrugged into my sweats and began to plan. It looked like I was going to be spending a lot of time in the shower.



I smelled breakfast before I even opened my eyes. The scent invaded my dreams, forcing my eyes to open so that I could go and discover what was causing that delicious smell. As soon as I opened my eyes, I rolled onto my back and stretched, and then immediately regretted it because every part of me ached at the slightest move.

Wonderful.

I peeled back the blankets and sat up with my feet hanging over the bed. If it wasn’t for hunger, I would have just laid in bed all day, sulking.

After about five minutes of sitting there, I finally got up and shuffled into the bathroom. I peed as quickly as I could. I wasn’t sure if there were cameras aimed at me, and the last thing in the world I wanted was people seeing me pee. After that, I opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed the bottle of over the counter pain reliever I’d seen the night before.