Page 12 of Breaking the Bloodstone Curse
She frowned as she looked at herself in the viewer across from the bed. Ought she to wear something so revealing? But all the other night clothes she’d found in the closet adjoining her room were even worse. Some were much shorter and tighter and others had slits in inappropriate places. Honestly, the white silk nightgown was the best of the bunch.
She’d spent a long time going through her mother’s wardrobe when she’d first come here. Many of the outfits hanging in the vast walk-in closet were new, with the tags still on them. Those were the ones Serenai preferred to wear. It felt creepy to dress in clothing that her dead mother had worn. The white nightgown was new—maybe it had been too modest for Mistress Bloodlash’s taste.
When Brax came back in, still toweling his hair and with Cheeky on his broad shoulder, she saw that he had found a new outfit as well. He was bare-chested and wearing a pair of black sleep trousers made of some heavy, satiny material. They showed a hint of the long tube-like thing between his legs. Serenai wondered again what it was. Did he really have a trouser snake, like her old classmate had claimed?
Her new bodyslave seemed to be studying her too. His pale eyes flickered over her gown, seeming to linger on the outline of her heavy breasts and the tight points of her nipples.
Serenai felt her cheeks get hot but she had no urge to hide herself from him. Instead, she stood a little straighter, thrusting out her breasts. She liked the way he looked at her—it gave her that fluttery feeling in her stomach all over again.
“Well, you look ready for bed, little Mistress,” he rumbled, his pale eyes half-lidded as he scanned her.
“Yes, I…I suppose I am.” Serenai nodded. “Er, should I just go to bed and turn out the lights?”
“Yes, and I’ll stand right here and guard your sleep all night.” He took up a position right at the end of the bed, between the two tall bedposts. He looked so big and imposing that Serenai at once felt safer. But she had a thought.
“What about you, though? When will you get to sleep?” she asked him.
He shook his head.
“Don’t worry about me, little Mistress. I’m here to guard you. I can sleep later when there isn’t any threat.”
“Well…all right.” Serenai lifted her voice and said, “Lights out!”
The room was suddenly plunged into darkness and she could barely see the outline of the huge Kindred half-breed standing guard at the end of her bed. But knowing he was there made all the difference. With a sigh, she snuggled under the covers and felt herself slowly relaxing.
She was safe…or so she thought.
9
BRAX
Brax stared into the darkness, waiting to see if the thing with glowing red eyes would appear. He had no idea what Serenai had seen but he did actually believe that she had seen it. He wasn’t the kind of male who would dismiss a woman’s fears as frivolous or stupid—in part because he had been raised in a Kindred household and the Kindred considered males and females to be equals. So if his new Mistress said she’d been menaced by something in the night with glowing eyes, he believed her.
Still, about an hour into his watch, he began to wonder what was going on. So far all he could see was darkness. Cheeky, who was still perched on his shoulder, had fallen asleep. His tiny, squeaking snores seemed loud in the dark room but at least they were keeping Brax awake.
He was just beginning to think that maybe the thing—whatever it was—that had come after his new Mistress might not show that night, when he heard a breathless scream from the bed.
“Mistress? Little one?” He rushed to her side immediately.
Serenai had the covers drawn up to her neck and she was looking to the far side of the bed.
“There!” She pointed a trembling finger and he saw something red darting through the darkened room. How the bastard had snuck by him, he didn’t know but he was off like a shot after it.
The red eyes—because now that he saw them, he could tell that they were, indeed, eyes—rushed past him and through the bedroom. Thanks to his Kindred night vision, Brax was able to follow the eyes without bumping into anything. He chased them into the walk-in closet adjoining the bed chamber…but then they disappeared.
Brax cursed and called for the lights, which came on at once in the closet. He searched all over the place, behind the racks and rows of expensive clothing and through the shoe racks as well but he couldn’t find a thing.
The eyes and whatever it was they belonged to had vanished.
10
SERENAI
“What is it? Did you catch it?” Serenai asked in a trembling voice when her new bodyslave came back into the bedroom.
He shook his head—a gesture she could barely see in the dark room.
“Afraid not—the bastard went into the closet and disappeared.”
