Ifroze.
3
My heart frozein my chest as I stood stone-still, staring at the locked door. I waited and held my breath, hoping that maybe I’d imagine what I’d heard. Nobody knew I was here. Nobody knewmyname.
After a few minutes of silence, I figured maybe I had imagined it after all. I turned to head to bed when my heart skipped a beat as the knock soundedagain.
“Miss Rose? We know you’re in there. Answerthedoor.”
My heart began to pick up at a faster pace and my breathing grew shallow. Shit, who the hell could that be? When I realized it possibly could have been the cops that had helped the woman with her stolen purse, I calmed down just a little bit. They could’ve easily followed me home and were just here to ask me a few questions. Then why did I get such a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach about who it was that was on the other side ofmydoor?
I tried to step towards the door, but my body wouldn’t move. I couldn’t bring myself to open it. I simply stood and stared at the terrible shade of beige paint that was peeling from the old woodwork that stood between myself and whoever was on the other side ofthedoor.
“We don’t like to be kept waiting, Miss Rose.” The voice was sharp and deep, and his voice was laced with a thread of anger andimpatience.
I swallowed hard and took a deep breath to steady myself. “Yeah, sorry. Coming. Hang on just asecond.”
I took a small step towards the door and reached my hand towards the handle and unlocked the latch. I had a feeling that whoever was on the other side of the door wouldn’t let something so mundane as a small metal lock keep them outside, but for formalities sake I might as well just let them in. I turned the knob of the door and opened it a crack to see through. Two sets of ice-blue eyes stared back at me from the other side of the door, and my heart stopped beating in mychest.
Well, shit. Theyfoundme.
“Sorry, I’m not feeling well.” I faked a cough and a sniffle and tried to make myself sound as if I had a terrible cold. “I’m not receiving guests right now, please come back later.” I went to push the door closed but a hand rested on the other side and pushed back. I put my second hand up against the door and pushed as hard as I could, but it wouldn’t budge. Whoever was on the other side of the door wasstrong.
“Miss Rose, let usin.Now.”
I took a deep breath and sighed, and stepped back into my tiny apartment and let them open the door. I gasped when two tall hooded figures stepped over the threshold. The one on the left pushed the hood of his cloak back, revealing long silver hair and chiseled facial features. His eyes were squinted, and there were wrinkles across his face. I couldn’t help but stare at him in wonder. The vampires that I had met back in Chicago were all young and beautiful. There was a trend these days to turn men and women while they were young. The whole eternal beauty thing. Frankly, it made me feel sick to my stomach, but whatever. To eachhisown.
The second vampire removed his hood and revealed a younger-looking face, but his eyes were just as stern. He had close-cropped black hair, and he looked like he was ready to kill. These two meant business, and I took a cautious step backfromthem.
My heart continued to beat fast in my chest, and when the first vampire’s eyes flicked momentarily to where my heart was, I suspected he could hear it too. I forced a smile to try and at least make it look like I wasn’t deathlyafraid.
The vampire on the left bowed slightly to me. “May we come all the way in,please?”
I glanced around the room feeling a sudden pang of embarrassment at the state it was in. The walls were drab, the curtains were torn, there were clothes and old empty take-out containers thrown all across the room. I looked back at the vampire and shrugged. “Sorry. As I said, I’m not feeling well. I’d really rather not have people over right now.” I paused on the wordpeople, unsure if that was the correct termtouse.
It wasn’t like the whole paranormal thing was new to the world anymore. Vampires and shifters had been around for at least the past few hundred years, out in the open for everyone to know about. From what I understood, they even dated farther back beyond mere mortals. But in terms of being out there in normal society, paranormal had become, well, fairlynormal.
“I’m sure you understand,” I said, forcing an even bigger smile. I forced a cough and pounded my chest with my fist. “I’m really not well right now, so please come backanothertime.”
The vampire on the left rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as his eyes narrowed dangerously. “You need to come with us,MissRose.”
Oh, shit. That was the last thing I wanted to hear. “Who did you say you work for?” I looked back and forth between the two vampires and couldn’t help but laugh at how easily they fit in the neighborhood. They were both dressed in long robes, Victorian-looking clothing, and had an air of historical significance. They fit right in with the local goth scene, and looked like they came straight out of a Dracula movie. A small laugh escaped my lips. The vampires I’d seen back in Chicago just dressed like normal, modernpeople.
The vampire on the left cocked his eyebrow, but the one on right looked even angrier with me. I stifled my laugh and forced myself to look serious. I crossed my arms and stared at them both in turn andwaited.
The silver-haired one nodded to me again and said, “I didn’t say. My name is Victor, and if you could please come with us, Miss Rose, it would make all of our lives mucheasier.”
I nodded and thought to myself for a moment, a deep panic setting in. “Actually, I have an engagement today. An appointment, and there are a lot of people waiting for me. So, if you don’t mind, I have to get ready and go, otherwise people will send a search party looking for me.” I blurted the words out too quickly, and from the expression on their cold, hard faces, I knew they didn’t believe me for asecond.
The vampire on the left scowled. “No games, Miss Rose. Come with us. You don’t want to anger theMaster.”
I stared at him and swallowed loudly. “And who’s yourmaster?”
I had a feeling I knew the answer to my question, but I stood and waited for their response anyway. When no reply came, my body began toshake.
Shit. Well, so much forhiding.
“What are the chances of you letting me stay? What if I refuse to gowithyou?”
