Hupotasso (Vampire Bachelor Games #2)

25

25

When we get home I’m almost happy to enter my bedroom, seeing it now more like a sound-proof womb than a dense rock cell, especially after the hustle and bustle of touring the world for a month or more.

Most of the time we’d stayed in apartments and castles owned by the royals. This afforded the most privacy from the paparazzi and the best options for security, which I interpreted as the least opportunity for me to escape.

The hotel rooms were few and far between, but all the rooms, whether in homes or hotels, simply melded into servants, beds, showers and food after a while.

My room here is quiet and cold, but serene. Its tiny window only lets in a little light, presumably because vampires preferred it this way, but somehow it feels like what I need right now. The juxtaposition of the quiet here to the bright city lights, sirens and general noise of the cities I’d been in of late couldn’t be more obvious.

I nod as the servants bring in my suitcases, and wait while they light the fire and pack away my clothes. After about thirty brisk minutes they’re all done. Curtseying, they leave, and I’m left to the silence and my thoughts. It’s wonderful not to feel that tight knot in my stomach that I had at the end of each day of the tour after talking to the families of the dead contestants. The knot was either my upset over things that had been said, or my nervousness about the following day and what was to come with the next family. In between Caroline had tormented me. I’d felt like I was on edge the entire month.

Now I feel like I can breathe and I can’t explain why I feel suddenly so relaxed. Then it hits me that this is literally the first time I’ve been alone since Caroline became my keeper.

Caroline, who I’d killed.

I’d had the whole evening and the plane flight back to get my head around what had happened in the past twelve hours. I don’t know why I thought I was just knocking her out; how na?ve I was to think that. And I don’t know why I trusted Isabel. After all, she’d tried to kill me, as had Phil — and they were both part of The Free Men.

I’d been a fool.

‘I can’t believe I killed her. I KILLED somebody. I hated her, it’s true, but I didn’t want her dead. Did I? Well, yeah. And she was a murderous, bloodsucking bitch. Still, I can’t believe The Free Men had me poison someone to death and left me with the body. They knew, they must have known, that the blame would fall squarely on my shoulders. Yet they had no plan to rescue me.’

Pouring a glass of wine, I walk to the fireplace and stare into the flames.

Isabel and The Free Men are not going to save me. I know that now. They’d used me to kill a royal vampire because it was an expedient opportunity. That’s all. Which means I’m once again all on my own in trying to figure out a way out of this mess.

Sighing, I get ready to bathe and go to bed. Tomorrow things are going to change, and change, I remind myself, brings opportunity. Falcon said I had to dine with the family every evening. While I’m in absolutely no hurry to see his shithead brother again, I will use this opportunity to get to know his mother.

Perhaps knowing her I can begin to understand better the man I married. Perhaps she’ll offer some advice, some guidance.

‘Perhaps she’ll help me escape after all…’

In the meantime I’ll use my new, albeit limited, freedom to figure out a way to escape this castle.