Chapter 3
561 Words
For a moment, neither of us moved.
The woman just watched me.
I couldn’t breathe right. My chest felt tight, like someone had tied a rope around my ribs and pulled.
“You’re lying,” I whispered.
The words sounded weak even to my own ears.
Her expression didn’t change.
“I wish I were,” she said softly.
Something moved in the darkness behind the bar.
I didn’t notice it at first.
Then a chair scraped lightly across the floor.
My head snapped toward the sound.
A man slowly rose from one of the booths near the wall.
My stomach dropped.
I hadn’t even seen him there.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, his arms folded as he watched me with mild curiosity. His eyes caught the dim light the same way hers did.
Too bright.
Too still.
Another figure stepped out from the kitchen doorway.
Then another from the hallway near the restrooms.
My pulse spiked.
They had been here the whole time.
Watching.
Waiting.
“Oh good,” the woman behind me said lightly. “You’re all finally done hiding.”
Footsteps echoed softly as they moved closer.
Three of them now.
No.
Four.
I backed up instinctively until my shoulders hit the front door.
Locked.
My heart began racing so fast it hurt to breathe. My back slid down the door. All I could hear was the pounding of my own pulse — like a ritual drum, hard and fast. A cold sweat broke out over my body, and my chest was heaving, gulping for air.
“Relax,” the woman said calmly.
I turned toward her, panic clawing up my throat.
“How can I relax?” My voice cracked. “Y’all are—”
“Vampires?” she finished for me.
Her lips curled slightly.
What?!
I stopped breathing. I thought I did, anyway. I expected her to say kidnappers. Vampires and kidnappers were quickly pushing me past my daily limit for surprise encounters.
I gasped loudly. Somehow, my body resumed functioning — mostly normal again. The anxiety was still there… and so were the monsters.
She gestured lazily toward the others.
“My associates.”
The tall one near the booth chuckled.
Associates, my ass, I thought.
Anger was starting to overpower the fear a little. Good. It was helping me not pass out — although passing out might have been better than answering the terrible questions forming in my head.
Don’t think, I told myself.
“You scared her already, boss,” he said.
The woman sighed faintly, like this was mildly inconvenient.
“She was already scared,” she replied.
Her dark eyes slid back to me.
“Your husband made sure of that.”
The words hit like iced water.
My hands started shaking.
“Bryant wouldn’t do this,” I whispered.
One of the vampires near the kitchen laughed — a low, cruel sound.
“Oh,” he said. “He definitely would.”
The woman lifted one finger slightly.
The room went silent immediately.
Authority.
Absolute.
She stepped closer to me.
Close enough that I could feel the cold radiating from her skin.
“Let’s not overwhelm her,” she said calmly.
Then she tilted her head slightly, studying me like she was solving a puzzle.
“After all,” she continued softly,
“She belongs to me now.”
- Writer
