“Having my own room is great,” she said faintly.

Over the last several minutes, a sense of unreality had begun to coat everything in a thick, cloudy film, distancing her even further from her surroundings. On the one hand, she couldn’t believe her luck, but on the other, sometime soon Xavier was going to want to take blood from her for the first time.

He might even want to drink from her that evening. The thought of forcing herself to let him sink his fangs into her made her stomach clench all over again.

Stepping inside, Raoul led her through the attendants’ house, up to the second floor and down one hall. They didn’t meet anyone else along the way, although she heard a TV going in another room downstairs, and voices sounded from the direction of the kitchen.

Opening the last door down the hall, Raoul stood back to let her enter. As the room was located at the corner of the house, the windows at two walls gave it an airy feeling, and during the day it would be flooded with natural light. The dimensions were on the smaller side, but still, with a hardwood floor, a double bed covered with a bright, thick duvet and an armchair positioned close to one window, the room looked attractive and quite comfortable.

She glanced into the empty closet as she set her suitcase on the bed, and Raoul put the other one at the foot of the bed. While not spacious, the closet space was entirely adequate. There was even a small sink in one corner, so she could do simple things like wash her face and brush her teeth without ever leaving the room.

The walls were bare of any decoration, and they appeared to be freshly painted. “You can decorate it however you like,” Raoul said. “The nearest bathroom is across the hall and two doors back toward the stairs.”

One window faced the main house. She looked out the other window at a cluster of sheltering pines. To the right, she could just see the edge of the property wall as it ended at the top of the bluff, and beyond the pines, she caught a silvery glimmer of water.

She had been living with such a sense of desperation for the last week, but here, she caught a glimpse of the possibility of another life, one where she might be able to find a sense of peace in this quiet place.

That had to be as much of an illusion as the impression of safety in the false daylight created by the lights in the city.

But if it was an illusion, she was too tired to resist it. For a moment, simple wonder overcame all other concerns. The setup was so idyllic she almost expected fat, happy bunnies to hop across the rich, thick carpet of lawn.

Touching the corner of the bright, soft duvet, she muttered, “This is amazing.”

Raoul regarded her for a moment, his expression inscrutable. “I’m glad you approve,” he said. “Now it’s time for your meeting with Xavier. Do you need a moment before we head back to the main house?”

It took her a few heartbeats to realize he was asking, in the politest way possible, if she needed to use the bathroom. She shook her head. “No, thanks.”

“Very well, come with me.”

They fell silent as they walked back to the main house. Full night had fallen, soft as a black feather, and the temperature had plummeted again. A breeze blew steadily off the ocean, feeling wet and icy. Raoul didn’t appear to be uncomfortable in his shirtsleeves, but she shivered and wrapped her arms around her middle, and tried not to think about what might happen in the next fifteen minutes.

A muscle in her jaw was tired from being clenched so much over the last couple of days.

This is my choice, she thought. Nobody is going to be taking anything away from me that I haven’t willingly bargained for, and it’s even an excellent bargain. After all, what’s a little bloodletting between friends?

As Raoul opened the back door, she asked, “How long have you been with Xavier?”

“Forty-eight years.”

Her head snapped up, and she stared at him. He looked like he was approaching fifty, but that couldn’t be accurate.

He gave her a faint smile. “In case you were wondering, I’m seventy-five.”

“So, you must like it. Working for him, I mean.” Arms clamped tighter around her middle, she stepped inside, and he followed.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else. Xavier is not just my patron, he’s my friend.”

She took a moment to mull that over. “But you’re still human.”

“Yes. He’s offered to turn me several times, but I like being human. I enjoy food, and the warmth of the sun, and I’m not afraid of dying. That’s going to be hard on him.”

Raoul said the words so simply, even with compassion, and the picture they painted threw Xavier into an entirely new light. He might be one of the deadliest monsters she had ever met, but the property and his house showed that he had exquisite taste, and apparently he also had feelings.

Her back stiffened. She didn’t want to know that about him, nor did she want for it to affect how she thought or felt.

They walked to the study, where a crack of light shone underneath the door. Raoul raised his hand to knock.

Stop, wait, Tess wanted to say. Don’t let him know we’re here.

But it was a foolish impulse, and she swallowed the words. Xavier already knew they were there. He had probably tracked them from the moment they had stepped outside the attendants’ house.

Raoul’s fist fell. He rapped lightly on the door panel.

The last two weeks had been filled with a series of decisions and choices. She had betrayed Malphas to save a spoiled, ungrateful boy, and then she had run away, as hard and fast as she could go.

Even though she knew everything had happened as a continuous stream of events, somehow, as she watched Raoul knock on Xavier’s door, she felt that this was the defining moment.

The door would open, and her life would become categorized by everything that either came before this moment, or after it.

From within the room, the Vampyre said quietly, “Come in.”

Just the sound of his voice caused her heart rate to accelerate, and her hands to shake. Raoul opened the door, pushed it wide and beckoned her forward.

She made her trembling legs move, and she stepped over the threshold and into her future.

There were so many books. Feeling dazed, her gaze swept around the large space. The room was located on the opposite side of the house from the ballroom, and the outside three walls were covered with floor to ceiling bookcases interspersed with tall windows, except for an elegant fireplace that dominated one end.