The Housemates

Too Much Trouble

Chapter Twenty

Too Much Trouble

The next day, Elli, Desmond, and Peter were cleaning out the study on the first floor, while Noah and Jasper were at work and Kate, Richard, and Addy were in class. Jasper worked at the video game shop and Peter worked with Addy at the 24 hour grocery store, but had the day off. There was still a lot of work to be done before the new housemates would have their own rooms. Elli wasn’t sure how she felt about that… On the upside, the study would be done much sooner than the spare room upstairs. There were so many repairs needed up there.

“Elli, can we talk?” Blake’s voice carried. She paused a moment in her packing to locate him in the house and then realized how difficult that was. He didn’t need to breathe and he had no heartbeat.

“I’m in the attic,” he informed after a minute or two had passed with no response.

“Sure,” she whispered back, knowing that he would hear it. She stood and stretched, having spent most of the morning packing up the books on the bottoms of the shelves.

“I’m going to go check on Blake,” she informed them both, although the sentence was mainly to let Desmond know where she would be in case something happened.

“Okay,” her best friend replied.

Peter nodded in acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t seem comfortable around anyone other than Addy and Jasper. Maybe he just had good instincts.

She exited the room and went up to the attic. He hadn’t added anything to the room since she had last entered it. He lounged on his bed.

“What’s up?” she asked him. He turned his head to glance her way and she noticed how pale he was, even for a vampire. His eyes narrowed at her and before she could blink, he was up off the bed. Her brain didn’t even have time to register what was happening; he had her pushed up against the wall so quickly.

“Gods, Blake. Just tell me,” she muttered. She flinched as his teeth sunk into her neck once again. She wished Jasper were in the house, because she knew his heartbeat would calm her down, but he wouldn’t be back for a few more hours at least.

Slow, deep breaths. Slow, deep breaths. Slow, deep breaths. You can control this. You can control yourself. You’ve got it.

She closed her eyes and kept repeating it to herself, doing exactly as she instructed. That might not be the best strategy, considering the scent of vampire was driving her inner wolf mad. Gods, this arrangement was not going to work out.

She started to feel faint and let out a growl. “Stop.”

He didn’t.

“Blake, you need to stop,” she said, hearing the panic leak into her voice.

When he continued to ignore her, she squirmed, struggling to escape. His grip on her wrists tightened, becoming painful.

“Blake,” it came out as a snarl this time. She was losing control. The wolf was coming out.

A key turned in the lock downstairs as someone entered the house. The sound registered in her mind with the hope that it was Jasper, but the sound of her mate’s heartbeat did not come to her ears.

Her legs buckled beneath her. Blake shifted his grasp to support her dead weight. The door opened with a bang.

“Blake,” her brother snarled. Her eyes snapped open, but her vision was blurred. She fell to the ground as the vampire released her. She saw him lunge at Noah but couldn’t focus on what was happening there. Her vision doubled.