Voodoo Queens of New Orleans - Vol. I | ✓

Chapter 6: Predawn

**

The last thing anyone would want is to wake up in a place they don't recognize. Especially when that said place is certainly the home of bloodthirsty monsters.

My eyes were heavier that weights when I tried to open them. Little by little, my lids revealed a dark room covered wall-to-wall with French provincial décor that was shadowed by the candles hanging upon the corners. Immediately I sat up, the world spinning around me. My glasses were on the bedside table by a lantern. Quickly, I put them back on and all of my senses started to click at once—I smelled what I thought was cocoa and raspberry. I saw the scenery out the window of deep-rooted trees with a marsh about a mile away, haunting in the night. I felt my skin chilled in the cold air but damp with sweat, and tasted a hint of blood in my mouth. But what scared me most was what I heard—people conversing outside the closed door of the room. My heart beat quickened like a motor boat.

"He wants her taken to the dining hall," one of them said. "Immediately."

I got up quietly and made a silent jog for the window. I thought that I could jump out, but it was easily a three story fall into roots and dead branches below—certain death.

Fuck.

The doorknob began to shake. I couldn't improvise; how could I defend myself against a vampire? They made sure not to keep any wooden stakes around, and the lanterns were firm on the walls and confined inside glass and metal I couldn't break off.

I stood still against the window frame when the door opened. More light poured into the room, and a shadow stood before me. I couldn't see their face until they stepped forward; I was against the window frame far enough for my lower back to sting in pain. Suddenly, 'they' made themselves out into a woman with skin that was a pure and untainted white; I had never seen skin so colorless and pale. Her nose wasn't a nose but a snout, and her cheeks seemed to cave in on themselves. I looked into her eyes—her eyes that were the color of the blood coursing through my veins. She wasn't beautiful, and once again the presumptions I had about her kind were completely shattered. However, Hezekiah Mercier (my goddamn kidnapper) appeased the idea I had about them being somewhat good-looking. Perhaps in his past life he was just that damn attractive.

It made me want to vomit, thinking of a man like him in that way

"Predawn," she greeted. No enthusiasm could be found in her voice. "I am one of the associative Leeches. Master Abraham tasked me with escorting you to the dining hall."

I had no idea what a Leech was, and I was too scared to ask.

I swallowed hard. "Why?" I then asked her.

"If you would follow me, I can escort you to the dining hall."

She stepped aside and held a hand out towards the open door. I was an idiot to have followed her, but more of an idiot to refuse. So, I decided to be a basic idiot and walked out into the hallway. She came out of the room after me and led me through the large walkway. The walls in the hallway were completely bare of any decoration, but did manage to be painted a faded beige. And just like the room, it was dimly lit by candles mounted on each side. But despite the fires, I was freezing; how they managed to keep the house freezing cold in a Louisiana May was beyond me.

We didn't speak as she escorted me down the winding staircase, through the main hall (which was eerily empty) right up to the entrance of the dining hall. I heard the muffled sounds of piano playing and knew that Abraham must have loved the sounds of Mozart or Chopin before feeding. I even pictured blood and guts scattered all over the room (with intestines hanging on the chandelier for that special touch), or him using his own kind as practice to do what he did to Terah in the forest...