A Vampire's Life Book 3

Chapter Sixteen - Scarlett

I woke in the early hours of the morning, my eyes sore and puffy from crying all night. I had no clue how long I had been here now, I wished now that I had kept some form of record. What day of the week was it? The days had melded into one long blur of life, a roller coaster of emotions that left me feeling drained and weak. All I wanted was to see my family again. I would give up my career, my possessions, my money, all of it just to be with them again. But that was never going to happen. My career was already gone, it was likely that all of my possessions were gone now anyway and my money would be in the middle of being distributed as dictated in my will. I had nothing left to barter with.

Pulling the blanket higher, I could feel the rooms temperature drop lower and lower. I looked at the closed door, wondering if I were to roam the corridors I might find the linen press to take another blanket. It was freezing cold; the blanket was of no help. I had thought for a moment that winter had come early but then it dawned on me, the cold was my usual cold. He is in here, in my room.

"Lucas?" I whisper, my breath misting in front of me as I sat up.

There was no response but I knew he was in here, I knew he would be too scared to come out, fearing my reaction.

"It's ok." I whisper again. "I know you're in here, just come out."

"Sorry." he whispers as he appears, sitting on the foot board of my bed. "You called me, I didn't realise you were talking in your sleep."

"I do that a lot, don't I?"

He nods at me, then slowly climbs down to the bed.

"It won't happen again, ever. I promise. I still have control."

"You can't say that; you don't know if it's true."

He frowns as he sits closer to me, searching his mind.

"You and I both know that I am walking dinner to you, to everyone in this building. All that yesterday did was remind me. Sure I'm upset that you lost it, that you could have killed me, but that's your nature. What is really upsetting me, is that for a brief moment, I was happy. I had forgotten everything that was important to me and focused solely on you. For a brief moment I didn't want to be anywhere else, I didn't want to escape."

I wiped the tears from my eyes and got up from the bed.

"But you needn't worry about that anymore."

I stalk into the robe and then the bathroom, slamming the door with a great thud.

Breakfast was quiet, deathly quiet. The only noise was from the butler as he moved around the table serving everyone and the clock that ticked. Over and over again it ticked as I ate my breakfast. I could see them exchanging glances, knowing that a full blown conversation would be going on in their minds. It was depressing, I was tired from having woken early and I lacked interest in eating the meal in front of me. As I finished the meal I stood, everyone looked at me but there was only one that I looked back at. I was waiting for him to tell me yet again that I didn't have permission to leave the table, yet again treating me like a child. But he said nothing. His eyes were as sad as mine; this was killing both of us. I quietly left the room and returned to my room, tired and in need of rest.

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A week had passed, Lou's constant efforts to help me trust Lucas again were in vain. Every time he got close to getting there, he would do something to piss me off. It wasn't as if I was trying to be pissed off at him, I wanted things to be better between us. I could see the pain in his face, the suffering in his eyes, I would have liked to have just said 'yeah sure, waltz back into my good books, forget about all the stupid things you do, all the times you scare the crap out of me.' but I couldn't. I moped around the castle when I was bored with the walls of my bedroom. Zach tried to be helpful but he was a reminder of the nasty side of this place. He was a killer too. A baby faced killer.

I woke to a pair of brilliant blue eyes staring at me, a cheekiness in his smirk.

"Shit." I gasp as I fall out of bed.

"I hope you aren't going to blame me for that one."

"Why are you in my bed Zach?" I groan as I clamber back into my bed.

"I don't know." he shrugs. "Bored, I guess."

"So you decide to get into my bed to scare the crap out of me."

"On the bed, big difference."

"How so?" I frown.

"Well, if I was in the bed, I would be under the sheets and in a serious amount of trouble, but on the sheets it's all good."

"Trouble?"

He nods with a grin.

"Can't see where the hands are under the sheets."

He gets a devilish smirk as I shake my head with a grin.

"Just so you know, I have taken over the project. No more dull dinners or boring walks, no more archaic grandma running the show."

"Project?"

He nods so very proudly.

"The love cats project. Get you two back on civil terms, maybe even back to having sex."

"How did you know?" I gasp, feeling my cheeks heat instantly. "Did he tell you?"

"No." he frowns with a grin, swiping the air. "His personality changed, he had a grin on his face that couldn't be removed."

He looked down at the bed sheets, a sadness entered his face as he frowned.

"Well, until recently that is."

"Yeah." I huff. "So what's the plan?"

"Oh, well, that's for tonight, early dinner, then put them on." he points to the bags beside the robe entry. "And be ready by seven."

"Did you get me something?"

I scramble off the bed, moving quickly to the bags, recognising the logo on them. My favourite clothing shop.

"Not me, actually. So don't go blaming me if you don't like it."

"Lucas?"

He nods as he watches me pull a short dress from the bag, holding it up to look at it.

"Wow." I gasp.

The sleeves were full length, a soft black chiffon. Over the main part of the dress was a picture, zombie like skulls. I held it against me and gaped at how short it was; it could almost be considered a shirt. There is another bag, inside a shoe box with the most awesome pair of shoes I have ever seen, and a few more bags of very wicked jewellery.

"Awesome." I gushed.

"So the old boy does have taste then?"

I nod my head avidly; these were pretty cool things.

"Well, I have to prepare the troops, I will see you later."