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Uncertainty grips me. There's another door somewhere in Avery's room? Where does it go? Why didn't I see it when I was looking around this afternoon?
I feel rooted to the spot, unable to make a decision. After all that's happened today, I don't trust my instincts. One part of me wants to barge right in there and turn the room inside out until I find that secret door. The other, saner part keeps asking why I would do that. After all, this is a vampire's house—an old vampire's house. Perhaps the secret doorway leads to nothing more than a safe room where Avery keeps valuables or money. What right do I have to break into something like that? How would I explain it to the man I was just making love to? A man who has come to my rescue more than once in the last week. A man who can very probably tear my head right off my shoulders if I piss him off again.
So I take the line of least resistance and go on back to my room. After all, Avery is going to the hospital tomorrow morning. I can snoop all I want then.
Avery wakes me up with a kiss, his fingers busy down there, and once again, I'm swept away. When it's over and rational thought has returned, I ask him about Williams's comments.
He stretches and yawns and smiles down at me. I think you must have been mistaken. I know nothing of anyone “being the one” or “having the power.” It sounds melodramatic to me.
But I shake my head. No. It was in his blood. There was no mistake.
Avery turns away from me, shaking off the covers as he gets to his feet. I have to go. Early rounds.
He leans down and brushes my forehead with his lips. We'll talk more tonight. I want to take you to di
Are you up for that?
I try to read what he has in mind, but nothing comes through. Yes. I'd like that. But we do have to talk. David—
But he brushes the air with his hand, and there's a flicker of a
I won't see you until then?
He throws me a secretive look. I have some arrangements to make. I think it will be worth the wait.
And then he's gone, sweeping from the room without a backward glance.
There's a subtle shift in his attitude this morning. A confidence that I am his. He has read it in my thoughts, after all. He has felt it in the way my body responds.
All too true.
Still, I burrow under the covers and wait for him to leave the house.
Chapter Thirty-Five
When I'm sure Avery is gone, when I've watched his car disappear down the driveway from the window opposite my bed, I get up, shower, and pull on jeans and a tee shirt. I hear the housekeeper moving around the kitchen, so I know my time is limited. She'll come up to make the beds when she's through with her downstairs duties.
There is a battle waging inside me. The way I've come to trust Avery feels complete and right. Yet, the need to know all his secrets is overwhelming. I can't explain why. I just know I must.
I tiptoe into his room, lock the door behind me. I let my eyes run over everything—there are bookcases against two walls, a fireplace against another, windows on the fourth. The door into the bath faces the bed. The only logical place for a secret door would be behind those bookcases.
I run my hands over the shelves, peek behind books, drag a chair over so I can climb up and look over the top. Nothing jumps out at me, no outline of a door presents itself.
What now?
I step back and look again. What am I missing?
The doorknob on the outside door jiggles as someone tries it. Then there's a gentle tap.
"This is the maid, Miss. Shall I come back later?"
I blow out an exasperated sigh and cross to let her in. “Sorry,” I say, swinging open the door.
She's not what I expect. She's young, twenties, maybe, and beautiful in an exotic way. Her shiny, black hair hangs straight to her shoulders framing a thin face with huge, dark eyes and a generous mouth. Hispanic-Asian mix, maybe, or Eurasian. She's dressed in jeans and a baggy tee shirt over which hangs a white linen apron. She looks embarrassed at having disturbed me.
I hold out my hand. “My name is A
She returns the handshake timidly. “Dr. Avery said he had a guest. And that I wasn't to disturb you."
"You didn't. Really. I'll leave you to your work Miss—?"
"My name is Dena. And I can come back later."
She's so serious—almost deprecatingly so. Very different from the attitude of most twenty-year-olds. She almost seems afraid of me.
Why?
I wave a hand at her as I pass into the hall. “No. You do what you need to. I'll be downstairs, all right?"
She nods and turns away and it's then I notice two tiny marks on her neck. They are not fresh, but whoever made them, didn't use his vampire power to heal them, either. I touch her shoulder and she jumps.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I was curious, though. How long have you worked for Dr. Avery?"
Dena shrugs and, as if suddenly aware of what I've seen, tugs at the collar of her tee shirt. “Not long. I had an accident several months ago. I was a patient of Dr. Avery's and he was kind enough to offer me this position when I was released from the hospital.
I needed a job. He lets me work in the mornings so I can go to school in the afternoons. He's been a godsend."
But her tone is less than convincing. And as she speaks, she backs away from me, twisting at the hem of her apron. She's not vampire, I'm sure of that because there's no path that I can find into her mind. But she's afraid of me because she recognizes that I am.
I smile at her gently, trying to ease her fear. “I'll leave you now, Dena."
Her eyes never leave my face. I feel them follow me as I make my way back to my own room. For the first time, I'm aware of a dark side to Avery. That in spite of all his talk about wanting to work with rather than prey on mortals, he has taken advantage of this girl. I know it as well as I know my new strength, as I know I am no longer human. As I know that she senses the difference.
She may have offered herself at first, been excited or flattered that the handsome doctor showed such interest. But she doesn't want it now. Is he still feeding from her? Was it her blood he offered me the morning I came back from Beso de la Muerte ?
I'm filled with angry impatience as I wait for Dena to finish in Avery's room. I'm more determined than ever to find out what he's hiding. When we're together, it's truly as if I'm under his spell. He makes me forget everything except the touch of his hand, the taste of his blood. But I know very little about him—only what he wants me to know. And I've let him shape my knowledge of what it is to be vampire in his own image.
It's time I learn more. Maybe some of those secrets are hidden in this house.
Dena tiptoes past my room, anxious to be on her way, afraid that I might try to stop her. I hear it in her halting footsteps, see it in the drawn expression on her face as she passes my open door. I let her go, listening to the sounds of the front door closing, the clicking of the deadbolt, the cranking of a car engine. When I'm sure I'm once again alone, I head back for Avery's bedroom.
No finesse this time. I pull books out of the case, use vampire strength to move them from the wall, run my hands up and down to search for hidden seams.
Nothing.
Shit.
I slump down on the foot of the bed. I try to remember exactly what I heard last night. Avery moving from somewhere along this wall into the bathroom.