Blood Trial Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #1) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,53
through me. I could never go back to the ignorance I’d known.
I turned from her to switch off the TV.
Her head drooped. “I know. Nothing can undo what you have been through. But I wanted you to know I am very sorry that’s the case.”
Exhaling, I closed my eyes.
I’d never been good at forgetting, and I found it hard to forgive until that happened. I’d always carry scars from what happened a day and a half ago. But she didn’t need to know that. “I hear you.”
Facing her, I caught her small smile.
“Then I can reveal my secondary purpose in coming,” Angelica said, clasping her hands behind her back. “I thought you might like to see around the place.”
See around the place? I didn’t want to leave my burrow… yet knowing more about the layout would help me bust this joint.
“Sure,” I said, smoothing my black pencil skirt and crappy white blouse.
Angelica followed the movement of my hands.
She grimaced. “I didn’t think about procuring you clothing. Things in the tower have been rather hectic with—”
“—Kyros having tantrums?” I enquired. Actually, I’d been thinking about how both sets of my underwear were drying in the bathroom. I had a bra on though, no one would ever know I was going commando on the bottom half.
Her mouth rounded. “Miss Tetley, he can hear you.”
What? Even a little conversation like this?
Had I farted recently?
I shrugged a shoulder. “He shouldn’t listen to conversations if he can’t handle what he hears.”
I was full of puff, but bravado was the only thing carrying me since someone drank my blood.
Angelica seemed to grasp I was full of shit. “Regardless. I would usually have had someone collect your belongings by now.”
My belongings were Clint’s belongings by this point. He’d probably sold them already. “Don’t bother. I’ll make do.”
“It’s no trouble to have someone visit the address you provided.”
Tommy’s address. “No,” I snapped.
She frowned.
Shoot, I did not want her to go to Tommy’s house. I ran a hand through my hair. “Crappy couple of days.”
Her brow cleared. “Understandable. But I’ll drop off some of my old things later for you to pick a few outfits from.”
She made it sound like I was never leaving. Perhaps I wasn’t. “That would be great. Thanks.”
“How about we get you out of this room?” Her nose wrinkled as she peered at the carnage behind me.
I walked out after her, drawing the door shut, and noted the number on the door. 615. Sixty-first floor? Just my luck. Could I beat an elevator to the bottom? The lift only beat Kyros to the entrance alcove from Level 44 by a few seconds, but if I’d run from the elevator, I could have made it to the street. From Level 61, I could apply the same logic. With a minute head start, I’d beat him to the bottom. If I timed my escape for the middle of the day—when Kyros had professed that he’d been sleeping—there’d be a ton of workers around on their lunch break.
It was something to go on at least.
Time to find out as much as I could about Vissimo. “So, how do you know Kyros?” I asked.
She flashed me an inquisitive look, then faced forward. “I’m his aunt.”
What the hell?
I’d assumed older age equated to more power. I really needed to leave everything I thought I knew about vampires at the door. “How does that work?”
A smile warmed her voice. “The usual way, I imagine. Kyros’s mother is my sister. Also, one of my men is the king’s nephew.”
There was so much weird in that sentence. I trailed after her, digesting, and then followed the path of lesser evil. “You have multiple, uh, men?”
“Normal for vampires. Both men and women have harems. We have low fertility rates.”
So they just had bulk sex. I’d never pegged Angie for a sexual deviant.
Wait, wait, wait. “You guys are born? But you’re dead.” Weren’t they?
She stopped in front of the elevator.
I eyed it.
Bingo. My escape route.
“Not dead,” she replied, expression serene even though I’d essentially just called her a corpse. “Vissimo exist on the brink of death. Our hearts beat very slowly. We can conceive, but it is rare.”
“Why?” I blurted, before wondering if that question was as insensitive as in the human world.
Ding!
I hadn’t missed that piece-of-shit sound. Should have taken the ding for the bad omen it was when I dropped off my résumé.
The elevator doors opened, and I entered after her.
Level 61. I’d been right.
“Humans find it harder to conceive when their bodies