If we couldn’t find Jason upstairs, then he had to be here. Had to. “He’s a Lord. I would expect no less. How many more rooms below?”
“At least two hundred,” he said thoughtfully and I fought the urge to bash my head against the stone walls, artfully covered by the luxurious wallpaper that felt like silk underneath my fingertips. “It’s like he built a hotel underground.”
“And each vampire gets their own room?”
He shrugged. “If they want. Some of them bunk up, and they’re usually given larger rooms.”
I tried the last door at the hallway which ended in a rather dreary seascape watercolor hung over a white end table with a potted white orchid perched on top.
The knob turned under my hand. “Oh.”
Ryder drew in a quick breath. “Let…go of that doorknob, Ran. You…you really don’t want to just walk in.”
With only a tiny bi-su, I was apt to agree with him. “I need to find him.”
“I understand that, but you can’t just walk into someone’s room,” he explained slowly, as though I were a child (in retrospect, I suppose I was, compared to him), and pried my hand off the brass doorknob. “Now, stop back and watch how a pro does it. Ready?”
I stepped back and crossed my arms. “Do your best.”
He cleared his throat.
And then knocked on the door. “See what I did here?”
Needless to say, I was not impressed. “Great. Wonderful. Can you get a move on with it?”
Someone jerked the door open, a tall, almost painfully skinny man with inky hair and a pasty, almost floury complexion. Pale, sometimes, was quite eye-catching, but his deathly white chalky face just made me think he was dead. Which, he was, so it was a silly thought to begin with. “What do you want?”
“Sorry to bug you, Alec. Was wondering if I could get some information from you.”
“That would depend. What sort of information are we talking about?” His pale gray eyes flicked in my direction, but for the most part, they stayed on the man, er, vampire in front of him smiling with such good camaraderie, it was hard to see him as a threat.
Ryder stuck a thumb over his shoulder in my general direction. “We’re looking for a friend of hers. He was upstairs, but he’s not anymore. Was wondering if you might’ve heard or seen something suspicious.”
The dark haired vampire’s eyes narrowed into slits as they focused on me. “She’s no vamp.”
“No,” I said. “I’m not.”
Ryder coughed again, delicately. “Which…really has nothing to do with my question. Have you and haven’t you seen or heard anything suspicious?”
Alec’s eyes came back to me and his lips curved up in a wide smile, exposing his sharpened canines. “Depends on what you classify as suspicious. You look like you’d taste good.”
I chose not to answer, only smiling at the thought of plunging the dagger into his throat and watching that black vampire blood wash like a waterfall down the front of his bare chest.
“Hey, eyes on me, man.” Ryder smacked him on the shoulder. “Trust me when I say you don’t want to mess with her. She’ll rip your head off before you even think about saying uncle. Okay?”
Far from discouraging Alex, it only seemed to whet his appetite more and he ran his tongue along his lower lip, a strangely perverted motion that made me cringe in disgust. The very idea of that tongue running along my skin made bile rise in the back of my throat and I swallowed it down. Vomiting in front of a vampire in a place where I was not supposed to be…it certainly seemed like the worst possible calling card. “You sure about that?”
The blond vampire sighed heavily and shook his head. “She’s an Ailward, you idiot.”
The tongue stopped in mid-motion, halfway across his lip and slipped back into his mouth like a disturbed snail. “Well, why didn’t you say so, you stupid fuck?” He smiled at me, all oil and grease, and I felt sick again, although this was for another reason. “My apologies, Ailward. I was not aware of your…status.”
“Mm,” I said, opting to keep my mouth shut just in case I really did lose it.
He turned to Ryder, leaning against the doorway, arms crossed. “As a matter of fact, I did hear someone screaming.”
I almost choked as my heart leapt up to my throat. “Man?”
He shook his head. “No. Woman. Why?”
So…not Jason. Damn it. “Never mind.” I pushed off the wall.
No point staying there anymore. Jason was not here.
“Well, why