almost after such a long few days. “And I did not mean to offend you. But usually, everyone is scared.”
“Fearing them is feeding them,” I answer, moving my hand from his. “And I don’t intend to help them feed.”
Cross watches me closely for a long second, and I can’t guess at what he sees. “Follow me then, Riona Dark. Come and see the house of horrors.”
I cross my arms as he walks off, purposely keeping his pace slow for me as we get to the stairs and walk to the top. The space up here tiers off in four directions, dozens of rooms in each one, and at the end of two of them, I can see further stairs. “Right, to our left is the way to the kitchens and washing. You need something cleaned or cooked, you go down there.”
“What is the point of a kitchen for a vampire?”
“They eat the same as we do and drink wine, with no hangover. I wish I could do that fecking shit with whiskey,” he comments, making me smile, and points at the next corridor. “This one is for guests, and I wouldn’t recommend heading down it. The middle corridor is full of useless rooms; we don’t use them much, and the final one is our living quarters. The humans the prince owns, that is. There aren’t many of us.”
“How many?” I question.
“Ten in total, ever changing. Five of us are constant and rarely leave, so you should know them. You’ve met two of us, and the girls, I will introduce you to when I can,” he cryptically replies. “There is one vampire he lets live here as well. I’m sure you will meet him.”
“Where does the prince sleep then?” I ask, wanting to be as far away from that room as possible.
“Downstairs, there is a ballroom, many living quarters, and he uses them all. Don’t venture in there unless you are invited, lass,” he carefully warns me. “Out of sight, out of mind works well with the Mad Prince.”
“I have a feeling that won’t work for me and him,” I tightly reply. But I am sure as hell going to try hiding. This castle is huge, and I bet he wouldn’t find me right away.
Cross doesn’t reply to me, instead nodding his head to the side and walking away. I follow after him down the corridor to the far right, and when we get near the end, Cross pulls out a load of keys from a keychain and takes one off. He slides it in the door, and it clicks as it unlocks.
“The bed isn’t made up, and the shared bathroom is next door to this room, but I can do that—”
“I can make a bed,” I reply, and he hands me the key. “Thank you for the brief tour.”
Cross steps back, and he lifts his arm, rubbing the back of his neck. His hazel eyes stay on me. “Do you have a family to get back to, Riona?”
“Parents and a brother...if he isn’t on this island, that is,” I reply, a tightness building in my throat. I very well know a vampire might have my brother now and may have killed him for supper. Arlo could be dead too...and the thought of either of them gone is devastating. Cross must see the pain in my eyes as he steps closer and places his large hand on my shoulder.
“I don’t know if I believe in any god anymore, not since I was taken and brought here, but there is magic. That’s real, and if it is, then possibly there is good magic to counter the bad here. There is hope...,” he drifts off and clears his throat. “Hope is a good thing to hold onto. It’s what we all do to survive this.”
“I don’t want to simply survive this,” I say, stepping away, and his hand drops. “I want to beat them. I will ask you everything I want to know tomorrow about vampires as I did notice you avoided my question.”
“You can’t kill them easily,” he warns. “Unless you happen to have enough strength to cut their heads off or have a certain weapon that is very rare. Trust me, even if you did manage to kill one, dozens would kill you in unimaginable ways right back. Vampires are loyal to each other, and they worship the royal line.”
“I won’t give up,” I counter, holding my head high.
Cross chuckles and steps away, looking over his shoulder. “No, I don’t think