A Vampire's Obsession a Billionaire, Paranormal Romance - Ava Mason Page 0,28

determined and desperate at the same time.

“My father’s name is Greyson. He said that you were expecting me.”

The drink in his hands broke, glass shattering with a crinkle, then the amber liquid drained to the ground at my feet. He was so motionless that he seemed as a statue.

Then he stepped back, and slammed the door in my face.

Sucking in a breath, I jerked back, so surprised and shocked for a moment, that I stared at the door stupidly.

After a moment, the emotions burning inside me broke free, swallowing up the air in my chest and throat. I sucked in a sobbing breath, trying to contain them. I was stronger than many gave me credit for but I was still an unmarried woman who was to be orphaned, in a world that was not kind to those like me.

I didn’t know where to go, or who would take me in but I knew that I would not go back to my father; I could not do that to him.

After only a brief moment, before I could pull myself back together, the door opened and the man walked out, his jacket and hat on. He said nothing, but glided briskly past me. Before I knew it, I heard another set of feet and I looked up to the face of a different strigoi, if his features were to believed, that is.

A shudder ran down my spine, just how many were in this city?

“Come now.” His voice wasn’t unkind only precise, while he picked up my belongings. Still confused, I grabbed my mother’s chest, pulling it behind me and waited for the words I knew would change everything.

“I’ll show you to your room.”

13

Adelade

I spent the first night in the corner of my new room, shaking with fear of the unknown, but I was determined that if anyone would come for me, I would be prepared. I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

My hands fiercely clasped onto the stake that my father had given me. I gripped it so tight that my hands were beginning to cramp. There was laughter coming from the floor below me and it frightened me to the core. Were they all strigoi? Was this house so filled with the undead that I wouldn’t be able to escape them?

Was the man from the alley, Detrand?

If so, I was doomed from the beginning. My lust for him was so overpowering that I meant to flee from him the moment I saw him again for my own well being.

Although I had my wits about me again, I knew that if he even turned his lips in a smile towards me, I would fall under his spell so hard that it would be the death of me. My body warmed with even the thought of him.

The door to my room opened and I tensed, gripping the stake harder.

A female strigoi, one that I had seen in the foyer when I entered the manor earlier in the evening, came in without my permission. I darted a glance at the door, certain I had locked it in hopes of putting another barrier between myself and the damned living here. It was clear however, that she was as unconcerned with locks as she was with the stake in my hand, having barely given it a glance.

The woman was beautiful, stunning really, but the cold, calculating look in her eyes caused gooseflesh to raise all over my body. I took a steadfast breath in hopes she could not see how frightened I really was, “Why are you here? What do you want?”

Walking along the room while running her hands along my things, she dismissed them readily as beneath her, before she turned to give me a critical look.

“I believe the important query here is, what are you doing here?”

“That is of no concern of yours. In fact, I believe it inappropriate you be here without the master of the house’s say so.”

I could see the anger flash in her eyes at my dismissal and the glint of sharp fang as she strode toward me. I wasn’t sure I could make a killing blow if it came to it but I moved my stake to the ready nonetheless.

“Now you listen, whoever you are…” she bit out, only to be interrupted by a throat clearing at the entrance to my room. Her face momentarily paled in fear but she recovered quickly before turning to face the man standing there.

It was the strigoi from before, the one who showed