Page 12 of Skin Trade

Well, that eliminated the idea that perhaps he didn't know who she was or how she was here. If he knew her name, he had to know she was a product bought by Seth.

There was a woman at the desk. Where she had come down was not the same way she had been brought in. While the club doors were on the right, there was a reception desk, and this place seemed like the lobby of a hotel. Perhaps that was what it was. Sofas lined the way, and fake trees and bushes decorated in spots.

The woman at the desk watched Payton, but she didn't say anything. She mustn't have been a vampire either, because this part of the building had a little real light coming in from the main door. It didn’t reach far enough, but it was enough that the presence of it would niggle at that thing all vampires had with the sun.

“I’m just nipping out,” she said, feeling like she needed to explain herself to the woman.

“Do you need an escort?”

“No. Thank you. I …” she was about to say something else. What it was, she had no idea, but a need inside to explain herself, but the lift door pinged open, and Seth stepped into the lobby.

He wore only lounge pants, blue with lines down them and all that perfect skin gleamed under the artificial light in that corner of the place. So many men had hair across their chests. Creven had masses of it, but Seth … he was clear, smooth perfection. The very cliché of every male she’d ever laid her eyes on. And he was just watching her … watching and daring.

She nodded, turned, and then exited the building.

Chapter Ten

Seth filled the entrance to the lift, all bright, teasing eyes and dark hair. Such a beautiful man, a dangerous one too. It didn't take a genius to see that streak in him, all male dominance and protection. But she'd won–she'd stepped outside into the daylight where it didn't matter how strong he was, how far up the ladder in the vampire world he could get himself, sunlight would be his greatest enemy, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Her body relaxed when she stepped out into the humid heat of the day. God, she didn’t remember it being this hot the last time she was outside in the free air, but that was a lifetime ago. The outside world was an overwhelming surge of power against her skin. All smoke, and toxicity clinging to her body in a way she couldn’t shake off. It took everything she had to carry on and not run back into the building. This wasn’t the time to go all pussy on the situation and run back to safety. This was freedom. The freedom she’d dreamt of for a long time.

She turned her head to look back at the building and was almost shocked not to see Seth at the door, or the window. But he was vampire. To step into the light, even for a second would send his skin sizzling with heat, and not the good kind. And it would be a shame to see that skin burnt from his body.

Alone … that was the feeling she had as she walked some blocks away from Seth’s building. She was alone in a world she didn’t know, didn’t understand. So many of the buildings were tall now, reaching far beyond the depths of the clouds. They reached up as grey monsters, blocking the light from coming all the way down and hitting the road. Something moved to the side of Payton, and she jumped back, her throat locking when she laid eyes on the naked man in the darkness cast by the buildings.

He moved like vermin, scuttling along the edges of the building. She had seen a rat do that once in Creven’s place. The way it hurried along the seam of the wall until it found somewhere else to go.

“Shit,” she said, when she stepped back. Her ankle twisted on the kerb she hadn’t seen. She staggered, putting herself into the soft beam of light that passed down between the buildings, and the thing, the man reached out with clawed hands and gnashed teeth at her. Flesh the colour of sandpaper, and as loose as a sack, he hissed at her.

Her heart strummed, and her throat went tight. “No.”

There were more of them; a pack of half-starved vampires, all on hands and knees, crawling out to her, reaching, hissing things. One man’s face was half rotted. His nose had come away, leaving just the crevice where the cartilage had been to make the structure of his face. With a loud hiss, he surged towards Payton. She moved out of his way, and when the light hit his hand, he snatched it back, giving off such a loud shriek that it pierced inside her.

Behind her, more shadows. A boned hand snatched for her hair, snagged it and pulled her head back. She toppled over. “No. Leave me alone.” She rolled and scrambled to get herself fully into the light where they couldn’t touch her, but another hand reached her. This time, claws came out and raked down her leg, bringing a cry from her as she pushed herself back away from them.

Two packs, either side, like rabid dogs, all salivating and gnashing their teeth at her. She huddled herself into a ball as small as she could manage, but every shadow had eyes. More and more of them, and when she lifted her hand, she realised that her leg was bleeding.

Great.

From what she knew of the thirsty—gutter-rot, Creven had called them; they were packs of vampires, so low on the food chain they lived in the shadows of the world. Before her … before Creven had got his hands on her, she'd only ever seen one gutter-rot in her life, and that one had been dead on the side of the road. These, she thought, had increased in numbers.

A low sound at the back of one of the packs made Payton’s heart leap, and the muscles in her neck tensed. She held her breath, almost on instinct. If she kept herself quiet and still enough, whatever was lurking behind these creatures would dismiss her.

No such luck.

Glossy eyes emerged first, all white and grey where they had blown. It was undecided if the gutter-rot could see anything but based on the one striding its way through the pack, Payton would give an undoubtable yes.

The thing—bigger than the others, much bigger. Its shoulders had deformed in such a way that they were out of proportion to the rest of the body.

“Stay back,” she said in warning, and she checked herself to make sure every inch of her body was protected by light.

It didn't matter, though. Two seconds into the thing getting to the front, it put a clawed, and one of the beams of light shone across its leather looking skin. The creature ignored the sunlight.

“Ah, fuck.”

She could have sworn the damn thing smiled at her. Smiled at her because it knew she had realised sun didn’t stop these creatures. She was on her feet and running a heartbeat later with the sound of the creature’s snarls behind her, a hot breath almost on her back.

One step. Two steps. Every stride she took wasn't enough and the thing … that creature was gaining on her inch by inch. In the shadows, as she ran, more members of the packs, the gutter-rots came out, slashing for her, demanding a Payton feast. She let out a cry of fear, dragging it from her stomach and using the ferocity of it to make her run faster.

---