Page 16 of Skin Trade

Slipping in, she pulled the door closed behind her. Even the ground was soft, earth, soil. “Grass? Oh, God … grass.” It had been years since she’d touched it for real, and as she stooped down, it felt like she was doing something wrong, but she couldn’t help it. The tickle of the blades on her hand. She’d have knelt and then rolled in it, if she hadn’t spotted the three graves that made her stop, pause and just catch her breath.

There were flowers on each. The middle one held red flowers, the outer two, blue and white.

Katherine Taylor.

Nicholas Thatcher.

Christopher Thatcher.

Chapter Thirteen

Bright eyes and a set of perfectly aligned fangs stared down at Payton.

“Woah,” she said, bolting up and almost smacking the intruder in the face with her own head. “What the hell? Don’t you knock?” She blew out a breath and with it the rage that had spiked in her veins.

The young girl stepped back, head down, a tussle of blonde curls she’d had earlier were now streaked with blue. She held her hands out in front of her and clasped them together. “I did not mean to startle you. I told you I would be here before sunrise. Before Sir wakes. It is important that you are ready for dinner with Sir.

Right.

Payton pressed the heel of one hand to her head and pulled the bedsheets up with the other. The dinner. Yes. How could she have forgotten about that?

“Sir requested you wear this,” the girl said. She had got the dress from the hanger and was holding it over her arm. Payton had hung it the night day before. She wasn’t sure if she was in awe of it, or disgusted.

“I can’t wear that. Isn’t there something else?”

“Sir selected it especially for you. He says it will make you look sexy. It is the right size for you.”

Probably. Not that Payton had checked, as for sexy. There was a fine line between sexy and looking like an outright woman of the night, and this dress walked that fine line. “It has less material than I would like .”

The girl came closer to the bed and without warning, she pulled down the bed cover and caught the front of Payton’s night shirt, almost revealing Payton’s breasts, if she hadn’t have caught her. “What the hell?”

“Sir is right when he says you have a nice body and it mustn’t be hidden. He says he wants to see it.”

“He said that?”

The girl nodded, making her blonde and blue curls bounce. She’d not got them tied up this time. “Sir likes to look.”

“I bet he does.” As if the nightshirt might fall away, Payton clutched it tightly around the collar as she got out of bed. She forgot how high the bed was and let out a none too girly sound as she dropped down onto the cold floor. The girl went to catch her, but Payton waved her off. “What is your name?”

“Skylar,” she said. “But everyone calls me Sky.”

Sky … it suited her. Like the name had been picked out for her before she even existed. As if they had known what she would look like and how she would act—all cute and innocent, not helped by the smattering of freckles which seemed to enhance those features. But then maybe her name wasn’t really Sky. It wasn’t unusual for vampires to change their names when they crossed over. A rebirth of sorts where they not only shed their mortal lives, but the identity and everything that came with it.

“I’m just going to use the bathroom, Sky.”

“I will wait here for you. I will help you to dress.” Sky had a slight accent. She hadn’t picked up on it last time, but it was something European, Scandinavian perhaps. Vampires lives were vast and long, which meant they travelled far and wide.

“You don’t have to wait. I can dress myself.”

Another nod from Sky. “Sir insists. He does not want any delays.”

“I could just be late to piss him off,” she said.

Sky’s eyes went so wide and her pale lips opened. “Please,” she said, sounding desperate. “I do not wish to upset Sir.”

“Okay. Give me ten minutes.”

She didn’t need the ten minutes. It was only brushing her hair, brushing her teeth and washing her face, but it was also time so she could sit in the bathroom alone and feel more like herself, instead of in the odd bubble she felt she was in from the way Sky had woken her.

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