Page 64 of Skin Trade

“Sir,” Bobby said, bowing his head, scissors in his hands as he held them up. “I was just helping Payton get cleaned up.”

“And I appreciate that. Carry on.” He used the towel to clean across his bare chest. “If the lady wants the top gone, you make it gone.”

The weight of his gaze on her, was enough to make Payton’s skin break out in goosebumps again. But she let Bobby cut at her shirt. “Are they gone? The thirsty I mean. How did they get in?”

“Yes. They’re--”

The door opened again before Seth could answer her properly. This time it was Tasha. At least now she was wearing more clothes than the last time Payton had seen her. Well, she had a shirt on over her top half. It went to just above her boots. “Seth,” she said and rushed over to him, flinging her arms out as if to put them around his neck. Whether she noticed or not was another thing, but he stepped a little to the side meaning she landed with her arms across his shoulders. A good job too because it meant she missed where he was still covered in the blood. She moved around him like a lover … no. That was wrong. Not a lover. Someone more than that. A lover was fleeing, but a partner. Partners cared. “You’re covered in all that shit.”

“That I am.” He shrugged her off to get to the sink, turned the hose on and ran it over his hands. He grabbed another towel. Bobby must have got more out when Payton wasn’t looking because there was a pile of them on the side of the sink.

“Are they gone?”

“Yes. For now.”

“What happened?”

“Someone had let them in,” Seth said, his voice harsh.

“Let them in? How? Who would do that?”

“I do not know, but when I find out, rest assured, they will regret their actions. The entire cellar needs cleaning. I am not sure it will all come out.” He might have been talking to Tasha, but his eyes were clearly fixed on Payton—a predatory gaze on her as Bobby removed the shirt.

Her bra was indeed covered. All the way through the front. If she put a clean shirt on, she was going to ruin it.

“It was done on purpose?” Payton asked him. “Someone let them in?”

“Oh yes. The thirsty may be pests, but they are not intelligent enough to find themselves inside. If they do it is by sheer chance, or someone has been foolish enough and allowed them to enter.”

“The thirsty are pretty much deranged and out of their minds,” Bobby said. “The only thing that concerns them is feeding.”

She had seen that when she’d encountered the ones in the streets. Although the ones she had seen when Seth had brought her in had been different. Not as bad as the one in the cellar. “What if they feed enough?” she asked.

Seth tilted his head.

“I mean, they’re vampires, right? Very starved vampires. That is what happens when you don’t drink for a long time.”

Tasha moved closer. Not a friendly move either, like someone ready for a fight. She sidled up to Seth, putting herself beside him and making her place very clear to Payton.

Payton ignored her. “If they have enough to eat, or drink, can’t they come back? Be who they were?”

Tasha snorted. “Have you been under a rock all these years? No. They can’t come back. What are you?”

“Perhaps they could, just because you’ve never seen it.”

“No. They can’t.” Tasha shook her head, and rested her hand on Seth’s chest again, marking her territory as she did. “Where on earth did you dig this one up? No wonder Creven didn’t want her.”

“You are overstepping Tasha,” Seth said, his voice deep with warning.

“Overstepping? With what? She is the one overstepping.”

Seth’s eyes twitched with the emotion he didn’t let out. He lifted his chin, looked down to her. “You are not here to insult Payton.”

“I am not here for anything to do with her. You--”

“Are forgetting your place.”

“No,” she said. “I know my place. It is others who don’t.” She let her hand slide down from his chest, to his navel. She hesitated a moment before slipping it down the front of his trousers. It was before she could cup him that he grabbed her hand. “Seth …” she said, her voice a bitchy whimper.

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