Page 14 of Too Cursed To Kiss
I closed the bathroom door and locked it, then tested it. It seemed solid. I scanned for cameras and couldn’t find any. The shower controls took me a couple of cursing tries, but I managed to turn the water on, complete with wall-jet body sprays. In another place and time, I would have been thinking,Cool. Today they pissed me off. Sniffing one of the massive black towels, I deemed it clean and threw it over the shower door.
Boots and leggings off, I peeled off my shirt and decided to leave my bra and underwear on. I stepped into the glass enclosure with my shirt in hand, leaving the door open. If I flooded the floor, it wouldn’t be me caring about it.
The warm water sluiced down my skin like heaven’s kiss. I eyed the soap and shampoo. Why the hell not? Theshampoo smelled like a forest floor. My hands were clunky, but somehow the grazes on my knees and palms had now completely disappeared. Which made no sense. They should be stinging.
I wrung as much water out of my shirt as I could with bruised hands, then tossed it out onto the floor with a splat. The floor was slick with water.
I smelled a whole lot better, but I was still trapped with Mr. Mystery Wald. I wrapped myself in the sheet-like towel and navigated the edges of the puddle.
The bang of a fist on the door froze me like a deer in headlights.
“What?” My voice wavered.
“Are you all right?” Wald’s distinctive voice replied.
“Well, if you’re wondering if I drowned, you got your answer,” I replied, scrunching more water out of the T-shirt with clunky aching fingers.
“I need to come in.”
Fuck.I pulled the towel up. “Why?” I asked, buying time. I grabbed another towel and rolled the T-shirt in it.
“I need to see if the antivenin has worked.”
“Give me a minute.” I eyed the door lock. Unless he had a key, he could wait until I was damn ready. I towel-dried my hair, then peered into the mirror, sneering at my reflection. Without makeup, my face had the dullness of lack of real sleep, my blue eyes red rimmed. Wet brown hair with burgundy tips now between stringy and frizzy. Dry skin and lips. I sucked down some water, and it sat like a puddle in my stomach.
Apparently, hours in a velvet-lined trunk hadn’t turned me into a goddess. Oh well, I still had the Amazon height going for me. I straightened my back and thrust my chestout. Like every other life challenge I’d faced, I was going to meet it head on because that’s who I was.
With significant effort and some cursing, I got the ripped leggings and the T-shirt on. By then, my bruised hands throbbed. With a last glance in the mirror, I declared myself presentable. Besides, I’d already thrown up on him and stuck my tongue down his throat, so clean was better than how’d he’d seen me last.
The only way out of this room was through that door, but my hand trembled, and the memory of the kiss hummed on my lips as I slid it open. Wald was leaning against the wall in the wide hallway. Not daring to look at his face, I walked past him into the bedroom, suppressing the coils of molten lava uncurling in my stomach. Why the hell was I so hot for the bastard who’d basically kidnapped me? Stockholm syndrome? I laughed out loud, but whatever it was, it was damned weird. Wald straightened up, every muscle tense and his nostrils flaring, as if alerted to something dire. I couldn’t tell where he was looking because of the glasses.
Dread twisted in my gut. “What is it?” I breathed, dropping onto the bed and scanning the room.
Silently, he moved toward the main door, as if to leave.
“What’s wrong?” I rolled off the bed, but before I could stand, the door slammed behind him. I swear he hadn’t even touched it. It was still locked from the outside.
What was going on? Shaking, I walked back into the bathroom. The mirror showed the same pale, sickly skin. I dipped my hands under cold water and splashed my cheeks. Why had Wald freaked out?
The thud of his boots turned my blood to ice. I half turned as Wald walked through the open bathroom door.
“How do you move so…” Then I saw the stunning brunette standing behind him. “Who the hell are you?” I asked.
“I could ask the same thing, but why?” she replied, walking around Wald. She was taller than I was and had all the gorgeous things the mirror never showed me. Long, silky hair the color of a well-made espresso with a thickness to make it lush. Massive wide eyes far too green not to be contacts. Full lips perfectly painted in a dark rose lipstick. Fine bones that came from model stock. Her black leatherette ensemble was straight off a European runway. Perfect. He had a girlfriend. No wonder he was stressing.
“Hey, I’m Harlan,” I said, holding out a wet, gnarled, and throbbing hand.
Like a piranha on fresh meat, she turned my wrist over with stiletto-tipped black nails. Before I could process what was going on, she bit me.
CHAPTER NINE
When I opened my eyes, I was staring at myself in the ceiling mirror above the bed. My hands were in white gloves covering my skin to mid arm, and one wrist was tied to the bed. “Hello?” I croaked, rolling to a sitting position. I couldn’t wiggle my fingers. The memory of the biting woman’s clawed grip and the searing pain ripping through my veins rolled over in my head like a B-movie. This passing out thing had to stop.
I attempted to pull the glove off with my teeth, but it was knotted and smelled like funky hay. Medicine? Maybe the biting girlfriend incident had infected me.
The room had a different look to it this time. The window glowed still, but the light was different, artificial. I was going to bet it was night. Not that I had any clue what time it had been before, or at this point, even what day it was.
The thump of approaching boots sped up my heart rate. Was Wald’s vampire girlfriend still here? Conflicting shivers of concern and desire wavered through me as he walked in.
