Page 58 of Sleepless Beauties
He pauses at the center of the bridge and rests a hand on the twisting metal railing. I watch him curiously as he stares out at the ground below. I come closer to the edge. I feel the bitter cold even more than Aston does, but I can’t help but gaze down to try seeing what he sees.
There’s nothing. Only shadows allude to the dark ground below.
What does he see down there?
“Come on,” he says once more. Quieter this time.
Striding out into the night with the wind in my hair and the world open to me on all sides feels like I’m about to walk into the sea. It’s as if nothing surrounds me, and there’s nothing stopping me from going into the ends of the Earth.
Those weightless thoughts are pulled away when Aston opens the door for me and I hold his gaze for only a moment as I walk by. His eyes are brighter than I remember, they feed on me as he gazes.
And then I look away. This building is much newer than the church. An open corridor is alight with silver fixtures that hang overhead. Three are placed throughout the long hall. We stop directly beneath the one in the middle and Aston turns there to go up a flight of stairs. It leads us up to a towerlike landing with a single door.
“This is it,” he tells me.
He steps back and gestures to my room.Kyra’sroom.
I turn the knob without hesitation and the space that opens up before me isn’t at all what I expected. A writer’s desk faces the only window. Pale green curtains just like the ones in our bedroom back home frames the view. Pens are perfectly in order to the right side of the desk, and a notebook sits in the middle.
Many notebooks lay on top of one another on a shelf on the side wall, but… that’s it.
“There’s no bed.”
Aston steps inside, but only within the door frame.
“It’s her room, not her bedroom. Each vampire on the High Council has their own space. Rival’s is filled with collections of rare books he likes to display, but never read.” His pretty eyes roll dramatically. “Kyra’s was what she made of it. And I guess she liked to write? Or draw maybe?” He shrugs as he slips his hands into the pockets of his skinny black jeans.
“What’s inyourroom?” I ask. Mostly because I’m not yet ready to open the notebook staring me in the face.
What if it says… something worse than the name of her killer? What if… what if she mentions me? What if she says what she really thought about our strained relationship?
I don’t want to know about that, and Kyra wouldn’t want me to.
“Um. Records, mostly. I picked a room at the end of the hall here. It shares a wall with Zavia and I know she’s not a fan of… anything fun, really… so I don’t get to listen to them much.”
“She’s gone right now though,” I half ask, half state.
I look back at him and his dark eyebrows lift slightly. “Yeah,” he nods, his pink hair fanning across his forehead.
My heart does a strange pounding as if even it’s tired of me stalling.
“So, let’s listen to them.”
His eyes narrow on me, but for once since I’ve arrived here, it isn’t a hateful look someone is giving me. It’s one of confusion.
“Didn’t you want to be here?” He lifts his hands to the small amount of personality in this tiny room.
The way he searches my features, I know that he knows. How? How can he know so much with just a glance?
My lips part, but my brain stalls without a logical excuse.
“I got the soundtrack from Underworld I haven’t listened to yet.” His strange statement hangs between us.
“What?”
The excitement in his smooth features makes me smile weirdly. “The movie. I found the soundtrack to the movie.”
Still I stare at him, but my smile only grows.
