Page 37 of Cinderella and Her Vampires (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 5)

I leveled my gaze on him. “I hit my head. A whisper would feel much better than the volume you’re speaking at.”

“Answer my question,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and staring down at me like I was nothing but a worm.

I shivered. Though part of me wanted to be obstinate, I realized I had pushed my luck far enough. The vampires held all the cards, and I was out of luck. “As I said yesterday, I was looking for a man who came this way. I figured why not search the basement?”

“You weren’t supposed to come back,” he snapped.

“Well, I did. Because I’m stubborn and when I set my mind to something, it’s pretty difficult to keep me from whatever it is.”

He quirked an eyebrow.

“Well, anyway… I figured the basement is where I would have held someone captive if I was a vampire living in a creepy, seemingly abandoned mansion.”

He chuckled, though he tried to fight it. “Go on.”

I shrugged. “Well, I couldn’t find the basement yesterday because I was stopped by Blondie.”

“Blondie?” he asked.

I bit my lip as a rush of warmth filled the space between my legs. Naughty thoughts filled my mind. Before I let myself get too carried away, I shook my head and cleared my throat. “Yeah. Blondie. It’s how I can keep the three of you straight.”

“His name is Brock,” Xavier offered.

“I know,” I said, voice coming out flat. “Anyway… I figured I would try again tonight.”

“And?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest, looking down at me like I was a bug.

I squared my shoulders. “I found him… And then…. I sort of…. let him go.”

His eyes widened. “You did what?”

“In my defense, I didn’t know he was… well… one of you now. So, it wasn’t like I was looking for signs. Not that I would know the first thing. Do you have heartbeats?”

“You realize I have bigger problems than to address your curiosities right now?” he asked.

“You don’t have to be an ass about it,” I said.

“You could have left well enough alone and kept yourself far away from this place,” he snapped.

I scoffed. “Well, I would have gladly done that. However, I seemed to recall that instead of working with me, your buddy decided to seduce me and dump me back at my apartment, which seems odd that he even knew where I lived, and I am pretty sure that was all under the assumption that I would give up on my little quest. But now it’s too late. Isn’t it?”

He fell silent, and I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. The weight of the air increased, and there was a pinch between my shoulders. He settled his eyes on me and I gulped.

It was a strange sensation… arousal mixed with fear. I didn’t know whether to fuck him or run away from him. But I had a sinking suspicion I was about to find out.

18

XAVIER

I had listened to the woman’s explanation, all the while cursing Brock and Silas inside my head. If Silas had simply listened to me in the first place, Collin wouldn’t be this much of an issue now. And if Brock had an ounce of respect, he wouldn’t have broken one of our most sacred rules that were put in place for our protection and the protection of humans.

What Cindy had told me was almost unbelievable. The woman had no idea what she had done, or the enormity of the hell she just brought on herself. Not to mention the humans. If I wasn’t able to get ahead of this soon, we were going to have even bigger problems.

But for right now, I had a couple of immediate problems on my hands. And they weren’t ones I cared to deal with. However, the one problem staring me in the face needed to be handled first. I could worry about the other afterward.

I reached out a hand toward her. “Come on.”

She stared at my hand as though it was going to bite her.

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