Page 45 of Dusk Macabre

“How about some coffee, if you wanna play host?” It was weird having a stranger standing beside me as I sat up, seeing I was in bed.

His silver eyes shifted focus as if he were looking right through me, though I doubted that was the case. He was searching for something. “That can be arranged.” He started to leave but stopped halfway across the room. “It is unacceptable to sleep the day away.”

He pulled the door shut behind him, and I scooted off the mattress and headed into the bathroom. When I got out of the shower, the gorgeous gown I’d been pointedly ignoring when it was clearly meant for me to wear, was hanging on a wall hook in the ensuite.

It took everything in me not to rip the pretty silk to shreds. I would have—but the clothes I’d been wearing had vanished without a trace. Out of options, I wore the stupid gown.

A gilded tray with coffee, pastries, and fresh fruit waited for me in the bedroom, filling the air with the buttery and caffeinated scents of morning. I sat at the small table and arranged my breakfast on a thin porcelain plate while sipping on my coffee, careful not to spill anything on the expensive dress.

“You look lovely,” Adrian said as he strolled in, interrupting my meal.

The sight of the man angered me further. “It’d be lovelier if you would finally tell me why I am here.”

I swear his nose lifted slightly higher in the air. “We will attend to that at the appropriate time. I would hate to disturb your acclimation.”

That was exactly what was so annoying about Adrian and Leander, the polite, considerate condescension. It got under my skin. “I would feel better if I knew anything.”

He smiled softly. “You, my dear, are in the middle of a delicate situation.” He gestured lightly, with a perfectly manicured hand. “Finish your meal and come downstairs. We’ll be waiting for you.”

Was it Leander that tucked me in bed last night? He was acting awfully familiar. It should have been creepier than it was, but he was so sweet about it that I couldn’t say a word. I just basked in the discomfort of a grown stranger pulling the blankets up around my shoulders and patting the side of the bed and didn’t say a word. Speaking was an impossibility at that point, anyway, after the day I’d had.

Slipping my feet into the jeweled ballet flats I found sitting in the corner, I opened the door. Rather than wonder how they knew my sizes, I walked down the hallway, noting the elegance of the building. It reminded me of what they called “old money,” in the photos I’d seen online of rich people’s houses.

For a rental, it must have cost obscene amounts of money, but I could see why someone would book it. There were fresh flowers, pretty pictures hanging on the walls. Everything smelled fresh, clean, and floral with a hint of lemon I guessed was from furniture polish.

There were two staircases in the middle of the hallway that curved downward, and I hesitated. Everything felt weird and disjointed. One curved to the left and one to the right. You would think I would take the one closest to me since that would be the sensible thing to do, but I found I couldn’t move.

Why were there two? Was I supposed to use one and not the other? Not once in my short life had I ever been stumped by staircases and here I was, all discombobulated, because I couldn’t understand the purpose of more than one when they were basically in the same spot.

“Do you need assistance?” Adrian stepped into view, appearing at the base of the left staircase.

His super shiny black hair was tucked behind his ears, the ends brushing his shirt collar. He stood there, hands in his pockets, waiting for me to reply.

“Why are there two staircases?” I started down the set to the right.

It seemed I’d rendered him speechless, but then he spoke. “Wouldn’t you be embarrassed to block someone’s way?”

That couldn’t be the reason. “No. Not if I was on the stairs first.”

This was all so stupid, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. The discomfort that ran through me was deep and it seemed I kept saying the wrong things, thinking the wrong things, and for the first time in my life, I felt emotionally unstable.

I needed help; I needed to be back in the safe, warm cocooned feeling I’d briefly had last night. It was probably a one-off, but I would have given anything to have gone back to bed and try to dream my way to wherever that had been.

“Come,” Adrian said, holding his hand out, hovering it near my lower back but not touching me.

Leander was sitting on a sofa, leaning back and resting his ankle on his knee. Sitting there sipping on either tea or coffee in a small china cup and wearing a three-piece suit at this ungodly hour, it was like I was on a movie set.

“You may have a seat,” my warden announced, and I sat on the couch facing Leander, who greeted me with a nod.

The material of my dress was so airy and soft that I couldn’t feel it on my legs and kept touching it, reassuring myself I wasn’t naked.

“Do we make you uncomfortable? The accommodations we provided you with are unprecedented for humans.” Adrian gave me a pointed glance as he planted his fancy butt in a leather armchair. The suit he wore was practically a tuxedo, with shiny material and wide lapels.

“I didn’t ask to be here.”

Adrian and Leander exchanged a glance before the latter took another sip of his tea.

Was he really holding his pinky out right now?