“The young ladies are this way.”
She followed him, trying not to stare at the opulence around her. Surely nothing the girls—or herself—had seen in their corner of Louisiana. The paintings on the wall, the gilded chandelier, the ageless sculpture set upon a strategically placed marble pedestal.
The soles of her sneakers fell flat on the tiled floor. She clung to the jumpy thread of emotions that ran a direct line to Amy and Emily. Harmless compared to the dark ache swirling on the air. Desperate need. Thick as smoke, suffocating, threatening to drag her down and make her sick. As sick and helpless as she used to get when she was a kid, before she learned control, before she learned to set up her barriers. She sucked in a deep breath.
They stopped before a door of carved pewter inset with opals. The beauty of it almost distracted from the fact that it was bolted on the outside. The man sent her a smile, knocking once before lifting the hefty bolt with a grunt. The smile might have disarmed her if she did not sense unease tripping through him… and a skittery sense of urgency. He wanted to run away, to flee…
Why? What would he have to be afraid of?
Then the door opened.
Clawing hunger. A pulling ache.
Struggling past the strange… condition—not a feeling; there was no feeling, no sentiment—she spotted Amy laughing on a couch, sipping champagne and talking to a pair of very attentive men.
And Ruby couldn’t go anywhere. Couldn’t leave.
She cleared the threshold, noting with some relief that the room was crowdedse di% with men and women alike. It was a party. That much was true, at least. Softer, milder emotions existed beneath the hunger. Glee. Delight. Levity. All too light to make much of an impression on her. The black ache eclipsed everything else.
Music filled the room. Blood-pumping hip-hop piped in from an overhead system. A huge spread of food and drink weighed down one table, which everyone appeared to be sampling, making the hunger even more puzzling.
Ruby drove a hard line toward Amy.
“Ruby,” she cried. Annoyance. Guilt. “What are you doing here?” Amy looked over her shoulder, as if she expected to see Rosemary and John in tow.
“I’ve come to take you and Emily back to the hotel.”
Emily arrived then, one hand propped on her hip. “We’re not going,” she announced. Hostility. Aggression.
“Oh, yes you are,” Ruby countered. “You are fifteen years—”
“Ruby, is it?” A man stepped in front of her. Tall, dark, his eyes glittered an eerie silver. Hunger swathed him. Controlled. Careful. And beneath that… the familiar nothing. Emptiness. An animal that did not feel emotion, only the physical demands of his body. Hunger. She resisted the impulse to retreat a step.
“I’m Gunter. Why not stay and chaperone the girls? Eat. Drink. Be our guest.”
It was like coming face-to-face with a serpent. Charm and hospitality dripped from his voice, but behind it all—a void. His expression exuded warmth… but Ruby knew. She felt. Something dreadfully, terribly wrong flowed from him. From nearly everyone else in this room. She darted a quick glance around. Several others gazed at her. Her breath caught at their silver eyes. How the hell was it possible for them to all have the same freakish eyes?
“Amy,” she whispered, her lips barely moving as her hand inched toward the girl. Her pulse raced at her neck. “Come with me. Now.”
“Why don’t you beat it?” Emily snapped beside a very big leather-clad tattooed man who looked old enough to be her father. “Amy doesn’t need you for a mother. Why don’t you go have a kid of your own and stop trying to mother us?”
Ruby’s gaze crept back to the man, the serpent. Gunter cocked his head, studying her as though she were some rare specimen, a field mouse to devour. But something in his look struck her as familiar. It was a look she had seen before—regardless that it came from a pair of unnatural eyes.
It was the look she received when someone realized she was not what she seemed, not quite right, not normal. He knew it. He saw that. Her father gave her that look. Her grandparents. Her kindergarten teacher. On occasion, even her mother had looked at her that way.
“It’s too late to go now. You will stay,” he purred in his thick accent, staring down at her with glinting eyes. “I shall enjoy P6 U/you, I think.”
The door closed shut then. The sound of the bolt falling into place on the other side sent a vibration straight to her heart. The servant was gone.
Amy’s breath changed beside her, released in a nervous titter. A shaky smile curved her mouth.
“Open those doors,” Ruby demanded.
“I can’t.” Gunter lifted one shoulder in a mild shrug. “It’s locked from the outside.”
“Chill out, Ruby.” Despite the flip words, Ruby felt the niggle of unease worming through Amy. She needed to build on that, needed to get the girl on board with her so they could get out of this. Whatever this was…
“Freak out enough?” Emily rolled her eyes and turned back to her tattooed friend.
“Sit. Relax. Enjoy.” Gunter waved to the table behind them, very much the host. “Have something to eat. The fun is about to begin.”
Ruby pressed close to Amy. “What kind of fun?”
“Oh… entertainment. If you would excuse me a moment.” With an enigmatic smile, he left them to talk to someone else.
Ruby wrapped a hand around Amy’s arm, vowing to never let go. Whatever happened. And something was about to happen. A thread of expectation laced the air. Readiness. Faint but there.
Emily lounged on a couch on the other side of the room now, smoking a cigarette with a growing collection of admirers.
Ruby swept her gaze over the room. No windows. Just enclosed space and stale air that swirled with tobacco smoke and a heavy shot of black hunger. That hunger deepened. Swallowing the strange void of before.
“Amy, we have to get out of here.” The girl’s skin quivered beneath her grasp. Apprehension. Fear. “Something really bad is going to happen.”
Loneliness. Regret. “I think you’re right,” Amy whispered.
“You’re not alone, Amy,” she assured, flexing her fingers around the girl’s slim arm, as though she could inject comfort with the promise. “I’m here. I’m with you.”
Surprise. Amy’s wide eyes locked with Ruby. Relief. Biting her bottom lip, she nodding. “Yeah.” Her nodding increased as if she grew strength from Ruby’s pledge. “Yeah. Okay. How? How are we going to get out of here?”
Scanning the room, that question echoed with a chill down her spine. Her gaze snagged on a vent set high in the wall. She shook her head. Everyone would notice the two of them clawing the wall to climb through the air duct. Still, it was a way out…
The air in the room changed subtly, shifted. The laughter ceased. Voices turned, lifted, took on an edge. q L
Moon Chasers 03 - To Crave a Blood Moon Page 3