Bloodshifted: Edie Spence Series - Book 5 (E-book)

Everyone else in the room was wearing dark colors. In the last outfit I’d worn aboard the Maraschino before she sank, light T-shirt and jeans, I matched no one and stuck out like a sore thumb. And I realized none of the other people I’d last seen getting into a lifeboat on the Maraschino were here either. “Where are the rest of them?”

All of the vampires turned to eye me as one, and I gathered I’d spoken out of turn.

“The rest of the survivors. There were others. I heard you mention them.” When I’d been leaving Asher and Anna, only hours ago.

A smile tickled the corners of Raven’s mouth as though my concern were droll. “Other houses. Not ours. Anna wasn’t incredibly particular about who saved you, only insistent that you must be saved.”

“Oh,” I said, because it seemed like he was waiting for a response.

“Oh,” he repeated, mocking me. Without taking his eyes off of me, he addressed someone else. “Jackson, teach her manners, will you?”

The daytimer in a leather vest bowed deeply. “Of course, master.”

“Now then,” Raven went on, addressing the kneeling man at the bottom of his couch. “With everyone come down here to gawk, who’s minding upstairs, Lars?”

The kneeling daytimer’s head dropped even lower. Would Raven expect me to grovel like that for him? I couldn’t imagine myself doing it now, much less six months from now with a pregnant belly.

“We closed early, master,” the kneeling man informed him. Raven’s face fell into a profound look of disappointment, as Lars went on. “I took the liberty of procuring a meal for you, sire.”

Raven reached down to pat Lars’s head as though he were a particularly obedient dog, and I watched the man’s shoulders tense. “Lars, when I need your help hunting, I’ll ask for it—or I’ll just drain you.”

I could see the panic on Raven’s daytimer’s—his other daytimer, if you counted me—face. Raven’s hand wound through Lars’s hair as though considering options. The female vampire smirked to see such obvious fear, and then looked at Raven, one impish eyebrow quirked.

“I’ll eat your dessert if you don’t want it, sire.” She had a slight French accent, which made her seem even more exotic.

Raven released Lars and stood. “As it turns out, I’m not in the mood to share tonight.” He turned to pierce Lars with one last look of disappointment.

“I apologize, master,” Lars said, nodding eagerly now that he was free.

“Is there anything else of concern?” Raven asked, looking around. One by one, the rest of his vampires shook their head. “Then we’ll reconvene tomorrow night.”

He stood up fluidly, and stalked out of the room via its only other door. The other vampires followed suit, and then it was just me and the other daytimers left inside.

They stared at me, and I stared at them. I swallowed. Eight months, baby. We can do this. “Hi. My name is Edie.”