8. Bella

The hallway changed as my feet moved. It seemed to go on forever, deeper into the castle until I was no longer sure how to return. I turned once, then twice, thinking it would lead me back to the part of the castle I had been in, the part that still looked lived in.

The rooms seemed to turn colder as an icy chill developed in the air. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to contain what little warmth I had left as the hallway darkened to nothing but shadows. I entered a room dusty with age, but you could tell once upon a time, it had been clean and new. The room felt frozen in time yet decaying.

This long-forgotten room was much different from the other areas of the castle. The ones below littered with furniture were maintained, but this room was long forgotten. I explored the space, my hand shooting up to cover my nose as I felt a sneeze coming on. The smell was also slightly enhanced for me. I could smell a layer of odors, but not nearly to the same degree as my vampire family, and only if it was near me. The smell of stale roses was faint in this room under the smell of grime, dust, and stale air. I continued on.

It was a large sitting room flanked by two windows with curtains stained gray and tattered from age and a door that led out to a terrace. There was a shelf for books falling apart and covered in grime, with a teacup on a delicate saucer that had once been white. Layers of dust had turned it gray, its contents long dried to a dark sludge.

I moved further into the room, realizing this was a woman”s room. The bedroom held a four-poster bed with frilly pink bedding that had darkened. The coloring had changed drastically with time. There were holes in various places, and dead moths littered around the room—the only signs of damage besides the dirt.

There was a sense that whoever had left this space had done so in a hurry, never to return.

I moved further into the space as a new waft of dusty air hit me in the face as if a ghostly apparition had moved around, disturbing the dust. Before I could stop myself, I sneezed, which only made it worse.

I inhaled sharply, feeling another sneeze build as dust flew into my face. ”Damnit!” I sneezed again. Goose pimples prickled across my skin as the room grew colder and heavier. With that, I knew it was time to leave.

With a long sigh, I turned, leaving the area and its history to the ghosts of the past. Just as I was leaving, I swore I had heard a whispered goodbye.

”What are you doing in this part of the castle?” a deep voice demanded behind me, Lore”s voice. I turned to find him inspecting me with his candescent blue eyes.

There was nothing to find, or he found me lacking because his lips pressed together in a thin line, and his thick, dark, auburn eyebrows drew together, creating a deep indent between them. I examined him as he met my gaze with steel and didn”t answer, waiting to see what he would say. It was something I picked up as a young child.

It was always best to remain quiet, watch, and wait to see what the other person did, then continue.

Lore liked to use the same tactic because my silence didn”t deter him from waiting. I examined his rugged yet attractive face, the dark auburn of his hair, and the smattering of freckles that crossed the bridge of his aristocratic nose.

I broke first.

”Why are you in this part of the castle?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest, digging my heels in, and lifting my chin defiantly.

A smile briefly twitched at the corners of his mouth before he strolled forward. ”Don”t play with me,” he growled low and threateningly, almost inhuman. ”You should stay out of this area of the keep.”

”Why?” I demanded, standing firm as he stepped closer. I knew danger when it stood before me, and he was dripping in it. Yet I lifted my chin, refusing to back down.

”Because you are not allowed.” A hint of annoyance was in his tone, as if he couldn”t believe I was questioning him. I felt my own lips twitch at that.

”Well, I have a tendency to do things I”m not supposed to do,” I admitted, looking away because it was true. I did do things all the time that pissed my father off, that got me fired, that made the villagers hate me all the more. With a sigh, I started to back up, but Lore grabbed my arms, holding me in place.

”What was that?” he asked, far too close for what was appropriate.

”What was what?” I asked, pretending I had no idea what he was asking. He saw far too much, and it unnerved me. In mere moments in his presence, this man seemed to see more than I wanted him to.

”That look, what were you thinking about?” he asked, his voice firm and demanding as his hands held me, gentle yet unyielding.

I sighed. ”It was nothing. Let me go. I”ll remember not to come here again.”

”I”ll let you go if you tell me what you were thinking,” he demanded again, moving closer to me as I backed up until my back hit the wall.

”Fine.” I squirmed in his arms, sighed deeply, and gave into him. ”Where I”m from, people don”t really like me,” I admitted with a huff, rolling my eyes to hide that it bothered me, but Lore”s eyes seemed to bore into me. Like he saw into my soul what I was trying to hide. I barely knew this man and his proximity was unnerving in a way I couldn”t describe. I pulled from his arms to escape, but he only boxed me in with his arms and searched my face.

”I find that hard to believe, yet at the same time I can believe it.” He searched my face, that damn mouth of his twitching into a half-grin as if he were trying to hold it back. One side of him was winning or losing, depending on how you looked at it.

As if out of character, his fingers caressed my cheek as longing entered his gaze. As quickly as it happened, his hand fell away, and his features changed as if I had imagined it.

”I don”t care if you believe me. Let me go,” I begged with more force this time. The heat from his body and his closeness had my heart speeding at a rate that I could hear pounding in my ears as my breathing became ragged. I shook my head, trying to figure out why his being so close to me affected me in such a way.

Lore stared at my lips, a heated look that turned into confusion as he dropped his shield again and let me glimpse the raw need it hid. I felt my body wanting to arch, wanting to tilt my head up as I, too, found my gaze going to his mouth as I lost the fight and licked my own dry lips.

With an exhale, he pushed off the wall, turned, and left me there, pressed against the cold stone wall at my back, my heartbeat pounding and my breaths ragged. What was wrong with me?

”You”ll need to get used to us then if you are going to stay.” Lore sighed as if the weight of those words hung heavily on his shoulders.

”I get to stay here?” My head whipped around. The amount of back-and-forth with this man was enough to give me whiplash. ”Why?”

”Do you have somewhere else to go?” Lore asked, watching me wearily.

My voice lowered as my shoulders slumped. ”No.” I shook my head sadly as I thought about it. If I left, I”d run away without direction, money, or protection. At least here, I could devise a plan that didn”t include storming into the cold night. ”No, I suppose I don”t.”

”Then stay, for now.”

Despite everything, for now, it sounded pretty good.