Well, if he'd stuck a pea under those mattresses, she'd failed the test.
She leaped down, and upon seeing a door to her left, close to the wardrobe and away from the exit, she headed for it, hoping for an en-suite.
Her jaw hit the floor when she opened it. It was a bathroom, all right. Only it was the size of the bedroom, if not larger. There were no windows although dim quartz lights lit up when she walked in. Instead of a bath, there was a pool surrounded by stones, crystals, candles, and flasks. To one side, on a gold platter, there was a bottle of red wine with an elegant glass.
Avani had actually entered her version of paradise.
She started a hot bath. A wiser woman might have been wary of the unlabeled, unfamiliar concoctions inside the flasks, but caution wasn't in her nature. She opened them one by one, sniffed them, and tried a drop or two in the bath when she liked the smell of them. She doubted he would have left something corrosive out for his sister.
A translucent silvery liquid somehow turned the water purple, and the gold one made huge bubbles erupt on top.
When she was done playing, she sank into the water, its various scents assaulting her finely tuned sense of smell.
She moaned in delight. It felt like the water was massaging her shoulders. Which was impossible. Then again, she was in a vampire's house.
She remained until the water was lukewarm; her skin was peeling off, but she didn't have any regrets.
Back in the room, opening the wardrobe, her suspicions about Alexius's sister were confirmed when she found long, flowing skirts and beaded suede vests—all with tags. Diana Helsing totally was a hippie. Or maybe he'd just bought her stuff in the sixties.
She found a pair of normal jeans behind the elephant and harem pants, and a white T-shirt.
Alexius was right, his sister was around her size, though taller. She rolled the bottom of the jeans to her ankles.
No such luck with shoes; they were two sizes too large.
Having to resort to using someone else's belongings sucked at the best of times, but the fact that they were new helped. Still, it only served to remind her that her life was a huge freaking mess. She couldn't go get her stuff. Her shoes, her clothes, her computer.
Sadly, the list of belongings she owned that mattered ended there. Most of all, her computer mattered. She was due to film another video in a couple of days; she'd said so on her last review.
Avani bit her lip. She knew her passwords. Maybe Chloe could lend her a laptop.
And she had other immediate problems. She needed shoes, clothes that were hers—that meant having money.
She hadn't exactly gone on a pack run with her wallet in her mouth, sadly. She knew after a phone call to her bank they'd send another card to her mailbox in Edinburgh, but that wasn't next door.
Whatever way she thought about it, she was going to have to ask for help. Her pride didn't like that. She'd already been saved, and needing more assistance, beyond letting her crash for the night and allowing her to go to school, made her feel so damn weak.
School. She hadn't taken the time to think about the implications.
Avani had been homeschooled; she hadn't had any other choice while on the run from anti-shifters. Thankfully, her mother used to be a professor, so she didn't botch her education. She'd loved learning, soaking in every bit of knowledge her mother wanted to pass on to her. Then, after her death, she'd been brought here, to Oldcrest, where there had been five computers in the whole pack and less than a hundred books.
She'd learned to love other aspects of life—running the woods, the safety of being stuck behind magic walls. But she'd been so very frustrated by the fact that she couldn't continue her education.
Now they were giving her a chance at it.
Maybe.
She doubted the vampires were offering it without strings attached. Besides, the pack would try to get to her—staying here might not be worth it.
All of those issues swirled in her mind until she came to one conclusion that answered every point.
She needed to contact Knox.
Avani resolved to only ask for a phone—that wasn't too much of a favor. Knox was her turner—if he'd been a vampire, he would have been called her sire—and as such, she was his responsibility. He'd made it clear that she understood that before they parted ways. She balked at being anyone's concern, but if she had to beg someone for help, it might as well be the one person who felt like he owed her something.
As she came down the stairs, she sniffed the air, and rushed forward when the distinctive smell of bacon hit her nostrils.
"God, I could eat a—" She came to a halt in front of the kitchen.
Alexius wore a gray shirt today, still with jeans, and was holding onto two plates—one piled up with sausages and the other with bacon. On the breakfast bar where she'd perched yesterday, there was a huge buffet with pancakes, fresh mango cut in chunks, maple syrup, eggs, croissants, and for some reason, haggis.
The teenager from yesterday was seated and already digging in.
"You…cook."
Her brain wasn't functioning very well right now.
"When you're my age, there won't be much you can't do," Alexius replied. "Sit. Eat. Don't wait for me."
She'd read that vampires didn't need to eat as much as mortals. Which begged the question: why was he cooking for a football team?
"That's a lot." She sat down in front of an empty plate, poured herself a glass of orange juice, and started to pile up food on her plate.
"I didn't know what you guys ate. Plus, wolves are insatiable after runs, if I recall."
He was right about that. She couldn't eat for twelve people, but she certainly made a pretty big dent in the buffet.
"How are you doing?" she asked the teenager.
He grinned. "I'm alive. Thanks to you. And I have a cool-as-fuck story to share with my class. I mean, I can share, right?"
His eyes traveled from Alexius to Avani.
Declining the role of the adult here, she stared at the vampire pointedly.
He shrugged. "Sure. Anti-sups will always find material, anyway. And the fact that you were helped by a vampire and a wolf makes it a happy ending."
Avani didn't point out that the ending hadn't been quite so happy for everyone. She doubted the other two humans had seen the light of day.
“Wicked.”
The boy returned to his food happily.
After demolishing a huge pile of pancakes, Avani peered at Alexius’s plate as he finally sat down. He’d cleaned up the kitchen before joining them.
“That’s just sad, dude.”
He only had two teensy little pancakes, a spoonful of eggs, and one piece of bacon.
One. Who ate one piece of bacon?
He grinned. “I’m already pretty full.”
Avani blushed, her mind traveling back to Zayn and the smell of his blood in the air.
Full of werewolf.
She wanted to ask if he’d killed him—she was about ninety percent certain he had—and then, she could prepare herself for the backlash. She thought better of it after a moment. That wasn’t a conversation to have with a regular mortal teen in the room.
Alexius glanced at the grandfather clock in one corner of the wood and beige kitchen. “Finish up,” he told the boy. “Mikar will be here to take you to your parents soon.”
The boy lost some of his cheer. “Can’t you take me?” he asked, somewhat wearily.
He’d showed more courage than expected, but he wasn’t dumb. It’d be a long while before he trusted a sup again.
Which was good. Mortals could get along with sups, but there was no denying that their world held some danger.
Alexius winced. “Because I can’t. I trust you remember what I looked like yesterday? That’s what happens when I leave this place.”
Avani had so many questions all of a sudden. Before she could ask, a doorbell rang, interrupting her.
“It’s open,” Alexius shouted. Then his eyes went to Avani. “You should go with them; they’re heading to a human town. I’m sure you need…stuff. Shoes, whatever.”
He was right there. “Could I borrow your phone, first? I need to get in touch with Knox, tell him what happened.”
“I called him yesterday,” Alexius said, surprising her.
Alexius knew Knox? As in, knew him well enough to have his phone number? Not many people did.
“He said he’d get in touch with you. He just needs to clean up after the pack first.”
In other words, take care of the bodies they’d left behind and probably smooth things over with the human authorities by promising that the culprits would pay.
Then make them pay, somehow.
If Knox was taking care of it, maybe she didn’t have to fear the Elder Pack. She wouldn’t give in to hope until she’d spoken to him.
Mikar walked in, remaining intense and silent as he had the two times she’d seen him. The dark-haired, olive-skinned vampire had a wild edge, very different from Alexius’s suave demeanor.
“Okay. It has to be somewhere where I can stop by my bank…”
Without her bank cards or ID. Dammit.
Alexius pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and extracted a bunch of fifty-pound notes without counting them, before handing them to her. The stack was thick. She looked at it like the notes might bite.
That was a lot of money. Way too much. And things weren’t given for free in her world.
As if he read her mind, Alexius rolled his eyes. “You don’t have anything. No computer, no clothes, no phone—hell, no shoes. Use what you need, bring me back the rest. Knox can pay me back, whatever.” Her expression must have been plain as day. He corrected himself immediately. “Okay, you can pay me back. Or, don’t. It’s not like I’d notice. I’ve had a long time to amass cash, crazy girl. This is just…pink leaves.”
The teenager gasped. “Pink leaves? There’s at least five thousand there.”
Avani chose to ignore his candor, but reluctantly, she had to agree with one of his points. She had literally nothing. Which meant she had no choice.