Blood: The Third Course

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Priya crept down the corridor. The rumbling of conversation was clearer now that she was out of her room, but still not enough to hear every word, despite the nearing last night of the full moon. Sometimes she had to wonder whether she should find it odd that she already considered the room in the vampire house as hers. True, she'd been living with them for most of the past three months, she knew everyone in the house and got along well enough. But it was still a house filled with vampires, and Priya knew she shouldn't feel as comfortable as she did there.

Only an hour earlier, Carson had also returned to the house, flanked by Edeline. Priya had tried to ask him what had happened, but she had been immediately brushed aside, and Edeline had ushered Carson quickly into the room she was currently occupying, slamming the door closed behind them. It may have been Priya's imagination, or the slight scent of blood that followed them down the corridor, but Carson had looked almost manic as he'd met her gaze, staring at her a little too hard.

Coming to the top of the staircase, Priya stopped in her tracks, finding a person seated on the top step, hunched over their knees. It only took a moment to realise that it was Spencer. His short, curly hair was instantly recognisable, not to mention that she was more than familiar with the way he fidgeted and pulled at his fingers when he had gone without a fix for a while.

"Woman of the hour," he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.

"What does that mean?"

He didn't look at her.

Priya crept closer with silent footsteps. She stepped down one stair and then sat down beside him.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Spencer lifted one nail-bitten hand and pointed down the stairs.

"You have a visitor."

Priya leaned closer to the bannister, but she couldn't see anybody in the hallway below. Before she could ask Spencer, however, heavy footsteps echoed from the tiled floor, and a booming voice carried up to them.

"I don't care what you think is best. You will tell me where she is."

Priya didn't need any more than that to realise that the rumbling conversation she had heard belonged, at least in part, to Kaleb. She wasn't sure whether she should be surprised. On the one hand, Kaleb rarely left the farm during the days of the full moon, he had a pack to look after. But on the other hand, it wasn't normal that she and Carson would leave either.

"No, I won't."

Priya sat up straight, her gaze flickering between Spencer and the empty space of hallway she could see through the bars of the bannister.

"Is that William?" she whispered.

Spencer nodded.

"He's been quite adamant."

"But why? Kaleb is practically family."

Getting to her feet, Priya hurried down the stairs into the hallway. Kaleb was pacing, and he'd clearly made no effort to clean his boots before leaving the farm. Muddy footprints tracked back and forth across the clean tile. He'd brought the smell of the outdoors into the house with him, and as strong as it was for Priya, she could only imagine the stench it would cause to the vampires.

William had turned to her before she even hit the bottom step. His jaw tightened in annoyance, and Priya gasped. He'd been bustled away so quickly after Dacian's visit, she'd not had a chance to see the damage that had been done to him. His vampire healing must have been doing overtime, but his face was still red and raw, like a layer or two of skin had been peeled off. There were blisters across the backs of his hands and up to his elbows. Priya winced.