The High Priestess - The Darkest Desires Series

XXVI

T

he day didn't go by quickly as Echo walked back from the Station. Sydney hadn't shown her face and Echo hoped she wouldn't ever again. Actually, she hoped she would; kicking her to the curb had felt good, doing it again would feel even better. Walking up the grand driveway to the front door she smiled and basked in her freedom. No chains would fall on her tonight. No one would bind her.

Looking up at the front, with the sun starting to set, the House was a glow in bright orange making it look aflame. This was her home. Her home, not Sydney's and it was about time she reminded everyone of that. She waved to the two police officers sat in their undercover car in the parking strip to the left of the house as she stepped through the door. Why they thought that ugly red model would go un-noticed in a street that would soon be lined with Ferraris and Porsches, she didn't understand.

"Guess whose back bitches?" She called out into the hall taking in the clean Drawing room to her left and the Library to her right. But both rooms were empty. It was odd, but then the House wasn't technically open yet. She couldn't hear anything from the Grand Hall, so she moved up a floor. Reaching the landing, she walked straight to the Winter Wing and twisted the handle, but a sharp click echoed, and the door wouldn't budge. She tried the Summer Annex, but again the handle wouldn't twist. She didn't even know these doors had a lock. No one was allowed privacy in the House, especially the Annex.

"Hello?" Echo yelled, feeling silly. Where could they all possibly be? Turning on the spot Echo moved to the second floor. Maybe Gala or Twilight was in... "Hay? Anyone home?" But again, turning on the spot on the second floor, there was no one. Every door that was normally wide open was now closed and Echo didn't feel like embarrassing herself more by checking if they were all locked. "What the hell?" She murmured to herself.

The click of a latch behind her sent lightening up Echo's spine so fast she thought she'd hit the roof. Instead, she spans round and was greeted by a sleepy-eyed Nic, wearing nothing. Nothing but the bare skin he'd donned thousands of years ago. Echo was no shy wall flower when it came to sex, but even she was blushing at the sight of Nic. He didn't speak, just looked at her through sleepy eyes, blinking hard every few seconds.

"Nic. Where is everyone?" Echo suddenly felt... claustrophobic, like she was about to catch her breath in her throat. It was silly really; she was stood in the middle of the hall, with high ceilings above her and enough room to swing a cat. She knew she could, because she'd given Wilson a whirl now and again, so he wouldn't become placid. Only beasts could roam these halls.

"Everyone...?" Nic mumbled, rubbing sleep from his eye with one hand and scratching his balls with the other. Echo didn't look away and was pleasantly surprised how well-endowed Nic was. Not that he'd ever have sex; that would be like a bird trying to swim, completely against his lethargic nature. "Everyone left."

"Yes, I figured that Nic. I want to know where?" Echo huffed folding her arms.

In that moment, Echo wasn't sure what it was and when she looked back on the moment, she still couldn't pin-point it, but something changed in Nic right before her eyes. It was like an indistinguishable twitch of a coiling cobra. You didn't see it, but you knew when you where suddenly in a whole new ball park. Maybe it was how Nic raised his hooded eyes at her and suddenly didn't look so sleepy? Or maybe it was his stature; growing in size and high, no longer slumped? Or maybe his voice, because it came out low and hard? Echo couldn't tell but suddenly, it wasn't the Nic she'd grown to dismiss before her, but something else. Something she - in her gut - recognised to be deadly and dangerous. "Didn't your mother every teach you 'I want' doesn't get?"