CHAPTER 3
“So, do you know anything about this mansion?” Isabel asked, looking around curiously once they were alone.
“I’ve been here quite a lot,” Presten said. “It was never the most pleasant experience… they tried to hold me hostage here, more than once, but I always managed to escape.”
“Do you think Analise and Gavin have rooms in here?” she asked, ignoring his moment of triumph.
“They do,” he said mischievously. “What, you think you’re the only one here up for an adventure?”
Isabel smiled and followed him. He took a right and headed down one of the corridors, surveying one decaying door after the other. “I don’t know everything in this mansion, but this, I know,” he said, standing in front a pair of swinging doors at the far end of the hallway. Isabel pushed one of them and they begrudgingly creaked open. A musty, dank stench travelled up her nostrils. The house was dead silence except for the intermittent creaks and moans that echoed everywhere as they walked across the floorboards. Black and brown mold dotted the ceiling in clusters, evidence of rain seeping through the roof. “So, what are we looking at?” Isabel asked, her nose wrinkled.
“Gavin’s room,” Presten replied.
Isabel felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Finally it settled with her that Gavin had this whole other life, a life she knew nothing about. She walked across the suite, looking at the musty walls. “This room’s too shabby to be Gavin’s room,” she said, rather to herself.
“I wasn’t allowed to enter,” Presten said. “I only caught glimpses.”
Isabel stopped when she noticed a closet at the far end of the suite. She walked over to it, swung it open and started searching through Gavin’s clothes. Suddenly her sleeve got hooked on something and she let out a gasp. It was a doorknob. “Presten, check this out,” she hissed, motioning for him to join her. Presten crept up behind her, and as soon as she felt him brush up on her back, an electric current flowed through her.
“What is it?” he asked, leaning in close to her ear. Isabel would have liked to let him take her right then and there, but she was wise enough to know that this little discovery of hers was much, much more important.
“It’s a doorknob,” she said. “But the door’s locked.” The both of them sighed in frustration, and then, desperately, Isabel started searching for the key in the pockets of Gavin’s clothes. “It’s not there,” she said, clenching her eyes. “What do you think it is?”
“I don’t know,” Presten said, his eyebrows furrowed. “I think we might find the key somewhere around here,” he continued, looking around the room. He probed near the bedside table, pulling its drawers open and searching inside. Nothing. “Gavin probably has it,” he said.
“No, it might be lying around here,” Isabel said, her voice stern. “We need to find it, who knows what could be in there?”
They must have spent an hour searching. Isabel flipped the mattress over, crawled under the bed and ripped the pillow sacks apart, but still, she found nothing. She rose to her feet and clasped her hands behind her head. This was hopeless. “Oh my God,” she said. “I’ve never been so frustrated in my life.”
“Hey, come look at this,” Presten said. Isabel jumped to where he was, and when she realized he was holding a pair of books, she snatched them from him. “I see you’re excited,” he said, rolling his eyes at her. He was beginning to think Isabel was a little controlling. She realized it herself, not that she was apologetic about it.
“Oh my God,” she said, flipping through the pages. She closed the leather-bound book and stared at its cover. “No title,” she said, opening it up again and beginning to skim through its pages. What she saw shocked her. “Hey, Presten, d’you think this is Gavin’s handwriting?” she asked, her eyes darting from Presten, to the squiggly pen lines, and then to Presten again.
“I am absolutely certain of it,” he said.
“How can you be so sure, though?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Isabel, we’re in Gavin’s room, this is his study,” Presten said. “Who else’s handwriting would it be?”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Isabel said, her eyes fixated on the lines of writing. They were awfully hard to decipher. “Alright, this is going to need some looking into,” she said, closing the book and tucking it under her arm. “Let’s save it for later.”
“Are you sure you wanna do that?” Presten asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “I, personally, have never been more curious.”
“I’m even more curious to see what’s behind that door,” Isabel said, ignoring him. She scanned the room one last time before she pounced on the bed again and started tucking her hands underneath the mattress.
“We’ve already looked there,” Presten said, heading for the coatrack. “Maybe it’s in one of those pockets,” he said.
“Did you find anything?” Isabel asked impatiently as he finished searching the pockets.
“No, nothing.”
“This is hopeless.”
Isabel clasped her hands behind her head again and started pacing the room. Deep down, she knew they wouldn’t find anything. Gavin was smarter than that; he wouldn’t leave an important key lying around like that for anyone to find. He must’ve taken it with him. She thought about ambushing him in the cells, but she knew that was a horrible idea. He would probably resist with so much force that even Isabel wouldn’t be able to stop him.
“I think we should call it a day,” she said finally.
“I think so, too,” Presten said, his eyes fixated on the chipped walls. “Besides, this room is giving me the creeps.”
“Let’s just head back down,” Isabel said. “But we’re going to come back, and we’re going to find that key.”
“Tomorrow morning?” Presten asked. Isabel nodded. “Just remember to take those books with you.”
“I will,” she said, flashing Presten a smirk. “You don’t think I’m that forgetful, do you?” They headed for the door, but when Presten reached the end of the corridor, he was alone.
“You gonna come with me, or?” he called back to Isabel.
“I think we should assign ourselves rooms, first,” she said. “Because by the looks of it, we’re gonna be here for a while.”
“Alright,” he shrugged. “Where would you like to stay?”
“Well, when I was staying at the old mansion, the vampires were sure to assign me a room in the tower… they said they wanted to make me feel special or some shit, and, of course, I fell for it.” There was a pause. “Turns out they were just trying to isolate me from all that was happening. How could I have been so blind?”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Presten said, stepping back along the hallway. “We’ve got the entire mansion to ourselves, we can pick whatever room we want.”
“That’s true,” Isabel said, smiling. “I think we should look for a room a couple of floors down… just so we’re closer to all the happenings.”
Presten led the way downstairs as they strutted down the corridor, their eyes darting from one bedroom door to the other. “I find this door to be quite appealing,” Isabel said sarcastically. Besides Gavin’s room, they all looked the same. “I’ll just stay in here,” she said, picking out a room at random. She swung the door open and stepped inside. She had started to feel the hunger gnawing at her and thought it might be best if she and Presten parted ways. “Would you like to stay in the room next to me?” she asked.
“I would very much like to,” he replied, the corners of his lips curving upwards. Isabel knew what he was thinking. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t think the same. But she knew she had to resist it; any imbalance could possibly cost them their lives. After all, Isabel had been warned time and time again not to feed on anyone else but Gavin and Oz, and even though she now knew that all she had learned was bullshit, these ideas were still engrained in her mind. The truth was, Isabel was having a hard time unlearning the things that were once so integral to her being. She was lost, like a little girl trying to find her way. One thing was for sure, though, she was free to have sex with whoever the fuck she wanted.
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then?” she asked, eyeing Presten as he retreated into the room across from hers. He nodded, flashing her a coy smile before he closed the door behind him. Isabel stepped back into her room, her mind spinning with images of Presten and what he could possibly do to her. She could feel herself getting wet, but she shrugged it off, trying to distract herself with anything else. “Maybe if I go out, I can get my mind off this,” she thought. But where would she go? She couldn’t leave the mansion right now; that was her responsibility. So she just wandered around the corridors, opening up random doors to see what was inside.
“Hello, Isabel,” a voice said, as she opened a door. It took her a second or two to realize that the voice belonged to Oz.
“Oz, what are you doing here?” she asked. “Weren’t you guarding the vampires?”
“Well, you guys were taking too long, so I thought I’d check up on you,” he said. Isabel knew he was up to something. He was spread out over the bed, as if waiting for her to barge in there at any second. Was he jealous of Presten?
“I appreciate that,” Isabel said, staring down at her feet. Seeing Oz always seemed to make her feel better.
“Why are you standing all the way over there? Come here.”
Isabel’s feet steered her in his direction. After all this time, Oz still had the most control over her; he was her weakness, the one person she knew she would never get over. It had occurred to her that maybe he had the most power over her because she loved him so much, but then she dismissed the idea, thinking that succubi don’t fall for angels, they don’t fall for anyone. “Are you going to stay in this room?” she asked, sitting down at the edge of the bed.
“Yeah, it’s about time I get some rest from the cold hard prison cells, don’t you think?” he asked, wrapping his arm around her. Isabel moved in closer. He was reeling her in. Her head was on his chest and she could hear the sound of his heartbeat.
“I missed that sound,” she said, burying her head in his chest. All at once, she took in his smell, that smell she had missed so much. She had been away from him for so long; all she wanted right now was to be one with him. He pulled her even closer to him.
“I missed you,” he whispered. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his, and they made out in rhythmic, synchronized motion. She found herself lost in his arms, and everything around her seemed to melt, everything but him. He was the only one she saw, the only one she knew she wanted. Her memory of anyone else just melted away; his touch was the only touch she craved. His hands spread over to her thighs and he squeezed them lightly. Instantly, she could feel the fluids trickling down her leg. She had never been so drawn to someone in her life, and deep down, she knew no one else would measure up to him.
“I want you so much right now,” she said against his lips. And suddenly, he rolled up on top of her, pressing his entire weight against her.
“Just the way you like it,” he hissed. Isabel closed her eyes and freed her mind. She knew she wouldn’t be craving anything or anyone else in a long, long time.