Chapter Twenty-Six
Skye snatched her arm out of the old guy’s grasp and glowered at him. It hadn’t hurt, but she didn’t care. No one put their hands on her without her permission.
“You must be Brody’s father,” she spat at him, looking around the big corridor he’d brought her to. The instant teleport was a neat trick, but other than that she wasn’t the slightest bit impressed. Folding her arms, she glowered at him. “What exactly do you want?”
“I want to know why you said no to that business trip.”
She snorted. “Seriously?”
He shrugged. “I have an unhappy business partner.”
“Well, it’s a moot point now anyway. I’m a vampire. I can’t go to an airport in the middle of the day.” She put her hands on her hips. “This can’t be what this was all for.”
“No, you’re right. It wasn’t. But that would be none of your business.”
She frowned at him. “I died because of you and you’re telling me this isn’t my business?” Was this guy for real? She seriously wanted to punch him right now.
“Anyway, I can see that there might be other uses for a girl like you.”
“You can get that idea out of your head right now.” She had no idea what he was talking about, but he wasn’t sounding all that much different from the perverted boss she’d already said no to.
“You do this, and I let Theo live.”
“Do what?” Not that she intended to do what he told her to anyway, but she might as well know how disgusting he actually was before she told him to shove it up his arse.
“Work at my brothel.”
“I thought it was Brody’s brothel?”
He laughed. “My son has no idea how to run a business. He’s just there so I don’t need to bother myself. Most of the time.”
She could barely believe she was having this conversation, but she knew one thing for sure, this guy could kill her quicker than she could snap her fingers. He had the upper hand here and she wasn’t foolish enough to think she’d be able to turn the tables on him. She’d barely been a vampire for five minutes. Her fighting skills weren’t exactly honed. More than all of that, he could use magic and she couldn’t. It was why Brody had decided hiding from the man was their best option when they’d first heard he was in the brothel.
“How long for?” She settled for buying time with questions.
“Six weeks,” he said, a sly smirk growing on his face.
“Done,” she said it without flinching, because she had no intention of following through. She just wanted to get the hell out of this place, out of his company, as quickly as she could.
He smiled and grabbed her arm. The whoosh of air followed by their surroundings changing this time made her shudder. He left her in the brothel’s reception area, with a shaken looking Stacy clambering to stand up behind the front desk.
Brody’s father pushed Skye forward before he let go of her arm.
“Set her up in a room, and give her something nicer to wear.”
Skye turned, but the guy was gone.
Stacy cleared her throat. “What’s going on, exa— Oh my god, you’re one of them.” The fear in her voice made Skye’s heart sink.
“I’m still me.”
“Yeah, I know,” Stacy laughed nervously. “Only you have a demon in you now.”
“A demon?” Skye didn’t understand.
“Oh. You don’t know. Shit.” Stacy paled. “You should have Theo explain it to you. I don’t totally get it, I mean I’m not…”
A manly sigh from behind the desk was the first sign that Stacy hadn’t been alone behind there. Shayne stood and Skye stared at him.
“What’s she talking about?”
He looked her over carefully. “Your demon has been suppressed. Theo did something to it. Sort of like a hypnotism. It’s a known tactic. Brody probably taught it to him. Makes the thing easier to control if it does start to get rowdy.”
“Um, what?” She still didn’t get it. “I have a demon in me now?”
“It’s kind of the whole point of vampires,” Stacy said, shrugging apologetically. “At least it was, in the beginning or whatever.”
“What she means is that vampires were created as a way to allow demonic spirits to walk the earth in human form.”
Like that made it any less disturbing. Skye sat down on the couch across from the desk. As if being kidnapped hadn’t been bad enough. Turning into a vampire and striking a deal to work in a brothel to avoid the new guy she’d barely slept with being murdered….
“I’m really wishing I was dreaming right now.”