But I wasn’t an asshole.
Most days.
Clenching my teeth against chattering, I hobbled out and pulled the door closed to keep from freezing them to death. The hallway had one long shadowy crypt like feeling going on. The shudders wracking my spine had nothing to do with the cold. It was old here. Too old.
Ancient whispers drifted along the hallway.
Yeah, that wasn’t creepy.
Arms folded over my breasts even if my nipples could probably cut diamonds they were so stiff, I tossed a mental coin. Pivoting left, I hurried along. The place had a bathing room. Maybe the toilets were there.
The heavy fucking doors were all through this section. Some gave with a good shove, others just held like they were made of iron. I found two more bedrooms, no bathrooms.
Okay. Think Fi.
I couldn’t feel the bottoms of my feet anymore, which was probably good, hopefully my bladder would freeze before I peed. It was bad enough I was running around bare-ass naked covered in spunk and flecks of dried blood. At the thought of the dried come, I swore my pussy flexed.
“Enough of that,” I informed myself. “You should be nursing a pulled muscle after all of that. Or three.” It certainly felt like I was. Not that I was complaining. At the end of the hall, I pushed open the last door and nearly wept.
It wasn’t quite the porcelain altar of the Ritz with a fancy French bidet, but it was a working toilet with a tile floor, and rough amenities. There was even a shower stall. I flushed the toilet once to make sure it worked.
Since my breath kept fogging, I was surprised the pipes weren’t frozen. The water swirled away, and I grimaced as I settled on the seat.
Nope. Fuck that.
Too cold. I squatted.
I don’t care how unattractive it might look or how much my core complained. At least the prison had access to a toilet without walking through the wilderness of a keep to find it.
A keep in the wilderness.
A sudden longing for my house on the cliff with its floor to ceiling windows and ocean views flooded me. Southern California was so temperate. Getting cold there would take some serious effort.
Unlike this gothic monolithic nightmare.
A long sigh escaped me as I relieved myself. Seriously, it took me a while to pee. I would probably be dehydrated at this rate. It didn’t matter, the relief was so profound, it was nearly orgasmic.
Eh.
Maybe not that good.
Still, it was damn nice.
Finished, I cleaned up and flushed again, then moved to the sink. What were the chances of hot water in here? As much as I ached, I’d rather go find that hedonistic bathing chamber I’d been in the day before.
I’d also like some damn privacy.
I debated finding my way back to the guys or striking out to explore. The rest of me was rapidly growing numb, too. How long did it take frostbite to kick in?
There was no mirror over the sink. Well, I didn’t really care what I looked like at the moment. Probably better not to scare myself. I did, however, rinse out my mouth. No toothpaste or even a toothbrush—not that I would borrow one of their toothbrushes. Suck their dick? No problem. Use their toothbrush? Gag.
With a finger, I scrubbed at my teeth, then wet my mouth and spit a few times. Not great, but between the icy water and my finger, it helped.
Top of the list, toiletries.
Second item on that list, clothes preferably, including a fucking parka.
Where was this asinine place anyway?
Once in the hall, I stared back the way I came then cocked my head toward the stairs.
Vampires were supposed to have really sharp hearing, right?
So I focused.
Yeah.
I couldn’t hear much more than the faint whistle of wind from somewhere and the sound of my own breathing. Yeah. Impressive I was not. The lack of emotion was also telling. Every living thing possessed some form of lust. A lust for life, a lust for food, sometimes a lust for their next breath. Even the most devout possessed a lust for something. Shockingly enough, a lust for charity and a lust to do good things could exist. Granted, it was like having a plain potato chip with zero flavor and no seasoning—it could fill the hole, but it lacked any real satisfaction.
Still, the only hints of it I could detect came from behind me.
The guys.
So…we were alone.
Fine by me.
I descended the steps to start my hunt. Baths and clothes. Maybe just clothes, and I could get the hell out of here and make my way back to where I belonged. Then I could hunt down Dimitri and shove a cactus up his ass. I had stilettos thicker than his dick. Maybe I would start with one of them and work my way up to the cactus.
The heavy stone walls threatened to close in on me as I made my way down the steps. The lack of natural or artificial light wasn’t doing much for the mood. I half-expected to Dr. Frankenfurter to pop out and start singing in his teddy.
Lips curling at the mental image, I tried to cast Grumpilstilskin, Dick Face, or Astral-Boy in the role.
Astral-Boy for sure. He had that angelic look and the body I’d been sleeping on would definitely look fine in or out of a teddy.
I descended two full flights of stairs before I found another set of doors. These things were big enough that Maddox would be able to fit through them maybe.
Huh, maybe that was why the place was so tall and wide. They’d had a dragon hanging out, probably saved money on the repair bills. Dragon would be nice right about now, at least he was his own heat source.
The door opened into a huge hall. Three steps led down into a sunken floor area. Columns lined it, and there were even larger gated doors to my right. I’d bet all the non-existent money in my invisible clothes those went outside. Based on their height and construction, they had likely been built with Maddox in mind.
Joy.
Twisting, I glanced at the huge receiving hall. It was like something out of the Middle Ages—right down to the throne on a dais toward the end. There were a few seats around it, but the throne was definitely that. Maybe not ornate, but definitely elevated.
So which of them was the master of the keep?
My money was on Rogue. He had that arrogance to him. In fact, he kind of made Maddox look like a pussy cat.
A grumpy pussycat, sure, but still a kitty dragon.
The idea made me snicker despite the gloom of the place. The ancient whisper drifted against me like an errant breeze. Another shiver worked its way through me. Yeah, I wanted the mansion on the cliffs over the beach, not the old-world keep in the assback of nowhere.
Back up for the baths, or maybe down?
Wait. This was the receiving hall. Most of the stuff on this level would likely be for public access. I glanced back at the stairs. Those pools had heated water coming from somewhere; old world construction would use cisterns and aqueducts.
Downstairs it was.
It took me another thirty minutes of hunting, but I found it by following the smell of dampness, and it was tucked on a lower level on the far side of another huge open space. This one wasn’t as decorative, but I could almost hear the clang of steel and the rustle of leather. A training room?
That kind of made sense.
I couldn’t feel anything anymore. Once I shoved the door open, warm moist air hit me like a slap to the face, and I sighed in absolute relief.
Shoving the door closed, I leaned against it. It was hardly a workout to walk all over the place, but I was bone-deep tired. I headed over to the first pool and slid into it. The hot water stung my icy flesh, and I hissed, teeth clenching as the shivering and teeth chattering hit me all over again. I needed to wash, but I couldn’t get my fingers to cooperate.