Reign of Blood (The Vampires of Vegas Book 1)

Chapter Seventeen

The moment I awoke, a panic surged through me. Where was I? My surroundings were completely unfamiliar, making me sit up with a gasp. The room was lit up by a dull overhead light that was a ways away from my bed. There were partition walls on each side of me, almost like the shower stalls had, but big enough for a twin-size bed, a night stand, a small desk and a small chest of drawers lining one side of the wall. My boots sat tightly together on the floor where I had left them the night before. There weren't any windows, so I couldn't tell what time it was. I was still in the hybrid vampire hive, in my own makeshift room.

I quickly pulled my watch out from my cargo side pockets and glanced at the time. It was a wind-up battery-dependent water-proof kind of watch and fortunately there were plenty of batteries to go around. I had raided and stored enough to last me a lifetime. It ticked quietly away and showed that it was six am. I slipped it around my wrist, something I didn't get to do too often since the risk of blood and guts spattering all over it was high.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed; having slept in my clothes had made it convenient to just get up and go. My dirty clothes were now clean and folded in a neat pile on top of the dresser. I wondered who had brought them while I had slept and felt just a little more vulnerable that I had not even woken up to their presence. I sighed, lacing up my boots on tight and running my hand over my mess of a ponytail that no longer resembled one. I stood up and opened the drawers of the chest and spied a new brush sitting in one drawer alongside a new toothbrush, a bottle of lotion, some Band-Aids and antiseptic solution. I wondered what kind of place this was that had new toiletries provided for each occupant.

I heard murmurs of voices echoing quietly along the cement walls. I finished pulling my rat's nest of hair into a pony tail and turned to walk out of my bedroom stall when Rye's presence startled me. He had been watching me tighten the band on my hair and a slight spark of amusement danced in his eyes. He was as still as stone and never said a word until I managed to snap at him.

"You scared me! What are you doing standing there?" I shook my head, grabbing the toothbrush and tooth paste and storming past him, not realizing that I didn't know where I was going. This thought made me stop just as fast. Groaning, I turned back to the steel-eyed vampire.

"I'm here to escort you through the facility. I assume you need to use the restroom, so I'd be happy to take you there first, miss...?" He lifted his eyebrow slowly as he waited for me to answer.

"Tate, my name is April Tate. Your name is Rye, right?" He nodded at me as I licked my lips, the harsh silence making me bounce on my legs back and forth nervously. "Well, you gonna take me there or not?" I felt like his slow-motion antics were meant to delay me in some way but his eyes never wavered from my face to give anything away. I felt a slight flush blossom on my cheeks and moved my eyes to the cool cement floor. It was porous and slick in some spots, laid in ginormous slabs all the way down the hall of sleep stalls. I didn't have the only bed in this section and I wondered how many vampires slept here. I did not like that fact that I had slept an entire night oblivious to the presence of others.

Rye began walking down the hall and I followed silently behind him. I studied each stall and wondered why they were all quite unused. Mine had been near the end and I didn't see any other people around to account for the murmur of voices I had heard earlier. Only Rye and I were here.

"Rye?" I asked.

"Yes, Miss April?" he answered as he continued down the hall toward a set of double doors.

"Who else sleeps here? I thought I heard someone else when I woke up. I don't see anyone now." I studied the stalls and noticed just about two or maybe three that had a few other items in them but nothing with a truly personal touch.