Close Your Eyes, Remember Me (TBF Book 1)

Lucia

Lucia paced her room for hours, creating a ring of compressed carpet, she hadn't eaten since she had been unceremoniously dumped back there after the awkward meeting with the Bonnets and had proceeded to inhale a bag of Doritos that could be used as a child's sleeping bag... She was getting hungry and was beyond thirsty... She was also incredibly bored. Eventually, she couldn't take it any more, she stomped to the door and smacked her fist down on the wood three times,

"Hey!" she yelled, "I need water and food, I'm not dying on the floor of some middle-aged woman's fantasy guest-room!" she hit the door again, "If you don't unlock this door I'm breaking the window and throwing myself out of it, your choice!" she stood still for a moment, breathing deeply, when a voice called through from the other side.

"Uuuh... who is in there?" It asked.

"The bride-to-be, fuckface!"

"Easy, kid." She was pretty certain it was a woman, and that said woman found her amusing. "Just making sure you're not a burglar... Why are you in there?"

"Two idiots locked me in!" Lucia snapped, she pressed her forehead against the wood tiredly.

"Oh." Was all the woman on the other side had to say.

"Who are you?" Lucia softened her voice as her feeling of alarm began to slowly fade.

"I'm Sariyah," The woman called through, "cousin of the groom-to-be." that had her hackles back up again, no one in this family could be good news.

"Can you get me out of here?" She asked bluntly, not expecting a positive outcome but she had to try.

"Sure, I can kick the door down?"

Lucia blinked, utterly unable to believe her luck. "That would be very much appreciated." She managed to call through.

"Okay, stand back." Lucia scuttled back to the bed and plopped her butt on the edge. With one loud, splintering crash the door was kicked through with one hit, sending pieces of wood scattering across the carpet. A vampire then, she guessed. The hinges and a sliver of wood attached to them remained.

Her saviour strode in with the relaxed air of a cat strutting around its home, she had been right about her being a woman but every other assumption she had made in her head of how she would look was instantly proved wrong, this woman was nothing like her 'family'. Sariyah was petite in length and width, her features were rounded from her eyes to her lips, and her skin was black, dark-skinned black.

"Oh, you don't look how I thought you would." Sariyah mused.

Lucia almost choked on her own tongue as she sputtered out,"Right back at ya." there was no way this woman was a Bonnet. She gave the woman a head to toe once-over with her eyes.

"I'm his cousin by marriage." Sariyah explained. "I married his cousin Reginald, I'm assuming you haven't met him yet - he tends to hide himself away with his canvases and books."

"No offence," Lucia began, knowing full-well what she was about to say would probably offend. "but I can't believe they let you marry into the family but apparently I'm too dark!" Sariyah snorted loudly.

"Did his mother say that?" She laughed, "She's obsessed with carrying on the bloodline - keeping it pure!" she shook her head, "His father is head of the clan so his son must carry on the tradition of having a child and furthering the family line, my husband wasn't pressured to do that and so we chose not to."

"Do you not want children?"

"We might adopt one day, if we decide that's what we want to do." She smiled wistfully and nodded at the door, "You coming or what?" she climbed through the hole she had created.