Hidden In Shadows, A Fae and Vampire Romance: Shadow Court Chronicles, Book 1

Chapter 7.1: An Invitation To Bed

The report she was reading seemed oddly familiar, and she couldn't figure out why until she glanced over it again. She had read this report three times already and had remembered none of it! Quinton hadn't been exaggerating about the exhaustion. 8:00 a.m. had rolled around, and she had felt slightly sleepy, but a cup of strong coffee had woken her up enough that she had been able to look over the reports that Sam had sent her. By half past eight, her feet were beginning to drag and at nine o'clock her body had begun to feel like she had been up for twenty-four hours. Now her brain was not functioning at all in the reading and understanding departments, and her skin was feeling tingly. She did not like it one bit.

"Come on," Kieran declared, appearing in the library. "It's off to bed with you, my Shadow Princess."

"But I don't want to," She pouted like she was four again. "I want to see how far I can push my body."

She knew she was being stubborn, but she desperately wanted to experiment with her newfound abilities, including her weaknesses. She didn't think her brother had been lying to her, but she needed to know if she was able to push her body further than what he had warned her about. She wasn't making it as far as she had planned to, or wanted to.

Thankfully, she had prepared for this during the early hours of her morning. She had dressed in a pair of loose black cotton pants and a simple purple tank top after her brother had left and had immediately gotten on the phone. She had called a very hostile Sam at 5:30 a.m. to see if it was possible for her to ramp up the barriers while she was asleep. The hours of her weakest time were the time of the Seelie's greatest strength. She did not want an attack to occur while she was down for the count, leaving Kieran to fend off her enemies by himself.

Even though she was sure he could handle a couple Seelie by himself, she wasn't prepared to risk him in case a full frontal assault occurred. She knew she needed to find Seelie guards or someone strong enough so that Kieran would not have to guard alone. She had put it on her growing list of things to do.

"I don't care." He scooped her up in his arms, apparently not trusting her to walk on her own two feet.

She expected him to carry her upstairs towards her bedroom, but he turned and headed towards the basement. "What are you doing?" She did not like where this was headed at all. She knew who was in the basement, and he had made his opinions known last night.

"You are going to sleep in the basement today until appropriate measures have been taken."

"But Vincent—"

The door to the basement swung open with Vincent's form dominating the space. He was safely out of the light's reach, but she could tell it still bothered him by the squint in his eyes "Is willing to share his space with you for at least a day. There are no other rooms in the house that are adequate for you to sleep." He held out his arms. "I'll take her, Kieran."

Kieran looked at Vincent for a couple seconds while he debated, but she needed to find out why before she agreed to anything. "Do I not have a say in this?" She wrapped her arms around Kieran's neck tighter and narrowed her eyes at Vincent. His sudden change of mind made her wary of him. "Last night, you told my brother that you were not willing to share your sleeping space. Why the sudden change of heart?"

"I have thought hard about the words your brother said last night. He is right, I cannot hold you accountable for the actions of another person."

"Kieran, you may hand me off to him. You will check on us every two hours and if I have so much as a strand of hair mussed, kill him."

"I understand, Lyss."  

She slowly let her arms unwrap from Kieran's neck and allowed herself to be transferred to the other man's arms. Vincent's arms slowly came around her and held her in a surprisingly tight embrace as he made his way down the stairs. She was surprised at how tight he was holding onto her. It wasn't because he was afraid of dropping her; there was hidden strength in his arms that she could feel. He wouldn't be able to beat Kieran in a physical match, although few actually could, but he was on par with the normal Fae warriors.

"How old are you, Vincent?"

"Older than you," came his gruff reply.

"I kind of figured that one out, genius. I am curious. I know little of your kind, but you are an ally so I should know more about you."

His sigh was loud. "Curiosity killed the cat, Lyssandra."

"But satisfaction brought it back," was her smug reply.

"I'm old. Leave it alone," he warned as he dropped her onto the bed.

She gasped in shock. Not from him so unceremoniously dropping her on the bed but from how he had transformed the basement. It hadn't been like this before he had come. She knew this, she had done a complete walkthrough of the house. The bed she was laying on was a solid oak four poster bed. The bed was covered in copious amounts of pillows, and the blankets were some kind of fur—actually, the softest fur blanket she had ever touched.

There was no light from the outside nor any harsh fluorescent lights from above, but instead, everything was lit in the soft ambient light of hundreds of candles. On the wall, there were tapestries hanging, depicting different battles and periods of time in history. The cement floor was covered with random but bright Persian rugs. The basement now screamed comfort and riches.

"How the hell did you do all this?" She gestured around the room.

An exhausted sigh from his lips. "I'm old," was his only explanation.

She knelt on the bed with crossed arms. "I get that, but that doesn't explain all of this. The basement did not look like this before you got here. It was simply a basement, and now it's a space of comfort and how the hell are you even still awake? I want answers, Vincent, or I'll strangle them out of you."

"You're violent for such a tiny thing," he uttered the words so softly that she started in shock.

Sticking her nose in the air, she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Hardly. Besides I'm Unseelie. I'm not rainbows and sunshine."

"Technically," he stated, coming to sit at the edge of the bed. "You are Shadow Court. Are you going to let me sleep or continue to ask me questions? I'm exhausted, you're exhausted. Let's just go to sleep."  

The next part will be released on Friday March 4, 2016. If you want to read the whole book NOW Absolutely FREE. Just visit here http://hotromancestory.com/scc1-free-book-wp/ To grab your free copy of this book today.