The second time I saw Vince was when he was interrupting me and Shadow - again. Either he was doing it on purpose or he really did just enter at the most inopportune times but if he did it a third time, I wasn't going to be happy.
"Is Alec here?" Was all he said, not even commenting on the compromising position he had found me and Shadow. For a man that seemed to have plenty to say earlier, I'd have thought he'd have said something about the fact I was no longer wearing a top but he didn't seem bothered.
The second he had spoken, I pushed Shadow away and grabbed my top from the floor, quickly pulling it back on as he stood in front of me so Vince wouldn't get an eyeful. Then again, he'd probably already seen the red lace bra I was wearing so it seemed pointless but I appreciated it anyway.
"You're early." Shadow commented. "But no, Alec isn't here. He and Ric went hunting. Why?"
"Good." Vince nodded his head once, keeping his eyes on Shadow. "We need to move quickly."
"What's going on?" I glanced between the two cautiously.
"Where is Leah?" Shadow asked at the same time, his voice more forceful. "Please don't tell me she escaped."
"Actually, she's in the boot of my car." Vince spoke offhandedly. "She knew I had been to see you."
"You said she would be in the dark about this." Shadow practically growled, knowing he no longer had the element of surprise.
"I lied. " Vince grinned manically. "I tend to do that sometimes."
"She was going to find out eventually," I spoke up, glancing between the two of them. "She was bound to figure it out. She's not stupid."
"I beg to differ." Shadow responded, barely looking at me as he then started talking to Vince again, telling him to bring Leah to the room he had Rolan all those months ago.
I, of course, tried to follow after them when Vince left, returning minutes later with Leah in his arms but Shadow told me it was best that I wait behind. According to him, there were some things that I just didn't need to see and this was one of them. What was so scary about them taking Leah to the room he tortured victims in, I wasn't so sure, especially when I already knew they'd have to leave the house entirely to get supplies that Vince deemed necessary. So it wasn't like they were going to torture her immediately and knowing that annoyed me because I knew why Shadow had planned this the way he had.
He wanted Leah to fear him more than ever.
I wanted to talk to her but for some reason, one I couldn't quite fathom out, Shadow refused to let me. That only led to me coming up with my own plan because I'd be damned if I let him dictate what I could and couldn't do. Just because he felt like Leah deserved to be tortured, didn't mean the rest of us did and I wanted her to know that.
I had no choice but to wait until they'd left.
***
Hoping that neither Shadow or Vince would come back and catch me in the act, I opened the only door I had never touched before. Up one flight of stairs, the second door on the right, it was a room I had never wanted to enter. I never wanted to set even one foot inside this particular room, afraid of what I'd find. This time was different; this time, pushed the fear aside and entered the room.
Shutting the door behind me, I stopped short as I scanned my surroundings. I had been expecting a lot of things, from blood on the floor to various different tools of torture. Being an avid reader contributed to my overactive imagination but it could come in handy.
What I hadn't been expecting, however, was to step into a library.
Maybe library wasn't the best word for it as there were three tables in the room, books stacked on top of one another. There must have been thousands of books around the room, some on the tables and others thrown carelessly to the floor but it definitely wasn't a room Shadow used to torture his victims. That much was obvious. Yet this was the room I had definitely seen Shadow and Vince bring Leah's unconscious body. There was no mistaking that this was the one they had entered so I knew that there must be some sort of hidden room somewhere.
Vaguely recalling Shadow mentioning a secret room in the house a few months ago, I took a step forward, looking for any sign of one. I wasn't even sure what I was looking for, not really, but I was using the basic knowledge that I'd gathered from watching one too many films and reading one too many books.
Why the books were piled on the tables and not stacked on the shelves, I had no idea but I was definitely going to have to sort that out at some point. It really bugged me when people just threw books around and didn't care about the condition they were in. I liked to treat my books with care; I didn't even like folding the top corner over so I could remember where I'd stopped reading a book, that was how much it frustrated me.
And then I realised something.
If there was a secret passageway or something that would lead to wherever they had taken Leah, it would most likely have something to do with the empty bookshelves. That could explain why the books were littered all over the floor and stacked around the room instead of being where they were supposed to be.
Knowing it wouldn't be long before Shadow and Vince came back, I quickened my pace, searching and searching and searching. I ran my fingers along each shelf, eyes scanning the shelves to find something out of the ordinary, moving a random book that was left on one of them so I could see behind it.
Suddenly, at the fifth bookshelf, directly opposite the door, something happened. There had been a button hiding underneath a stray book and when I pressed down on it, I took a step back.
Hearing a noise that sounded like a door creaking open, my jaw dropped when the bookcase opened, like a door to reveal a hidden passageway. This was turning out to be something from a horror film and I wasn't sure I wanted to go any further.
I still did. Walking into the hidden passageway, I saw stairs spiraling downwards. What the hell? I thought to myself, slowly starting to climb down the stairs, each one creaking as I stepped down onto it. I felt like the stairs were going to break underneath me and then I'd fall straight to the bottom. Not knowing how far down these stairs led, I moved as fast as I could. The possibility that Shadow and Vince could return at any second was lurking at the forefront of my mind as I descended down the stairs because Shadow had made it clear he didn't want me in here for this very reason.
Finally reaching the bottom, I couldn't help but roll my eyes when I saw the door in front of me. It was like something from a book, the creepy passageway that led down to a dungeon and I seriously hoped the dungeon wouldn't be like the one I was suddenly picturing in my mind because my imagination was working over time, conjuring up images of things that truly were straight from a horror movie.
Taking a deep breath, I continued forward, knowing that Leah was on the other side of the door had me continuing on, rather than running back up the stairs and out of the library.
Fortunately, the door was unlocked so I was able to step straight into the room without having to search for a key. Once inside though, I stopped short, my brows furrowing as I fought to keep the smile from my face.
I was expecting a lot of things for a room designed purely for torturing purposes but nothing could have prepared me for what I found.
It was just so damn clean. There wasn't a speck of dust anywhere, there was no blood stains or anything like that and considering I'd just had to walk down some creepy ass stairs to get here, it was definitely surprising to see how clean it was. It was spotless.
"What the hell?" I muttered to myself, glancing around. The room was dimly lit, though I could see everything clearly, thanks to my vampire senses being heightened and everything. The tiled floor was spotless, the grey walls hadn't a speck of blood and I suddenly started picturing Alec on his hands and knees scrubbing at the floors, Shadow barking orders at him from the doorway where I stood. It was an amusing thought, to say the least.
There was a table to the left hand side of where I was standing, spanning along the length of the wall and on it, contained... nothing.
Literally nothing.
So there goes my expectations on seeing various objects related to torture methods. Apart from the table, there was nothing else in the room until I saw the figure huddled up by the far corner.
"Leah!" I rushed over to her, bending down beside her and placing a hand on her shoulder. Shaking her gently, she turned her head so that she was looking at me.
"What are you doing here, Vi?" Her voice was barely louder than a whisper but I still heard her perfectly. All emotion was gone from her expression and I couldn't detect any hint of emotion from her tone of voice either. It was like she'd resigned herself to the fact Shadow was going to hurt her for what she did and I didn't like that. I didn't like that at all.
"I wanted to see you." I answered truthfully. "Are you okay?"
Leah snorted. "Just peachy. I'm just waiting for your boyfriend to come and do whatever he wants to me just because he's angry. I mean, I'm over the moon that I'm going to be tortured!"
"He won't hurt you." I stated. "I won't let him."
"This is what he does," She rolled her eyes at me. "Someone does something wrong, he gets pissed and tortures them, makes them wish he would just kill them. I've known him longer than you have, Vi, I know how he works."
"He's just mad that you turned me, that's all, but he'll get over it. It's not like he has a choice, is it?" I said, trying to give her some sort of hope but that seemed to be easier said than done considering it looked like she'd given up already.
"The vampire life suits you," She told me but there was no mistaking the flash of guilt in her eyes. "I'm sorry though..."
"Don't be," I shook my head. "I don't like what you did and I really don't like that you only did this because of Shadow but I can't deny you have helped too."
She frowned, staring at me as though I'd gone mad. "I turned you against your will and you're not mad?"
I shrugged. "I was at first but then I started thinking-"
"That's dangerous." She commented, a smile on her face as she repeated the words she'd said to me all those months ago, when I had been trapped here against my will.
I smiled in return. "I know but I can't help it. When you said that our relationship was doomed, you were-"
"Wrong." She finished for me, eyes casting down to avoid my gaze.
"Right." I corrected, causing her eyes to flash back to mine, taken aback. "You were right. I was a human, after all. There was no way I'd have been able to stay human and be with him because of all the enemies he has. I'm not stupid, Leah. I was just disappointed and hurt that you turned me the way you did."
Surprise flashed across her face, expecting me to curse at her and damn her to hell for all eternity, I supposed. Well, she'd be waiting a long time for that, that's for sure, because I wasn't stupid enough to believe Shadow would have remained with me when I got older and older. At least one of my fears no longer applied so I didn't have to worry anymore.
"I'm not going to let Shadow hurt you." I then said, when she hadn't replied to my words. "I can't let him do this."
"He has his reasons and I do deserve it." She shrugged, still curled up in the corner, head resting against the wall as she kept her eyes on me. "You're too kind for your own good, you know? You should be the first one to hurt me."
"Yeah, well," I shrugged. "Being abused by my dad kind of ruined that for me. Besides, you don't deserve this. Nobody does deserves to be tortured."
"I betrayed all of you." I knew now that she wasn't just talking about her turning me.
"You killed your sister for us, how is that betraying us?" I asked her softly.
"Because I almost let her go."
I recoiled like I'd been slapped in the face, despite knowing that she had every right to want to save and protect her sister, no matter how different Raven's opinions were on family. Hearing that Leah almost let her go, knowing full well what the outcome would be if that had happened... it was difficult to pretend like that didn't effect me because it did.
Still, I planted a smile on my face and shook my head. "She's family. Of course you'll feel like you need to protect her."
"I almost let her go," She repeated the words more forcefully, as though she wasn't sure I'd heard her properly the first time around. "If I had, she would have killed you."
"Are you trying to make me hate you?" I asked curiously, brows furrowing as I stared down at her.
She shrugged. "It'd make it easier. As much as Shadow loves you, he won't let this go. We both know that."
Suddenly, a noise could be heard. A noise I recognised instantly as the front door. Eyes meeting Leah's, she knew it too because she stiffened.
Getting to my feet, I looked down at her. "I'm still going to try."
I'd never forgive myself if I sat back and let him hurt her.