“Thank you,” Zari said and tried not to be too self-conscious about his nearness when Erou sat down next to her and bent forward to reach for the computer mouse.
She jerked when upon moving the mouse, his arm brushed against her breasts.
Erou flushed. “Apologies.” He hadn’t meant to cop a feel, but he was a man, too. He would not forget how soft she felt against him.
She cleared her throat. “It’s all right.” Blushing, too, she quickly turned her gaze to the screen. “Is it there?”
“Ah…yes.” This time, he was extra cautious as he moved the computer mouse. He entered his password as a potential Master to access the database and in seconds, he had retrieved the files of Miranda Donnelly.
According to the files, Miranda was a Legacy pet, which meant she had come from a family who had served vampires for generations. It was the opposite of her situation. Zari was a First Made, a pet acquired through “other” means.
She read the name of Miranda’s Master, who also happened to be a baron. “Do you know him?”
Erou nodded. “He’s a jolly fellow, carefree, the kind who spends most of his time in balls.”
“Do you mean parties?”
He shook his head. “No. I do mean ‘balls’. He’s lived in Chalys all his life.”
“Ah.” Now Zari understood. The Kingdom of Chalys was a world-famous attraction because all its people still lived according to traditional Victorian customs. Women wore corsets and gowns, men wore breeches, and people rode carriages and horses instead of cars and buses. There was no Internet, no digital gadgets, and plumbing and air-conditioning were the only modern-day technologies allowed on the land. Outside Chalys, humans believed the customs were to make the kingdom a permanent tourist attraction. What they didn’t know was that the old ways were to prevent humans from finding out that ninety-nine percent of the kingdom was made up of otherworlders.
“There’s a note on the file,” Zari remarked. “Something about her not being a native from Chalys. Does that matter?”
“For old-fashioned families like the baron’s here, yes. Legacy pets raised outside Chalys are considered…impure.”
“And the plot thickens,” she muttered. Miranda was the killer. That was a fact. But why did she kill a homeless man? She needed evidence to clear Rhapsody’s name, but her visions didn’t count since Alexandru would kill her if she ended up revealing herself as a soul seer.
“Insanity is always a possibility,” Erou suggested, his tone pensive as he scrolled down to read the rest of the file. “But I’ve talked to the guards deployed to watch her and they haven’t noticed anything strange about the girl.”
“Then maybe, whatever made her do it only happened in the past. And it has yet to happen again.” Her eyes slid back to the screen and the photo of Miranda Donnelly looked back at her. She was like Little Miss Girl Next Door, someone who wouldn’t even be able to hurt a fly. Her background was impeccable and there was nothing dysfunctional about her family.
“What if it’s the baron?” Zari asked. “What if he’s the one making her do it?”
“For what purpose?”
She lifted her shoulders in a confused shrug. “I don’t know…I just feel like this girl’s so devoted to her Master…wouldn’t it seem like whatever’s caused her to do that, it would have something to do with the baron?”
Someone knocked on the door.
“Enter,” Erou said.
The door opened, the assistant bowing before mumbling, “Another Master would like to use the room, milord.”
“We’ll be out in a minute,” Erou said. “Thank you.”
“Understood, milord.” The assistant bowed again before leaving.
“We have to go,” Erou told her as he stood up and pulled her seat out for her. “This room can only be used by one Master at a time.”
“Oh. I see.”
The worry in her gaze prompted him to say, “I’ll have someone ask around about the baron.” His words had her brightening. The sight of her smiling was both a painful and joyous sight. Why, he wondered, did he have to feel this strongly for a girl who couldn’t be his?
“Lady Zari…” He had been about to reach for the knob before turning around, surprising Zari into stepping back. The sight had his jaw hardening. This time, she was stepping back. It meant something had happened between her and the hunter – something that probably caused Zari to harbor false hopes again.
“You know this won’t end well, don’t you?”
She nodded.
Frustration lined his voice as he demanded, “Then why? Why would you choose him?” He stepped towards her, something in him making Erou want to hold her—-
But before he could, the door opened.
In front of him, Zari whitened.
Even without looking behind him, Erou already knew there was only one person who could make Zari react like that.
Chapter Five
The moment Alexandru appeared in the doorway, a breathtaking smile broke over her lips, prompting him to ask teasingly, “Did you miss me?”