The first thing Mira noticed when she woke up was the smell.
This was no antiseptic bleach nor earthy smell. No, it was more of lavender and expensive wood.
Her eyes immediately snapped open and she almost panicked because what she was staring at was a very expensive interior design.
She blinked up at a ceiling so high and dark that it might as well have been a palace.
She immediately threw off the duvet which was softer than any cloud she had ever slept in or even dreamed of, and then the real panic started for her.
Her clothes were gone.
The silk pants and cloth she had worn were nowhere to be found on her.
Instead, she was in a slip of silk that was so thin and icy blue that it felt like being dressed like a ghost. Or more particularly a fancy cloud.
Okay. Okay. Someone undressed me!
The thought alone was like a sword to her head.
Did the motel creeps end up getting me? What the fuck?
Her skin crawled badly so she scrambled out of the bed as her bare feet slapped against the cold polished floorboards.
"This has to be a fucking joke!" she whispered to the elegant yet oppressive silence.
The room was huge and very expensive.
And… locked.
Of course it was locked, she thought as she yanked on the ornate door handle over and over.
She ran to the windows and clawed at the heavy velvet curtains like they had personally offended her, then ripped them aside.
"Yep! Locked too!"
There were heavy locks on the darn windows too.
Mira started to pace as the silk nightgown clung to her in a way that felt both absurd and terrifyingly vulnerable.
Every single sound she heard from outside the room was like a potential threat to her.
And then she started to hear footsteps for real. Heavy and deliberate ones that stopped right outside her door.
The lock turned with a sound that felt like a bone snapping and she backed up until she was at the very edge of the stupidly large bed.
The door swung open and the man who filled the doorway wasn't one of the thugs from the alley this time.
He was something else entirely.
He was tall, broad shouldered, with smart streaks of silver in his dark hair and eyes the color black.
I don't even think I've seen anyone with the exact shade of black as their eye color.
He was dressed in dark clothing too with his posture rigid and his hands clasped behind his back.
He didn't just enter the room. Mira felt like his presence occupied it, like it sucked out all the air and replaced it with an obvious sense of threat.
He looked at her up and down, such a dismissive sweep that made Mira feel like she was a specimen on a slide.
It was the kind of look that a butcher gives the side of his beef just before cutting it up.
His thin lips parted in an unamused way. "So this is the human that my nephew has decided to shackle himself to instead of just doing things my own way."
His voice sounded like gravel being ground under a boot. "I expected more. So much more than… this."
Oh hello to you too, you condescending bastard.
Mira wished she could say it out loud but then this man looked like one who would have no issue breaking her into two and she meant that literally.
He stepped inside and closed the door.
And just like that the room got about fifty percent smaller and a thousand percent more dangerous.
Then he started to circle her while Mira turned each time, trying to make sure she kept him in her direct sight even though she felt like a mouse being sized up by a very well-dressed and very disappointed hawk.
"You look exactly like the trashy father that birthed you," he said again in a disgusted low voice. "But then, betrayers always breed betrayers. Trash always breeds trash. You even proved that as a young girl."
Uh?
Mira was getting so confused now because what the actual hell was he talking about?
"Look here, sir. I don't know what you're talking about, I don't even know you!" Words finally stumbled out of her mouth even though they were shaky and too high.
"Silence!"
He didn't yell, yet the quiet snap of his voice was worse and it pissed Mira off even more.
"Do not even dare to insult me with that ignorance of yours. You were so perfect with it as a child too. You were there watching when your father and his cohorts slaughtered our kind. You had even dared to make up so many lies about my nephew before that very day."
Our kind? What on earth is this racist classist bullshit that this man is rambling on and on about?
The fact that she could not understand anything, as if he was speaking a different language, was already giving her a headache.
He then pulled out a silver cigarette case.
Click. Click. Click.
He didn't even smoke, he just continued to click it and it was the single most annoying terrifying sound Mira had ever heard.
It looked like some little countdown to her doom.
"You must know that you do not belong here. You never will. If you become a parasite to my boy, I'll just take you out."
Mira had already had enough, she couldn't take anymore of it.
"I said I do not know what the hell you're talking about, you old man! For fuck's sake!" she snapped.
The man then leaned in close to her, so close that she could see every line on his face, every black in his eyes.
"Don't worry, we'll remind you. Slowly and painfully."
Mira shifted back fearfully.
"Lucas said you're his to deal with. Fine, he deserves that very one. And I do trust my nephew…" His eyes then turned ice again. "…Just not you. So try something deadly once and I'll not hesitate to carve your name into the same stone that bears your father's."
"I don't know who your nephew is, you old man! I don't even know why I'm here or where I am at! Why won't you quit the stupid stories and just…"
Mira trailed off as his eyes dropped dangerously and then he took a last step towards her, boxing her against the wall.
And then the door creaked open.
"Uncle Aurelian."
The voice was like honey and sunshine, everything the last minutes hadn't been for Mira.
"You'll frighten her, uncle. And that's not the welcome she deserves."
Mira's eyes flew to the entrance and standing in the doorway was a living breathing Instagram filter.
Someone with glossy red hair, eyes like frozen flakes and lips like a perfect soft pink. She even moved like every step was choreographed for maximum elegance.
Aurelian glanced over and scoffed, but then he actually stepped back.
He folded his arms while looking like he was switching channels to watch a different kind of show.
The woman glided into the room with a smile so perfect that it looked like it came with its own lighting crew.
She reached out and brushed Mira's shoulders like they were sorority sisters while Mira stiffened.
She was way too confused to process anything happening right now.
"Lorena," the lady said in a soft voice, "it's been a while, don't tell me that you can't remember me?"