Indebted to the Vampires

Piper

The next few days werepretty much all the same. I got up, found the note shoved under my door, and started the day. Some days, Gretchen would serve me breakfast, other days, I’d make my own. Darren rarely sat with me at meals, and when he did, he didn’t talk to me much, no matter how much I tried.

“Why, you look absolutely thrilled to be here,” Rayne said as he plopped down on the stairs next to where I was scrubbing a stain from the floor.

I had finished all my chores early and had been looking forward to a nice relaxing evening instead of collapsing in my bed. However, God hated me.

Darren had stopped me in the kitchen and told me of a mysterious red stain that had suddenly appeared. As the maid, of course, it was my job to get rid of it. Since I wasn’t exactly an expert in tile cleaning, I had been scrubbing at the same spot for over an hour, and still, the ugly red spot had hardly budged.

“Can I help you?” I sighed and tossed my scrubbing brush back into my bucket of water.

Rayne smirked down at me, his hands laced in front of him as he leaned on his knees. “No, just enjoying your pitiful existence.”

Rolling my eyes, I turned back to my bucket and grimaced at the reddish colored water. I’d gotten this much stuff out of the tile, but still, it glared at me like a neon light. Suddenly, a thought came to mind. I glanced at Rayne’s overly smug face and then back to the stain.

“You did this, didn’t you?” I arched a brow at him, ready for a reason to smack him upside the head like he deserved.

Annoying punk.

Leaning back on the stairs, Rayne sniggered. “Now, why would I do that? I have so many other more important things to do than to make more work for you.”

I snorted. “Yeah, like I believe that.”

Standing up, Rayne stomped over to where I knelt and crouched down beside me. “You should watch your tongue unless you want to be out of a job and back to living in your car.”

I gaped at him. “How did you know that?”

“I have my ways.” When I only stared at him, he sighed. “It’s called the Internet. I did a background check on you. You’ve been job hopping for the last few months after you got laid off.” His nose scrunched up in disgust. “Also, your car is a mess. You should take more pride in your things.”

Why, that snot-nosed little brat. Who did he think he was?

Irritation filled me, and I jumped to my feet. “And you should mind your own business. What I do or don’t do with my own stuff is my business, not yours.” I huffed and picked up my bucket of water, glaring down at him. “If you ever do something like this again, I will make sure all your clothes are dyed pink in the next wash.”

I whipped back around, making sure the water in the bucket sloshed over the side and splashed Rayne’s feet.

“Hey!” Rayne jumped back and snarled. “Watch it. You better come back here and apologize. You’re nothing but a maid.”

“And you’re nothing but a spoiled brat,” I snapped back at him, flipping him off. I marched back toward the kitchen, muttering to myself the entire way.

I might be a maid, but that didn’t give him the right to treat me like shit. I worked hard to clean their clothes and keep their ridiculously large house clean. Really, who needed this many rooms? There were only six of them and way too much unused square footage to need this big of a house.

I slammed my bucket down on the counter a bit more forcefully than needed.

Darren stood at the stove, his back to me as he stirred a pot on the burner. He glanced away from the pot for a moment to arch a brow. “Bad day?”

I grunted and went to the sink. Dumping the water into the sink, I twisted toward Darren, one hip leaned against the counter. “Tell me, did all these guys personally shove sticks up their asses or were they born that way?”

“I wouldn’t speak so freely of the masters,” Darren warned though I caught a hint of a smile on his lips. “They have excellent hearing.”

I sniffed, not at all worried. “Then hear this, bite me!”

Darren chuckled, his shoulders shaking with the effort. He went back to stirring the delicious smelling pot. Remarkably, not even the prospect of food made up for my day.

“What, you think that’s funny?” I spat, staring at him like he had lost his mind.

“Just your wording. The irony.” Darren shook his head and then started to plate the food. He gestured to the bar for me to sit.

I flopped into my seat and forked up the pasta creation in front of me, but I was so mad that I couldn’t even get any into my mouth. I threw my fork back down and growled. “These guys are the worst pains in the asses I’ve ever come across. If they aren’t trying to embarrass me, they’re trying to break my back with the amount of work they give me.”

“So, quit if you hate it so much,” Darren answered. Besides, I’m the one who writes your list of chores. Maybe it should be me you hate.”

He had a point. However, writing a list didn’t make him an asshole, not like that little, redheaded jerk face.

“I can’t hate you. You’re just doing what you’re told. Just like me.”

Darren made a huff of confirmation.

“As far as quitting,” I glared down at my plate, and my lower lip poked out on its own accord, “I would if I could. However, jobs aren’t that easy to come by with my track record.”

I wish Rayne had been lying, but he hadn’t. I’d like to say that it was the jobs. Each job I had gotten from the temp agency had been one piece of shit assignment after the other. But to be honest, it was me. When I first lost my cushy job and started at the agency, I’d been picky. Too picky. I turned down too many good jobs because I thought I was better than that.

I’d been wrong.

Now, I counted my blessings for this job. The pay was reasonable even if it didn’t come with health care or dental. However, I could afford to save for any mishaps with what I saved from living at the job. It sure beat the hell out of living in my car. More comfortable too.

I turned my attention back to Darren. The company wasn’t half bad either, the couple of jerk face masters aside.

“So, I heard.” Darren inclined his head. “Living in your car, huh?” He raised his brows at me, pity in his eyes. “It takes quite a bit to drive someone to those lengths.”

I shrugged, stabbing at my noodles but not really trying to eat them. “Not really. It made sense with the lack of funds to pay for an apartment.”

“What about your parents?” Darren asked, surprising me. This was the longest conversation I’d ever had with Darren. The fact that he was even asking me about myself was a miracle. Usually, he was trying his best to get me out the door or back to work.

“They’re not here, and even if they were, I wouldn’t go back to them.” I left it at that, not wanting to go into my family history.

“So, you’re here on your own with no family to look for you?” Darren asked a bit strangely. “That’s not a safe place to be for a young woman.”

I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. “I can take care of myself.”

Darren snorted. “That I can’t believe.”

We continued to eat in silence after Darren’s condescending remark. I wanted to argue that I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but the memory of how easily Drake had overtaken me. How close I’d been to letting him take me up against his bedroom door.

I wasn’t a large woman. I wasn’t petite either. If it came down to brute strength, I couldn’t hold my own against even Rayne, the smallest of them. Though the thought of Wynn overcoming me wasn’t an unpleasant thought, I wouldn’t want to be at the mercy of that brat.

Darren took both of our plates before I could offer to clean them and then disappeared into the dining room. A few low voices came from there, and I was half tempted to see if my employers were there. What did they eat? So, far I hadn’t seen them get anything remotely close to food besides Rayne’s bottle of red crap.

Suddenly, Darren showed back up in the kitchen. His eyes landed on me, and he stiffened. “You should go to bed. The masters have some visitors tonight, and they don’t want to be disturbed.”

The tone of his voice told me there was no room for argument. The voices in the dining room got louder, and there were laughter and some moaning noises. Suddenly, I wanted to be back in my room.

As I scrambled up the back stairs, my face heated. What kind of people was I working for? Nymphomaniacs? Maybe one of those BDSM kind of groups?

They did want to be called Master.

Whips and chains came to mind as well as the image of Antoine in some assless leather pants. My body shivered deliciously at the thought. I could totally see any of them being into that kind of stuff.

I paused at my bedroom door and was half tempted to head back down, but Darren’s warning look before had taken all my courage. Turning the knob, I ducked inside just as a loud cry of ecstasy filled the house.

Yeah, I was going with sex-addicts.

Laying in my bed that night, I had a hard time sleeping. All I could think about was what was going on downstairs. Eventually, after several hours of tossing and turning in my lovely sheets, I climbed out of bed and inched toward my door. I pressed my ear to the wood of the door and listened.

Nothing.

Opening the door, I poked my head out into the hallway. When I didn’t hear anything, I stepped out of my room. I stood there for longer than I should have, waiting for something or someone to attack me or whatever it was that Darren and the rest had warned me against.

I laughed a bit at my silliness, shaking my head.

Heading down the stairs to the kitchen, I thought of the batch of cookies I’d seen Gretchen hide up in the cabinet early today. That’s what I needed after a shit day, a glass of milk and a big fat cookie. Sounded like a nice treat to me.

With a little shimmy in my step, I made my way around the island and over to the cabinet. I reached up and tried to reach behind the box of macaroni, searching for those cookies. My fingers just about got them when a low moan drifted into the kitchen, freezing me in place.

I dropped back onto my heels and spun around, my eyes darting toward the entrance of the dining room. Were they really still at it? I waited, my ears peeled for another sound, but nothing came. Must have been my imagination.

Still, I didn’t waste any more time. I climbed up onto the counter and grabbed the container of cookies. With a happy grin on my face, I began to turn around.

“You know, it’s dangerous to be climbing on counters like that.”

My socked foot slipped on the marble countertop as my eyes shot up to see, Rayne leaning against the door to the dining room. I let out a startled shout and threw my hands up to catch myself. The cookies flew from my hand and spun through the air as my eyes squeezed shut.

Instead of crashing onto the marble, my body slammed into a pair of strong arms.

Gasping, my eyes flew open. Light brown met amber. My heart threatened to jump out of my chest, and the sniggering grin on Rayne’s lips made me scowl. Shoving at his arms, I dropped my feet to the ground.

“Don’t do that,” I snapped, smacking him on the arm.

Rayne only grinned in amusement at my violence. “I told you it was dangerous.”

“Yes, but whose fault is that?” I bent down and searched for the cookie container. Finally finding it, I climbed back to my feet with a happy squeal.

“All that for a couple of cookies?”

My exasperated eyes slid in his direction. “You obviously haven’t had Gretchen’s cookies.”

Rayne’s lips tipped down. “Of course, I have. They’re not worth breaking your neck.”

I lifted a shoulder and dropped it, popping the lid off to snag one of those cookies. Taking a large bite of it, I closed my eyes briefly. “Hmmm. Yep. Worth it.” I gave him a sly grin which he returned with a curious stare. I started for the stairs and then paused, my socked foot sliding on the floor as I turned back around. “Why did you save me? I thought you couldn’t wait to get rid of me. If I had broken my neck, you’d have had your wish.”

Shifting from one foot to the other, Rayne moved over to the island and leaned on the top of the counter. He gestured a hand toward the container. I hesitated but then figured they were technically his by right. Moving over to the island, I slid the container across the table, leaning on my own side so that we were across from each other. I watched him with wary eyes, taking another bite of my cookie.

Snagging a cookie for himself, Rayne bit into it. Unlike me, he didn’t coo and moan at the taste, he actually didn’t seem to care for it at all. Weird.

Licking his lips, Rayne met my gaze. “If you die, we’d get another maid, one who might be even more pathetic than you. At least, you aren’t falling all over yourself trying to get into my brothers’ beds.”

I forced myself not to react. I’d only really thought about getting into one of the brothers’ beds, Wynn, and that was only in my mind. I’d never try and sneak into his bed.

Shaking my head, I grabbed the cookie container back from his ungrateful clutches. “I need this job, as you know.” I sneered at him before spinning away.

Halfway up the stairs, he called out to me. “Remember that when you have your fingers deep inside of your pussy tonight.”

I chunked a cookie at his head and didn’t wait for his laughter to follow me up the stairs on the way back to my room. Stupid ass hat.