Blood Debt (Touched Series Book 1) (31 page)

As I towel dried my hair
,
I sat in the bathroom
, wondering:
  What had I done to deserve this
?
  Just hours ago my mind raced with the possibilities of the future.  I had silently hoped to slow down the
“
Drake
F
reight
T
rain
,”
but I had never anticipated completely derailing it. 
Having satisfied my physical need for water, food and hygiene,
I let my mind wander back to our lunch today
.  I thought of the fantasies
he kept sharing
with me through his touch.  It had been a foreign experience and one that still gave me butterflies thinking about it.
 

Drake would think I stood him up tonight.
 
I still wasn’t convinced that Bianca’s plan had merit
,
and I hated the idea of being responsible for whether someone’s
blood line
continued - especially when I didn’t know anything about him or his family.  Sure he was handsome, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to him, but this whole Centaur relationship thing seemed to be for keeps. 
No matter how great he was, I wasn’t ready to commit myself to him or anyone
.

I wondered how long
it was
before people realized I’d been taken?  I hadn’t locked my car
,
and it had been abandoned close to Will’s house.  Hopefully someone was looking for me by now. 

I needed to
push thoughts of Drake out of my mind and
focus on the problem at hand.  How was I going to get out of here?  Where was here?    

Chapter 2
4

The next morning
,
sun peeked in around the window shades.  I woke up and looked at the door
. 
Aragon still stood in the same place
he had been when I fell asleep
.  I decided I’d try a different approach
: 
using my brightest smile and sweetest voice, I called,
“Good
morning
,
Aragon.”

Still nothing.  I
went to the bathroom
, thr
ew
my hair in a quick braid,
and changed quickly into the clothes I’d been given last night
: 
c
apri pants
,
a white t-shirt
, underwear and flops - all were precisely my size
.  As I approached the door
to the hallway
, Aragon opened it for me.  The house looked interesting
,
but I needed to see how far Aragon would let me go.  I was surprised when he trailed me wordlessly into the garden. 

Zandra joined me shortly after I arrived.  She stood a few feet away
from me
but addressed Aragon, “You may go find your relief.  I’ll expect you back promptly at 9 p.m.”  Aragon nodded and walked away.  Zandra turned her attention toward me.

“I trust you’re well rested?” 
Her words were friendly en
ough, but the tone she used was less than heart warming.

“
Uh. . . yes. 
I was just admiring your estate. . .” Crap
,
I didn’t know what to call her.  The
se were the
first words s
poken to me
since my arrival
,
and they took me by surprise
.  “It’s very . . . big.”

She furrowed her eyebrows at me, obviously stunned with my impressive vocabulary. 
Her response was curt,
“Right.  While you’re here, you will have a guard at all times.  Do not speak to any of them.  They’re here for your safety
,
not your entertainment
.  You’ll be guarded around the clock.”

“Is that necessary?  Am I in danger?”

“Danger?
Danger from yourself.  They won’t let you make a stupid mistake like your mother.
  There’s no phone, no
television
and no
internet
.  No visitors will be allowed until I can trust you
.  D
o you understand?
” 

I didn’t answer – she must have taken my silence as consent. 
She
started to walk away when I blurted out – “What about my father?
How will he know I’m okay?”

“You are my responsibility now.  He has been notified.”

A little
more
abrasive than I meant for it to be, I told her,
“I need to call a friend of mine in California.  He’ll be worried if he doesn’t hear from me.”

“Camille, you’ve had far too many distractions in your life.  I intend to simplify it for you, teach you things you
r
mother neglected.  I do not have the patience
or
the desire to cater to your every whim.”

She put her back to me and made a straight line for the house
.  W
hen she did, Aragon’s replacement arrived
:  a
nother large man unwilling to make eye contact with me.
 
The mosquitoes were the size of small birds
,
so I didn’t
stay
outside
long.  When I got in
to
the house
,
Zandra was nowhere to be seen.  The guard pointed to
the
staircase
,
and
he
followed me
to my room.   

When I returned, a plate of pastries,
a
thermos of
coffee, and
a pitcher of
juice
w
ere
waiting for me on the coffee table in the sitting area of the bedroom. 
It looked like more than enough food for the two of us
,
and I motioned for the new guard to take a seat beside me.  He wouldn’t make eye contact with me.  I gave a heavy sigh, “I won’t be able to eat it all myself
;
you could at least eat with me.”

I watched him closely
: 
his eyes didn’t even dart in my direction
,
and
,
if anything, his posture became more rigid as he stood against the door.  He pretended not to have heard a word. 

The pastries were all of my favorites: warm cinnamon rolls, donuts with colorful sprinkles on them
,
and onion bagels
with cream cheese
.  It seemed odd that anyone would know that this combination would be such a welcomed surprise.  After I had filled myself on breakfast
,
I wondered how I would occupy my time. 
I decided to go for another stroll outside.  I reached around the new guard for the door handle
,
but
he merely held his position in front of it.

I looked at him, frustrated, wondering how in the heck I was going to figure out how to get out of this place if I was confined to this room.  “I just need some air.  I want to go for a walk.”
 
He didn’t budge.  “Are you deaf?  I said I’m going outside to get some air.”

Still as a statue
,
he didn’t so much as blink in my direction.  When I didn’t let go of the door handle, and yanked on it
a second time
, the man put one hand on my wrist and inflicted more pain than I thought possible with just his thumb and middle finger.  I remembered
a
stupid self-defense class I had taken in middle school
that had taught
about pressure points on the body.  This man should have been teaching
that
class. 

I can’t say that he did any real damage to anything other than my ego, but if he could subdue me that quickly with two fingers, I doubted I would stand a chance trying to force myself through a door he was protecting. 
My earlier inspection of the windows on the wall of my room showed they’d been painted shut for decades.

I took another look around
.  I
f this was where I was staying, the dust was going to have to go.  I began in the bathroom
;
just as I had finished the last of the scrubbing and the whole place sparkled
,
I heard a soft knock at the door. 

The guard opened it and the same petite woman from last night stepped inside with a
nother
tray of food.  I didn’t need to get close to know exactly what it was: potato soup with spicy Italian sausage.  It couldn’t have been better timed
,
and it was another favorite
meal
.  I was too
pleased with the aroma
for my mind to realize how impossible it was for me to again have one of my most prized meals. 
     

During
lunch
,
a box of cleaning supplies had been delivered to the room.  The guard hadn’t spoken a word all
morning
,
so I wasn’t sure how anyone would have known I was doing my Cinderella impression, but I was thankful for the items. By dinner time, my bedroom was spotless.  I half expected a tray of food to be delivered again, but the knock on my door was from a man
who
had brought
a change of
clothes
for
me. 
Clothes may not have been the best description
;
a black evening gown with shoes that were appropriate for a movie release or a charity ball had been delivered. 
I showered and dressed quickly
, my mind rac
ing
with the possibilities.  W
hen I emerged from the bathroom
,
the guard opened the door to the hallway and ushered me down to the dining room. 

A meal that could have served twenty people waited for me.  I took a seat in the middle of the long table and waited to see who would join me
.  I
t was a full five minutes as the food began to cool
before
I realized
there was only one place setting and
no one else was coming.  The dinner was wonderful
,
but I could feel the first real pangs of loneliness.  After I had eaten, the guard took me to a library where I was allowed to select a book to read
.  It was a tough decision
;
all the books were old, really old.  Some were written in different languages
;
several were handwritten
. 
I searched for a romance of some kind and finally settled on
Wives and Daughters
written by Elizabeth Gaskell.  Once I’d made my choice, I
was
escorted back to my room.     

Aragon arrived at promptly 9 p.m.
,
just as he had been instructed to earlier.  I didn’t try to speak to him
,
and he didn’t acknowledge that he even saw me
as he assumed his post inside my room, directly in front of my door
.  I hated his watchful eyes; I could feel them on me all night long
,
but he never stepped closer to me than
the one step just inside my bedroom
. 

Day 2

I awoke to bright sunlight
again
. 
I ducked into the closet,
turned on the light,
pulled some clothes on that had been delivered the previous night
,
and dressed quickly.  The closet was roughly nine feet by five feet
;
I knew this
closet and my bathroom were the only places that I would have
some
sense
of privacy.  I used my
time in the closet
to feel around for any secret passageways
.  O
ne of the baseboards was loose
.  I
t looked like something was jammed behind it into the
plaster
, but I didn’t want to disassemble the closet my
second
morning here. 

Zandra
’s
home
may have been a pseudo prison, but
was surprisingly pleasant
to explore – at least as much as I was permitted to see
.
  The walls were adorned with equestrian paintings, statues of horses, centaurs, and ornate wooden finishing.  The floors were wood
accented with lush rugs in every room.  A
s I
walked outside to the gardens,
I
really t
ook
them in for the first time
.  I was not expecting the meticulously manicured plants, the stone walkways that shimmered in the sun, and the life
-
size
d
, marble Centaurs sprinkled throughout. 
When
Zandra
found me meandering through the expanse
,
my education
began
.