The Lie (The Skyy Huntington Series) (12 page)

“Oh crap, I forgot the pooper scooper for her messes,” I said as I realized it.

“Don’t worry about it, a little bit of poo in my yard won’t matter to me,” he said and laughed. We opened the car doors and I set Cupcake onto the driveway, she began sniffing about immediately, happily wagging her tail.

Aiden was quick to get all of my items out of the trunk before I could even protest. He patiently waited as Cupcake did her business in his perfectly manicured lawn, and then we walked up to his huge front door. The inside of his house was spotless, almost like a museum. Lots of expensive paintings and collectibles which I had a feeling were the real deal were all over the place. Most of the lights were off in the house since it was night time but what I could see was very impressive. There were actually two staircases that led up to a second story, he took my bags up the one to the left. I followed him still trying to take in everything about his house.

We went down a fairly long hallway and at the end of it he opened the door to his “guest room”. I could only describe this room as a small suite. There was a huge king size bed against the back wall of the room which was the back part of the house facing out over the water. The bed had tons of huge comfortable looking pillows on it, and a puffy down comforter that looked like you could just flop down in and snuggle up for ages. On the left side of the room was a fireplace with a small seating area, two chairs and a coffee table. On the wall the door was on was another seating area, this one much bigger though with a loveseat and two large comfortable chairs, a small bar area complete with a mini fridge and full liquor bar. There was also a TV mounted on the wall and a stereo system. Off to the right was the bathroom, and what a bathroom this was. If this was his guest bathroom I couldn’t imagine what his bathroom must look like. A
huge
whirlpool tub, the big kind that you can actually fit two people in comfortably was the real centerpiece here. It had mirrors behind both ends of it that created an infinity effect. The sink area had two sinks and so much room you could consider it a makeup room for a stage production. And, there was a regular toilet and a bidet!

The bedroom and all the furniture in it were all neutral shades of beige, white and burgundy. Though the most impressive part of it was the windows. The entire back wall of the room was mostly huge glass windows. And on these windows were some kind of metal shades that could lower or rise to your liking with a remote control, and totally and completely block out
all
sunlight if you wished.

I was guilty again of having my mouth hanging open. Aiden had set my bags on the couch and turned back to me. “Well this is the guest room, but if you’re not comfortable in here I have another room you could use. It’s the one my mother occupies when she is here,” he gestured to another room by waving his hand in the air.

“Uhhh, I think this room will do just fine. I feel like I am in the Presidential suite or something,” I said, still amazed. Aiden bent down to take the leash off Cupcake. “Oh, are you sure it’s ok if she is off the leash? She is house trained she won’t go inside or anything…” I said.

“Of course, she can do as she pleases, even if she does make a mess it isn’t like it can’t be cleaned. Let me show you where the kitchen is, and also the computer room and recreation room if for some reason you cannot sleep,” he said as he gestured towards the exit.

I followed him out of the room and back down the hall where the stairs were, then we went over a magnificent walkway that crossed over the foyer to the other side of the house where the other staircase met the top floor. There was a whole other hallway and set of rooms over here. He opened a door to his computer room/office which was really amazing. He had four computers set up with some
huge
monitors. Seriously, one of them was bigger than the TV I had in my room. After that he showed me the recreation room, which had a pool table, a dart board, another stereo system, a huge TV mounted on the wall, and about six different gaming systems with racks of hundreds of very organized video games, DVD’s and CD’s. There was also a wall of bookshelves with loads of books on them. I could spend a year in here and never get bored.

After the rec room, he showed me another set of stairs off the very end of that hallway, we didn’t go up them but he informed me that was the way to his bedroom in case I needed him and that was the only room up there. He had his own floor.

Then we went downstairs into his kitchen, which was not to be outdone. There was so much counter space in there! Everything was new and modern, but what was the funniest part of all, none of the appliances looked like they had ever been used.

“Of course I was not expecting human company so I am embarrassed to say my food choices are a little limited. I have a couple of frozen pizzas in the freezer, maybe some frozen meals not sure. In the pantry should be some soups, crackers, snacks. The water tap has a filter on it, and the glasses are in that cupboard, and plates are over there,” he said pointing to each.

“Aiden, this is more than I ever expected. Thank you so much for your hospitality, you’ve got a beautiful house.” I smiled at him sincerely. I meant every word. I did wonder why he had human food in his house, and curiosity got the better of me and I had to ask. “How come you have food in the kitchen?”

He smiled and replied, “Every now and then I do get a craving for human food, and I actually do consume liquor quite often. I also have meetings with investors from time to time and like to keep a stocked liquor bar and at least some edible things around for them.” I nodded. It made sense I guess.

As we were walking back up to my guest room, I noticed all the windows in the house had those cool metal shutters. Those must have cost a fortune, because there were a
lot
of windows in his house. I felt like I was checked into a super luxurious hotel.

Since I was already in my PJ’s I didn’t need to change. Back up in my guest room I filled up Cupcake’s bowl with some water and placed some dry food out for her in case she wanted a snack. Aiden was kind of just standing close to the doorway not sure what to do or say. “Are you sleepy?” I asked him, trying to break the ice.

He shook his head, “No, not sleepy, just thinking about tonight. Wondering about the book and the man, some of the things he said to me. But, as I said we won’t worry about that until tomorrow after you’ve had some sleep. Can I get you anything? The fridge up here has some soda and beer,” he offered. What a great host.

“Sure, I’ll take a beer. You feel like chatting or watching some TV or something while I wind down? If I tried to sleep right now I would just lie there, awake for hours.”

He walked over to the mini bar and pulled out two bottles of beer, and handed one to me. I sat on the edge of the bed and Cupcake jumped up to follow. “Oh no Cupcake! Get down!” I started to scold her, but Aiden interrupted me.

“Skyy, don’t worry about her, she’s fine. She can sleep in the bed, on the bed, wherever she wants. She’s precious, I don’t mind her being here at all.”

I took a sip of my beer and looked sheepish. Here was this guy, no…
vampire
, who had probably saved my life tonight, who offered his home to me and was being a true gentlemen. I felt like it was all too good to be true, waiting for his fangs to pop out and for the dream to be over. But it didn’t. We continued to talk for another two hours, sitting on the comfy couch in the guest bedroom. I drank another beer and felt a lot more relaxed than I had four hours ago. Aiden really liked to talk about movies, which got kind of boring after a while to me, but I just smiled politely and kept up the conversation.

Suddenly he looked kind of anxious. He sat on the edge of the couch, and turned to me. I thought “this is it, he’s gonna bite me”. Then I kicked myself for being so stupid. “I hate to ask you this Skyy, but the sun will be rising soon, if you would like to continue to talk and socialize would it bother you if I put the shades in the room down? I won’t burn up in the sun if I am indoors, but it does make my skin very uncomfortable.” I knew he was embarrassed to ask me.

I hopped up off the couch to grab the remote control he had shown me before. “No, of course I don’t mind. I think this is the coolest thing I have ever seen really. I’d have put them down before going to sleep anyway,” I offered. And it was true. I clicked the button and the metal shades started to lower slowly, and before too long the windows were sealed up light-tight.

I sat back on the couch, and he looked a lot more relaxed. I finished up the last half of my beer and finally started to feel sleepy. He caught me yawning. “You better get some sleep, it’s been an eventful night and we have a lot to discuss and do tomorrow,” he said. I nodded in agreement, and stood up stretching and yawning again.

It was an odd feeling, I didn’t know what to do. To hug him or shake his hand or just walk away towards the bed. Thankfully he offered to help me take all the pillows off the bed. I’d never understood why people had six hundred decorative pillows on their bed, but it looked pretty once it’s all made up. After that I crawled under the covers and Cupcake snuggled up next to me. Aiden came over to my side of the bed and rubbed the top of my head again. “I’ll either be in the computer room, or in my bedroom if you need me, of course you can always call me too if you don’t feel like getting up. Sleep well.” And with that he walked out and shut the bedroom door.

Much to my dismay I found that even after two beers and some great conversation I still could not shut my eyes and sleep. With the shutters down and the room being dark, I had no idea what time it really was, but I bet I had laid there a good three hours before finally drifting off.

I woke up feeling well rested. The bed was like sleeping on a cloud, it was so comfy. I had to grab my phone off the night table to see what time it was. To my shock, it was after 4 p.m. in the afternoon. I had slept the whole day away! I hopped out of the bed, took a quick shower, and threw on my change of clothes, brushed my teeth and ventured out of the guest room.

I was starving but wanted to see if Aiden was awake somewhere in the house first before I went to the kitchen. I walked down the hall on my side of the house, crossed the walkway and peeked into the computer room, and sure enough there he was.

I knocked lightly on the door, but I think he already knew I was there. He spun around in his computer chair, stood up and smiled at me. Much to my amazement he crossed the room and gave me a short hug in greeting. “Did you sleep well?” he asked, still smiling.

“It took me awhile to fall asleep but I did sleep great after that. I need to let Cupcake outside, do you mind if I head downstairs? Not sure if you have an alarm I might trigger,” I asked.

He escorted me downstairs, shut off the alarm I had been wondering about, and then opened a sliding door to his back yard for Cupcake. He walked back into the kitchen where I was standing. “I went by the store earlier today, I picked up some fruit, pastries, bagels and a few different beverages for you. I wasn’t sure what you liked so I hope it is ok until we can get you some real food.”

I made myself a bagel and he asked me to bring it upstairs to the computer room to see some information he had found.

Aiden had been busy apparently, and also had not slept. You would never know, he looked wide awake and as perfect as ever in some jeans and a casual grey turtleneck sweater. Again, I felt so homely next to him, my long auburn hair was still wet from the shower and I had only brought a pair of sweats, a plain black long sleeve t-shirt, and a hoodie.

“I was doing some research on the man who broke into your house. His name is Roger Pitkins. He is fifty-one, and is a registered sex offender, did time in jail for raping a woman and again for sexual assault on a child. He also has a crime record from his younger years for breaking and entering,” he said.

I cringed. A sex offender was bad enough but someone who hurt innocent children really pissed me off. I almost wish Aiden had done away with him.

Aiden continued, “Since he was single and apparently living alone, I plan to go by his house and check his mail. His phone bills should show any numbers he called since he said this whole break in was scheduled via phone and internet.”

“Stealing mail is a crime you know?” I said, not really sure what I was getting at.

Aiden looked at me, “You’re house got broken into, this guy is a registered sex offender and you’re worried about me stealing his mail?”

“Well, I guess you’re right. I don’t care what happens to him, I just don’t want you to get into any trouble over it,” I said taking a bite of my bagel.

“You can trust me, there is no way I will be caught. If I don’t want to be seen, you will not see me,” he said assuredly. “Now, on to the next part. The book he was looking for. I need to ask you, was your grandfather ever involved in anything…odd? Any kind of clubs, societies, things like that?”

I thought for a second; nothing really came to mind as far as odd. “Well, not that I know of, but I didn’t really know my grandfather’s day to day life very well. He was just my grandfather and I loved him, loved visiting him and spending time with him. I know he went to the VFW a lot,” It was all I could offer at the moment.

Aiden looked deep in thought while I finished off my bagel. “Well, the man described this book, and I have heard of its kind before, and have seen one once in person.
If
this is what he said it was, it would be a very dangerous occult book. Think demonology, necromancy, those kinds of things. Let’s hope we are wrong, but prepare for the worst. Again, it could have very well been the wrong address, but we need to start combing your house today to make sure. And until then, I don’t want you staying there alone. You can stay here as long as you need to or call Christian if you would rather stay with him.” He was back to Mr. Take Charge again.

I was scared, the way he described it made it all seem ominous. But I could never remember my grandfather doing anything odd or weird, and especially never practicing any kind of black magic. I was at a loss for words, and just sat there silently.