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The male voice sighs in frustration as I hear heavy footsteps moving throughout the house. “Okay, Zia. Yeah, I get that. I wasn’t thrilled you killed someone to get shelter, but I can understand it, and we handled it so things were legit. It’s the second body that I’m struggling with. And I really hope you have more food to eat here than just beans.”

Assuming he’s referring to the woman Zia tried to feed to me, this guy doesn’t know about me. That I’m here, that I’m a vampire, and if he really is her brother, Zia knows he’ll be pissed about that too. Why else would she drag me around the house before she hid me in here?

“She was too close to the house. Snooping around and looking in the windows. I was trying not to blow my cover!”

Yeah, he has no idea, and Zia is lying to keep it that way.

Which probably means he’d scold her for one count of kidnapping on top of the two counts of murder. I wonder how he’d feel about opening someone else’s mail.

“There are other ways of dealing with that, Zia. You didn’t need to kill her just because she was curious.” This guy sounds exasperated. And definitely like a brother, a big brother at that, because the tone he keeps using is similar to the way Silas talks to me at times.

That whole I’m annoyed but I care about you even when you make stupid decisions, tone.

I’m definitely familiar with that.

My stomach growls as I keep listening, the hunger pangs getting worse with each passing second. And that noisy shit was enough to wake up my sleeping cat.

Roger lets out one of his god awful meows, one that sounds more like he’s been trapped inside a dryer set to tumble for four hours, before he throws himself off the toilet with a deafening thud.

“What was that?” The male voice hisses as the footsteps stop.

“Nothing. What are you talking about? I didn’t hear anything,” Zia, not so tactfully, says.

I look around the bathroom for Roger, ready to break my back in my weakened state by picking him up so he doesn’t make any more noise, but I don’t see him. How the hell don’t I see him? He’s huge.

My eyes dart around the toilet, looking under it, next to, and when my cat is nowhere to be seen, I start to panic.

“Roger,” I whisper as I turn away from the door. “Roger, where are you?”

I’m worried if I move I’ll make too much noise, and Zia and her guest will hear me, but my cat was only getting started with that screech he let out, so I need to find him quickly.

Which shouldn’t be hard. We’re in a goddamn bathroom.

I search the sink, knowing damn well Roger didn’t jump up there because he hasn’t been that high up since he was a kitten, but where the hell did he go?

Checking to make sure Zia has her maybe-brother occupied, I turn away completely, take one step, then all hell breaks loose.

Roger screams as I step on his tail, then he moves faster than he has in years, darting between my legs only to trip my panicked ass. I go down to the tile floor in slow motion, my arms flailing as I try to find something to hang on to, ripping the towel rack off the wall as I thump against the vanity before landing on my back.

“What the fuck was that, Zia?” The heavy footsteps quickly approach the bathroom, accompanied by Zia’s lighter ones.

“Nothing, Rae! There’s no one in the bathroom!”

Real smooth, Zia.

Rolling onto my stomach, I army crawl past my cat, who’s licking his tail and looking at me like I’m a complete asshole, then quietly push open the shower curtain.

The knob on the door turns a few times, my panic skyrocketing when I hear the male—Rae—shout, “This better not be another human, Azizia. I swear to—”

“It’s not!” she blurts. “There isn’t another human in there!”

She’s not wrong.

But I don’t exactly need this guy finding me in here, either. I’m not strong enough to fight right now, and for some reason, I want to keep Zia from getting into more trouble. As fucked up as that may be.

I pull myself up on the edge of the tub as carefully as I can before climbing into it, closing the curtain just as Rae throws himself against the locked door and breaks it open.

“Whoever’s in here, better get the—what the fuck is that?!”