Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) by Beverly Toney Page A

swiftly left the room with one of the three dogs trailing
him. The other two dogs stayed in the room, one placing itself near
the window and the other walking over to the bathroom door and lying
down. The entire scene felt orchestrated and rehearsed and it made me
uneasy.
    “ Cheyenne,
why don’t you get yourself cleaned up and then I will get you
something to eat.”
    Tabitha was not asking
me if this was a good idea, she had simply given me an order in the
nicest possible way. Every instinct in my body told me to run from
the room screaming. These were not normal events for a 17 year old.
What kind of mess had I gotten myself into?
    I looked at Tabitha for
some type of sign that all was well and noticed again that her smile
never made it to her eyes. This time, however, instead of looking
predatory like they had when looking at Raphael, her eyes now looked
concerned. She took a step toward me, but stopped when the beast near
the bathroom door growled softly.
    “ Cheyenne,
there is a lot that I want to tell you but I can’t. All I can
do is be your friend. The bath water is ready. You should be able to
find some clothes in the closet.”
    She stood there for a
moment before she bowed in my direction and walked out of the room,
leaving me with the two remaining dogs and a ton of questions.
    I debated jumping from
the window and taking my chances with the fall and whatever it was
that made Solomon rush from the room. I stood there debating until
the sound of large dog claws on a highly shined floor brought my
attention back to the glorious bathroom and the water that was
dangerously close to spilling over onto the floor. I quickly turned
the faucet off and released some of the water down the drain so that
the jets could be turned on without getting water on the floor. I
closed the door, undressed and sank into the best bath I knew I would
ever have.
    As I lay in the tub
washing the grim and dog mess off of me, I began to plan my next
move. I would demand to know what was going on and how it had
anything to do with me. I needed to know who I was and why my name
was in a book of Efia’s descendants. Why were people chasing
me? Why did they want to kill Tabitha? And this house, these dogs and
Samuel? I wanted answers.
    With my resolve firmly
in place and my body free of anything smelly and gross, I stepped out
of the tub and reached for a towel. I walked through the bathroom
towards the closet to see if there was a pair of sweats or a robe or
anything, really. Once I was able to find the light in the closet, I
almost gasped at the amount of clothing it contained. Everything was
color-coded and hung on wooden hangers. Each section was divided by
length of the garments as well as the season they should be worn in.
This would be my dream closet if everything in it was a size 8 long.
    I sighed at the thought
that the items in the closet were obviously Tabitha’s. I was
going to look like I was wearing my little’s sister’s
clothes. I went to the dresser that sat in the middle of the closet
and opened the top drawer. On top of the delicate under garments was
a note. “Cheyenne, make yourself at home, Efia.” I read
the note twice, turning it over to make sure I hadn’t missed
anything, then picked up a pair of panties that were just my size. I
would have thought it was a coincidence if the bras had not also been
my size. I ran over to the wall of clothes and began grabbing items
off of the hangers, squealing in excitement when I noticed that they
were all my size: 8 long. And then came the feeling of dread. What
was going on?
    There was a hard series
of knocks on the bathroom door. From the closet I could see Samuel
backing his way into the room so that he did not offend my
sensibilities. He sat a tray of what looked like tea and cookies on
the vanity and went back out the way he came. The door was left open
and the large dog came in, sniffed the air and turned to look me
directly in the eyes.
    I stared at the dog