The Monsters in Your Neighborhood Read Online Free PDF Page B

somehow attempting to send messages with the weird way he lifted his brows.
    “There’s no need to worry,” Drake said slowly, and stared intently at the doorman.
    From the corner of his mind, Alec felt an itchy comfortableness and realized that Drake was using his vampire mind control on the young man.
    “Of course, sir,” Richards said in a slightly more monotone voice tinged by the spell he was under. “Have a good night.”
    Opening the door, he let them pass without so much as a second glance in their direction. When they got into the elevator and the doors slid shut, Natalie let out her breath in a whoosh.
    “That thing you do does come in handy, doesn’t it?”
    Drake pressed the button for his floor and groaned as he leaned against the metal interior of the elevator. “It can. There are disadvantages, too.”
    “Like what?” Alec asked as the elevator dinged and revealed a hallway. “Floor six, right? Apartment six-sixty-six?”
    “Obviously,” Drake said before he wrapped an arm around Alec’s shoulder for support, though Alec noticed that the vampire seemed to be holding his own weight more with each step. “And the disadvantage being that when I was young, when I first was turned, I accidentally killed people with that power.”
    Natalie swallowed, but took the key Drake held out and unlocked the door. As it swung open, she took a breath, and when she moved aside, Alec could see why.
    Everyone knew Drake had money. After hundreds of years on this earth, there was no way he couldn’t have, but the way he dressed and acted was anything but snobbish. It was easy to forget he could afford an exclusive, marble-halled palace like this one. It was a mini-palace, snuggled into the heart of Manhattan.
    “My bedroom is down the hall, through the living space on the left,” Drake explained. When no one moved, he shook his head. “Don’t be too impressed. I once lived in a castle.”
    “This is a castle in real estate terms,” Alec muttered, but he stopped staring and helped Drake through the apartment.
    Natalie and Alec held him up as they made their way through the hallways. Natalie bumped light switches with her shoulder as they went, revealing more and more of the posh digs.
    “Do you clean this place yourself?” Natalie asked.
    They moved into the master suite. Along the back wall was a huge coffin, straight out of the monster movies. The black velvet shades were already drawn tight.
    “I have a maid,” Drake explained. “She comes during the daylight hours.”
    “How does she not notice the huge coffin in your bedroom?” Alec asked as he opened said device. It was lined in red satin with a soft pillow.
    Drake removed his bloody cape with one hand and motioned for Natalie to help him with his boots. As each piece of his elaborate “costume” was peeled away, he began to look more and more like a harmless old man. Looks were certainly deceiving.
    “She does not come in here,” he explained. “I lock it and she believes it is off-limits. I think she believes I’m into . . .” He hesitated with a sigh. “ S and M . At least that’s what she mutters in Portuguese as she paces around outside my door.”
    “Ew,” Natalie said. “There’s a picture I’ll never forget.”
    “Yes, well, we let them believe what they will if it protects us, don’t we?” he said. “I will heal faster if I have blood in my system. There is some in the refrigerator, in a container marked tomato juice . Will you fetch me a mug, warmed in the microwave?”
    Natalie’s mouth turned down in a mask of disgust, but she said nothing as she slipped from the room toward the kitchen. Alec helped the now-shirtless Drake, his wound pink and healing around the edges of the shirt that had been tied as a bandage for him earlier. (Rehu’s shirt, and he had just loooooved stripping down for the ladies in the room. He’d even “accidentally” torn the bandages he wore beneath to stay moist. Stupid abs . . .