The Haunted (Sleeping with Monsters Book 1) Read online

  THE Haunted

  by CASSIE ALEXANDER

  The Haunted

  Copyright © 2014 by Cassie Alexander

  www.cassiealexander.com

  This ebook is licensed for personal use only. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between characters or events in this story and with any other person or creature, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  From the Author

  The Hunted

  Chapter One

  Daphne stood on the cool white tile of her new entry hall, looking up at her husband with distress. “But we just got here –“

  “I know, pet, I know,” Richard said, but he didn’t set his briefcase down.

  “And there’s so much unpacking to do — I don’t even know where everything goes.” Boxes were piled everywhere, their belongings and those the house’s prior occupants had left behind. She didn’t even know how many rooms their new home had, it was immense — and how could it feel like a home to her, if Richard left her alone their first night there?

  “You’ll put it all right. You always do. I’ll be back before you know it.” He reached out and gently held her chin. “It’s just a week.”

  “And then?”

  “And then I’ll come back and you and I can spend the rest of our lives together.”

  “You always say that. And it’s never just a week.” She stared at him, for once refusing to back down. They’d bought this place to have a child in, and children didn’t just make themselves.

  The driver idling outside cleared his throat -- Richard had a flight to catch. “This time I promise,” he said, turning to leave.

  “That’s what you said last time,” she said quietly to herself, watching him go.

  She sat down on the wide stairs leading to the second floor. It was always like this with Richard — in the battle between her and his work, work won. She’d known it going into their relationship. It’d been fine when they’d been nearer civilization – she’d gone to movies, bookstores, lunches. But now that he’d moved her here, miles away from the nearest town, with the nearest city far past that – her sense of abandonment was overwhelming. The size of the house he’d bought her only made it worse. It was too big, too easy to imagine that the house was like a mouth, swallowing her alive.

  She’d begged him not to buy it, but he’d been enchanted the moment he’d stepped on the grounds. Something here had intoxicated him, even though they would never own enough things to fill it up, that half the rooms would be gathering dust, never used. It’d given him some old world vision of himself as the lord of a manor, and once the grandeur had gotten hold of him, there’d been no way to shake it loose.

  No matter that she couldn’t see herself out here, in this massive place, completely alone. Or rather, awkwardly not alone. There were servants — servants! — and Daphne found that distasteful. But there was no way to manage a home this big without them. The real estate agent had called some of the old owner’s employees back and only the fact that she and Richard were paying them handsomely combined with the fact that she planned to require as little from them as possible made it okay.

  Of course, now they were nowhere to be found, and she didn’t know how to call for them. Daphne imagined herself wandering the halls, shouting like a madwoman or wildly ringing bells. Perhaps she could ask them to listen for whistles, like little Von Trapps.

  “Mrs. Vance?”

  She couldn’t see who asked, but she jumped to standing. She didn’t want anyone else to see her despairing on the stair.

  “Sorry to startle you, Ma’am.” An elderly man in a black suit bowed deeply. She knew his name was Arthur. Could she call him that? Or was there some foolish title she ought to be using instead?

  “No. It’s okay.” Both of their voices echoed in the hallway, uncomfortably loud.

  “I came to ask what time you wanted Mrs. Dudley to serve dinner.”

  Servants, cooking for her -- it was preposterous! But they were getting paid, and she didn’t even know where the kitchen was yet – or a grocery store. “Seven?” she guessed, hoping he’d agree.

  “Very good.” He gave her a precise nod. “We’ve unpacked the kitchen — which room would you like us to work on next?”

  She would need a place to sleep tonight, but couldn’t stomach the thought of strangers rummaging through her intimate things. “I’ll work on the bedroom — maybe you can work on the library? That’s if you have the time.”

  “Of course, Ma’am. I’ll just let Mrs. Dudley know about dinner.” He nodded again, and Daphne turned. The bedrooms were all upstairs. She walked up three steps and felt something like a warm hand caress the back of her thigh beneath her skirt.

  “Arthur!” she protested, whirling.

  “Ma’am?” The servant reappeared, trotting back into view from down the hall. “Did you need something?”

  Daphne put her hand to her mouth in horror, and felt a rising flush of shame — he was going to think she was one of those people, the kind who shouted — “No — my ankle twisted —” she pointed at her foot, quickly lying. “I thought I was going to fall.”

  “I see,” he said, in the same tone of voice he used for everything apparently, neither frustrated nor surprised. “I can bring tea or coffee to you in a bit, if you’d like. Mrs. Dudley’s got bad knees, she can’t handle stairs anymore.”

  “Tea, please. Thank you,” she said, sheepishly.

  “If I may, Ma’am,” he said after waiting half-a-second more. She nodded to encourage him to continue. “Moving is stressful, and moving into a magnificent house doubly so. Rome was not built in a day, and neither was it unpacked in one.”

  She broke into a soft smile. “Thank you, Arthur.”

  “You’re welcome, Ma’am,” he said, and bowed curtly before going back the way he’d come.

  Daphne spent the whole afternoon drinking tea and unpacking boxes. The bedroom she and Richard had picked out had a commanding view of the gardens and two closets of roughly equal size. She decided to take the one nearer the bed that had a mirror set inside the door.

  They’d chosen it because it was the only room that didn’t have the belongings of prior occupants inside it – the home’s past owners had left behind massive pieces of handmade-looking furniture and interesting yet difficult to understand art. Statues – angels? Demons? The creatures in them were winged and striving -- perched at the top of both of the stairs, as if watching who came up, and occupied corners in many of the rooms.

  But the bedroom was her domain alone, and the repetitive work of opening boxes, exposing the contents, deciding what went where and how, didn
’t clear her depression but it did calm her. Keeping busy always did. What would she do when she ran out of boxes though?

  There was a polite knock at the door, and she went to open it. For a foolish second she hoped it was Richard, returned to his senses and to her, but instead it was only Arthur again, as it had been all afternoon.

  “It’s seven, Ma’am. We were going to wait, but then we realized you might not have unpacked a clock yet.”

  “Thank you, Arthur.” Her cell phone told the time, but not much more, they were so far from civilization they had to use landlines. “I am hungry.”

  He bowed and prepared to exit the room, as if to give her privacy. “Wait!”

  “Yes?” he paused in the doorway.

  “I don’t know where the dining room is. Can you take me?”

  He smiled at her. “Of course,” he said, and led the way.

  It hadn’t occurred to her to shower or change before dinner — this was her house, after all — but the dining room that Arthur took her to was glamorous. Seeing a reflection of herself in a mirror on the way there, looking wan and exhausted, only made her feel more out of place. The last people who’d eaten here had surely been gracious-types — she could see the marks on the walls where their vast portraits must have hung, forefathers and foxhounds looking down on whomever stole the last bite of cake. Mrs. Dudley’s dinner setting took up only one corner of the massive oaken table, left behind by the former owner’s family, who probably hadn’t been able to think of a way to dismantle it to get it out the door.

  Daphne sat down and realized they were using her mother’s china, something she, cooking for only herself and Richard, had never done. She stroked a flower painted on the plate’s edge when the first course arrived.

  She hadn’t been close to her mother, but her mother had kept her nearby, through a combination of guilt and necessity, as her health took precipitous turns. Daphne’d been the only one able to care for her, to feed her, bathe her, put her into clothes and get her back out of them again. She hadn’t gotten to live a normal life until her mother had died and by then it was too late, her childhood had passed her by. She’d tried to go back to school, and that was where Richard had found her, feeling a very out-of-place freshman at college at the ripe age of twenty-five.

  Arthur brought soup in, and it was delicious — less so the realization that to time presenting courses, Arthur and the mysterious Mrs. Dudley had to be watching her. Had they eaten yet? Were they waiting on her? She found herself eating more quickly as the meal progressed, racing an imaginary clock.

  “Would you like a glass of wine?” Arthur asked, as he came out with asparagus and steak.

  Normally, no, but after the day she’d had? “Please.”

  He smiled at her, and disappeared.

  She was going to have to talk to Mrs. Dudley — she didn’t eat much red meat, and Richard needed none of it. But it was a perfect medium rare, just how she liked, and the asparagus were yielding yet just a little crisp — and the wine, when Arthur reappeared, complimented the meal perfectly.

  “Where did this come from?” she asked him, after he refilled her glass.

  “From your very generous food budget, Ma’am. There’s a wine cellar off of the kitchen. I think the former occupants left a few bottles behind.”

  She took another swig of wine. “And where do you and Mrs. Dudley live?”

  “Hillside.”

  The nearest town, if it could be called that, one of those places seemingly comprised of antique stores that erupted at regular intervals once one drove out far enough into the country.

  “And have you always been a…servant?” She hated using the word, but knew no other one to call him.

  “Ever since I was a boy. I spent my last twenty years serving the Master in this house, before the next owners took over and released me. Your agent called me out of retirement.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she apologized, and he looked appalled.

  “Please, don’t be. It was dreadfully boring, honestly.”

  She realized the wine had given her an excuse for familiarity -- which clearly made Arthur uncomfortable. “And you go back to Hillside each night?”

  “We do.”

  “I don’t mean to keep you then. You should go. It’s dark.”

  He measured her with his eyes, trying to tell if her kindness was a test or for show or genuine reality. “We will do the dishes tomorrow then. First thing.”

  “Any time you like. Honestly.”

  “And you know the code? And have the key?”

  Daphne nodded. Richard had made sure she knew the code for their new home’s security system. All the better to not have the security system call him with false alarms in the middle of the night in Abu Dhabi or wherever it was that the bank had sent him this week.

  “All right then, Ma’am. We’ll see ourselves out the back, it’s where we’ve parked our car. We’ll set the alarm as we go, so don’t open any windows or outside doors.”

  “I won’t.”

  “What time would you like breakfast, Ma’am?”

  She ought to say eight, but with as much wine as she’d had tonight? “Nine.”

  “Excellent. We’ll see you then.” He gave her another bow and then withdrew.

  She heard the alarm chirp as Arthur set it on his way out. She was finally alone – it was a little frightening, but relaxing too, courtesy of the wine she’d drunk. She gathered her mother’s china and followed Arthur’s path back to the kitchen. It was more industrial than homey, meant to feed an army quickly if needbe. All the burners were off and things were clean — Mrs. Dudley was a neater cook than she’d ever been. Daphne put the dishes into the sink and turned the water on. She hadn’t seen these dishes since her mother’d died. Everything had gone into boxes then, too.

  Maybe she’d stay up all night to unpack. Maybe she’d push herself and get everything unpacked by next week, so that when Richard came home there’d be nothing to distract him, nothing for him to worry about, just her. She imagined him being pleased with how much she’d done, impressed with her choices, the angles at which she’d aligned the couches and chairs — and then imagined him taking her on one of them, as if to try out its feng shui. There were enough bedrooms here they could sleep in a new room every night of the week, a new position each time, until she finally got pregnant.

  If she had a baby it would keep her company. This house wouldn’t be half so lonely with a child in it -- and half again as lonely after the second one. Until then, though -- she scanned the countertop and saw the bottle of wine, its cork replaced -- she could drink, a little. Someone ought to get to celebrate moving in.

  Daphne took the stairs two at a time, until she found herself in her bedroom again. Her first night in her new home, alone. There were no curtains on the windows yet, the former occupants had taken them, so she stood in the window and looked out at the night. Cicadas hummed nearby, or were they crickets? She knew she ought to know. She dumped the last drops of tea onto the saucer Arthur had brought her earlier and poured a ration of wine into it, and then drank it so quickly she might as well have drunk straight from the bottle.

  Richard couldn’t make time for her now. What would change after a baby? Nothing. There’d be promises made and broken and she would cry, but things would always be the same. Richard was the kind of man who the world changed for — but he never changed for it.

  She drank another tea-cup of wine and set the bottle down on her side table, uncorked, and pulled her clothing off roughly. She’d unpacked enough she wouldn’t need to find out where the laundry was for at least a week, maybe more, but she hadn’t found the box with her slips and nightgowns yet. So she got into bed naked, and pulled the sheets up to her neck.

  Her dim bedside lamp light was filtered through the winebottle’s green glass. She reached out and grabbed its neck, taking another deep swig, and then set it back. A woozy warmth suffused her now, emanating out from her belly, all of the wine caught up to he
r at last. She turned off the light and just lay there, letting it carry her, as though she were a passenger on a ship on a tropical day.

  For better or worse, this place was her new home. It creaked and groaned around her, settling in the night air, and while she wasn’t scared, she felt incredibly alone. She hugged herself beneath the covers, arms under her own breasts, nipples rubbing against the sheets she’d pulled tight. Something – the alcohol, the abandonment, the spinning feeling she got as she let go – her hands pressed up under her breasts now, taking them one each, feeling her supple skin, their gentle weight.

  She stroked one thumb over a nipple tentatively, to see if it would answer her, and it did, becoming pert and sending a line of electricity down between her legs. She did it again, as though she were strumming a guitar and felt the wave of pleasure pull and pluck, deep inside her hips, where she was restless and aching.

  Even though she knew what would come next, she opened her mouth in surprise. Her other hand touched her thigh and started stroking, tracing fingers on herself like she liked Richard to tease her when he had the time, like she didn’t know where her own hand would wind up, not even until it tickled between her closed thighs and they spread open to reveal her pussy like an open book. Her lower hand waited then, as her higher one pulled at her nipple again, setting things aglow and then she pressed.

  Her clit was like a button, and Richard the first lover to have found it, showing it to her again and again in one orgasmic night. Since then, she’d figured out how to push herself — how hard, how often, how fast. She brought up her hand and licked her fingertips for lesser friction — and soon she could dive her fingers into her own heat and use the wetness they found there. Daphne stroked and pulled and brought her feet up so that her hips could rise as her pussy tried to match her hand and found that all of her was getting warm. The temperature, a thermostat somewhere, left on — so much heat that she interrupted herself to throw the covers off, to writhe naked on the bed. The feeling of heat became more precise — like hands were pressing on her, her thighs, her stomach, her breasts, her belly. She knew they were only in her imagination because now she could see herself by the moonlight, the angles of her knees, her hips as they canted ever higher, as her ass rising as she felt the need to come –