The Maid at Dartmoor Breach Ch. 03

Weird.

'Um, okay.'

He pivots and stalks across the living room. I follow him through an open door and gasp at the enormous room I find myself in. This place is way bigger than it looks from the outside. There's a huge bed and a walk-in closet.

'Wow,' I can't help but exclaim, but it's mostly it's because his windows are larger than the ones we have in the solarium.

Then I notice the clothes all over the floor, and the random stuff everywhere and I see him grin.

'Well, what are you waiting for?' he asks. 'Clean it up.'

He swans out of the room, and I stand in the middle it for a moment, wondering if I mis-heard.

Joe said I'd have to clean up after these guys, but this is a little ridiculous. He's a grown man. Fae. It legit looks like he just took all of his stuff out of suitcases and flung it around the room.

I stand still in the room, taking everything in.

'Are you defective?'

I jump as he strides back in. Another one I haven't seen before follows him, looking amused.

'I heard you have to speak slowly to them,' he says.

'Clean. Up. Mess,' the first one says slowly like I'm stupid. 'Clothes. In. Closet.'

I roll my eyes. 'I understand you, I'm just not sure where everything goes.'

'You pick. Just get it done.'

He leaves again and new one looks me over. 'Kil is going to love this,' he snorts. 'When you're done here, you can do mine.'

He leaves too and I start clearing the room methodically, taking all the clothes into the closet and putting them on hangers before tackling the array of bottles that I'm guessing are for the bathroom, so that's where I put them. When the room is tidy, I go out into the living area where I find a fourth fae sitting with the others on the couch.

He does a double take when he sees me, and I swear his eyes light up in the freakiest way like he's a starving man who's just been given a candy bar. The thing is, I know that look. I've seen it on faces in the nut house. Jason used to look at people like that. Sometimes I had to remind him we were buddies when he looked like that at me.

It puts me on edge. This guy isn't my buddy. I can't tap him on the shoulder and say, 'Remember, I'm a great pitcher. If you kill me, baseball will definitely be cancelled this week.'

'What is this?' he asks, eyes moving over me in a way that makes my skin feel flushed.

This must be Kil.

'We got ourselves a pet human this year,' one of them says.

I wrinkle my nose at his words.

'I don't think she likes being called a pet, Rye.'

'What's your name, girl?'

'Red,' I say without missing a beat.

All eyes rise to my red hair.

'Yeah,' I mutter even though my auburn hair isn't where I got the nickname.

They don't need to know it came from a fellow patient, nor the reason he gave it to me.

'What are your names?' I ask.

I know the one with the darkest hair is Kil and the blonde is Rye, but I don't know any of the others yet.

'Our names,' one of the new ones says, 'are sir to you, girl.'

Are they serious? They want me to call them 'sir'?

Riiight.

'Okay,' I say, knowing that there's no way in hell I'll be calling any of them anything at all if I can help it.

'You clean up my room?'

'Yes.'

'Yes, what?'

I clench my jaw, but I'm a pragmatic girl at heart, so I give him what he wants. 'Yes, sir.'

'Good girl,' he rumbles.

I can't help my raised brow and another, deeper feeling that I push away in lowkey embarrassment as his words register. Though, from the look on his face, he's right there with me.

But he recovers quickly, his eyes narrowing on me.

'Time to go.'

I stay where I am, glad they're leaving, but as they all move towards the foyer, Rye turns back.

'Well?' He rolls his eyes. 'Come on, dumb human!'

I decide I like his insults less than his praise; however accidental it was.

'Where are we going?' I ask, not moving.

'You ask too many questions, Red. Two demerits.'

A couple of them chuckle.

I frown and glance at my room, wanting to just stay here and acclimate. Today has been a lot.

'I thought I was the maid,' I try.

'Yes,' Rye says impatiently.

'Then why--'

'To serve us, human.' The biggest one erupts in evident exasperation. 'Why else? Two more demerits for wasting our time.'

'Nice, Wilde.'

My frown deepens. I think I need a copy of my job description. I thought this was just some live-in janitor job. Joe didn't say anything about me serving these guys, but he did say not to piss them off.

I shrug. 'Ok,' I say and turn to go to my room.

'She's more insolent than the last one,' I hear one growl.