Chapter 45

Celeste only felt mildly better once she was inside the car. The driver was silent and only focused on the road ahead so there was no conversation to decrease the tension. There was also a slight damp chill to the vehicle that caused her to wrap her arms around herself as though to avoid getting wet from the invisible droplets that were hanging in the air.

Her thoughts were scattered as she watched the cars and scenery move by outside the window as a fast passing blur. Watching this did nothing to calm her mind or help her gather her thoughts. It was just something to do as she tried to think things through.

Even though nothing had physically happened to Celeste, her gut instinct told her that her life was in danger. By whatever it was that those two twins were. If what had happened was true, she knew that they weren't human. At the same time however, she didn't think that they were of the same kind of creature that Bane was. There was something different about them that she couldn't put her finger.

She still didn't understand what they wanted from her either or what they could gain from bothering her. She was also concerned about the fact that they knew where she lived and had seen her talking with Bane earlier.

Hearing this meant that she now had to worry about strange things lurking outside her apartment and creeping around behind her when they thought that she wasn't looking.

The thought caused a cold chill to travel down her spine. This certainly wasn't how she expected to spend the first few months alone on her own. She thought that things were actually going to shift for the better once she had gotten her job and no longer had to worry about money.

Instead, here she was fearing for her life or sanity? She wasn't certain which it was nor could she determine which of the two were the lesser evil?

The psychotic inhuman rich businessman who seemed infatuated with her and wanted her to spend the rest of her life together with him or the two somewhat charming twins who also didn't seem to be quite human and were after her for reasons she couldn't understand.

Thinking about everything made her head hurt and she knew that it had nothing to do with the alcohol that she had been drinking. If anything it was from the mixture of stress and lack of sleep she had been dealing with.

"Miss, we are here. Is there anything that you need from me?" The driver asked after he had pulled up to the drop off location outside of the hotel. He glanced back at her from the rear view mirror but didn't bother turning back to look at her.

"No, thank you for taking me here. How much do I owe?" She asked as she reached for her wristlet to pull what little cash she had out. The driver however shook his head at her.

"You don't owe me anything miss. This service is the curtesy of the host club. Customers never have to pay for being taken here." The driver explained in a gentle tone of voice. Celeste could only make a little 'oh' sound in response to this as she thanked the driver again and gathered her things so that she could get out of the car.

"You may wish to take this with you miss. Use it as you wish, but don't disclose that it came from." The driver told her through the rolled down window after she had gotten out of the car.

He held out a small white card in his left hand for her to take. She was hesitant at first as she was uncertain what it was, but stepped forward to take it when she realized that the other wasn't going to retract his arm until he did.

"If you need anything else, you can contact your friend at the club again and he will make sure that anything else is taken care of for you." The driver told her before he rolled his window back up and took off.

Looking down at the card she noticed that there were two numbers written on them. Neither one had a name or indication that showed who they belonged to. She noticed though that the card had the strange chilled feeling that vehicle did.

Uncertain who the numbers belonged to, she put the card in her wristlet for the time being and headed to the front door of the hotel so that she could get inside away from the darkness. Even though she was certain that there was nothing going on outside that she needed to worry about, she knew that she would feel safer once she was in her hotel room.

"How may I help you?" the male receptionist asked when he saw Celeste come over rather timidly.

"A hotel room should have been booked here for me tonight." She explained to which the other asked what name it would be under so that he double check for her.

"It will be on the second floor miss, third door on the right. I hope you enjoy your stay here tonight and don't hesitate to call room service if there is anything that you need." He told her as he handed her the key to her room.

"Thank you." She replied as she took the key. A couple had come in after her and she wanted to make sure that she was out of the way as they seemed rather impatient to talk with the receptionist.

At least it seemed like there was enough people around that she would likely not have to worry about any kind of incidents occurring tonight. Or that was at least what she was hoping.

As soon as she made her way up to her hotel room, she shut and locked the door, double checking it once she was inside. She passed a number of other people on her way up to her room, but most didn't pay attention to her as they were preoccupied with other things.

She put the hotel room key and her pursue on the night stand next to the bed before she sat down on the edge of the bed. She kicked her shoes off to allow her feet to breathe but didn't get comfortable yet.

She was curious about the card that the driver had given her. She wasn't one to call random since she didn't know what kind of people would answer. Talking to a lunatic over the phone wasn't on her bucket list of things that she wanted to do for this year.

Pulling the card out though, she couldn't help stare at it. There was nothing special about it. In fact, it looked like it had been a plain white piece of cardstock that the driver had used to jot the numbers down rather than something that had been printed.

The more she looked at it though, the more she felt drawn to calling the top number, something about it called out to her. She didn't know why though, but it was such an oddly intense feeling similar to the call of a siren that caused her to pull her phone out and dial the number against the better judgement of the little voice at the back of her head.

Once the ringing started, her breathing almost stopped as she waited with baiting breathe to see who would answer. She didn't know why she wished for the person on the end of the phone to pick up, but she couldn't stop the mental chant of 'please, please, please' that was going through her mind and the phone ringed three times and on to the fourth.

As the fourth ring ended, she almost thought that no one was going to answer, but at the last second she heard the change in the tone that indicated someone had picked up.

"Bane speaking."