^^Can we just talk about how pretty my baby is?^^

"Love begins with an image; lust with a sensation."

Chapter 4

Death in the Eastern Wing

Eden's POV

"Ben," a hand pressed against my shoulder, shaking me awake. "Ben Shamer."

I grunted, turning over on my back and pulling my hand over my eyes.

"Ben," the man shook me again, "Ben, you forgot to sign out of night duty."

I dropped my hand from over my eyes and peered up blankly at the man, his mouth agape as he continued yelling 'Ben'.

"I'm not Ben," I croaked through groggy morning breath. The man kept shaking me. I moaned aggravatingly and shoved the man's hand from my shoulder. "I'm not Ben, damn it!"

A gasp pulled behind me. I turned my head, aggravation still clear on my face, to a row of men as aggravated-looking as me. Their brows were knit tight and eyes narrowed in my direction, some clearing their throat as they eyed me. I turned quickly, hand scratching the back of my neck as I faced back to those who woke me.

"He's not Ben?" A short, redheaded man turned, eyeing the man beside him quizzically.

The man lifted a clipboard from under his arm to bring close to his face.

"This is definitely Ben Shamer's bed," he eyed the number engraved in the head of the bed while rubbing his chin.

"But not Ben himself," another pushed between them with an aggravated grunt as he ran his fingers through his unkempt beard. "Hey kid," his blond hair pushed forward over his shoulder as he took a step closer to the bed and met my eyes with a sharp glance, "what's your name?"

I leaned away from him. My fingers dug into the blanket around my waist.

"Eden."

The man nodded and then turned to the man with the clipboard.

"He must've gotten lost and slept in the wrong bed. Keep searching for Ben. He could've made the same mistake," the blond-bearded man waved his hands and the men hurried out of the room. Then he turned back to me with a drawled stare, "next time try to make it to your bed before falling into another, yeah?" Was all he said before rounding the corner out of the room.

I sat back into the bed with a released sigh.

"The hell?" I moaned, rubbing at my eyes.

Stomped footsteps sounded past my bed. I lifted my head just enough to eye the dozens of men filing out the door. I watched them through droopy eyes.

My eyes swept the room. Passed the multiple beds side by side, past the brick lining the walls, back to the door where the men were all filing out of.

After the last of the men pushed out the ring of the doorframe, I sat and watched as others from different rooms hurried passed the doorframe in the same direction. After a few minutes, I lifted myself from the bed with a huge stretch and wobbled to the door. I gazed out, watching the men with a yawn fresh on my lips.

Where are they heading in such a rush?

I continued out the door and followed after them out of curiosity. Eventually, we reached a familiar room and the men trickled into the auditorium, immediately running to the food-covered tables on the other side. I instead, stood, eyeing the crowd for a familiar face.

My face brightened as I locked onto a familiar head of brown curls.

"Maxi!" I hurried forward, shouting his name.

He jumped in place, nearly dropping his tray. His head swung to the side and he sent me a bewildered expression.

"The hell, man!" He whined as he adjusted the tray in his arms. "You nearly made me drop my tray!"

"Sorry."

He shook his head with a sigh before ushering me forward. He gazed down at my hands as I walked beside him.

"Again?" He snorted.

I raised a brow, quizzically.

"No tray," he pointed to my hand with a single finger as his tray wobbled unsteadily on one hand. "You didn't get any food again."

"Oh," I squinted past his face to the people behind him. "Yeah, I woke up too late. There was only like a carrot left."

He shook his head with a huffed breath.

"Come," he ushered me to a table near the corner of the room where a couple of familiar faces sat.

Lydia rose her hand with a bright smile once she saw us.

"Morning, sleepyheads." She shouted in our direction with a goofy grin.

The others lifted their hands in a drowsy greeting before dipping back to their food.

"By the way," Maxi whispered to me as we reached the table. I lifted my head. "Don't call me Maxi. That's just a weird-ass nickname Lydia made for me. Call me Max."

I nodded with a smile.

He lifted his hand to me, only to drop it mere seconds later with a snorted laughter. I rose a brow, completely lost as he took a seat and broke out in conversation with Lydia beside him. I continued on and took a seat beside Tommy, who peered up at me while munching on a piece of bread.

He cupped his mouth as I sat down. "Morning," he spoke as he chewed through his hand.

"Morning," I answered back, reaching for a bowl of strawberries in the center of the table.

"Hey!" Marco yelled at me across the table as I placed a single strawberry in front of me.

I ignored him, taking the berry and pushing the bowl back in his direction.

What a strange looking berry.

I gazed down at the strawberry, highly fascinated. I picked it up, placing it in my palm as I turned it from side to side. It was such a bright red, dotted in small seeds that rained across the colored fruit. It looked like it was from a completely different planet.

"What?" A high-pitched yell came from beside us.

My head swung to the side to see Lydia, bent over the table, eyes widened as Tommy rose his arms, clearly unsettled across from her.

"What?" Marco whipped his head back and forth, "what happened?"

Max eyed his sister with utmost horror before shoving her back into her seat. Lydia crossed her arms and stared wide-eyed at Tommy.

"Is it for real?" Max turned to Tommy.

Tommy nodded and sat down slowly.

"What is?" Marco questioned, clearly annoyed at this point.

"Ben," Max turned, his eyes tight with grief. "They found him dead in the eastern wing."

"What?" Marco breathed out, brows knitting together.

"They're saying they found bite marks on his neck," the air from the table felt like it was sucked out. Everyone froze. "They're suspecting a break in from a vampire."

Marco sucked in a shaky breath.

"They're probably going to start rechecking us in the next few days," Lydia muttered under her breath, shuddering at the thought. Clearly not looking forward to it.

Not that I was. I cringed thinking about it as well. I experienced one yesterday and with the annoyance of it all still clear in my mind, I clenched my teeth.

Ugh.

"They're looking for a replacement now," Tommy said, eyeing those at the table. Then, his eyes landed on me. "Hey, Eden, were you assigned a job yet?"

I shook my head.

"Malik mentioned something about someone finding me a job to..." G-d what was his name? "...someone with a J."

"Jarett," Lydia filled in.

Tommy turned his head to Lydia before turning back to me with a nod. He outstretched his bread in my direction with a quirk of a brow, "how do you feel about night duty?"

My brows scrunched but before I could answer, Max let out a groan. Everyone's heads turned to him in raised confusion.

"Don't force him into a bad job. I'm sure he'd prefer something else. Something that'll actually let him sleep at night," Max said exasperatedly. "Don't fall for it, Eden." Max set his eyes on me, "it's not a good job. You're up all night. Sometimes not even with a full group. Late at night in the freezing cold. Surveilling." Max shuddered.

"There are other jobs?" I asked. Good jobs?

Max nodded, "lots. Not everyone is on surveillance duty. This place couldn't run without people in charge of food, supplies, plumbing, electrical work-"

"Yeah," Lydia cut him off, "I mostly work in the kitchen but sometimes I fill in for morning surveillance when someone's not feeling well." She turned to Tommy. "Tommy works in the supply department." Tommy gave a small wave.

"I mostly just count the boxes," Tommy jumped in, "there are others that actually carry in new supplies and make the orders. Most of us do, do surveillance duty at some point though."

"Um hm," Lydia cut in, "sometimes people don't feel well or can't work anymore so you can get dragged into surveillance but you'll mostly do your designated job. Like Maxi," Lydia nodded in Max's direction, "I don't think he's ever been on surveillance duty."

"Well, duh," Marco scoffed, "he looks like he'd snap in half if anything ever came up."

"Fuck you," Max laughed, leaning over the table to smack Marcon in the chest. Marco laughed, shielding himself with his large, beefy arms. After a few minutes of kitten fights, Max sat back in his seat with a huff. A moment of silence passed through the group as Marco took a sip of his water, batting his lashes at Max from across the table. Max's eyes narrowed and before he could jump forward again, I spoke up.

"So what is it that you do?"

Max turned his head slowly from Marco, sending him one last glare. His eyes met mine and his scowl turned to a small smile.

"I'm part of the electrical team so I deal mostly with the cameras and lights," he waved his hands as he spoke,

"Lights?" My head tilted up, eyeing the walls of the large auditorium but all I saw were beams lit in fire, not bulbs.

"There's not a lot of them 'cause of how expensive electricity is but, in the higher-ups' rooms, there're electric lights," Max shrugged.

How classy of them. Their men sleep in the dark as they fill their rooms inexpensive lights.

"And you guys are okay with that?" I peered around the table.

They side glanced at each other, not a peep escaping anyone to answer my question.

My brows knitted, "Cat got your tongue?"

Marco raised a brow and opened his mouth as if to speak but before I could catch what he was going to say, a voice boomed right behind me.

"Eden?"

I swiftly turned my head, taking in the tall man. His shoulder-length, brown hair was pulled in a loose pony, falling on his face as he gazed down at his clipboard.

I nodded, though quickly realized that he wasn't looking at me to see it.

"Yes?" I raised a brow.

I waited for the type of attitude he had given Malik back when I first arrived. A hint of a memory of my search dripped into my mind but I shook it away before it could leak and drown my mind.

The brunet peered down at Max, raising a brow and the small man quickly moved to the side and allowed for him to take a seat beside me.

"Jarett," he stuck his hand out to me.

I gazed at it quizzically.

Jarett dropped his hand after a few minutes and bit his lip.

"I'm sorry about our first meeting. I'm really not usually such a bitch," he gave me a boyish smile. "Promise."

"Gotcha."

"So," He took a breath and peeked at his clipboard momentarily. "I'm here to assign your bed and hopefully a job."

He gazed at me as if waiting for a response but when I didn't give him one, he cleared his throat and peered back down at his clipboard.

"So your bed will be...bed number one fifty," he lifted up his paper to the next one and a frown slowly dug into his lips. He sighed, dropping the paper back onto his clipboard and peered at me.

"Eden, do you have any experience in electrical work?" I shook my head. "How about in labor?" I laughed at that. He raised a brow, not finding the humor in his words.

When you grew up in an oversized cube, shit like labor and outdoors were foreign terms. Unless you consider all the experiments on us work. Why then I had years of experience.

He cleared his throat and his eyes darted back to his clipboard.

"How about...cooking?"

A vampire cooking human food. Right.

He took my silence for a 'no' and continued on.

"Surveilling?"

"No."

"Plumbing?" Ew.

"No."

He lifted his head with an exasperated sigh.

"What did you do in your old station?" He dropped his clipboard to the table with a harsh thump, ignoring it as he peered at me, waiting for my reply. "You have to have experience in something."

Right. He thinks I used to be part of another human base.

I racked my brain.

"Umm," I licked my lips. Jarett leaned on his hand, waiting. I felt everyone's eyes digging into me.

After a few silent moments, Jarett sighed and lifted his clipboard from the table.

"Must have been an embarrassing job," he scoffed as he stood up from the bench. "Listen," he swept a long strand from his face, "I'll give you a day to think about it," he lifted the clip and pulled a sheet of paper out. "This is a list of the jobs. Come back to me tomorrow with your answer."

I took the paper from his hand and eyed it with a nod. I didn't bother watching him leave as I read over the paper. They were mostly the ones he mentioned early and subcategories that looked just as unappetizing.

Ugh.

In the corner of my eye, I could see Lydia and Max whispering amongst themselves a few feet from me. A huge gap laid between me and Max, where Jarett was sitting previously. Though Max was obviously unaware of Jarett's absence as he chatted animatedly with the cheerful redhead.

I took one more peek at the paper just as a voice blared through the auditorium.

"Quiet!"

My head turned.

A man stood in the center of the large room waving his hands back in forth to get everyone's attention. Heads turned in his direction, brows raised though that didn't stop the rowdy crowd from continuing to whisper amongst themselves as they eyed him.

"We have an announcement!" The man hollered. "Everyone needs to quiet down!"

I watched as women and men filed in from the kitchen doors behind us. Each being led out to share the room with us. I could hear some complaining about a disturbance in their service. Though, those ushering them took no care. They stood against the walls, cross-armed.

What was happening?

The door to the auditorium creaked up as two men visibly shoved it open. A powerful set of feet followed behind the two men as they led him to the center of the room. They parted, allowing the room a good look at their leader as he peered across the faces in the room and cleared his throat. It was that one single sound that quieted the entire room. The previous man huffed, clearly annoyed at his own attempt to do the same with all his yelling. Yet, with Malik, a single noise from him could quiet an entire auditorium as everyone stood on attention to his every breath.

Now that was a leader.

"Men," Malik's eyes roamed the audience, "women, there's been an incident. A death inside our base," a series of nervous whispers filled the room. Malik raised his hand in silence and immediately everyone quieted down. "Ben Shamer, from our night surveillance team, was found absent this morning," it felt as if everyone in the room was holding their breath. A feather could have fallen and an echo would have filled the room. "We came upon his corpse behind a bush by the eastern wing just over an hour ago."

He continued quickly before the panicked crowd could rise over his voice, "Two punctured wounds were found against his nape and I believe it's right to suspect that there's a loose bloodsucker amongst us," the room filled with hysteria and Malik had to raise his voice to a near roar. "Silence!"

The room quieted though raised breathes quickly filled the room with a wave of fear.

"We will begin another search immediately," Malik rose his arm to another man who stepped forward with a clipboard.

"Bed numbers one through twenty will begin at twelve o'clock..." he continued to list the times to which I spaced out of as I eyed Malik's muscular frame across the room. His bright blue eyes roamed the room, seemingly as bored with the man's speech as I was.

"...Don't think you can get out of coming. If we find anyone absent, they'll be put on the suspect list immediately and you'll find yourself in a far more uncomfortable situation," the man finished off just as my eyes locked on Malik's. His eyes flashed an alluring blue as he swept his tongue sensually against his bottom lip. A shiver ran down my spine, pulling the breath out of me. I whipped my head back to the speaker just as I felt my face heating up.

Fuck, I bit my lip.

Whelps, that's all for this chapter. Not a lot happened, my apologies, but it's leading somewhere. I promise! Sooo what do you guys think so far? Penny for your thoughts? I hope you're all having a fabulous Thursday! Love you guys tunzzz!! *blows kisses* <3
Oh! And don't forget to vote for Cry Me a River in the Fiction Awards! Only a couple days left! >.<