Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles by Paul A. Cagle

assumed these were for entertaining one’s guests.   There was a single window on the far wall from where Alec stood but the dark blue heavy drapes were drawn and he couldn’t see out.  
    Xavier walked him through the chambers as he called it, and showed him the bedroom and the large bathroom with a huge tub that looked more like a Jacuzzi to Alec.   He walked back out into the main sitting room and informed Alec he would have the kitchen bring up something for him to eat and drink.   He asked the young man if he needed anything else to which Alec merely sighed and shook his head.   Xavier walked over to a small table with an odd phone and showed Alec how to summon the staff.   The same odd-looking phone was even in the bathroom and the buttons were labeled.   All he had to do was pick up the receiver, press a button; kitchen, house staff, or car; and let them know what he needed.   Xavier nodded once to the young man before leaving the room quietly and shutting the door.
    Alec didn’t know what to think.   He walked over to the window and pulled the heavy dark fabric aside and peered out.   He could see the front lawn from his vantage point.   The car that Marc…Marcus had driven them here in had been moved and was nowhere in sight.   There were no bars on the windows, but it might as well have been a prison.   He was surprised that Xavier hadn’t locked the door on his way out to keep Alec inside.
    Alec’s mind still reeled from what he’d been told tonight.   Vampires.   He wondered if he wasn’t really in a padded cell somewhere and this was some sort of drug-induced dream.   He pinched himself but it hurt too much not to be real.
    Alec wandered around the room looking at various objects.   He stopped at a bookshelf and scanned the titles.   Most of the classics were there with some he’d never heard of before.   He looked around and noticed that there was no television in the room.   This should be fun.
    What did all this mean?   Would he start craving blood and drinking it?   Alec didn’t want this.   He hadn’t asked for any of it and yet here he was dragged against his will into a world he had never known, had never wanted to know, existed.   And now his life was at stake   — hell, maybe even his soul.   Did vampires have souls or were they demons made flesh that preyed on humans?.   Marcus and Silas certainly didn’t seem anything but genuine.   They had to have killed in the past?   How many times?
    Thoughts and questions fired through Alec’s mind before he could even stop to examine most of them.   What was he going to do?   He was now a ‘guest’ of Silas’s.   That meant that he would lose his job and would also have to drop out of college this semester.   His first semester in college and he was going to fail.   Alec was so frustrated he wanted to cry, but he knew that wouldn’t do him any good.   Alec hadn’t eaten in awhile but his stomach felt like a rock had settled there.  
    A knock at the door broke Alec out of his reverie and he walked to the door and opened it.   Marcus was standing there with a tray full of food balanced on one shoulder.   “Room service,” he said.   “Can I come in?”
    “Why not?” Alec said and stood aside.
    Marcus went to the coat closet right inside the room and pulled out a small folding table.   He carried it and the tray to the couches and set it up placing the tray on top.   He sat on one of the couches and waited until Alec sat before he started speaking.
    “How are you holding up?”
    “How do you think I’m holding up?” Alec asked, the frustration in his voice evident.
    “Alec, look I know this is a lot to take in.   Believe me.   I’ve been there.   Only when I was going through this, vampires were still evil demons that stalked their prey in the night.   Man, I was terrified.”
    “Did Silas send you to spy on me some more and try to get more info out of me?” Alec said snidely.
    Marcus shook