Page 22 of In His Veins

When they walk by me in the club, I hear them making arrangements for a car to pick them up and take her to her apartment. Keys in hand, I exit the club after them, desperately hoping she won’t go through with this. However, when I pull up to the curb, she doesn’t hesitate to follow him into the backseat.

She doesn’t spare me a thought as he kisses her deeply. I park in my usual spot down the street and walk to her apartment. Sure enough, her living room blinds are wide open. The walk out of her small patio leads to a densely wooded area where I stand behind a tree as they stumble onto the couch.

Ava’s are close,tooclose, so I turn away, fists clenching so hard the knuckles turn white. But I can’t restrain myself for long. My gaze shifts back toward her window, and to my surprise, things aren’t progressing like I expected. Squinting to see through darkness, I’m desperate for a better look. And from what I’m able to piece together, things aren’t going well with Ava’s guest.

He heads to the door, and I consider letting the night end there. But where would the fun be in that. Besides, this feels like a teachable moment.

I almost feel sorry for how my upcoming actions might hurt Ava, but she needs to learn exactly who she belongs to. As the man leaves her apartment and starts down the street to wait for a ride, I latch an arm around his throat from behind, applying pressure until he’s unconscious before loading him into the back of my car to head home.

* * *

When he wakes up and realizes where he is, he pulls against the rope tied around his wrists and ankles, frantically looking around the room for a way to freedom. Instead, he sees me watching quietly and freezes.

“Dude, what the fuck? What do you want?” Silence. “Seriously, what is this? Do you want money? I don’t have a lot, but you can take everything.” I take slow, measured steps toward him.

“Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with where you try to stick your cock.” His eyes grow wide as he makes the connection.

“Are you talking about that bitch from the club?” I backhand him.

“You don’t speak about her that way.” The man tries to spit at me and it dribbles down his chin. Blood mixes with the saliva and the sight of it reawakens the bloodlust I’ve been resisting over the past few days.

“As I was saying, my girl needs to learn, and you are the perfect lesson.” I select a long blade from the tray standing next to the chair. He writhes and attempts to plead with me.

“I don’t even know her, she doesn’t feel anything for me, and I hardly even touched her! She clammed up, so I left.” A small smile forms on my lips, and I’m vibrating with the need to expel this anger.

“I know,” I say, before I plunge the blade into his crotch. My head is close to him as he screams, my ears ringing as the sound reverberates from the walls.

“Unfortunately for you, I’ve also had a rough few days. Thanks for being my punching bag.” I leave the blade lodged in his flesh as I return to my instrument table.

He whimpers, and I hear the legs of the chair scrape against the cement floors as he makes an attempt to free himself. I grab a longer blade from the table, twisting it between my fingers. A dark stain steadily spreads across the top of his pants.

“Please, man, I swear I don’t have any feelings for her and I definitely didn’t know she was your girl. She came up to me, I promise, I-” he chokes on the words, unable to finish his sentence. He curses viciously and drops his head to stare at the ceiling. He continues to beg, his voice coming out closer to a whine: “Please, please, let me go.”

“I know all of these things,” I respond. “I watched her seek you out at the club and I watched you try to stick your dick inside her.” He gapes at me, not seeming to find the words to respond. “I could have stopped it, but I need to teach her something very important.” I stalk toward him, still twirling the knife. “No matter where she goes, no matter who she wants, she will always belong to me. She might not know it yet, but she will.”

The man’s voice drops to a whisper. “You’re insane.” His jaw quivers. “Oh my god, you’re actually insane,” he reiterates.

“Yes,” I agree, before dragging the blade across his neck. I don’t cut him deep enough to kill him right away, gaining the joy of watching him sputter as the blood sprays at me. It pours down his chest. He tries to scream, but it comes out as a gurgle.

Tossing the knife to the floor, I strike him in the face. He’s too far gone to protest and the pain in my knuckles settles the cacophony of emotions that have built up since I met this infuriating woman. I beat the man until he’s unresponsive, and my anger is finally spent.

I sigh as I carry him into the adjacent room to hose him down, making sure to scrub the body a little more vigorously than I normally would to rid him of Ava’s potential DNA as well.

15

AVA

“Holy shit,” Sarah says over the headset. “Did you hear about the second body they found this afternoon?” I pause with a blouse halfway on a hanger.

“No,” I respond, finishing adjusting the blouse and adding it to the new fall display. “Who was he?”

“No one in the public eye like that other guy. He was a cutie though. What a shame. They found his body dumped in a pig farm. The police think the killer was hoping the pigs would eat the remains.” I shudder at the idea of such a brutal end before freezing as the implication of Sarah’s words dawn on me.

“Wait, they think it was the same person who killed Eliott Cardinal?” I feel sick as I wait for her response.

“Yeah, especially since both bodies were mutilated the same way and dumped so openly.” My head starts spinning, but I force myself to ask the next question anyway.

“Who was this guy?” She doesn’t respond right away. Sarah and I are the only people closing the store tonight, and the unusual quiet of an empty building sets me on edge.

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