Page 42 of Rainshadow

“I can’t, Flora,” Sylvia said, then laughed softly. “I can’t leave. You can, but I can’t.”

“Why not?” she nearly shouted, exasperated. “Why not? Because you’re nothing without him? A nobody with a drug addiction? He doesn’t love you, Sylvia, he feels sorry for you.”

Sylvia gazed levelly at Flora, unbothered. “He doesn’t feel sorry for me, Flora. He doesn’t feel anything. He’s dead.”

Flora gazed at Sylvia, mouth open in surprise. Dead? Emotionally dead?

“What do you mean?”

“Stop being a fool. You know what I mean.”

“He really is a vampire.” The words were on Flora’s lips before she had the chance to stop herself, to question how utterly insane they sounded.

“He is. And you already knew. You’re not surprised. He probably already told you. You’re not shocked, head spinning, asking how you couldn’t have seen all the signs. You saw them. There is no twist in the story, no blindside, no big reveal. Everything has been pathetically predictable, your every decision, your every movement on the chess board that he set up the day he first laid eyes on you.”

Flora gazed at Sylvia, her mouth still hanging open.

“No,” Flora said stupidly. “You’re crazy.”

“You know that I’m not.”

The two women looked at each other.

Sylvia finally spoke. “I tried to be cruel to you. I’ve never been a friendly person, but it isn’t in my nature to be cruel. It wasn’t before, anyway, a long time ago. Maybe it is now.” She chuckled sadly.

“I wanted to scare you off, to terrorize you into leaving. They usually only last a few days, but you stayed. I never counted on you being more in love with thisplace.”

Flora crossed her arms. She didn’t know what to say.

Sylvia kept talking. “I don’t know what else to do now except beg. Please, please, please leave. Here—” She took out a bag, a very expensive-looking leather handbag, and showed it to Flora. It was stuffed with cash. “Twenty-five thousand dollars. You can go anywhere with that. You can do anything. And here—” Shepulled a diamond necklace out of the pocket of her robe and tossed it onto the coffee table. “A woman once gave me this and made me a very similar offer.”

“A woman?—”

“A very nice woman named Agatha. She wasn’t as strong as me.” Sylvia sighed deeply, and there was a sob contained in her voice. “She was kind, sweet, too sweet, and I was dismissive, went behind her back, pitied her. When she told me the things I am telling you now, I laughed at her and told her she was crazy. She told me in the beginning, she thought if she was just honest…”

There were tears in Sylvia’s eyes as she picked up the necklace, held it in her hand gazing at it. “Flora, you can’t know the pain I feel, the guilt!” A tear dripped down Sylvia’s sallow face. “You can’t, and I don’t want you to know. Agatha—she was so sweet to me, so honest. She told me the truth and begged me to save myself.”

Flora stared at Sylvia, crying, pathetic. She was begging her not to take Ethan, begging her. Flora knew that if she were in Sylvia’s position, standing between two people in love, she would have the dignity to hold her head up and walk away.

“You’re jealous of me,” Flora hissed. “You’re so jealous you can’t stand it! Agatha was Ethan’s mother. You think I didn’t know that? You’re the crazy one.”

“I’m not crazy.”

“You’re an addict.”

“No, not really. Sometimes I drink too much?—”

“Liar, you’re a drug addicted?—”

“No, I’m really, really not, sweetheart. Please, listen to me. Take the money, take the necklace, leave me here with him, let whatever is going to happen, happen. I barely even care anymore. I’ll live a while longer, enjoy my horses, and one dayhe’ll have to find someone new… but I won’t be around to watch.”

“Keep your money. I don’t want your crumbs.”

“No,” Sylvia said, laughing. “You want the whole cake.”

Flora smiled wickedly, disdainfully. “And I’m going to get it.”

“Maybe, but not until I’m dead. I’m his familiar, Flora. We’ve been together for so long, we are linked. He doesn’t love me, but we can feel each other, can’t be apart for very long without getting… uncomfortable. He feeds off of me, my blood is his blood, and he won’t give me up as long as I’m alive. He has power over me, but I have power over him too, and it grows. That’s why he needs to replace me.”

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