Page 84 of The Serpent's Bride
Plan C. Murdering Hank would make it that much easier to kill Raziel on the yacht. But she needed somewhere to stuff his dumb, disgusting ass. Butwhere?There had to be something. Somewhere.
It was on her third lap around the property when the opportunity presented itself. Funny thing about real trees, grass, and shrubs. The roots absorbed rainwater. And when those things were removed, and dirt was replaced with concrete and stone, water had nowhere to go. And so…other drainage was required.
Nadi found herself staring down at a circular drainage hatch. It was hidden behind a row of silk and metal wire hedges and set into a depression in the false grass. More trickery to hide the workings of the house. Fake grass didn’t drain into dirt, now did it?
Crouching down, she stuck her fingers through the slats in the drain and lifted, pulling the heavy metal grate from its home and sliding it a few inches to the side. The grate was some twenty inches wide, which would be difficult for Ivan. But Hank would fit just fine.
She’d known from the beginning that Hank would die first, and it was almost time.
The hole was deep. Good. Picking up a pebble, she dropped it inside. She counted the seconds before she heard it hit water. Two. Long enough for what she needed. And it wouldn’t be the first time her people down below had found a few corpses floating in an underground lake or river.
She had the most important part of her plan—how she was going to get rid of Hank. And, looking up, she knew how she was going to bait the hookandcelebrate her find at the same time.
Putting the grate back in place, she straightened up, brushed her hands off, and decided she was going to celebrate her discovery with a swim in Raziel’s pool, since she’d yet to actually enjoy it.
Besides, it’d be a lot easier to kill Hank later in the evening when it was dark. She’d wait until he had a few drinks, lure him into the shrubs, pop a few holes in his lungs, and cram him into the drain.
So she had some time to kill. And if she wasn’t mistaken, Hank would be on guard by the pool soon.Perfect.
Over the past week, she had watched the patterns of the normal servants and guards. She had their paths memorized.
Now, she just had to figure out how much time she had to do the deed. Raziel seemed distracted—but the question was,howdistracted?
Stopping by Raziel’s office, she knocked on the door.
A grunt from inside was all she got for an answer. Opening it, she popped her head in, and shot him an innocent smile. “Are you going to be coming to dinner?”
“No. I won’t be coming to bed either. You’re on your own tonight.” He didn’t even look up from his work, or whatever it was he was doing, scribbling away in a ledger, his head down. A cigarette was in an ashtray, a curl of smoke rising from it in a lazy spiral. He was walking a gold coin across his knuckles.
She had the urge to walk up to him, push his rolling chair away from his desk, climb onto his lap, and ride that perfect cock of his until the sun came up. Damn him for being so damnhandsome.“All right…”
She pretended to be disappointed. As it was, she was smiling ear to ear as she shut the door. This worked perfectly. She’d have all night to herself with Raziel too busy squaring things away.
Heading back up to Raziel’s bedroom, she rooted through drawers until she found a bathing suit for her. It was exactlywhat she expected it to be. Crimson and barely there. Just enough to leave something to the imagination while flaunting to the world precisely what Raziel now believed himself to be in possession of.
She changed into the crimson bikini and dug a long, black lace shawl out of another drawer, wrapping it around herself. Looking in the mirror, she smiled sadly. Monica really was a beautiful woman. She missed her own face. It was rare that she ever saw her own,realface in the mirror.
But Monica had curves in all the right places. It’d make it easy to tempt Hank into betraying his boss for a quickie. But she had to be careful—if Hank was too loyal or too afraid, it could blow up in her face in all the wrong ways.
Either way, she had to make sure that Hank never breathed a word of it to anyone. Whether he said yes or no, the man had to die.
Heading back to the pool, she was happy to see her target was still posted by the pool. She watched him from the corner of her eye—watching without watching—as she kicked off her sandals by the edge of the water and undid the tie from her hair, letting her brown locks fall down around her shoulders.
Hank was staring.
Good boy.Stare.She wanted these images burned into his brain for later in the evening. When he came on the late guard shift with a few beers in him. And let the urges win.
She took her time. Combed her fingers through her hair. Bent over,veryslowly, to tuck her sandals underneath one of the chairs to keep them out of the sun. Making sure that Hank got a full view of herassets.When she stood, she let the lace shawl drop from her shoulders to drape over the arm of the same chair.
Every movement deliberate. But every movement innocent. Innocuous. Just a young woman, enjoying a private moment by a pool. Hank was just a staff member, after all—just a fixture.No more interesting to her, or threatening, than the lamp he was leaning against.
Her trek to the pool, though, had two purposes. One, seducing her target. And two…swimming. Lords below, it had been ages. She smiled, and dove into the deep end of the pool, instantly relishing the cool embrace of the liquid as it greeted her, even in her false human form.
How she wished she could shed her shape and feel the water flow through her fins. Shallow and contained as the water was, it would still feel like ecstasy against her scales.
She just had to remember to come up for air at short intervals—humans couldn’t breathe underwater like she could, even with a glamor on. While she could shrug off her quick healing, her inability to drown would be harder to dismiss.
An hour in the pool turned into two, spent doing laps and just lounging about, enjoying herself. It reminded her of home, even if the chemicals did sting her eyes a bit and made her skin itch. Why humans and vampires felt the need to kill every living thing out of their captive water puddles, she didn’t understand. But she supposed it was due to their need tocontrolthe Wild. Moons forbid anything thrive in their world.
