Page 13 of How to Flirt with a Hellhound
I contemplated the corpse in front of me. What a disappointment.
I’d never thought too much about it, but the problem with blood spray was that you were usually hitting an artery, and the human was likely to bleed out much more quickly. To really get maximum blood everywhere, you’d have to hit a lot of arteries at once, which was really not very satisfying. Death would be very fast with that much speedy blood loss. Cuts that bled out more slowly just didn’t splatter, though, although they did form satisfying puddles.
Well, they would on a bare floor, anyway. Marcus’s office was unfortunately carpeted, so it ended up as a saturated, bloody carpet. Still, there had been enough blood for some to pool on the carpet.
I’d have to make sure Toby hadn’t set his scene in a carpeted room. Shag carpet especially would probably soak up quite a bit of blood.
I looked out the window. Dusk had fallen outside, and I supposed I needed to decide whether I was going to dispose of Marcus or not. As satisfying as it would be to leave Marcus for the woman to find, the innocent human might just as easily find the body. Plus, then there would be police and questions and allthat stuff, and I hated wasting all those human resources on a crime they would never solve.
Missing persons were always easier than murder scenes.
A house fire would nicely take care of his body and the bloody remains, and I kind of didn’t want the wife to have the house—she didn’t deserve it. But that meant I would need to deal with the innocent human.
I’d kept tabs on the person, and despite Marcus getting quite vocal at the end there, the human had not moved from their location in the house. I sighed. I supposed I would have to retrieve them. It would have been easier if they’d just run off like the wife had.
l didn’t think it was a child. The woman and Marcus had given no indication of corrupting children in their darkened souls, and I hadn’t sensed any offspring. Although really, if it was a teenager, I could see those two not feeling very parental. Marcus and the woman were both monsters.
I left my pants on—not too much blood splatter on them, and the blood that was on them blended in because they were black. My skin was clean, and I grabbed my to-go bag and followed the scent to the mortal.
I took the staircase downstairs and ended up at a door on the main floor. After burning through the lock, I found a set of steps leading down another level. I followed those down into a wine cellar. I almost stopped and grabbed a few bottles—I knew Toby liked wine—but I was starting to get a sense of urgency about the innocent mortal.
I didn’t think living in a wine cellar was normal human behavior.
I wound my way through the wine racks and found myself at another door hidden at the back of the cellar. It was also locked, and it occurred to me for the first time that the lock to come downstairs had been on the outside of the door, not the inside.
Whoever was down here was being held captive.
I burned through the lock and slowly opened the door. I didn’t see anyone at first, then a form came charging out at me, all scratching nails and yelling and flailing limbs.
“Shit!” I cried out, grabbing ahold of the arms that were currently trying to pummel me and scrape my skin off.
“Let me go you fucking asshole!” a man’s voice cried out, and his legs continued to kick at me as he struggled.
I was trying not to hurt him, but he was a wiggly fucker. I spied a bed at the other end of the small room, and I gently threw him onto it, putting my hand up and growling, “Stay!” as soon as he landed. My cuts and scrapes were already healing, and I let a little glow into my eyes to give my words some weight. I did not want to have to subdue the human.
“What the fuck are you?” he hissed. He looked ready to launch himself at me again, despite askingwhatI was, notwhoI was.
“Just… Stay still for a minute and let me think,” I murmured. Fuck. A human captive. This complicated things.
“Probably can’t burn the house down now…” I mumbled to myself, sighing. “Liam is gonna be so annoyed if he has to deal with a human investigation again.”
“Burn the fucking place to the ground,” the man spat. “Just let me go.”
I looked at him, raising my eyebrows. He was a petite and wiry little thing, but I could tell he had reached maturity, although he was probably only in his early twenties. Surely he had family and friends who were looking for him. “Don’t you want the police involved? Won’t your family wonder where you’ve been?” I asked.
He leaned back against the wall, folding his arms across his chest defensively. He was skinny, but he looked in good health otherwise, and I wondered how long he’d been held here—I didn’t think it was terribly long. He was frightened, but he certainly wasn’t broken. I felt a sense of satisfaction that I might have stopped whatever Marcus had planned for this human. I knew Marcus had done some terrible things to others, but perhaps this one was relatively unscathed.
Aside from the kidnapping and being held in a cellar, of course. That sort of thing was probably a bit traumatic.
“Just let me go,” he said again, a frown marring his face.
“Well, that would definitely make things easier,” I mused. Still, I didn’t think humans found other humans being held captive and just let them go. If he ran straight to the police and described me… Well, that would be an annoyance.
I had no desire to leave Paradise Falls. Toby lived there.
“Where will you go?” I asked.
He stared at me mulishly.
