Page 25 of Kept
I laugh. “Well, I did tell you it was a vampire novel.”
“Yeah,” he shakes his head and rises, “I guess I’m too busy solving real-life crimes to want to read about them for fun. But I get it.”
Just then, his phone buzzes, and he looks down at a text, frowning.
“Emergency,” he says quietly, “I’ve got to go.”
I rise and follow him to the door.
“Lock this behind me,” he says sternly, before turning and giving me his beautiful smile.
“I will,” I nod, “but, you won’t be far?”
“I’m never far,” he says, his eyes serious.
We stand at the doorway and look at each other, and I know, if he wasn’t in uniform, I’d be kissing those lips by now. I sense that he knows that too, and he smirks.
“Look, this is totally unprofessional of me but, would you like to go on a date some night?”
“Yes. Oh shit, date!” I slap my forehead.
“Sorry?”
“Um, I mean, sorry, I’m talking like an idiot. I had a date tonight, and I completely forgot about it.”
“Well, I’d recommend staying in. It’s not a good night to be on the streets. But I can drop you off if you like?”
“No,” I smile and shake my head, such a gentleman, “it probably wasn’t a wise idea anyway – co-worker and all that. I was kind of coerced into it.”
“Good,” he laughs, “I mean not good you were coerced, but..”
I laugh. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“Night. I’ll call you.”
“Night.”
I lock the door behind him and lean against it, smiling, before wandering back to the coffee table and picking up the book. I want to find out where the flower came from and what its significance was to the vampire.
I shake my head ruefully as I think this. I was actually starting to think this was a journal, what an idiot! Obviously, the flower was put in the book by the author. There will be no reference made to it by the character.
But when I flip open the next page, my smile dies on my lips.
New Entry.
I went tonight, although I’d told myself this time I would be strong, this time I would stay away, but I could not.
Perhaps it was the Lanesborough mention, or perhaps I was just feeling maudlin and wanted to torture myself. Whatever the case, I went.
Her tombstone stood as it always has, black basalt, white engraved writing.
I knelt and picked a violet from her grave, it was as though she was reaching out to me from the beyond and reminding me not to forget her, but how could I? Her tombstone said it all, engraved as it was so very many hundreds of years ago by my own hand:
Hora E Sempre
I pause my reading to google the Latin, kicking myself that I hadn’t done it sooner for the words on the cover, I knew it couldn’t have been a reference to rabbits!
These words, though, touch my heart, as they obviously touch the vampire’s, they read:
