Page 32 of Kept
She moaned as her blood was taken, mouthful by mouthful, begged me to let her go, not to kill her, but she tasted too good, and I told her so.
“I’ll let you fly, when I have satiated my thirst.”
She cast wild eyes at the ornate railings behind her then. I could see panic rising, which of course made her heart beat faster, her blood pulse more quickly into my mouth.
And she did fly, well, sort of. She momentarily hung in the air for a fraction of a second before hitting the pavement.
I’m sitting now, waiting for Scotland Yard to arrive, I do so love toying with the law.
I’ll have to return to the manor tomorrow and deal with that landscape designer. I expect she knows something she should not, and we can’t have that now, can we?
I will be a tad sad that I don’t get my gardens as I had hoped, but I shall simply have to keep looking and find a better designer – one without the taint of a Lanesborough’s sacrilegiously stolen blood.
I won’t be sad to see her go; she makes me uncomfortable. There is something about her I can’t quite put my finger on, something she is concealing, so I shall put my fingers all over her and find out exactly what that is.
I suppose while I’m waiting for the law, I should practise how horrified I will sound about what I had just witnessed – the poor woman’s suicide. Oh, the bard would be proud of my performance if he could see it, I can act so very well when I choose.
Gerald asked me recently if, given my acting ability, I could even pretend to feel a little remorse for killing Celeste, for his sake, but Itold him ‘no.’ Why waste my prodigious acting skills on something so wholly unnecessary, even for him?
“Gerald. I have to eat. In order for me to eat, they have to die.”
Actually, that isn’t true, and we both know it, but still, it makes it so much more exciting when they do. And no, I have no remorse, because I like food, and I like excitement, and I like getting my revenge upon women of this kind – so win, win, win as the Americans say.
I stop reading and frown.
‘Am I like him? Wasn’t I just as bad? The only difference is no one dies when I eat, except animals – animals die. No, I’m not evil like he is, I might not pay for a meal, but I don’t kill for the food.’
Deciding I’d had enough introspection for the night I rise and slip the book into my suitcase.
I’m about to turn in when my phone rings. The number is one I don’t recognise, and I’m torn between answering it and letting it go to voicemail, but so many strange things have happened lately, I decide to answer.
“Josephine?”
“James, hello, I didn’t realise you had my number.”
“I stole it from the staff registry. I hope you don’t mind.”
I’m thinking that, yeah, I actually do mind, but I don’t say so. I hope, though, that my silence speaks a few volumes, and at least a few pages of swear words.
“I needed to speak to you, I felt so terrible about upsetting you, and when you didn’t come to work I went around to your apartment, but the old lady across the hall said you had gone away for a few days.”
“Yeah, Margarita brought us to Vegas, we needed a change of scenery.”
My voice is, I know, laden with; ‘I wanted to get away from you for a while, too’ but he doesn’t seem to pick up on it – men!
“Look, since we missed our date, and if you haven’t got anything better to do this evening, I thought we could have a phone date.”
“Um, if you are thinking something raunchy, I should tell you, I don’t have the vocabulary for that kind of thing.”
His laughter is a surprise and lightens my mood.
“No, no nothing like that. I don’t think phone sex is something either of us would excel at. No, I just wanted to get to know you, and I thought, at least I had the feeling before Friday, that maybe you wanted to get to know me too.”
I smile, but of course, he can’t see that.
“Josephine?”
“Uh, oh, yeah, sorry. Yes, you are right. I have to admit I’m intrigued by your background in occult studies. I’ve discovered I’m a bit of a fan of vampire fiction.”
