Page 23 of Kept 4
“Not at all,” he gives an elaborate bow, making me laugh, “but tell me, where doth my lady roam next? Upon which perilous mission doth she venture?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” I smirk.
“Well,” he winks, “I will take care of your little friend. Keep in touch with us; don’t go six months without calling this time.”
I shake my head ruefully.
“I’m sorry about that, Daniel. Thank you, thank you for everything. And yes, I’ll keep in touch.”
He nods and leans down to enter the vehicle, and as his chauffer shuts the door, I lean into the window, across Daniel, to look at Margarita.
“Stay safe, Chiquita,” she says, her voice, strangely subdued, as she had been ever since Daniel had pulled up and shook her hand, his friendly, happy-go-lucky grin seemingly not rubbing off onto her, as it always does me.
“That’s the plan,” I smirk, hoping my confidence will set her at ease; she’s clearly worried about separating, now that the time has come. When we were on the train, she had begged me not to go back to Ereston, to simply run away with her and start again. But we both know, deep down, that we can’t escape vampires that easily, that we would always be looking over our shoulders, worried. The only answer is to kill the ancient.
I lean back as the dark, tinted window rolls up, and the car pulls out into London’s traffic, heading presumably to the airport, to Daniel’s private jet, fuelled and waiting to take him and his new companion to Mexico. I hope they get along, after all, Daniel is loaded and loves all things Mexican, and Margarita looks Mexican and likes men with money – a match made in heaven. Also, he is wholly and completely unconnected with anything vampirish, so should enable her to vanish as he had helped me so many times. And she was still wearing the bracelet hidden beneath her sleeve, her protection against Gerald, and she knows never to take it off under any circumstance.
She should be safe now.
I think back to one of the many conversations we had over the past few days about her time with Gerald and nod my head. I did the right thing by luring her from him.
“It must have been terrible, having to sleep with him, knowing you didn’t have any choice, being totally under his mind control,” I had commiserated.
“Yes and no,” she laughed, looking up from painting her toenails. “I mean sex with Gerald, at first, was mind-blowingly fucking amazing. I mean, Josie, the way hesmelled, the things he could do with his body and hisvoice. Holy hell,” she paused for effect, “I mean it puts a whole new spin on ‘dirty talk’ – I don’t know how I am ever going to get used to sex with an ordinary man now.”
I shook my head at her and tried not to imagine what it would have been like to actually consummate my lust with Nicholas - and failed badly. I knew exactly what she meant about their smell, their voice – he could make me cum with a word for Christ’s sake.
Squirming and shaking my head, I bent the conversation away from the great things vampires could do.
“But you couldn’t say no.”
“I didn’t want to,” she laughed, “well not at first,” she added, her voice becoming serious. “Later, of course, when you know, all the sick shit started happening, I wanted to then, but I couldn’t. Like you said, I was a suck and fuck zombie. I knew it, but there was nothing I could do about it.”
“Sick shit?”
“Yeah,” she shuddered, “I mean, you know I’ve always been experimental…” I nodded, “and when he first suggested threesomes I was like, ‘yeah, OK’ – but waking up next to a dead girl morning after morning – that pretty quickly knocks the kink out of you.”
“Oh.”
It’s all I could say for a minute. I was shocked, appalled.
“I thought they didn’t need to kill anyone, drink so often that is, if they regularly sipped on their Kept?”
“Gerald likes it,” she said, “and Josie, just so you know. I will never, ever allow something like that to happen to me again, or you – never, ever.”
I nodded, watching her face as it paled at the memories, and sweat beaded on her brow. “I hear you, sista.”
She gave me a hard look then. I don’t think I’d ever seen her face so determined, as she set aside her nail polish and headed into the bathroom, effectively putting an end to the conversation.
I tried not to listen to her vomiting.
Now, hailing a cab, I grit my teeth and prepare to play my part to ensure no woman ever has to submit to anything like that again.
I sit at the restaurant, dressed in my haute couture black gown, my hair high on my head in an elaborate bun, and await my meal.
Tomorrow I leave for Ereston Estate, to retrieve the weapon from Paddington the stuffed baby bear’s ass, where I had firmly secreted it some months ago when I left the manor.
From there I would somehow get the weapon to Prudence’s Hunter team, over the other side of the country. Then, and only then, would I think about where I would go next, probably Thailand, anywhere completely away from England. Somewhere where everything didn’t remind me of my beautiful billionaire.
