Page 26 of Hupotasso
I smile, reaching for the carafe to pour her another glass of sangria. As the camera crew departs noisily and Caroline moves to sit back down nearby, I flick the note under Isabel’s mother’s fingers as she reaches for her glass.
She takes it without blinking and I could almost cry with relief.
20
I place the phone down and stare into the distance, my gaze completely inward.
Nothing untoward happened during Angelina’s meeting with Isabel’s parents in Barcelona.Caroline told me my wife had spoken to the parents longer than most of the others, but nothing was mentioned of any consequence. She went on to say that Angelina had bled a week ago.
I’m surprised she isn’t pregnant already. Vampire-human relations are usually spectacularly fecund. It’s frustrating. Sophie isn’t due to give birth for another four months yet, but the sooner Angelina is out of the picture the sooner my plan can be put into action to destroy Spider — and the less time Sophie has to spend pretending to be his wife.
It’s of paramount importance that Angelina gets pregnant soon.
All things being equal, she’ll be home tomorrow and I’ll rectify the situation. I can’t help feeling aroused at the thought. Even when I’m with my mistresses it’s nothing compared to fucking Angelina. I’m considering killing them all and replacing them with some new blood. Hopefully this will redress the issue.
Shaking my head I press play on the latest conversation Caroline’s recorded on her phone, and drum my fingers on my desk as I listen. Throughout the tour Angelina has been the height of respectable royalty, mostly staying on script, saying and doing what she was told.
It’s completely uncharacteristic.
Caroline’s a fool.
The tone in Angelina’s voice while speaking to Isabel’s family reveals she’s nervous, which is understandable, but she’s also stalling for time. She’s definitely up to something. Stopping the recording, I speed-dial my pilot.
“Where to, My Lord?”
“Barcelona,” I snap, hanging up and heading for the door.
21
I stand and stare out the window, ignoring the slurping and moaning going on behind me as Caroline drinks.
Her little joke on me is that she’s only ordered redheads throughout our entire trip.
She tells me Falcon does the same, but I don’t believe her.
I know that when she’s finished, our security will dispose of the body discreetly and permanently, as no doubt they’d been doing for the royals since time began. I shake my head and wish I could open the window and fly away. But I won’t be doing any flying tonight, out of a window or otherwise. Usually, we leave straight away for the next country, but this is the last family, and the Lear is in use, apparently. Instead we’ll fly back to thecastle tomorrow, and I’m dreading it. Every day that I’m away is another day I’m not pregnant, another day away from death.
When I hear Caroline call for security I turn around, keeping my eyes firmly fixed away from the body on the floor. She hadn’t screamed, of course, the young woman on the carpet. Vampire bites feel amazing. Her death was probably pretty good as far as deaths go. But I’m damn sure she hadn’t volunteered. Where she’d come from was anyone’s guess.Procuredis what the vampires called it. Kidnapped would be more apt.
Even so, I’m not really shaken when Caroline eats, much to her chagrin. I’m sure she’d like to see me horrified as often as possible. But I’ve seen enough bodies now to no longer be visibly shocked, and it’s not as if I didn’t know what vampires ate before I married one. I don’t let it show, but that still doesn’t make it any easier to see the corpses. If my calculations are correct she only needs to suck a human dry once a week. The rest of the time she eats human food. I don’t know if this is the same for all vampires. Falcon ate a contestant virtually daily on The Games — but then again, I don’t know if he sucked them dry or just had a little sip.
‘Let’s face it, I don’t know anything about the man I married, or his kind.’
I meet Caroline’s eyes, my face neutral. Tonight my plan is to ask for something outlandish and, when refused, wind it back to something she might agree to; classic deal-making skills. I wish I did have the super-spy abilities Falcon accuses me of, but sadly I don’t. This is pretty much myonlyplan.
“We have tonight in Barcelona, Caroline. I want to go out.”
“No,” she replies, wiping her mouth daintily on a white lace-edged handkerchief.
I narrow my eyes at her. As usual she’s dressed in a pastel twin-suit and pearls. I can’t help but wonder how old she actually is, but I don’t bother asking. I try to keep my conversation with her to a bare minimum because she delights in dropping information about Falcon’s long life that is mostly downright disturbing. I loathe everything about her.
“Then if I can’t go out I want to order in from a restaurant, not from the hotel menu.”
She cocks her head to the side and considers my request. It’s like watching a vampire calculator, I can almost hear the cogs whirring as she tries to add up whether this is a risk, and if I should be permitted to do it or not. I wonder what instructions Falcon gave her. She definitely seems to have a list of do’s and don’ts. She hadn’t shown her nasty little fangs to me again after the ballroom incident, though, so I’m sure she was told she wasn’t allowed to bite me. But she still liked to mentally torture me whenever she could. Luckily my background as a teacher meant most things she said just washed right over me, and I’d schooled my face not to react to her malice.
When we’d first started travelling I’d asked for a huge range of things to test her limits. I wasn’t allowed to shop, I wasn’t allowed visitors or devices, I wasn’t allowed to go off-script, I wasn’t allowed, well, you name it, I wasn’t permitted it. I haven’t asked to dine out anywhere before, though, so she’s got to think this one through, and itisour last night on the road.
Eventually, she nods.
