Page 76 of Midnight Revelations

I must have dozed off for a while, because when I woke, I felt disorientated, but had that strange sense that someone was watching me. This was an enclosed garden, so I shook off the sensation as my mind playing tricks. Papa sat at the dining table with his laptop in front of him when I wandered inside, talking on a Zoom call.

The feeling of uneasiness from outside continued to grow inside my chest. I shook it off because the last twenty-four hours was making me see ghosts in the shadows. Leaving Papa to his business meeting, I climbed the stairs and into the shower to wash the remnants of everything off my skin. There were times that I swore I could still smell the scent of the blood that had been in that apartment.

Ash lay sleeping with his arm flung over his eyes, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. It felt strange seeing him sleeping in my bed, but at the same time it felt right since he belonged there.

Papa had a housekeeper here in London who cooked when he was in town, so I didn’t have to worry about making lunch for everyone. It would be served at two this afternoon like clockwork. I tucked myself into the spot that I tended to use for drawing since there was light in the conservatory at the back of the house.

My mind was still filled with blood and horror and that found its way into my designs. Necklaces that reminded me of a vampire attack with blood trails of rubies down the throat, chunky rings with gaudy stones that should adorn the hand of any ancient supernatural creature. The blood splatter on the walls haunted me, Poppy’s vacant eyes as they stared toward heaven. The concept of Heaven and Hell had been drilled into me from childhood. Now I was left debating what happened to her soul. I had harboured dark thoughts about the beautiful, vibrant woman as jealousy consumed me. Now, guilt took the place of the other emotion and gnawed at me.

Muted conversation in the background told me that our housekeeper had arrived to make lunch. The last food I’d eaten had been hours ago at around seven when we got in from the hospital. I returned to my sketching, the outline of a woman appearing on the page in a long, flowing gown, dark hair cascading around her. The necklace I had drawn previously shone out in stark contrast to the white of her outfit.

The hairs at the back of my neck stood to attention as I stared at the macabre image. I shaped the bodice in to make her appear more bridelike for a Dracula theme. A cool metal object was placed to the side of my head.

“There you are,” a male voice said against my right ear, rancid breath fanning my cheek. “Ash tried to convince us that he didn’t care about you, but from the moment I saw the way he looked at you in that photograph I knew that you were the one. He needs to be punished, and as your father would never let a man into his house without a marriage licence, there is no one left to save you.”

He pressed a grotesque kiss to my cheek.

“I’ll make sure to carve you nicely and leave your body for him.”

Bile rose up the back of my throat and panic erupted in my chest. Ash was dead to the world upstairs and there was a predator on the loose down here determined to wreak revenge and death.

***

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ash

My head thumped and the pressure behind my eyes burned until it felt like my brain was going to explode. I didn’t want to get up and face the world, because when I did, I had to face the reality that my endgame included the death of my father. He was a nasty bastard with the survival ability of a cockroach. He wouldn’t die easily and would take collateral damage with him on the way.

The sun was too fucking bright as I finally pushed myself up to sit at the side of the bed. The little plush Minnie Mouse I bought Lucrezia sat at the side of the bed. The matching Mickey sat in my room back home.

“Shit,” I muttered, holding my head to stave off the migraine that was creating a white flashing aurora in my vision. I rarely took migraines anymore, but they were ridiculous when they arrived. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I creaked my neck from side to side slowly.

I was still dressed in my grey sweatpants from earlier, and I padded across the floor in my bare feet to find some tablets in the bathroom to take for the pain in my head.

“Where the hell is my top?” I searched the room but couldn’t find it. Lucas would be pissed with me wandering around his house half naked. At least I hadn’t taken my sweatpants off earlier or I would be completely naked.

The house was eerily silent, but then Lucas tended to prefer working in silence. His staff tended to be in the background and rarely seen.

The scent of blood was my first clue that there was something wrong. I didn’t have my fucking phone or I could have sent a silent alert to the guys.

Lucas was a criminal who pretended to be a gentleman. My home had several concealed weapons in every room, although knowing Lucas I doubted there would be any even if I looked. Tiptoeing cautiously through the house, I listened for any sounds that would tell me what was happening.

There was no one in the front of the house, so I searched every room. Lucas’ laptop was sitting open on the dining table, and there was food on the kitchen counter, but everything had been left like the Marie Celeste, abandoned and all the inhabitants gone.

I continued to move through the house until I reached the library that overlooked the back garden. It also housed the staircase down into the cellar that contained an impressive collection of wines. Every instinct told me that whatever I was looking for was there.

Without missing a beat, I returned to the kitchen and hunted for the biggest blade I could find. Stealth and surprise were the greatest weapons in my arsenal right now, and whoever was in the house probably wasn’t expecting me to come creeping down the stairs.

One step and stop, my ears strained to hear any noise.

Another step, and I paused to ensure that no one could detect me. A whimper alerted my senses and I closed my eyes to hone in on the direction it came from.

Another step, and I stilled, sitting on the top step. I recognised the distinctive humming in the background.

Marlow.

The psychotic fucker used to hum when he was beating the crap out of me in my youth while Dad watched. He had killed Poppy and nearly killed Aaron, and now he was here spreading his vile evil as he went.

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