Page 53 of House of Crimson Kisses
“Things seems to have… er… progressed.”
“Progressed how?” I say never removing my eyes from Drax’s.
“There are talents developing.”
Xavier kicks off the wall, as interested as I am.
Amelia continues. “I think we need to find out as much about the umm… condition as possible. We need to know how…” she pauses and glances at Xavier and then the vampire in the chair. “Things will develop.”
I pull out of the vampire’s chin and suck the remnants of his blood off my finger.
“Good thinking. Take Xavier. He can be helpful when he wants to be. Bring Red down here before you go. I think she earned the right to have a little fun.”
Amelia raises her eyebrow but vanishes to a serenade of the vampire’s screams: sharp and hollow, sweet and deep.
I close my eyes and listen to the rattling of the chair, the trickle of his piss hitting the floor and the shrieking pleas of each and every beg.
Delicious.
Chapter16
CORDELIA
One Thousand Years Ago
The closer I get to finding my Eleanor, the further she feels from me, and the less hope I hold. I swear on the witch-gods that time rather misbehaves itself. Elongating and stretching into an ever more expansive test.
I find myself screaming into the air, at whoever will listen. I want to crawl out of my skin. I want to burn the heavens down for taking her from me.
One moment I am cantering across a field, and the next I am sobbing into Teddy’s neck, pleading with him to keep her alive.
It is a form of torture I’ve never experienced, the not knowing. It is a sadistic thing, allowing my imagination to hope and pray one minute, concocting elaborate escapes for her from the cottage. The next, the burning roof and building flashes in my mind’s eye, knowing there was no chance she got out.
But still. I cannot give up. I shan’t. Not until I see her body or have her lips on mine again.
After what has seemed like three legions and a lifetime, I enter the village the man told me about. It’s different from the heart of the city. Far greener and lush with fields, garden plots, shrubs and planters. There are cottages and bungalows everywhere I cast an eye, but each of them wears a shroud of green like a coat and scarf.
I slow Teddy down to a walk and hop down, deciding to walk him through the village as the houses are all so close together that the path between them is more like a city alley. Bungalow doors sit opposite each other, nestled safe under their porches which hang with leafy greens, colourful flowers and swollen fruit. Some of the doors are perched above a set of three steps, each one smothered in potted plants and urns. The path is twisty, I keep expecting it to widen out into a large open square like it would in the city, but it doesn’t, it just keeps twisting and bending around more cottages. Occasionally, there’s a split off and the cottages continue to fan out down one of these narrow tracks, but all huddled close together.
There are no road signs, no street labels to tell me where I am. My chest tightens, the well of tears rising to meet my lids. I wobble on my feet, leaning against Teddy, wishing he could tell me to keep going, wishing he could find me some food or anything to keep me journeying.
I desperately don’t want to stop, but I have no idea where I am, no idea where Eleanor could be. I am at my wits end.
I slacken the reins and slump onto the step of the nearest cottage and put my head in my hands.
“Come on, Cordelia, you’ve come this far, you can’t quit now. Eleanor wouldn’t quit. She would go to the ends of the earth for you. Now you need to do the same.”
The door behind me creaks open, and I startle, leaping out of the way of the hunched-over old lady.
“Sorry dear, didn’t mean to disturb you,” she says, smiling at me with a set of extremely white teeth that don’t seem to match her wisened appearance.
“No, I apologise, it was most rude of me to sit here uninvited.”
“You’re perfectly okay, my love. Steps are for stepping on and sitting on, I don’t see that you’re doing any harm at all. I say, you look a little worse for wear.”
Her watery blue eyes wash over my appearance. It’s only now that I glance down and examine myself, I see that she’s correct.
Oh dear. I stand up and examine my reflection in her window.
