“Sorry.Didn’t throw up on you, did I?”
“No, but some of it hit the corpse, so well done.”
Theo shrugged.“I jumped in the lake because of the birds.Take it away now.”
Peter dropped the head between the body’s legs so Bernard’s nose was pressed against his own groin.Fitting.
“Do you always go have dinner after you murder people?You have done this before, right?”
Peter took Theo by the hand and was glad when Theo let himself be led back out of the thicket.
“No, I don’t go out to dinner after murder because I do not eat.I do find willing blood donors sometimes though.And yes, I have done this before.”
“If…any of the people that he… The people he sold me to.Would you do this to them if they came to find me?”
Peter liked the forethought the question showed, but he didn’t like that Theo’s mind had gone there.But it speaks to how much he values me that he asks this favor of me.
“Yes.”
Theo nodded, and Peter could feel another quiet spell coming on.He pulled out his phone and called a couple who he knew could handle the kind of mess in the trees.
“Why would I want three cuts of vampire meat?”said Simon, the kelpie half of the often-hungry couple.
“The liver is still good,” Peter assured him.
Theo gave Peter a look, but quickly turned his attention back to the light installation of oversized, glowing amphibian eggs.
“Liver, pah.”
“And tell Pryce he can deal with the rest.”Pryce was a ghoul, and he would appreciate vampire.They kept quite nicely.
“Okay, fine, but you take care of the parking tickets I got the other day.”
“Ah, Simon, you drive a relentless bargain.”
“Take it or leave it, Peter.”
“All right, all right, I shall pay your fine.”
“Deal.”Simon hung up.
Peter texted him the details of where the meat was, and then he and Theo walked back to the car.
A small group of tourists had found the beach installation, and they were taking photos, each of them sitting in the beach chair in turn.
“I used to be like that,” Theo mumbled.
Peter squeezed Theo’s hand.“Should I chase them off so you can have a go?”
Theo snorted.“Nah.You’re not a monster, remember?”
“If you say so.”
Theo kept mostly quiet on the drive back home, but halfway there, he reached over and held Peter’s hand.Once they walked through the door, Theo turned toward him.
“I don’t want to go out.Can we order in and watch a movie?Not a horror movie.Something fluffy.”
Peter nodded.“Something supercalifragilistic?”
