“No one told me I was in the presence of Father of the year.” I clapped and the dull thuds of my gloved hands had echoed in the abandoned textile plant.
“Fuck… you,” he had attempted to hiss, glaring at me with blue eyes.
“How old is she?” There was no way he was telling the truth but if he was…
“Thirteen… no, wait. Shit.” I had rolled my eyes.
“If this half-vampire somehow exists and is vaguely a teenager I’m guessing you figured there was no rush, right?Have a good life,” I broke off in a scoff. “More like wait until she was aged up. Then you could sell her for all sorts of things.”
“That’s life,” he had admitted with a wheezy laugh—pleased with himself. If this half-vampire existed, she didn’t need a father like this.
“What’s her name?”
“Bree… Bree Hamilton.” The name changed everything, I just didn’t know it yet. I’d lifted my knife, slipped it right under his ear, then dragged it across his throat. The blood curtained out. Vampires, of course, didn’t die so easily. Which worked well for me. Sometimes I wanted my victims still breathing when I started on dismemberment.
Every choice I’d made since then had been about her. Finding out if she existed. Finding outwhereshe existed. Finding out every little thing there was to know from afar.
She existed, she was real… and she was a dhamphyr.
Everything was crystal clear after that. I made my plans to come to her, to worm my way into her life, and to take control of it. My plan of action had to be thorough this time because they didn’t involve just me and my morbid hobbies. Now and forevermore, my plans would involve…the biggest pain in my fucking ass.
“Are you angry?” She asked, looking vaguely pleased by the idea of driving me to outrage. How many red flags did I brush off before coming here? The rap sheet was thorough. Bree’s life was well documented because she was a fucking nuisance.
I’d ended up the naive fool—not her. I thought all these little warning signs were good things. That they were ways for me to control her. As if I was going to find some waifish, insecure, anxious little girl. Instead I got Bree in all her confident, casual rule breaking and burgeoning psychopathy.
I needed to get it together. Things were still fine. I had her perfectly under control. And her being a nuisance was still a good thing. That’s how I was now a guiding force and capable of maneuvering her life. I could send her ass to jail and maybe she needed a reminder of that fact.
“Do I need to make a call to the judge?” I asked.
“Wow, you really didn’t like me showing up here,” she said, brushing off my threat. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Seven months I’d been dealing with her now and it was only getting harder, not easier as one might assume.
Bree peered around me, looking down the hall. I realized she was looking at someone and tensed. My body pressed closer to hers, shielding her. I gripped her arm to keep her in place.
“Who you hiding there, doc?” The chipper voice asked.
“Basil,” I hissed. I glared at Bree as she attempted to stand on tiptoes to look around me. I heard his boots take a step closer and tensed. His taking a step closer was as good as a deaththreat. How did he get over here? Patients were supposed to get into this hall. Then again, Basil did whatever the fuck he wanted.
“I’m hiding no one. Now leave.”
“No one?” Bree hissed at me. I stared at her in utter disbelief. Was she offended that I implied she’s no one to a violent psychopath who could kill her in an instant? I ground my teeth.
“Be quiet.Please,” I asked, trying to sound anything but furious. Her face went slack as she nodded. Maybe she was a nuisance but she was still a naive young woman.
“Doctor Orson… are you fucking one of your patients?” Basil asked with entertainment. “Can I watch?”
“Exactly,” I said. “And yes, you can.”
“Fuck! My year has been made. People rarely let me watch. I ask all the time but they find me off-putting. You think it’s the whole murder everyone I’m close to thing? Or maybe it’s the masks?”
“I think it’s the smell,” I responded.
“The what?!”
“Your body odor,” I said. He busted out laughing so hard I thought he was going to choke.
“That’s hilarious. Complete nonsense. I literally can’t smell bad. I tried once—didn’t shower for a month. Weird, really. I even slept next to a dead— You know what? Enough of that. Can I make position suggestions while you two go at it? There’s a few specific acts I’ve been dying to see up close and personal.”
“Basil.”
