‘You’re a lively one, aren’t you?’ His rasping kipper breath is so rank it makes me gag.
He hauls my body over into the far corner, away from the street. I go limp, letting him think I’ve fainted from shock. It suits my purposes: I’m going to rip his throat out, and the fewer people who hear it, the better. My blood teethare aching with anticipation. I’m a far more dangerous killer than he is, and he’s about to become my first victim.Good riddance.
He releases his hand from my mouth, and crouches beside me. I bare my fangs but tense as a slim sharp blade presses against my throat. ‘Keep still, and this won’t hurt a bit.’ His stinky fish breath wafts over my face, and my nostrils flare at the indignity. The stench of kippers willnotbe my last memory.
‘You chose the wrong woman,Jack!’I hiss.
Twisting my head and ignoring the sting of the knife’s blade as it skims my throat, I champ down on his arm. The woollen material of his coat is no protection for my lethal teeth. I rip out a large chunk of flesh, spitting a mess of gore and fibres onto the cobblestones. His blood coats my lips and dribbles down my chin.
The knife clatters to the ground as he sinks to his knees, moaning in pain. I give a low chuckle of satisfaction and scramble up a brick wall, discovering that I can cling to it without any effort. Clambering to the top, I crouch there, licking my lips. Below, Jack clutches his arm and scrabbles for the knife. He brandishes it wildly, peering into the darkness.
‘Up here,jackass!’
He sucks in a breath, seeing me outlined against the nightsky.
‘I’m going to gut you, you little bitch!’ he growls.
I arch an eyebrow. How rude. It’s about time I taught this man some manners.
I spring from the wall, aiming directly for his throat.
He doesn’t know what hit him.
***
I arrive back at the house, blood spattered and ready to tear a strip off Alexander—literally. Growling to myself, I stomp up the stairs with my fangs out.He’s going to pay for dumping me in that hellhole.Yes, I managed. But that isn’t the point. He’s supposed tocareabout me.
I find him in his bedroom, standing at the window, facing the door as if he’s been waiting for my return. A copper tub of steaming water sits between us. He holds out a finger and beckons me forward.
‘Come, my darling. Let’s get you cleaned up.’
I snarl and ready myself to pounce.
‘I know you’re angry, my dear. And yes, I deserve it. And you can say anything you like to me. But first, let me wash you and look after you.’
His velvety smooth voice wraps around me, and my resistance dissolves. I wilt like a fading flower,powerless beneath his will. A hot bath does sound good, and Alexander looking after me sounds even better ...
Tilting my head back, Alexander gently rinses my soapy hair with clean, warm water from a flowered jug. The bathwater turns a pretty shade of pink.
‘Where’s Charlie?’ I ask.
‘Sedated. I fed him some of my blood mixed with a special serum I’ve been working on for vampire insomnia. It seemed to do the trick.’
I don’t say anything. Not for the first time, I wonder what else he’s been dabbling in down in his basement laboratory, which I’m forbidden to enter.
Finished with my hair, Alexander scoops it to one side over my shoulder, soaps a washcloth, and begins making slow circles over my back. I purr in contentment.
‘I was thinking’, he says idly, ‘that three vampires under the same roof isn’t necessarily the best arrangement.’
Instinctively, my body tenses, wondering what he means by that.Am I going to get thrown out on the street?
He chuckles, reading my thoughts as he’s apt to do. ‘I would never, my precious one. I simply meant that we should take a trip.’
My taut muscles ease slightly as he rinses the soap off my back. ‘A trip? Where to?’
‘How would you like to go to Paris?’
I swivel in the bath and look up at him. ‘Paris! For how long?’
