‘Excellent!’ says Tim with a cackle. ‘Thank you, Sadie.’
I incline my head.
‘Secondly’, he continues, ‘I don’t want anyone feeling sorry for me. Sadie already knows this, but I wanted to be turned. I made up my mind as soon as I saw her standing on my front doorstep last night. And I asked her to. If she hadn’t done it, I was going to ask someone else.’ His eyes slide to Hester, then Floss.
‘Really?’ says Damian, sounding confused. ‘But why?’
Uh-oh. I shift uncomfortably on the couch, the leather sticking to the back of my thighs since I’ve changed into a miniskirt. But Tim doesn’t mention the other part of the conversation about still being in love with me. He says something quite different.
‘I had stage 4 terminal cancer.’
‘Bullshit!’ It pops out of my mouth before I can help it. All eyes swing to me.
‘Sorry, but ...’ I wave a hand at Tim’s muscular physique. ‘He looks so healthy.’
‘It was a fast-growing brain tumour,’ he says quietly. ‘But now I’m healed, and I don’t have to be afraid of dying alone anymore.’
He tightens his arm around Lucy and kisses the side of her head. ‘This whole day has felt like a rebirth. And I’m so grateful to my new girlfriend, Lucy, for turning me. For giving me the gift of immortality.’
Lucy beams at that while Elliott gazes enquiringly at me. I’m not sure what he’s getting at.
‘I don’t care,’ I mouth at him, and he flicks his eyebrows and turns away again. Surely, he doesn’t think I still have feelings for Tim? Grrr, I feel like jumping on him and pounding his thick skull into the concrete floor. It’s you. I just want you!
I drag my attention back to Tim.
‘Thirdly, even though my story has a happy ending, that doesn’t excuse Alexander Dryden for making me his dinner. I understand from Lucy that he’s keeping a bunch of women captive in an Airbnb castle nearby, and that he probably ventured to my house because he detected Floss was here and he wants to kill her. But I find that unbelievable—’
‘He does want to kill Floss!’ Lucy pipes up before I can get a word in edgeways. God, I don’t hate her anymore, but she’sstillannoying. ‘He wrote in his journal when he came back from Edinburgh and I sneaked a peek when he was having a thrall orgy with a few of the girls,’ she tells us.
‘A thrall orgy! Jesus!’ Tim looks thoroughly shocked. But sounds slightly turned on again. To my ears anyway.
‘Forget the thrall orgy. What did the journal say?’ asks Damian impatiently.
‘It was along the lines of: “Maybe not next week, or next month, but rest assured Florence is going to be eliminated for stealing my money, and that human dentist she’s hooked up with can die too. It is her fault that I have to resort to such extreme measures to keep the wolf from the door in the modern world.” Something like that anyway.’
Floss lets out a whimper. ‘We’re going to be toast!’
‘Don’t worry, babe. I won’t let him hurt you,’ Damian mutters looking furious.
‘What does he mean by “extreme measures”?’ Tim asks.
Lucy shrugs. ‘I don’t know. The entry ended there.’
‘But why does he want to kill Floss? I’m confused …’
‘It’s like this, Tim. Sadie, Hester, and Floss have been on the run from Alexander for over a century,’ explains Damian. ‘Floss took half of his money back in 1921. And he’s been holding a grudge ever since.’
‘Oh. Right.’ Tim raises his eyebrows and stares at Floss.
‘I know stealing his money wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made,’ says Floss sounding tired. ‘But after thirty-three years of being held captive by him, I was desperate.’
‘She was,’ I agree, ‘You should have seen her. She spent a solid month trying to get his safe open.’
‘We’ve done our best to hide and keep out of his way, but I’m well over that now. I just want to be free of him,’ says Floss more staunchly.
‘Hear hear,’ I add, and Hester murmurs her agreement. Not surprising as she’s donea lotof shielding over the years.
Damian kisses Floss’s cheek. ‘You don’t deserve his wrath, babe. He’s a vicious old vampire who’s jealous that you’re happy.’
