6 - Echo
I want him to eat me all night and day.
He is crooning in my earwhen I wake. “I love you, Little Baby.”
And Lucia is gone.
Was she ever here?
Was I dreaming?
Oh, please, God. I beg of you, let this all be a nightmare. Let me wake up in my parents’ house in Spokane. Let me be in my childhood bedroom wearing layers upon layers of black eyeliner. Let me be wearing that tattered Offspring t-shirt, and my black velvet bell-bottoms, and my Docs, and let me be in my lumpy twin bed that I’ve been sleeping in since I was four. Let my parents be downstairs, fighting. Screaming at each other. Drunk and high. Let me be there. I would give anything to just go back.
“Welcome, my Little Baby. Welcome back to your new life.”
I begin to sob, my whole body shaking.
His arms are around me, and I’m in the pool, and I want to pray for my own soul, which I am now very sure exists and has been sold with my full consent.
But before I can do that, his lips touch mine and a drop of blood slips into my mouth. And then… then the fight is over.
I am the definition of lost.
That’s all it takes. Just one drop. Because in this drop lives everything I could ever want.
I close my eyes and go limp in his arms, letting the rhythm of his chest, moving up and down under my body, lull me into a half-waking slumber.
Be careful.
The words in my head aren’t mine, they’re Lucia’s. It’s a warning. That I should not let this monster overtake me.
You know what’s happening here, Echo.
“I’m not Echo.” To my surprise, my words come flowing right out of my mouth. Well, they don’t exactly flow, they are more of a croak. But it startles me because for a moment there I think I forgot I existed.
It’s the blood, darling. And again, it’s Lucia’s voice in my head.It will always be your weakness and you will always want it. There’s no getting around that, Little Echo.
“Little Baby?” Josep says. His voice is so low and rumbly. So soothing and calm.
He’s a complete psychopath, Lucia coos.But do you know, even psychopaths have weaknesses? He left me alone for centuries. Do you want to know how I got him to do that?
Josep is petting my head now, kissing my cheek. “Little Baby, can you hear me? Come back to me, Little Baby. It’s all right now. You’re all better. I made you all better.”
“Tell me,” I say.
“What should I tell you, Little Baby?”
But it’s not Josep I’m talking to. It’s Lucia. “Tell me.”
Josep kisses my lips, nicking the upper one with his sharp teeth. He starts licking me, his tongue sliding in and out of my mouth. “You taste so good. Is that what you want to hear?” He kisses me, hard. Like we’re lovers who have been separated for months. Who haven’t seen each other. Lovers who only want one thing.
Not sex, though I see that coming.
But blood.
Blood lovers.
His weakness, Lucia continues,is his vanity. Fall in love with him, Little Echo. Give yourself to him. Utterly and completely.
