I tossed and turned, unable to sleep soundly, too many thoughts cycling through my brain on a continuous loop. Finally, realizing sleep was too illusive, I threw off the covers and checked on Henry, relieved to find he was sleeping peacefully and that none of the intruders had decided to torment him.
Still feeling uneasy, a nagging dread making it impossible for me to do much more than wander around the apartment, I went to the living room window and peered out into the darkness. I glanced at the time on my phone.
3 a.m.
The Devil’s hour.
“Well, here we are again,” I muttered, turning my attention back to the window.
There was no activity on the street, even the most hardcore bar hoppers had gone home.
I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly cold. I could sense an intruder nearby, but it was only a faint tickle as the hair on the back of my neck reacted to the sudden influx of energy in the room. I scanned the living room, searching for even a misty haze that would give away who was visiting.
“Fine,” I sighed. “Don’t tell me who you are. But maybe stop the arctic blast, okay?”
I turned back to the window, wishing Whit had waited until daylight to leave, when movement in the courtyard caught my attention. I frowned, squinting to make out who it was. The night was moonless and darker than usual. The streetlights cast a muddy light, giving off a jaundiced glow that obscured the identities of the three people I saw walking toward the carriage house. It wasn’t until they reached the front door that the porch light revealed who it was.
Chase and Merilee ushered a third person up the stairs. The unknown woman was dressed in a hot pink sequined miniskirt, black stiletto thigh boots, and a sheer black tank top. Her bleached blond hair had pink streaks that matched her skirt. Chase motioned the woman in with a flourish of his arm, his typical roguish smile making her drop her gaze like she was embarrassed and flattered by whatever he’d said.
Merilee stepped forward to follow them inside, but stopped, hand on the doorframe, and looked over her shoulder, her eyes lifting to the window where I stood as if she knew I was there.
And she waggled her fingers at me, waving to let me know she saw me, and gave me a sly, taunting grin.
I darted away from the window, my heart pounding at being found out. But found out doingwhat? Just looking out my window in the middle of the night? Why wouldthatmake me feel guilty like I had to hide?
Chastising myself for being ridiculous—Chase and Merilee’s sex life wasn’t any of my business, after all—I stepped back to the window. But they were gone, the door to the carriage house closed behind them.
The light from dozens of candles bathed the room in soft light creating shadows that danced eerily on the walls. I glanced around, not sure where I was. It looked like a farmhouse, maybe, the furniture and décor rustic, something from the previous century or even older. Bundles of herbs and other plants hung drying from the ceiling like those I’d seen in June’s apartment. In the stone hearth hung a black cauldron, the simmering contents releasing a thick, intoxicating aroma that made my limbs feel too light, my head spin, my vision hazy and distorted.
As my eyes rolled, trying to make sense of what was happening, I realized I was lying on a table, my arm hanging off one side, something warm and sticky running down my forearmto my palm, dripping from my fingertips. Despite the fire blazing in the fireplace, I grew colder by the minute.
It was then I heard the maniacal laughter near me. I turned my head, trying to see where it was coming from. Chase and Merilee knelt beside the table, cupping their hands to gather what I realized was my blood, then smeared it over one another’s faces, shoulders, arms, bare chests, abdomens in slow, sensual motions, clearly aroused.
I rolled my head away, coughing and sputtering as blood filled my throat. I choked and tried to sit up but lacked the strength.
Chase and Merilee’s faces loomed over me, grinning broadly, laughing. Merilee wiped blood from my neck and held it up for Chase to see.
“We have a bleeder, baby,” Chase told her. “Look at that. And still hangin’ in there.”
Chase grasped her hand with a groan of need and licked her skin from wrist to fingertips, then took her fingers into his mouth, sucking the blood from them, leaning his head back with a gasp of satisfaction. Then he grasped her by the back of her neck and kissed her savagely.
My vision grew dark, and I felt like I was floating, drifting away as my soul left my body. A few moments later, when I could see again, I peered down at my body and saw a naked woman with bleached blond hair with pink streaks made darker with the blood that had pooled from my slit throat.
I turned away from my lifeless body only to see Chase and Merilee lying on the floor, Merilee straddling Chase, riding him as he gripped her hips, growling with animalistic pleasure as he drove her to dramatic release. Then he rolled her over onto the blood slicked floor, and lifting her hips, slammed into her over and over as they both panted and cried out with primal abandon.
I gasped, bolting upright as I woke from the nightmare. Instinctively, I grasped my neck, expecting to find the gaping wound from my dream, then checked myforearms. When I found nothing, I collapsed onto my pillows, relief so powerful overwhelming me, I couldn’t move again for several minutes.
Finally, still weak but my heart no longer hammering, I rolled over and reached for my phone. It was 7 a.m. I’d only been asleep for a few hours. Henry would be awake soon, and I’d have to pretend that nothing was wrong, that I hadn’t dreamt of Chase and Merilee murdering a woman, having sex while they bathed in her blood.
My stomach rolled. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. My fingers shaking, I tried to text Whit to tell him what I’d seen, but I deleted the message without sending it. This wasn’t something I should send over text.
There was a rustle of movement in Henry’s room, then the click of the light switch in the bathroom. The morning routine had begun whether I was ready or not.
“Mama!”
“Coming, baby!” I called, my mouth so dry I could barely croak out the words. I wiped the perspiration from my forehead with the back of my hand then closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths, pulling myself together.
“Mama! I can’t reach my toothbrush!”
