Once Upon a Dark October

Chapter Twenty-Two

T he heart belonged to a vampire woman bleeding out on a chaise in one of the upstairs drawing rooms. Her blood colored my senses—vicious, deep red—the moment I arrived at the landing.

Her heart had ceased beating mere seconds before I appeared in the doorway. I reined in my heightened awareness so I could perform a role I’d once lived well. I had to be the Elspeth that she remembered. Meek and wilting, afraid to confront the horrors she’d cleaned without question day after day for fear of losing her wages. Much too eager and quick to please.

An impossible task, given that my first glimpse of Sonia after hurting Morrigan was her fangs sunk into the woman’s dead heart. My stomach recoiled. The vampire’s chest had been torn open, a mess of bone and viscera. The squelching of Sonia’s fangs ripping through bloody tissue and muscle made the room spin. I held my nose, tried not flinch or let the emotions slip out. But the dead vampire’s eyes bored into my immortal soul. Her motionless hand dangled off the edge of the chaise.