Transfusion (Transfusion Saga #1)

Chapter 22

Floorboard Secrets

The second I got inside my heart was yet again pounding and it was doing it for the usual reason…

Lucius.

So, I put down my bag, fished out my now cold sub and my switched off lifeless phone and sat down at my new kitchen island that, like Kirky’s, had stools tucked underneath.

Then I plated up my sub deciding to eat it cold as I switched on my phone wondering what I was going to find.

I found about twenty missed calls from my dad and about another ten from my mum.

Even ones from my aunties, but I ignored everything other than the one message I knew would be waiting for me.

The one from Lucius.

And it was shocking! So shocking that it took me a few times to read it just to make sure it actually said what I thought it said.

‘Word of warning, Princess, you ever refer to another man spanking you again and next time I will break someone’s bones instead of my dining table…are we clear?’ Uhh…I would say that was a big fat ‘no’ on how clear that statement was! Which was why I sent back this reply,

‘Are you insane?’ I couldn’t help myself because if he wasn’t then it most certainly meant that I was.

‘Push me again, sweetheart, and you will soon find out’

“He is insane,”

I said after taking a big bite of my sub and talking with my mouth full.

This was when I decided that enough was enough and come out and say how I felt, first starting with what I thought was a very important question,

‘Are you bipolar?’ and I swear this wasn’t a joke, seeing as it would make a bit of sense, considering his mood seemed to change like the British weather.

This question must have had him stumped because it took him longer to reply.

Well, it was that or he was too busy playing at being Master of his universe.

‘I don’t know, can someone annoy you enough to turn you bipolar?’ This was his sarcastic reply and I couldn’t help but laugh.

It had to be said, he was pretty funny when he wanted to be.

‘Nope, I don’t think so.

Why, do you have another pesky stalker girlfriend on your tail again?’ This was what I typed out first but then thought better of it and deleted it before just going with the safer,

‘Nope, not unless she’s the coolest nerd in the world with an awesome new Sci fi collection and has super powers that include turning people crazy…know anyone like that?’ Then I tapped on send before I could change my mind.

Another two bites later and I had my reply.

‘Only one equally cute and annoying person comes to mind that makes my palm twitch in preparation.’ I burst out laughing at this and nearly ended up painting my counter with bits of food.

Thankfully, I swallowed, then grabbed a soda out of the fridge as I typed my reply,

‘You should get that looked at, it sounds like a medical condition’ Then I sent it and instantly thought of something else to say, so quickly asked,

‘Say, do Vampires ever get man flu?’ Then I giggled to myself as I waited for his reply.

‘No, but if we did, we wouldn’t bitch about it like human males do, perhaps like ones named Peter who no doubt would.’ Okay, now this was a shocking response as I hadn’t heard him mention Peter before now and wondered if this was because it had been reported to him that I had been seen chatting to him on the phone the other day when he had called me? It was on my lunch break when I just managed to nip out and grab something at the cafe and now knowing that Dante was still out there watching me, then he most likely had relayed this information to Lucius.

It would make sense as to why he was mentioning his name now.

Making me wonder what would happen when I did meet up with him again? Would Lucius intervene in some way?

I decided to pull Lucius up on this and my next message was to use his own words against him,

‘You know you sound a little jealous there…but surely the mighty Vampire King would have no reason to be, not for a cute yet annoying spoilt princess we shall not name?’ Then after this one I waited with bated breath until my reply, wondering what he could possibly have to say about this.

It was disappointing.

‘Tell me about this van that has been watching you’ I frowned the second I read it, knowing now that he must have asked Dante what I had talked to him about on the way home.

Wow, talk about obsessive behaviour.

‘Well, surely you should know all about that shouldn’t you, as there seems to be a club I don’t know about…tell me, do you guys all get together for a monthly meeting and compare notes?’ I sent back hoping he could gauge the pissed off tone of the text I was going for.

‘Enough fooling around now, Amelia, and answer my question’ Lucius’ demand rang through loud and clear, so much so that I took a deep breath and placed my phone down on the counter just staring at it.

Then I pushed the rest of my food away, no longer hungry.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

I had made some good points, whether the tone of them could have been taken for the humorous kind or not, it didn’t matter because there was truth at their core.

‘I am still waiting’ was another text I received, and I swallowed hard, pushing it further away as if this would help.

Then I got up and leant back against my kitchen countertop, holding myself around my waist and staring at the breakfast bar as if any minute now it would start screaming at me.

How did this happen? How did I manage to lose control of my life so quickly? It vibrated again making me jump and before I even read it, I sent one back and said,

‘Why not ask my father, you both seem to know more about my life than even I do!’ Then I sent one more, vowing it to be my last, once more ignoring all his demands, caring little for my name shouting at me in capital letters.

It simply said…

‘Goodbye, Lucius.’

Then, after sending all my contact numbers I had stored to my email address, I walked into my bathroom, opened up the toilet lid and dropped my phone in the bowl before giving it a flush for good measure.

Then I walked into my bedroom, hooked up the loose floorboards and fished out the reason they had come into my flat and trashed the place.

Because they had been watching me that night and must have seen me taking pictures of the box through the window.

And now they were the next best thing to cracking it, seeing as Lucius now had the box in his possession.

And what had I stupidly done for them: left my purse with my keys inside, right in the open for them to take.

In a place where all eyes had been on me and not at the end of the room where I had left them, easy for the picking.

Gods, but it would have been like child’s play getting in here, that was once they had figured a way to cut the feed on the security.

I wondered then why they didn’t just get the box when we were still at the gala…unless they got interrupted?

“Oh, Gods no!”

I shouted suddenly, stuffing the printouts back in their safe place, one they obviously hadn’t found the first time round and then I scrambled to my feet and ran towards my front door.

I wrenched it open and across the hall to Ben’s, grabbing my keys as I went.

I had received only a single text off him since that night, telling me that he had gone out of town and would let me know when he would be back.

I hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, as this wasn’t unusual for him but now, well, what if he had been the one to catch them about to break in.

What if they had to deal with him first and then ran out of time? They could easily have taken his phone and sent me that message pretending to be him.

Oh Gods, but if anything had happened to him then I would never forgive myself!

I found his spare key on my set that we had swapped in case of emergencies.

In the end it took me three attempts to get the key in place as my hands were shaking so much.

I swear the multicolored patterns he had painted on it even started to swirl around, I was feeling that light headed in the height of my panic.

Finally, I unlocked the door and after taking a deep breath, I walked inside.

“Oh Hell…”

I muttered covering half my face with my bent arm as the putrid smell wafted up my nostrils and stuck there.

It hit me in a wave so strong I had to take a step back, almost staggering and struggling to stay on my feet.

But I had to move, as I had to be sure if the smell was what I thought it was.

I could feel myself sweating and my lip quivering in fear under my sleeve.

My breathing became laboured and half of me wanted to turn around, slam the door and run out of the building to try and scream for help.

To scream for Dante.

But I couldn’t do that.

Not yet.

Because Ben was my friend and therefore, he was my responsibility…dead or alive.

Of course, in my heart I wanted so badly for him to be okay and the second I found where that rotting smell was coming from, to just find it to be some dead animal or something that accidently got trapped and died in here.

Just anything other than what I feared the most.

So, I carried on, stepping carefully into his space and flinching whenever the bare wooden floor would creak.

I remember helping him when ripping up the carpet, as he said he wanted it to be as natural a space as it could be.

As he only wanted his art work to shine through against the bare walls and floor.

Of course, that had been years ago and, as I now took careful steps, watching my feet so as not to knock anything over in case this was in fact a crime scene, then I now noticed even this had his artwork stamped all over it.

Splats of paint in big clumps surrounded by tiny droplets were obviously where he had moved one wet painting after another. There were even lines made up of what looked like fine blue dust where he had obviously been using spray cans and not covered the floor properly.

I used to tease him about the mess but he would just shrug it off and call it ‘it’s what living in the mind of a creative genius looks like’.

Now, as I took in the messy New York loft style he had going on, then I couldn’t help the tears that were flooding my eyes.

Even the sight of those old coffee jars filled with mud coloured water each holding a number of brushes had me tearing my eyes away for they were too painful.

I remember my mum having a window sill full of them, reminding me at the time of an artist’s natural bouquet, with flowerless dead stems sticking out of a pot where the brushes sat.

Then the morbid thought flashed before my eyes, wondering how many flowers would soon fill this room when all his friends and family knew that he was gone.

And all because he opened the door to see me and no doubt ask me about my night.

No! Stop it, just stop it! You don’t know…

“You don’t know…you…don’t…know”.

I ended up whispering this to myself all the way up to the bathroom where the smell was at its worst.

Then I reached for the door knob and my hand froze.

What was that sound? I swear I could hear something inside.

Something like a gurgling, sloppy sound as if someone was slurping or lapping up something on the floor. Could it be possible that a dog or some wild animal had really gotten inside? Maybe a cat was currently finishing the meal it had just made out of some unsuspecting bird or something?

But then surely something like that couldn’t account for the smell.

I even started to create any excuse, like his toilet might be blocked up or worst, flooding out all over his floor.

But then where was the water, wouldn’t it have been coming from underneath the door?

I would have chosen any of these for what I knew deep down had really happened.

Because, I may not have been an expert and I might have not known the smell of a rotting body when behind a closed door, but there was one thing I definitely knew the smell of and that was…I knew the smell of blood.

Lots and lots of blood.

So, I finally turned the door knob, knowing that I couldn’t put it off any longer.

And in doing so I finally let go of my tears, freeing them to finally overflow, as I knew now that there was no going back from this point.

There would forever be whatever image lay behind this door imprinted on my brain.

Now, all that was left was to see what image that was and pray to every God I knew existed, that it wasn’t that of my friend lying dead in a bath like I suspected.

So, I closed my eyes and whispered,

“Please.”

Before then opening the door and gasping the second I saw it,

A room of death.

And who was at the centre of it all…

But Ben.