“Why Aren’t You Afraid?” Harker
“Why Aren’t You Afraid?”
Harker
She is coming.
Not passing on the road. Not crossing the heath. She was coming to my very door. I knew it as sure as if I’d spotted her from the battlements.
This is my own doing. I never should have brought her here.
Drawing an unsteady breath, I checked the furnace beneath the copper cucurbit that I used for distilling my vital essence. The vapor was collecting nicely in the alembic and had already begun traveling down the pipe to the receiver. It could be left unmonitored for a while.
“Mr. Tregarrick!”
I jumped at the sound of her voice. I took slow steps to the top of the stairs and stopped, jaw clenching. The last thing I could afford to do was admit this woman into my home again. Ever.
I must be your worst nightmare.
Indeed, the last time had very nearly resulted in tragedy.
Despite carrying her injured from the heath, I had been in no way prepared for that sudden flow of fresh, hot blood—even if just a trickle—when the knife opened her finger.
That metallic, red stain was to me as opium to those in its thrall.
Far more to me than the vital essence that merely kept me alive.
How I had bargained with myself in that moment.
The smallest taste will be enough. Just this once, and I’ll forget her.
I fought something very like addiction in not admitting her now. I fought my own nature. And God help me, I fought a burgeoning curiosity that likely would never have swollen fully to life had I not brought her here the first time.
A series of thuds landed against the chapel door. I closed my eyes.
“Mr. Tregarrick?”
I crossed to the chapel window, a stained glass depiction of Christ healing a leper. From here I could watch her go. Make sure she made it safely back to the road.
She’ll only come back. Little as I knew her, I suspected a stubborn streak. Again she pounded on the door, punctuating my thought.
“Why aren’t you afraid of me?” I muttered, though there was no one but Christ and the leper to hear.
Because you’re not trying hard enough, fool.
I would have to try harder, or one of the monsters on my estate was going to end up killing her. And I’d sooner die myself.