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Tina gives me a look that indicates I must be mad, but she doesn’t call me out on it. Cringing, she takes a step away from him. “Can you at least shut his eyes? He’s looking at me, I don’t like it. I didn’t like him when he was alive, and although I like the fact that he’s not talking, his body is even less fun to be around.”
Startling, I shake my head. “Ew, I’m not touching him.”
“You were fine touching him a few minutes ago when you were bleeding him dry!” Throwing her hands in the air, she starts to pace, clearly trying to come up with a solution.
“It’s different now, he’s dead!” I argue indignantly. She does have a point, though, and it’s the closest she’s gotten to scolding me for my crime. This is only one of the reasons I love her. She’s supportive even when I do something stupid and/or illegal. If I go down, she’s going down with me.
Finally, after several laps around the room and quiet mutterings under her breath, she turns to me with a determined expression. I recognise that look—she has a plan. Biting down gently on my lower lip, I wait expectantly for whatever genius solution she’s come up with.
“There’s no other option. We’re going to have to go on the run.”
“That is your plan?” My voice is practically a shriek of disbelief. That has to be the worst plan she’s ever suggested, and I’ve heard a lot of shit. “I can’t go on the run! I hate running. Plus, my belly is too full.”
She arches an eyebrow at me, and I know I’m in for a scolding. “Oh, okay, why didn’t you say so?” she retorts sarcastically. “The police will certainly take that as an excuse and go easy on you. Come on, Emmy, use that brain of yours. Some strange shit is going on with you, and someone is dead. You can’t stay here and pretend nothing happened.”
My eyes well with tears. I don’t want to leave, not when we’ve worked so hard to build a life here. I finally own my own floristry business, and Tina landed her dream job as a veterinarian at the local vet office. All of that is going to be smashed apart, all because I had to grow fangs and lose control.
A hand on my shoulder snaps me out of my self-pity, and my blurry eyes slowly focus on Tina, who’s standing in front of me, her expression soft and earnest.
“You don’t have to do this alone, Emmy. I’ll be with you. I’ll help.”
“You would?” I already knew she’d go to the ends of the earth for me, but going on the run after I murdered someone is something I would never ask her to do. She doesn’t even seem concerned that she might be next, although to be honest, her blood isn’t calling to me like Colin’s did. Maybe it’s a preference thing, or maybe I’m just too full.
“Of course, you would do the same for me,” she replies. “You’re my best friend and the closest thing to family I’ve got.”
Tina and I met when we were both in the foster care system. While I never knew my parents because they died shortly after I was born, Tina’s family was dysfunctional in a way I didn’t think possible. It’s a miracle that she’s as sane and stable as she is. She was in and out of the system, and somehow, we always ended up finding each other. When we were twelve, we decided we would live together once we were old enough and could leave the system. That is exactly what we did, carving a new life for ourselves and relying only on each other.
Glancing around the room at all of the memories we’ve made here, I feel a well of sadness, followed by a wave of guilt. I’ve taken a life, and I’m grieving the loss of a home. Colin will never be able to finish whatever project he was babbling on about at dinner. He will never grow into a grumpy old man. I can find another house, though, and I will make a home for us again one day.
“I can’t believe I killed someone,” I mutter as my gaze moves to the corpse once more.
Clicking her tongue, Tina flicks her long black hair over her shoulder. “To be fair, he probably deserved it. I never did like him. He treated you like crap.”
“That is not helping right now,” I murmur, pressing my hands to my temples, hoping to ease the ache building there. “What do we do? I guess we hide the body?”
“And what do you suggest we do? Throw him into the skip and hope no one finds him?”
“No,” I say with a roll of my eyes while mentally crossing that idea off my list of plans. I hadn’t really thought that idea through anyway. Blowing out a long breath, I raise my hands in defeat. “We could go to the police and say it was an accident.”
“Oh yeah, I accidently bit my boyfriend and then drank all of his blood, but don’t worry, I’m not a threat to society.” She tsks at me, her look suggesting I’m the dumbest person in the world.
“Well, when you say it like that—”
A firm knock on the door startles us, stopping us both in our tracks. Shit, not the best timing for an unannounced visitor. I glance down at my stained shirt, and panic twists inside me as I remember that I’m wearing the contents of Colin’s arteries. I need to get changed. Oh shit, I need to hide Colin. Hopefully whoever it is will go away.
The knock sounds again, harder and more insistent this time. They are clearly not going to go away until we answer. I share a look with Tina, but I see signs that she’s trying not to panic. She thinks she’s really good at hiding her emotions, and most of the time she is, but when she panics, her nostrils flare, a sure sign that she’s trying to repress her feelings.
“I’ll go see who it is,” she says, taking charge and giving me jobs to do, knowing that I function better when I have instructions. “You need to clean yourself up. You’re covered in blood.”
Nodding, I hurry into the bathroom and run the faucet, splashing water on myself to try and remove the blood. The top is unsalvageable, so I rip it off and chuck it onto the floor. Distantly, I hear Tina chatting to someone, but I can’t make out what they are saying, so I tune them out instead. Scrubbing at my face and hands, I look at anything but the sink as the pink water drains away.
Reality hits me. This is Colin’s blood. Colin, who is now dead and sprawled across my bed.
Leaving the bathroom and not looking towards the bed, I hurry over to the wardrobe to find another top. I grab the first thing I can find and back away just as a figure appears in the open doorway.
“Emmy, there’s a police officer here from the SNPD…” She trails off at my state of undress, her mouth dropping open. If it was just her, then I wouldn’t mind her seeing me like this at all, since I walk around in my bra and underwear all the time. However, a bulky male in a uniform follows her in, his eyes flicking from Colin’s corpse to my half-naked body.
Standing in only my bra and trousers, I stare at the policeman with wide eyes. He’s the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen. I’m suddenly glad that I’m wearing my good bra and not one of the old ratty ones I usually have on. He barely fits through the door, having to tilt his shoulders so he doesn’t scrape them. By God, his biceps are huge. I bet he could lift me with just his little finger. With startling blue eyes and short, sandy hair, he looks more like a model than a police officer.
