Page 58 of Lilies from Hell

Her laughter calmed my concern a little, but my eyes kept checking her until I found a small scratch sticking out of her gray thermal tights.

“That was fun,” she said, still smiling. Then she looked down at where my gaze was.

“Don’t worry. They were old anyway.”

I didn’t hear her. The desire that was unleashed when I saw a couple of red drops sliding down her leg clouded my other senses, and without thinking too much about it, I brought the tip of my tongue to the edge of her wound.

By the time I realized what I was doing, it was too late. I lifted my head, modesty covering my cheeks, preparing myself for whatever she was going to say to me, while my tongue continued to savor the delicious taste of her blood for the first time. I dismissed the idea of cleaning her wound again with my tongue for fear of having an orgasm right there.

“Don’t you think… it’s disgusting to do that?” she asked. Her cheeks as red as mine.

“No. Nothing about you is repulsive, and besides, I like tasting your blood. It’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted in my life,” I said, brushing her left cheek with my finger.

“You talk like a vampire,” she scoffed with an amused smile.

“Well then, I’ll bite you and suck your blood,” I replied in the same way, bringing my mouth close to her neck to start tickling her lightly.

“At your service, my lord.” Denis’s voice pulls me out of my little bubble filled with old memories. Then he tilts his head, looking at me with curious eyes. “Can I get you something for breakfast? Some antidepressant toast with coffee, perhaps? By the way, I see a gray hair here,” he scoffs, bringing his hand close to a strand of my short hair. I move my head away before he can touch it.

“I want her with me,” I whisper without being aware of when the words slip out of my mouth.

Everything I do feels automatic. I’m not really present in what I’m doing, and for the first time in years I feel like I’m in a dead-end tunnel. One in which the idea of her completely erasing me from her mind leaves a painful echo.

“You’ve been telling me that all week,” he scoffs in annoyance. “Fuck, no. Do I need to remind you how that ended last time? You know it’s a bad idea,” he retorts, reading my thoughts.

Sometimes I swear he can get inside my head and know what I’m thinking. It’s fucking disturbing.

“What am I supposed to do then?”

“Talk to her.”

“She doesn’t want to,” I say, raising my voice louder.

“Try it. The only thing you’ll lose is your head when Ray finds out you’re trying to shove your cock into his daughter.” He shrugs indifferently.

I look at him, moving my piercing between my teeth, weighing up the idea of approaching her again.

“By the way, I heard he was in a car accident.” I frown. “Don’t worry, the father-in-law is still alive. Too bad for your father,” he says mockingly, implying what I’d have already known without him telling me expressly. “He also used my Romi as a pawn after brainwashing her into getting into Ray’s house. The fucking evil he is.” His face furrows in outrage for Kristoff talking his dear friend into doing whatever the fuck it was.

If that’s true then that stupid girl was very lucky I was the one in charge of finishing her off and not Lena. She would have been more ruthless than me if she had found out sooner.

I get up from my chair and dial his number, pacing around the room under Denis’s watchful gaze as I wait for him to answer. At another time, I wouldn’t have cared. I might even have helped him finish the job. But now I can’t bring myself to do that, knowing the sadness I would see in her eyes afterwards. Not to mention her lack of trust in me. The last thing I need right now is for her to think I have anything to do with it.

I curse and throw the burner phone onto the sofa so hard that it bounces and falls to the floor. The coward son of a bitch isn’t going to answer, so I will have to go personally to his fucking house and demand answers. May as well knock some sense into him.

“Another one for the trash…” Denis mutters, shaking his head with a look of disapproval. “Do you know something about global warming? You can’t be buying and breaking…” His voice now sounds distant as I walk to the door. I need to be alone and gather enough patience to not break his neck as soon as I see him.

I go downstairs to a dark room lit by candles and decorated with symbols. The smell of sulfur mingles with the candles, leaving a pleasant warmth in the small room. Then I stop in front of the table, looking at her photo posing in front of the sacred book opened to a random page.

I extinguish all the candles when I hear a knock on the door. Before opening it and receiving Denis, I clean up the blood I spilled on the bowl. My whole body hurts and feels heavy with tiredness. I almost fuck everything up in the last moment. It’s becoming really hard to keep my temper with her blood so close and not being able to use it.

Soon we are entering a building old enough to start rotting on the outside. On the inside it is clean enough to use. We go down some metal stairs until we reach a room with a cage in the middle big enough for two people to fit in.

I enter the cage wearing only my pants and meet the defiant gaze of my opponent. I start playing with my tongue piercing, eager to feel the warmth of blood on my fingers again. I’m not interested in fighting anyone. The only reason I have is to lessen my longing to have someone’s life hanging in my hands again. I find it fascinating when people begin to fight for their lives, giving me their last breath in a useless last plea. I believe that feeling has been running deep in my family for decades, even though I think with me it is somehow… different.

I manage to knock him down and position myself on top of him with a single blow. Every time my fist hits his face I hear a crunch that is like music to my ears. It goes perfectly with the blood splattered on my hair and face. I take increasing delight in each passing second, to the point where I ignore the referee’s calls for me to stop. That doesn’t stop me, instead, I increase the force of each blow. Even when some of my men pull me away from the body, I don’t stop hitting him, kicking him in the ribs. I would have lunged at the almost lifeless body again if it hadn’t been for a look I recognize instantly in the crowd.

I feel relieved when I focus my vision and see that it’s her brother looking at me with a pale face. But that doesn’t calm my concerns. I want to know if she is here too, so I break free from the grip I’m in and leave the cage.