Cold Kiss by Rachel Caine

Author:Rachel Caine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Captives

Trouble, I thought, and opened my eyes. I could barely hear the voices through the door, whispers like flies buzzing. But I knew something was wrong.

I sat up and thought that I ought to feel worse, considering. I didn’t have a single scratch on me to commemorate Celestine’s little games, but not all the clawing had been done outside. Skin heals, I thought. Minds don’t.

I opened the door. Lilly. Diane.

Diane was glaring at Lilly as if she intended to melt her down to a wet puddle; I wouldn’t have expected it, but Lilly was staring back. Her heavy face was impassive and tight, and her eyes little black slits.

The tension was heavy enough to touch.

“I told you that I’d take care of it,” said Diane through gritted teeth. “Now go back to your room.”

“No,” Lilly snapped. “I’m not going. Not until I see Celestine.”

“Celestine’s resting. Go back, Lilly.”

I didn’t think either of them had noticed me, but Lilly turned and looked straight at me.

“Sir, would you come?”

I looked from Lilly to Diane, who was clearly giving me a “no” signal. I wasn’t feeling particularly inclined to be obedient.

“Sure. Why not?”

“It’s not your place.” That was Diane, trying to be friendly. “Michael, this is Society business. Let us handle it.”

“Fuck you,” I said, and nodded to Lilly. She studied me for a few seconds, then turned and walked away, and I followed her. I didn’t hear footsteps behind me but I had no doubt that Diane was trailing me, watching. I hoped I was worrying her.

We went down one narrow hallway and into another, passed the vacant sitting room and entered a new hall I hadn’t seen before. Three closed doors.

The fourth was open.

It took me a minute to remember who he was; I’d only seen him once, and briefly. He’d been huddled in a coat out by the pool on the first evening I was introduced to the Society.

“Jerry,” Lilly said. Her voice was quiet and hollow.

Carl’s companion. Jerry lay on his bed, eyes half-open. His arms were at his sides, hands loose. One palm was turned up, one down. He was naked except for a pair of red fleece sweat pants.

He looked like a marble statue. White. Sucked dry.

I bent over and touched my fingertips to his jugular to tell me what I already knew. No pulse. He was cold. When I tried to adjust his arm it resisted.

He’d been dead for hours.

His eyes were cloudy and blank. I tried to close the eyelids but rigor was too far advanced. I settled for pulling a fold of the sheet over his face.

On the other side of his neck were two huge gaping holes, ripped there by somebody who was too hungry to care about what he fed on. I touched the dry wounds and raised my head to find Diane standing across the bed, staring at me. Not at the body. At me.

“This is none of your business,” she said. I looked around for Lilly, but she’d backed away into the hall.

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