The Sweetest Kiss by D. L. King

Author:D. L. King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cleis Press
Published: 2010-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

He had fed well. Thus, he had slept well. Had slept the clock around, in fact.

Adella was gone. The bed was cold and, for some reason, his pillow was missing its case. Shrugging, he all but leapt from the bed, feeling more alive than he had for many moons.

He hadn’t allowed himself to feed so fully for at least a decade, fearing yet another bloody mess to clean up, another body to hide. It felt good to be so wide awake. Colors fairly blazed at him from all corners of his bedroom, even in the dark.

Grinning and feeling like a new man, he stretched to his fullest, yawned hugely, then paused and tilted his head to one side, much like Adella had done so many times. The wall across from his bed was bare. The Monet that had hung there since the end of the Second World War was gone. The wallpaper, a deep red everywhere else, was as dark as blood in the space where it had hung.

Frowning, he stalked over and touched that darker section of wall, trying to get his wide-awake brain to supply him with a reason for this oddity. After all, the nail was still in place. Only the painting and its expensive frame were gone.

Eyes narrow, he slowly turned around, now picking out the familiar furnishings that he barely even noticed under usual circumstances. His etched silver letter opener was gone, as was its silver tray. The heavy silver candlesticks had left behind their candles. A small gilt mirror, gone. And his pillowcase.

Surely, she wouldn’t have…

A scowl settled into his forehead, and he flashed over to his dresser and the closed jewelry box there. He’d collected two centuries’ worth of rings and tiepins and cufflinks and heavy necklace chains. His hand hesitated as his fingers touched the age-darkened wood of a jewelry box that had traveled here with him from Europe a century before, and his scowl darkened.

He opened the box. The first tray was empty. Closing his eyes, he lifted out the first tray and felt in the second. His fingertips touched only crushed velvet.

She’d taken it all.

Opening his eyes, he forced himself to walk out of his bedroom, down the hall, and into the living room to his coat by the door. He drew out his wallet and knew before he even opened it that the cash inside was missing. Probably a thousand dollars, gone.

His credit cards were all in place, though, as was his license and other identifying information. A clever thief, then. She hadn’t taken anything that would lead him to her if she used it. Oh, he could likely track down certain pieces of the jewelry when she pawned it off, but she would certainly be gone long before he could arrive. Nowadays, he’d find her far more quickly for using his credit cards than pawning his brother’s old pocket watch. Hell, the credit house would probably find her for him.

What she didn’t know was that, now that he’d tasted her, he could find her anywhere in the world.

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