The King of Clubs 3 by Savannah Skye

Author:Savannah Skye [Skye, Savannah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

I wasn’t sure what time it was when I woke in the cavern in North Wales. The fire had burned low but still glowed enough to reveal Connery sleeping beside it. Hugging the blanket around me, I padded across the room and through the cave towards the exit. The first light of morning was streaking the cave walls and, up ahead of me, near the cave mouth, I saw the figure of Jack, seated on the floor, playing chicken with the sunlight. As the sun rose, the line of light crept along the floor of the cave. Jack sat just beyond it, shuffling back as it moved forwards, keeping to the shadow but staring out into the light of day.

“You’ve made him think about her again.” Bathsheba’s voice, coming from behind me, made me jump. It might be the most words I’d ever heard her string together since I’d met her.

“You know about Marianne?” I asked, keeping my voice low so Jack would not overhear us.

“More than he thinks I know,” replied Bathsheba. “I’ve picked stuff up over the years. He misses her. More than he cares to admit. He enjoys the role of the international playboy, and God knows he has more than his share of women, but he still misses that one.”

“What happened to her?” I asked.

Bathsheba shrugged. “What happens to humans? She died.”

“He never saw her again?”

“He saw her. But she never knew who he was. He kept an eye on her to make sure she was safe. She married. He was a good man, I understand, someone she loved maybe even as much as she loved him. She had children – obviously, or you wouldn’t be here. She lived a happy life and a long one – by human standards.” Bathsheba watched the still, silent figure of Jack, silhouetted against the encroaching sun. “He visits her grave whenever he’s in this country. Leaves flowers, even.”

“Hard to believe.” It would be hard for anyone to see Jack as the sentimental type.

Bathsheba shrugged. “I think he uses her as justification. If he can’t have the woman he loves and no other woman will ever match up, then why look for anything deeper? Marianne justifies the shallowness of his existence. If love isn’t an option then pleasure is what you have. Doesn’t mean he hurts any less.”

“Why do you follow him?” I was genuinely interested.

“Initially, because he saved me,” replied Bathsheba. “I was turned by a vampire of a certain type. I didn’t ask to be a vampire, and while I’m not sorry that I am one, the violence with which I was turned…” The memory made her eyes burn with that hatred that never seemed far from the surface in the young vampire. “If I disobeyed him then he punished me by starving me. Do you know what it’s like for a vampire that can’t feed? It’s starvation combined with the DTs. Jack killed him.”

“To save you?”

Bathsheba smiled. “Do you know; we’ve never talked about it. I doubt it.

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