Chapters (55)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Cast of Characters
- Part One
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Part Two
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Forty-three
- Forty-four
- Forty-five
- Forty-six
- A note on the Author
“Good. Because right now is all we have going for us. You and I don’t exist beyond this room. I don’t know how you got into the situation that led you to this hospital bed. But I think I can give you a fresh start so that you never come back.”
“Oh, you can, can you?” She cocked an eyebrow at him.
“Don’t be coy with me. You don’t have to do that. Just be yourself.”
Smarting at his jibe, she turned her face away. “I can’t remember how to do that.”
“That’s why I’m going to help you.”
“And you don’t want to have sex with me?”
“No. I guess … if that were an option for me then, yes, of course I would want to make love to you. This penetration you people have such a fixation on, if you wanted me to do that, I would.”
“What people? Liev, it’s not a new practice.”
Liev shook his head at her vulgarity. Then he unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, laying it on the chair. His body was not messy, as she had expected. It was not as she had expected at all. Broad and sinewy, his chest was so pale that, between patches of fur, she could see the veins beneath the skin. And within those veins she could clearly see the ebb and flow of blood, rich purple-red. He crawled onto her bed. He pulled himself on top of her, and turned her head to the side. The cut on her neck was still there. With a pointed tongue he licked the scratch, following it from beginning to end as she looked to the door for advice, desperate for a doctor or nurse to pass by. He bit down and she was not fearful anymore. The pain was little; his teeth on her neck felt like two tiny rabbit punches.
Then ruby was everywhere. Then ruby was gone. Then ruby was clean. Then Ruby was saved.
“Mommy,” she whimpered.
Her childhood friend asked a question, the words coated in blood. “Do you think that you can let me go in the morning?”
“Yes,” she answered, her voice steady now, “I think so.”
Forty-four
Stick a fork in me, I’m done
The sun baked through the window and her first thought, on waking, was whether or not she was cooked yet. A doctor was taking blood from her arm in a syringe that caught the light like a spinning top. She watched the silver retract and the red it took with it, terribly suave and persuasive, as Ruby pleaded, “Don’t go. I need you here with me.”
“I think something happened in the night,” said Ruby to the doctor. “I think he’s gone.”
“Who’s gone?’
“The man who you had watching me.”