Blood Bound

Chapter 22: Sweet Deceits

No.

It can't be. It's not possible. It must be some sort of mistake. There's no other way around it. Someone must be framing her.

It feels like forever as I turn my head to look behind my shoulder. My bulging eyes search across the room, even though Miss Madden is standing directly in front of me. She's smiling sweetly at me, though her brow is furrowed.

There's no way that sweet woman, who reminds me of my mom, who accepted me without questions asked, could have done such a horrible thing. Only monsters do that.

"You weren't supposed to see that," Miss Madden continues as she marches past me with an apologetic grin. She stalks to one of the bodies that used to be the little boy Richard, fiddles with the rope tied behind it and cuts it loose, the body plummeting on the floor headfirst like a sack of flour. There is a sickening crack as its head collides with the concrete floor and I feel my stomach lurch.

Don't throw up. Don't throw up. Don't scream. Don't scream.

I chant that mantra in my head and I barely catch what Miss Madden is saying as she drags the body by its feet further into the garage.

"I meant to tidy up before dinner but I just got so excited with the preparations that I completely forgot!"

I feel numb. It's like she's talking about cleaning a messy living room instead of disposing bodies. How can she be so casual about it? Unless. . . she's done it before?

"I would ask you to give me a hand but I usually like to take all the credit, if you don't mind," she grunts as she cuts the rope of Mrs. Kathy Gibbins-Lopez and her body slinks to the floor, though not with as sickening crack as the little boy. "It brings me much favor from them, if I say that I'm doing it all by myself."

I have no idea what she's talking about, my mind is blank except for the repeated mantra singsonging in my head like church bells.

"I meant it as a surprise for your friend,"

Something clicks within me and I raise my head to look at Miss Madden directly in the eye. She's grinning at me.

"What?" I manage to croak out of my dry mouth.

Miss Madden scoffs. "I'm not stupid, Miss Walker. These-" she indicates to the buckets full of blood. "- are for your friend. As you can see, I got quite lucky today and I'm certain that she will appreciate it."

I say nothing. Instead I stare horrified at her smiling feature. Does she know? For how long?

"Oh come on," she titters delightfully. "There's no need to act all innocent. I'm aware that your friend is a creature of darkness."

"H-how?"

"Her absence during the day, your unwillingness to discuss your affairs and not to mention, the specks of dried blood and other stuff around the hem of your sweater when you arrived this morning," she chuckles lightly, giving me a pitiful look as if I'm a complete novice. "She's not the only vampire I've seen or met."

She takes hold of the left edge of her empire dress and slides it down, revealing a black dotwork tattoo of a crescent moon.

"I'm curious to know where yours is located," she wonders curiously, caressing the tattoo with her finger as if it were a treasure.

Why does she think that I have a tattoo like hers? My brain is taking a longer time than I expected to process the realization. But when it does kick in, my eyes widen and my dulled senses are suddenly fully alert.