Chapter 4

At this very moment, I wanted to murder Bree Hamilton and I knew exactly how to do it since I'd murdered before.

I could never have anticipated she would be this much of a pain in the ass. It was going to be simple. She was young and dumb—naive, modern, coddled.

That's what I thought when I first heard her name uttered. I remembered the night vividly because it was the last victim I'd taken before uprooting myself from Maryland and finding my new patch of earth in this sleepy New England town.

I loved to kill and I especially loved when my victims' blubbering and begging actually resulted in something interesting. I'd thought he'd lied, to be honest. I mean, how ridiculous to claim you had a half-human child.

"She's—" he had gasped in a wheezy inhale. I'd punctured one of his lungs with a slim knife when I'd snatched him. First, was the confusion—why would a vampire attack another of his kind? Then there was anger and fighting. Which didn't last long since he was restrained in a chair. Now he was begging.

"She's?" I had asked, my eyes tracing the line my knife would eventually take across his throat.

"My daughter. Half… half vampire," he had gotten out eventually, gasping for breath.

"Stop being so dramatic," I had sighed. It's not like a vampire needed its lungs. "Explain to me why you'd leave a dhamphyr alone."

"Wanted her… to have… a good life."

"No one told me I was in the presence of Father of the year." I clapped and the dull thuds of my gloved hands had echoed in the abandoned textile plant.

"Fuck… you," he had attempted to hiss, glaring at me with blue eyes.

"How old is she?" There was no way he was telling the truth but if he was…

"Thirteen… no, wait. Shit." I had rolled my eyes.

"If this half-vampire somehow exists and is vaguely a teenager I'm guessing you figured there was no rush, right? Have a good life ," I broke off in a scoff. "More like wait until she was aged up. Then you could sell her for all sorts of things."

"That's life," he had admitted with a wheezy laugh—pleased with himself. If this half-vampire existed, she didn't need a father like this.

"What's her name?"

"Bree… Bree Hamilton." The name changed everything, I just didn't know it yet. I'd lifted my knife, slipped it right under his ear, then dragged it across his throat. The blood curtained out. Vampires, of course, didn't die so easily. Which worked well for me. Sometimes I wanted my victims still breathing when I started on dismemberment.

Every choice I'd made since then had been about her. Finding out if she existed. Finding out where she existed. Finding out every little thing there was to know from afar.

She existed, she was real… and she was a dhamphyr.

Everything was crystal clear after that. I made my plans to come to her, to worm my way into her life, and to take control of it. My plan of action had to be thorough this time because they didn't involve just me and my morbid hobbies. Now and forevermore, my plans would involve… the biggest pain in my fucking ass .

"Are you angry?" She asked, looking vaguely pleased by the idea of driving me to outrage. How many red flags did I brush off before coming here? The rap sheet was thorough. Bree's life was well documented because she was a fucking nuisance.

I'd ended up the naive fool—not her. I thought all these little warning signs were good things. That they were ways for me to control her. As if I was going to find some waifish, insecure, anxious little girl. Instead I got Bree in all her confident, casual rule breaking and burgeoning psychopathy.

I needed to get it together. Things were still fine. I had her perfectly under control. And her being a nuisance was still a good thing. That's how I was now a guiding force and capable of maneuvering her life. I could send her ass to jail and maybe she needed a reminder of that fact.

"Do I need to make a call to the judge?" I asked.

"Wow, you really didn't like me showing up here," she said, brushing off my threat. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Seven months I'd been dealing with her now and it was only getting harder, not easier as one might assume.

Bree peered around me, looking down the hall. I realized she was looking at someone and tensed. My body pressed closer to hers, shielding her. I gripped her arm to keep her in place.

"Who you hiding there, doc?" The chipper voice asked.

"Basil," I hissed. I glared at Bree as she attempted to stand on tiptoes to look around me. I heard his boots take a step closer and tensed. His taking a step closer was as good as a death threat. How did he get over here? Patients were supposed to get into this hall. Then again, Basil did whatever the fuck he wanted.

"I'm hiding no one. Now leave."

"No one?" Bree hissed at me. I stared at her in utter disbelief. Was she offended that I implied she's no one to a violent psychopath who could kill her in an instant? I ground my teeth.

"Be quiet. Please ," I asked, trying to sound anything but furious. Her face went slack as she nodded. Maybe she was a nuisance but she was still a naive young woman.

"Doctor Orson… are you fucking one of your patients?" Basil asked with entertainment. "Can I watch?"

"Exactly," I said. "And yes, you can."

"Fuck! My year has been made. People rarely let me watch. I ask all the time but they find me off-putting. You think it's the whole murder everyone I'm close to thing? Or maybe it's the masks?"

"I think it's the smell," I responded.

"The what?!"

"Your body odor," I said. He busted out laughing so hard I thought he was going to choke.

"That's hilarious. Complete nonsense. I literally can't smell bad. I tried once—didn't shower for a month. Weird, really. I even slept next to a dead— You know what? Enough of that. Can I make position suggestions while you two go at it? There's a few specific acts I've been dying to see up close and personal."

"Basil."

"Not too close! I promise. Although I could theoretically touch one or... both of you for a couple minutes—"

"Basil."

"Okay, okay! Not both of you. Of course not both of you. That would be weird," he broke off in a nervous chuckle.

"Basil!" I finally yelled.

"Yes?"

"You can only watch if you turn around, walk away, and never bring this up to anyone ever," I said.

"But I've already got a half-chub! Blue balls can't be good for my mental health."

"I told you, you can watch just not right now."

"I'll be very sorely angry with you at our next therapy session if you're lying!" He called out to me as he walked away. "And someone tell Nemo to shut the fuck up. His howling is cringy."

"He sounds charming," Bree said once he was gone.

"He killed his parents," I responded.

"Nice," she said with a smile.

"You are going to fit right in here," I said under my breath.

"I will ?" she asked, looking at me with bugging eyes.

"I meant you would, not that you will. Sorry, bad joke."

"No, maybe you're right. Maybe I should come here. Who was that?" She asked. She was giving me whiplash.

"No one."

"Oh, another no one like me. He's your patient?" She asked with something burning in her eyes. "You two seemed friendly. Really friendly."

"To be honest, I think I hate him more than any of my other patients."

"How many patients do you have?"

"I'm currently the main therapist on staff here at Verfallen. It's my job, Bree. I do see other people than you." This fact seemed to upset her. She looked ready to do something wild, like start crying.

"You're a special patient to me, Bree. I work with you more thoroughly than the people here. I'm committed to your treatment in an entirely different way."

"Why?" She asked. I smiled at her, patting her cheek gently. Why was she special? Because she was going to become my little pet.

"Because I think you and me are similar. I see a bit of myself in you—"

"Jesus," she hissed, her face flaming as she took my comment entirely sexual.

"Don't be crude."

"You just told that Basil guy he could watch us fuck! Of course, my mind is in the gutter."

"I'd say anything I'd need to, to get that person far away from you. He's the most dangerous person in this place."

"I find that hard to believe. He seemed so chipper." She looked up at me with big blue eyes.

"Well appearances are deceiving," I said with a broad smile. Just like me, Bree. Your kind therapist who is always there for you has the absolute worst intentions.

"I suppose…" she said, looking over my shoulder. "Wish I'd got a good look at him."

"Don't we all," I said, rolling my eyes.

"What does that mean?"

"It means you need to leave. Come on, I'm taking you home." I pulled the badge from my shirt and pressed it to the card reader. The door buzzed, the red light blinked to green and I opened the door and pulled us out of the building and to my car.

Her eyes scanned the property surrounding the building as I helped her into the passenger seat. I looked up at the building as I rounded the front of the hood. There was a single window that wasn't covered with thick iron sheets. I could see the shape of Basil's shadow in the window, staring out at me.

He was going to be insufferable at his therapy appointment tomorrow.

I got in the car and started it. Bree kept looking out the window as if she was searching for something.

"Forget something?" I asked. She turned and looked at me. There was a strange weight behind her eyes, assessing and loaded.

"No," she finally said and I couldn't tell if she was lying or being honest because she was just being weird. All the emotions were wiped off her face—just a blank mask as she turned forward and stopped looking around.

She was lying, I realized. She'd come with others. Why else didn't she have a car? That confirmed something I already figured—that Bree had shallow friendships. She wouldn't leave anyone behind she actually gave a shit about. That was good. It would have made things harder for me in the future if she had someone who would try to find out what really happened to her.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked.

"Your home, where you will attempt to stay put and out of trouble," I said in exasperation. She was quiet for a while.

"That's it?" She asked in confusion. "You aren't going to report me for trespassing? You're not going to call the courthouse? You're not even going to inform my aunt?"

"I think it's best we keep this little field trip between us for now."

"Why?" She blurted out. "I don't get it. I don't get you! Why keep covering for me?" I stared out the windshield and thought about the truth. Because I'm a vampire and right this minute there's someone in my basement, half dismembered. I'm not going to kill you though. I'm going to feed from you every day for the rest of our lives once the time is right. I'm not telling anyone all the shit you are putting me through because they'll lock you up in county and I want you right where you are, right beside me, where no one can save you.

"Because you need to be close," I said aloud. Might as well since I was about to make her forget. I waited for her to freak out but instead, she sat quietly in her chair, not speaking the entire time back to her house. When we parked I lunged at her without warning. She gasped.

I gripped her head in my hands and held her in place.

"Forget about Verfallen Asylum," I insisted, staring deep into her eyes and demanding she listen. Her mouth popped open and she inhaled sharply. For a moment, Bree said nothing and I grew concerned it didn't work.

"Forget everything about Verfallen Asylum. Forget I work there, forget who you saw, forget it even exists." Bree nodded. "Tonight you…" Why had she gone to Verfallen? I had no idea. She was lucky I was there, that I found her before anything happened. "Tonight you went for a walk. You were trying to break into the office we meet at. You saw me and I took you home."

It was best to stick with things that were similar to the truth, then memories made more sense.

"You took me home," she said back lifelessly.

"We didn't say anything on the car ride home." She nodded in agreement. Before I let her go I realized I could do more. I could taste her and make her forget.

"How old are you now, Bree?" I asked.

"Eighteen," she responded blankly. Her mind was currently rolled—half hypnotized.

"That's good," I sighed, leaning closer. I had rules and eating children was a definite no. Serial killers always got caught because they degraded. I was not going to degrade, I was going to maintain my status quo. That meant rules that I followed strictly.

I buried my nose in her hair. Bree smelled delicious—savory and mouthwatering. I had rules I was supposed to follow strictly. She wasn't a child but even so, eating Bree, even tasting her… it wasn't right. Not yet. I had a plan and I needed to stick to it.

Instead, I pressed closer, setting my nose against the thin skin of her neck and listening to her heart beating. It was fast and strong, picking up speed the longer I stayed close. The sound filled my ears almost as if it could be my own long-dead heartbeat, thumping in my ears.

My mouth opened on her throat and I dragged my lips across the pulse, flirting with it, teasing myself. I shouldn't taste her. My mind started spinning excuses why it would be okay. Why waiting was only torture. My fangs elongated against her, scrapping her pale skin. One little flex of my jaw and I'd sink inside her, fill my mouth with her, and swallow her down.

"You're far too tempting," I whispered against her neck. I mouthed the place I wanted to bite—dimpled the skin with my fangs. She squirmed in my grip. One little taste could ruin everything… could make me start changing all my plans. Bree and I were going to have so much time together, starting it messy meant it would always be messy. It meant I'd never be able to control myself with her and I needed control. Without control, I wasn't sure what I'd do. Not with her, not with anything.

I cursed and pulled back, looking into her blue eyes.

"Forget I just did that," I sighed before letting her go. Bree settled back into her side of the car. For a minute she just stared out the front windshield but then she blinked and shook herself off before looking over at me quizzically. She opened her mouth and then snapped it back shut before getting out of the car.

I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, watching as she walked inside her house. Her smell was everywhere in my car. I got the feeling this wasn't going to be the last time I had to make her forget something.

There's no getting away from me, Bree.